The Joker in Vegas

[Joker161]

It"s that time of year again. Off to Vegas on Sunday. I"ll post the usual on here.

Excited!

[Joker161]

Sunday 3rd July

Flight fine. Film catch up as usual. Started with Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Decent. Then Anomolisa. Odd, but quite good. Then some trash movie called How to be Single, or something like that. Total toilet film, but vaguely entertaining. No queue at immigration which was impressive. I"m staying at the Mirage this year. Very nice rooms, but then they should be at the price. It said £800 when I booked with bookingdotcom, but with the annoying resort fee apparently I"ll be paying around $1,500 for the nine nights. Hmm. Off to explore now, and perhaps buy in for tomorrow"s Venetian event.

[Joker161]

Played some $1/$2 cash at the Venetian. Odd session. Very reluctantly put down QQ on a jack high board after a raise on the turn. The villain then proceeded to play awfully, including calling down all streets with T2 twice against me. The QQ was probably good! I then stacked someone with KK on a KT8 board. The poor bloke had a ten and the turn was a ten. He goes all-in and I snap. I then get carried away with quite a big bluff on the river. It almost got through but the villain found a call. Ended up $50 up and then went to Bouchon for some dinner. It"s now 8.20pm, so 4.20am really. I assume I"ll have the usual sleep problems tonight. I met a woman at dinner also dinning on her own. She mentioned the Aria turbo tomorrow that feeds into a $1mn guarantee. Might have to look into that.

[Joker161]

Monday 4th July

Woke up feeling relatively refreshed with light streaming in through the crack in the curtains. I"ve finally managed to sleep through on my first night in Vegas after all these years! I look at the clock radio on the bedside table and it"s 2.20am. Oh dear. The light was from some spotlights on the roof of the main casino building. I read the Sunday papers on the iPad and it"s not making me feel tired. Finally try and sleep a bit at about 3.30am but it"s not really happening. At 5am I get Wimbledon on the TV and then have breakfast at 7am. Decision made - I"m going to try the WPT event at the Aria. It"s 15k in chips and 20 minute blinds. Not ideal, but I am used to this from the Rendezvous in Brighton, and the $1mn guarantee is too tempting. Also, if you make Day 2 the blinds revert to one hour. Fingers crossed!

[Des]

Very best of luck with your trip Joe.  Looking forward to reading of your adventures....

[Joker161]

Seven levels until the break! Not too much to report. Won a couple, lost a couple. Generally card dead. I got KK on a king high flop against the weakest player. He had called everything all day, so I bet the flop and he folded! He"s already out, by the way. One big hand. Blinds 200/400/50 and I"m in the BB with JJ. UTG calls, +1 raises to 3,200 (a bit large). I have about 12k left and decide to go all-in. A bit of a gamble, but raising anything less is more than half my stack. He calls with a grimace and has AK. I survive. Then nothing until the break. I"m on about 24k now. I think we are playing about 18 levels today. I"ll have to get some more hands, or get very lucky, to survive that long.

[Joker161]

Thanks Des. By the way, the player in seat one smelt REALLY bad. I was in seat six so didn"t really smell anything, but when he got knocked out the man in seat two told the table how he nearly called the floor it was so bad. Then there was a big discussion about what a TD would do about it. To be fair, his hair was very greasy.

[Joker161]

Turbos are really hard when you"re card dead. My chips dwindled away to about 13k, blinds now 800/1600/200. One regret - I almost pushed in the SB with K6o after an early call. Not a fan of hands like that, so I waited for a better spot. Flop AKK. Annoying. I finally get ATs (that"s looking massive at the moment). A big stack calls and he has A7. Handy. Flop is QJ3. He shouts "three" and there it is on the turn. So an annoying split. The very next hand I get KQo. I push again and the same big stack calls and he has A9. Ace on the flop. A fun tournament but you really need some luck to get anywhere. Time for some lunch.

[Joker161]

Tuesday 5th July

Noon start for the Venetian event. No 25/50, but all the other levels are there and it"s 40 minute blinds so should be a good event. Also, they have the card shuffling machines so it"s really something like 50 minute blinds. Pretty quiet to start with. I get QQ and everyone folds. First big hand, I get TT in the BB. A loose player raises, mid-position min-reraises. I just call and so does the loose player. Flop is 874, two spades. I bet and get two calls. Turn is 9 of spades so I now have the straight flush draw. I bet and just the reraiser calls. I miss and we check the river, thankfully. He has AA. Hmm. Down to 10k. Then I get very lucky. I raise in LP with JT and get two callers. Flop is JT2. Check, then I check, then the button bets and I"m the only caller. Turn is an eight. I bet and he raises. I should probably fold here. Set of twos? Does he really have Q9? He"s been quite loose, so I go all-in and he snaps with Q9, obviously. I say "well, I have outs" and the ten hits the river. Phew! Since then it"s been odds and sods and I"m on about 20k. There was one hand with the Q9 man (who obviously plays all the hands I"m in) where I get AA (first time this holiday!) and he calls my raise. Ace high flop, so I check, he bets and I call. The turn pairs the board, so I check again and he checks back. Surely he"ll call a bet on the river. Sadly he doesn"t. I get moved five minutes before the break. Only a ten minute break so I need to get back. Must eat some food.

[Joker161]

Next three levels. Not much to report. I got moved tables again and was sitting next to a nice English bloke called Darren. Had AK a couple of times and 99 once. And chipped up a little C-betting and floating, etc. one hand of note. I raised In the CO with QT to steal and the button calls. Flop is 222. I bet, he calls. I bet the turn and he calls. I bottle the river, check/check, and he shows AK. He says he would have folded a river bet. A bit annoying, but serves me right. I got moved again before the break and I"m on 25k now which is about average. Over 400 entries so the prizes up top should be decent. Long way to go!

[Joker161]

Next two hours. Totally card dead. I honestly can"t remember the best hand I had during these levels. Did I have A7 once? I definitely had QJ because I raised to steal with it once. Somehow I"m still on about 25k (occasional steals) but the average is now 35k. Just so there"s something to talk about, can someone explain the mindset of those that keep re-buying into $1,000 events? We"ve had this bloke on our table three times. 15k in chips is not so great now the blinds are 400/800/100, so they get a bit lairy and then they"re out within half an hour. Are they made of money? On the dinner break now so I think that"s the end of the re-buys. We have over 400 entries. Six more levels tonight. Need some hands.

[Joker161]

Level 10 went mad. I get AK, AK, KK three hands running and they all get paid off. The first one I"m UTG+1 and I get three callers and the flop is AK5. Sod it, I thought, I"ve got to get through three players so I bet it and they all fold. Next I"m UTG and get three callers again, then the bloke on my right in the BB goes all-in for 6k. I was thinking of going all-in to isolate, but decide to call, and all three of the others call too! The flop is K44 and we check it round. The turn is an eight, I bet 11k, the big stack calls and the rest fold. I forget the river, but it makes no difference. The big stack goes all-in, but he plays a lot of hands so I have to call. He has the eight. The all-in bloke is loving it because all of the 6k calls and he has AK too!

Then the KK hand. Now I"m in the BB. One bloke goes all-in, so does another and I obviously do too. They both have about 18k and have AJ and TT. The kings hold. So I"m suddenly on 125k, average 45k. As I was typing this at the table (didn"t want to forget any of it) I got TT and was called by three players. A65 flop, I bet and get raised so have to let it go, and then I get JJ on the button. There"s a raise (a big one; blinds are 600/1.2/200 and he goes 6.5k) and I re-raise to 15k. He calls. The flop is K44 and I bet 22k. He tank/folds. So now I"m on just under 140k. Half way through level 11. I"d better start concentrating again.

[Joker161]

On a break now after level 12. Not a good level. The only highlight was hitting a set of twos against quite a loose player, so I bet the flop and he folds! The first time he"s done that! Then there was a lot of dribbling of chips. One annoying example: I raise with AT, which is a bit loose, but standard for this table. One of the big stacks calls on the button. Flop is J32. I bet he calls. Turn is a five. I bet he calls. River is a king. I bottle the bet (again), we go check/check and he has Q2 for bottom pair. I was determined to keep it tight until the end of the level, but then the bloke two to my right who raises all the time raises my BB on the last hand of the level. I call with 64s. Flop gives me a flush draw. I check/call, then bet the turn. He raises. I fold. I"m now on 68k, which is much better than at the last break, but still annoying. I think the average is about 75k. There were 460 runners in the end and there are only 95 left. 54 get paid. $97k up top. Three more levels today then back tomorrow, if I can last!

[Joker161]

Level 13 starts badly. There"s a raise UTG and I have QQ mid position. I re-raise, he calls and then he bets the king high flop and I fold. Do I just call here? Hmm. Then a bit of luck. There"s a raise and two callers, so I call in the BB given that it"s one of those just-a-bit-more-than-a-min-raise raises. I have J9. The flop is something like Q95. I check and so does everyone else. Free card. It"s a third heart and my jack is a heart. Check, check, then the loose bloke to my right bets quite small. I call and the others fold. The river is another heart. He bets something more significant, and given the way he"s been playing I decide to call, even though I"d be crippled if I call and lose. He didn"t even have a flush. My pair of nines were winning!

Next, the new big stack on my right raises and I re-raise him with 55. He calls. The flop has an ace on it, he checks, I bet and he folds. Phew! I try a steal with 64 and get a call. He checks the ace high flop, I bet and he folds. I"m back over 100k now. There are failed steal attempts too. Raising with A9s when the BB calls (another new player). He checks the KQ8 flop, I bet and he"s instantly all-in. Fold. Not much happens after that and I dwindle to 71k at the end. That"s about the same with which I started level 13, but of course the blinds are now higher. We return at 500/2k/4k so I have less than 20 bigs.

With 14 minutes to go they stop the clock and play seven hands "hand-for-hand" given there are only 59 left. Annoying that this happens right at the end of the day. We lose a couple more including a short stack on our table (in the SB) who, on the very last hand, pushes QT into AA. Oops! He wasn"t happy. Back tomorrow at 11am (I hope Murray is done by then) and three of us will not get the $2,033 for 54th place.

[Curlarge]

Great updates Joe and vwd to survive through to day 2. Having done this once myself, I know how draining it is.

Good luck for tomorrow