(Again, as originally posted on ITH)
After the buzz of Day 1 we had a fairly quiet Monday although we did have a hotel move up the road to The Wynn. Our new hotel room is pretty sweet even though it's the cheapest one they do and we resist the temptation to pay extra for a suite upgrade at check-in. The massive floor-to-ceiling windows give us a great view down the strip and also out to the mountains. The Rio looms large in the distance and I can't help but take a sneak peek at every opportunity and wonder at what might happen.
That evening we meet up with Tall Paul for some mindless button-pressing on the slots at K's favourite Monopoly machine, while taking full advantage of the cocktail service. We then move to Treasure Island to meet up with a couple of friends that have just flown in for our last few days in Vegas. After a quick drink the time zone change hits them and they head to bed while we hit the bar for some video poker and a few more potent mojito cocktails. Tall Paul tries to pass on tips he's picked up from chrisjp while the barman tries to pass on a completely different set of tips and convinces me that Double Double is the *only* game to play. Hmm.
TP then has the genius suggestion to move to the Venetian for some NL cash. We try to get onto the same table but get placed a few apart. I buy-in short for 50BBs and ask for a table change, before promptly donking off my stack on the third hand, calling all-in on the flop with the nut flush draw and an overcard. It misses and I decide the mojitos have left me in no fit shape for poker. I wuss out and leave TP to it.
The wife and I spend Tuesday with our newly arrived friends having a look at Fremont Street and the Stratosphere before all heading down to the pool at the MGM (finally making some use of our free but unused room). We then head to Charlie Palmer's steakhouse at the Four Seasons (following a recommendation from a mate back home) for a superb meal and one of the best steaks ever.
We then head back to the hotel where I log-on to the internet to find out my Day 2 table before bed. No huge stacks and no big name players and I like the look of it. Of course, you can never really tell until you sit down. I spot that there's a chap with only 3k in chips three to my right, putting my BB firmly in his sights. With the first level 250/500/50 I imagine him pushing first-in and me calling light to knock him out and adding his chips to mine - yeah! Paul Azinger is also drawn at my table and sticks out but surely he's a golfer and not a poker player, I hope!
Day 2 starts at the PartyPoker hospitality room at the Rio. I have a veritable entourage(!) as chrisjp and Tall Paul join my wife and our two friends in there with me. Chrisjp and I wish each other good luck as we head to our respective tables. Here we go (again)...
First hand I get dealt 77 UTG. Figuring that everyone will be pretty cagey first-up I raise to 1500. It folds around to shortie who quickly pushes for his 3k and I quickly call. He shows AJ and after 10 hours of poker on Day 1 I'm in my first coin-flip of the Main Event. Not quite the way I imagined-it but I win and do get to add his chips to mine. After he leaves the table, Paul Azinger quips that he folded another AJ but didn't have the heart to tell shortie that as the board played out!
Paul Azinger is a nice guy but not that great a poker player. Within 45 mins he's busted his 21k starting stack. With around 8k left, there's a raise to 1400 and a call, and he just calls in late position. He then folds to a bet on the flop. Weird.
The guy to my right, Jamal Kunbuz (who I've posted about before and ended up finishing 33rd) is pretty active and playing a lot of pots. I get involved with T9 in the BB, calling after the cut-off raises first-in to 1300 and the button and then Jamal calls. The flop comes 689 with two diamonds. Jamal checks and I bet out for around 3k, get two folds and a call from Jamal. The turn is the Ten diamonds which improves me but makes a pretty scary board. Jamal leads for 3k and I'm in a tricky spot. Anyway, I end up calling, hoping for a free showdown and see the river - another Ten. Bingo. Jamal leads for another 3k and I thank my lucky stars before deciding how much to raise. My mind has gone blank however and I'm struggling to remember how much is in the pot. I finally add it all up and decide to raise to 15k. He calls, and mucks as I show. Yes!
I win another tidy pot when I call a guy's river bluff with A9 on a JJ9xx board and I'm up to around 61k in chips and feeling good. Being on one of the higher-numbered Brasillia tables (54) we break soon after and I get drawn on Brasillia 43, seat 2. in a strange coincidence Jamal also gets the same table, seat 3. I would have loved to keep that guy on my right but not to be.
Late on in the level, I raise first-in on the button with AQ. An older guy in the big blind calls and we see a KK9 flop. I check behind. The turn is a blank and he checks again. I decide to fire out just over a half-pot bet which he just calls. The river is an Ace but the guy leads into me for 4k. Hmm. I call and he shows KQ for the flopped trips. Interesting one, and looking back there's not a lot I can beat after he calls the turn and then decides to lead that river. Maybe I could have saved a few chips there - nevermind. I finish the level with around 56k.
Level 2 is 300/600/75 and I start with a couple of nice hands. There's a raise to 2k from the cut-off, the button and SB calls and I call with 88. The flop comes TT8! SB checks and I bet out for 5k but unfortunately everyone folds. I think a check would have been more appropriate as thinking back I reckon one of the late position guys would bet. Oh well, I was hoping that one of them would have a T or an overpair there and get fruity.
I then get AA UTG and raise the table standard 2k. The button and the BB calls. The flop comes J7x with two spades. I bet 5k and get a call from the BB. The turn is a blank and BB checks, I bet 10k and he folds.
That puts me over 70k! Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there...
It's a bit of a blur where my chips went but I remember seeing a load of AJ, AQ, AK hands that don't hit.
I raise AQ from 2nd position and get the SB to call. The flop is K25 rainbow, he checks and I cbet. He calls. The turn is a 3 and I decide to check-behind with my gutshot wheel draw. The river is a blank and I check-behind again. He shows 44 to take the pot. Hmmm, maybe another barrel was required but I remember that for next time.
In late position I pick up AK of diamonds. The guy to my right, who's becoming a bit of a pain, raises first-in and I reraise. He calls and it's heads-up to a flop of 944 with two clubs. He checks and I put in a decent cbet. He thinks for what feels like ages. I have about 40k behind and, sitting statuesque in my usual Joe Navarro stance with elbows on the table and hands clenched under my nose, find myself unable to resist the dire need to gulp (silly, I know!). Not sure if he noticed or used it as a tell but soon after he check-raises me all-in for my stack. I think it over for a while but decide I can't call and muck.
I pick up AK again UTG and raise to 2k. The old guy from the AQ/KQ hand calls and then the tight guy in middle position reraises to 10k. It folds around to me. It feels like he's squeezing but he's tight and still has half the table to act behind him so I give him credit for a hand. At the time, I figured him for AA or KK but realise now that his range is probably a fair bit wider. With just under 35k behind I think I should have shoved this one when it comes back to me.
I'm floundering a little and hate giving up all these pots. On the last orbit before break I decide I really want to win one. I pick the tightest player on the table and decide to raise his big blind whatever. In late middle position it's folded to me and I raise with 84o. Everyone folds. Yes.
What a level! Up to 70k and cruising and then back to earth with a bump. But I still have 33600 in chips and have to forget about it and just get on with things. Level 3 is 400/800/100 giving me an M of 16 and I realise that this is going to be a big level for me.
For the first hour I stay pretty level. Our table is playing pretty tight and steal once or twice, but you can feel the blinds and antes taking what seems like big chunks out of your stack every hand.
Then the guy to my right who had earlier check-raised my AK all-in raises to 3k in the cut-off. I'm on the button with 32k and QQ, and re-raise to 10k. He's been stealing quite a lot but has me covered. He calls. The flop is K92 rainbow, he checks, I bet 12k, he puts me all in. I have 10k behind, hate it, but call. He has KK. Turn comes a Q to give me 1 out, but I miss and I bust. Man, it feels awful as I trudge back to the hospitality room to say goodbye to the reps in there that looked after us.
And so my World Series adventure comes to an end. What an amazing experience though. Everything, from first walking into the Amazon room and seeing all those tables, to just walking around the Rio and stumbling past one poker superstar after another, it's fantastic.
My advice if anyone wins a qualifier - no matter how much you'd like to bank the cash, you just have to go and play in it! There truly is nothing else quite like it. Plus you get to meet some top ITHers - it was a pleasure to meet up with yankees, Tall Paul and chrisjp.
I'll be trying my darndest to get back there next year. Fingers crossed I can get lucky again and it will happen. Hopefully see some of you lot there too!
Saturday, 19 July 2008
WSOP report - part 2
(Again as originally posted on ITH)
So here it is. The big day. Sunday 6th July, Main Event Day 1D. We get to the Rio with plenty of time to spare which is good 'cos the place is packed with people and getting around is proving tricky. Good job we have the PartyPoker room in which to seek refuge - nice comfy sofas and as much free coffee, water and assorted snacks as you can manage.
I get to my seat in Blue 17 after wading through the masses of tables in the Amazon room. The sight of all those tables is quite something but as soon as I sit down it feels like any other live tournament and I can ignore everything else to just concentrate on my own table. I'm in one of the end seats (seat 8 ) which is good as you can get a nice view of the whole table without too much straining.
"Shuffle up and deal!" comes the call from the tournament announcer and we're off. I smile to myself and have a flash of not quite believing where I am.
First hand, here we go... I'm in the cutoff and there is a raise from the guy on my right. I look down to find QTo and I fold. The button calls and we see a flop... QT7. Nooooo! Bet, raise, call. Turn is another Q. Nooooo! Bet, call. River is a blank and it goes bet, call again. Initial raiser turns over AQ and the button mucks. Wow. Welcome to the World Series!
The button later tells us that he had KK on that first hand. Man, I could have tripled up! No point thinking about that too much though as I made the right play.
My plan is to play it tight, especially before the antes kick in. With 20000 chips to play with I'm aiming to stay out of trouble and just play things pretty straight. I'm happy to see flops with position though and when the early position old guy raises to 300 I call on the button with AJ. The flop comes a Jack high rainbow and the old guy leads for 400. I raise to 1000 and he calls. I'm likely ahead as he checks a 2nd diamond on the turn. I bet around half the pot but he folds. My first pot won and I immediately feel more settled.
The rest of those early levels is pretty uneventful. I fold a lot of marginally playable hands from marginal positions but continue to chip up as I hit QQ a couple of times, but don't get any action past the flop.
My table is as good as I could ever have hoped for. It's just so tight and passive and there is not a single player I am worried about playing against. It was also quite a surprise to find that the guys on my table were all nice chaps - not a single loudmouth, obnoxious idiot that ESPN's coverage makes it appear is at every table! Towards the end of the day there was plenty of humorous banter but it felt just like a home game, it was that comfortable.
The old guy who I had won my first pot against now had a decent stack after busting the 2 players between us on my left, but surprised us all when calling a huge all-in raise on the river with KT on a 7898T board against a full house, 9s over 8s.
That and another couple of hits left him with less than 8k at the 150/300 level. He min-raises UTG and I reraise in the BB with JJ to 2k. He just calls and we see another J-high flop. Sweet. I check, he bets and I raise to put him all-in. He calls and shows AA. My set holds and I win a nice pot. Thankyou for not pushing preflop, mister! I'd have been in a bit of a tricky spot if he did. Instead, i get lucky and win a nice pot to get up to 36k.
That old guy is replaced by another who later wins the award for the funniest hand of the day. He raises from early position, gets reraised by the young Californian dude in a Full Tilt cap and calls. The Californian has got 6600 behind after the KJx flop. I know this because the old guy checks, and he bets 3000, the old guy min-check-raises and Californian dude pushes all his chips into the middle. He flips his cards - KK for top set but didn't quite realise that he hadn't already been put all-in. Now, old guy has seen the KK but then unexplicably shows and mucks AQ!! For 600 chips in an 18000+ pot?!?!?!? WIth 4 outs... twice!! The whole table can't believe what we have seen and falls about laughing, apart from the Californian, who feels very embarrassed after making the rookie live mistake of showing before being all-in, but also relieved to not have to face two cards that could have put him out!
The Californian had been drinking Vodka Tonics since he slipped below 10k. Probably not a bad plan but he gets plenty of Mickey taking for the rest of the day about showing his KK!
It's at about this time I find out that the guy who was moved to my right in the previous level was Mark Brockington and had finished 2nd to Blair Hinkle in Event 23 for $326k. He was a really nice guy and had an amazing setup when in a hand. He would basically put his hands together at the wrist and cover his entire face, except for a small V between his fingers and cap. No idea how he could see anything of what was going on but it appeared to be working. Fortunately, he seemed to be playing a fairly straightforward game and I was able to steal quite often - apart from the once when he had just told us about the $326k win and I jokingly gave him a walk, showing my 92o and telling him he'd better just take my small blind in that case then!
At 150/300/25, I run into a tricky spot. The guy UTG has just won a big pot and is still stacking his chips as he looks at his cards before raising to 900. He looks a bit jittery as I reraise to 2500 with AK in middle position. He thinks and then re-re-raises to make it 3000 more to me. Woah. I'm thinking he has AA or KK here and finally fold, trying just to stay out of trouble that an A or K-high flop might get me into.
Apart from that, the last couple of levels are fairly uneventful. With the antes, pots become more attractive to stealing. It certainly helps when at least 3 at the table are looking at their cards before the action is on them and I start to be able to tell when they're gonna fold. I love this table.
Unfortunately, at the start of the last level - 200/400/50 I suffer a couple of setbacks with steals not getting through and dwindle back to around 27k.
One of those setbacks is against the old AQ guy from before. I raise in the cutoff with K8o and he calls in the SB. I check behind an AA9 flop with the intention of delayed c-betting the turn. He checks and I bet just over half the pot on a 7 turn. He calls and we see an 8 on the river. Now he leads for a decent amount and is staring at me. Not seen him do that before and I feel the urge to raise and continue to represent the A but I end up thinking too long and end up folding. Hmmm... I think I may have been bluffed here but my 8 is probably not enough to call. Raising is probably the better play but I got a bit scared and dodged it.
Anyway, another steal attempt with 97o in the hijack gets a caller in the same old guy on the button. The flop comes 985 and I cbet 2/3 of the pot. Old guy calls and I check a J turn. He checks behind and we see a J river. That's a good card for me. After our last tangle I know old guy will bet it though so I check and quickly call his 3k. He shows AK and I take a nice pot.
The Amazon room has gone very quiet as it's getting late and people are dreaming about making Day 2. That is until we hear a loud "F**k!" come from a few tables away. The whole room goes "Ooooooohh!" and starts laughing as one of the floor people goes over for a chat. Apparently, he was just swearing at himself after having to throw away yet another duff starting hand.
Our table gets even tighter (if that were possible) and I make a few more routine steals to keep me ahead of the blinds and antes and I finish the day, exhausted but happy, with 36,425.
Chrisjp comes over to help me out with the bagging-up process. Thankfully, he's done this a few times before and I finally get all the different boxes filled and the bag of chips sealed.
What a day. 10 hours of poker, plus breaks, and K was there for the whole thing. Despite not being able to see my table from the rail she patiently stood there the whole day and looked after for me during breaks. Mind you, as a Soap fan she was happy at getting to watch Michael Greco play on the table two behind me by the rail. She was also having fun watching this almost blind guy play. Every time he looked at his cards he had to bring them right up to his face and the whole rail could see what he had. Buoyed by the SNG cash earlier in the week she tried to imagine herself playing with the same cards... maybe next year, dear...
So here it is. The big day. Sunday 6th July, Main Event Day 1D. We get to the Rio with plenty of time to spare which is good 'cos the place is packed with people and getting around is proving tricky. Good job we have the PartyPoker room in which to seek refuge - nice comfy sofas and as much free coffee, water and assorted snacks as you can manage.
I get to my seat in Blue 17 after wading through the masses of tables in the Amazon room. The sight of all those tables is quite something but as soon as I sit down it feels like any other live tournament and I can ignore everything else to just concentrate on my own table. I'm in one of the end seats (seat 8 ) which is good as you can get a nice view of the whole table without too much straining.
"Shuffle up and deal!" comes the call from the tournament announcer and we're off. I smile to myself and have a flash of not quite believing where I am.
First hand, here we go... I'm in the cutoff and there is a raise from the guy on my right. I look down to find QTo and I fold. The button calls and we see a flop... QT7. Nooooo! Bet, raise, call. Turn is another Q. Nooooo! Bet, call. River is a blank and it goes bet, call again. Initial raiser turns over AQ and the button mucks. Wow. Welcome to the World Series!
The button later tells us that he had KK on that first hand. Man, I could have tripled up! No point thinking about that too much though as I made the right play.
My plan is to play it tight, especially before the antes kick in. With 20000 chips to play with I'm aiming to stay out of trouble and just play things pretty straight. I'm happy to see flops with position though and when the early position old guy raises to 300 I call on the button with AJ. The flop comes a Jack high rainbow and the old guy leads for 400. I raise to 1000 and he calls. I'm likely ahead as he checks a 2nd diamond on the turn. I bet around half the pot but he folds. My first pot won and I immediately feel more settled.
The rest of those early levels is pretty uneventful. I fold a lot of marginally playable hands from marginal positions but continue to chip up as I hit QQ a couple of times, but don't get any action past the flop.
My table is as good as I could ever have hoped for. It's just so tight and passive and there is not a single player I am worried about playing against. It was also quite a surprise to find that the guys on my table were all nice chaps - not a single loudmouth, obnoxious idiot that ESPN's coverage makes it appear is at every table! Towards the end of the day there was plenty of humorous banter but it felt just like a home game, it was that comfortable.
The old guy who I had won my first pot against now had a decent stack after busting the 2 players between us on my left, but surprised us all when calling a huge all-in raise on the river with KT on a 7898T board against a full house, 9s over 8s.
That and another couple of hits left him with less than 8k at the 150/300 level. He min-raises UTG and I reraise in the BB with JJ to 2k. He just calls and we see another J-high flop. Sweet. I check, he bets and I raise to put him all-in. He calls and shows AA. My set holds and I win a nice pot. Thankyou for not pushing preflop, mister! I'd have been in a bit of a tricky spot if he did. Instead, i get lucky and win a nice pot to get up to 36k.
That old guy is replaced by another who later wins the award for the funniest hand of the day. He raises from early position, gets reraised by the young Californian dude in a Full Tilt cap and calls. The Californian has got 6600 behind after the KJx flop. I know this because the old guy checks, and he bets 3000, the old guy min-check-raises and Californian dude pushes all his chips into the middle. He flips his cards - KK for top set but didn't quite realise that he hadn't already been put all-in. Now, old guy has seen the KK but then unexplicably shows and mucks AQ!! For 600 chips in an 18000+ pot?!?!?!? WIth 4 outs... twice!! The whole table can't believe what we have seen and falls about laughing, apart from the Californian, who feels very embarrassed after making the rookie live mistake of showing before being all-in, but also relieved to not have to face two cards that could have put him out!
The Californian had been drinking Vodka Tonics since he slipped below 10k. Probably not a bad plan but he gets plenty of Mickey taking for the rest of the day about showing his KK!
It's at about this time I find out that the guy who was moved to my right in the previous level was Mark Brockington and had finished 2nd to Blair Hinkle in Event 23 for $326k. He was a really nice guy and had an amazing setup when in a hand. He would basically put his hands together at the wrist and cover his entire face, except for a small V between his fingers and cap. No idea how he could see anything of what was going on but it appeared to be working. Fortunately, he seemed to be playing a fairly straightforward game and I was able to steal quite often - apart from the once when he had just told us about the $326k win and I jokingly gave him a walk, showing my 92o and telling him he'd better just take my small blind in that case then!
At 150/300/25, I run into a tricky spot. The guy UTG has just won a big pot and is still stacking his chips as he looks at his cards before raising to 900. He looks a bit jittery as I reraise to 2500 with AK in middle position. He thinks and then re-re-raises to make it 3000 more to me. Woah. I'm thinking he has AA or KK here and finally fold, trying just to stay out of trouble that an A or K-high flop might get me into.
Apart from that, the last couple of levels are fairly uneventful. With the antes, pots become more attractive to stealing. It certainly helps when at least 3 at the table are looking at their cards before the action is on them and I start to be able to tell when they're gonna fold. I love this table.
Unfortunately, at the start of the last level - 200/400/50 I suffer a couple of setbacks with steals not getting through and dwindle back to around 27k.
One of those setbacks is against the old AQ guy from before. I raise in the cutoff with K8o and he calls in the SB. I check behind an AA9 flop with the intention of delayed c-betting the turn. He checks and I bet just over half the pot on a 7 turn. He calls and we see an 8 on the river. Now he leads for a decent amount and is staring at me. Not seen him do that before and I feel the urge to raise and continue to represent the A but I end up thinking too long and end up folding. Hmmm... I think I may have been bluffed here but my 8 is probably not enough to call. Raising is probably the better play but I got a bit scared and dodged it.
Anyway, another steal attempt with 97o in the hijack gets a caller in the same old guy on the button. The flop comes 985 and I cbet 2/3 of the pot. Old guy calls and I check a J turn. He checks behind and we see a J river. That's a good card for me. After our last tangle I know old guy will bet it though so I check and quickly call his 3k. He shows AK and I take a nice pot.
The Amazon room has gone very quiet as it's getting late and people are dreaming about making Day 2. That is until we hear a loud "F**k!" come from a few tables away. The whole room goes "Ooooooohh!" and starts laughing as one of the floor people goes over for a chat. Apparently, he was just swearing at himself after having to throw away yet another duff starting hand.
Our table gets even tighter (if that were possible) and I make a few more routine steals to keep me ahead of the blinds and antes and I finish the day, exhausted but happy, with 36,425.
Chrisjp comes over to help me out with the bagging-up process. Thankfully, he's done this a few times before and I finally get all the different boxes filled and the bag of chips sealed.
What a day. 10 hours of poker, plus breaks, and K was there for the whole thing. Despite not being able to see my table from the rail she patiently stood there the whole day and looked after for me during breaks. Mind you, as a Soap fan she was happy at getting to watch Michael Greco play on the table two behind me by the rail. She was also having fun watching this almost blind guy play. Every time he looked at his cards he had to bring them right up to his face and the whole rail could see what he had. Buoyed by the SNG cash earlier in the week she tried to imagine herself playing with the same cards... maybe next year, dear...
WSOP report - part 1
Now we've landed back in cold, cold England and I've had some time to reflect on the amazing experience that was the Main Event, I think it's about time I wrote a report.
I actually originally wrote this on Internet Texas Holdem (ITH). Quite possibly, the finest poker forum on the t'internet, and quite possibly the finest internet forum full stop. I'm a sometime poster on there under the name hazey.
So, we got to Vegas on the 2nd July, giving us a few days to settle in, and me a few days to get some warm-up poker sessions under my belt. We spent the first night at the MGM playing 1/2 NL, where I finished with a tidy $50 profit after a couple of hours.
On the second day I got my first taste of tournament play in Vegas. After having a touristy walk round Caesars we stumbled on the poker room and both signed up for a $65 sit-n-go. K has played a few online sit-n-gos in her time and knows the basic tight, tight, tight, pushbot, pushbot, pushbot strategy, but she'd never played live before. We were drawn at either end of the table but it wasn't long before the rest of the table knew we were a married couple...
In the first level I raise from early position with AK, she calls. The flop comes A33, I lead, she raises and I push all-in. Now, I'm really hoping she's not got AA and we've hit the case Ace - that would be embarrassing! But we both flip AK, laugh our socks off and split the pot.
The rest is a bit of a blur until we find ourselves 3-handed. Mrs H has done really well to chip-up and it's just me, her and an older guy left in. We briefly discuss a chop before deciding to play on as I've got a healthy chip lead. A couple of hands later, he calls my check-raise all-in on the flop with 2nd pair and my top pair holds to give A 'n' K 1st and 2nd, yay! I offer to play on heads-up but Mrs H kindly offers to give my ego a boost and my chip lead 1st place - she's so sweet
That evening, we ended up going on a last minute helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon. Landing at the bottom of the Canyon for a picnic as the sun was going down was truly amazing. We then flew back over the strip as it was getting dark. So spectactular!
After getting back to our room at the Bellagio I decide it's a good idea to pop next door to Caesars for their 11pm $120 tournament. I didn't really think through how late this thing might go on but went anyway as I really wanted to get some MTT practice in. 55 players entered and with 3000 chips and 30min blinds things started slow enough but soon cranked up as antes were introduced.
Can't remember very much other than steadily accumulating chips and then getting a nice double-up against the aggro big stack bloke 2 to my right when my KK held against AQ after I shoved against his raise.
Sometime after 2am we'd reached the 10-handed final table. I had arrived as one of the shorter stacks after losing a couple of coin-flips. But with 7 getting paid there was some bubble exploiting to be done...
With the rising blinds/antes I had about 10 big blinds and not in good shape. But a couple of well-timed shoves got me back in contention and I was able chip up after ruthlessly stealing from those who were clearly trying to fold into the money.
Things loosened up slightly after we finally reached the money but unfortunately, I ended up becoming a shortie again after my KK didn't hold for a second time against another AQ. But my later 98s shove into the same player doubled me up and kept me alive against his overcards, much to his disgust!
Just before 5am (!) we were finally down to 3. We were all so short with the rising blinds, but I was shortest and suggested a deal. Mr Big Stack (who can't have had very many chips anyway) was having none of it. A few rounds of push/fold poker later and the guy to my left had finally got fed up of me hitting on his bb and called with T7 against my QJ. I held and we were now heads-up.
When the blinds and antes almost doubled again I suggested a chop - 2nd paid just over $1000 and 1st paid $2000. He had me outchipped, not by much, but still refused to deal. A good thing for me as he totally sucked heads-up! He had a real hard time understanding the whole pre-flop/post-flop postioning and once bet the river out of turn after I had hit trips. I then went for the check-raise, but he folded... hmm. I was now a big chip-leader and he sheepishly asks for a deal. Nope! A couple of hands later we got it all-in with my K8 vs J5 (or something like that anyway). My hand holds and I win. Yay!
The SNG earlier in the day was my first live cash and later on I now have an MTT victory to go with it too!
K was railling me for the whole final table... well, trying not to fall asleep at the table next to us anyway! I'm totally ecstatic as we stagger back to the Bellagio through a fairly quiet casino, apart from one of the noisiest craps tables I saw all trip - some guy in a cowboy hat was clearly having a lot of fun! We hit the Cafe Bellagio for some well-deserved breakfast and then crash.
We awake late on the 4th July and I chat with Tall Paul (another member of the ITH forum and a top guy) in one of many broken mobile phone conversations. It always seemed that one but not the other could get decent reception! Anyway, I promise to head down the Venetian to watch him play in the final table of the Deep Stack tournament. Unfortunately, by the time we have woken, been down the Rio to complete registration for the Main Event and got back again, TP is out.
I then get a call from TP inviting us to a barbeque at chrisjp's house with Yankees (yet more top ITH folks). I must admit we were a little freaked to be invited and initially hesitant but I knew TP, Chris and Yankees would turn out to be cool people (and they were!). Plus the thought of doing a proper American 4th July was too good an offer to refuse! 10 minutes later, Yanks is pulling up outside the Bellagio in his car with TP and they are driving us to Chris'. Genius! Chrisjp and his assembled family and friends are all utterly lovely and make us feel so welcome. We have a quality evening sitting out by the pool eating meat, drinking beer, watching fireworks and talking poker. Could it get any better? Well, yes, when Chris' wife brings out the lemon cakes and ice cream! Mmmmmmm...
The day before the Main Event was spent at Planet Hollywood playing their $80 tournies. I busted out of the 10am one fairly early but meet with the wife for lunch in between her Bellagio spa sessions (that'll be the Caesars money going up in smoke, then!) before deciding to try again in the 2pm. This one goes slightly better until my TP/TK runs into an aggro player's set and I bust. They allow you to re-enter within the first hour and with nothing better to do I pony up another $80. I make this one last and make the final table after a huge slice of luck when I end up having to push J4s only to get called by an AK and KQ. However, a rivered J-high straight triples me up . I am running so good until we're 5-handed and I push from the SB with 66. The chip leader (still with very few big blinds) in the BB calls for half his stack with A8 and spikes an 8 to send me out for $366. Can't complain at that really.
3 MTTs, 2 final tables, 1 win and I feel ready for the Big One, although slightly concerned that I have used up all my luck for the trip!
That night is the PartyPoker party at Prive nightclub, upstairs in Planet Hollywood. A good opportunity to get some free food and booze to help me sleep that night. Got chatting with some Scandinavian online pros that had also qualified for the ME, and bumped into Mike Sexton and Robert Williamson III. Then after a trip to the restroom, I get back to find that K has got chatting with some random girl. Turns out, she's Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot's girlfriend and is from the north of England like me and K. Anyway, she's lovely and we all have a great chat before getting introduced to Devilfish himself. He always comes across as being a bit of an arse on TV but away from the poker table he seems like a nice guy and incredibly funny with some great stories to tell.
Before long though it's 11pm and time to get some sleep. The nerves are kicking in but I manage to get a reasonable number of hours and wake feeling raring to go.
Wow, that was actually quite a long report - maybe my memory is not so bad after all!
Day 1 of the ME to follow...
I actually originally wrote this on Internet Texas Holdem (ITH). Quite possibly, the finest poker forum on the t'internet, and quite possibly the finest internet forum full stop. I'm a sometime poster on there under the name hazey.
So, we got to Vegas on the 2nd July, giving us a few days to settle in, and me a few days to get some warm-up poker sessions under my belt. We spent the first night at the MGM playing 1/2 NL, where I finished with a tidy $50 profit after a couple of hours.
On the second day I got my first taste of tournament play in Vegas. After having a touristy walk round Caesars we stumbled on the poker room and both signed up for a $65 sit-n-go. K has played a few online sit-n-gos in her time and knows the basic tight, tight, tight, pushbot, pushbot, pushbot strategy, but she'd never played live before. We were drawn at either end of the table but it wasn't long before the rest of the table knew we were a married couple...
In the first level I raise from early position with AK, she calls. The flop comes A33, I lead, she raises and I push all-in. Now, I'm really hoping she's not got AA and we've hit the case Ace - that would be embarrassing! But we both flip AK, laugh our socks off and split the pot.
The rest is a bit of a blur until we find ourselves 3-handed. Mrs H has done really well to chip-up and it's just me, her and an older guy left in. We briefly discuss a chop before deciding to play on as I've got a healthy chip lead. A couple of hands later, he calls my check-raise all-in on the flop with 2nd pair and my top pair holds to give A 'n' K 1st and 2nd, yay! I offer to play on heads-up but Mrs H kindly offers to give my ego a boost and my chip lead 1st place - she's so sweet
That evening, we ended up going on a last minute helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon. Landing at the bottom of the Canyon for a picnic as the sun was going down was truly amazing. We then flew back over the strip as it was getting dark. So spectactular!
After getting back to our room at the Bellagio I decide it's a good idea to pop next door to Caesars for their 11pm $120 tournament. I didn't really think through how late this thing might go on but went anyway as I really wanted to get some MTT practice in. 55 players entered and with 3000 chips and 30min blinds things started slow enough but soon cranked up as antes were introduced.
Can't remember very much other than steadily accumulating chips and then getting a nice double-up against the aggro big stack bloke 2 to my right when my KK held against AQ after I shoved against his raise.
Sometime after 2am we'd reached the 10-handed final table. I had arrived as one of the shorter stacks after losing a couple of coin-flips. But with 7 getting paid there was some bubble exploiting to be done...
With the rising blinds/antes I had about 10 big blinds and not in good shape. But a couple of well-timed shoves got me back in contention and I was able chip up after ruthlessly stealing from those who were clearly trying to fold into the money.
Things loosened up slightly after we finally reached the money but unfortunately, I ended up becoming a shortie again after my KK didn't hold for a second time against another AQ. But my later 98s shove into the same player doubled me up and kept me alive against his overcards, much to his disgust!
Just before 5am (!) we were finally down to 3. We were all so short with the rising blinds, but I was shortest and suggested a deal. Mr Big Stack (who can't have had very many chips anyway) was having none of it. A few rounds of push/fold poker later and the guy to my left had finally got fed up of me hitting on his bb and called with T7 against my QJ. I held and we were now heads-up.
When the blinds and antes almost doubled again I suggested a chop - 2nd paid just over $1000 and 1st paid $2000. He had me outchipped, not by much, but still refused to deal. A good thing for me as he totally sucked heads-up! He had a real hard time understanding the whole pre-flop/post-flop postioning and once bet the river out of turn after I had hit trips. I then went for the check-raise, but he folded... hmm. I was now a big chip-leader and he sheepishly asks for a deal. Nope! A couple of hands later we got it all-in with my K8 vs J5 (or something like that anyway). My hand holds and I win. Yay!
The SNG earlier in the day was my first live cash and later on I now have an MTT victory to go with it too!
K was railling me for the whole final table... well, trying not to fall asleep at the table next to us anyway! I'm totally ecstatic as we stagger back to the Bellagio through a fairly quiet casino, apart from one of the noisiest craps tables I saw all trip - some guy in a cowboy hat was clearly having a lot of fun! We hit the Cafe Bellagio for some well-deserved breakfast and then crash.
We awake late on the 4th July and I chat with Tall Paul (another member of the ITH forum and a top guy) in one of many broken mobile phone conversations. It always seemed that one but not the other could get decent reception! Anyway, I promise to head down the Venetian to watch him play in the final table of the Deep Stack tournament. Unfortunately, by the time we have woken, been down the Rio to complete registration for the Main Event and got back again, TP is out.
I then get a call from TP inviting us to a barbeque at chrisjp's house with Yankees (yet more top ITH folks). I must admit we were a little freaked to be invited and initially hesitant but I knew TP, Chris and Yankees would turn out to be cool people (and they were!). Plus the thought of doing a proper American 4th July was too good an offer to refuse! 10 minutes later, Yanks is pulling up outside the Bellagio in his car with TP and they are driving us to Chris'. Genius! Chrisjp and his assembled family and friends are all utterly lovely and make us feel so welcome. We have a quality evening sitting out by the pool eating meat, drinking beer, watching fireworks and talking poker. Could it get any better? Well, yes, when Chris' wife brings out the lemon cakes and ice cream! Mmmmmmm...
The day before the Main Event was spent at Planet Hollywood playing their $80 tournies. I busted out of the 10am one fairly early but meet with the wife for lunch in between her Bellagio spa sessions (that'll be the Caesars money going up in smoke, then!) before deciding to try again in the 2pm. This one goes slightly better until my TP/TK runs into an aggro player's set and I bust. They allow you to re-enter within the first hour and with nothing better to do I pony up another $80. I make this one last and make the final table after a huge slice of luck when I end up having to push J4s only to get called by an AK and KQ. However, a rivered J-high straight triples me up . I am running so good until we're 5-handed and I push from the SB with 66. The chip leader (still with very few big blinds) in the BB calls for half his stack with A8 and spikes an 8 to send me out for $366. Can't complain at that really.
3 MTTs, 2 final tables, 1 win and I feel ready for the Big One, although slightly concerned that I have used up all my luck for the trip!
That night is the PartyPoker party at Prive nightclub, upstairs in Planet Hollywood. A good opportunity to get some free food and booze to help me sleep that night. Got chatting with some Scandinavian online pros that had also qualified for the ME, and bumped into Mike Sexton and Robert Williamson III. Then after a trip to the restroom, I get back to find that K has got chatting with some random girl. Turns out, she's Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot's girlfriend and is from the north of England like me and K. Anyway, she's lovely and we all have a great chat before getting introduced to Devilfish himself. He always comes across as being a bit of an arse on TV but away from the poker table he seems like a nice guy and incredibly funny with some great stories to tell.
Before long though it's 11pm and time to get some sleep. The nerves are kicking in but I manage to get a reasonable number of hours and wake feeling raring to go.
Wow, that was actually quite a long report - maybe my memory is not so bad after all!
Day 1 of the ME to follow...
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
I'm out
Boo. Went out in the middle of level 3 after 5ish hours on my Day 2.
Was up to around 70k in chips at one point but then dwindled after losing a few key pots with big hands that didn't hit.
Final hand came at the 400/800/100 level when I had 32k. Guy before me raises to 3k, I reraise to 10k with QQ, he just calls. Flop comes K92 - he checks, I bet 12k, he raises to put me all-in for my last 10k. After investing 22K, and with 56k in the pot, I pretty much have to call even though it's likely I'm beat. He shows KK for 3 Kings. I'm in real bad shape but the Q on the turn means I have one out to win... the last Q. Hey, it's only a 44/1 shot...! But it doesn't come and I'm O-U-T.
Still enjoyed the whole experience. For the record, I finished about 1978th out of 6844. Not bad for my first time in Vegas, I s'pose...
A.
Was up to around 70k in chips at one point but then dwindled after losing a few key pots with big hands that didn't hit.
Final hand came at the 400/800/100 level when I had 32k. Guy before me raises to 3k, I reraise to 10k with QQ, he just calls. Flop comes K92 - he checks, I bet 12k, he raises to put me all-in for my last 10k. After investing 22K, and with 56k in the pot, I pretty much have to call even though it's likely I'm beat. He shows KK for 3 Kings. I'm in real bad shape but the Q on the turn means I have one out to win... the last Q. Hey, it's only a 44/1 shot...! But it doesn't come and I'm O-U-T.
Still enjoyed the whole experience. For the record, I finished about 1978th out of 6844. Not bad for my first time in Vegas, I s'pose...
A.
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
WSOP Day 2!
I appear to be at table Brasillia 54 tomorrow (name, chip count, table, seat #):
David Freeman 60,000 BR54 01
Jamal Kunbuz 62,725 BR54 02
A 36,425 BR54 03
Kyle Hewitt 18,100 BR54 04
Shahram Rastegari 56,550 BR54 05
Michael Chiang 27,425 BR54 06
David Barter 30,225 BR54 07
Paul Azinger 21,250 BR54 08
Bryan Curtis 3,175 BR54 09
(I'm seat 3). Brasillia is outside of the main poker room so it probably means my table is likely to be broken up fairly early on and I'll be moved elsewhere as others get knocked out.
Paul Azinger? The golfer?? It appears so - here's hoping he should be sticking to his day job!
I have no idea who the rest are, hope that's a good sign although I am useless when it comes to names.
The blinds start at 250/500 with a 50 ante so still a long, long way to go. At the end of all the Day 1s there were 3663 players still in with 666 players winning money. I expect the money to be reached at sometime during Day 3 so ages away yet. Feel like I've done well to get this far so it's just a case of seeing what happens on Day 2. I'll be trying my best!
A.
David Freeman 60,000 BR54 01
Jamal Kunbuz 62,725 BR54 02
A 36,425 BR54 03
Kyle Hewitt 18,100 BR54 04
Shahram Rastegari 56,550 BR54 05
Michael Chiang 27,425 BR54 06
David Barter 30,225 BR54 07
Paul Azinger 21,250 BR54 08
Bryan Curtis 3,175 BR54 09
(I'm seat 3). Brasillia is outside of the main poker room so it probably means my table is likely to be broken up fairly early on and I'll be moved elsewhere as others get knocked out.
Paul Azinger? The golfer?? It appears so - here's hoping he should be sticking to his day job!
I have no idea who the rest are, hope that's a good sign although I am useless when it comes to names.
The blinds start at 250/500 with a 50 ante so still a long, long way to go. At the end of all the Day 1s there were 3663 players still in with 666 players winning money. I expect the money to be reached at sometime during Day 3 so ages away yet. Feel like I've done well to get this far so it's just a case of seeing what happens on Day 2. I'll be trying my best!
A.
Monday, 7 July 2008
Bright light city
Well….I’ve just deposited the husband at the door of the WSOP room and the queue for the spectators was huge, so I’ve retired to the Party Poker room and thought I’d update you on the last 3 days…. Sorry we’re a bit behind. Pre-big game prep has taken precedence! So A finished the blog on Weds Night (even though he wrote it on Friday - he couldn’t face writing about Thursday as we had such a monster fun filled day). It’s now Sunday, so loads to catch up on.
Thursday morning we woke up and then went to Caesars to play a $65 sit and go - something that both of us could do together. My first live poker action ever…. and I have to say it went quite well! The husband/ wife team finished 1st/2nd - in reality this meant we shared the pot, but A still claims a moral victory as he had more chips at the end! There was one nerve racking point where he and I were all in against each other, him having pushed me all in…. but luckily we both flipped over the same hand, AK (quite ironic given the name of this blog).
Once out of the poker room, we headed back to the hotel to sort out a Grand Canyon trip…. We picked out the one we wanted online and then gave the company a call…. No availability over the 4th July weekend (duh, we should have figured that one!) but she put me on hold and came back and said they had availability for like…. now and that the Limo would pick us up downstairs in five mins. So we popped in our contact lenses and were out the door!
The Limo collected us from the Bellagio and drove us to McCarran Airport where were weighed in….. to sort the helicopter balance out (scary or what?!) and then us and two other couples boarded our helicopter piloted by Capt Scott! It’s only as it was taking off that I remembered that sometimes I have a little fear of heights - oops - too late now! But it was amazing - we flew over the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead (the water backed up from the Hoover Dam), and then onto the Grand Canyon - what an amazing sight….the famous red rocked volcanic structure at Golden Hour, as A calls it. We landed at the base of the Canyon, where we had a champagne picnic, just like the American Indians who own the land… not! We took off again and flew over towards the Las Vegas Strip at sunset, all lit up, it looks spectacular from the sky! What a fab day and as Jimmy Cricket would say and there’s more….
We got back to the hotel at about 9.45pm, we got showered and changed and headed off to Caesars again for the 11pm MTT (or Multi-Table Tournaments to us non-Poker players!) - To keep myself busy I attempted another $65 Sit N Go, but alas I was not to repeat my earlier success, a lowly 9th place finish - hey but I was still ahead!! A on the other hand was doing fine…. Slow and steady play meant that he made it to the final table, albeit with a fairly small stack compared to the other players but still alive, with the top 7 places paid prizes. At this point it was about 2am, I’d depleted all my interest in the slot machines and I was just wondering how much longer it would go on for….well the answer was until 5.30am!!! This was despite many offers to share the prize money, there was always one person who didn’t want the deal! Finally the field was down to 3, and A was the shortest stack… he then managed to bully the guy to his left several times into folding and the placings were reversed, he then knocked him out and it was down to the final 2 - minimum $1000 prize, all for the bargain price of $120, plus 6 hours of both of our time!! A again asked if his opponent, Yen, wanted to split the pot, but he wasn’t up for it as he had a substantial lead and instead said “Let’s play 3 more hands and we’ll see”. Big mistake number 1, Yen, my husband rocks heads up and sure enough the tables were turned within those three hands and A was the big stack. He then wanted to split but A wasn’t having it and the next hand he won the big prize…. $2k! Wow…. We were knackered but ecstatic!! We collected his winnings and then carefully treaded into the sun, which was just rising and headed back to the hotel for Breakfast before retiring to our bed…. Zzzzz.
Next day, or 2pm when we finally emerged from our pit, we headed out to check out the scene at the World Series (WSOP) at the Rio, so that A could register and get the lay of the land. Wow, there are a lot of poker players here… the majority whom have qualified via online, but some Pros and others who are willing to pay in the $10k. It was a bit nerve racking, but hopefully settled A into what the scene would be like.
We then got a phone call from one of A’s online poker contacts who invited us to his home in the Las Vegas suburbs for a 4th July BBQ - very bizarre but a true American experience!!!
Next day was spent poker practicing and chilling in the Spa (guess which way around?!) , then onto the Party Poker Party at Prive in Planet Hollywood, where I got chatting to the Devil Fish’s (a well known poker pro from Hull) girlfriend and then we got an intro to the man himself….fairly cool!
Today I’ve been railing A at the WSOP - my feet are so tired, but in a way that’s good cos he’s made it through to Day 2.… am just sat outside the room waiting for the chip count…….. He’ll let you know, but that’s me signing off for today!
Not sure he is awake enough to let you know, but the news is he has 36,425 chips so over 16,000 more than he started with and is in good shape for Day 2, which plays on Weds!!! Plus check out an interview with A at http://blog.partypoker.com/
Will and Ali join us tomorrow, so should be more fun to follow.
PS - pictures still not working... we'll fix tomorrow.... promise!
Thursday morning we woke up and then went to Caesars to play a $65 sit and go - something that both of us could do together. My first live poker action ever…. and I have to say it went quite well! The husband/ wife team finished 1st/2nd - in reality this meant we shared the pot, but A still claims a moral victory as he had more chips at the end! There was one nerve racking point where he and I were all in against each other, him having pushed me all in…. but luckily we both flipped over the same hand, AK (quite ironic given the name of this blog).
Once out of the poker room, we headed back to the hotel to sort out a Grand Canyon trip…. We picked out the one we wanted online and then gave the company a call…. No availability over the 4th July weekend (duh, we should have figured that one!) but she put me on hold and came back and said they had availability for like…. now and that the Limo would pick us up downstairs in five mins. So we popped in our contact lenses and were out the door!
The Limo collected us from the Bellagio and drove us to McCarran Airport where were weighed in….. to sort the helicopter balance out (scary or what?!) and then us and two other couples boarded our helicopter piloted by Capt Scott! It’s only as it was taking off that I remembered that sometimes I have a little fear of heights - oops - too late now! But it was amazing - we flew over the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead (the water backed up from the Hoover Dam), and then onto the Grand Canyon - what an amazing sight….the famous red rocked volcanic structure at Golden Hour, as A calls it. We landed at the base of the Canyon, where we had a champagne picnic, just like the American Indians who own the land… not! We took off again and flew over towards the Las Vegas Strip at sunset, all lit up, it looks spectacular from the sky! What a fab day and as Jimmy Cricket would say and there’s more….
We got back to the hotel at about 9.45pm, we got showered and changed and headed off to Caesars again for the 11pm MTT (or Multi-Table Tournaments to us non-Poker players!) - To keep myself busy I attempted another $65 Sit N Go, but alas I was not to repeat my earlier success, a lowly 9th place finish - hey but I was still ahead!! A on the other hand was doing fine…. Slow and steady play meant that he made it to the final table, albeit with a fairly small stack compared to the other players but still alive, with the top 7 places paid prizes. At this point it was about 2am, I’d depleted all my interest in the slot machines and I was just wondering how much longer it would go on for….well the answer was until 5.30am!!! This was despite many offers to share the prize money, there was always one person who didn’t want the deal! Finally the field was down to 3, and A was the shortest stack… he then managed to bully the guy to his left several times into folding and the placings were reversed, he then knocked him out and it was down to the final 2 - minimum $1000 prize, all for the bargain price of $120, plus 6 hours of both of our time!! A again asked if his opponent, Yen, wanted to split the pot, but he wasn’t up for it as he had a substantial lead and instead said “Let’s play 3 more hands and we’ll see”. Big mistake number 1, Yen, my husband rocks heads up and sure enough the tables were turned within those three hands and A was the big stack. He then wanted to split but A wasn’t having it and the next hand he won the big prize…. $2k! Wow…. We were knackered but ecstatic!! We collected his winnings and then carefully treaded into the sun, which was just rising and headed back to the hotel for Breakfast before retiring to our bed…. Zzzzz.
Next day, or 2pm when we finally emerged from our pit, we headed out to check out the scene at the World Series (WSOP) at the Rio, so that A could register and get the lay of the land. Wow, there are a lot of poker players here… the majority whom have qualified via online, but some Pros and others who are willing to pay in the $10k. It was a bit nerve racking, but hopefully settled A into what the scene would be like.
We then got a phone call from one of A’s online poker contacts who invited us to his home in the Las Vegas suburbs for a 4th July BBQ - very bizarre but a true American experience!!!
Next day was spent poker practicing and chilling in the Spa (guess which way around?!) , then onto the Party Poker Party at Prive in Planet Hollywood, where I got chatting to the Devil Fish’s (a well known poker pro from Hull) girlfriend and then we got an intro to the man himself….fairly cool!
Today I’ve been railing A at the WSOP - my feet are so tired, but in a way that’s good cos he’s made it through to Day 2.… am just sat outside the room waiting for the chip count…….. He’ll let you know, but that’s me signing off for today!
Not sure he is awake enough to let you know, but the news is he has 36,425 chips so over 16,000 more than he started with and is in good shape for Day 2, which plays on Weds!!! Plus check out an interview with A at http://blog.partypoker.com/
Will and Ali join us tomorrow, so should be more fun to follow.
PS - pictures still not working... we'll fix tomorrow.... promise!
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Today's the day
My first day in the World Series of Poker Main Event is today. I start in about 2 and a half hours (12PM PT, 8PM BST). Getting kinda nervous but really looking forward to it...
Friday, 4 July 2008
Vegas, baby!
Well, we made it to Vegas. After a 2nd lovely day in Santa Monica with a walk up to Venice Beach and an afternoon at Universal Studios, it was time for us (well mainly K, actually) to pack up the suitcases again, and head out.
286-ish miles from Santa Monica to Vegas, and about 100 of that just crossing the behemoth that is LA. The drive up the mountains and through the desert was pretty spectacular, and then the sheer madness of a high-rise city in the middle of nowhere hits you as soon as you spy the pyramid of Luxor from the I-15.
This place is truly insane.
After having the air-con on full blast all the way the first we felt of the heat was in the middle of the multi-storey carpark at the Bellagio. The floor we were on had never even seen daylight yet after stepping out of the car it felt like you'd just set foot in an oven at 180 degrees (that's about gas mark 4 for anyone still using old money...). This place is hot. It's a good job then that the hotels have their own air-con also running at full blast - no doubt using the equivalent of an entire country in electricity - 1.21 gigawatts(!) a second, every second no doubt...
The Bellagio is prettay, prettay, sweet and the view from our room window is amazing. We've got the Eiffel Tower in front of us and the famous Bellagio lake and fountains down and left a bit. A constant reminder, whenever you open the curtains, of just how insane this place is. They even put the fountain music on its own TV channel so you can watch the full show from your room when they're on.
After settling-in to the room, we stumbled around the Bellagio casino, not quite believing that the minimum bet on one Blackjack table we saw was $500! We then hit Olives for dinner which was great. Kate had the Mahi Mahi (some fishy dish, don't think K knew quite what it was) and I went for the Pork Tenderloin which was superb.
We then headed down to the MGM - the taxi line at the Bellagio was horrendous so we decided to try to walk it, after all, we could see the top of the hotel from the street, so it can't have been that far! Bong! Error. Even though the sun had just about set it was still unbelievably hot and the MGM was a little further than we thought. Oh well, the air-con set us right again once we stepped inside.
Since we'd come here for the poker we set about trying to play some. We were hoping for some small buy-in tournaments that both me and K could play together - unfortunately there weren't any running so K let me sit down in one of the many tables of cash games that were playing.
I put my name down for a $1/$2 no-limit hold'em game and within a few minutes I was sat down. I always feel a bit nervous when first sitting-in and this was no exception, especially as I didn't really know how to get my cash turned to chips. Anyway, the chip-runner lady soon took my hundred bucks that I was buying-in for and returned with a fairly small looking stack of red $5 chips. I was kinda hoping for a nice big wodge of chips that would look at least a little bit impressive, but hey, give me a few mins and I'll have 'em doubled, trippled or quadrupled up! Yeah, right. After about an hour of having a whole bunch of rubbish starting hands I'd dwindled with the blinds to about $85. Not quite what I had in mind.
Then I got dealt 88 in the big-blind. The guy across from me raises to $10, gets two other callers and it comes to me. I call for the extra $8. The flop comes a beautiful T82 rainbow, giving me three 8's and what surely must be the best hand right now. I check, hoping the raiser will bet again which he duly obliges with another $20. The other two fold and I think about raising. I reckon his most likely holding is a couple of high cards - AK or AQ so I just call, hoping he'll improve on the next two cards. The turn is a King which I'm hoping he hit. I check but unfortunately he checks behind. The river is another King giving me a full house. Unless he has KT for an unlikely bigger full house I think I'm good here but I really don't want him to check behind again so I bet out for $3o hoping just to get paid off. Please have AK, or AA or QQ and call, please! After a long think he calls. Yes! Unfortunately I had the right to wait for him to show what he had first but with a bit of a schoolboy error I got too excited and flinged over my 88 - he then threw his cards into the muck pretty damn sharpish, clearly beaten. Would have been nice to see what he had, anyway learn for next time, but I scoop a nice $140 pot putting me at about $160 total.
After a few more hands I'm getting the feeling that K is pretty darn bored (as I'm sure you all are after that description!) and I get up to leave with $150 left. $50 profit, nice!
Then it's back to the Bellagio (in a cab this time!) and to bed to await a new day of madness in Sin City.
A.
(PS. I was going to add photos but now can't get it to work - will do later)
286-ish miles from Santa Monica to Vegas, and about 100 of that just crossing the behemoth that is LA. The drive up the mountains and through the desert was pretty spectacular, and then the sheer madness of a high-rise city in the middle of nowhere hits you as soon as you spy the pyramid of Luxor from the I-15.
This place is truly insane.
After having the air-con on full blast all the way the first we felt of the heat was in the middle of the multi-storey carpark at the Bellagio. The floor we were on had never even seen daylight yet after stepping out of the car it felt like you'd just set foot in an oven at 180 degrees (that's about gas mark 4 for anyone still using old money...). This place is hot. It's a good job then that the hotels have their own air-con also running at full blast - no doubt using the equivalent of an entire country in electricity - 1.21 gigawatts(!) a second, every second no doubt...
The Bellagio is prettay, prettay, sweet and the view from our room window is amazing. We've got the Eiffel Tower in front of us and the famous Bellagio lake and fountains down and left a bit. A constant reminder, whenever you open the curtains, of just how insane this place is. They even put the fountain music on its own TV channel so you can watch the full show from your room when they're on.
After settling-in to the room, we stumbled around the Bellagio casino, not quite believing that the minimum bet on one Blackjack table we saw was $500! We then hit Olives for dinner which was great. Kate had the Mahi Mahi (some fishy dish, don't think K knew quite what it was) and I went for the Pork Tenderloin which was superb.
We then headed down to the MGM - the taxi line at the Bellagio was horrendous so we decided to try to walk it, after all, we could see the top of the hotel from the street, so it can't have been that far! Bong! Error. Even though the sun had just about set it was still unbelievably hot and the MGM was a little further than we thought. Oh well, the air-con set us right again once we stepped inside.
Since we'd come here for the poker we set about trying to play some. We were hoping for some small buy-in tournaments that both me and K could play together - unfortunately there weren't any running so K let me sit down in one of the many tables of cash games that were playing.
I put my name down for a $1/$2 no-limit hold'em game and within a few minutes I was sat down. I always feel a bit nervous when first sitting-in and this was no exception, especially as I didn't really know how to get my cash turned to chips. Anyway, the chip-runner lady soon took my hundred bucks that I was buying-in for and returned with a fairly small looking stack of red $5 chips. I was kinda hoping for a nice big wodge of chips that would look at least a little bit impressive, but hey, give me a few mins and I'll have 'em doubled, trippled or quadrupled up! Yeah, right. After about an hour of having a whole bunch of rubbish starting hands I'd dwindled with the blinds to about $85. Not quite what I had in mind.
Then I got dealt 88 in the big-blind. The guy across from me raises to $10, gets two other callers and it comes to me. I call for the extra $8. The flop comes a beautiful T82 rainbow, giving me three 8's and what surely must be the best hand right now. I check, hoping the raiser will bet again which he duly obliges with another $20. The other two fold and I think about raising. I reckon his most likely holding is a couple of high cards - AK or AQ so I just call, hoping he'll improve on the next two cards. The turn is a King which I'm hoping he hit. I check but unfortunately he checks behind. The river is another King giving me a full house. Unless he has KT for an unlikely bigger full house I think I'm good here but I really don't want him to check behind again so I bet out for $3o hoping just to get paid off. Please have AK, or AA or QQ and call, please! After a long think he calls. Yes! Unfortunately I had the right to wait for him to show what he had first but with a bit of a schoolboy error I got too excited and flinged over my 88 - he then threw his cards into the muck pretty damn sharpish, clearly beaten. Would have been nice to see what he had, anyway learn for next time, but I scoop a nice $140 pot putting me at about $160 total.
After a few more hands I'm getting the feeling that K is pretty darn bored (as I'm sure you all are after that description!) and I get up to leave with $150 left. $50 profit, nice!
Then it's back to the Bellagio (in a cab this time!) and to bed to await a new day of madness in Sin City.
A.
(PS. I was going to add photos but now can't get it to work - will do later)
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Love/Hate America
Loves:
- New York - cool city, even if the people can get a little grouchy
- San Francisco - cool city, a hundred times more laid back than NYC - and they have beaches!
- The food - great food in humungous portions - mmmmm...
- In-n-Out Burger - we need something like these on our side of the pond so badly.
- The service - almost always a million times better than in the UK in almost every situation, almost always with a smile, even if you can tell they might not really mean it...
- A Starbucks on every corner - when you absolutely, positively have to have a Caramel Macch, accept no substitutes!
Hates:
- A Starbucks on every corner - corporate America gone a little too far. Mind you, we're heading this way in the UK too
- Turning right on red - most traffic light junctions allow you to turn right, even when on red - ARE YOU INSANE?!?
- Turning right on green - you've still gotta watch for the crazy, drunk pedestrians (or cyclists, hey K?) who have right of way.
- No roundabouts - c'mon America, they're not that difficult. Give way to the right - simple.
- 15-20% tipping as standard - yes the service is great and usually happy to pay for it, but as a Yorkshireman this has to go down as a Hate...
- Sales tax - instead of adding it on at the till, here's an idea - call it VAT and include it in the label price - simple.
- Running-out-of-single-dollar-bills-when-your-valet-parker-has-his-hand-out - In the land of the tip, the one dollar bill is king. Not having any when you need them is a bummer. Hate this.
A.
- New York - cool city, even if the people can get a little grouchy
- San Francisco - cool city, a hundred times more laid back than NYC - and they have beaches!
- The food - great food in humungous portions - mmmmm...
- In-n-Out Burger - we need something like these on our side of the pond so badly.
- The service - almost always a million times better than in the UK in almost every situation, almost always with a smile, even if you can tell they might not really mean it...
- A Starbucks on every corner - when you absolutely, positively have to have a Caramel Macch, accept no substitutes!
Hates:
- A Starbucks on every corner - corporate America gone a little too far. Mind you, we're heading this way in the UK too
- Turning right on red - most traffic light junctions allow you to turn right, even when on red - ARE YOU INSANE?!?
- Turning right on green - you've still gotta watch for the crazy, drunk pedestrians (or cyclists, hey K?) who have right of way.
- No roundabouts - c'mon America, they're not that difficult. Give way to the right - simple.
- 15-20% tipping as standard - yes the service is great and usually happy to pay for it, but as a Yorkshireman this has to go down as a Hate...
- Sales tax - instead of adding it on at the till, here's an idea - call it VAT and include it in the label price - simple.
- Running-out-of-single-dollar-bills-when-your-valet-parker-has-his-hand-out - In the land of the tip, the one dollar bill is king. Not having any when you need them is a bummer. Hate this.
A.
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