Vegas June 2010 (WSOP)

Days 1 and 2

Last Updated: 2010-06-12 02:28:48

The drive out was pretty uneventful. We did hit some construction traffic in Colorado in Glenwood Canyon where they were doing some resurfacing work and that cost us about half an hour but other than that it was an easy drive.

We checked in at the Rio for our first night only, and wow what a room we got. Since we were only one night and they had it available, the woman who checked us in gave us a free upgrade and the room was basically an apartment. Looking at the floor plan they have to post it was a double sized room. The bathroom was at least as big as the bathroom in our house, in fact I'd say it's fair to say I've stayed in hotel rooms not as big as this bathroom. The bedroom was huge, it also had a living room, a foyer with a half-bath and one more good size room that had a wet bar. Oh, and it was on the end of a curved building and had a 180 degree view on the mountain side. Had we been on the other end of the building we would have had an end-to-end strip view...

Cody had met us at the front desk as we were checking in because we had an air conditioner he had left behind in Colorado for him. After giving that to him, we went to check out the goings-on at the WSOP. The star-studded $10k 2-7 triple draw tournament was down to 16 players, we walked up just in time to see Barry Greenstein bust out. From everything I've heard this is one of the "in" games with many of the big-time pros, but it seems to me it's more of a gamblers game than most poker varieties. Not a lot of fun to watch tho since you don't have a flop so you can't do a lot of speculating.

And that was it for day one. We were beat from the long drive and decided to just go to bed.

So on to Friday and the much anticipated Omaha 8/b tournament. This was the main reason we left Colorado two days early was to play in this tournament. Checked out of Rio, checked in at Paris, went to the bank and went to Binions to buy in. Alas they only start buyins 2 hrs before the tournament starts and this was about 4 hrs before. So we headed over to Spice Market - the buffet at Planet Hollywood that we hadn't been to since PH was still Alladin (probably about 8 owners ago...). It was OK, I'd eat there again but wouldn't go out of my way.

Then back to Binions for the tournament.

15,000 starting chips and 30 minute rounds. Breaks every 3rd round, first level is 25-50 blinds. Cody was first out, he had built up a decent stack so I don't know what happened to him. Joann as out not long after him, she just was card dead at a very loose, aggressive table and on her few playable hands she couldn't catch flops.

Things went pretty well for me however. I played very tight, played my good hands very aggressively and sometimes got paid for them. In the end, tho, there are only three hands that were interesting and two of them didn't go well for me. Well, first off, I'll say that A-4-X-X is not a hand I generally like to play but will occastionally throw some chips in if the ace is suited. Every time I had A-4 today (and I played all but one of them) I flopped 2-3-X and most of them with a 3rd low card. The only one I didn't play was because I was second to act and didn't want to have to decide whether or not to call a pot bet but A) wouldn't have had to; B) flopped nut low w/ nut flush draw.

So the first big hand for me was with blinds getting on the big side I called a pot-sized bet from a somewhat loose aggressive player with A-2-3-6 w/ suited A in the big blind. Flop came A-4-6. I checked my monster because the other guy almost always made continuation bets but this time he didn't oblige. Turn was a K, now I bet about 3/4 of the pot and he called. River was a 10, possibly filling up a straight. I immediately shoved and the other guy went in the tank. He agonized for quite a while convinced his high was good, but in the end decided he at best was calling most of his stack off just to get half a pot and he folded claiming a strong two-pair. I showed the 2-3 and mucked the other two.

So I worked my way to about 40K with the average stack about 20K so I'm in extremely good shape when I pick up A-2-3-4 with suited A. I make a pot sized bet and get called by one player who about 20 minutes ago I had texted Joann was not a very good 8/b player. Flop comes 7-3-10. He bets, I call my bottom pair/nut low draw. Check-check on a turn of a K, river is a 6. All the chips go in (I can't fold now w/ a nut low) and he turns over A-2-4-5...AAUGH!

So let me lay this out for those it's not obvious to. He had 4 outs to quarter me and he hit one. Anything but a 6 on the river gets me half, 3/4 or all of the pot. If any card bigger than 6 falls my pair of 3s hold up and I scoop and if any 3 falls I scoop. If any A, 2 or 4 falls I quarter him (I have nut low and two pair in any of those cases, he just has nut low) and if any 5 comes that's the only card that splits the pot. Instead, the 6 gives him the only straight he can hit and we tie the nut low.

Hmmmm...ok I missed something, he had 7 outs to quarter me. The 5 gives him a better pair than my paltry 3s. OK, but still the odds were way, way in my favor...

We get a dinner break so we go have a burger at the cafe in Binions. Barely got back with a minute and a half to spare.

So I'm down around 27k w/ blinds now at 1000/2000 and 1500/3000 coming soon. I win a pot or two but also lose some chips here and there through the rest of that round and the next and by the time blinds are 2000/4000 I'm down in the low 20's. Can't call raises in my small or big blind so eventually I get down to 18,000 chips so not even 5X big blind. At that point I'm looking for any hand that has any kind of potential at all and I end up shoving in w/3-4-Q-J. Not great but at least has possibilities at both ends.

I get an over the top from A-A-K-K. Actually that's the kind of hand I'm hoping for because I'm told the board will have 3 low cards 63% of the time by the river and I have the only low possible. And I get a good flop - 3-7-8. So I have a million outs to catch a low and even 5 outs twice to scoop but it was not to be as he got 8 on the turn and 10 on the river to bust me out.

So I finished 35 out of 143, outlasted 3/4 of the field and except for one unlucky hand I probably would have gotten to the money. I came away pretty frustrated partly because of the bad luck and partly because it came at the hands of someone who wasn't a very good player...I probably got HIM into the money...

So Joann and I head back to the hotel and decide to have supper at the buffet at Paris just two hours after dinner at Binions. Hmmmm....any Hobbits out there? Is it dinner then supper, or supper then dinner? I forget.

OK I'm going to digress for a second here. Ever notice how sometimes a certain part of a book or a movie that is forgettable to most people will just stick with you? Well way, way back in my younger days when I read Lord of the Rings for some reason one thing that just stuck in my head was an amusing little aside where they discussed the many meals that Hobbits eat in a day (breakfast, "after breakfast", "elevensies", etc...). For some reason that really amused me. And it made my day when I saw in the extended DVDs of LotR that they included a much shorter chat on the subject in one of the movies (apparently Mr Jackson was a little amused by it too, considering how much of the books he had to leave out to keep the movies reasonable). But apparently it wasn't memorable to very many of my friends because nobody ever gets the reference when I make one.

There, isn't my little Hobbit reference funny now? Sigh, I didn't think so....

Anyway, so we leave the buffet disgustingly stuffed from two dinners in two hours (it was free, by the way, they're now doing 24 hrs of buffets at any Harrah's owned hotel for just $34.95, a flat out bargain! Our 24 hrs started with lunch at Spice Market) we decided to walk over to City Center and walk through it for the first time (impressive!) to try and work off at least a few of the calories. It wasn't enough, I'm still stuffed about 3.5 hrs later.

So we need to get to a buffet by 11:30 tomorrow for free brunch. I may not have a BLOG entry tomorrow, if I do it will he short because it's date night so I probably won't have much to talk about aside from maybe a review of "Love" and the dinner at the steakhouse (name escapes me) at Mirage.

Then Sunday it will be Deep Stack at the Venetian.