Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 18:06:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Lone Locust of the Apocalypse Subject: [BARGE] LV trip report Went to LV for some of the Five Star tournament. Below is the epic tale. One of the days I'll learn to be concise. Friday 2 April Obligatory Travel-Related Section In a reverse of the usual pattern, it was decent in the Bay Area and raining in Las Vegas, and ATC was holding inbound flights. We finally left about 2 hours late. Had a limo to Caesar's -- there's something about going through the tunnel for free that is titillating in a +EV sort of way (I don't get out much). My friend Matt was delayed as well on his way in from San Diego, which mattered a bit more as he was due to show up just before the Elton John concert, to which I had tickets. He ended making it in just a bit late, missing the first two numbers (Benny and the Jets and Philadelphia Freedom). The show was pretty good. It was also amusing watching some of the hard-core long-time fans, in a watching-Trekkies sort of way. After the concert I head over to the Bellagio to play in a $285 one-table satellite for tomorrow's $2500+$100 NL tournament. T3000 to start, 25-50 blinds, 15 minute rounds. First hand I have 87 in the big blind, 3 people limp, sb calls, I check, flop 876. I bet 200, only the small blind folds. Turn is a K. I'm not thrilled with the action and check. The button bets 500, I decide to call and see what happens behind me, the rest fold. River is an ace. I'm liking it even less, as Ax isn't out of the question, but the button doesn't seem to want me to call his T1500 bet, so I call. He has 93s for a busted straight draw. Soon after that someone makes a ridiculous bluff where he could not possibly have had the hand he was trying to represent and I've basically doubled up in the first orbit. Whee! Oh, one other hand, Mike Laing opens for a raise on the button, sb folds, I re-raise with K9 in the big blind. He goes in the tank and finally calls, but he doesn't seem happy about it. The flop comes with an ace, no king, and no 9. I announce "I'm all in." Mike seems even less happy and thinks for an even longer time. Finally someone puts the clock on him and maybe 10 seconds later he folds. Ding! A couple people bust, the blinds go up, I don't pick up a hand for a while, etc. Then I raise earlyish with 88, short stack goes all-in for roughly double that and I have him covered so I call. He has 77 and stands up. "There's still 5 cards coming" I say. To prove me right (or punish my pessimism), the flop is 976. The turn gives me a backdoor flush. Someone at the end of the table who's been acting like he's some hot shit player says something about how I'm drawing dead. "Actually I'm drawing pretty live, but that's ok." River is a blank though. Folded around to Mike and me in the blinds. Mike raises. I don't read him for a hand so I jam for 4-5x more with A5. He calls pretty quickly and shows 85! More incredibly, the flop comes A34, turn 7, river 6, making us both a straight. Mike picks up his chips, I pick up my chips, the dealer splits the pot. Two hands later a railbird comes over and points out to me, sotto voce, that Mike actually should have won the entire pot. Holy crap, I honestly did not notice. I'm not even sure what if any ethical obligations I have at this point. It turns out not to make much of a difference as an orbit later, since I am now crippled, it's folded around to us in the blinds again and I call all-in with J9s against his A5 and the board comes 33T8T, IGHN. Saturday 3 April My starting table for the $2500 NL includes TJ two to my left, and Annie Duke two to my right. I pick up AA exactly once, on the button, and can't get anyone to play, and last an otherwise uneventful 3.5 hours, going out on a flush draw. I enter the evening super, which is $1000+60 entry to win a seat in the $25K WPT championship. I think 37 or so people entered Saturday night. Two hands of note: 1. Two limpers, I get to play QJ in the big blind. Flop of QQx checks through. Turn is a J. Barry Shulman, who outchips me by a bit, bets T500 from the small blind. I call, others fold. River is some blank. Barry checks. I ponder whether Barry can be induced to double me up and decide in the end to try and milk him for 1500. He moves me in! I immediately call my last 1200 and show QJ and he instantly mucks. 2. I raise in the field with KK. Steve Brecher (whom I have out-chipped) re-raises about half his stack from the blinds. I honestly have to think for a bit on what to do here. Steve would seem to have pot-committed himself without actually raising all-in. This is confusing. And I can easily see him doing this with AA to get me to move in. Then I wonder if I'm over-thinking this. After 5-10 seconds I grit my teeth and move in. Steve rolls over AK. Ding! The flop is QTx. The river is some blank. Steve stands up. Somehow I feel a J coming, and up it pops. Steve sits back down. This is the second time in I have had another RGPer in bad shape pre-flop only to have them river a J against me for the ace-high straight (and I had the same premonition last time). Later Steve allows that it was a strange re-raise and he isn't sure why it came out that way. For those of you keeping score, I have now had the money in with 88 vs. 77, A5 vs. 85, and KK vs. AK and lost all 3 hands, which is something like a 1-2% parlay. (OK, in one situation I was incorrectly awarded half the pot but technically I lost the hand.) Some time later I steal on the button with KT, the big blind calls. Flop comes king-high spades. He looks at his hole cards. I do not read that he is faking this tell, so I bet the pot after he checks. The turn is a non-spade. He underbets 500, I move in, he calls quickly. "Oops." Yeah, he has AsJs. Ah, now I see how it's done -- wait until the other person is drawing dead, *then* get all the money in. Sunday 4 April $2500+$100 Omaha/8 -- not a whole lot exciting to report here. As I am fond of saying, "basically, Omaha things occurred." Those of you who play O/8 know what I mean. Actually I didn't take any particularly bad beats, just didn't get much in the way of hands here. I got quartered once while I was all-in, which didn't help the comeback, and went out shortly thereafter. Entered evening super again. Finally started getting hands to hold up. I forget the limit, but a loose player raises 2UTG to T500, fold to my BB and I have aces, make it 1500, he calls. Flop Axy. I check, he moves in, I beat him into the pot. He has A8. He actually picks up a straight draw so I have to sweat the river card but it's a blank and I double through. Again, I forget the limit, but I raise in the field with KK, Layne Flack calls in the blind, flop is something like 842. He checks, I bet the pot, he moves in for double the bet. I call and beat his 99, eliminating him. Amazing hand: 25 ante, 100-200 blinds. UTG comes in for 2000! TJ is next to act, and with only a brief hesitation makes it 6K to go! The next player to act thinks for quite a while and reluctantly folds. While he is thinking, someone on my right (button or small blind) says they have a good hand too. They think for a while and fold. I'm in the big blind, and with all of this coffeehousing going on, what are the chances I would actually have a playable hand? I finally look at my hole cards. !! This has got to be a fucking dream. Me: I'm all in [about 12000] UTG: [mucks instantly] TJ: [disgustedly] Shit, I have the worst hand of all of you and I'm going to have to call this. [He calls] Me: [to the table] Well, what does everyone think I have? TJ picks up a straight draw and *again* I have to sweat the goddamned river card. But I double through. The dealer pulls in various bets and may have matched off some of my stack but TJ has to put in 5950 more to pay me off. He counts out 5000 and then starts fumbling with smaller-denomination chips. The dealer and I have the same idea, as we both pick up T50 and I start to say "Here, just put in another 1000" but before I can finish the word "just" TJ swivels his head and fixes me with a stare which, if translated into words, would probably say something like "If I wanted to, I could crush your neck with one hand" and I shut up and put my hands up in a placatory gesture. TJ says "I've been doing this a long time, I know what I'm doing, I don't need your help, don't get all excited, etc." He counts out the 950. "OK?" he asks, somewhat sarcastically. UTG, by the way, says he folded 22. He would have made quads. I tried to make some conciliatory conversation with TJ later but he ignored me. Maybe still irritated about coming in 3rd in the NL tournament earlier that afternoon after starting as the final table chip leader. He ends up busting with pair + flush draw to someone who has him out-kicked. Eventually we get down to the final table. Not that that means much, as there is only one seat, plus $20,090 cash for 2nd place. Down to maybe 6 handed, a guy is getting short-stacked and moving in liberally to try and build up his stack via blinds & antes. I move in behind him with 77, big blind shows and folds 88, flop comes with a 7, and the river is an 8! The original mover had something like J9 and busts. The guy who went out 4th made a reference to 55 being presto at some point. He lost with AQ vs. A9 to get crippled, and also busted when he had the best of it going in, and stormed off in a huff. Now 3-handed, about 140K in play, and at one point I have amassed 70K. UTG raises my big blind to about 4K, I shove in with A2 which requires him to call something like 14K more. Oops, he calls and has 88 and I double him up. Now the chips are like 50/50/40. Now, by conventional wisdom it probably seems stupid for me to even play a hand here. And afterward I felt pretty stupid for trying this move. On the other hand I don't think the other players should get free license to chip away from me without having to suffer a re-steal once in a while. Will have to think about this some more. Some time later, I open UTG for 6K with AsKs, guy on my left who is now in the SB raises 10K more, I move in for 40K. He thinks for what seems like an eternity and folds, claiming to have had QQ. The third guy is short now, so there's no reason for him to want to flip a coin. Third guy busts. It's now 3 AM and we both want to play the main tournament at noon, and we ended up settling. I am too embarrased to reveal how bad a deal I made at this point. I normally don't make deals, and this may be one reason why. I just seem to have difficulty selling a fair deal. But being it was 3 AM, I was tired, etc., I didn't feel like arguing. I swear I'm going to take a harder line the next time I end up in this circumstance. Monday 5 April $2500 limit hold'em, my super-satellite nemesis is on my left! Actually I left out a lot of the super hands, but 3- and 4- handed, it seemed like whenever I raised, the guy had a hand *every* *freaking* *time.* He showed a good portion of them. And I know that means he probably had crap the other times, but it was still a huge portion. The one time I caught him, he still had *some* hand -- I have 99, he calls my raise, flop T8x, I check and call, turn checks through, river is an 8 and I check and call and he has AQ. Today proves to be no different -- he flops a set against me, turns trips against me, and between that and other non-good things happening I didn't make it past the 2nd break. I buy-in to tonight's super and go to play video poker while I'm waiting. A cocktail waitress soon shows up and I go into the whole production of trying to order a Lagavulin. I *know* they have it, it's just that it's not at the usual service bar for cocktail waitresses so I have to convince them to make the trip for me. Some will, some won't. It's hit or miss. On a previous night, my friend Matt observed this song and dance: Waitress: [returning] sorry, they're out of it. Me: at the high limit bar? Waitress: Yeah, I went there. They're out of Lagavulin. Me: ok, that's too bad. [I accept the backup drink that I ordered] waitress walks away Matt: I hate to tell you this, but she was *so* lying about them being out of it. She didn't even go. Tonight's waitress says "I will go for you. Don't worry." When she returns shortly thereafter, I can tell from 10 feet off by the smell that she has the good stuff. Me: "You got it?" Her: "Of course! Here, it's a triple." She hands me a snifter that must be half-full of Lagavulin, which is great -- I normally ask for whisky in a snifter, but didn't even try this time since I wasn't sure whether I was going to get it or not. I tip her $3. The triple takes me a while to finish, so I have to wave her off on her next round, but the round after that she brings me a double, and my demeanor is taking a decidedly euphoric turn. The next round I tell her I probably shouldn't, I don't want to get drunk before dinner (or maybe I said "too drunk"). She says "Are you sure? I'm going home after this so this is your last chance." "Oh, sure, what the hell, bring me another." It's funny, it seemed like I was very suggestible all weekend (I don't remember specifically why I have this feeling, but I know at least a couple other times people suggested things and I said sure, why not?) The way I figure it, I found a waitress who will bring me Lagavulin, might as well ensure I get maximum volume. After all, the recurring volume of... er, sum, the recurring sum of edge times volume, equals... equals... something. Hic. The Bellagio brought me in RFB based on video poker play for the first time (previously I've been RFL) so I wanted to try out some of the high-end restaurants. I went upstairs to change out of jeans into slacks and went to Circo. The food was absolutely fantastic. It was about this time I sent the following e-mail to the ADB mailing list: From: zorak@ninthbit.com Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 18:59 -0800 Subject: Report: I am drunk off my ass In the last hour I have had, probably, a triple and two doubles of Lagavilin [sic] while playing VP. Currently in between soup and entree courses at Circo at the Bellagio, enjoying a glass of a fine Pinot Grigio. Oh, did I mention I'm playing in a $1060 super-satellite for the $25K WPT championship in less than half an hour? I came in 2nd in last night's super for 20K, so I figure this is some sort of inebriated freeroll. From the e-mail client on my Treo (a plastered geek is still a geek), -- ADB Zorak Despite this, I thought I played pretty reasonably in the super (North Shore Mike: "Yeah, I always think that when I'm shitfaced, too.") Sample hand (I am short-stacked at this point): 3 people limp, I complete my sb, bb checks. Button: "I need help." Me: "No, *I* need help. Flop me the nuts please." Dealer: burns, flops K94 Everyone checks. Me: "Turn me the nuts please." Dealer: burns & turns some card not pairing the board Everyone checks. Me: "River me the nuts please." Dealer: burns, puts up another 4 Me: [nearly simultaneous with the river card hitting the table ] I'm all in. And no one had the decency to call! What's the point of putting on an act if no one's going to pay you off? Anyway things weren't hitting for me (not that I played all that many hands -- seriously, I think I played quite reasonably) I ended up going out with QQ against AK. All in all, an enjoyable and profitable trip.