Vegas day 1

So myself and tubasteve got into monte carlo in las vegas yesterday afternoon. Soon after we got in, I got a call from MikeCH, a friend and 2+2er, saying that he was finishing up a 15 hour session at the bellagio, and to come over to talk 5/10 staking. I got to the bellagio and mike threw me my stake in the form of a 5,000 dollar chip for the next few days. He told me to not give the nits action, and I should be the best player at the tables, and goood luck.

Well, being that I was pretty tired from traveling, I didn't want to test the waters at 5/10 just yet. Nearly all of my Las Vegas experience in live cash games lies in 2/5nl, with some 1/2-1/3 and VERY little 5/10. We headed back to the hotel for a nap and to just rest up and watch the giants/packers game (God what a terrible game, ONE TIME GREEN BAY CMON). Afterwards, Owen (Jshuttlesworth), who just moved out to las vegas this month, called and we met up to walk around and grab dinner while Steve remained passed out in the hotel room. We had a good talk and a decent meal at the cafe downstairs in monte carlo, and of course i lost the flip for the bill because i never win flips apparently. All the same, an enjoyable re-entry to one of my favorite cities.

Today, I woke up around 1030 am local time (130pm body time) to Steve telling me about his +3.5 stack 1/2 session downstairs while i was asleep. After we talked and finally decided to get out of our respective beds (not the same one, sorry to dissapoint all of my filthy readers), we headed down to eat before walking down to caesars to check out some donkament information, as we both figured we may as well try to play one live tournament while we're here, and Caesar's apparently has the best structures (and similarly ludicrous 20-25% rake that every live tournament has). To this day, I've never seen worse poker players than I've seen in live tournaments specifically.

We decided on the 7pm 150 buy in nightly multi, and since it was around 230 at this point, we figured we'd start with a bellagio cash session.

I changed in my 1k bellagio chip for a rack and sat at the "must move" 5/10nl game while steve decided to play some 4-8 limit hold em.

Needless to say as with most any live poker game, the players were nothing to write home about. I was easily the best player at either the "must move" or the main game that I was moved to shortly thereafter. As with any live games, people limp and call too much and dont raise and fold nearly enough, so it makes for an interesting time in these 5/10 games where some people realize maybe aggression is the way to go, but have no idea how to implement it ever.

I lost nearly have a stack on an early bluff where, in a limped pot on a board of A2dAdxA when I bluffed every street into trips then rivered quads. I had a good feel for this situation and reasoned that this player seemed capable of folding everything but maybe TT/JJ and quads. obviously, even though the draw bricked and i felt like i had it read it, it didn't work out when i had to fold to his shove and he showed me AQ.

I rebought to full and not much went on after that until moving to the main game (I did repop a straddle, got 2 callers, flopped TP on a weird monotone board and took it down with a turn bet when the flop checked through for a nice medium sized pot). The main game was much jucier at the time of my moving then the must move. there were a couple seemingly huge live ones that I couldn't wait to get into pots with. My wish came true when one particular idiot was steaming after people hit flush draws in 2 big pots vs him, even when he grossly over bets the pot for fear of the draw, and insta-stacks off on the river when the draw gets there. Anyways, the donk opens to 50 and i repop right behind him to 200 with AhKh. It folds back to him and he quickly calls. The flop comes J83 and he check/calls my continuation bet. The turn brings the Kd, giving me top pair top kicker and putting out a ton of draws. Donk open james into me for like 450. I go into the tank for not too long before deciding that he probably has top pair and is afraid of all the new draws, or picked up some type of combo draw himself and got excited. After short deliberation, I called, and the river was a seemingly ugly offsuit queen, but villain flipped up JTdd for 2nd pair and a busted running flush draw and my hand is good! That was pretty much the biggest pot I played. A lot of other ones just involved me playing small ball aggressive poker and picking up a lot of small pots which adds up nicely in the end. After all, the goal of no limit hold em cash games is to get those blinds! I finished the session up 1 stack, and was feeling a bit tired while Steve said he was getting a bit bored with limit. We decided to take a break and rack up for a while and see what was going on.

We came back to the hotel and after some down time, made our way back to Caesar's for the 150 tournament at 7pm tonight. Live donkaments are rigged. I simply, as always in live tournaments, could get nothing going. play small ball lag poker, making it a TAG game and just trying to pick up hands, and rely on people continuously playing awfully (very reliable assumption in live poker in my experience)....neither style worked, and I just couldn't pick up hands when I needed to. I still managed to read into people's souls, where I folded AQ and 99 to single raises in front of me and was right both times. Unfortunately, soul reading isn't enough and with the tournament structures, it was an early exit for me when I jammed 10bb on the button over a limper with T9s at t200/ante25 and the small blind put it all in behind with AJs and held. good game, F U live tournaments!

Steve was still in, so I decided to head to see if Owen was still playing at bellagio. After getting a text from him saying that he was going clubbing, I saw a 3 card poker table on the way out of the Caesar's casino and decided to take a seat. I mean hey, if I can't make money playing the game I've played for all of my personal funds for years, I may as well try my hand at something that requires absolutely no skill. Apparently, I was right again. I bought in for 100 and lost it. I bought in for another 100, and placing the 2x 15 dollar bets every hand, was ground down to my last 20 dollars of the 200 invested on 2 occasions. On the second, I was dealt three sixes. Shipit! For those of you that don't know 3 card poker, you play against the dealer and/or against your own hand strength (aka making a pair or better). I had both bets placed, and got paid 30:1 on my trips and 4(?):1 on my beating the dealer with trips. I finished my short three card session +500ish. I'm changing professions....

My back was in extreme pain for most of the afternoon and evening, so I came back after that to just try and rest up for tomorrow. The rest of the week is intended for lots of 5/10nl at the bellagio, and seeing the people I know out here and perhaps one of the many famous vegas shows as well. I'll probably try and keep up with daily reports, though if not, expect some variation of further reporting soon. That's about it for now, thanks for reading!