VEGAS: 26th August (Poker)

Day/Night 10: Friday 26th August (Poker)

SESSION #29

Bill's Gamblin' Hall

$0.50/$1

Brought In For: $122

1:30PM-3:30PM

2 Hours

For any amateur poker player out there, who just wants a gentle start to their poker trip, I would recommend Bill's Gamblin' Hall anyday. It is centrally located slap bang in the middle of the action, it has the lowest no-limit stakes anywhere on the strip and the players are generally friendly and good-natured with very few, if any, pros in sight. 

After a 48 hour break from the game, I felt bright and fresh and ready to go for this session at Bill's. As I mentioned before, being the ultimate nit that I am, I had already decided to lock up $500 profit (of the $622 that I had made on the trip) and use the $122 "surplus" for the rest of the trip and as a stop-loss amount. I was happy to play at this friendly table and, like my very first session here at the start of my trip, found it fairly easy to read the other players.

Playing safe ABC poker and avoiding any difficult decisions for large sums, most of my profits here came from the table donk who I was able extract money from by playing bog-standard value bets. One of these hands was where I held AJ and saw the ace on the board and the other was where I held AA and made him pay a fair price to chase whatever it was he was chasing. Of course, I was happy to get back to winning ways and felt it was the boost that I needed.

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Soon after, I used my reward card for a comped all-you-can-eat buffet and decided to transfer the $20 that I would have paid, over to my poker balance to give it a further boost. As this comped meal was a result of poker playing, I considered it to be a kind of $20 live-poker rakeback payment.

Profit/Loss For Session: +$52 (plus $20 rakeback on the comped meal)

Profit/Loss For Day +$72

Profit/Loss For Trip +$694

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SESSION #30

Mirage

$1/£2

Bought In For: $194

5:30PM-6:30PM

1 Hour

Now I want to enjoy the Love show that I'm about to see and it's probably not wise to play poker just before it starts because if I lose my buy-in I just know I won't enjoy the show as much. The bad news is that I do end up losing a sum of money; the good news is that it's only $44 which still leaves me $150 to muck around with afterwards. I'm not happy, though, to donk off $50 in this hand:

Key Hand #1

I hold AK in the small blind and see Mr Good/Tight player throw in $12 from late position. I had not seen him play a single hand since sitting down but judging by his body language and the way he holds himself at the table, consider him to be quite competent. I elect to smooth call and see what the flop brings. I'm happy to see K Q x fall on the flop and equally happy to check raise his $15 up to $35 - but completely flummoxed when he goes and announces all-in! As I say, this was the first time I had seen the guy in action and he was now putting the question to me while I held top pair/top kicker. 

Maybe it was because I didn't want to end my poker trip right there with a dodgy call, but the fact that he seemed so tight and then went for out and out aggression against my check-raise had to mean he had QQ, KK or AA. He may have even had AK but I wasn't going to risk so much for the chance of getting my $50 back. 

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Luckily, I found top pair/top kicker later on and managed to recoup the loss from the above hand. But with no real cards or opportunity to weave any sort of magic I was actually quite happy to be just $44 down and to be able to fight another day with $150.

Profit/Loss For Session -$44

Profit/Loss For Day: +$28

Profit/Loss For Trip: +$650

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SESSION #31

Bally's

$1/$2

Bought In For: $150

9:30PM-10:15PM

45 Minutes

I've just seen the "Love" show and I leave the Mirage buzzing from Beatlemania. I have a choice: (1) Either  have a beer or mill around aimlessly on a lovely Friday night in Vegas safe in the knowledge that I've done a fair job at the poker tables in Vegas AND have $150 to spend at the tables tomorrow. Or (2) Go the greedy option and see if I can spin up just that little bit more - but be aware that if I lose my buy-in I'll have to force myself not to play poker tomorrow.

I go for option number 2 and the worst case scenario hits me full in the face.

Key Hand #1

It's not really going very well and the table doesn't seem to be THAT soft either. I've been playing for just over 30 minutes and I just feel stuck - not a good feeling. I look down at A 5 of clubs in early position ( I may have checked in the BB but I can't remember) and find myself sticking around for the floppydop. It comes Q 10 10 with two clubs (I think you can guess the rest). The turn gives me the nut flush and so I throw in $20 which is called by one player as the rest fold. I hope he just has the 10 but I can't really discount the full-house. Now this may sound a bit weird but I bet $20 on the river with the nut flush - more as a probe bet than anything else, and he raises it up to $60! Of course, the hand where I threw away a winning baby flush for the sake of $40 comes to mind  - and I just don't think I can fold here. He shows me the bad news - yep, Q 10 for the flopped full-house. Oh well.

Key Hand #2

I'm down to my last $70. I don't tilt easily, I really don't but I just feel like gambling with this last $70. It's not pissed-off tilt particularly (well, maybe a little) but in the context of my trip as a whole, I just want to double-up or quit. The chance comes when I announce all-in while holding two spades and see two spades arrive on the flop. I've been playing wildly since my nut-flush got beat and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the call. Even though I know I'm behind, I'm at that stage where I don't give a flying fuck whether he calls or not. He makes the call with top pair and I hope (in the true style of a fish on tilt) to hit my flush but fittingly, and deservedly for that matter, I don't get the help that I don't deserve and leave the table in ignominious fashion. And my dreams of playing any more poker in Vegas during this trip disappear in a puff of smoke right there!

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Looking back at the 8 days of poker that I had, I guess it's disappointing to end the trip on such a low. However, Key Hand #1 (above) was my only real cooler of the tour while the final hand was the only bit of bad play which was tilt-induced. When I consider the bigger picture and the good start that I had; that I was around $780 up after just 6 days - there really is no reason for me to feel downhearted and I consider the trip to be a huge success. The variety of memories that I had at all those different tables with all those different players in all those different poker rooms makes this by far the greatest experience I've had as an amateur poker player - it's the nuts baby!

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FINAL SCORE:

Profit/Loss For Session: -$150

Profit/Loss For Day: -$122

Profit For Trip: +$500

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My final two Vegas reports will just consist of how I spent my last full day in Vegas and the last morning on the Sunday. Also, as a self-confessed geekoid, I don't think my trip report would be complete without my "Top 10 Vegas Moments."