I’m heading to Vegas with Adrian on Thursday and I’m staying until Monday. The Deepstack is going on at The Venetian and I plan on playing at least one of them either Friday or Saturday or both depending how things go in the cash games. I plan on playing 2/5 cash at the Venetian mostly and maybe Aria.
I will try and keep this updated. I have an Iphone now so that should help.
I got to the table a little before 10 am and bought in for $500 chips in the 2/5 NL at The Venetian. My second hand I look down at AA. Nice. I made it 30 and got one caller. I took it down with a c-bet and no fireworks. The next hand I get AK and make it 30 again and get the same caller. He donk bets me $55 on a 7 high flop so I fold.
Looking around the table the 1st round I only notice 2 players that I probably need to worry about. One was a girl to my left and the other was the guy who called me both times I raised. I’m sure I’ve played with this girl before but I can’t place it. After about 20 min I had built my stack up to almost $700 after winning a decent pot with JJ against the guy who always calls my raises. He again folded on the flop after I c-bet. I can tell he is getting tired of doing that and he has a stack of about $1500 (foreshadowing).
Meanwhile I look down at QQ in the cutoff. There were a few limpers and I make it $45. Girl to my left calls on the button and one of the limpers calls. The flop comes 9,9,5 with two clubs. It’s checked to me and I bet $65. Girl quickly calls and other guy folds. The turn is a non club Ace. Yuck. When she called I really put her on a pair so there is no reason for me to change my mind now. She could have called with the nut flush draw and hit the ace but I think she would have raised on the flop if that was the case. Anyway, after considering everything I think most likely it is safe to check b/c if I’m right I have her drawing to only 2 outs. I also want to lose the minimum if she shows up with 89s or T9s. I check and she quickly bets out $100. I think for a min. and decide I have to stick with my initial read so I call. She has about $350 left going to the river. I have her covered. The river is a blank 2 no club. I check again and she goes in the tank. She is right beside me so I am watching her out of the corner of my eye. I could tell she was trying to decide how much she was going to bet then something neat happened. Her left hand motioned like she was going to check. It was very slight but I noticed it. I know now that I for sure have the best hand. I was worried she was deciding how much to value bet but really she was deciding whether to bluff or not. She then pushes the entire $350 out and is all in. Before I snap call, I went through the hand one more time and decided I had to call. She flips over pocket 4′s and I ship the pot. She quickly jumps up pats me on the back says nice call and books it out of the room.
In less than have an hour in Vegas I have already met my daily limit of $1K a day, but it’s only 10:15am. What am I going to do for the rest of the day. I can’t check into the room until 1pm so I’m going to play at least until then. A couple of hands later I get 66 in middle position so I limp and the guy who just sit down in her seat raises it to $40. An early limper calls so I call. No way I’m going to flop a set? Wrong. The perfect flop A,4,6 rainbow. 1st guy checks and I lead out for $65 hoping that the guy has a big aces and raises me. He is a good player and he smells a rat. He only calls and other guy folds. The turn is another 6 to give me quads. I tried to act disgusted by his call on the flop so now I check the quads. He bets $100 and I decide just to call. Not sure why I didn’t raise but I didn’t want to chase him off. The river is another 4 pairing the board again. I figured that looked like a good bluffing card so I lead out for $200. He thinks for a while and is naturally confused by my line in this hand. Lucky for me most of the time when people are confused they call. He did and I took down another big pot.
Remember when I said guy that I was worried about was tired of folding to my c-bets? Well, he decided to take a stand on this hand. I get KK in late postion and make it $40 after a few limpers. He calls as he was one of the limpers. The flop comes Q,9,8 with 2 clubs. I figure this is about as bad of a non ace flop as I can see with KK. This time he leads out for $65. For some dumb reason and quickly call. Very bad move on my part. I picked up no information and this guy has enough chips to felt me. I’m thinking he could have JT, 88, 99. Why am I seeing monsters under the bed? Anyway, the turn is a 7 non club. I get the feeling he is ready to play for all of his chips. He now bets $150 and I think for a short time and fold my KK face up. He flips up 7,4 for a stone cold bluff. Had I raised the flop he would have folded. He also would have let me know if he had flopped a set right then also. By just calling I got no information.
Now onto the epic hand of the day. The hand these guys will all go home and tell their buddies about. There were 5 limpers and I almost muck my 3,3 but then decide what the heck maybe I’ll flop another set. 2 more in the pot made it 8 handed to see the flop. The flop is Q, 4, 3 with 2 clubs. A guys bets $20 and another guy calls the $20 and I raise it up to $105. Everyone folds to the intial better who goes all in for a total of $120. Before I get a chance to put in my $15 the caller says reraise and makes it $320. All of the sudden an easy pot has turned into something I better decide what to do here. This guy had not played a hand since I had been at the table and I had already shown down some big hands and caught a big bluff. Taking all these things into consideration I’m starting to believe the only hand this character can have is 4,4. It’s possible he has the nut flush draw I guess but why would he raise with that? Obviously the intial better has a hand and it’s pretty obvious I have one. He can’t be bluffing. He wouldn’t do that with A,Q I don’t think and there is no way he lets all of us see the fop with QQ. The only hand that makes sense is 4,4. I check to see how many chips he has left and it is $675. I know it’s all going in if I decide to play this hand. Do I really want to give back all my profit on bottom set? I decide I don’t and I fold the 3,3 face up and the table goes bezerk. Are you crazy! To my credit the guy turns over 4,4 and I made a great laydown. I saved almost $1,000 by folding a hand that I only had one out with. The guy was so impressed he stood up to shake my hand. Then everyone started asking me questions about how did I know and how they have never seen anyone fold a set on the flop before. I knew it was time to leave.
Anyway, I lost a couple hundred by playing Q,j out of postion and vow not to do that the rest of the trip. I cashed out for a profit of $1,274 in 3 hrs. Not bad for the 1st day.
I had to come to McDonalds to get Wi-fi to post this. I will write about the rest of the trip when I get home.
I am leaving for Vegas on June 5th and I will be there until the 18th. I am staying the 1st 3 nights at The Flamingo and the next 10 at Harrahs. My goal is to win enough money to play in the Main Event in July. I am going to focus on playing the Venetian Deep Stack events and the Ceasar’s Mega Stack events. I plan on playing the noon tournaments everyday. When I bust out I will most likely play the $2/5 cash games at the Venetian.
I will do my best to post the results here to this blog. I think this will help me reflect on my play while I am there.
Billy Brown
I played very little poker this month. I had 2 sessions at the zoo and 2 sessions in Shreveport. My first session at the zoo started with a $110 tournament. I finished 5th which was the bubble. I then played 2/5 for 1 1/2 hrs and made $600.
In Shreveport we got there late Friday night and I had a huge up and down session to cash out for $13 profit. I got there about noon Saturday and played 2/5 until almost ten and cashed out up $471. I was down 1,000 at one point. I did win a $2,300 pot with QJh when I flopped open ended and a flush draw against a middle position raiser and the button called after me. It was $40 to see the flop. The flop came 9,T,5 with 2 hearts. Original raiser bet’s $60, I call, then button calls. The raiser is a very tight player and the button is an inexperienced high roller. The turn is a non heart 8. Raiser checks and I bet $100 and the button raises to $210. I have a little over $1,000 left. The original raiser goes in the tank and then folds. I re-raise it $300 more. The guy then asks me how much I have left which was a little more than $900. He thinks forever going back and forth between what looks like folding to pushing in all of his chips which was more than $800. He goes from his chips to his cards and peeking and then looking at me. He finally pushes in all of his chips and of course I call. The river was a deuce and he mucks when I show him the nuts. He said he had a J so he was just open ended? Not sure, he might have had JJ or J7 but we will never know.
I did fold a set on the flop in another hand that drew ire from everyone at the table when I showed it. It was an A,4,5 flop with 2 spades. I had 4,4 utg and 7 people saw the flop. I was about to bet but the woman to my left was arguing with the gentlemen to my right and she check out of turn and the next guy bet $20 so I said I guess I check then. Turned out to be a blessing b/c a couple of people called and raised it up to $80. The guy(Bill from Austin) then reraises it to $220. The others fold and I ask him how much he has left. He pushes out $400 more like it’s already in the pot. He was very confident. Normally I would take that posturing as a bluff but in my experience when old guys do that it means they are not bluffing. I can rule out AA since he didn’t raise preflop after 3 limpers. 2,3 is out of the question. So it’s A,5 or 5,5 and I’m leaning towards 5,5. Of course there is no way of knowing for sure. He might play A,5 or A,4 the same way. I decide there will be better spots so I fold my 4,4 face up. He gets angry and asks me why I would check a set and I say it was b/c they acted out of turn and he claims he only had a weak ace but was tired of me pushing him around. He is visibly upset so now I know he had 5,5 and was mad b/c he didn’t get paid off. I saw him later and he told me he had 5,5. The table couldn’t believe I folded it and one guy said, “you folded the best hand!” I said maybe but I just didn’t like the spot. I turned out to be right.
So the lesson is saving money is the same as winning money. I saved about $600 on that hand by folding.
In my last session at the zoo I played for about 4hrs and made $265
My final session for the month at the zoo was a loss of $579. I lost most of it when I flopped a pair and a flush and gut shot draw. Mr. Lott turned the str8 and my flush didn’t come and we were allin on the turn. I didn’t play well and most of the table was short stacked and I don’t feel that I adjusted well to that.