Friday, March 24, 2017

Vegas Bender Spring 2017 - March Madness! PART 2 of 2

Morning came early and I dragged myself downstairs for some overpriced and over processed breakfast at the cafeteria style eatery at Harrah's.  Orange juice and a jumbo blueberry muffin - the breakfast of champions.

I met up with A8Fold at Treasure Island - or T.I. as the hipsters call it, for a change of scenery and some fresh meat, er, fresh faces.  On the way over I had some time to kill and happened to wander into the lobby/gift shop of an exhibit called Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N.  It looked pretty cool, these fellows were rather buff...



I made a mental note to bring the kid on Monday as she and her mom were driving out for spring break.  (It did happen, and we had fun, though sadly it was drastically overpriced for what it was - a slick but short walk amongst props, costumes and fictional "exhibits".  I would have much preferred a behind the scenes look at the making of the movies, rather than a comic book universe setting that pretends that this stuff is real.  The kid, who is a pretty big MCU fan, liked it but didn't love it.  Wife was irritated.)

And so we sat down for some morning degeneracy.  Yes, this was another turbo - a $50 chance to maybe win a couple hundred bucks.  There was literally two tables of players.



Still, it was a lot of fun.  A8Fold was at the same table which was a kick.  But unfortunately he soon found himself with a chip and a chair, literally.


I managed to hold on for quite a bit longer - running up my stack quite a bit.



Unfortunately it was not to be another cash.  I played well but got massively unlucky twice, once colliding my AK into AA with the only other big stack at the table - which was the final table and no one was deep, and finally going out when my JJ ran into QQ.

Still it was a good time and I knew if we returned for the 10pm there would be a lot more players - the brush informed me that they'd had 58 on Friday night.

It was after 2pm and we found ourself at that odd time when there were no desirable tournaments running, so we grabbed some food and took a long walk through the Caesar's shops.  Mike Tyson was at the sports collectable store and there was a massive line to see him.  Great.  Celebrate a convicted rapist everyone!  Awesome!

Finally 7pm rolled around and we ponied up for a non-Bounty Mirage tournament.

This is the tournament I remember the least - but I can tell you that this was the first time that I never ran up a stack.  I was under my starting chips the whole time and completely unable to accumulate.  A good amount of this was that I was card dead, the other part of the equation is that my table was extremely active and somewhat capable, there was very little limping allowed.  I finally got my chips in the middle in good shape with AQ vs AJ, but a jack hit the turn and that was that.

It had been an enjoyable but still disappointing day after so much success in less than 48 hours.  We boarded Vegas's crummiest Tram - the one between Mirage and T.I. - and ponied up $65 for the 10pm shove-a-ment.



The bad news was, I had a regular on my left and a chatty regular on my right.  I actually knew him and have played with him probably every time I've shown up for an evening tourney at T.I.  His name was Casey and he's a local radio personality who spends his nights playing tournaments at T.I. and a handful of other smaller rooms on the strip.  Nice guy, very active and capable poker player.

The good news is that he and the regular on my left both picked up very early that I was a capable recreational player, as opposed to the rest of our table which was a group of typical home gamers.  None of us said one word to each other about it, but very early on there was an unspoken understanding that we weren't going to be getting involved with each other unless there were big hands running into each other.

When Casey would open, I would almost always fold.  One time I three bet him with KK, and I made sure to show after he had folded and the hand was over.   The guy on my left would literally open every hand that Casey and I had folded - except once he did three bet me, and showed AQ when I let my hand go.  I'd had KJ.

Intentional collusion is a bad thing at the poker table, but when it's completely unspoken it can work out to be very helpful.  They didn't want to tangle with me or each other and the feeling was mutual and we really didn't at all, save for the occasional time when the cards demanded it.

The reg on my left eventually got too active and spewy and made his exit.  A short while later Casey got coolered and crippled with QQ vs KK and was out on the very next hand - I had to call him with A10.   And with that I was much more free to get a lot more active as the final table approached.

We'd had 57 runners, including A8Fold who was still in - and just as 1am approached it was final table time.

I had generated quite a stack and was the chip leader at my old table - it had been easy to accumulate simply by staying active and following through with c-bets.  Players were almost entirely 'fit or fold' types, which made it easy to drag a pot or let it go if they resisted.

But at the final table I was not the big cheese.  A soft spoken kid had a literal Mount Chip-more, a massively prohibitive stack that had me at 4 to 1 and the rest of the table at 6, 8 or even 10 to 1.

The bubble approached super fast.  Unfortunately mega-stack was directly to my left, so I had to fold quite a bit, as he loved to flat my opens and fire if I slowed down at all.   After about half an hour when we were two from the money, he knocked out two micro stacks and we were in the monies with five players remaining.

I had gotten fairly short with 15 big blinds or so, I was still second in chips -  I had been keeping my head above water by looking for good spots to 3 bet jam.   I knew it was only a matter of time before big stack looked me up light.  Thankfully it came right after the bubble burst, he called my AJ with A7 and I mercifully avoided a suck out.  Now I was 30 bigs and his chip lead had shrunk by quite a bit to where he had me at a bit more than 2 to 1.

The two tiniest stacks fell pretty quickly, I busted one with AA.  He had been waiting forever, literally hadn't played a hand and then finally shoved with AK.  My bullets held and we all got to hear how much he hates AK for about 20 minutes.  Even after he got up and shook hands, even after he had been payed out.  It never gets old and is always enjoyable.

So with three of us left, big stack (who had me quite a bit less than 2 to 1) and a friendly fellow who barely spoke English - my thoughts turned to a chop.  But before I could mention it, the friendly fellow brought it up.   The kid wasn't having it, he was very nice and very naive; he said "I've never been in this position before, I want to play it out."  I said that was fine but there were only 28 big blinds on the table total and we would each get $695 if we divided it up.  He still declined and I smiled and said okay, and I didn't mention it again.   Friendly fellow was pretty annoyed with the kid.

The very next hand I looked down at KK and opened from the button.  The kid carved out chips and three bet me very large.  Hallelujah, was all I could think.  Please let him have 1010, JJ, QQ or AK or even AQ, any of those hands and all the chips are going in.   I took a moment and four bet shoved, he snap called.

For an instant I was worried about AA, but then he turned over...

Wait for it....

K3.  Suited.

I was fairly aghast.  This was a side I hadn't seen from this kid before, and I really liked it.

The board bricked out and he was crippled.   I had the chip lead now and it was fairly substantial.  The very next hand he was out when he threw his chips in blind and the friendly fellow and I called and checked it down.  I rivered a jack with my KJ sooted and the kid was gone.

I shook his hand, he had offered it to me, and wished him a good night.  Then I looked at the friendly fellow and before he could open his mouth I made the karate chop motion with my hand on the rail.  He got a huge grin across his face before extending his hand to mind.   We each took home $885.

Bink!
This was technically my second takedown according to my dubious qualifications, but it really did feel like I had won it.  We finished heads up and I had a 3 to 1 chip lead, but there were literally 28 big blinds on the table total and the blinds were set to double in a few minutes.  I know I made a +EV decision to divide it up.  We both made $200 better than second place money.  Nice!

Yay.
For the third night in a row I climbed into bed super happy, too tired to do anything but sit down to that big poker table in my dreams.  You know, the one that includes the anteater from the Pink Panther cartoon, Donald Trump, an ex-girlfriend and the oldest dealer at the Mirage.   Sweet sweet dreams.


*****

For once I slept in a little bit.  I figured there was no way I was going to make the Monte Carlo.  I had planned to go to the 9am Sunday morning tournament to pay my respects and say goodbye.  The room closes on April 24.  We are down from a high of 25 poker rooms in Vegas in 2008, to just 18 only eight years later.   The game isn't truly dying, but it is definitely cooling off.

But as I made my way down in the elevator for breakfast, I looked at pokeratlas.com and saw that the Sunday morning tournament at M.C. was no longer at 9am - it was at 11.  I could make it.

I hustled my bustle on over, taking the east sidewalk route all the way to the entrance of the casino - the shortest walk, but in the glare of the sun, and made it with half an hour to spare.  A8Fold managed to meet me there right before the tournament started.  It was on like Donkey Kong!



There was only 1 table, and 11 entries.  Barely any money at stake.  Everyone, as usual at M.C. was super friendly and super chill.  Holly, the cantankerous but sweet dealer who is probably older than all of the hotels on the strip, was in a bittersweet mood as she lamented losing her job and saying goodbye to her colleagues which were also her true friends.

To my right was a French woman who literally had never played poker before.  Her British husband on my left helped her along through her betting options.  One player in the 10 seat across from me (I was in the 7) started to grouse and was promptly scolded by Holly.  She was absolutely right to say, "If you've never played poker before, you are in the absolute best room in the world by far to give it a go."   Yep, this was the time and the place.  The grouser shut his trap.

Ran it up right away.
French lady was the first to bust.  A8Fold got a bit unlucky as I recall and busted out as the money approached, but he seemed happy enough to go play cash.  An Irish gentleman, or rather an Irish dude (maybe 25 years old at most) had an incredibly thick brogue and was hard to understand, but the whole table did get that he was hitting on Holly.  She was absolutely cracking up.  I texted to A8Fold before he busted - "Irish guy is rock hard".   A8 had to stifle his laughter.  It was very funny, but also kind of gross and creepy because the Irish dude was deep down pretty serious that he would take Holly home given half the chance.   Ew.

In the end they were paying 2.  There was so little money involved that I didn't mention a bubble safety and neither did anyone else.  It came down to me, the English man and the Irish dude.   English man folded way way way too much - and had less than one big blind a couple of times that he was forced to put in.  He doubled up once, then twice, then busted out when my 87 sooted cracked his pocket 10s.

Irish dude got a little mad at me when I called his all in bet without looking and this hand cracked his K8...

Powerhouse hand.
I simply smiled and said "You're right, I probably should've looked."  He said "No worries" (at least I think that's what he said) and seemed happy enough with his hundred and something dollar 2nd place money.  I myself got $290 I believe - and got the satisfaction of actually taking down a casino tournament for the first time in my life.  I've always chopped before, this time I had so many chips that no one including myself bothered to suggest it.  GG me.


It was just after noon and we made our way over to Bellagio to plunk down $200 for the 2pm 'Shot Clock' tournament.

Let me just say this once -  SHOT CLOCK IN POKER = BEST THING EVER.

I truly believe it is the future of the game.  I made sure to loudly and frequently praise the format to everyone around me.  It was truly great that all of the potentially slow and absent minded players had a fire under them in the threat of their hand being killed.  They all to a man were forced to pay attention and act within a reasonable time frame.   Loved it, loved it, LOVED IT.

Speaking of great things - I played the best poker I had played all weekend in this one.   Follow along with the chippies...







 My table was soft but not T.I. soft.  Still, I stayed active and got involved and made correct decision after correct decision.  Busting a swarthy regular on my left who turned beet red when one of my 17 outs hit on the turn after all the chips had gone in.  "You are very lucky my friend." he grumbled as he stormed off.   "Yes sir, I am, and the harder I work on my game the luckier I seem to get."  Is what I would've said if I had been the type to do so.

So as you can see from above - I made the final table; and I was third in chips at that point.  Two very good players were on my right, so I was able to tread water pretty well.  They were only paying four and there were 7 of us left.   I had just dipped below 15 big blinds and I knew I needed a double up for a chance at the cheddar on top, almost 5K for first place.  I ripped with 44 on the button, and got called by A7 by the friendly but spacey recreational in the small blind.  This was for most of his chips, he barely had me covered.  A seven on the turn and that was that.

Sigh.  I was disappointed but it was okay.  I shook hands and turned away to go tell  A8Fold who was playing cash.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see them all of the sudden launch into a chop discussion.  They were still two from the money so I figured they were talking a double bubble safety, mildly disappointing but not crazy.

Well that's not what they were discussing - they were discussing chopping up all the money.  Paying 6 instead of four.  I felt a bit sick to my stomach as they came to an agreement.  The two big chip leaders divided up first place money and each got just over 2K, the remaining four divided the remaining two payouts evenly, getting just over 900 apiece.

Well that sucks.  Had I known I was actually on the bubble, I would've found a fold with 44.  ICM is just too big to ignore in such a situation.  But none of these guys knew each other as far as I could tell, and literally not one word had been mentioned by anyone about any kind of deal until I had stood up.  Bummer.  Ah well.

And so that was it for me officially for poker.  A8Fold talked me into the 10pm Mirage, so I played, but my mind was elsewhere and I had decided not to count my results, even if I cashed.

All told I finished up almost $1000 in profit, a record for me in Vegas for a weekend of play.

I am super super happy with my play - I feel my game is stronger than it's ever been.  This last Wednesday night I got invited to a new home game, I promptly sat down and laid waste to all 8 of my friendly recreational opponents.  I suggested an even chop with the host when we got heads up, he gratefully accepted as I had a 2 to 1 chip lead.  I do want to be invited back after all.

If you're still here I want to thank you so much for reading.  I truly get a lot of enjoyment out of putting all my poker experiences to paper - er... computer screen, and I am very much looking forward to my next adventure on the felt.  Looks like it's going to be at the WSOP, the second weekend in June for the Millionaire Maker, regardless of whether I win my home game's satellite or not.  I've got enough cheddar now to justify the entry fee - I am very much looking forward to a larger bracelet event.

In the meantime I have my home game's monthly tomorrow night - I don't plan on bulldozing people, but hopefully I can make enough good decisions and that just might be the result.





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