The evening after busting Monster Stack and returning to my hotel room, I regroup and research my options for the upcoming days. It's a Sunday night and I have two full days for poker before flying back home Wednesday. I debate cash game vs tournament play and opt for tournaments, with the goal in mind to recoup my $1,500 investment in the Monster Stack. In 2015, this had worked reasonably well for me, playing a few $125 events at the Aria and cashing for almost $1,900 in one of them.
Browsing the poker atlas app, I review upcoming tourneys at the local casinos. Aria and a few of the others are running multi-day events this week and so are removed from consideration. I want to play single day events in the $150-$300 buyin range and finally settle on the Daily Gold Rush $20K guarantee, $150 buyin tournament at the Golden Nugget, with a 1 pm starting time.
Monday, en route to the tourney, my GPS wants to direct me from my convention center Marriott to the Nugget via highway 15. Having taken that route before and dodging the suicidal Las Vegas drivers on it, I opt for the leisurely ride up Las Vegas Boulevard to downtown. The heat wave had subsided to a friendlier 106 degrees and a few brave souls are observed walking the sidewalks - even one jogger! I am unaware of (and can't map or locate) any parking deck at Golden Nugget, so end up parking at Binion's next door, noticing that the $10 daily parking fee will be validated for any purchase at a Binion's store.
At half past noon, the circus also known as Fremont street is just awakening and venturing onto it doesn't involve encountering jugglers, magicians and strippers as it normally would. Crossing the street from Binion's to the GN is never going to be an issue, anyway. The tournaments are played in the Nugget's ballroom, large and separate from the poker room. As I line up to register and head to my seat, I feel I have made the right choice. There are apparently hundreds of entries to this event and I salivate at the prospects of a nice juicy prize pool. All said and done (after the late reg levels), there are 326 entries, a $35K prize pool with top spot paying over $8K.
As the event starts, my optimism is confirmed. The hcrowd is your typical mix of weekend warriors and hometown heroes. There are a few Europeans sprinkled around, mostly middle aged plus rather than your prototypical 20-year old online sickos. The play is tight and predictable, players making increasingly obvious mistakes as the day progresses and SPRs (stack to pot ratios) compress. I am seated in S6, and to my left in S7 is an irascible 50-ish gentleman from Pennsylvania who appears annoyed whenever called or raised. The dealers, while nice folk, are poorly skilled and make numerous errors. In the first 25/50 level, our gentleman berates the dealer when a player opens for 125, another late position player (not S7) throws in two 100 chips and the dealer rules it a call (when it could have been considered a legal 75 chip raise). The dealer insists on being correct and the floor isn't called. Then approx. 20 minutes later, I open raise a decent but not great hand, and S7 3bets fairly large. The dealer commences to separate out the raise from the bet in order to inform me of the difference, and S7 says "what the hell are you doing"? Dealer responds that he's doing this to let me know how much more it is to me, and S7 responds "he didn't ask for it and you shouldn't be counting out the difference". Of course, in my mind, although fairly rude he is correct and I concur that I didn't ask for the difference - thinking to myself, how ironic this is since I am not your poor mathematically challenged slob requiring algebraic help. Dealer insists he's correct and now, S7 calls the floor and the ruling is that the dealer should desist from this activity when not requested. Order is restored in the GN kingdom. I fold, by the way.
The day wears on, and while I keep my stack intact, the blinds start catching up and I have no big pots to hang my hat on. It's a common tournament adage that we need those pots in the middle stages in order to make it to the later ones. By level 9 at the 400/800/100 level I am left with 9900 chips and ship ATss, am called by J9ss and double up. Soon thereafter, a table move lands me on S3 of a very "active" (aka fishy) table. We are at the 600/1200/200 level and with 21,300 in my stack, I pick up QQ in the small blind. It folds to me and I raise to 3000. Big blind, with a stack of ~18,000, calls and we see a flop of 972 rainbow with two hearts. I ship and he calls, showing J4hh. A heart hits the river and I am down to a stub.
Regrettably, just then the 40 minute dinner break hits. Well, I have come back from 2.5 BB stacks to cash in tournaments before, and perhaps can do so again! For dinner, I recall the unfinished business of stamping the Binion's parking ticket, and nit that I am, head to their burger stand for a $9.74 burger and soda, netting to a $0.26 profit if we consider the free parking. Woohoo. The burger chef / cashier / everything else is a 60ish guy who does not want to be here. Between the 10 minutes he keeps me in line to take the order and another 15 to prepare and bring it out, my break is mostly consumed. I scarf down the (pretty good) burger while trying to get onto WSOP.com via iPad and see if I can get some online play going. Ha! The Binion wifi and my phone hotspot are no rival to the remote location of our diner.
After dinner, I sit down and immediately pick up JJ. My now 1.5 BB are promptly shipped and called by KK. Story of my life in Vegas this year :) But honestly I don't "take it hard" or any such bad beat nonsense. This is tournament play and we expect not to cash at least 80% of the time.
The time is about 7:30 pm and I head over to play the 1/2 cash game. Golden Nugget is a great spot for cash play, because of the uncapped buyin (money plays, meaning you can pull $100 bills out of your wallet and put them under your chips). I buy in for only $200 and on my first hand, pick up AA. I decide to pull a tricky one and limp UTG. A $100 stack in MP raises and the bait is set. I flat call and when the flop comes, check, he shoves and I have his JJ pretty dead. The rest of the session is somewhat up and down, and I end up leaving at around 10 pm, with a break even result. A pity I think, since a drunkard has just sat down, but I have to get my rest for the next day's tournament grind.
Tuesday! Back to the grind and to the same event!
This time, we get 368 entries and an even larger prize pool, with a top spot payout of $8,900. I am seated in S2, to the left of a 60-ish local lady who is playing tightly and exchanging eye rolls and comments with me about the inanity of the table talk, mostly coming from the direction of S6 and S7, two middle aged American rec players.
S7 has announced to the table that he has not come here to fold, and proves it by calling down a river bluff of mine with a weak second pair (I apparently had missed his first announcement and when he calls, it is re-iterated to me). Then, two levels later at 75/150, with a stack of about 15,000, he opens for 400 from the HJ position, the SB lady in S1 calls and I, with a stack of 11,175, come along with 86ss. It flops 853 rb, checks to him, he bets 800 into the 1200 pot, SB folds and I c/r to 2000. He calls. The turn is an Ace and it checks through. River is a 9, it checks through and I lose to A7. I remark: you should have folded flop, to which he quite sternly responds, I would have folded to a lead, but your c/r was rude and I couldn't fold to it. God, I really hate fish I think to myself. A few hours later, after working up to the second highest stack on the table, he gets it in against the chip leader with AA vs AK and busts when two K's hit the river. No f-ing way, he screams in agony, but truthfully the table is happy to see him go.
As far as my fortunes go, this one ends earlier than Monday's, thankfully before the dinner break. After my now-obligatory Binion's burger (this time served by a cheery young lady), I walk over to the GN poker room and sign on for their 1/2 cash game, only to see that there's a long waiting list and to notice that they have a 7 pm $110 buyin tourney!
That tourney, there are only 50-ish entries and I get three Euro middle aged maniacs at my table. And guess who's at my right? Said S7 fish from earlier today. He plays erratically and busts quite rapidly. As in the others, I am either card dead or miss every single f-ing flop. I hang on until the inevitable mid-levels bust and head out.
Back in my room, I figure, what the hell this is my last night in Vegas. I log into WSOP.com and register to a late night tourney (degen or not?). The buyin is something like $10 and with over 200 entries, it adds up to a decent prize pool. Ironically, this one goes better than the live events and I find myself at 2 AM with a decent stack, close to the money bubble. Sure enough, I run into a cooler and just like that, I'm out.
Summary: This is not a successful trip. But some day, when I return and win similar events, I will look back to this week as very instructive, painful as only poker can be, and (at times) fun as only Vegas can be!
Congrats on starting your blog. If you get a blog roll, which I think is easy on Blogger, and link to other blogs, you'll more quickly grow a readership.
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