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Vegas Baby

NChanningNChanning Member Posts: 846
edited June 2018 in Chat with Channing
For the first time ever I managed to get the Mrs to the airport really early. Due to the fact we both hate booking anything online and are both useless at it we took weeks to make up our mind when we were going and a few things popped up that made us keep changing our plan. We ended up paying business class money for economy seats and when we got to Heathrow they told us the flight was so crowded we'd sit 6 rows away from each other and I'd be in the middle of the middle bit. In the end there were about 30 empty seats just in our section and we both got to sleep across three seats. The lady told us that lots of people had chosen to move to the earlier flight when offered...bit weird as we were really early and our flight was delayed an hour but nobody mentioned it to us. We had a nice meal at the airport and spent the time booking a hotel.

I woke up at 5am on Thursday and set of at 10.30am to play the 6-Max. Keeping up the theme of not being totally organised this trip I had about $800 left from last year so I just needed someone to lend me $700 and I'd be in my first event of the 2018 WSOP. Cheers Tikay.

The tournament was pretty good fun, I was playing lots of pots and winning my fair share and my "defensive" style, where I tend to take flops and not 3-bet or open too much, tends to really confuse the younger players. I'm sure they had me down as an old tourist. It was all going great until I took a flop from the big blind with 10s7s. The flop came two spades and also gave me a gutshot so I just check-called. The turn gave me a flush and I thought I'd totally confuse him by betting small. If he just calls he must surely have a one pair hand and if I get raised it's two-pair or better. If he calls I can bet big on the river and I'll often be called. Hopefully he'll make two pair.

On the river, which didn't pair the board or bring any extra spades, I bet twice the pot. He gave it a lot of thought and then went all-in for my bet plus about 25%. I thought for about 20 seconds, decided nobody is ever bluffing in that spot, and folded. Bit painful though. When they moved him from the table a bit later I stopped him to ask and we talked about the hand. He claimed he had the nut flush. I'm sure he did.

The table split just before the dinner break and my new table was pretty similar...mostly recreational players, possibly just one pro, nobody I knew at all and nobody knew me. I took a little while to suss them out and realised the standard at this one was slightly worse, one guy was really bad. I managed to get my 12k up to 15k having started the event with 7500.

The hand that was really annoying was when I chose to simply limp the button with As9s and the blinds both called. The small blind shoved the 9 high flop with an up and down straight draw and I quickly called. He made his straight on the river. I was left with 20bbs and I lasted until a little while after the 75 minute dinner break. I never won another hand though.

Comments

  • NChanningNChanning Member Posts: 846
    They are pretty amazing events though. It really is something you should try at least once in your life. That tournament cost $1500 to play and it's a World Championship and I would say for certain that the standard of play was much less than you'd see at any SPT.

    I was a bit disappointed to play 9 hours for no money and I wanted so much to actually get a bit of a stack and have a run at it. I definitely wasn't as aggressive as I should have been in a couple of hands but generally there wasn't much I could have done differently.

    Friday I decided to have a day off, try and get myself into the rythmn of Vegas, buy some dollars and have some nice food. Saturday is sports betting day and I woke up at 3am getting a decent five hours sleep, logged myself on and sat in front of a computer for 10 hours. I had the odd break to pop out for cups of tea and to go to the sportsbook. Once I was done with that stuff I had lunch and then sat in the amazing new sportsbook at The Wynn watching the racing from Belmont...a horse won the Triple Crown for the first time in many years and people were standing in a line of 200 just to get a bet on it. The atmosphere was amazing. By 8pm I was totally done in but I desperately needed to get my body clock turned around so I tried to stay up. I failed completely and at 4am I was up betting on UK racing and the tennis.

    10am is starting to seem like a perfect time to start day 1b of the Millionaire Maker and that is what I plan to do next...
  • pompeynicpompeynic Member Posts: 2,821
    Good luck Neil,
    I look forward to reading more tails from Vegas.
    I was only joking about you looking grumpy at the table by the way :smile:
  • NChanningNChanning Member Posts: 846
    edited June 2018
    The Millionaire maker was an extremely frustrating tournament. I made a great start, played a load of hands, did a couple of bluffs and made sure I had a hand when they did call. I quickly got from 7500 to 16,000. I then got dealt aces and made sure the guy with kings had me covered and soon I had 40,000. That was more than anyone else listed in the chip counts on Poker News and enough to be above average for day two. All I had to do was hold onto them.

    After the dinner break I played around eight hands and lost every one. When the guy shoved A10 and I had AQ he hit a ten, when I semi-bluffed with a pair and a gutshot I made a flush draw and had to call a big bet and then I missed, when I raised AK a man shoved 44 and after I moved tables that happened again, both for quite small amounts. Eventually I had just 20bbs and lost a flip when I shoved over a raise with jacks and got called by AQ.

    Very rare that you get to have more chips than the 4,000 people that played a day of poker and it felt sad to let go of it. Each year I only have a few chances to really run deep in one of these things and that may have been it.
  • F_IvanovicF_Ivanovic Member Posts: 2,395
    NChanning said:



    On the river, which didn't pair the board or bring any extra spades, I bet twice the pot. He gave it a lot of thought and then went all-in for my bet plus about 25%. I thought for about 20 seconds, decided [b]nobody is ever bluffing in that spot[b], and folded. Bit painful though. When they moved him from the table a bit later I stopped him to ask and we talked about the hand. He claimed he had the nut flush. I'm sure he did.

    I did.... but then I realised I always get called and stopped doing it! If only people were as good as you I'd be rich! ;)
  • SidV79SidV79 Member Posts: 4,009
    That is some bad luck Neil but there is always another tourney to play so good luck & run golden at the tables
  • thejudge10thejudge10 Member Posts: 465
    really enjoy reading your posts . :)
  • NChanningNChanning Member Posts: 846
    Thanks guys, it's not always easy to find time to write especially when I've been having long days at the table.

    In December I had a big birthday and in Vegas that makes me a senior. I guess that used to slightly depress me but now I quite like the prospect of playing with a bunch of old geezers. After the disappointing Millionaire Maker I had some unexpected time off but I heard there was a seniors event which would be a one day thing for $500 in The Wynn. It's really in the sister hotel of the Encore but since they moved the room over there most of the locals still just call it The Wynn.

    You got 18,000 chips and blinds started 25/50 with 40 minute levels but from the start the big blind would put in double as they ante for the whole table. That makes it a good idea to call with all sorts of hands from the big blind. It also encourages a lot of calling so aggressive play is a good idea.

    I started by turning my 18,000 into 2400 when a big 4-bet with AK didn't go to plan and when my KK lost to 10 10 after a ten flopped. I stuck the last bit in with Ac8c and was pretty surprised to be ahead having got four callers (!). This helped me to get right in the game and I really enjoyed the whole experience. The Wynn/Encore is a great place to play and the people on the three tables I sat on were lovely. I met only four pros all day and I only played with a couple including Greg Raymer who raised my final hand. I shoved with 10 10 and the big blind made a right song and dance about calling with Jacks. I just missed the money.

    The next day I decided to have a day off as I was pretty done in. I've been waking up at 3am to look at UK sports stuff and getting almost no sleep. On Wednesday I had intended to play the $3000 6-max at the WSOP but...

  • NChanningNChanning Member Posts: 846
    ...I decided to do something I never do and go to play at The Venetian. There was a boycott of the poker there which was observed by plenty of players some years ago after the owner criticised online gambling and poker generally. I don't like him at all and I strictly observed it. To be honest though not many other people do and it feels like people don't care about it any more. They were having a $600 seniors event and I could join on Day 1b and maybe win $120,000. I just decided I wanted to do it.

    Having not been there for ages I needed a players card and the lady was shocked to see I hadn't played there for more than ten years. The event was held right out the back in a big convention centre and I quite liked the whole thing. My early table was friendly enough although one man seemed to not share my general world view and he seemed keen to tell me. I lost two big pots to him when he made first a flush and then a straight. Luckily the players were really quite poor at poker and I soon had a very nice stack. The problem was though that I raised with 97 off, flop was 10...8...7...he bet twice the pot but I felt I had to call. Turn 6...he went all in for a big overbet. I had to call and I was in good shape to get to triple average versus his pocket jacks. Sadly it came a nine on the river and I was low again.

    As in all the tournements so far I failed to win a flip...I tried three times in this one...and eventually I bust about ten minutes from the end of day one having had twice the average with an hour to go.

    I would have to try and do better in the WSOP Seniors.

  • HENDRIK62HENDRIK62 Member Posts: 3,139
    Enjoying these write ups, hope you run well going forward.
  • edrichedrich Member Posts: 1,891
    Enjoying the thread Neil.
    Keep the stories coming from on, and off the table.
  • stokefcstokefc Member Posts: 7,615
    fantastic write ups thank you and keep em coming

    cmon England
  • TheMadMonkTheMadMonk Member Posts: 291
    My best result in vegas this year was we got a text from thomas cook the night before our outwardbound flight telling us it would be about 3 hours delayed.so wasnt a prob as we just turne up at airport 3 hours later (airport only 10 mins from house) flight ended up about 4 hours delayed in total.was in vegas for 3 weeks so when i got back .my cousin who was on the same outbound flight but was only there for 2 weeks. told me he had put in for compo and got it.
    so we done the same and they gave us £530 each back (whole flight there and back only cost us £550) so a great result.
    pokerwise i started off ok in the cash games at the nugget.then it went downhill.
    tounies i made 3 final tables at binnions (out of the 3 i played there) which sounds good.but i came 9th in one with only 6 places paid..and was the money bubble in the other 2.
    managed to chop the 5k gtd at the nugget on my last day (a nine way chop)
    All in all vegas was great.only went up the strip on 2 occasions (as i cant stand it up there) one was to go for a meal at batistas (something we do every year) the other was just for a wander around.which lasted 2 hours .before we headed back down to fremont street.it costing us $28 for 2 drinks played a part in our quik return to downtown.
  • TheMadMonkTheMadMonk Member Posts: 291
    Already booked again for next year 2 weeks at the nugget from 17th june.cant wait
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