Monday, September 12, 2005

At the Trop, Aladdin and MC

I got my butt handed to me yesterday in a 3/6 game on Party. Three big pots went across the table that should have been mine. The one that hurt the most was the clown playing 7 9 hearts to a raise, then hit runner, runner, on a gut shot to get his straight. Man, was I pissed. Then someone played their K 9 off to a raise again to crack my aces when he hit trips on the turn. It killed a good run I was on. However, it showed me how bad they are at the 3/6 level. I will be back.

On Tuesday, I woke up wanting to do something different. I had the intention of making my way up the Strip to hit the tournament at the Aladdin. But since it was early and the Tropicana was just across the street, I wanted to check out their new poker room. I wouldn't have known it even existed if I hadn't read the report on LasVegasVegas.

After wandering around the Trop, we found the poker room off by the MGM side. There was one table going, spreading 2/4. Since they had 2 seats available, me and Cor sat down to play a bit. I didn't want to play low limit like this but there was nothing available. Plus, I thought it wouldn't be a bad thing to do some fishing.

At the table were a couple of young guys who claimed they hadn't slept in 24 hours. One even claimed he was making tuition. At a 2/4 table? That could take a couple weeks. Dude on my left was killing time before heading back to Atlanta. He had come to Vegas, moved on to San Diego and Tijuana, and was back before going home. He had a blast in Tiajuana. Of course, who doesn't? There was tight playing black guy across from me who claimed he wasn't getting any cards. A mullet wanna-be older guy sat down to play every hand. He quickly went through a rack before leaving. Thankfully he came back to donate some more later. But the star of the table was the old guy on my right. He was cracking some people up. Telling old jokes. I didn't catch him but he kept some of the guys in stitches.

Play was typical for 2/4. Slow, people drawing out on every hand. I didn't catch much for cards. When I did, I tried to take advantage of the table by playing them hard. After that, I bluffed a couple of hands to win some pots. But that was few and far in between. So I did what any good blogger would do to liven a table up. In the big blind, I raised it up without looking. I told the black guy I would do it. I raised and kept the 3 callers. Interesting. Flop comes and I bet again. Turn card is placed on the table and I am betting.

They both fold.

I hadn't even touched my cards and they were gone. Lucky for them too. I had a K high straight on the turn. Sweet.

We played for maybe an hour there. The table was getting boring. Also, I noticed all the dealers were from China. Must have a factory over there. Before leaving though, this one youngish couple sat down. I found their play to be rather predictable. They were playing the any ace, any suited. She had a decent looking rack as well. And I ain't talking chips. They played one hand heads up that defied any logic or reasoning. The got into a pre-flop raising war with each other. Because they were heads up, the dealer let them go (though technically it was wrong I believe as there was one other player that had limped but folded to their raises. It should have gone unlimited on the raises after the flop. Anyone can correct me if the dealer was right). They had to raise each other about 7 or 8 times. All the while, the dealer is telling them to just check it down because they were together. He tried to explain that only the casino would benefit on the rake. But the girl didn't listen. She even bet out on the flop too. It turned out she had Q Q and he had A A. With the 2 aces on the board, he had quads. Could have spun the wheel at the Castle.

We soon got up and walked across to the MGM to check out their room. There were a couple tables in action as we walked about. We then saw they were getting ready for their tournament. I believe it was a $60 buy-in with no rebuys. But it was sold out. We then talked about the Aladdin and went north to check it out.

We grabbed lunch at the cafe before going to play poker. For some reason, we passed on the tournament. I don't know if it was too high of a buy-in for Cor's taste or if we decided to pass on it. Instead we got involved with a new 3/6 game. This is where I was reminded of what a bitch variance is.

The 2 seat was red hot for catching flops. I had my K K broken by quad 3s on the flop. I didn't pay him off as the J hit the river to pair the board but the Aladdin paid him to the tune of close to $500. Same guy would hit flush after flush with crap. He was taking down good sized pots before he had to leave to catch his flight. The lady who took the seat when he left did the same thing. Played any two suited to the river and caught her flush. It was disgusting.

I did make a great play. I had taken control of betting out the hand. I had two pair and one player on a flush draw and the other on just top pair. Problem was their was a flush and straight draw on the board. On the river, the flush wasn't there. It was checked to me. I knew the guy on my right didn't want to call a bet. But the guy on my left drinking the Coronas may have hit the straight draw. I was about to check when the guy went to muck his hand. The dealer told him to wait. Instantly I changed my mind and bet it out. He quickly mucked his hand, but not after showing my friend what he had. The other player folded and I started to stack chips. Turn out the guy did hit his straight but was too focused on making the flush that he didn't recognize it. You need to pay attention when in a hand. Needless to say I was disappointed when Corona left.

In the 3 or 4 hours I spent at the table, I had to be down about 90% of the time. I would have had a losing session if I hadn't had a mini rush. It started with 3 2 off in the BB and 5 limpers. For 2 bucks I had to call. I even told the big blind I had to put the 2 bucks in the slot machine and get lucky. Flop came 2 2 J. I took down a nice pot. A couple of hands later I have A A and take down another good pot. Then A J suited. Get a flush for the good guys for once. I leave up 7 bucks. Victory was mine!

There was another incident of a local sitting down, playing for a half hour and then disappearing for an hour. Why casinos tolerate this I do not understand. Why players pull this shit is even a better question. The Jersey girl wanted the chair pretty bad too. But she had to wait for someone else to bust out because this old fart felt it better to talk with every dealer and old player in the room. It is funny the excuses you hear from the dealers. They say if he is gone by the time 2 dealers push in, the chips are picked up. However, none of them have a clue how long the player has been gone. Thus, nothing is ever done. Except for keeping people that want to play poker waiting.

We then made our way down the Strip to the Monte Carlo. We stopped into the sports book to watch the Brewers game for a bit. The poker room had little in terms of waiting but we decided we should eat something first.

That was a mistake. I had the chicken Parmesan. It was pretty damn good. But it gave me so much gas I was dying. I had to take frequent walks to the mens room to relieve myself. I had started on a 2/4 table but moved to the 4/8 half kill when it started. Some real interesting people in this game. Two locals down by me, a lady and an old man that kept acting like experts. On the other end was a tourist and his wife from Texas. Some guy who liked to bet a lot was over there too. An extremely passive player was across from me. But the buzz cut was the best though. Buzz cut had his aces cracked about 5 hands into the game. Why? Because he slowed played them. He rarely raised pre-flop. So he slow played the aces and lost. Can't remember what to, but he started crying afterwards, "I hate aces!". As tempted as I was to laugh out loud at him, I didn't. I hate aces. I hate aces. He said it a couple of times. Dude, if you hate aces, you are in the wrong game. Go play tiddlywinks. You hate them because you play them like a pussy, expecting them to win every time. Hint: They don't. Besides, if you play them that bad, you should be over at the Excalibur spinning the wheel. Instead, your stupid self is at the Monte Carlo.

Not much happened for me at the MC. I cashed out with 2 and half racks. My gut was killing me. Plus, buzz cut took off. He had rebought and looked to be done. Then he pulled one out of his ass. He called 5 bets preflop and had all his money in on the flop with 5 5. He made his set on the flop, cracking a guy's aces. I was stunned. I sat back shaking my head. The Texan whose aces were cracked noticed me and asked me in a pissed off tone "You think I played that wrong?". I just replied calmly, "No sir, you played the hand as you should". He asked me again and I said the exact same thing. This time he knew I meant that guy was beyond stupid and doesn't realize how lucky he got. When buzz cut left I did so as well.

Coming up: Crazy Pineapple!!!

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