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Vegas: The Heat Is On

Vegas Bankroll: $3,830
+/- on day: +$190
+/- for trip: -$170

The heat is on – not a reference to Glenn Frey’s 1980’s hit, nor to my bankroll (though that’s not exactly cool), but a reflection of the weather here in Las Vegas. Yes, of course it’s typically hot, reaching about 105 degrees yesterday, but the forecasters are saying next week it will hit a stunning 115 degrees! That’s just two degrees off the Vegas record. Phew! Not that you want to wander about outside for hours on end here, but just ten minutes out in something like 115 degrees and I for one would look like a lobster that has met its untimely end in a restaurant kitchen. In fact, I don’t think there is a sun cream factor in existance that could save me from turning into a giant blister if I dared sit by the pool.

So that probably means I will have to play more poker instead. What a shame! I woke this morning feeling much better after my days of wobbliness (okay, no such word but I like it) and bouyed by a $190 win yesterday, more pleasing because I was down to $100 and topped up again to $200 before finishing on $490.

It was a strange session at the MGM, where I spent the first three hours slowly bleeding down to that $100. I did not play particularly well in that time, particularly on one hand which I don’t think I could have played any worse. I joined three others in calling a small raise to $7 (that’s a tiny raise out here on a $2 big blind) after I found K-J spades. The flop came K-10-5 two spades and I called when the original raiser bet out $20. He checked the turn (a rag) and god knows why but I checked behind him. The river was an A hearts and he bet out again and I folded. This hand wins me the t*sser of the week award.

My drip down to $100 was also not helped by raising under the gun with J-J to be met by four (yes four!) callers. Two overs on the flop (Q and A)- I continue bet, am raised and that raise gets a caller before I muck. So a top up back to $200 means I am in for $300 and getting seemingly nowhere again.

But then I hit a little rush period – including turning a K-high straight flush (nice!) with K-Q diamonds, the nut spade flush a little later, a set of jacks and pocket kings that held up for only the second time this week when I got action.

I was reading Snoopy’s excellent post about his recent cash game session in Vegas, and Alex Martin’s comment on there that said: “Number one rule of poker: if the going gets tough, you get going.” This is precisely what I had NOT done on my two significant losing sessions since being here, and I resolved to changed my ways. So when, at $200 or so uplast night, my nemesis from the night before sat at the table, soon joined by a local who seemed to me would have been more at home on at least the $2-$5 tables, I called it a day and left. If only I had done that those two other times and my bankroll would be showing a healthy profit now rather than the rather disappointing small negative of about -4%.

I have four days left to try and make a big positive before putting my working brain in gear in preparation for the marathon that will be blogging the WSOP Main Event. I’ll just keep repeating that phrase in my head.

Vegas: Wobbly legs, wobbly poker

Vegas Bankroll: $3,640
+/- on day: -$500
+/- for trip: -$360

Regular readers will recall that when I arrived in Vegas on Monday afternoon I was feeling knackered (no surprise), but by Tuesday I was feeling ill, very sick and nauseous. By Wednesday it had subsided a little, and I put it down to the long flight, but yesterday (Thurs) it came across me in waves again. I was not physically sick, but was shaky and felt occasional flushes.

Sadly those were the only flushes I made in a poor session that saw me lose two-and-a-half buy ins at $1-$2 NL. How I was feeling did not help, but I am not going to make that an excuse. I will keep session notes brief because I need to get to the Rio to pick up my media credentials so I can have a nosey around the WSOP this afternoon.

I hold K-K – put in standard raise (which is normally called by at least one player) – folded by everyone.

Three hands later, I get K-K again – standard raise, everyone folds

30 minutes later – I hold A-A, one limper ahead of me, I raise by standard amount, and he and the blinds fold!!! For what was until then a very loose table this was incredible, and meant that for three monsters I made the princely sum of $11. As I say, the table had been loose enough and I’d had been mixing it up, so I think it was just very bad luck that nobody gave me action.

Trouble is, when I did get some action later, it did for my stack:

I get dealt K-K again: Standard raise, get one caller. At last, some action! Flop comes J-10-5 two clubs. This was a scary board with flush and straight drawing cards, I bet enough but the other guy calls. Turn is a rag, again I bet he calls. River is a rag, and I have to assume he is on maybe A-J or K-J (which would be poor) or has missed his draw. I reckoned if had flopped a set he would have pushed me earlier simply because of the drawing possibilities on board. So I bet out again and now he re-raises, putting me all in. I only have a small bit left behind and can not fold with the size of the pot – and, yes, he had hit his set of fives on the flop. He took my stack, so I guess he played the hand well and I did not.

Rebought, and towards the end of the session, after I had been card dead for what seemed like an absolute age, I ran Q-Q into A-A. I was really annoyed with myself for not getting away from the hand, as I had done earlier in the evening when I managed to lay down Q-Q pre-flop to another A-A. Finally, with only a small stack left, I push with K-Q when the flop comes 10-Q-K for two pair – and run into A-J for my opponent’s flopped nut-straight!

So that was the story of the session: I got no action on half of my big hands – the other half I got action and was outdrawn or ran into a monster.

Slow playing the biggies pre-flop is not an option here because you will suddenly find yourself facing eight players on the flop, so I don’t think I could do anything about that part of the evening, but a better player would would have either thrown away his K-K against that flopped set, or got rid of the queens a second time against aces.

So the week is not exactly going brilliantly so far, and I feel a bit like I have been bashing my head against a brick wall. Yet despite that we are just 7% or so down on the bankroll, which is far from disasterous, and there is time left to turn things around. Maybe a change of scenere will do me good, so I may head off later to play in another room.

And at some stage I will take some piccies to provide some colour reporting from the trip.

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