Las Vegas Days 4 & 5: Bad Beats and a Pissed Off Blogger

Day 4 in Las Vegas (Saturday, June 30) started off with a nice lunch with Very Josie, followed by a session of cash games at Bally's. The day, however, was most notable for the All Vegas Poker tournament that was scheduled for the evening. I was not sure if I wanted to play in it. It sounded like it would be fun, but I just didn't want to play in tournaments three days in a row. So ... I did go to the Mirage, where the tournament was held, to socialize. I got to meet several AVP people/bloggers including grrouchie, Lindy, Stump, and the lovely Carmel. Carmel, who earlier had tweeted that I was a "rat bastard," showed me the reason for her tweet: the traffic ticket she got while driving to Bally's the night before to try to surprise me. Well ... excuse me!

When the tournament started Carmel and I headed to Casino Royale (home of $1 Michelobs and margaritas) and had a few drinks while getting to know each other -- which Carmel called my "interrogation" of her. Well, with all the provocative things she had written on her blog, I sure had lots of questions. We then went back to the tournament for some additional socialization, and then went our separate ways as I decided to play some cash games.

I first went to Harrah’s and was doing well when a player at the table saw his A-A go down in flames to Q-9. The guy just would not let it go, muttering nasty stuff to the guy who cracked the Aces and snapping at others at the table having a good time. I finally decided that I did not want to continue in that atmosphere and headed to ... where else, but Bally's! I had a great session there, but unfortunately won one hand I would have preferred to lose. I got in a hand with 5-5 and was excited to see a flop of 5-6-5! There were two diamonds on the board which led me to hope I might get a nice score on the hand. One other player was in, and he obviously had a good hand. I three bet after the flop and he came along. He even called my big value bet on the river. At the end of the hand, I saw the mixed news: good news -- I won a big pot; bad news -- the other player flopped a straight flush draw. If he had hit his two outer on the turn or river, we would have hit the bad beat jackpot. My share would have been either $4K or $5K! Ah well ... at least I cashed out with a nice score.

Day 5 (Sunday, June 24) -- the day I would like to forget -- started out nice and early. Surprisingly, I was up at an early Las Vegas hour for me: 8:30 a.m. I puttered around the room for a bit and texted Very Josie to see if she wanted to grab some breakfast or brunch. No answer. I figured she was sleeping late. A little later I called and texted again. Still no answer. I headed down to play some cash games and heard from Rob, asking about lunch plans. I thought I might hear from VJ soon, so I waited. After not hearing anything, I contacted Rob to tell him it would just be me and arranged to meet him at his famous "BSC" (Big Strip Casino), where Rob was taking care of lunch -- yes!. He would not be ready for some time, so I stayed a few more orbits at the cash game. Right before it was time for me to leave, I had a few free hands before the blinds came to me. On a previous trip, I stayed and played one last hand ... and lost an $800 pot! Wanting to break the curse, I stayed for the last free hands. I was dealt K-10 and called a raise. The flop: A-Q-J! The action was on me and I threw out a pot sized bet. The original raiser said "all in" and I instacalled. He flipped over A-Q and was shocked to see that I had flopped the straight. However -- and you know what is coming next -- he was happy to see that the turn was an Ace, taking a decent chunk of my stack. Strike one. Two hands later I was off to the BSC.

After lunch at BSC, it was getting late in the afternoon. We had still heard nothing from VJ, and I was concerned. We had heard that TBC and Pete Peters were playing poker at the Flamingo, so Rob and I headed that way. I asked Rob, who was driving, if he could stop in Bally's first so that we could check on VJ. We tracked down a hotel security guy to ask if he could do a wellness check on her. He called up to her room and spoke with her, then handed the phone to me. She was pretty nasty to me on the phone (excuse me all to hell for being concerned about her) and I let loose with some pretty foul language. I was pretty hot. Strike two.

Rob and I went to Flamingo and met up with TBC and Pete. Rob had never met Tony, and was in for his first taste of the "TBC Experience." Tony wanted me to drive him downtown, but I did not have a car. He turned to Rob and said "Aren't you Rob? Do you have a car?" Rob agreed to drive Tony downtown while I sat next to Pete at a $1/$2 table. I was not getting much in the way of cards but was able to chip up a little. Josie came a short time later and soon it was time to head toward the Riviera for the private tournament that had been arranged for supporters of TBC. We were beginning to rack up but I still had a few free hands. I looked down to see A-A. I bet and got a few callers. The flop contained three low cards with two spades. The other players checked, and I put out a bet of about 2/3 the pot. One player who had butchered a hand against VJ earlier and had checked when action originally came to him after the flop said "all in." I was shocked. He impressed me as being a really crappy player. I was 90% sure I was ahead of him. I tanked for a couple of minutes and then thought "I didn't come to Las Vegas to play like a pussy," and called. The turn was a spade. The player turned over his cards to show that he hit his middle flush. My whole buy-in plus extra mobney was gone. Strike three.

On the outside I appeared pretty calm but on the inside I was going berserk. I just walked away from the table and wandered around the casino for awhile. Two nasty beats while getting ready to leave that made a four-figure difference in my bankroll plus feeling like I had been shit on by a good friend was just too much.

I finally decided to get in some exercise and walk down to Riviera. I got there just as the tournament was supposed to start. Needless to say, I was not very good company. To make matters worse, the other of the two tournament tables had all the people I knew. Mine had Rob, Poker Grump, and other players I had not met. Fortunately, I was next to Cool Dave, who really made the table fun. During the first break when VJ was away from her table, I had a little fun with the others at the table that she had been running over. I took out a vial of medicine I had been carrying and acted like I has going to slip a micky in her drink. I then pretended to hock a loogie in it. Or did I pretend ...

I did not last long in the tournament and played a little HORSE afterwards. I got a sub sandwich and decided to head back up the strip since I certainly wasn't very good company. I sent a couple of tweets the next morning to apologize for being such a downer. Unfortunately, one did not go through. For those who were at the TBC tournament, I do apologize for being a curmudgeon (I was told that Grump and g(r)rouch(ie) were already taken -- curmudgeon was suggested).

I headed to Bally's (natch) to lick my wounds. I started feeling a little strange before I headed to Bally's. Little did I know that things were about to get even worse the next day.