Vegas April 2011 (WSOPC)

Day 1, WSOP Circuit (part 1?)

Last Updated: 2016-03-22 12:57:05

On the poker front, I'm extremely happy with my play today. I just wish I had been rewarded for it...outside of my poker play, this was kind of a rough day...

I'm lucky if I got two hours of sleep Friday night. Went to bed about the same time I had every other night in the week leading up to the trip, but I guess the anticipation was too much. Somehow I was also wide awake on the drive to the airport, wide awake the entire plane ride and wide awake when I tried to take a nap around 2:30...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Was able to check into the IP at about 8:30am because I was willing to take a two-bed room instead of the one-bed room I had requested. Not exactly the toughest decision I made all day. But there I was with about 7.5 hours to kill. I've been looking forward to this Omaha tournament for weeks now, but the last few days I was starting to have second thoughts. I was concerned the crowd wouldn't be big enough to make it worthwhile, and I've been having more success at the hold'em tables lately online.

But with so much time to kill I decided to take the plunge and buy-in early this morning so that I wouldn't find an excuse not to play later. In hindsight I'm still glad I made that decision. After buying in, I went back to the room to get my book and then headed over to Bellagio for the buffet. Texted Joann that I couldn't decide whether to go to Bellagio or Harrahs, less than 30 seconds after sending that text Leon texted me that he wanted to meet at Bellagio's buffet on Sunday for brunch. Decision made!

I was a happy camper when I went up to the prime rib carving station and asked for an end cut, and she gave me two! But other than that I made some pretty mundane choices for food so I don't really have anything to rave about. Well, except that I walked right past a VERY long line and sat down immediately when I first got there. Sorry, it's mine and Joann's little secret for now, but if you find yourself headed to Vegas and think of it, ask us! And of course, there's the ice cream. There was actually a trace of frost in it, but believe me that didn't detract.

Then I walked 4 miles each way to the Gamblers General Store to pick up some new cards for the home-game. In the past I've been buying used casino decks for $1 apiece. Sounds like a pretty good deal, except that 1/3-1/2 of them end up being unusable out of the box, and the ones that are usable can only be used once or twice before either very ratty, very sticky, or bent. So this time I bought some more expensive cards hoping that I can get a bunch of poker nights out of each deck.

The only problem is that about 2/3 of the way there, the blister came...right on the bottom of my heel. I've been hobbling around all day ever since. When I finally get back to the room, I see myself in the mirror and quickly come to the conclusion that sun-tan lotion probably would have been a good idea before a 3 hour walk in bright sunshine today. Sigh. Not lobster territory, but enough to be annoying.

Tried to take the aforementioned nap, that didn't work out, so a little more time reading and on to Caesar's for my afternoon/evening poker activites.

When I sat down at my table, the clock said only 15 signed up for Omaha. ARGH! Very disappointing. Then, bad to worse, in spite of every other WSOP circuit tournament starting with 10,000 chips, this one only started with 5,000. Had I not bought in earlier in the day I would have left and found something else...but it was what it was...

Having said that, I really enjoyed played in it. I thought I played great, the fantastic book and a half I've read were running through my mind and I was able to put into practice a lot of the techniques I had read about. I didn't play a lot of pots, but every pot I played I played effectively. I don't think I made any bad decisions, tho there were a few good decisions I wish I hadn't made. 10-10-x-x singled suited hand on a flop of 10-J-Q. You just can't play bottom set with a pot bet and a call in front of you, but it really sucked when the rest of the hand was checked down and the Q came on the river to give me an underfull that turned out to be good.

So while I wasn't happy about the size of the tournament and I didn't enjoy grinding a short stack most of the afternoon because I did not have a lot of good starting hands, I'll gladly take it all for the experience of seeing what I've been learning play out in front of me. A great example was my first pre-flop all in that turned into an illustration of the importance of the pivot card and the power of draws in Omaha.

Short stacked with a raise in front of me from a very-good-but-on-the-loose-side player I look down at A-K-Q-10 with a suited A. This is an all-in hand for me, I re-pot and he obliges me by putting me all in. He shows I think A-6-7-9 single or double suited. Also a good starting hand as long as the A is suited (it was). Flop 7-J-7. In hold'em, if someone flops trips on you it's almost certainly the end of the pot for you. No so in Omaha! See that gap in my hand? All I need on the flop is a jack and I'm still in pretty good shape. Any A, K, Q, 10 or 9 suddenly gives me a whole lot of outs, everyone one of them a clean out! And right on cue, 9 on the turn, Q on the river. Straight!

The final tally was only 37 players, I made it to 7 or 8 paying four. Very happy with how I played. In the end, I got all my chips in a 5.5-1 favorite against a garbage hand (being that big a fave in Omaha is, in and of itself, unusual, unlike hold'em where there are a lot of situations where one person is an overwhelming favorite). I'm on the big blind, a couple of limpers and the small blind calls. I pot for most of my stack with A-K-K-Q single suited. Flop Q-9-4. All the chips go in and the other person turns over 9-5-5-3. What a crappy hand to play out of position into a raise. But of course he caught one of his 7 measly outs on the river, the 9, and I was done.

I busted out just in time to get into the 7:00 tourney, and I'll keep this short. In 4+ hours I had 4-5 pocket pairs (JJ, 66, 77, 44 and maybe 44 again), A-K once, A-J suited twice, and...that was about it. In spite of an ugly lack of cards I got to about 27th of 104, IMHO a respectable showing.

At this point the light might come on that I ate brunch, but it's now after 11 pm and i haven't eaten since. I'm starving. So I hobble back to my room (the "other" ankle is now sore because I've been trying not to put as much weight on the blistered foot), get my book again, and hobble off to our favorite 24 hr cafe at Paris.

It's closed. They are no longer open 24 hrs, please try their new restaurant directly under their new nightclub... Well I tried it. Blaring dance music while eating is not what I'm looking for in a restaurant. But the soup I had was very good, the french dip was just OK. Of course, I burned the hell out of the roof of my mouth on the soup. Back on the plus side, they're trying real hard. Only open for 5 weeks, I had two managers come by to chat me up. Waitress was great, according to one manager they've already had visits from some poker pros, Carmen Electra and a Kardashian(sp?) but didn't see anyone I ever heard of while I was there...and honestly I probably couldn't pick either of the aforementioned ladies out of a lineup...

So now by my count I've had about 2 hrs sleep in the last 47 hours. And I've finally hit the wall...good night, the plan for tomorrow is either the non-ring event at Caesar's at noon or the Deep Stack at Venetian. Right now it's looking like Caesars.