Vegas Recap Part 2

Saturday

I started Saturday off with a series of coughs that woke up everyone in our suite that wasn't already up. The combination of a week-long cold + stale cigarette air did quite the number on me. I finally got up around 9:30am (again, early by Vegas standards) and drank some beers with Mark until the girls got finished making breakfast.

Drinking beer at 10am while the women slave over breakfast in the kitchen. Livin' the dream.

After breakfast, I headed down to the pool with my girlfriend and her sister. Every time I've been to Vegas before, I've never ever been to the pool where I stayed. But the intent of this trip wasn't to gamble & drink until I collapsed, but to find a better balance of debauchery & degeneration. Hanging out in the pool with my girl was probably one of the better moments of the trip, and not just because it didn't cost me anything either.

We got back to the room around 12:30, and Mark & Becky were already napping. The girls decided this was a good idea, but I had other plans. I could have used a nap myself, and I was slightly worried that no nap would mean I would fade out early again, but I knew this was going to be my only chance to hit up some cash games, so I hopped on the shuttle to head to the MGM.

I got in there around 2pm and got seated at a new table shortly thereafter. I bought in for the max and started sizing up the players. I sat down in the 3 seat, giving me the best view to see everyone. Aside from the husky guy with sunglasses in the 5 seat, I didn't feel like I had to be concerned with anyone else. There were a couple of obvious donks (not including myself) bleeding cash, including one in the 8 seat that flipped up his hand on the river thinking it was checked down, showing KJ on a T high board. He grabbed his cards, then the 10 seat bet out pot, and he STILL CALLED. The 10 seat showed top pair and grabbed an extra $15 with that call. The 8 seat looked thoroughly lost the entire time but sadly got felted without sending any chips my way.

About 45 minutes into the game I finally started raking in some nice pots, including:

- KK on a T high board, getting calls until the turn
- AJ where I bet flop, checked turn, and bet river without a piece of the flop, knowing my opponent was on a missed draw
- 56 where I turned the nut straight & check raised an additional $30 on the river.
- AK against a tight old lady who probably had AQ yet still gave me action on an AKxxx board.

There were a couple other smaller pots in there too, but within about a half hour, I was up from $200 to just over $500. Things were looking pretty sweet.

Then I got caught up in a couple hands against a muscle jock from SoCal and ended up sending most of my profit in his direction:

Hand 1. Raise up with QQ. Bet out on J high board. Check-call bet from muscle jock. Check-call bet when T hits the river. He shows JT for the bad beat. I doubt a check-raise would have forced him off the hand on the turn, but either way I didn't really want a fold and chalked it up to a bad river card. If anything, had I thought it over some more, I probably could have saved $50 on the river if I paid closer attention to how confident he was.

Hand 2: Limped with T9. Flop comes J97 and semi-tight younger lady bets pot for $15. Muscle jock calls and I raise to $50 on the semi-bluff. Muscle jock calls. Turn is an A and I lead out for another $50. Muscle jock calls again but doesn't look comfortable. River is a blank and I bet $85. Here's where I make a mistake. I have about $275 behind me and bet $85 into a $220 pot. I needed to bet more to induce the fold. He very nearly folds, even asking if I flopped the straight. He's gotta be on something like QJ at this point. He takes nearly another minute then says "this is probably a bad call but I think I'm committed". He shows KJ and takes down the pot. I blame myself for this hand for the bad bet sizing as well as thinking I could bluff him out of the hand to begin with.

I dropped down to about $175 when I got the hand that did me in. 3 people limp before it gets to me on the button with KK. I raise it up to $21, expecting at least one limper. Instead, I get all four. Flop comes down a pretty decent KJ9 with two spades, but I already feel like I'm in trouble. EP leads out for $50, MP calls, and I push for $155 more. They both call. Any guesses?













EP: 87 sooted for the flush draw + gutshot
MP: The Mookie for the OESD

MP hits a 7 on turn, EP finds a spade on the river, and my set goes down in flames.

I let out an exasperated "Are you serious? So much for winning a hand with skill." and EP has the gall to say that he was getting pot odds to call. To his credit, if he puts me on AK without spades he's not that far behind, but I refuse to give the man any sort of credit for doing that kind of math when he's calling a 10xBB raise OOP with 3 people on position. I shake hands with the guy to my left who made for good conversation then exited with a snide remark in the vein of "I'd wish you all good luck but I think you just used it all up."

So after all was said and done, I lost $260 thanks to the donkeys at the $1\$2 table. I say this because they put me on such tilt that I couldn't work my Roulette skills to an effective degree and lost another $60 trying to chill out. Luckily, my girlfriend & her sister were en route, so they picked me up and we grabbed what was sadly the worst In N Out I've ever had. The beats just never end, do they.

The next 2-3 hours went as such: taught my girlfriend how to play Pai Gow at NYNY, recouped a bit of my losses via Roulette at Monte Carlo (treating me well once again), did some sightseeing at Bellagio, met up with Mark & Becky at Bally's, where Mark was fresh off a $1k score with a Royal Flush on video poker at the Wynn, then headed to Paris to get my girlfriend's sister a cab since she was leaving early in the morning.

I mentioned last time that I swore never to play at Paris again. This stems from the time I went for Mark's bachelor party where I dropped about $300 on Roulette within 20 minutes. This was after I dropped $150 on one of the least attractive strippers at the Rhino (in my defense, I was drunk and she at least knew how to work it). Hence, the reason why I swore off Paris.

But there I was, waiting for the sister's cab to arrive, and I figured I'd spend my time playing Roulette. By the time my girlfriend found me, I was already down another $60. Paris, you're a beautiful casino, but that will be the last of my money you'll ever see.

It was just after Midnight and we caught back up with Mark & Becky at Bally's, where Mark hit some random hand for another $200 at video poker. But we noticed a problem. We were all walking fairly regular (aside from Mark's sprained knee & my pinky toe blister), we were speaking coherently, and we were not speaking with enough curse words. We realized it was Midnight in Vegas on a Saturday and none of us were anywhere near drunk. We needed to find an opportunity to drink lots but keep the gambling going. And there was only one solution.

PAI GOW!!!

To be continued...