(First) few days in Vegas
Dec. 17th, 2012 02:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksSo, five days into Vegas, and no blog, no photos. What's been going on?
The main answer is, I guess, not a great deal.
I managed to nick seat 36D on the way over with BA. That, as I hoped, snaffled me a three-seater to myself.
I then had to pick up my rental car. I had planned my route from the airport to the Flamingo, but had not allowed for the fact that the airport pick-up was nowhere near the airport terminals! So, after working out how to drive my car, I took the Strip to the hotel. Luckily the traffic was not too bad.
Parked car, checked in, collapsed into sleep until 10pm. Got up, ran well. Won $200.
I should have won more. Because it was my first session I was not quite in tone with opponents' ranges and willingness to call. So I overraised six limpers when I picked up AA in the big blind (raised to 10x, everyone folded). I also left about $30 on the table with KK on a board of Qxxxx, when I was fairly sure opponent had QJ or something similar. But I checked behind on the river.
The last hand was a distinct misplay from me, although I still won more on the hand than I should have.
I picked up 77 UTG, eight-handed in a loose 1-2 game, and made a "defensive" raise to 3x. Called in three other spots, including a loose French guy in the BB and a loose Chinese guy on my left.
Board came J97 rainbow. French guy bets $8 and I raise to $20. Chinese guy calls. French guy calls.
Turn was a 3, creating a diamond flush draw. Check from French guy. Bet of $65 from me, leaving $130 behind. Call from Chinese guy, leaving him $55 behind. Call from French guy, leaving $60 behind.
River brings Q of diamond. Checked round. French guy shows J9o. I show set of sevens, Chinese guy mucks.
I can't believe the French guy's play here on the flop, although it meant that I won more money off the Chinese guy on the turn. But I should still bet the river, simply because I have to call a bet from anyone else.
Thursday I lost a bit, and it rained. I drove to the airport to pick up my friend Barb. Her plane was late. I hung around the airport. On the way back (about 11.30pm) Las Vegas seemed basically to be underwater. It was a bit of a frightening drive.
Friday I lost, mainly dribbling money away. Saturday I lost, mainly dribbling money away. By now I was down $150 for the trip. I was cursing my failure to fully exploit my hands on Wednesday night.
Friday night we had a fantastic meal at Mon Ami in the Paris. Wonderful value, gorgeous steaks.
We then came back to the Flamingo and I got my first experience of a hot craps table. Barb was playing the chips, but I was half-staking it. When she got $100 up, I "cashed out", taking my half. She carried on and won another $200. The table was smoking – people were coming along asking if they could "squeeze in" (Barb thought they wanted to get onto a hot table – I thought it was because they just wanted to be seen to be "part" of the winning table, even though they themselves hadn't won any money). I guess I'm just a cynic.
Today (Sunday), I drove Barb to the airport for her flight back to Peoria. I came back to the Flamingo to take advantage of the best bonus of the week.
They "splash" the pot on one table every time a score is made in a selected football game. This time it was Dallas v Pittsburgh. I got lucky with KQ in the small blind after our table got the $100 splash. It was limped round to me, so I shoved my $100 (I have been sitting down with $120 rather than $200 this trip). Everyone folded round to the guy on my right who felt obliged to call with 86o. My King high held and that was $200 up.
An hour later a more bizarre hand occurred when I flopped the second-nut spade flush on the turn on a board of KQJ4 all spades. Opponent bet $30. I can't see him having Ts9s, so I guessed my As was good. I thought, decided he probably had QQ or 44, so shoved for $200. He snap called and said "I have Ace flush". Since I had an Ace flush, this raised some interesting questions. In fact, he had the Ace of Clubs. Right colour, wrong suit. Kerching. $450 up.
The main answer is, I guess, not a great deal.
I managed to nick seat 36D on the way over with BA. That, as I hoped, snaffled me a three-seater to myself.
I then had to pick up my rental car. I had planned my route from the airport to the Flamingo, but had not allowed for the fact that the airport pick-up was nowhere near the airport terminals! So, after working out how to drive my car, I took the Strip to the hotel. Luckily the traffic was not too bad.
Parked car, checked in, collapsed into sleep until 10pm. Got up, ran well. Won $200.
I should have won more. Because it was my first session I was not quite in tone with opponents' ranges and willingness to call. So I overraised six limpers when I picked up AA in the big blind (raised to 10x, everyone folded). I also left about $30 on the table with KK on a board of Qxxxx, when I was fairly sure opponent had QJ or something similar. But I checked behind on the river.
The last hand was a distinct misplay from me, although I still won more on the hand than I should have.
I picked up 77 UTG, eight-handed in a loose 1-2 game, and made a "defensive" raise to 3x. Called in three other spots, including a loose French guy in the BB and a loose Chinese guy on my left.
Board came J97 rainbow. French guy bets $8 and I raise to $20. Chinese guy calls. French guy calls.
Turn was a 3, creating a diamond flush draw. Check from French guy. Bet of $65 from me, leaving $130 behind. Call from Chinese guy, leaving him $55 behind. Call from French guy, leaving $60 behind.
River brings Q of diamond. Checked round. French guy shows J9o. I show set of sevens, Chinese guy mucks.
I can't believe the French guy's play here on the flop, although it meant that I won more money off the Chinese guy on the turn. But I should still bet the river, simply because I have to call a bet from anyone else.
Thursday I lost a bit, and it rained. I drove to the airport to pick up my friend Barb. Her plane was late. I hung around the airport. On the way back (about 11.30pm) Las Vegas seemed basically to be underwater. It was a bit of a frightening drive.
Friday I lost, mainly dribbling money away. Saturday I lost, mainly dribbling money away. By now I was down $150 for the trip. I was cursing my failure to fully exploit my hands on Wednesday night.
Friday night we had a fantastic meal at Mon Ami in the Paris. Wonderful value, gorgeous steaks.
We then came back to the Flamingo and I got my first experience of a hot craps table. Barb was playing the chips, but I was half-staking it. When she got $100 up, I "cashed out", taking my half. She carried on and won another $200. The table was smoking – people were coming along asking if they could "squeeze in" (Barb thought they wanted to get onto a hot table – I thought it was because they just wanted to be seen to be "part" of the winning table, even though they themselves hadn't won any money). I guess I'm just a cynic.
Today (Sunday), I drove Barb to the airport for her flight back to Peoria. I came back to the Flamingo to take advantage of the best bonus of the week.
They "splash" the pot on one table every time a score is made in a selected football game. This time it was Dallas v Pittsburgh. I got lucky with KQ in the small blind after our table got the $100 splash. It was limped round to me, so I shoved my $100 (I have been sitting down with $120 rather than $200 this trip). Everyone folded round to the guy on my right who felt obliged to call with 86o. My King high held and that was $200 up.
An hour later a more bizarre hand occurred when I flopped the second-nut spade flush on the turn on a board of KQJ4 all spades. Opponent bet $30. I can't see him having Ts9s, so I guessed my As was good. I thought, decided he probably had QQ or 44, so shoved for $200. He snap called and said "I have Ace flush". Since I had an Ace flush, this raised some interesting questions. In fact, he had the Ace of Clubs. Right colour, wrong suit. Kerching. $450 up.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 01:58 pm (UTC)Putting opponents in Vegas on ranges, ha. Range could be, well, anything!
Good luck, great read, wish I was still there to finally meet up.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 04:33 pm (UTC)Two other events that I forgot to mention:
On Friday we were walking north to the Venetian to take advantage of the free wifi, when we were diverted off the sidewalk into Harrah's. There was a police car parked diagonally to the pavement facing the wrong way, and an ambulance. Clearly something had happened.
As we returned about 45 minutes later, it was chaos! The northbound strip had been sealed off from the Flamingo. Apparently some guy had been hit by a car and they were doing loads of measuring in an attempt to see whether the driver was at fault.
TBH, this carried on for about three hours, which struck me as somewhat excessive.
The second event was that on Sunday morning I was coercedc into taking a bite of a "corndog", a Midwest "delicacy" that Barb could not believe I had never eaten.
I had a couple of bites. It seemed to me to be highly processed meat deep fried inside a cake dough. Heart attack city! Not unpleasant, but not something I shall be queueing up to eat at the Illinois country fairs!
Sunday night I gave back $160 of the $450 profit. I lost a 70% shot for $100 when I got it all-in on the flop with QJ on a board of QJ3 two hearts. A3 of hearts would not fold, and hit the flush on the river.
Then I lost $50 against a short-stack with an all-n pf reraise by me, called by him with 33. :-)
For the rest of the three hours it was break-even.
PJ
no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 06:43 pm (UTC)Ewww, corndogs. Reminds me of growing up in St. Louis. No wonder I got Pancreatitis!
Just keep grinding away. Low buy-in NLHE in Vegas is a gimme. If you run really really bad try O8, then you'll feel like a king, lol.