February 2018 Las Vegas Trip Report - Part IV: Bally's Poker, Cruisin' with VegasDWP, TheTrooper97's Game at Westgate, Red Rock Poker and Pizza with grrouchie

Thursday, Feb 8 had great potential to be a fun day. After eating lunch, I was determined to get in a short poker session at Bally's. Although this used to be my Las Vegas "home" poker room, I had not even played any poker in there yet this trip. I knew I would have somewhere around an hour to 1 1/2 hours to play. I was seated immediately at placed at the table where my buddy Ronnie B was dealing. Despite being my friend, Ron always seemed to be dealing when I have taken losses at Bally's. Some friend, huh? NOTE: Just kidding, Ron! Anyway, Ron started dealing me some truly wicked cards. I won several hands in a short period of time. By the time his down was finished, I was already about $300 up. Not bad for about 20 minutes of $1/2 NL play! As subsequent dealers came in, I pretty much floated. Then right before VegasDWP called me to tell me that he was waiting for me outside, I flopped a set on a board with three diamonds. I was in the hand with two other guys. After I raised, one guy went all in for about $80. From what I could see, he was a decent player, and I immediately put him on a flopped flush. Although I was pretty sure I was behind, I had been running hot and called, knowing that I had a number of outs. Much to my surprise, the player to my left also called. He seemed to be a decent player also, so I was pretty sure that at least one of them had flopped a flush. The other player and I both checked on the turn and river as I saw, for me, brick ... brick. As I guessed, the player who went all in had flopped a flush -- in fact, the nut flush. I never saw what the other player had as he mucked when he saw the flush exposed. So ... I still ended up a couple hundred ahead, but was unfortunately one card away from sucking out and having a really great short session.

VegasDWP had offered months ago to drive me to a few desirable sections of the Las Vegas area to scout out potential housing options in case my wife and I relocate to Las Vegas after I retire in a couple years. After showing me the inside of his place and driving me in different corners of Las Vegas, (a BIG thank you, David!), we headed to Westgate for dinner at Sid's Cafe, then a little fun at TheTrooper97's Trooper Thursday game. We were later joined by TBC and and his friend and semi-landlord, Vinnie. Unfortunately, they were seated at a different table. At my table, Trooper was in seat five, I was in seat six and VegasDWP was in seat seven.

I played tight-aggressive for the first half hour. I actually then got involved in many hands. I had chipped up but then lost most of it when I chased an open-ended straight draw. The Euro-aggro guy in seat four pushed all in after the turn and I was forced to fold. It was quite a ballsy move on his part as he risked most of his stack with nothing but air. Dammit - so close on the turn. The big hand for me came when we were involved in a splash pot. The way that works at the Trooper game is that all players (it is optional, but everyone was in) put in $10 before the cards are dealt, therefore starting off with a $90 pot. The dealer deals everyone two cards and then puts out the flop before before any betting occurs. I looked at my hole cards to see that I had ducks. A quick look at the flop - BINGO! How nice to flop a set in a splash pot! Unfortunately, nothing ever comes easy, it seems, as there were two spades on the flop. After I raised, VegasDWP pushed all in. Putting him on a flush draw, I called the all in and hoped for no spades. There was a spade on the turn or river and I expected to get my lunch handed to me. Fortunately, David had two pair and no spades, so I felted him. He got up to leave and declined my request for a ride back to The Strip if I cashed out (ha!). I stayed around for a bit, but then became concerned that I would need to reschedule my flights home due to upcoming weather in Chicago. I watched a bit of the Golden Knights game in the sports book (who could pass that up?), said goodbye to Tony and Vinnie and took the monorail back to Bally's.

It was still relatively early, so I decided to press my luck at Bally's. Unfortunately, the Bally's juju from earlier in the day was gone, as nothing but crap cards came my way. I took a loss and headed upstairs for the night.

Friday, Feb 9 morning didn't go quite as planned. I woke up but kept falling asleep. Eventually, I woke up at 10:30 and was rushing about to shower and pack. I had hoped to meet and have lunch with poker pro Jimmy Fricke, who is from my neck of the woods, but he was off Twitter for several days and we never finalized details. I decided to grab lunch and then head to Summerlin to drive around a bit, then get in a poker session at Red Rock. The highlight of the session was when two guys were all in and a third guy said "I know I have the best f**king hand right now," and folded. The flop came out rag-King-King and the guy exploded! He threw something across the table and unleashed a litany of f-bombs. Yes - it seems that he folded K-K. He not only would have won a huge pot, but also would have won a high hand bonus of over $500! The mood at the table abruptly changed, and not having fun or success there anyway, I asked for a table change.


The table change seemed to be for the better. The action was not quite so wild, and I actually picked up some cards and won a few hands. Unfortunately, I ran Kings into Aces and lost most of my buy in. I shoved the rest with A-J vs K-Q and lost, deciding at that point to end my poker for the trip and play some slots to relax.

After a little fun, I headed to Giordano's Pizza near Red Rock. I have known grrouchie for some time (after all, he was the presumed Exalted Grand Poobah of the TBC Inner Circle before it was "gifted" to me!), but had yet to meet his wife, so I invited grrouchie and his family out for pizza. His wife, being a good ol' Chicago gal, chose Giordano's. We met out at the crowded restaurant and shared great pizza and stories about ourselves, relationships, football, Chicago, poker, TBC ...

After a ton o' fun, I needed to start inching my way to the airport. We said our goodbyes and I called TBC to see if he needed one last ride before I returned my rental car. I picked him up at the Nugget, drove him to the Stratosphere, said goodbye, and headed toward the airport to return my rental car and actually get there EARLY this time for my 12:15am flight. The only problem I had going home was my final leg of the trip. I had boarded my plane at O'Hare to hear, right before take off "We have a minor maintenance issue." That issue could have caused our plane to not stop before hitting the end of the runway at the end of the flight, so we were delayed three hours while American Airlines got another plane. In the meantime, props to them for setting up a free lunch for us at the gate to ease the pain of the delay.

And speaking of pain, I got home early Saturday afternoon to see my dog, Fredo, who had undergone canine ACL surgery while I was gone. He was looking pretty good, but man -- the old sockroll took a hit with that surgery!

Back home, which felt good, and looking forward to some charity games poker the next weekend, which is now tomorrow. Thanks for reading!