Vegas June 2012 (WSOP)

Day 4 - Shopping, Aria

Last Updated: 2012-06-17 10:26:45

Today was a long day, but this will be a somewhat short entry.

Wasn't up too late the night before so didn't exactly sleep in. Finished packing and checked out of Luxor, checked into Aria. The rooms at Aria are great, as soon as you walked in it screamed class. I would definitely recommend staying here to anyone.

It was supposed to just be a day of hanging out, we went to the Bellagio Buffet for champagne brunch and stuffed ourselves. I say it over and over, best buffet on the planet. Still, tho, it's not exactly the cheapest buffet on the planet and jacking up the price for Saturday as well as Sunday using Father's Day as an excuse was uncalled for - especially since it was the same food they always serve. I didn't see any Father's Day "special" items. But that's a minor complaint, the food was excellent as always.

Then it was on to the outlets and we wandered around for a couple of hours and came away with nothing but a cheap hoodie since I left all of mine at home. Joann didn't find anything at Coach, I liked a jacket at Spyder but they didn't have the color I wanted in my size.

So back to Aria to explore a little, I showed Joann where the pool is and we figured out where the gym is. Yes, we actually DO plan to work off some of the food we're going to eat this week. We'll see how that works out...

After that I bought into the Aria 7:00 after all.

It started out like the previous night began. I had very few cards, and as a result I built up the image of the tightest player on the planet.

Unlike the previous night I did pick up some pocket pairs, but every flop came with at least one over card. Thanks to my tight-as-a-drum image my c-bets were successful 100% of the time so I managed to stay around starting stack for a long time with really not a whole lot of cards. Actually as I think about it I believe that 100% of my post-flop bets were successful, I even threw in a few semi-bluffs here and there with draws and I don't remember having to give up a single one of them. Still, tho, the pots I won were few and far between and I just could not pick up a monster or hit a flop really hard for quite a while.

I don't think there is anything more frustrating to me than sitting around a poker table with really bad poker players and not getting any cards to take their chips with!

But I did finally get one guy. Folks, here's a lesson about paying attention to how people are playing....

So I'm under the gun and I look down at pocket aces. To this point, for close to three hours of poker I have not once limped to open a pot. But I know two things: 1) there is maybe one person at the table who might have been paying enough attention to realize this other than me; 2) there are at least 3 people at the table who consider limped pots invitations to raise and one of them is in the big blind.

So I limp. I get three callers and the big blind raises out for somewhere between 1/3-1/2 my stack.

Hehe. I call.

Flop 9-6-6, BB shoves, I call, he turns over pocket 5's. He gets no help and I more than double up. Our table broke up after the hand and the guy actually came over and said he assumed I couldn't be very strong after limping into the pot. I just smiled and nodded...

So over to my new table and right off the bat I started picking up cards. Pocket kings, raise out, flop an ace, c-bet anyway and take down the pot (sometimes being the new guy is almost as good as having a reputation to exploit since nobody knows how you play). Pick up kings again, raise again, one customer again, ace in the door! Oh but what's that? A king underneath it? About time!

Alas I can't get another chip out of the other guy. And this was a guy who I would later see call an all-in with nothing but a gutshot against top-pair/top-kicker and pick up runner-runner two pair and win the pot...but I can't get any more chips out of him! Argh!

So then a stretch of not many playable hands, but that's OK 'cause I got plenty of chips now.

At the other end of the table we have "all-in guy". All-in guy had lost a big pot when I was coming over to the table and I didn't see the hand but I know he was unhappy. Well he proceeds to start shoving almost every pot that's only been limped around to him, especially in the blinds or on the button. Clearly has a wide range, but hit a couple of hands (like pocket 6's holding up against A-K) and became the chip leader at the table.

Then he started playing poker again, but he then was the victim of the aforementioned two pair and oh he was NOT a happy camper. And then he was back to the all-in every 5th hand act...

So I'm still fairly comfortable with my chip stack and I look down at K-Q suited and raise out to 5000 w/ blinds at 800/1600 (a minor over-bet but I'm often too lazy to count out a 3XBB raise when it's borderline) and all-in guy shoves AGAIN.

Well having seen very few people actually look him up, and thinking that I'm getting about 2-1 on my money (turned out he had a few 1000 chips I couldn't see), AND having seen him turn over hands K-Q plays well against the few times he has been looked up I decide to make the call.

Aces.

Of course he has aces. What else did I expect?

Well I did flop a flush draw but no help on the turn and river and I was down to a little over 5 big blinds about 12 from the money.

I did crack aces with fours to double up one more time before I was done, but eventually I shoved with Q-J of diamonds and got called by a fairly tight player with just Kd-Qc.

Flop 3 diamonds!!!

River another diamond. Ugh. I busted out 18th with 15 paying around 1:30 AM. So close...

Since we hadn't eaten since brunch we decided to head over to our new fave 24-hr restaurant at Planet Hollywood. It's called planet dailies, the service is always very slow late at night but the food is always very good. Then I tried to type this up, got through one sentence before falling asleep and decided to type it up in the morning.

Today I plan on playing at Aria again in the 1:00, wish me luck!