Part 3

Towards the middle of the trip we decide to dine at the best buffet in Las Vegas and that is the Seafood Buffet at The Rio. It is an absolutely incredible feast. The choice of entrees include Salmon and Tuna Steaks cooked impecably, Lobster tails, shrimps in all flavors, sushi, etc.. the list goes on and on. If you ever find yourseld in Vegas you do not want to miss this buffet. The buffet also happens to be at the hotel where the WSOP is being held so of course after dinner we stroll over to check out the action. As we are walking over we see Antonio Esfarandi. Lisa says "Hi, I saw you on ESPN" to which he says "thank you" ? Thanx for watching I assume. I had seen him the night before playing the 100/200 NL big game at The Venetian with Phil Laak and Jeniffer Tilly sitting behind him. Lisa greeted Jeniffer at The Venetian with a smile and Jeniffer said "hello" As we continue on our way to the huge floor where the WSOP events are being held we run into Matt Damon, Ray Romano, Don Cheadle, and Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm). They had just finished playing in the $5000 Ante up for Africa charity tournament. As we continue on our way it seems that Esfandiari is a fast walker because he catches up with us after stopping to speak with Damon and co. Again Lisa has words for him, she said. "My husband can take you down". at which point I do not even want to look at him. I say " I don't think I want to play for my house" Esfandiari replies "we can play for the kid". I decline after giving it some thought. : ).

We finally arrive at the massive room that is set-up for the WSOP. It is as large as a football field with poker tables set-up from end to end. More than half of the room is empty at the time, but the other half was filled with poker degenerates playing the highest limit games. There is a waiting list for 100/200NL. The smallest game is 2/5. The screen has an animation that states if you would like to play 1/2NL or 2/4 Limit we suggest that you visit one of the other fine Harrah casinos. Harrah you can kiss my ass. I want some action right here so I sit down with $500 at a 2/5 table. I see a commotion going on a few tables over and someone mentions that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are playing 100/200NL at that table, both sitting with 25K each. At my table I have one guy who busted out of the $5000 charity tourney. 2 guys who are going to play in the 10K main event. A guy to my right who is a pro back home and Mr. Howell who has made the trip after wiping out Dom at the Borgata some months back. He is the live one at this table. One player has already cracked him 3X and is sitting behind a stack of about 2K. I have no such luck but I do get JTs in late position. A raise to $15 in EP, a call, I call. Flop comes J 7 2 rainbow. Raiser bets $25, call, I raise to $75. Raiser folds MP calls, pot is $215. Turn is 9, MP checks, I decide it is time to take it down. I push out a $100 stack of redbirds. He folds and says "nice play". Unfortunately that is the biggest pot I win during my 4 hour session at 2/5 but I did manage a $2 profit, yessssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!

During a bathroom break I decide to see how the famous actors are doing. When I get to their table I see Damon standing up with a large stack of $100 chips in front of him pushed into the middle. His face is a brilliant red and he is using all of his abilities to put forth a smile but it is not working, he is busted. He walks off to the bathroom in front of me with Affleck. I do see him later at the same table and have heard that he finished up for the session. I also heard that they were both hammered and that Affleck was playing like a donkey and had a losing session.

Hopefully if things go right, the next time I am in Vegas during the WSOP I can play in something bigger that a 2/5 game.

Part 2

1/2 NL can be a cruel game. Even when the situation is optimal you can lose, and lose a lot rapidly. This was my experience with the 2 best hands in Hold-em AA and KK. I managed to get AA only 2X during the trip. Once I won a very small pot and the other time it went like this. I raise to $15 from MP and got 2 calls. The flop came Jc 9s 3s, EP bets $30, I raise to $90, LP calls. What does this guy have to call a $90 raise into a $155 pot? EP thinks and folds. The turn comes Qs putting a flush and possible straight on the board. I check and he shoves all-in for $200 more. I muck and he shows T8h. He had an open ender on the flop but did not have odds to make the call. He likes to gamble as so many were inclined to do at the 1/2 tables when the WSOP was in town. If a blank comes on that turn my stack is going in the middle and if he still wants to play, so be it.

Now for my KK experience. I have KK in EP raise to $15 get a call from the lady to my left. She is a good tight aggressive player. The flop comes J x x. I bet $25, she raises to $50. Warning bells should have been sounding at this point. I put her on a big pair, maybe AJ. The turn comes J. I check she bets $75. Since the J came i am putting her on 99 TT or QQ. She has another $90 behind. Something was telling me that she was good but i did not listen to that little voice this time and I shoved all-in. She insta-calls with AJ. I played that one miserably.

Another KK donation for the ladies. I get KK in MP and raise to $13. This time I get 4 callers. Flop Q J 3 rainbow. 2 checks to me I bet $50. A call from the Asian girl in LP who likes to gamble a bit but is a solid player, 2 folds. Turn is K woo hoo! I bet $75. She shoves all-in for $150 total. I feel that I might be beat but can I lay down the top set? I don't think so, I still have 10 outs to the nuts if I am behind and her range is large. She can have QQ JJ or even 33 so I call and she wins the hand with 9Ts.

Now for the finale, this one goes to an older Englishman who is possibly lit up as he sits down at the table. He is loud and obnoxious, coming on to the female dealers, screaming deuce of hearts at every flop when he is in the hand, and most importantly making big re-raise bluffs and showing it down in pride to the table. He is at the table for about 30 minutes when I get, well you guessed it KK. He raises to $6 and gets 3 callers. I re-raise to $42. I want to isolate this fool and take his stack of about $200. The plan works, he calls everyone else folds. I knew he was not going to fold. The flop comes Q Q 7. He shoves all in for $150. I think about it and come to the conclusion that he wants to show down yet another bluff. I tell him. "Am I going to pay you off? He is quiet. The first time he shut his mouth since he sat down. He does not want a call. I call, he flips over 56s. the turn comes 5, river 5. I go to the bathroom to vomit.

I did make some of my money back with KK on another hand when I hit a K on the turn to fill up for K's over 9's when my opponent had trip 9's. I also made much cash when players were playing typical of the way I have been describing, continued to do so but did not hit their draws. All in all If I had mediocre luck with my premium hands I could have been up well over $1000 for the trip but I did manage to cut my losses to only $230 in total. Not what I was hoping as a final tally but I'll take it. It could have been much worse.

Do you guys ever watch High Stakes Poker? Well it is a Poker show on GSN which is not a tourney but a cash game with a $100K minimum buy-in. The top pros have all been on it during the first 3 seasons and I think the guy I was in a big hand with one morning at The Venetian was an avid viewer due to the fact he offered me a deal for the pot on the turn during a big hand.
I got TT in MP, a raise to $10 from EP, I re-raise to $20. I wanted to represent a big hand that wanted action so that I can push them off on the flop. I get 2 callers. The flop is 2s 5s 6c. Check, I bet $40, call, call. Looks like I got 2 chasers. Turn comes 9d. Check, I check, LP bets $50, fold. I shove all in for another $175 and have him covered. He decides that it is time to do like the pros on High Stakes Poker and make a deal. He said to me " Do you know what I got?" I say nothing, he continues "I have a big draw" and starts to motion as if he was going to show me his cards. The dealer said "you can not show your hand" He said "I'll make you a deal, we chop the pot now or I call your all-in and take it all." I nod my head "no". I have made it a practice to never talk during a hand, but I did nod no so we could get the hand over with. He was being very persistent and I knew there was no way I was not going to make that deal. If he had shown me his hand on the flop and he had a strong draw I might have went for it but it was now the river coming and at best he probably had a 30% chance or less to beat me. The turn comes blank and I take the pot. he is livid. "How can you not take that deal" "Do you really like to risk that much money"? I explained to him that it was not a good deal but he was not having it. A girl at the table agreed with me but he was not in the mood to be educated that day. He reloaded but unfortunately I was unable to get a piece of that stack before he got cracked again.

Let's not forget that the WSOP is going on while I am out there, and with that I leave you until Part 3 "WSOP Bonus coverage at The Rio" and I do play at The WSOP!

Vegas 07, Damon Goes on a steamer and so do I, plus misfits, making deals, and Missippi Straddles. Part 1

Vegas during the WSOP is a crazy place. A lot of players are walking around with loads of cash. People are plucking down money on tournaments like it is going out of style. As an example one WSOP event at The Rio drew 3100 participants for a $1500 NL tourney. 5000 people started the $10,000 main event on Friday and while all this was going on The Venetian was drawing hundreds of participants for it's $1000 and $500 twice daily tourneys. The byproduct of all this action was that to play any decent tourneys was going to cost a bundle which was more than I felt comfortable with. Tourneys with a good structure had a minimum of $330 buy-in. I did end up playing 3 tourneys, 1 satellite to a $500 tourney at the Venetian and a SNG at The Mirage with no cashes.

2 $62 tourneys at The Sahara which I must say is the most miserable Poker Room in existence. The felt on the tables is made of green canvas, there is 1 waitress for over 150 players. The ceiling is about 8 feet high with bare florescent bulbs. The people there looked like something out of a trailer park nightmare. Missing teeth, bad toupees and broken dreams of making it in Vegas as a poker player. The one thing that I liked about it was the final table railing. While I was getting ready to begin my 11:00PM tourney there was a final table in progress with about 40 people behind the rail watching. If you could call it watching, they were practically participants. I heard people screaming,"Go all in", "Call", "he's bluffing", and then what I still do not understand they started canting "Chop, Chop, Chop". With 1st place paying over $3000 it seemed more like a home game than a Vegas tourney but it was fun. I went deep in one of them when I was all-in with QQ and ran into 77 with a 7 on the flop

$120 11:00PM tourney at Ceasers Palace that had 220 participants with a $6000 first place prize. I went semi deep making it in to the 4th or 5th level with 30 minute blinds. I like the longer blinds than the typical 20 minute blinds in AC, but they gave us only 2500 in chips. I got down to around 90 players when 55 could not beat AK on an all-in. The room is very nice and I was able to use my Showboat card to register for the tourney since they are both part of Harrah's and Ceasers being by far there premiere property.

$115 SNG at The Mirage. The Mirage has a beautiful room second only to the Venetian. It reminded me a lot of The Bellagio. First place in the SNG paid $700 and second place paid $300. I bubbled out in 3rd with the blinds 200/400 and 75 antes. I'm in the BB, Button folds, SB who has me outstacked raises to 1200, I go over the top for about 4000 with 99. He calls with JTs and said "it is a race". Was there any doubt? I do not know what he was thinking, but if my hand held up I would have crippled him and had a good chance of winning 1st place, but that was not to be because a 10 came on the flop. This was the the theme of my tourney play for my visit. I just could not win any races.

I finished in 4th place in a Satellite SNG at The Venetian for their $500 tourney. 2 players get a seat in the $500 tourney and some cash. It was a $130 buy-in. I ended up in 4th. The Venetian is my favorite room in Vegas. It is to Vegas as The Borgata is to AC, a big luxurious room with plenty of action. I spent most of my time there at the 1/2 tables but more about that in part 2.