Hey everybody,
You’ve probably noticed that lack of posts lately, and some of you knew that I’d be absent. It’s my birthday today and for those of you who didn’t know, I’ve been in Las Vegas all week playing some higher stake games myself. Unfortunately, I didn’t win any money, but at least I had a good time right?
The first day I was in Vegas, I sat down at a $2/$5 no-limit Texas Holdem table with a simple $1000 at the Venetian poker room. Unfortunately, the cards weren’t in my favor and any bluffs that I tried to make turned sour and I was called. Only a few hours went by and I dropped a full $400. I decided to leave the table and take a break for the night. I travelled over to the Craps tables where a buddy of mine was playing Craps.
To be honest, I had no idea how to play Craps at the time and I was really intimidated by the fast paced game. I watched my friend play for awhile and all I picked up on was that he was winning pretty good money for the stakes that he was wagering. I asked him to teach me how to play and he basically said to bet on Pass, then bet on the six and eight after that. He also told me to always put a dollar on the hard rolls and parlay them three times when they hit. I guess you can win $700 from a triple parlay like that off of just a buck! Anyways, I put a mere $40 on the table, got it up to $160, then dropped it all in the end. Ah well, it’s nothing compared to what we’ve seen happen on HSR in the past right?
The second day, I moved my efforts to fixed limit poker and decided to play over at the Mirage for awhile. I sat down at a $10/$20 game and had the worst luck ever! There was one hand where I was in the big blind and had K7d. The flop came and it was Qd5d9d and I was almost certain that I was going to win the hand. I bet and raised as much as I could! The turn card came 2c so I was certainly golden at the time. I kept putting as much as I could into the pot and the next card came. The river was the 6d, making it one card to the flush and only the ace would beat me here (even if somebody did have a straight). Sure enough, somebody bet into me and I just flat called this one. Sure enough, he had the ace and I dropped like $140 or so in that single hand. My luck kept its pace and I went on to lose the full $400 that I bought in with over a few more bad beats.
You’d think that I would have had enough by now right? Not me, I know that I’m a great player and these roller coasters come along every once in awhile.
I took a break until the next night and decided to move to my favorite casino, Caesar’s Palace. I’ve stayed in their hotel rooms quite a few times and I was very happy with them, even better than the Venetian. Anyways, I played my normal game, paying close attention to the other player’s tells and keeping myself concentrated on the game, and not on the waitresses.
This time, I began my stack with a healthy $500 and the stakes were just $1/$2 (since the $2/$5 had a few players with over $3000 in their hands, I wish I made that kind of money off of HSR!) I steadily brought the stack up to about $750 or $800 throughout the night, then dropped $100 on a bluff that I called some other idiot on. He was displaying the worst tells ever and I was certain that my AQo (ace high) was good to call his short stack. He ended up just having AK (ace high) and I lost, but it was still a good read.
The best part of the night though, was when I reclaimed my weeks worth of losses in a single hand. I held KQs, made a $20 preflop raise, and flopped an open ended straight draw on the flop with 10J7 on the board. I was on the button and the other player let me bet first, so I bet $25 on the draw. The other player just called and the turn card brought a flush draw for me, adding some more outs for my hand. My lone opponent checked to me, and I bet $50. He raised me to $100 and I thought for a mere 15 seconds about my odds. I figured that he snapped something on the turn, but could have been slowplaying me. I didn’t think that he had the low straight because he made a call to my $20 preflop raise. I made the call and decided that there was enough money in the pot to justify it, not to mention that he had over $600 in front of him.
So I made the $50 call and the river brought my golden card, the Ac. I didn’t get the flush, but I did snap off the nut straight. He bet $100 into me, and I made a raise to $300 to go. My opponent immediately went all in for his full $600 or $700 and I thought about my hand one last time, and made the call. Sure enough, he did flop the straight, but just played it like a wimp, letting me do all the betting. The table was full of $5 chips and $100 bills for me to pull in.
I played for just another 30 minutes, and our table broke down. I was going to move over to the $2/$5 game but it was already 5:30 in the morning, which is 7:30 am in my state. I went over to Harrah’s and got a room for the night.
If you think about it though, my opponent could have easily won that hand. He made so many mistakes, especially for a game of this stakes. He could have gotten more money from me by raising the flop when he hit his hand. I surely would have stayed, depending on the amount of his raise. However, the largest missed opportunity was when he made the raise on the turn. Who the hell would raise just $50 into a pot that already had over $150 in it? I made the call because I was getting 1:3 odds on my call, and even better implied odds if I hit my hand, which I did. Had my opponent raised to $150 or $200, I would have had to think about it a lot harder, and probably would have folded for such a raise.
