Vegas Trip Report

Two words: Manny. Pacquiao. That guy is pretty sick, huh? Unfortunately by the time we got ready to place our bets on Manny, the line had moved all the way to -300, so we weren't getting great odds. However that didn't stop us from putting a total of $2k on Manny between the five guys in our group, which made out for our CCTV tickets and then some. Overall 4 out of the 5 of us went home winners, plus we got served about 100 free cocktails and beers while at the tables (we gambled literally up to and past dawn both nights). 

I feel kinda bad for Ricky Hatton as he seems like a pretty good guy and gives it his best in the ring, but he has been badly outclassed in the two biggest fights of his career (the other vs. Mayweather). He's just not the same caliber of fighter as those guys.

In other exciting boxing news, Floyd is returning to the ring in July to face Juan Manuel Marquez, probably to set up a fight with Manny if Floyd wins. JMM is a great fighter in his own right (#2 pound-for-pound, has had two VERY close fights with Pacquiao), but will be putting on a lot of weight to come up and fight Floyd. Unless Floyd has lost a lot since the last time we saw him in the ring, should be a victory for Mayweather Jr.

The friends I was with mostly wanted to find the cheapest blackjack tables possible, which meant gambling in downtown Vegas, especially convenient since we were staying there anyway. But that also pulled me away from the juiciest poker tables.

I did manage to play a little bit though. Friday night I played a short 1/2 NL session at about 1 am at Fitzgerald's. The 1/2 was the only game they had running, so I sat in. Not too long into the session, I look down and find KK...I raise it up and we see the frop about 5-handed, pretty standard for a 1/2 live game. Frop is J9x with two diamonds...I bet 30ish into a pot of 40ish and got a call from the button. The turn is a brick and I put the button all-in for another 90 or so. The river is a Tc, which didn't look too great, but he stands up and says, "crap, I was going for diamonds...you got it..." But he also shows his cards, which are KdQd...so of course the dealer has to call him back and explain to him that he rivered a straight, shipping him the $250 pot. Whatever. 

Fortunately the seat two to the left of him opens up and I instagrab it. An hour or so later the dealer misreads a board (AMAZING how often this happens) and almost ships a pot to the KdQd donk when he holds K5 vs. A7 on an AK566 board. I get some small revenge by correcting the dealer and sending the pot to its rightful owner (I don't play enough live to know whether it's proper etiquette to correct the dealer in this case or force the winning player to figure it out on his own - the dealer was already starting to collect the cards, so the chances of the A7 guy figuring it out on his own were slim). 

The only really interesting hand came towards the very end of the session. I'm on the button with Ah8h looking at 4 or so players limping in front of me. I make a raise to $20 and get called by one young guy who had been playing fairly solid and the KdQd donk. The frop comes J53 with two spades. It's checked to me and I bet $40, pretty sure that the tight player was set mining and will fold, and hoping the donk just whiffed completely...I think he could fold better aces than mine, and plus I just don't want him sticking around with KTo or something. Also he had played his draw weakly last time, just calling down, so maybe I could even get value. I got an instafold from the tight player but a call from the donk. The turn came an offsuit Q. The donk tanked for quite a while and finally checked. He had maybe $60-70 at that point and there was $140 in the pot. I considered betting, wondering if there was any hope of me making him fold 65s or 88 or something. You'd think if he's gonna call $40 on the frop he'd call on the turn too...especially given that folding isn't exactly his forte...but you never know with these live donks. I finally decided to check, figuring there was just no hope of getting a laydown and praying for a river A. An 8, even. The river was instead an offsuit 6. The donk checked and I thought a bit again, wondering if he'd fold 67s now...but finally just checked since I thought I did have a fair amount of showdown value with an A-high and a kicker that plays. He announced "I missed" and showed Ac4c (this time he really did miss), and I got shipped a nice pot with A-high.

The next night my friend Charlie wanted to try out some poker. I figured no-limit probably would be a little too much for his first time playing, and it would be no fun if he got busted after 15 minutes, so we found a $3-$6 limit game at Binion's. I got the worst seat in the house, directly to the right of a total Crazian. This man could neither hear (or at least pretended he couldn't everyone called him an idiot) nor see (was convinced he had a straight with 76o on a 743 frop), but knew the word "raise" and used it liberally. He also never really got the hang of the betting structure. The $3 betting limit on the frop never deterred him from throwing out 6 chips, requiring the dealer to throw 3 chips back at him every other hand. But we had a good time and my friend managed to finish a roller coaster session up $16, while I finished down $17. We were both up 5-6 Heinekens. 

Once we got back to our hotel, we found another Hold 'Em game with a very odd betting structure and just couldn't resist. The way it worked was that there was one blind only, just to the left of the dealer. The blind could choose to make it a $1, $2, or $3 blind. The player to his left could also choose to straddle. The betting preflop, flop, AND turn could then be either $1, $2, or $3. Then on the river you could bet from $1 to $6. It was bizarre. If you think that players would realize that having almost no money in the pot blind would make playing tight an even better strategy than it would be with $3 in blind, you would be incorrect. This game was quite loose. Still I decided that the $1 blind was just too lame and decided to straddle at first opportunity. Charlie limped in from MP and was followed along by a couple of players behind him. I look down at AcAh (THAT'S WHY YOU STRADDLE!!!) and raised the max to $5. Charlie re-raises to $8...we end up capping it (I think cap was four raises) with one of the late position donks caught in the middle. The frop comes KdJc9c and we cap again, again with Charlie and I doing all the betting, again with the donk caught in the middle. At that point I was pretty sure Charlie had either three kings or three jacks, although I had seen him play top pair pretty aggressively in our earlier session, so AK wasn't out of the question...but the turn brought the 3c, giving me the nut flush draw to go with my overpair. I checked, Charlie bet $3, donk called, and I called as well. The turn bricked off and I check/called $6 more (the donk folded). An absolutely sobbing call but...for $6 into a $100 pot, you can't really fold an overpair. However I did manage to come back and pwn the table pretty significantly, getting in some nice value bets with second pair, top pair third kicker, and the like. I finished up $50, another couple of beers, and a good time, while Charlie walked away a $125 winner. 

Good weekend, Vegas. I'll be seeing you again soon.

-BRUECHIPS