Back to Reality

This past month I have spent 7 days in Myrtle Beach, 5 days in Vegas, and 5 days camping. Now it's back to the daily grind.

My Vegas trip was fun but disappointing. I had high hopes for this trip and was ready to focus and play my best. I ended up playing 3 Venetian Deep Stack NLHE tourneys, one Caesar's Mega Stack NLHE tourney, the Golden Nugget HORSE tourney, and two Venetian second chance tourneys. I made it to the HORSE tourney my first day there and played solid for the first couple of hours. During the stud round I hit Broadway on 5th street and guy had rolled up 7's and hit a boat on 6th street for a big pot. I went out in the next Razz round when i had 7543A at 5th st. and my opponent had 7K9 showing. I got it all in and he hit a 2 and 4 on 6th and 7th for a A2457. GG me. That evening I met up with CK, LJ, and cmitch for dinner and then headed to the Wynn for a $1/$2 mixed game . I got my first lesson in 2-7 triple draw. The very first hand, LJ and I played a big pot where I had the 2nd nut hand and she had the 3rd. I ended up down about $40 but had a great time. I was hoping to get over to the Rio to rail LJ and cmitch in their tourneys but wasn't able to make it back over there.


The next day I played my first Venetian tourney. I was down early but came back and had a little below average stack just before dinner break. I had AKss in ep and raised, agro guy rrsd me from button. I rrsd all in and he called w/aq. Flop 345 w/2 spades. Qs gives me the nuts and he's calling for a 2 to split. Turn is an 8 and river is a black queen.......of crubs! Are you fking serious? My one big regret in this tourney was when I was down to about 17 bb and utg big stack raised. I was utg + 2 and had JJ. I was telling myself to push but couldn't do it. I decided to just call. The button called also. The flop came AKx. They got it all in w/one having AK and one AQ. Wouldn't you know the turn was a J. I would've tripled up. The next two deep stack tourneys I couldn't get anything going and went out around mid field in both. I did win a $130 satellite into the 2nd deepstack.


Both of the second chance Venetian tourneys I started off good. The 2nd one I played I was running over my table and then the table broke. I thought I had a lot of chips and my new table had 4 stacks larger than mine. The first 3 hands I was at the table, the big stack raised pre and was all in on every flop w/marginal hands. In my BB a shorty pushed for 4x the bb and big stack called. I look down at QThh and decide to see a flop. Flop comes Q9x. I check for the trap and just as he had been doing big stack says all in. I insta call and he tables A9. I think I'm in great shape until the river brings another 9. .........sigh


My last day there was Sunday and I played the Caesar's $330 tourney. I had a pretty soft table and had my starting 15k stack up to 26k after four hours and only showing down 2 hands. I was feeling confident and making great reads until this hand..... Blinds are 400/800 and utg pushes all in for 6k. I'm in the sb and find a pair of Q's. I rs to 12k and bb pushes all in. I know I'm probly fkd but have to call. He shows AA and I'm done.


I played 6 NLHE tourneys and didn't see AA or KK once. I had QQ twice and lost with them both times and I didn't flop one set. There were times in the tourneys when I wasn't in the hand but had some great reads on the players. I probably should have played more hands just to get in and try to outplay them post flop. I only played one NLHE $1/2 session at the Flamingo for about 2 hours. I bought in for 200 and cashed out for 350. One good player and the rest were pretty bad. Definitely should have played more cash.


I had a couple of good craps sessions and put $20 in a slot machine and cashed out $140 (my biggest slot machine cash ever). I was good and stayed away from roulette until my last night. Bad decision. I was able to meet up with Lightning for a couple of beers. It was after talking to him that I decided to play the cash game.

Overall I felt like I was playing good and making good reads, and at the same time not giving any tells away.