Vegas November 2018

Day 1 - drive, poker

Last Updated: 2018-11-16 12:03:09

Good drive out, hit absolutely no traffic anywhere. Not even here in Vegas, it looks like they made a ton of progress on the I-15 construction getting into town so the only backup I saw was the on-ramp for US-93 off of I-15 and I got to drive right around that. The last few times we drove in during the daytime, at roughly the same time, that area was massively backed up and stop-and-go from there to the strip (at least a few miles). The worst thing that happened was I got behind a truck doing about 20 MPH for about half a mile in a spot where we were briefly down to one lane. One thing I see more and more in construction zones is that CO and UT have gotten really good about not dropping speed limits in the spots where there isn't actual work going on so most of the time you even get to fly through what little construction there is.

Breakfast at Starbucks in Avon, CO and In-N-Out for lunch in Washington, UT. That's the current "drive to Vegas" itinerary, and even if we drive out after work the itinerary doesn't change. Just substitute "dinner" and "midnight snack" for breakfast and lunch respectively. :-)

Stopped at Spinetti's Gambling supplies to pick up a decoration for the basement wall (they're right behind Gamblers General Store, my usual haunt, but they have something GGS didn't have), hit the bank since I got into town around 2pm and on to the hotel.

The decoration is about 12 feet long, it's green, it has printing on it and it's, ahem, gambling related. It looks slightly worn. And yes I have several walls to pick from that it will fit on...still deciding which but I am leaning towards moving the TOOL poster.

Being a gold member at MGM I get to use a special line to check in at all their hotels including NYNY. It never seems too special tho, there's usually only one person working it and the normal line always seems to move well. Even tho when I got in line there was one person being helped and only one other ahead of me, I really wonder if I wouldn't have been better off in the "not-Gold or better member" line.

What they should be doing is having two people working the gold line and if it empties out they can pull people from the normal line.

But that's a pretty minor gripe, the staff at all the MGM resorts are always friendly and helpful and the guy upgraded me to a strip view room. They sent me an email a few days before the trip offering the same upgrade if I paid a few extra $$$ ahead of time. I'm already a winner!!

Tom's Urban for dinner and the first half of the Packers game and it was on to Aria for tournament number one.

That went about as well for me as the second half went for the packers. I had absolutely no cards.

After getting down about 1/3 of my 12k starting stack by late in the second round I called with a few limps ahead of me with AT suited in hearts.

Flop came Q-9-8 with two hearts. I believe first to act checked, second to act bet out for 1200 (blinds 100/200), one or two callers ahead of me. I thought about trying to take the pot right there but I decided to call.

First to act shoves a smaller stack than mine. But not a lot smaller, I will clearly be crippled if I call and lose. It folds around to me.

I decide with flush draw, straight draw and at least one over and nothing working for me anyway to that point that it's a pretty easy call. I'd already made my decision while other people were acting so I tossed out a chip as soon as it came around to me.

As it turned out I had two overs, but not as many flush outs as I thought. He had 8-6 of hearts for bottom pair, worse flush draw and bottom end of a backdoor straight. I was a 56/43 fave so the math says it was a great call.

Blank on the turn, ten on the river and I double up with his stack and all the dead money.

But that was the highlight of my poker night. I managed to eke my way through two breaks stealing pots now and then. In the first 4 hours of poker I had four wired pairs (33, 44 twice and 88), only a handful of broadway card hands (AQ once, AJ once, no AK, KQ suited once, QJ suited twice...) and not a whole lot else to work with. And a guy at the table playing about 75-80% of hands, willing to call almost any pre-flop raise if he had already come into the pot, 95% of continuation bets and 80-90% of turn bets so it was awful hard to try and steal anything if he decided to play a hand.

It was a tough spot to be in with no cards.

Won enough pots to maintain my stack tho. Into the first break at 17,900 thanks to the early double-up. Getting close to the second break and blinds at 600/1200 I'm blinding down and pick a couple of good spots to steal blinds/antes/limps and work my way up to around 19K.

Last hand going into break finally FINALLY I look down at a couple of ladies!

Perfect spot right? Just went all-in a couple of times, looks like I'm just trying to steal going into the break. I could have any two cards. But, alas, no action. Everyone folds and goes on break.

ARGH!

22,500 at that point.

First hand back I look down at an ace, looks like another good spot (blinds now 1000/1500 so I'm only 15 BB)...and I run into pocket aces. Did flop a pair with my kicker but no help on the turn or river and I'm done 25th of 77.

Given the utter lack of cards it's good I was able to stick around that long, if I could have gotten a double off those queens it could have changed everything.

Drowned my sorrows in some beer and pizza at Sirocco's and hit the sack.

Friday is already off to a not-so-great start, the NYNY Starbucks I sit and BLOG at is out of literally everything I like to eat for breakfast. Once I polish this off I'm going to have to go in search of something small to eat. They have another Starbucks, just no seating there. And I've got a pretty sweet spot for doing this in the mornings every day when I can get "my" table so I want my morning location.

I know, I know, I'm in Vegas playing poker for most of a week and I'm bitching about Starbucks and having to wait more than 2 minutes in the check-in line. I can sort of hear Dire Straits "Millionaire Blues" in my head a little.

But I need to get something to eat, the weekend Aria tournament is 11am so I hopefully won't get another chance to eat until dinner time! I'm not a massive germophobe, but the last thing I want to do is handle food at a poker table after handling chips and cards so eating at the table is never an option for me.

Wish me luck!