leaving las vegas.......

jimbling

think again.... god I love this town.

night 1 was an entertaining one. Arrived in about 7.00pm. ****, shower and a shave and I'm out the door to the hawaiian tropic bathing suit pagaent at the pool (flamingo).
From there I headed to the Rio to see what all this fuss was about :rolleyes:

Expecting to hear Irish voices everywhere, with easy introductions of .. ."hey ur from boards right".... well feck that. With thousands of people walking around the monstrosity of a poker room, I did no more than celeb spot for about an hour.. then off again. Threw my head in the door of the infamous "tilted kilt" but didnt see anything or anyone to catch my attention.

Headed over to Ballys at around 11. There's a nice setup there, and a lot of action. Sat down at a 1/2 table, and was rebuying 15min later when my set got sucked in by a made flush. nh... wp.

Built up to a reasonable $600 when I ended up all in with an open ended straight flush draw on the flop. Unfortunately for me the great dane (it was almost a pleasure to lose money to this guy) on my left had the made straight... and with no spades to further my cause I was screaming at the money runners once again.

life went on, and at some point around 2am, my QQ (those ladies again) ended up all in against another dane who flopped over the mighty Aces. Low and behold, the ladies suck out, and I'm up to $650 once again. (the dane storms off in a huff to play blackjack:D )


When my danish friend left the table around 4.30am, the table finally turned in my favour.
Finally submitted to the drink and the lack of sleep around 7am* and stumbled over to the Flamingo (man, its across the road, but you'd be surprised how difficult you can make getting there!) after taking $1450 from the table.

All in all a successfull night.... met some interesting characters and enjoyed a great game of poker.


its 12.20pm here at the moment.... im pretty tired and pretty hung over.... hmmm, lets go play some poker. Might try and find some decent MTTs today. Think I saw something about a $200 second chance at the Rio. I guess theres tourneys going on all day there.

Well thats it for now.... talk to ye all later.......




*I actually had to force myself to leave... the table was easy and the action was fantastic.

staringelf

goddammit i wish i was going over there. i cant wait til next june. i'm going for the full 2 months all going to plan. nice report. keep us updated.

ps. next report needs more strippers and coke stories

DeVore

I could facilitate that request after last night but... what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

Jimbling, have a think about starting a blog on Antes, could be of interest to a lot of people.

DeV.

staringelf

DeVore wrote:

I could facilitate that request after last night but... what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

Jimbling, have a think about starting a blog on Antes, could be of interest to a lot of people.

DeV.

lol. well you know what they say...when in vegas, do as the vegans do. or something...

+1 for the blog suggestion jimbling

jimbling

poor game today. didn’t really feel like playing an mtt in the end, so just sat down on another 1/2 table in ballys.

Didn’t see any top pairs, and any decent hand I did get seemed to be utg. I couldn't have hit a barn door with a shotgun from 5 feet.... so ended up folding to crappy flops.
Any continuation bet I did make was called by a multiple of halfwits who would call down with any pair.
And the few times I did manage to hit a flop, I ended up folding the best hand.
What follows is a prime example of the absolute incompetence of some players.

Villain had only been on the table about 2 rounds, didnt know much about him.

I have 87o. I limp from late position. SB raises to 10. BB (villain) calls, as does about 4 others including my good self. flop is 876 two spades.
Its checked around to me, I raise to 50. SB raises to 100, BB goes all in for about 300. everyone folds, and I follow suit. SB folds.

Villain shows down AKo (no spade). I mean WHAT THE FCUK was that about. an absolute lethal board, and 6 players in the hand.

And don't think this was some spectacular move... he proved his idiocy a few hands later again. (in fact he proved it by showing the hand in the first place)

So for the entire game the circle continued, my stack would dwindle... id top up etc etc. I was just after topping up when I went for a smoke. 5min later I came back and the table was empty..... I took that as a sign and fecked off..... down $350.

sry for the rant there... but I’m tired and grumpy. gonna try and get a few hours kip now and hopefully Ill be in better form later on.


Dev, Staringelf
I think ill pass on the idea of a blog on Antesup. It's just that I don't really play much poker at home (just online mtts, and some online cash games - and I'm only here for 5 days), and I'd feel like I would have to keep the thing running. Ill keep this post updated most days on whats been going on though*... so kind of a blog.

you know... its really starting to get to me that i wont be around for the main event..... but feck it... work commitments and all that.



*poker related info only.... sex and drugs are off topic

Hectorjelly

jimbling wrote:

I have 87o. I limp from late position. SB raises to 10. BB (villain) calls, as does about 4 others including my good self. flop is 876 two spades.
Its checked around to me, I raise to 50. SB raises to 100, BB goes all in for about 300. everyone folds, and I follow suit. SB folds.

I hate this fold. You cant really fold a hand as strong as top two pair with this type of action because of all the draws, and the standard of your opposition.

jimbling

Hectorjelly wrote:

I hate this fold. You cant really fold a hand as strong as top two pair with this type of action because of all the draws, and the standard of your opposition.

ya.... I think I have a tendency to fold too much.:eek: especially at live poker. i would say it's the inexperience.

With 6 players seeing a flop, and the raising and reraising that went in, I was absolutely shocked that neither of these guys (sb or bb) had the made str.... or at least a set.


anyhoo..... just out of bed again... feeling a bit more lively, but might still take it pretty handy tonight. Might try the cash game here at the flamingo for a while.

Hectorjelly

jimbling wrote:

ya.... I think I have a tendency to fold too much.:eek: especially at live poker. i would say it's the inexperience.

I have a tendancy to call or reraise all in too much, im not sure what to chalk that up to!

Ollieboy

Hectorjelly wrote:

I have a tendancy to call or reraise all in too much, im not sure what to chalk that up to!

actions junkie

jimbling

okay.. so another night over and done with. It's 7am now, and I'm off to bed.
Joined a 1/2 game in the Flamingo tonight..... it was easy pickings, but I made hard work of it.

built my initial 300 up to about 450 over the space of about 3 hours. The game was deserted and with only 3 players left (one weak player and the other a mass calling station) I suggested turning the game into 2/5. Went well for a while and got up to $600. 3 chairs opened up on another 1/2 table so we all moved over there.
I decided on a change of strategy and started playing ultra aggressive. Worked out well and was up to $800 when my treb 7s with j kicker ran into the bigstacks treb 7 with A kicker. got away from the hand light enough, but was dropped back down to $400.

Continued my aggressiveness until I got called on a big bluff when I walked into a nicely hidden set. Decided to slow down my game a bit as there was bit of talk about it.

chipping away when some guy arrived on the table.

got dealt AA. (to be honest.. bit tired now and can't remember the position.. think i was somewhere in the middle)
There was a raise of ten, a couple of callers and I raise to 40.

three callers and the guy to my right (not new guy) raises to $90. I think about it for a while, and push it up to $150.
New guy to my left pushes all in, righty folds and I call. Its a $1000 pot and its AA Vs KK.

Flop comes down JJQ.... turn a 10... river a rag. I take down the pot.

guy to my right shows the QQ that he folded (thank the fcuk).


A few hands later I notice an Irish accent on the table. Turns out the KK was non other than Dave Masters (AKA pppspecial). He played very well, and although he lost a few big hands, was still up to about $800 when I left.


Great crack at the table, but just started to feel way too tired to keep playing... said good luck, goodnight and that was end of day 2 in vegas.

edit to fix the new guy remark.
woke up this morning about 10.30, after a solid 3 hours sleep. was just twisting and turning, so got up and took a wander about for a while. Back to the room about 2.30 and back into bed till now. (6.00). Dave was telling me of the great tournament on in Ceasers every night for $120 buy in, so I'm heading in the direction now......
wish me luck in what will be my first ever live mtt

jimbling

Hectorjelly wrote:

I have a tendancy to call or reraise all in too much, im not sure what to chalk that up to!

lol

loosecannon

very nice little report jimbling

wp

jimbling

ty loosecannon,
I left out a lot as you can imagine, but at 7am this morning I wasnt in a fit state to try and recall hand details :rolleyes:

I will say this, that first 1/2 game I was at was unbelievably soft. There was only one decent player at the table (and his girlfriend who just didnt play any hands).
One guy (the mass calling station i mentioned) rivered me 4 times. 3 times in a row.
The third one in the row was a classic.
Theres a board of 5Q5. He bets. I look down at my cards mumbling something of the likes "now lets see if I have one of those 5s. What do you know... I do."

He obviousy doesn't believe me because he calls my raise in a shot. turn is a rag.
he checks and I stick in 100, telling him again that I have the 5 and he should fold. He calls.

River is a Q. he goes all in, I fold showing him the J5s in my hand, and he turns of Q7o. I mean even if I didnt have the 5, what sort of Q did he think I was betting with. sigh.
God bless him, it wasnt his fault, he was just playing for some fun the same way you'd play roulette or bingo.


missed that mtt on a ceasers. turns out it started at 7, not 8 :mad:
will def play in it tomorrow.
Gonna head over to the rio in a while to see what the crack is over there. Hopefully there'll be some sort of small buy in mtt on.

smurph

great reporting, jimbling, myself and my better half are heading over to Vegas the 19th to 27th August, can't wait, and we are staying in the Flamingo so your reporting is great. If you could recommend any tournaments you play that would be great. Are you staying in the flamingo?


God i wish i was there at the moment..........maybe next year LMAO:D

jimbling

hey smurph... thanks for the compliment. I'm staying in the flamingo alright. It's not as nice as the MGM (which I stayed in the last two times I was here) but its decent enough.

Still haven't played in a tournament, but def going to play the 220 in ceasers tom night (its 120 and one 100 rebuy. 1500 + 3000 chips.. so crazy not to add on immediately).

was going to head over to the rio tonight to try and hook up with some of the other irish lads, but thought I'd check out the cash games at ceasers first.

joined a 2/5 table at around 8.30. Bought in for 500. it is in fact a no-max buy in, but I didnt realise that at the time (most of the touristy casinos are 500 max for 2/5)
Was up to 650 in no time when the following hand made my night.

got dealt AA (been getting a lot of these:D ) in mp. couple of callers and I raise it up to 40. 2 callers and the button raises it up to 200.
Crazy asian guy to my right calls, and I push the rest of my chips in the middle.
Raiser calls the all in and so does the asian guy.

It's AA Vs KK Vs A3s (WTF???). My Aces hold up to put me up to 1700.

It's slow enough for the rest of the evening, winning some pots, losing a few pots. Playing the Rock image and havent shown down a single bad hand. I did make a couple of nice bluffs. The highlight was getting the best player by far to fold KK on a 2 6 Q flop.

it's about 2.00am when I get AA again. I raise preflop and get two callers.
Flop comes down Q 10 7 of diamonds. I have the Ad.
First guy bets 60, a loose swedish bloke raises it to 200. I re-raise another 500. Swedan goes all in. I know I'm behind but its only another 250 to call.
Its AA Vs set. I only need one diamond that doesnt pair the board. I get two.

I'm up to 2700.

Game goes on until I finally quit at 4.30. Didnt really want to, but have been having trouple sleeping off the late nights.

I cash in for 2900. A fine nights poker, and Ill definately be back to Ceasers.
Its a great poker room too by the way.

well off to bed for me.... Ill update again tomorrow.

Lazare

Well done Jim. HOW COULD YOU LEAVE THAT TABLE!!!!:eek: , you were obviously on a rush, I'd be ordering a crate of RedBull and a box of matches just in case.

smurph

Jas*s getting Aces twice, and they held up twice, in a cash game aswell, the stuff dreams are made of. Keep the reports going, and the money rolling in. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: god I wish I was there:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

jimbling

Lazare wrote:

Well done Jim. HOW COULD YOU LEAVE THAT TABLE!!!!:eek: , you were obviously on a rush, I'd be ordering a crate of RedBull and a box of matches just in case.

oh I'm definately on a rush alright..... pokers been good to me over the last month.

Even though playing like a rock was working well last night... I probably shoulda loosened up a great deal. You wouldn't believe the amount of full houses and straights I would have hit :eek:

The table was going to break up pretty soon anyway. It was down to 5 and we were playing 5/10 at this stage. (not really, but there was an agreement on the table to live straddle every hand )


I'd love to be able to play an event this year.... the way I'm running in the online mtts you'd never know too. Every other person at the table last night was playing in the 1500 today... and 4 of them in the main event. :mad:

jbravado

Really enjoying your reports man-hope your rush continues.

jimbling

wow...... rush is over with a big ass bang. Played some of the worst poker of my life today.
I could feel it on the walk over to ceasers. I just didnt feel like playing too much, but hey... I'm in vegas right... get over it.

Got there about 1 hour before the tournament started. Bought into a 2/5 game for 700. Was up to 1080 when I left for the mtt.... great start.

got knocked out of the MTT pretty early when my AK ran into TT. When I hit my A on the turn, it gave a flush to the luckiest son of a ***** around. (same guy was all in against me with A4 on a AQ7 board when I had AQ. He rivers the flush with his 4)

Back into the same 2/5 game, and just walked into hand after hand (and Im talking bad moves and bad calls) It was unreal. Was down about $700 when I left the table and joined another 2/5.
This table went okay for a while and I managed to get my $500 up to $800 before it started all over again. The deck just turned ice cold on me. Generally speaking my cards were of the J3 K4 type. The odd time I would get a drawing hand, but never hit a thing.

The few times I got a decent starting hand the board would kill me.
e.g. JJ and a AK5 deck. or AKo and a 89Ts board. The table was pretty loose so ended up folding all these hands.

Soon after a couple of londoners joined the table. These guys were good, and I shoulda just left then. At least half the table were 5/10 players who were looking for action. I was just hoping to hit like last night and take big pots here and there. Absolutely nothing would happen for me.


I had about $450 left when I get JJ in the BB. Theres about 5 callers, so I put in a HUGE raise of 50*. I get two callers.
Flop is 557 (two clubs). I check the flop, first caller checks the flop....one of the londoners bets $150. I move my chips in. First guy calls. Londoner moves all in. other guy calls. feck.
I'm up against 68s and 56o. 6 on the river gives the londoner a boat.

And thats me done and dusted. It was just a horrible night, and one Ill want to forget quickly.

I currently feel like never playing poker again.


*This bet was a must, because if you bet any less than 40 you get every limper calling.

jimbling

played in the $80+$50 rebuy in Ceasers today. Had a decent game, but got knocked out in 18th of 180 for a massive payout of $201.

Had a sizable stack (about 40k)with about 30 left.
1000/2000
I'm in the BB, its folded around to the SB. He raises to 6k. I call with 10 7s.
A rag rag flop.
SB raises 6, but looked extremely weak. I put him all in for his remaining 20k.
He hesitates a lot before calling with A2. I don't think I played the hand too wrong (obv i did since i lost) as he really should have folded the hand.

Lost another hand soon after and was down to 12k when I crawled into the money.

Built back up to 49k when I got JJ on the button. Blinds were 2k/4k and antes 400. Folded around to me and I push. BB calls and shows QQ. I don't get lucky and back down to 12k.

Two hands later Im dealt 44 and push again. Called by KJ and he hits both on the flop.... im out.

going for a shower and playing in the $120 + 100rebuy at 7.


JJ has been my nemises over the last 2 days having getting them 5 times and not winning a single pot.

jimbling

So I'm back in the real world, at work up in San Francisco while the rest of Vegas town continues..... It was a great trip, and although I didn’t get to meet up with a lot of the boardsies I thought I might, I did do exactly what I set out to do.... play lots of poker

I didn’t post when I got back from that second tournament at Caesars as it was about 8.30am and I had to check out at 11.

So i headed back there after cleaning up bit and just got there in time to sit into the $120 + 100 MTT. I faired much better than I did in the previous nights one, but alas finished just outside the money when I got 3 outed on the river.

Blinds are 1k/2k.
I get K2 in the BB. MP calls. SB calls. I check.
Flop comes K52. I check. MP bets 10k and SB folds. I Push all in.
Does the check raise scare this guy..... oh no, he calls in a flash and turns over KQ. The Q comes on the river and I'm out.

Headed for the cash games and played in a really fun 1/2 game for a while. I was up about $200 when the table broke up. Decided to join a 2/5 game again. It was a tough table and pretty much just broke even after 2 1/2 hours.
I did win one nice hand with quad 4s.

Left Caesars around 5am planning on getting to bed.... but met a guy I knew when walking passed the poker room in the Flamingo. Decided to join a table here for an hour.... it was my last night and all

At 8am I left the table up to $1100 from the $300 buy in.
.....
.....
.....


Played my last bit of Vegas Poker in between Check out and taxi to the Airport. Once again found the 1/2 tables here extremely soft and managed to win $250 in the 2 hours I sat for.

Met Dave again right before I left, and we were chatting about the tables over a cigarette. He was commenting how it was much more advisable for less experienced players to stick to the 1/2 games... it's just way easier to make money. He couldn't have been more right.
But in saying that, I think part of the reason I found the 1/2 games ultra easy on the last days was because of what I took from the 2/5 games that I played in. I kept a close eye on the top players at these tables, a lot of which are normally 5/10 players*. When you get back to a 1/2 table after that you notice that you can see more… and you also realize that the 2/5 players can probably see through you in the same manner you can see through this table.


Even though I faired well overall at that level it was always obvious that I wasn't up to scratch with the others at the table (not all by any means, there's some horrendous players). How I judge this is how tight I feel I have to play the table. If, which I do on occasion, play a 3/6 or a 5/10 table online I play extremely tight and mostly it works okay. But to make a lot of money in cards you just can’t do that. I got lucky that first night of 2/5 in that I got some great cards… end of. But on those 1/2 tables I don’t need great cards…. I was winning lots of chips with crap cards…. and winning even more chips with good cards.

All in all a great trip and looking forward to the next one. Hopefully I will make it over next year. With work coming up down in San Francisco (I may even be moving there for a while) I could have plenty of chances to visit.



*By the way, that Londoner who took the last of my money during my demise the previous day won the Bellagio 1k yesterday.