What a time to be card dead!

My wonderful wife took me to Vegas this past week for my birthday, God bless her! Only problem was that someone forgot to tell Vegas it was my birthday. I have never seen such a run of bad cards in my life. I was even down at Pai Gow! Who does that, especially when it’s a push game? Anyways there were some highlights to my trip that I thought I would share.

Flew in Sunday morning on Southwest and checked in at the Monte Carlo for the first of 3 nights. I like flying Southwest even more so now with their new boarding process. They also seem to be on time, certainly more so than United who is the dominant carrier from Denver. The Monte Carlo has been our home away from home more often than not when in Vegas as we usually get pretty good rates here. I know places like Hooters and IP can be cheaper, but when you travel with your wife your trip is a better trip if your wife has a comfortable room to relax in while you gamble. I am not sure if the $20 trick worked for us or not but we did get offered a spa room for an extra $60. What wife (and husband for that matterJ) is not excited by a hot tub in the room? Again, if you wife is happy, you are happy. $80 well spent I say!

As the title suggests, there was not much to write home about concerning poker. I played a lot this trip in the Monte Carlo poker room. For some reason I really like this room. It is friendly; the competition a mix of tourists/beginners and some older locals. The opportunity to make big money is not there like some of the bigger rooms but I like the fact that I can play there for 8-10 hours and be neither significantly up or down. I did play some ½ no limit here and had one memorable hand. Had been playing for about an hour when 2 new guys sit down and immediately start to try and run the table. At least the one guy (villain) was showing down decent hands but folks were getting tired of his raises on every pot. I had noticed that he was an Ace magnet and he tended to overplay Ace rag. This time around I was 2 off the button and there was a live straddle. I look down at QQ. 3 callers around to me and I raise it to $15. Cut off, button and small blind fold. Big Blind, straddle and villain and his buddy all call and the rest of the table folds. Flop comes A 9 Q all diamonds. Not what I wanted but everyone checks to me. I fire out $50 which is just over half the pot. BB folds, straddle calls and villain calls. Next card is a rag but not a diamond and the straddle checks and the villain bets out $50 which I think is odd, especially if he already had the flush. I ponder for a good 2 minutes and re-raise him all in. The straddle guy folds and villain goes into the tank. I have him covered and he finally calls. He tables A 9 of hearts and when the river is junk my set of Queens take the pot. I am feeling pretty good at this point until I give most of it back to him when he plays 7 9 suited and backs into a flush against my flopped straight. He was impossible to chase from a pot and I consoled myself in the fact that I played it right and got the money in with the best hand. This would be the first of many times I was rivered on this trip.

I had planned to play quite a few tournaments this trip and that is what had me down overall for the trip. I played tournaments at Planet Hollywood, Caesars, and Monte Carlo and I never last more than an hour at any one of them. I could not pick up any hands. The few I did pick up I was out of position and facing a raise and sometimes multiple reraises. Unless I have AA or KK I am not getting involved. When I did get a hand in position I would run into a bigger hand. That’s poker I guess. For example, at the 9am Caesars after being moved to a new table I pick up JJ. Not my favorite hand especially when I know nothing about the table. Everyone either folds or limps to me and I raise. I get two callers one of them is the BB. Flop comes X Q J. Check Check and I bet and the two remaining players call. Turn is the 10. BB bets and the second guy asks me what I have left which is not much, about $1300. He goes all in. I smell a rat and think and think and think before finally folding. BB who is also short stacked calls and tables J 10 and all in guy tables AK for the straight. Can’t tell you how hard it was to lay down trips but I am glad I did. It pays to listen to your guy sometimes. I replayed this hand quite a bit and thought that I should have pushed after the flop but I don’t think AK would have folded and I would have still lost. I figured I lost the minimum with the jacks and could try again with another hand. The other hand came up next hand when I got 10 10. I did push this time and ran into KK. See you next time everyone!

The rest of my time was spent just whittling away the hours playing 2/4 limit at the Monte Carlo. To me this is the best deal in the casino. You can waste 10 hours, drink all you want and not lose your shirt to the casino. The Monte Carlo has this promotion in May called splash the pot where at certain points in the day, they draw a table number and add money to the pot of the next hand. This is where the poker Gods really took it to me. As you can imagine these pots get pretty big because everyone will chase hoping to cash in. Well the first one I was involved in I picked up 6 4. I had just finished rolling my eyes when the flop came X 4 4. Jackpot! I bet everyone calls, turn is an Ace. I bet everyone calls. River is the 2 and I lose to the guy with 5 3 offsuit. Next time I am in the splash pot I have K 10 suited. Pretty nice start. Flop comes X 10 10. I am excited once again and properly bet my hand but again everyone calls. Turn is a rag and everyone calls. River is an 8 and the guy next to me takes the pot with his pocket 8’s. The guy on the other side of me tries to console me by saying that the problem with limit is that you can’t protect your hand but I told him that someone is not going to throw away pocket 8’s in a pot like that. I mean I am not math expert but I think they guys was actually getting the 22 to 1 or so odds on his one outer that he needed with a pot that size. That’s poker I guess. I just wish the gods had remembered it was my birthday.

The wife did take me to Prime steakhouse at the Bellagio for my birthday dinner. This place while very expensive was fantastic. I am a foodie so I don’t mind paying for service and good food and Prime delivers on both. I got a complimentary desert and we had a table overlooking the fountain show. If you like steak and fancy restaurants I highly recommend Prime.

That is about it for this post. I hadn’t planned on writing one since it is not very exciting to write about being card dead and coming home down but I figured it was important to show that not everyone wins when they go to Vegas and you have to be able to accept that as a gambler. I was up after my last two trips to Vegas so I was due. Hope you enjoyed the report.

I'm back!

It certainly has been awhile since I last posted. I have not been playing much poker lately except online and nothing happened there that was of note. I have been back at my usual Monday game at Parkway the last few weeks and I thought it was time to post some observations.

Two weeks in a row now I have gone out on the bubble in fourth place. As frustrating as it is to finish that close to the money, I look at it as a sign that I am consistently becoming one of the better players who can expect to go deep each time we play. I much prefer that reputation to that of a one hit wonder or someone who is more lucky than good.

What do I expect to happen each time I play poker? It is a question I have asked before and not just with poker. What does one expect anytime they set of on a new endeavour? Concerning poker I think I finally have the answer. Of course I expect to win. You can't have success in anything competitive unless you expect to win each time you play. You're not going to win every time but if you don't expect to you are destined to fail. Beyond that, I expect to a) learn something and b) play well.

Learn something each day is a pretty simple concept. To do it ensures that you will be successful in all you do. To play well each time deserves some additional discussion. My definition of playing well is to be solid tight-aggressive. Play position and get my money in when I have the best hand. This does not mean that I will not occasionally outdraw someone but rather it means that when I enter a pot I enter it as the solid favorite to win. If I do that then no matter what position I finish in I will still have had a good game. The best part is with that style of play I should win more often than not and I think I am seeing that by come to fruition now as week after week I am there at the end rather than out in the first hour.

A couple of hands of note from last night. First one came pretty early, hand 9 to be exact. I am in the big blind and pick up a pair of sevens. 4 people call and I check because I know how aggressive some of callers are and if I catch the flop I can count on them doing the betting for me. Flop comes Q 7 3 all different suits. I check and UTG bets out $100 (blinds are $10/$20). Villain raises to $500 and the rest fold around to me. This is a dream scenario for me. I look at the raiser and say "really? $500?" I take a look at my cards once more for show and re raise him all in which at that point is a little over $1000. UTG folds to the villain who I have covered. Feeling pot committed since he has over half his stack in the pot he calls. He shows Q 8 off suit and I show my pocket 7's for the set. He gets no help on the turn and river and he is out. He looks at me dumbfounded and makes a few comments like he has just suffered some bad beat. I asked him if he really thought I would fold a set and he replied that he could have easily had a set of Queens. I told him that it was not believable for him to have pocket queens since he did not raise before the flop and then goes in for $500 after the flop. That was a "I really don't want any callers so I will try and win the pot right here" kind of bet. Plus I told him that the odds of one set losing to a higher set on the same hand is very slim and if it happens I am OK with that.

Other hands were not too dramatic. I rivered a straight on another small blind special where I had A 4 suited and the flop came 2 3 X with a blank on the turn and the 5 on the river. There was not too much betting going on so it was easy to stay in the pot. What was perfect was that the betting started after the river with the straight draw sitting out there folks started betting. I raise when it gets back around to me and get paid off. Other hand of note did not have a good result for me but it taught me about the dangers of chasing. It also showed me a good way to play a hand when you know someone is chasing. I was on the button and had J 3 suited. Flop is low with 2 hearts one of them being the Ace. Everyone checks to the villain and she bets $100 which I call with my flush draw. I am big stack at this point and can afford the call. Everyone else folds. Turn is no help on the flush but ends up giving me a straight draw to go with my flush. I can now win with a 5 or a heart. Villain bets $150 which is just too hard to pass up. River is nothing I can use, she bets $150 again and I fold. Villain told me later she had pocket 10's and I believe her. I think she played the hand well since she maximized the value of her hand. By betting an amount that was too good to pass up she kept me chasing. Had I caught the heart I would have crushed her but that's gambling. I got some chuckles from the table though when I said "this is why my daughter will go to community college" as I mucked my hand.

Now my mistake hand of the night. We are at the final table and I am either in the chip lead of very close. I came to the final table as the second shortest stack but managed to double up by flopping a set of 6's against the short stack and pick up the blinds with some timely all in's in position. I am on the button and have pocket 8's. I don't know why but I don't go all in, I raise 3x the blind to $2400. Small blind folds and big blind calls. Flop is X A Q. Big Blind bets $2000 and I go into thinking mode. I really doubt he hit the flop with a bet like that. My instinct tells me that he has correctly put me on a small or medium pair and he is just trying to represent either the Ace or the Queen. I really don't think he has it. My reads have been better than usual tonight. Not all perfect, but it is something I have been working on and I am seeing marked improvement. Back and forth I go when I finally decide to listen to my instincts and gamble that the cards will once again be good to me like they were earlier with the pocket 6's. I re raise all in and he insta-calls. He asks if I have an Ace which without seeing his cards yet tells me he has an Ace with what he deems is a weak kicker. He has A 8 which is a killer for me in two ways. I am already beat and he has one of the two outs that would give me a set. I get no help on the turn or river and just like that I am now crippled and the short stack.

Hindsight being 20/20 of course I played the hand bad. I could have went all in from the start and probably should have but pocket 8's while four handed is a big hand and I thought I would try to get some action. After the flop came 2 over cards I should have let the hand go but I really wanted to listen to my instincts. Too often I don't think we listen enough to that voice in our head. Most of the champion players will tell you that you have to trust your instincts to be successful and I was giving mine a chance.

I tripled up the next hand with a nice suck out, but was down and out the hand after that when my A 8 got no help.

Again I am happy with my play. Sure I did not cash but I went a long way to developing a reputation as a solid player which is what I want. Now I just hope my success the last two weeks translates to Vegas when I go there next week for my birthday. Stay tuned for a full report!