Well I certainly meant to blog while on my Las Vegas trip, I just never got around to it. I also burned myself out on the game. I’ve had a range of experiences, which I’ll do my best to document here.
Wednesday
I was supposed to get into town on Tuesday around lunchtime. Because of the flights and work, I didn’t actually arrive until Tuesday night. So on Wednesday, bright and early, I sat down to the tables for a few hands of 2-4 limit. I didn’t rake it in, but I managed to pay for the day’s tournaments at Excalibur. Their tournaments are usually 3 or 4 tables with a $35 buy-in. Each of the tournaments had some 35 players or so. In each of the tournaments, I made the final table. I finished tenth in the first, fifth in the second, and I won the last. It was my first tournament win at a live table! I pulled in $478.
The second tournament was a little strange. Being extremely short stacked, I just wanted it to be over. On the deal I push my stack in pre-flop and go all-in, blind. I didn’t even look at my hole cards. I had 66 and the board gave me a third 6. Good enough to win the hand, survive the blinds and get another couple places up in the finish for fifth – enough to reach the money. I made a big $54. Woo hoo, don’t spend it all in one place.
The third tournament won’t soon be forgotten. The final three was myself, a Frenchman, and a Korean woman. The Frenchman was a big chip leader at the final table for most of the hands and I was the short stack. The Korean woman asked if we wanted to chop the winnings. I would have gone along with the rest of the table. The Frenchman didn’t want to. So we continued to play, but not before the Korean woman brags about how she asked at her last tournament and then proceeded to win it all from her opponents.
The Korean woman knocks out the chip leader. I’m now heads up with her – and I love playing heads up. She had me covered by maybe 2:1 and I asked her if she wanted to chop, and she says no. “I’ve got way more chips than you”. Well I certainly didn’t think I’d beat her, but with two all-ins in a row, I knocked her out. She wasn’t happy with me. I wished her good luck and thank you for playing with me. She didn’t even answer. Clearly she was angry with someone, probably me.
I play a few more cash 2-4 limit games and I do come out ahead, but nothing spectacular.
Thursday / Friday
Thursday and Friday I was mostly busy with work, so I couldn’t play very much. I did play at Bally’s and Caesar’s Palace which was nice to get some experience in poker rooms where I was uncomfortable. My first trip to Caesar’s was pretty good. I played with two friends from work in a $3-6 limit game. I did pretty well until my friends left. I found one weakness in my game which was older women who resemble someone that I know or am related to. For some reason the grandmothers can read me like a book. There was one such person at Caesar’s and she was taking my money. Apparently she was a local who had won some of the bigger tournaments, despite her assertion that she had only been playing for six months. She was awfully good for only six months experience if true. J My friend had labeled her “Scary Lady”. She was as kind as anyone could be. She only wanted to take your money. J I landed quad-3’s, from which I would receive the high hand jackpot of a big sixty dollars.
Saturday
On Saturday I jumped up quickly to play before anyone else woke up, about 9 am. I couldn’t find any limit games going on at Excalibur. I was also too chicken to join in the no limit games. Later in the day we did find a good $2-4 limit game. I did reasonably well, including hitting quad 3’s and quad 4’s. Later, I went to Caesar’s and they had several 3-6 games going, but my poker partner didn’t want to play there. “Too many sharks,” he said. He suggested Bally’s, as this is where he was going to check into. I went over to Bally’s and there was nothing but the no-limit games. Call me chicken.
I did play by myself later on Saturday at Caesar’s, but I went down by $100 and walked out. “Scary Lady” had come back and soon she returned to building up her chip stack. I had noted on my first trip that they had some decent tournaments with a much higher buy-in than I’m used to - $150. But they had decent chip stacks with some 5,000 in chips. Looking at the blind structures, these do tournaments last awhile. According to the desk host, they can sometimes last until 2 or 3 in the morning.
My poker partner and I did play Bally’s later that evening. We have a mantra when we play “No Reload” or essentially “No rebuys”. He rebought twice. That was okay, I was enjoying playing with him. I didn’t rebuy and only came out even. There really were some good players at the table. By this point I started feeling a little tired of poker. I’m even asking myself – if I’m getting tired of poker after only 4 days, how would I handle the stress of a lengthy tournament such as the WSOP? Not that I’m good enough for that, but being consistent enough for it?
Sunday
Sunday gave me a good, hard lesson in poker. Sometimes the cards are good to you. Sometimes they are not. Each and every game for me on Sunday was a losing one. Had to rebuy in a 2-4 limit game at Excalibur. Busted out of the $35 Excalibur tournament quickly. Had to rebuy in the 3-6 game at Caesar’s. It was brutal. Couldn’t catch anything, it seemed. I got a lot of A-9, but those never seemed to go anywhere.
I figured my luck had to change soon enough. I eyed that $150 tournament. To date, it’s the most expensive tournament I’ve entered. When the cards start to fly, its clear my table mates are good – really, really good. The pace is very quick – everyone is attentive to the gameplay. The tournament starts off with a lot of people stealing blinds and little else. Then someone gets knocked out. I see a couple of flops and I think I stole a blind myself.
I’m dealt Kh Qh. I think to myself – good hand – get in and bring back some chips. I’m in middle position and no one raises pre-flop, and flop brings Q T 4. Checks around to me and I open with $200, thinking I’ve got top pair with a good kicker. The turn comes and the villain bets like $250 and I raise it to $1000. Villain calls. The river comes with another Q. I don’t go all in, but villain makes another large bet and I raise it again with most of my chip stack. He calls. I show my trip queens, and he shows Q T for the full house. He had me beat with the two pair on the flop.
I’m pretty much dead at this point. I survive the blinds another round and eventually go all in with 6 6. After all, they were good enough to me earlier in the week. It proved to be not good enough and I was out in the first round after only 40 minutes. I’m feeling pretty down after this. Maybe I’m not cut out for this game of poker. I deduce that my head is just too muddy for poker today. Maybe some days I should just not play. At all.
Monday
I got another good hard lesson in poker today. Maybe the best lesson yet. I just didn’t realize what lesson I was getting until I was sitting on the runway at McCarran airport waiting to take off. I woke up this morning with a few hours to kill before it was time to go to the airport for home. At 8am, I decided to at least go see what the action was like down at the poker room just one last time on this trip.
The 2-4 limit game I was most comfortable with was not being played. Just a couple of tables of 1-3 no limit. I have never played the no-limit cash games, figuring the players were much better and I would lose very quickly. So this was my first. I played it much like I do tournaments – aggressive, limp in with good hands or the nuts where possible, and then extract as much as you dare.
For me the most obvious difference between limit and no limit is you have fewer people chasing straights and flushes. I once heard from a dealer the nickname for the limit games I was used was “no fold-em hold-em”. It also seems that you can bluff and push people off their hands with large bets.
I played reasonably well. I stole a few blinds here and there with high pairs and such. Won a pretty good hand at showdown with a A-high straight. I went a little loose and speculated a bit, and soon I found myself about $40 up. Nothing special.
Let me describe the table. The chip leader at the table “Paul” had an amazing army of $5 chips in front of him. I’m guessing it had to be over $2000. I at first didn’t want to play this table with such an amazing chip stack. I wanted to play the other one. After all, its too easy to join a no-limit game when you’ve got someone that can bet 200-300 a hand pre-flop without even batting an eye.
Another guy who was really drunk (even passed out once) made one of the worst moves I think I had seen at the table. The board was very favorable to a straight, with 7 8 9 T on the board. Paul had been doing most of his betting either pre-flop or right after the flop. He had been using his chip strength to steal a lot of hands. Drunk guy and Paul get into a showdown, but not before drunk guy pushes his whole stack for all-in. Paul calls. Whole table is thinking straight and we’re right – drunk guy flips over 5-5. Paul on the other hand flips over J-Q.
A few hands later, I figure I had maybe another good hour left to play when I was dealt AA. At the time I was sitting on $240 or so. Astonished, I played it as cool as I could. I managed to hook a few and follow them to a showdown. I had a main pot going and two side pots. I prevailed and brought home a nice little new army of red $5 chips and knocked out someone that was on the short stack. Even got a good little chunk from Paul. Everyone at the table is clearly jealous of the pocket pair and the tight-aggressive player dragging back a big stack.
Now while I’m still stacking my chips and customarily tipping the dealer, two more cards suddenly appear. I’m still on the high from the high of the last hand. I figure I’ll take a quick peek, fold, and go back to putting my new little army in proper formation. I peek, it’s AA again. I can’t believe it. I’ll describe what I’m thinking at this point. I can’t believe my good fortune. My heart is pounding loudly, to the point where I think the rest of the room can now read me like a book, just like Scary Lady did. I play it out. I’m starting to draw a crowd of onlookers, because I’m betting big right from the flop. I’m slowly hooking one of the same players I hooked the last hand – an older Asian man who led with a $100 bet after the flop. He has maybe $75 left or so in his stack. Paul is next to play, and he calls. I just call this round. On the next round, go all-in with my second straight AA. Asian man calls, Paul gets out of the way. My aces hold up, and my army grows.
As you can imagine I had little time to process everything that was going on around me. I figure I had ten onlookers. Again I’m back to stacking even more chips and my army is starting to take the same shape as Paul’s. While I’m stacking chips, two more cards magically appear. Guess what? It’s AA again. At this point I’m not sure I’m able to process this. My heart rate had to be astronomical. I figure everyone can read me still. I know I played this almost automatically. But the showdown this time is only Paul and I. I’m ahead of Paul position-wise and Paul is aggressive with his bets. Before the showdown happens, there must have been a good $1000 (maybe closer to $1200) in the pot. Neither of us spent any time thinking about the calls or the raises. The number of onlookers has also grown. The table is quiet. The board is something like TxxTK (Can’t remember the other two cards.) I’m thinking cool – I’ve got Aces and 10’s and I’m going to extract yet another huge pot, this time from the chip leader here and take the chip lead on this table.
But this time my amazing luck has run out. Paul flips over his T to win with a set. Other players are first amazed that I drew AA three times in a row and then suddenly become a little angry, with one player calling for a new set of cards to be brought in. I gathered the rest of my chips and cashed out immediately, leaving with $400, doubling the $200 I brought into the game. Later I would discover that the odds of hitting AA three times in a row is about 1 in 10,793,861. That’s like winning the lottery-style odds. If I’m going to be that lucky, I’d rather it be winning the lottery.
Now of course I’m reeling a bit that I played (and lost) a thousand dollar hand. I know I must have a few stones loose to play that size of a hand. I should have read the board better and suspected a set. Maybe I couldn’t while Paul was being so aggressive with his betting. Hard to say. What I do know is this:
If I had been dealt anything other than a monster pocket pair, I would have folded and returned to neatly stacking my chips. This would have been true for the 2nd and the 3rd AA. But I thought I had the momentum. No one would stand in my way here with such aggressive betting. Or those that dared, I would simply make them pay with my monster hands. This aggression, combined with the loss of situational awareness, and that my heart felt like it was working harder than it ever has is what the pros must say is playing on ‘tilt’. I hope that lesson proves to be more worth far more than the value of that third hand.
Wednesday
I was supposed to get into town on Tuesday around lunchtime. Because of the flights and work, I didn’t actually arrive until Tuesday night. So on Wednesday, bright and early, I sat down to the tables for a few hands of 2-4 limit. I didn’t rake it in, but I managed to pay for the day’s tournaments at Excalibur. Their tournaments are usually 3 or 4 tables with a $35 buy-in. Each of the tournaments had some 35 players or so. In each of the tournaments, I made the final table. I finished tenth in the first, fifth in the second, and I won the last. It was my first tournament win at a live table! I pulled in $478.
The second tournament was a little strange. Being extremely short stacked, I just wanted it to be over. On the deal I push my stack in pre-flop and go all-in, blind. I didn’t even look at my hole cards. I had 66 and the board gave me a third 6. Good enough to win the hand, survive the blinds and get another couple places up in the finish for fifth – enough to reach the money. I made a big $54. Woo hoo, don’t spend it all in one place.
The third tournament won’t soon be forgotten. The final three was myself, a Frenchman, and a Korean woman. The Frenchman was a big chip leader at the final table for most of the hands and I was the short stack. The Korean woman asked if we wanted to chop the winnings. I would have gone along with the rest of the table. The Frenchman didn’t want to. So we continued to play, but not before the Korean woman brags about how she asked at her last tournament and then proceeded to win it all from her opponents.
The Korean woman knocks out the chip leader. I’m now heads up with her – and I love playing heads up. She had me covered by maybe 2:1 and I asked her if she wanted to chop, and she says no. “I’ve got way more chips than you”. Well I certainly didn’t think I’d beat her, but with two all-ins in a row, I knocked her out. She wasn’t happy with me. I wished her good luck and thank you for playing with me. She didn’t even answer. Clearly she was angry with someone, probably me.
I play a few more cash 2-4 limit games and I do come out ahead, but nothing spectacular.
Thursday / Friday
Thursday and Friday I was mostly busy with work, so I couldn’t play very much. I did play at Bally’s and Caesar’s Palace which was nice to get some experience in poker rooms where I was uncomfortable. My first trip to Caesar’s was pretty good. I played with two friends from work in a $3-6 limit game. I did pretty well until my friends left. I found one weakness in my game which was older women who resemble someone that I know or am related to. For some reason the grandmothers can read me like a book. There was one such person at Caesar’s and she was taking my money. Apparently she was a local who had won some of the bigger tournaments, despite her assertion that she had only been playing for six months. She was awfully good for only six months experience if true. J My friend had labeled her “Scary Lady”. She was as kind as anyone could be. She only wanted to take your money. J I landed quad-3’s, from which I would receive the high hand jackpot of a big sixty dollars.
Saturday
On Saturday I jumped up quickly to play before anyone else woke up, about 9 am. I couldn’t find any limit games going on at Excalibur. I was also too chicken to join in the no limit games. Later in the day we did find a good $2-4 limit game. I did reasonably well, including hitting quad 3’s and quad 4’s. Later, I went to Caesar’s and they had several 3-6 games going, but my poker partner didn’t want to play there. “Too many sharks,” he said. He suggested Bally’s, as this is where he was going to check into. I went over to Bally’s and there was nothing but the no-limit games. Call me chicken.
I did play by myself later on Saturday at Caesar’s, but I went down by $100 and walked out. “Scary Lady” had come back and soon she returned to building up her chip stack. I had noted on my first trip that they had some decent tournaments with a much higher buy-in than I’m used to - $150. But they had decent chip stacks with some 5,000 in chips. Looking at the blind structures, these do tournaments last awhile. According to the desk host, they can sometimes last until 2 or 3 in the morning.
My poker partner and I did play Bally’s later that evening. We have a mantra when we play “No Reload” or essentially “No rebuys”. He rebought twice. That was okay, I was enjoying playing with him. I didn’t rebuy and only came out even. There really were some good players at the table. By this point I started feeling a little tired of poker. I’m even asking myself – if I’m getting tired of poker after only 4 days, how would I handle the stress of a lengthy tournament such as the WSOP? Not that I’m good enough for that, but being consistent enough for it?
Sunday
Sunday gave me a good, hard lesson in poker. Sometimes the cards are good to you. Sometimes they are not. Each and every game for me on Sunday was a losing one. Had to rebuy in a 2-4 limit game at Excalibur. Busted out of the $35 Excalibur tournament quickly. Had to rebuy in the 3-6 game at Caesar’s. It was brutal. Couldn’t catch anything, it seemed. I got a lot of A-9, but those never seemed to go anywhere.
I figured my luck had to change soon enough. I eyed that $150 tournament. To date, it’s the most expensive tournament I’ve entered. When the cards start to fly, its clear my table mates are good – really, really good. The pace is very quick – everyone is attentive to the gameplay. The tournament starts off with a lot of people stealing blinds and little else. Then someone gets knocked out. I see a couple of flops and I think I stole a blind myself.
I’m dealt Kh Qh. I think to myself – good hand – get in and bring back some chips. I’m in middle position and no one raises pre-flop, and flop brings Q T 4. Checks around to me and I open with $200, thinking I’ve got top pair with a good kicker. The turn comes and the villain bets like $250 and I raise it to $1000. Villain calls. The river comes with another Q. I don’t go all in, but villain makes another large bet and I raise it again with most of my chip stack. He calls. I show my trip queens, and he shows Q T for the full house. He had me beat with the two pair on the flop.
I’m pretty much dead at this point. I survive the blinds another round and eventually go all in with 6 6. After all, they were good enough to me earlier in the week. It proved to be not good enough and I was out in the first round after only 40 minutes. I’m feeling pretty down after this. Maybe I’m not cut out for this game of poker. I deduce that my head is just too muddy for poker today. Maybe some days I should just not play. At all.
Monday
I got another good hard lesson in poker today. Maybe the best lesson yet. I just didn’t realize what lesson I was getting until I was sitting on the runway at McCarran airport waiting to take off. I woke up this morning with a few hours to kill before it was time to go to the airport for home. At 8am, I decided to at least go see what the action was like down at the poker room just one last time on this trip.
The 2-4 limit game I was most comfortable with was not being played. Just a couple of tables of 1-3 no limit. I have never played the no-limit cash games, figuring the players were much better and I would lose very quickly. So this was my first. I played it much like I do tournaments – aggressive, limp in with good hands or the nuts where possible, and then extract as much as you dare.
For me the most obvious difference between limit and no limit is you have fewer people chasing straights and flushes. I once heard from a dealer the nickname for the limit games I was used was “no fold-em hold-em”. It also seems that you can bluff and push people off their hands with large bets.
I played reasonably well. I stole a few blinds here and there with high pairs and such. Won a pretty good hand at showdown with a A-high straight. I went a little loose and speculated a bit, and soon I found myself about $40 up. Nothing special.
Let me describe the table. The chip leader at the table “Paul” had an amazing army of $5 chips in front of him. I’m guessing it had to be over $2000. I at first didn’t want to play this table with such an amazing chip stack. I wanted to play the other one. After all, its too easy to join a no-limit game when you’ve got someone that can bet 200-300 a hand pre-flop without even batting an eye.
Another guy who was really drunk (even passed out once) made one of the worst moves I think I had seen at the table. The board was very favorable to a straight, with 7 8 9 T on the board. Paul had been doing most of his betting either pre-flop or right after the flop. He had been using his chip strength to steal a lot of hands. Drunk guy and Paul get into a showdown, but not before drunk guy pushes his whole stack for all-in. Paul calls. Whole table is thinking straight and we’re right – drunk guy flips over 5-5. Paul on the other hand flips over J-Q.
A few hands later, I figure I had maybe another good hour left to play when I was dealt AA. At the time I was sitting on $240 or so. Astonished, I played it as cool as I could. I managed to hook a few and follow them to a showdown. I had a main pot going and two side pots. I prevailed and brought home a nice little new army of red $5 chips and knocked out someone that was on the short stack. Even got a good little chunk from Paul. Everyone at the table is clearly jealous of the pocket pair and the tight-aggressive player dragging back a big stack.
Now while I’m still stacking my chips and customarily tipping the dealer, two more cards suddenly appear. I’m still on the high from the high of the last hand. I figure I’ll take a quick peek, fold, and go back to putting my new little army in proper formation. I peek, it’s AA again. I can’t believe it. I’ll describe what I’m thinking at this point. I can’t believe my good fortune. My heart is pounding loudly, to the point where I think the rest of the room can now read me like a book, just like Scary Lady did. I play it out. I’m starting to draw a crowd of onlookers, because I’m betting big right from the flop. I’m slowly hooking one of the same players I hooked the last hand – an older Asian man who led with a $100 bet after the flop. He has maybe $75 left or so in his stack. Paul is next to play, and he calls. I just call this round. On the next round, go all-in with my second straight AA. Asian man calls, Paul gets out of the way. My aces hold up, and my army grows.
As you can imagine I had little time to process everything that was going on around me. I figure I had ten onlookers. Again I’m back to stacking even more chips and my army is starting to take the same shape as Paul’s. While I’m stacking chips, two more cards magically appear. Guess what? It’s AA again. At this point I’m not sure I’m able to process this. My heart rate had to be astronomical. I figure everyone can read me still. I know I played this almost automatically. But the showdown this time is only Paul and I. I’m ahead of Paul position-wise and Paul is aggressive with his bets. Before the showdown happens, there must have been a good $1000 (maybe closer to $1200) in the pot. Neither of us spent any time thinking about the calls or the raises. The number of onlookers has also grown. The table is quiet. The board is something like TxxTK (Can’t remember the other two cards.) I’m thinking cool – I’ve got Aces and 10’s and I’m going to extract yet another huge pot, this time from the chip leader here and take the chip lead on this table.
But this time my amazing luck has run out. Paul flips over his T to win with a set. Other players are first amazed that I drew AA three times in a row and then suddenly become a little angry, with one player calling for a new set of cards to be brought in. I gathered the rest of my chips and cashed out immediately, leaving with $400, doubling the $200 I brought into the game. Later I would discover that the odds of hitting AA three times in a row is about 1 in 10,793,861. That’s like winning the lottery-style odds. If I’m going to be that lucky, I’d rather it be winning the lottery.
Now of course I’m reeling a bit that I played (and lost) a thousand dollar hand. I know I must have a few stones loose to play that size of a hand. I should have read the board better and suspected a set. Maybe I couldn’t while Paul was being so aggressive with his betting. Hard to say. What I do know is this:
If I had been dealt anything other than a monster pocket pair, I would have folded and returned to neatly stacking my chips. This would have been true for the 2nd and the 3rd AA. But I thought I had the momentum. No one would stand in my way here with such aggressive betting. Or those that dared, I would simply make them pay with my monster hands. This aggression, combined with the loss of situational awareness, and that my heart felt like it was working harder than it ever has is what the pros must say is playing on ‘tilt’. I hope that lesson proves to be more worth far more than the value of that third hand.
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