Las Vegas Trip Report for June 2018 - Part II

I used Monday of my trip to sleep in and catch a late lunch at ... where else but ...

Some family and friends had been having a discussion about hamburger joints. We all seemed to pretty much agree that the french fries at In N Out are below par, so none for me. Just the magical double-double animal style. I attempted to eat at an outside table, but then discovered that the hot Las Vegas sun beating down on an aggregate seat doesn't go well with nylon shorts - ouch!

I had plans to play in the Tag Team tournament at Golden Nugget that evening, so I headed to Bally's for a quick afternoon session. It was unremarkable as I lost part of a buy in. Late in the afternoon, my tag team partner, Rob, picked me up so that we could register at the Nugget. The trip there was pretty humorous. There was construction in the downtown area, so Rob was depending on navigation from his phone via the Waze navigation system. Unfortunately, it was if the system was stoned. It kept directing us in contradictory ways, then kept telling Rob to go south on Las Vegas Blvd when we knew we had to go north. I thought Rob was going to throw his phone out of his car!

We got to the Nugget, registered, and then made some small talk with Pokerkraut, who was also playing in the tag team event, a few industry people that Rob knew, and watched vlogger Andrew Neeme playing in an event broadcast via Twitch.

Then, it was time to start. Having not played many tournaments in the past few years, I knew that I would be the weak part of the team. I decided I needed to focus quite a bit. Rob started off ...

"I'd better double up fast before lightning screws this up"

And then this blog's hero took over in the second level:

"I'll shove with Q-10 if it is sooted"

I actually won some hands in the second level. Rob was pretty much card dead in levels one and three. Looking back, I probably pissed away too many chips in level four and had to shove a few times to keep the stack from getting too low. Toward the beginning of the level, I had A-K but got wary from the big raise of another player. I was tempted to monkey shove, but decided to just call. Good thing as the player who raised had pocket Aces! Anyway, when Rob got to level five he was waiting to shove. He did so with K-J and looked like he was home free, but the last player to act had pocket Jacks. It was kind of a fun tournament to play, but with few chips and a poor structure, it was really just more for fun.

Afterward, Rob dropped me off at MGM, one of my usual honey holes. Not this night. The guy next to me was a friendly guy from Ireland. And he was quite drunk. I saw him butcher several hands and got lucky with a few. I raised with A-J and got a few callers, including my new friend. The flop was a Jack high rainbow board, so a nice continuation bet was in order. Everyone but Ireland folded. He decided to re-raise. Having seen his previous poor play, I decided to shove with top-top. I was shocked to see that he flopped a set of deuces, therefore felting me in the first twenty minutes there. I just didn't seem to be feeling it, so I headed to Earl of Sandwich to decide what to do. One more session before I call it a night, I thought, so I walked down to Planet Hollywood and got on the $1/2 list there. It was a great decision.

A few players had big stacks and were aggressive, so I played a little on the cautious side. Then the time to strike came. I called a $12 raise with A-Q. Several players called and when it got to the big blind, he raised to $35. Everyone called including me. The flop: Q-2-2! I figured I was ahead of everyone except maybe the big raiser. Surprisingly, another player pushed all in. Figuring it unlikely that someone had a deuce, I also shoved. Everyone else, including the big raiser, folded. The flop and river were bricks, and the guy who shoved asked me "Do you have a deuce?" I thought I was dead then -- to Aces or Kings. I answered "no," and he turned over POCKET 6s! I scooped a really nice pot!

The table captain has position on me, so I was careful not to start gifting him chips. In one hand a few players limped in, so I decided to do the same with A-6 sooted. After the flop I had four cards to the flush. It checked around to the turn, which was a brick. Everyone checked again. The river gave me the nut flush. The pot was only about $10. I decided to raise to $15 to see what would happen. The table captain thought it was a weak attempt to steal (ha ha!) and he re-raised me to $40. Now the tough part was deciding how much to raise to insure a call. I raised to $115, hoping it looked like a raise out of frustration that might elicit an all in. The player thought for a minute and then called. He was pissed to see the hand cost him $115 when he could have just called for $15. Good times! I cashed out a nice profit that more than made up for the day's previous losses. It was time to head back to Gold Coast and prepare to check out Tuesday morning for what looked to be a busy day.

On Tuesday morning I walked over to the Palms to try the  new A.Y.C.E. buffet. it was ... okay. I then checked out of Gold Coast and grabbed a Lyft to Bally's. I was able to check in early to one of the recently remodeled Jubilee rooms. I kind of liked it, but I also like the color red:

I played a quick session at Bally's and lost a few bucks, and then was picked up by Stump (Chris).  The plan for the afternoon: Chris had offered to drive Flushhdraw (Jim) to an office for a medical procedure where he would be knocked out. I volunteered to go along, saying that while Jim was getting worked on, Chris and I could hit a bar and swig brews, then see who could ralph on Jim first. My wife heard this and thought it was totally disgusting. Well ... okay! The fun really began when Chris and I picked up Jim. Three guys cruising in Las Vegas taking shit to each other. It was classic! I caught a ton of crap for what I was wearing. As much as I hammered Jim, Chris hammered me for my choice of  clothes. They were both dressed in black on black. This was my outfit:

Chris got a woody when he saw me in this!

It turned out that Jim didn't go under, but he was thankful for the assistance anyway. We drove to Sam's Town, registered for the 7pm tournament, and headed to the Sports Bar for food (thank you for taking care of dinner, Jim!), conversation and adult beverages. Rob decided to come and play with us, and then Mike Ritze joined us also. We had five of the 50 runners. Someone would have to cash, right? Um ... wrong. Surprisingly, I lasted longest (and the other muthas refused to pay me off for the last longer bet we should have made!), but we all went out waaaay too soon. While the tournament was going on we were joined by some other poker peeps: Alicia Chang, WASHDUDE, Jason Corlew and Adrianna (nice to meet you, Jason and Adriana!). Fun night!

Rob gave Mike and I a ride back to the Strip, and we got in one more session at Planet Hollywood. I carved out a win at PH and was beginning to wonder if the poker gods forgot who I was. They seemed to befriend me on this trip instead of crapping on me like they usually do. By the end of the trip, I figured out what was happening.

Coming in part III: Run good continues at Bally's and Wynn and a wild Trooper Thursday

Thanks for reading!