Day 1
I swaggered up to the MGM Poker Room expecting to sit down at the 1/2 NL game and have drunk tourists paying me off every hand i played. The last time i was in Vegas - more than a year ago now, I had stayed at the Flamingo Hotel and enjoyed a reasonable degree of success making about $1k in their 1/2 game over the course of 10 days or so, while getting pissed at the same time. 13 months on, my poker game has improved markedly, so surely my profits in these Vegas games should dramatically increase? (Cough Cough). Apparantly it doesn't work like that.....
First hand i got dealt was K4 in the bb, i won it against a button limper when a king flopped.
Second hand i got KK in the sb, after a few limpers to me, i bumped it up to 20 and i got 3 callers. Flop came 223, i led for 50 and the c/o thought and moved in. I insta called putting him on 99, he sighed and flipped JJ, and i scooped a $400 pot - i was right this was going to be easy..... or so i thought.
2 hours later i was sitting with that same $400 in front of me when i got dealt AA in mid position after 1 limper. I made it $20 - yes 10x the bb - I'm in Vegas and ppl like to gambooole. C/o calls and button calls. Button has $500 back and has called a lot of raises with all kinds of cards looking to outflop people and on some occasions try and outplay them. My image at this point is tight aggressive - the only hands i'd shown down had been strong ones and i had bet them hard. This guy had bet the river on 3 or 4 occasions, only to be called and grimace as they turned over the winning hand as he mucked his own. (Point to be noted, i hate it when ppl do this live - when i make a call on the river with a hand that is not the nuts, it is not slowrolling to wait for the bettor to show his hand, and i will almost always gesticulate for him to turn his cards, that info is priceless. Online all we have to do is click a button and we see all showdown hands - we can't do this live, and when we can ask it is considered very bad eitiquette. So any information is gold dust, especially against this type of player)
Ok... so flop:
Ks 6s 3d
There's $64 in the pot and i bet $40. (In hindsight i should be betting at least $50). C/o folds, button calls.
Turn:
5c
Ok, now at this point i thought he had called me with a piece of the board, because if he had flopped a big hand on the flop, i know he would have raised me, because I'm pretty sure he thinks I have a big hand at this point.
I decided to fire $100 and take the pot down.... he thought and called. Now, this is tricky and shows my inexperience both in cash games and in particular live cash games. My problems here are that I'm now playing a big pot with one pair. I have no idea what he has, and he has repeatably bluffed the river, so i don't know exactly how to play it on the river.
River Th
Ok, I have no idea if i have the best hand. The pot is now $340. I decided that if i bet here - say another $100 and he moved in, i would have to fold, and could perhaps be folding the best hand. I elected to check and see what he'd do.
He bet $100, i thought about it and called. This guy as i said had bluffed a lot of rivers. He flipped 74os for the turned straight.
He called $20 preflop with 74os, then $40 on the flop with a gutshot. Now if I'm going to criticise his play i have to look at mine. I'm hardly free from blame i built up a big pot with AA - ok he could have been drawing (he was on the flop), but it was certainly the first of my lessons. He claimed he thought if he hit he'd stack me. I asked him if i looked like an idiot - to which he didn't respond. Sad thing is, i probably did.
The same day i had 2 other $600+ pots.
J5s in the sb, i completed. Flop came JJQ i led, got 2 callers, turn 5, i led bigger got 2 callers, river 9 - i think jackpot as I know they're both "bad" enough to be calling down on a straight draw despite the board being paired. I led again, the first caller bumped it up another $100. I considered my options. I could have flat called using the theory that he can only call with a boat and if he has a boat it's bigger than mine, but decided a) he was bad enough to call with his straight and b) it was only like $80 more anyway. He calls and flips J5.... same hand, chop chop. $700 pot chopped with J5....
AKs in the sb, 3 limpers to me for $2, i make it $22 and get 2 callers - one loose player who called a $20 raise 20mins before with Q7s and flopped 2 pair (he has about $250 back), and a shorter guy who called in the c/o leaving back $60.
Flop Js Ts 3d.
I HAVE to bet this flop - i do not want it to be checked the the short stack for him to move in and me be sandwiched in between him and the loose guy when i have a big draw.
So i bet $40, loose guy calls, shorty folds. - oh oh. One problem with leading with draws out of position is that when you get called you are likley going to miss on the turn and have a tricky decision.
Turn was a brick.
I am pretty sure that if this guy flopped 2p or better he would have raised me on the flop, so i put him on a small piece. I could check here - in hindsight i wish i had, then if i check and he checks behind thats ok, if he bets i have a choice - if it's a big bet i could move in, if it's a small bet i could call, alternatively folding wouldn't be out of the question in some scenarios.
I elected to bet $100 - i was trying to tell him "look i've got a hand, save your money and fold, i'm not going anywhere".
He moved in for $126 more....... oh oh. Nightmare, absolute nightmare - so many ways to play this hand and now I'm stuck in a situation where I may have to call off $126 on a draw on the turn.... sick sick sick.
Ok, i thought for a minute or so, calculating pot odds his range etc.
$68 in the middle preflop + $80 on flop +$326 on turn = $548 in the middle and I need to call $126.... I'm getting better than 4/1 - i have 12 outs to the nuts, if i assume these are my only outs I'm a 3/1 dog roughly, i have to call, in addition to this i had a sneaky suspicion that my A and K could also be good (or one of them anyway). I sighed and pushed in my chips for him to say "Good call" and flip T7 for a pair of tens.
River Jc
No good for me and he scooped the pot, leaving me shaking my head in disbelief.
Did i misplay it? Possibly. Of course I cannot put him on T7 - but i did think he had a weak holding - perhaps i should have moved in on the turn - he cannot call, cannot. If I'm calling his all in anyway - then surely i should move in to stop him from doing precisely what he did. If i move all in and he has 33 for a flopped set he insta calls, if i bet 100 and he moves in for 226 i call - same result. I suppose if he calls my $100 on the turn i can check fold the river - that's the only difference, but i don't see him calling $100 on the turn too many times leaving back just $126 when the pot is that large.
If i check to him on the turn, does he bet? I'm pretty sure i'd have moved in on the turn had he bet $50-70, he can't call.
Anyway, lesson learned - when playing online, you always know how many chips your opponent has and can calculate bet sizes accordingly. It is important when playing live that you are constantly aware of how many chips your opponents have so as to choose the optimal bet size.
Day 2
The previous days complacency had faded and had been replaced with a slight feeling of inadequacy - which is a little ridiculous as despite me having major leaks in my live cash game play i still have a big edge over most in these games.
I started off very well, chipping up in small pots and avoiding the big ones of the day before when i held marginal holdings. I moved in twice on a draw with a lot of dead money locked in the pot and both times i won the hand without a showdown, then a similar situation arose when i had $300 in front of me:
I raised AhKd to $12 utg and got 3 callers (2 in position of me and the bb).
Flop 2h 4h 5h
Ok... this is obviously not a bad flop for me, i haven't got anything yet, but I'm in great shape against 88 or 99 - hands that my opponents may have. Against these holding i could have as many as 17 outs with my overcards, flush draw and gut shot draw.
A glance around the table saw that the 2 players still to act after me had less chips than I, and i didn't fancy having to call an all in if i made my c-bet, so i elected to check and see what they did. The c/o bet 30 into the pot, button folded, bb folded.
Theres $79 in the pot, c/o has $80 back - I'm not folding this, I'm obviously putting him in. If he folds, fine ship the 79 bucks. If he calls I may be in great shape. As i said if he calls with an overpair to the board I'm about a 60% favourite. Even if he has a set I'm 40% ish. Only thing i'm really concerned about is that if he's flopped it - then i only have 7 outs, but i can't be afraid of that.
ALL IN!
He insta calls flipping Q8h
Turn 9h
UL buddy, but thats why you don't play suited trash :S.
Ok so after that horrible suck out i put on him (ahem) I have a healthy stack. An hour or so later these 2 guys came down from 2/5 to have some fun and drink. Both of these guys knew how to play, and were very aggro and didn't mind if they lost a buy in. I want these guys at my table - sure they can be tough to play against, but they will throw money around with marginal holdings and i don't mind calling off chips if i think i have an edge.
I get dealt AK in the sb - one of them raises from mid position. I elected to call - i could have re-raised, but i think he calls with a lot of hands and if he hits the flop he goes with it. i thought if i call and hit i can get paid. His mate in the bb calls.
Flop Ac Ts 9s i led for 25 and they both called.
Turn Ad and i led for 60, bb called - river was a spade.....
I put in a $50 block bet he insta min raised to 100 and i open folded, he showed J9s and said even if i had shoved the turn he would have called.
If i re-raise preflop I win the hand - but the way the hand played out, the vast majority of the time i win a nice pot. If the river had been a spade and paired the board or my king i'd have shoved and I'm pretty sure he calls. Oh well.
Day 3
This is one of my favourite hands of my trip so far - on paper it looks pretty standard, but i played it very well and my thought processes were very clear.
I have $400 in front of me. To my immediate right i have a 21/22 year old who has been chatting to me about poker (Matt), about how bad some of the guys are and just generally being friendly, he has $200. On the other side of the table was sat a fat loud American (i know, big shock - let's call him Chuck). This guy had been playing wrecklessly, had just lost a big pot, had just lost $1k on a basketball game and was obviously itching to gamble.
My friend Matt limps in early for $2, i look down at AA and make it $15. SB calls and Chuck calls in the bb. Matt then announces raise..... wow....
Matt chucks in another 4 red ones on top of my raise "$20 more sir" the dealer says.
Ok this could be gold, absolute gold. How can I get Matt to put his chips in the middle here with JJ/QQ - i don't think he folds KK - how many ppl can at a 1/2 game? I look at the other 2 in the hand, i see the sb is holding 4 red chips. (Don't do this, observant players pick up on these things and adjust their play). I look at the bb and i can tell he is ready to move all in - he can't fold, that would bruise his ego and he's ready to gamboooole anyway.
I have to work out if I flat call, and the sb flat calls, if the bb's inevitable push will be big enough for it to be classed as a raise. Matt has raised it 20 more, which means that the bb needs to have at least another 40 chips back in order for it to be a real raise. I quickly counted his chips, trying as hard as possible not to let anyone see what I was doing. He had 33 more - damn damn damn. If he had 40 chips - thats 7 more chips I would have flat called Matt's raise with AA, the sb would have called, Chuck would have pushed and Matt would have been in Pain-ville. What does Matt do in this spot? Assuming he has JJ-KK - i think he re-raises. How much? Well it could be all in, if not he's throwing in another $50 at least.
This is obviously now hypothetical as Chuck's all in won't be counted as a full raise, so as i didn't want to play a 4 way pot with AA i re-raised $80 more on top of Matt's raise. SB folded, Chuck moved in with his routine bad chat, followed by standing up, clapping his hands and yelling something in "American" to the dealer. Matt sat back in his chair expressing how "sick" it was. Mumbling that it's a massive laydown he eventually open folded QQ.
Chuck has T8 and despite 97 flopping my AA held to scoop the pot.
I had a good laugh about this hand - my observation skills in it were markedly up from the previous day, and had Chuck only had 7 less Bud Lights I'd have trapped Matt for another $50-200 and locked in another $20 in dead money from the sb. Oh well....
Later that night we visited the Excalibur as it is notoriously soft. Within the first 5 hands i had doubled having flopped a set and turned a boat. I got paid off on the river by a gambler with 3 of a kind, despite there being a flush and a straight out there. I managed to sit there and bleed chips for the rest of the evening - partly due to bad luck, but more probably due to 10 odd bottles of Corona, followed by a fair amount of Rum and cokes. I say they were Rum and cokes, but there wasn't much coke! It got to the stage at one point where we decided the cocktail waitress was being too slow so started asking the guys around us who weren't drinking to order for us so we always had one in hand. (Drinks are free when gambling, just $1 for the waitress).
Last hand i played was at 6am and at the time i thought was a bit of a cooler, but is there really such a thing as a cooler? I think so, but i also think we include many more hands in that category that really aren't and i think this may be one....
3 limpers for $3 before me, and i look down at KJ - i should be raising this i think - these guys are limping with so much crap, but calling is ok, im in position and I can play flops.... well sometimes.
Flop Ad Qd Td
and you've guessed it I've got the Kd.
There's 5 of is in the hand. My mate leads at it from the sb (he told me later he had QT and suggested that it was a -ev bet that he should have been check folding - I'm not so sure). A guy in mid position that has been playing loose, and has misplayed a few hands in the previous hour min raises to 30. I have 200 back and re-raise to 80 - hell I've flopped broadway and have the nut flush draw. My mate folds and this guy calls - he has me outchipped.
Is my straight worth anything now? Does he have the made flush? Surely if he has the made flush he moves in as i know he doesn't have the nut flush as i have the Kd. Turn is a brick and he checks to me. I move in for my last $120 and he calls flipping J8d for the flopped flush, i miss on the river, stand up, sigh, say nice hand and mumble something about a cooler. Is it? What can he possibly call me with on the flop when i re-re-raise? Sure if he moves in on me there i call, but after he calls then checks to me on the turn, i can surely just check the turn? I mean I'm not going to be outdrawn on the river, if he has 2 pair I'm dodging 4 outs. Also he can only call me on the turn if he has the flush, so why don't i at least check here and get it in on the river? Or even if he checks to me on the river again, i can check behind if i please.
It's a tough one, but I think it's important to analyse these "coolers" because often there will be a moment when you misplayed the hand, and if you continue to believe that you are being unlucky you will not improve. And i have a lot of improving to do in these games.
Day 4
We returned to the Excalibur the next day having slept til 1pm. Once again the table was very soft, but ppl were calling raises with crap and in multiway pots it is difficult to know when you're good.
Having sat there for a good 2 hours this hand came up - another interesting one i think.
3 limpers to me and i look down at A4os on the button. I obviously don't like playing hands like this, but there are a couple of real fish in the hand who i can read like a book so I'm quite happy to play any hand against them.
Flop 3h 5h 6d
Ok, i've flopped an open ender, but there are 2 problems with this.
1) I'm only using one of my hole cards - someone could catch a higher straight, or i could be playing to split.
2) It's a suited board, with a few guys in, chances are I'm drawing to 6 outs instead of 8 and then they will have a redraw on the river.
BB (fish number 1, lets call him Wanda) leads for $6, UTG calls (he's fish 2, let's call him Trout - yeah i struggled there), c/o calls.
It's $6 to call - i have a draw. Sure it's not a great one for the reasons above, but i think it's ok to call here and see what the turn brings.
Turn:
2d
Ok, I've now hit my draw, I have the second nuts.
Wanda bets $30 leaving back $200, Trout calls $30 leaving back $30. C/o folds.
Ok... what are my options? All in? Call? I sat there for 30 seconds or so contemplating my options and then slid my cards into the muck. As fishy as Trout was, he had to have the 4 there (him limping utg had no bearing on his holding). He could even have 47. In addition to this, the bb surely has a 4 as well - he bet $6 on the flop then ups it to $30 on the turn when the obvious draw hits. I was pretty sure that they both had 4s, and even if only one of them did, then the other isn't going to put anymore money in, so I would have split what was in the pot about $70 with the other guy - but i think I would have had to put my stack in the middle in order to split it. In addition to this, i also thought it was very feasable that one of them, if not both also had a draw on top of their made straight. For example x4h or x4d .
I don't think i need to tell the rest of the hand in order to justify my play, but i will:
River 7c
Money goes in, Wanda flips A4 and Trout flips 84 for the rivered higher straight. I announce to the table that i folded A4 (yeah i know i don't need to be doing this, but I'm often a cocky git). Wanda and Trout didn't believe me obviously, because why would i ever fold the second nuts in a pot with only one bet? But i had actually flashed my cards to my neighbour as i folded so he could confirm (again - cocky cocky play. Why am i showing them how i play? It's not for any poker reason, purely so i can boast in the short term about how great I am (despite me having lost over a buy-in in the previous 2 hours) - completely -ev and something i have to stop when playing live. I NEVER show my cards online, why should live be any different?)
An hour later I raised up JJ to 13 and got 4 callers, flop 2c 2d 3c, i checked planning on check raising one of the remaining 3 players, one guy bet 25, another made it 100.... oh oh.
I thought for a good minute before throwing JJ in the muck, not knowing if i was correct. I thought the 2nd bettor could have TT, but it was the only hand i thought he could have that I beat. I know that could sound a little silly, but at this table there was a big big chance he had a 2 in his hand.
The first bettor called for his remainding $80 and flipped AQc, re-raiser had TT.
Club hit on river and at the time i was pleased - but that's quite simply ridiculous. The outcome of the hand has no bearing on how i played it. i think i played it ok - if i was going to do anything on the flop, it would have had to be all in, and i don't think TT can call, so in hindsight I should have shoved and isolated AQc. But of course that's knowing that the guy had TT, but considering he definitely could have had a 2, the fold was ok.
In the evening we headed down the strip to Caesar's. We're going to be staying there next week so thought we'd check out their tourny at 11pm.
Considering we're both tourny players it's strange that this being our 4th day in Vegas this would be our first tournament of our trip. Tourny was a $70 freezeout and was predictably a crap shoot. I went out after an hour, but my friend made it to the final table and did a ridiculous 9-way equal chop despite the chip leader having the short stack outchipped by 10/1. My mate was the only one who wanted to play on and in his words he "didn't want to force the issue". An interesting thing to note was how we both laughed about how "bad" the players in the tournament were - they were making so many mistake, generally limping when they should have been raising or folding, and later in the tourny limp folding when they should have been open shoving. These are the same players that we have been struggling to and in most cases failing to beat in cash games - hmm i wonder what that tells me?
Anyway after i donked out of the tourny i joined the waiting list for 1/3 NL. After 10minutes i got seated at a new table, with all of us buying in for at least $200 ($100 min $500 max). This was a great table - as much as it is good to be playing with bad players it can be better at times to play with mediocre players because they are far easier to read and you can expect less swings. At this table few ppl were limping in out of psiiton preflop, and when they did they were folding to decent raises, that is apart from one guy.
This hand came up after 30mins:
Guy limps in 2nd pos, 3rd pos makes it 15. I wake up with AA and consider smooth calling but see the inexperienced player to my left is also ready to call and i figure that the early limper will doubtlessly call as well. The raiser only has $90 or so back, so i want him to stay in and give me the rest of his stack.
I decided that it was ok to raise to $30 - only just over the min raise, but it would mean that anyone entering the pot after me would have to put in 10 bbs in order to play (9 to bb and early limper). To my semi-surprise, early limper called and raiser called.
3 to the flop with $94 in the middle.
J Q 3 rainbow, limper bets $75, raiser calls off his last $70 odd. I sit for 10 seconds and open folded AA, pretty confident that limper had JQ - i even thought that the shover could have JJ, but i wouldn't have folded to him had it just been the 2 of us. (I realise I have just assigned them all the jacks, which is very unlikely. I guess what i mean is that i thought the limper had JQ, and if he didn't i thought the shover could have JJ, anyway i was sure i was beat).
Limper had JQos (yeah $30 out of position preflop) and shover had AQ.
Over the course of the next 2 hours i chipped up to $400 without a showdown, in what was definitely my favourite session so far.
My mate remarked after that of course it was my favourite session if no one played back at me and i made money etc etc. But i genuinely think that even in the last 4 days that my live cash game skills have increased immeasurably, but i also have a long way to go, i still have major leaks that need to be fixed. Hopefully i can transfer these new skills to the live tournament scene soon....
Off to Santa Barbara for a break tomorrow, should be fun. Back in Vegas on Sunday, time away should do me good - it can be like exercise, u need some downtime in order to see an improvement.
Puggy82
