Redirecting

Monday, August 21, 2006

Vegas: Summer Slam 2006 - Part II

If you haven't read Part One - what the fuck are you waiting for? It's some of my finest work...

I woke up Tuesday morning ready to get down to business. No more fucking around in the peach chip berry patch - I was ready to tilt some locals in the 2-5 NL game.

I rolled into the poker room, and sat in a 1-3NL rock garden for 15 minutes as I waited for a 2-5NL seat. I had free reign of the 1-3 game, but I decided I didn't want to spend the next 4 hours trying to steal $24 pots from the rocks, and took the 2-5NL seat.

Several wise locals left when I sat down, and the open seats quickly filled in as follows:

seat 1: local nitty lady
seat 2: local old Chinese guy
seat 3: local generic old White guy (GOWG)
seat 4: Tilty McTiltson: I'll explain (TILTY)
seat 5: FISH ON! (Fishy)
seat 6: young pro from St. Louis - played a very solid game (PRO)
seat 7: local Asian young gun - tight
seat 8: Kid Dynamite (KD)
seat 9: young Asian girl - local, tight (YAG)

So, the action was fair, considering the lineup, and my stack seesawed between $400 and $700. I was down to about $400 when I found AA in MP. Fishy raised it up to $10 UTG. I bumped it to $40, and YAG called, as did Fishy.

The flop came J-6-7 and Fishy bet out $25 into the $120+ pot. I raised to $100, and YAG smooth called, which I absolutely hated. Fishy overcalled.

The turn was an 8, and Fishy now checked it to me. He and YAG each had about $225 left, I had them slightly covered, and I pushed all in. YAG went into the tank, and I was praying she wasn't just acting, trying to seduce Fishy into another overcall with her set. She finally called, and Fishy called with a shrug.

I tabled my aces, which were good: Fishy had QQ, and I have no clue what YAG had.

I took another pot off the Pro, when I flopped and open ended straight draw in position, and smooth called his flop bet, and then smooth called again on the turn when I made my hand. I extracted another river bet, and was rolling.

Tilty donked off almost his whole $900 stack when GOWG opened for $30, and Tilty reraised to $100. GOWG came back over the top for $400 total, and Tilty thought for 2 minutes before calling. GOWG announced "I'm all in" for $400 more before the flop came down: jack high. Tilty said "I have to call you," and his queens were crushed by GOWG's aces of course. Tilty took his last $100 and raised the old Chinese guy on the next hand, cracking pocket jacks when his 6-4 turned trips.

Then he double through again when his A-6 offsuit made a flush on the river against YAG's pocket queens, and suddenly he was back to about $600 in chips, when he decided to fuck with KD.

GOWG limped, Tilty limped, and the Pro limped. I looked down to find AQ in the small blind. "I love the smell of AQ in the morning," I thought, "What better way to get stacked," as I raised $35 more. They all called!

The flop was a seemingly nice: 2d4dQh. I did not have a diamond. I led out for $105, and GOWG folded. Tilty INSTA-raised all-in, and insta-counted down his stack: $468 more. Pro looked at him and shook his head, saying "I'm laying down the winner," and it was back on me.

Now, I can't play AQ like a pussy just because it's a historic trouble hand for me, so I thought this one through - I took about as long as I've ever taken at a table, really going through everything in my head, and looking into my opponent's soul (although in a non-Hellmuthian, non-douchebally way.) "Unless you have a set of Q's, I think I have you beat," Tilty tells me.

I look at Tilty. He looks at me. He smiles. Hmmm... I shake my head. I sit silently for 2 minutes. "What do you think I have?" I ask him. "I think you have aces - they've been going around," he replies. "Hmmm - and you claim to beat aces? Or you think I'll lay them down?" I tried to get more information. "We'll see," he pulled back a little. I doubt he has a set of 2's or 4's: I think an all-in there with those hands is an advanced play, and I don't think he's thinking on that level right now. 2-4 two pair is possible, but even he may not have called my preflop reraise with that.

"If I fold will you show me?" I asked him. He paused a second too long, before answering "It'll cost you." "Fair enough - how much?" I'm going to open him up like a clam! "$20." he tells me. I nod. I don't put him on AA or KK - he's not going to play them like that preflop, and it's looking like KQ or QJ, or a flush draw.

I begin to count chips. I watch him as I pull out stack after stack of red chips. I get nothing from him. He looks at me again, and smiles again. I smile back. I have him. The nail in his coffin is the way he counted out his raise: I've done it many times just like he did: quickly and confidently counting down my stack - and it usually means weakness.

After 5 minutes, two people call for a clock. The dealer, of course, doesn't call the floor, and I continue to evaluate. After 6+ minutes, I have made up my mind, and slide my $468 into the middle, staring at Tilty. "I call."

Tilty tried to maintain his cool, but after about 1 and a half seconds, a look of terror came over his face, as he begged, "I need a diamond." I silently congratulated myself on a nice call, as the dealer burned and turned..... ten of clubs. I eyed Tilty, as the dealer burned and turned the river... a red... ace... of... diamonds... I shook my head. Tilty spiked the K-8 of diamonds on the table, and I shook my head again as I spiked my AQ facedown.

Now, this wasn't a bad beat - I'm only a 55-45 favorite against his flush draw + overcard (actually, it's more like 60-40 when you account for the fact that the Pro probably had diamonds too - which he claimed: 5d6d), but I'd taken so much time to make such a well thought out and proper call, that this beat hurt as much as any of the recent river cards which have been the thorn in my side.

I knuckled up, hunkered down and took another tough beat for $335 when I turned a straight on a flop with 3 spades which was checked around, and I misread an opponent - I thought her turn raise meant "bare ace flush draw" but in reality it meant "flopped flush." Then Tilty left, as did most of the rest of the table, and I took on the two Pros two my right and one other lady 4 handed, where I had KK cracked by a flopped set of sixes, which cost me another $300.

After all this pain, I was only down $190, but it felt like more as I'd been up $1k before. I decided to go donk it up in the Peach Chip game, where Big Show had a seat. I asked the floor, "Do you have a 1-3NL seat open," "Right there," she points to table 8. "No - I want that seat," I point to table 28, and she realizes who the fuck I am, and seats me to BigShow's right, which is a fair handicap because I'm a far better player than he is.

BigShow tells me "Watch out - someone took a card south!" "No way - how'd they know?" I think he's joking. "The shufflemaster caught it," he explains, and before I can even post my blind, the floor comes over and says "Sir, can you please lift your hands up." I oblige, lifting my hands up, and the manager lifts the padding from the rail, and pulls the Ace of Clubs out from directly in front of my chips.

I reacted just like MikeyMcD in the scene in the Lodge at Rounders when Worm catches the hanger dealing seconds to Mikey: I stood up with my hands above my head and pleaded "Whoa - I JUST sat down," as I'm worried that this looks seriously bad. The 7 of diamonds would be one thing, but the fuckin' ace of clubs - holy kaibash.

"It's ok sir, surveilance found the card - they have verified that it was purely incidental," and I breathe a sigh of relief, wondering what kind of doucheball could lose the fucking ace of clubs.

I proceed to get absolutely owned by a team of Asian fish in the 1-3 game. I can make nothing work - my only solace coming when one doucheball checked to me on the button, and I began to stack off 4-stacks of peach chips. As I'd stacked off my second stack and put my third stack down, he announced prematurely "I'm all in," and I had a sweet angle shoot, pulling back the third stack and the rest of my chips, and leaving the two small stacks I'd already completely released, as I mucked my cards. BigShow laughed in awe.

We left the Peach Chip game, as I ate another $60 loss in two hours, and headed over to the Mirage for some double deck BJ, where we had the pleasure of playing with a guy in the first base seat who played absolutely perfectly for about 3 hours - not one fucking mistake to mess up our table mojo.

I lost a bet on the RedSox, which BigShow booked for me, and another $310 in the Mirage game, but was satisfied by another patented blackjack angleshoot by the BigShow: he had A-4 against a dealer 6, and doubled down. As the dealer tried to throw the cut card into the shoe, another card got stuck to it, which I didn't even notice. She painted a 9 on BigShow's A-4, and he sprang to life: "Wait - this isn't my card - this is YOUR card. THAT is my card," He said, pointing to the unseen card facedown next to the cut card, but knowing it couldn't be worse than a nine, and that it would be nice to plug the dealer with the nine.

The pit boss came over and ruled that BigShow could have the other card, but that the dealer would take the next card, not the nine. BigShow shrugged, "Ok," and took the other card: a FOUR! I laughed at the huge negative Karma we'd just built up, but the dealer proceeded to bust, and BigShow was again successful with an advanced advantage play.

Back at the Frontier, we ran into some insanely superstitious Asian gamblers in the $25 double deck game. Our man in first base slammed a top of the deck blackjack 3 decks in a row, so on the fourth one, his buddy pulls out $300 in cash and drops it behind his boy's $50 wager. "Backing up his boy for the top of the deck BJ - advanced play!" BigShow and I admired the faith, but it didn't work this time, and the bravado induced a dealer 4-card 21.

BigShow's buddy had "gotten us a reservation" at Wynn's SW steakhouse, but at 5pm we decided we'd just go gamble instead, and we walked into SW to cancel the ressie. "Oh, we were just talking about you," the receptionist said, as we gave BigShow's name. "Really? What were you saying?" I was curious. "You know your meal is taken care of right?" She explained. Ahhh.. yesss.... of course.. we knew that. BigShow and I look at each other. He ad-libs "We just need to push it back, we can't make it at 8pm," and we settle on 9:30. Freeeeeeroollllllllll. I took $350 out of the Wynn $100 double deck bj table after we'd cleaned ourselves up, and we hit SW.

The hookup has set us up with a full comp, on account of his $15k per hand BJ and Dice play. He told us to ask for his man at the restaurant, Noey, who would take care of us, and to ask for the Kobe beef, which isn't on the menu. We ask the waiter, who goes to the kitchen, and comes back to tell us that they have no Kobe tonight. Noey, the sommelier, comes over to greet us, and tells us not to worry, he'll talk to the kitchen. After 3 minutes, Noey returns, telling us, "let me make a phone call." And 10 minutes later, he is sauntering back through the SW Steakhouse with a raw 16oz piece of Kobe in his hand - he'd gone to one of Wynn's other restaurants to get the meat for us!

I have had Kobe beef before, and didn't think it was worth the hassle and price, but this was far and away the best steak I'd ever had. Absolutely incredible and indescribable - each bite, which looked like normal sirloin, disappeared like cotton candy as it touched your tongue. Ludicrous. It was nice living the life of the real high roller - and also easy to see how the equation works from the casino's point of view - even if our dinner cost $500, that's basically the vig on less than ONE SHOE of play at the $15k/hand level.

We took it easy Tuesday night, and got up Wednesday to assault a cornucopia of double deck games across the strip. I hit Harrah's for $280, then Paris for $350 - although neither had the Frontier's desirable "double after split" rules. We ended up at the Mirage, and sat in a nice 2-5NL game, this time with BigShow to my right.

I waited 4 hands to post my BB, and on my second hand in the SB, I looked down at AhKh. UTG raised to $30 and was called by the player to his left. The next player made it $130 to go, and it was folded back to me. I thought for 60 seconds, and decided to move all in for $400. The UTG raiser and the caller insta-folded, and the $130 raiser went into the tank. He thought for 3 minutes, and finally made a defeatist call, admitting "I can just rebuild." His jacks held up, and I shook my head at his call, and my inability to catch a friggin card.

The game was the juiciest of the trip - stacked with players who overvalued top pair - but I could not make a hand to save my life. I was probably dealt 15 medium pocket pairs, and couldn't flop a set. I played very few drawing hands, but only because I wasn't dealt them. A wannabe pro to BigShow's right explained how he had the vanity plate TXHLDM on his car. "What kind of car - an IROC?" I was in his face - seriously what kind of doucheball has that plate? He said everyone thought it was about taxes or something, and pegged him for an accountant. "I peg you for a doucheball," I muttered to the BigShow, and then I challenged JohnnyJacks to a heads up PL Omaha match, after he said he was on the list (but the game clearly was not going to happen). He pussed out (probably a mistake - I'm no heads up PLO assassin), and I looked for another opportunity to exact my revenge, but failed time after time.

I was whittled down to a short stack, and told BigShow I was about to Juanda-fy the table - putting on a short stack exhibition for the ages. I double up twice, back to about $240, and then BigShow put a legitimate MUTHER FUCKING DISGUSTING BEAT on me:

He was UTG+1, and I had raising chips in my hand, looking at AJ. He raised to $20 before me, and I smooth called, as the rest of the table folded. The flop came down J-6-4, and BigShow bet $45. I raised to $140, and he moved all-in after 15 seconds. I shook my head, and called. "I have a big pair," BigShow told me. Ok - fine. If I ran into a monster, I ran into a monster. The turn was a queen, and BigShow asked "is that you?" I shook my head. When a ten peeled off on the river, he said "I have a set of tens," and he did. I calmly exited the table, and attempted to give BigShow a wet-willie as he cashed out at the cage, but he had the IPOD headphone defense up. I slugged him in the shoulder for his vicious 90-10 dog suckout, and was on FULL TILT. I made BigShow pay for his 2 out suckout by bitching about it nonstop for the rest of our trip.

We cruised over to the Venetian, and played in a nice $25 double deck game, dropping a few units before a gut-busting dinner at the usually solid Grand Luxe cafe. This time, the meal was a pure fat American fried downer, weighing heavily for the rest of the night. After dinner, we returned to the BJ pit, where the table limit had been raised to $200. I asked the pit boss to role it back for us, as the table was empty, and he obliged, but an hour later he raised the limit again, and told us we were NOT grandfathered in - which I have never heard of! We decided to head over to the Wynn for some Peach Chip fun.

My 1-3NL bad luck continued, as I got stacked early on set-under-set to a nice crazy Asian lady, and continued to run into roadblocks at every flop, as BigShow build up a $1200 profit in the game! It was uber-fishy, and at least he took some of the money I was unable to capture. When the Asian lady flopped a second set on me, I looked at her and laughed, and she cackled "I only like your money!" She seemed serious, as she liberally distributed my chips to the rest of the table.

My session was best summed up by the hand where I finally flopped a set: 2-2 on a K-K-2 board. Dirty Dave asked "What happened - KJ caught up to you on the turn?" No - at least that would mean I'd gotten action! Everyone checked to me on the flop, and I bet, POSITIVE that one of my 4 opponents had a king, but they folded like dominos. I laughed out loud and offered the tableside masseuse $10 if she'd give BigShow a wet willie. She declined, but a random dude at the table asked if he could claim it. I said sure, but he pussed out.

This is how fishy the game was: one fish sat down in the seat to my left, and turned to my chips, "Are these mine?" He asked. I looked at him. He was serious. "No, son. Those are mine. Get your own fucking chips," I told him, as other players watched in awe. I dropped $630 in 5 hours of peach chip hell, bringing my total poker loss on the trip to $1600.

We returned to the Frontier, where we were told that they indeed did NOT offer surrender. "Whoops - someone made a mistake the other night," I muttered, but the pitboss was clueless. I went on a rush, and like a true addict, bemoaned my $525 winning session: if I'd been playing the $100 game at the Wynn, I'd be up $2600! That's true degenerate thinking though, and I actually enjoy $25 blackjack more than $100, as I simply hate losing. Something about the utility tree, where although a big win is great, since I don't need the money, it doesn't seem to compensate from the anger of a big loss (which, still, shouldn't hurt as much if I can still pay the rent, but anyway...) Maybe I'm just a pussy when I don't have an edge.

We dragged ourselves back to Wynn, and played $25 PaiGow with two Asians at 4am. The Asian lady was betting $600 a hand, and the guy was betting $2100 a hand! I was just thankful that my ignorant Gaijin ass couldn't fuck up their hands by playing poorly - as a bad blackjack player could. Also, my PaiGow play is flawless, and nothing beats screaming paiGOW at 5am as you drop the $1.25 commission your winning bet. The lady hit quad aces for a nice bonus payout, and I staggered off to bed at 5:30, up $25, and captured 2 1/2 hours sleep before the brutal eastbound cross country flight home.

Overall, I finished up a few hundred in blackjack, and down $1600+ in poker. The games were ok - definitely different from the weekend games, but certainly beatable. The low limit no limit games (1-3NL) were very soft, but players frequently had short stacks to go along with their short skill. The Wynn 2-5NL games weren't consistently soft, but the Mirage 2-5NL game was definitely juicy.

As I left the hotel room, BigShow called after me: "We need to plan the next trip. How's October?"

until next time,
KD

1 comment:

Matt said...

I found your blog via fuel55's blog, and I just want to give you props for one the best blogs I've come across. As a 9-time Vegas veteran, I can't decide if your Vegas posts help fill the void in my life from not making a trip to Vegas in over a year, or it if fuels the fire to go back even more. I think your posts capture the essence of that place better than most do.