MuckPls & Whale - a March Madness TR part III

Ended up booking the W after 4.5 hours, gonna chill for a few hours and then decide what to do.

Stats so far:

Thanks again for the TR. Sorry you're feeling poorly, Whale. Hope a little rest brings you around.

Yeah the Vegas AIDS is a real thing if you spend any significant time there

Yesterday was one weird evening for sure. After resting up in my room for 3 hours and finally getting up to speed with the Trip Report posts, I decided that I had the energy for one quick evening session even though I am not feeling 100%.

I took an Uber over to Venetian as I didn't feel like battling regs at Aria or similar (although that is walking distance), and a female Uber driver picked me up. We got to talking a bit and I asked 'if not too much hassle, can you take me to the Palazzo entrance instead, as I am going to play poker and that one is closer to the poker room'. She said sure, and we talked a bit more about some random stuff before arriving at Palazzo.

I go inside the hotel doors and reach for my phone to give rating + tips on the ride, only to realize... oh sh*t... THE PHONE IS NOT HERE. I have left it in the Uber, and it has already drove away. I am an expert in forgetting things in the most stupid places, so I guess it was just a matter of time before this happened as well.

After a few seconds of mild panic I head over to the front desk at Palazzo, reasoning that I can borrow a phone to call Uber and/or even my own phone from there. The person helping me tried calling my phone, but said that it does not allow him to call abroad it seems. He also tried to call Uber, but it seems they are not offer classic human phone support.

He then suggests to head over to Palazzo Security desk, as they can probably look at the cameras and find the license plate + name of driver. I head over there and explain the problem, but nope - since Uber is a private company they are not allowed to do so. Had it been a regular Taxi they could have done it. He also confirms that for some interal reasons, their phones are not set up for calls abroad (strange).

I considered hurrying back to Aria and finding 'MuckPls' and try to call from his phone, but I had no idea if he wasn't even playing anymore or if he had gone back to his room. Instead I file a report with Security, give them all the details + my email etc. I reason that eventually the Uber driver will find the phone (or some of her passengers), and from the conversation she will know that I went to Palazzo to play poker.

Then I head up to the poker room and explain the situation, while asking if the could make some kind of PA over the microphone to whether someone is European and have a phone I could use to call myself. They were very sympathetic about the situation, but said they were not allowed to do so as people are playing for money and might not want to be disturbed or having to deal with this. I was also told that I could not go around from table to table myself and ask.

Eventually I just too a seat in a game, figuring I could stay a while and go down every 30 minutes or so to check if the phone had been handed in to Palazzo.

Needles to say, the poker was a bit of a blur the first hour. I was a little bit up in the beginning after taking out a shortstack with KQhh on a Q high board, but lose some back through small pots + not connecting in Bomb Pots etc.

Eventually I told some of my table mates & the dealer about the situation, and an Asian player at the table suggested that I could use his phone to make a WhatsApp call. So we tried that, but no-one picked up. He then suggested something called 'find my phone', and after logging in on my Google Account (or whatever is is) on his phone we could indeed locate the phone.

"It's right here" he said, showing me that the phone is being tracked to Palazzo. I feel immensly relieved, and immediately stand up to head downstairs to Security. I don't get that far however, as the Uber driver herself is suddenly standing in the poker room by the front desk, with my phone in hand. Wow, that is unusual customer service these days. I give her $20 USD as a tip + another $5 in the app, and feel very lucky that I didn't have to struggle with this issue more than an hour or so.

Lesson learned, and I started writing down some hands. I was constantly trying to isolate limpers with decent holdings but was not connecting very well at all. So I down to maybe around $240 in my stack when one of the two interesting hands come up.

It stars with a short-ish stack limping in from EP1, one more limper in the field, SB completes, and I check my 72ss from BB. We see A-J-3 two spades, and it checks to EP1 who bets out $10. I am the only caller and Ts lands on the turn. Great card as I had a feeling he could have limped fairly big from early and hands like KQ or AJ are very likely. I decided to lead for $21 to avoid it checking through, and he thinks for a little bit before calling.

River is a red 5, and I make a big sizing mistake here by betting $100 (which looked like it would set him all-in). But the pot is 'only' $74 or something, and if he has two pair I am not sure if he will call a jam. That said, he will for sure if he has KQo. In general though I think this is a good spot to bet $55 or something, to leave him some chips behind to play with. People are more likely to call if they don't have to risk their entire stack.

Anyway, he jams for $14 more and I obviously call - only to see that he has 96ss for a higher flush. Sigh. So much for limping a big hand I guess, although this situation is fairly unavoidable no matter what I bet on the river.

I reload for another $200, and manages to win a little bit back when the Asian who helped me with the phone raises to $15 from early. He has been very tight but I have A3cc in BB which is a very easy defend. The flop comes A-9-7 two spades, no clubs, and after I check he bets $30 (!). Big bet, but I have to call once to see even though I don't have any backdoors.

Turn comes Ts and it seems he didn't like that card as he quickly checks behind me. River comes another A so I make trips, although I don't think this matter much for my hand strength. I check, and he just shakes his head and quickly checks behind showing KK. I guess that type of hand is the only one I could get value from on the river, maybe I could have considered my 10% sizing. But as played, I think he still has a ton of strong Ax on the river that just got a bit scared of the flush on turn.

A while later there is a limp for $3 and I have J9dd in cutoff. I would open this if folded to me, so let's raise it up to $15 versus a single limper. The guy who over-flushed me then starts thinking in SB before cutting out a 3-bet to $45. It's back on me, and this feels close. I have to call $30 into $66 and I am in position. Furthermore, we are fairly deep now that I have doubled him up. I decided to make the speculative call as he gives me a good price.

K-Q-T all clubs. Ok, this is going to be interesting. I flop a straight but there are ton of hands he could have here that has a lot of equity. He bets out for $60 with around $200 behind, and I see no other option but to jam here and hopefully hold. This guy would never 3-bet AJ I think, so I am not that worried about him having a better straight.

I jam, and he snapcalls with obvious AA with Ac. So he actually has a royal draw, in addition to a flush draw and the chance to make a better straight than me.

Lots of cards to dodge, but we somehow do. 9h on turn and 6d on river, and we scoop in a big pot to take us right back into profitville. Very lucky flop of course, but I don''t think my call is terrible. That said, with JTs it's probably automatic, J9s is a bit more borderline.

That was the last interesting hand of the night, as I felt very relieved by both being in profit in the game and having gotten my phone back. After playing a litlte bit longer, I took the profit of $86 USD after 2.5 hours of play. Then I took an Uber back to NYNY, crazily enough without forgetting my phone this time.

Cash Games:

Hours played: 33h 15min
Won/lost: +$1024 USD
Hourly rate: +$30.8 USD

Tournaments:

Won/lost: +$2051 USD (2 played)

If it makes you feel any better, I have historically left my credit card behind at a restaurant on average one time per WSOP trip, leading to panic when I realized I did not have it in my wallet and in one instance a mad dash via cab across the Vegas strip at 4:00 a.m. to check if they had it (they did).

You Dawg! You got her number, didn't you?

Haha no, she was probably a late 50's Asian woman, and even though I am getting old AF I am not quite there yet 😀

Shazbot! I didn't know Venetian had a tier match on loyalty cards. I could've gotten matched on my CET Diamond card and gotten FREE PARKING and not had to park at Treasure Island and schlep all the way over. Parking costs $20 a day at Venetian, $25 on weekends.

Oh well, at least I can get some poker comp food, that I kept forgetting last week.

hey whale

congrats on the all that is lost, but nah or maybe, might be found so do not phone things in just yet story results

once dropped my passport somewhere along a 20k step day in Seville before our next morning flight back to Schiphol then home
(quick hint: do not store critical international travel photo id in the same unzipped pocket as your photo taking iphone)

and somehow only through a randomly cartoonish drawn out series of events it was later recovered at a tourist lost and found because some other human chose to turn it in

people please
why not be a kind to each other
similies literally take like no commitment as compared to frowns

Any big hands from this sesh?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sat down and almost immediately lost $300 QQ vs KK, added back on for $300. Then an hour later had KK on K63 vs 66 for stacks followed by AK vs QQ on KK5.

Long and gruelling session later I finished +$90. That ends 13 hours at Aria today. [emoji3517]

much looking forward to muck and whale grillling up the a and b-line casinos as they close out their trip experience.

safe travels fellow stranger yet somehow friends

This trip report is fantastic and both of you seem to be running good. But damn! Getting your phone right back is a huge win! Losing a phone is pure nightmare fuel. i am guessing even moreso since you don't live here.

Yeah, I left my phone in the cab on the way to the airport in Vegas to fly back to Australia. Had had like 6 hours sleep in 2 days and was broken and the adrenaline rush of trying to get to speak to the cab company (without my phone!) and track it down was remarkable

In my case the cabbie had clocked off but found my phone the next day and so I paid a few hundred to get it shipped to Sydney - was phone less for about 5 days all up

This was before cards and ID were stored on phones so I was less reliant but it was a huge PIA

After finishing a fun and profitable session at Golden Nugget (will write about it later if physically possible), I was getting out of my chair with two racks in hand and suddenly felt immense back pain out of nowhere.

Managed to hobble over to my Uber + back to my room at NYNY, but now I am ****ed. Terrible back pain, and it's physically impossible to get out of bed.

No more poker this trip, likely no flight home on Friday and likely that my life is ****ed from now on.

I'm certainly not going to try to diagnose what ails you, but it sounds like you might want to consider seeing either a chiropractor or a pain management doctor. An Orthopaedic doctor is also a possibility, but getting an appointment may be difficult. The emergency room probably gets you an x-ray and then they can suggest a specialist depending on what the x-ray shows. Urgent care or immediate care centers probably get you in to see someone the fastest.

I realize using the Internet to search for one of these types of specialist might be a bit of a crap shoot, but I don't see what other choice you have.

I have someone to help me (ref the girl I mentioned from my trip last year), but I am just scared of the ER charging $5k to a foreigner without health insurance in the US.

Feel slightly better now after some ice packs etc., but obviously still very painful.

Most of the people in the U.S. that go to ER's don't have health insurance either. Part of the reason our health care costs are so ridiculous.

Have you done some Advil? Maybe you're low on water or electrolytes or something like that, being camped in casinos so much.

I qualified for the Horseshoe freeroll, having played 15 hours. The structure of this freeroll is weird. The top 45 players all win $200. There are usually 60-70 players, but this time there are 104 entries. The level structure is terrible, 15 minute levels, level 1 blinds 200-400 and you only get 10k chips. About halfway through Level 1, I'm in the big blind and get minraised while I'm holding KQ offsuit. King on the flop, I check, he checks. Turn is a blank, and I remember this is a mega-turbo, and bet. He thinks for a second, and jams. I actually think about folding because something seems off, but this is a turbo, and I can't go around folding a pair of kings. I call, and he has aces. I'm down to 500 chips, so there's no effing around now.

I keep shoving, they keep folding, a couple hands get through, and a couple guys call, and promptly lose to my ahead-holdings and behind-holdings. I just keep winning everything. A couple levels later and I'm back to half starting stack. 5k from 500 when the aces got me. Another one of my shoves gets called and I win and up to 10k. Finally, some people are getting knocked out, down to 72 now. I'm up to almost 40k. The thing is, all my hands were legit - suited connectors, middling aces like A9, small pairs, they all win. I'm like Jerry Yang. I only had one premium, pocket queens, and everyone folded. We're down to 60ish players, and the blinds are up to 1k/2k. I have way over the average stack, and it's time to coast. Chipleader at my table and I figure I can easily fold 8 or 10 orbits. Most players only have a couple orbits at best. When it ended I still had 28k.

Apologies if this was answered previously but I was way late to this thread so have tried to catch up quickly.

How much was Muck betting per spin when he hit the 20k video poker royal please?

Thanks (and for another great TR)

$5 base bet times 5 so $25 per spin. I won $1200 on the free play and figured I’d go down to $500 on $25 spins and cash out and hit the royal almost immediately

Awesome/I hate you

look up physical therapists and see if one can fit you in right away. try several, one should be able to see you. they generally will take cash and not need insurance.

I've had better luck getting a diagnosis and remedies from PT than chiro or clinical doctor

Whale,

Obviously I don't know your condition. However, I used to have terrible sciatic problems, kinda like my back went out. Finally found some PT, who gave me a regimen of stretching and core-strengthening exercises, which have really helped. I'll get the occasional irritation, but nothing like it used to be.

Won't help getting you home, but might be a route to investigate for long-term relief.

Best wishes. Hope you're able to get home safely and with minimum discomfort.