Vegas November 2019

Day 1 - Drive, Aria 7pm

Last Updated: 2019-11-22 12:54:50

Before I went to bed the night before the trip Joann showed me a news item that Vail Pass had just been closed due to accidents in icy conditions. For my friends that don't live in Colorado, if you're heading west on I-70 and they close Vail Pass there is no such thing as a decent alternate route. Hundreds of miles...

But when I woke up Thursday morning cotrip.org said it was back open. At the house we had some overnight precipitation and my driveway was pretty icy but the roads were just wet. Apparently I got out just in time because I heard after I left the roads in general turned into a bit of a skating rink in the area and just before I started typing this up the next morning Joann messaged me a picture of the back porch with what looked like several inches of new snow from overnight.

For me tho it was just wet through Colorado. Rained pretty good on the other side of the pass and the roads are rutted in some long stretches so hydroplaning was an issue at times, but temps upper 30s to low 40s so no snow or ice and once I got to Utah it cleared up. I only hit a little more rain on I-15 once I turned south.

Made all my usual stops for food and gas including a late lunch at In-N-Out just outside of St George, Utah (a year from now this will start to lose it's luster since they'll finally be open in the Denver area, woo hoo!!!!) and then a stop at Total Wine since gin is cheaper here and I need to stock up (I left us just short of points to maintain our "budding alchoholic" status for next year, but we still got 5 weeks!) and on to Park MGM to check in.

Had some time to kill and since I hadn't eaten in like four whole hours I grabbed a couple of slices while I waited for the 7pm. Killed some more time taking pictures of the holiday decorations in the Aria lobby for Joann and then finally it was time for some poker.

Started out good! I believe it was 100/200 blinds with no ante yet and I made it 500 or 600 to go with AK offsuit with the prettiest card in the deck. I believe I got two callers.

Flop came K-Q-7 all spades, so top pair/nut flush draw. I lead out for 1100 (about 2/3 pot) and next to act makes it 3000 to go. Other guy folds, I don't think too hard before calling. Given I only had 6800 behind I think I'm committed to the hand and arguably I should have just stuck it in here...but as it turned out it worked out well for me.

Turn is a blank, I check and he makes it 5000 to go. I took some time to think about it. In the end my worst case is 7-9 outs (say he has a set or a made flush already) but I could be ahead and I could be freerolling if he also has A-K. So when you add it all up I think getting a little better than 2:1 odds I have to get it all in here. On the money bubble maybe I can find a fold, but not at this point in the tournament.

I stick it in, he hates the call and rolls over K-J off. He misses his two outer (jack of spades no good) and I double up after starting with close to a starting stack to about 24,000.

Take another 3K off the same guy a few hands later with AJ vs his AT on an ace high flop. I raised pre-, led out on flop and blank turn, decided to check the blank river - I think exactly AT and maybe A9 are the only hands I beat that call me on a river bet. Any worse ace that didn't hit two pair on the mostly low board (Q and 8 for sure, other two 5 or smaller) probably folds so I think betting that river usually won't go well for me ... but there's definitely an argument I missed a bet on the end, given the action AK is unlikely ... and just like that I'm in pretty good shape!

I was kind of stuck in neutral for the next 45 minutes or so, but then things turned south.

AQ on an A-K-X rainbow flop, I end up doubling up someone who had pocket kings and lose about 2/3 of my stack. Ouch. That left me with 8700, after blinds and antes it was 7900 going into the first break.

First and last break for me...

55 buyins, 31 left paying 6 places is the final tally.

So I'm a hair under 20 big blinds, woman next to me limps under the gun and I look down at AQ off. I can't fold it, I don't want to make a normal raise and see a flop and have to play out of position so I stick it in. It folds around to the big blind who had a decent size stack, he quickly calls. UTG quickly folds, he rolls over A-7 suited, A-Q holds up and I'm back over 16K

20 minutes later the woman had busted, tables got broken up and a new short stack sits in that spot. I'm back down around 12,500. "New" player is UTG and shoves his just over 10K stack and I can't get my chips in fast enough after looking down at QQ.

Folds around to now monster stack in the small blind, same guy I had doubled AQ vs KK and he asks for a count but doesn't even let the dealer finish counting before figuring it out and making the call. He rolls over AK, I think UTG had A-7 suited in clubs (could have been 8 or 9).

Flop comes J-T-X, monster stacks asks for a queen, queen on the river. I lose with top set to a straight and I'm out with 24 left.

What can you do...

So after a good night sleep, probably the best sleep I've gotten since we got the cat last weekend (a black 9-year old rescue in case you haven't seen Joann's posts on FB) since he likes to get noisy between 2 and 3 am, I've got to finish this up and get going because...

Seniors event at the WSOP Circuit event at Planet Hollywood today! $250 buyin and as usual a nice early 10am start for us old folk.