Vegas June 2021

Day 6 - PLO8 at Orleans

Last Updated: 2021-06-16 14:14:39

Today does not have as happy an ending as the last couple of poker days, on several fronts.

Since we've had a suite I've been breaking my long running pattern of sitting at Starbucks writing my BLOG and reading newspapers online. I have a living room, I can go in and out of the room and type on the laptop without disturbing Joann, so I can just bring my breakfast back up to the room, sit in the living room and do my thing.

Yesterday was the first day I finally hung at Starbucks and worked on the BLOG for a while, which was mostly editing and proofreading since I had written much of it the night before.

We decided to skip the pool, we're both looking a little pink rather than tan, so we had lunch at the new burger place (which replaced the old burger place) at Aria. Apparently "all organic" wasn't profitable enough, the place always seemed to do a good business (often not enough tables for the number of patrons) so it was a little surprising they messed with what seemed like a good thing.

Oh one more note, in between breakfast and poker I got a notification that the 2021 WSOP schedule is OUT!!!

Joann and I looked over the schedule, 8-game Mix is early in our planned trip! Lots of stuff for me to play in! We talked over dates, we have a somewhat "final plan", we might switch hotels if we can save some significant money and also now plan to shorten it a couple of days also to save a little money. There are basically no deals for the month of October, I've been looking for 3 months, there is a weekend I can't even book Park MGM if we wanted to stay there. Dunno why, conventions back maybe?

As always I will update my October BLOG planning page as details get finalized.

On to Orleans for Pot-Limit Omaha 8/b.

Four cards instead of two, must use two from your hand and three from the board, if there is a qualifying low hand half the pot goes to the lowest low. 5 cards 8 or lower that are not paired to qualify for low, ace is low, straights and flushes are ignored for the low hand, can use different cards to make your high and low hands. "Pot Limit" so your max bet is only the size of the pot, you can only go all-in when you have less than the size of the pot.

Probably still my favorite game, although triple draw variants are definitely working their way up in my mind these days.

I register a little late as usual, and the second hand out of the gate I'm watching a 3-way all-in on a 9-T-J board with two hearts.

K-Q-X-X vs K-Q-X-X with two hearts vs J-J-X-X.

Jack of hearts on the turn, quads was the shortest stack and gets a full triple up. Hearts had the side pot but was left with just a few thousand chips from the 30k starting stack, the big stack before the hand was even more crippled. He didn't last long.

In his place came a guy who proceeded to raise out the first 5-6 hands he played. I'd also note that the guy who had the quads pretty much never folded preflop. Maybe there was a hand or two he folded and I missed it, but he was playing every hand and calling every raise preflop with any four cards.

This was going to be a "high variance" table.

Then I get a text from my boss. That's never good, he never texts me. There's been another layoff, I'm safe, the part of business I work for is mostly untouched. Can't really say who is affected, can only give broad statements about who isn't.

Not really what I want to be thinking about.

On top of that, it doesn't look like they're going to get close to hitting their guarantee as far as entries. They have a $50K guaranteed prize pool at $400 a head, but some of that $400 goes to the house rather than the prize pool. To hit the prize pool number with the rake they need 150 players. I'm looking at the clock and I see under 80 entries in the second level. Not good for them.

To "break even" simple math is 125 players, but if they hit that number they at least cover the prize pool but they still have dealers to pay.

Now I'm also worrying about my Thursday plan, if they drop the $40K guarantee for 3-stud mix because 8/b couldn't hit $50K they may not get enough players to make it worth playing in.

Oh, right, I was playing poker.

First couple of rounds I didn't have too many interesting hands. I didn't play a lot of hands, but I scooped every hand I put any significant chips in without, I note, ever making a low. But lots of scary boards, won with a straight on a 3-flush board, won with a flush on a paired board and and now that I think about it I think I also had a shitty low (I had like 7-2, that doesn't win the low too often on any board that has a low possible 3-handed) and everyone mucked. So I guess I made one low.

My stack is not growing fast, but it's growing steadily and that's good!

Finally look down at K-4-K-A with a suited ace. Low could be better but still a fairly premium hand. I pot it to 2200 after a few limpers, get three callers, flop a beautiful K-J-6, I pot it, no callers.

Not long after that a real premium hand, A-A-J-3 double suited. Doesn't get a lot better than that! Blinds now 300/500/500, there were enough limpers ahead of me to pot it to 2800. Two callers, but the flop is about the worst I could ask for - K-J-9. We check down every street as the board runs out "blank", "king" (so paired board) and somehow my aces hold up to scoop.

After that hand, I would guess a 30-something woman sits down to my left who appeared to have drank a case of red bull for breakfast. Beyond hyper, hands shaking at times, cannot sit still, talking a mile a second when she spoke.

Pick up A-2-4-8 with two hearts and two diamonds, someone raises out to 2000, I call, 3 more callers.

Flop 8d-6h-5d, I cannot ask for a better spot. Nut low, flush draw (not the good one, but still), backdoor nut flush draw, made low that at worst could get counterfeited to second nut low.

I lead out for 4k, get two callers. Understand that in this spot I want to keep people around, but I also want to build the pot. I don't have a playable high hand with that board, I can only assume I'm winning half and even that is not yet guaranteed. I want to build a huge pot so my half is big.

Black 6 on the turn, I lead out for 6k, everyone folds.

I will gladly take the whole pot at this point!

56,600 into the break, almost double a starting stack! Couldn't ask for a better start!

And while I was playing, Joann (a.k.a. my enabler in chief) went through the entire WSOP schedule when we plan to be out there and made a list of everything I would consider playing in for our planned stay.

Yup, you should be jealous of me!

After the break tho get into a couple of pots I have to give up on, then it all comes crashing down.

Limp in with A-2-J-8 all clubs. This is not a great hand because it's all one suit, but it is a hand you can play with a lot of people in the pot and there are always a lot of people in limped pots when blinds are relatively small.

Flop comes K-Q-4, all clubs! Can't make it up! I flop the nuts, I have any running low hands covered unless I'm counterfeited but that's fine. Guy who had won that pot just after I sit down risking his tournament life on a set with an obvious straight out there leads into me for pot. He had been giving up a lot of that early triple up and didn't have as much as me at this point.

I repot it for most of my stack, he just calls.

Turn is a 4 of spades, with most of my stack in the pot I'm committed and the rest of my chips go in. Naturally he rolls over K-K-J-something.

I'm dead to the 10 of clubs. No help on the river, done.

Brutal.

Joann and I decide to go get another case of water from Sam's, we've been as good about hydrating on this trip as we've ever been. That's important with my occasional gout issues that always seem to come up on our long trips out here when I don't drink enough. Water I mean :-)

After Sam's we make a reservation for Tom's Urban. We've been looking forward to going back there since they expanded their menu just before we came out here, they have a lot of meals we like but they had a very short menu during COVID. It's still not 100% but it's getting closer.

Also hit the south outlets, bought a few things, up to the room to kill a little time until dinner.

We get there 20 minutes early and have a couple of drinks instead of asking to be seated. Eventually our reservation time comes around and Joann goes over to the hostess while I settle up the bar tab. We get seated at high bar tables.

5 minutes, no waiter.

10 minutes, no waiter.

At about 12 minutes Joann goes back to the hostess to complain, we want seats that have an assigned waiter.

We get moved around the corner to different high bar stools.

5 minutes, no waiter.

10 minutes, no waiter.

At about 15 minutes ... seriously ... a waitress that walked past us about 10 times walks past us again and we demand a manager. Nearby bartender comes by and asks if we've been helped. Nope.

To be clear, we were put at a table with no waiter. We demanded to be put at a table with an actual, assigned waiter instead of being waited on by busy bartenders ... and got put at a different table that didn't have a waiter and was to be waited on by a different busy bartender.

But ... he's our best buddy now. Takes our appetizer order, still no manager.

10 minutes, no food.

20 minutes, no food.

25 minutes finally a manger comes by. Have you been counting up the time? We want to know where our appetizers are.

He walks back, I can see them finally come out of the kitchen as he's arriving to the entrance.

They're cold. Naturally they're cold because they made them almost half an hour ago and they've been sitting there.

They go back to the kitchen, and the manager is our waiter now. Can you believe we're actually still sitting there? A group of four people sitting behind us overheard us going through our time there so far with the manager, wanted to confirm they heard everything right and walked out. We cost them customers.

So we get new appetizers, order our meals finally. The bartender who's also now very sympathetic and helping us out asks if I want another whisky (I've been drinking Woodford Reserve bourbon) and I say no, I'm ready for my usual black and tan with dinner.

FWIW they could not have piled our meals any higher. Usually I get a little basket of tots with my "prime rib dip" sandwich. I got a plateful, and my sandwich had about double the meat in it. Joann's meal was similarly oversized.

I'm about through my B&T and the bartender comes over and asks if I'm sure I don't want another whisky. On him. Apparently he had poured it and was just giving it to me.

Well, duh, yeah I'll take a free one!

And again FWIW the pours were pretty generous, even the original one at the bar, so I was getting my money's worth on that.

In the end it wasn't the worst meal ever, but it certainly was the worst service ever. Got the appetizers comped, got more food than we should have, got a free whisky and I think a free beer (I'll have to check the receipt if I took a big enough picture).

Back to the room, backrub for Joann who's been sitting on a wooden bench for hours at a time reading while I play poker and deserved one ... and that was our day.

Layoff at work, brutal bustout at 8/b, worst service ever at dinner. Not the best day, but still better than a day at work :-) I'll cry over it in my suite for the rest of the trip :-)

I've been hemming and hawing about what to do Wednesday if Tuesday didn't work out. Aria dailies restart today, but I don't want to wait until 1pm and find out they get like 50 players. Don't really want to go back to Orleans at 11am because it compresses our morning, but they're steadily getting 200+ for Hold'em. I really want to play in the 6pm 8/b at Orleans, but the structure won't be great and that's not a smart idea if I'm playing at 11am at Orleans in the stud mix Thursday.

So ... 11am at Orleans it is, and after Thursday (and hopefully Friday day 2) I'm going to owe Joann another rub for sure.