My buisness, my biz-NASS
Alright finally back at home, settled and continuing the waste of life that I’ve led for the past 5 months.
After spending almost 3 weeks in Vegas, living out of random hotels and a backpack I’m definitely glad to be back to normality. Not to say that Vegas wasn’t a great time, its just that I’m definitely a fan of the sloth-like existence that I’ve grown accustomed to at home. Additionally I was pretty much cashed out mentally during my last few days playing cash games. I was in the “play not to lose” mindset for sure, and while I didn’t lose, I didn’t win and ultimately was just wasting my time.
We ended up driving our asses back home across the whole massive fucking U.S and A. It was a 45 hour drive, by far the longest of my career. We did take one sleeping break in buttfuck Nebraska, but otherwise we drove most of the time. The drive through Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Colorado are pretty interesting as far as drives go, but once we got to east Colorado through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan, the novelty of seeing grass pastures wore off. We ended up saving a grand total of about $100-150 each by driving, which if I had the option again I would definitely fly. I can see why they invented Airplanes.
As I mentioned previously, we spent most of our time playing 1/2 NL at the MGM Grand. I was up and down varying amounts throughout my entire trip. I believe I finished at around even for cash games, although I stopped keeping track about halfway through. The tournaments continued to be good to me though. I played in another Sahara nightly tournament. This time there were about 120 entrants and wouldn’t you know it, I took it down again for a big score of $2600. I’ll try and recap some of the hilarity that occurred at the final table.
It’s amazing how much of an edge one possesses against these inexperienced players at a final table if he or she utilizes simple push/fold strategy depending on stack size. To get to the final table, the deck admittedly was very good to me. I had some big pairs at times when opponents had not as big pairs and I avoided all potential 80/20 suckouts. Actually, there was one time where I had TT vs 88 against some dude all in preflop, but he spiked an 8 on the flop to stay alive (I had him covered). That dude ended up playing me heads up.
I want to mention one hand that I feel I really evolved from an internet player to a live player. We were down to 7 players and an older man from the CO limped. I had Q9s in the SB and limped as well with about 15BB. The BB checked and we saw a flop of K93 with two of a suit that I didn’t have. I put out a 1/2 pot probe bet to see where I was at. The BB folded and the old man moved all in. I barely had him covered at this point, so I was effectively playing for all my chips. My first reaction was that my hand was too weak to be playing for all my chips, and almost folded. I then looked up and tried to get a read on him, since I’ve heard that’s what good players do. He had a scowl on his face, one that was unnatural to his normal demeanor. I hadn’t played any pots with him or even seen him play a hand up to this point. He was staring me down intently, not taking his eyes off mine once. For about 20 seconds this went on when I finally concluded that there is no way he would stare me down with a very strong hand – especially keeping in mind we have had no history together. The only thing I was truly afraid of was that he had a weak king, or a nine with a better kicker, but they seemed like relatively unlikely holdings at this point with the blinds this high and him limping. I need to get better at this “reading weakness” thing, as people can probably feel like they are weak or don’t want a call from their opponent when they actually have the best hand, but I went with my read and called for all my chips. He had AT (???) and he didn’t hit his 6 outs and I took it down. Like I said I could have gone either way on this hand but after analyzing the situation for almost a minute I felt that it was probably +EV to call, even if it was only a small edge.
Once we were down to 4 players, I was either 3rd or 4th in chips. Since the payout was something like $2,600, $1,500, $650, $450 for the four remaining places, we started to discus a deal. The chip leader had about 2-1 on the 2nd place while the 2nd place was about 3-2 on myself and the other short stack. The chip leader was a moron in the purest sense; the type of moron who didn’t know anything about final table poker and figured that he got to his position by “outplaying” everyone else. Oh by the way this is the same dude with 88 vs my TT earlier, yea. His “offer” was that he took $2200 and the rest of us got $1,000 each. I told him to eat a dick and that we weren’t going to be giving him virtually 1st place money just because he had 25bb. Additionally the 2nd place player wasn’t going to be giving up his chip equity either so clearly the deal didn’t come into fruition. Eventually I doubled through the 2nd place player and then started an assault on all three players blinds every time I got the chance. They were quite vocal about trying to avoid going broke, even the chip leader. Once he noticed me gaining on him, we started talking while waiting for the now super short stacks to bust. He mentioned that we should split it 50/50 once we got heads up. At the time, he still had me in chips so I said that I would probably be interested in that idea, once the others bust. Blah blah blah, the short stacks bust and we get heads up. At this point, I have him covered at least 3-1 in chips now due to my aggressive strategy. He gets up and says to me; “50/50 right?” in a serious tone. I assume he is kidding at this point as it is obvious just by looking that I have a serious lead on him now. He asks for time so we can discuss a deal. All his “deals” consist of him getting at least $2k for his little stack. At this point I honestly couldn’t even figure out how badly I had him outchipped so I just refused any deal and continued playing. Once play commenced and I started pushing almost any 2 into him as he was still waiting for a top 10 hand to play for all his chips. After a few orbits of this he said, rather astutely, “you aren’t one of those internet players that pushes all in every hand are you?” I replied “I sure am” followed by another “all in”. He was visibly upset that not only did I refuse his deal, but I am now even refusing to “play poker” with him. Oh well, you have 3bb left, I’m not concerned. He finally decided to push with QJ when I had A9 in the BB and that was that, I had taken down my 2nd straight MTT at the Sahara. He stormed off in a hissy fit, while I calmly collected my winnings. He came back to talk to some people on the rail. He was standing about 5 feet away from me, making sure I knew how much of a better player he was, and that “I had probably never even seen that much money before”. I couldn’t say anything because he was just too upset and I didn’t really care what he thought, but I really wanted to mention the fact that his expert play got him all in preflop with an underpair to my tens before the final table had even started. But I decided to just take my score and leave.
The rest of the following weeks were filled with mediocrity as I mentioned earlier. I played the Sahara tournament one more time, busting out near the money to end my streak of 4 straight cashes in it. I also played the daily Caeser’s $220 tournament, which actually had a fantastic structure as well, but ended up busting out 5 out of the money when I pushed over a few limpers with JJ on the button (13bb) and got called by KJ for some reason and lost. But if I had to go back I would play it again since it really was well structured.
Other than the tournaments I really didn’t play that well in Vegas. I think I ended up a moderate winner in cash games, but it was close. Truthfully I should be crushing the lowest buy-in cash game that Vegas has to offer, but for some reason I couldn’t ever get much of a streak going. It’s a small sample size, let’s just assume it was the asshole side of variance for now.
I’m still glad to home and playing online again. We’ll see how long that lasts…
After spending almost 3 weeks in Vegas, living out of random hotels and a backpack I’m definitely glad to be back to normality. Not to say that Vegas wasn’t a great time, its just that I’m definitely a fan of the sloth-like existence that I’ve grown accustomed to at home. Additionally I was pretty much cashed out mentally during my last few days playing cash games. I was in the “play not to lose” mindset for sure, and while I didn’t lose, I didn’t win and ultimately was just wasting my time.
We ended up driving our asses back home across the whole massive fucking U.S and A. It was a 45 hour drive, by far the longest of my career. We did take one sleeping break in buttfuck Nebraska, but otherwise we drove most of the time. The drive through Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Colorado are pretty interesting as far as drives go, but once we got to east Colorado through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan, the novelty of seeing grass pastures wore off. We ended up saving a grand total of about $100-150 each by driving, which if I had the option again I would definitely fly. I can see why they invented Airplanes.
As I mentioned previously, we spent most of our time playing 1/2 NL at the MGM Grand. I was up and down varying amounts throughout my entire trip. I believe I finished at around even for cash games, although I stopped keeping track about halfway through. The tournaments continued to be good to me though. I played in another Sahara nightly tournament. This time there were about 120 entrants and wouldn’t you know it, I took it down again for a big score of $2600. I’ll try and recap some of the hilarity that occurred at the final table.
It’s amazing how much of an edge one possesses against these inexperienced players at a final table if he or she utilizes simple push/fold strategy depending on stack size. To get to the final table, the deck admittedly was very good to me. I had some big pairs at times when opponents had not as big pairs and I avoided all potential 80/20 suckouts. Actually, there was one time where I had TT vs 88 against some dude all in preflop, but he spiked an 8 on the flop to stay alive (I had him covered). That dude ended up playing me heads up.
I want to mention one hand that I feel I really evolved from an internet player to a live player. We were down to 7 players and an older man from the CO limped. I had Q9s in the SB and limped as well with about 15BB. The BB checked and we saw a flop of K93 with two of a suit that I didn’t have. I put out a 1/2 pot probe bet to see where I was at. The BB folded and the old man moved all in. I barely had him covered at this point, so I was effectively playing for all my chips. My first reaction was that my hand was too weak to be playing for all my chips, and almost folded. I then looked up and tried to get a read on him, since I’ve heard that’s what good players do. He had a scowl on his face, one that was unnatural to his normal demeanor. I hadn’t played any pots with him or even seen him play a hand up to this point. He was staring me down intently, not taking his eyes off mine once. For about 20 seconds this went on when I finally concluded that there is no way he would stare me down with a very strong hand – especially keeping in mind we have had no history together. The only thing I was truly afraid of was that he had a weak king, or a nine with a better kicker, but they seemed like relatively unlikely holdings at this point with the blinds this high and him limping. I need to get better at this “reading weakness” thing, as people can probably feel like they are weak or don’t want a call from their opponent when they actually have the best hand, but I went with my read and called for all my chips. He had AT (???) and he didn’t hit his 6 outs and I took it down. Like I said I could have gone either way on this hand but after analyzing the situation for almost a minute I felt that it was probably +EV to call, even if it was only a small edge.
Once we were down to 4 players, I was either 3rd or 4th in chips. Since the payout was something like $2,600, $1,500, $650, $450 for the four remaining places, we started to discus a deal. The chip leader had about 2-1 on the 2nd place while the 2nd place was about 3-2 on myself and the other short stack. The chip leader was a moron in the purest sense; the type of moron who didn’t know anything about final table poker and figured that he got to his position by “outplaying” everyone else. Oh by the way this is the same dude with 88 vs my TT earlier, yea. His “offer” was that he took $2200 and the rest of us got $1,000 each. I told him to eat a dick and that we weren’t going to be giving him virtually 1st place money just because he had 25bb. Additionally the 2nd place player wasn’t going to be giving up his chip equity either so clearly the deal didn’t come into fruition. Eventually I doubled through the 2nd place player and then started an assault on all three players blinds every time I got the chance. They were quite vocal about trying to avoid going broke, even the chip leader. Once he noticed me gaining on him, we started talking while waiting for the now super short stacks to bust. He mentioned that we should split it 50/50 once we got heads up. At the time, he still had me in chips so I said that I would probably be interested in that idea, once the others bust. Blah blah blah, the short stacks bust and we get heads up. At this point, I have him covered at least 3-1 in chips now due to my aggressive strategy. He gets up and says to me; “50/50 right?” in a serious tone. I assume he is kidding at this point as it is obvious just by looking that I have a serious lead on him now. He asks for time so we can discuss a deal. All his “deals” consist of him getting at least $2k for his little stack. At this point I honestly couldn’t even figure out how badly I had him outchipped so I just refused any deal and continued playing. Once play commenced and I started pushing almost any 2 into him as he was still waiting for a top 10 hand to play for all his chips. After a few orbits of this he said, rather astutely, “you aren’t one of those internet players that pushes all in every hand are you?” I replied “I sure am” followed by another “all in”. He was visibly upset that not only did I refuse his deal, but I am now even refusing to “play poker” with him. Oh well, you have 3bb left, I’m not concerned. He finally decided to push with QJ when I had A9 in the BB and that was that, I had taken down my 2nd straight MTT at the Sahara. He stormed off in a hissy fit, while I calmly collected my winnings. He came back to talk to some people on the rail. He was standing about 5 feet away from me, making sure I knew how much of a better player he was, and that “I had probably never even seen that much money before”. I couldn’t say anything because he was just too upset and I didn’t really care what he thought, but I really wanted to mention the fact that his expert play got him all in preflop with an underpair to my tens before the final table had even started. But I decided to just take my score and leave.
The rest of the following weeks were filled with mediocrity as I mentioned earlier. I played the Sahara tournament one more time, busting out near the money to end my streak of 4 straight cashes in it. I also played the daily Caeser’s $220 tournament, which actually had a fantastic structure as well, but ended up busting out 5 out of the money when I pushed over a few limpers with JJ on the button (13bb) and got called by KJ for some reason and lost. But if I had to go back I would play it again since it really was well structured.
Other than the tournaments I really didn’t play that well in Vegas. I think I ended up a moderate winner in cash games, but it was close. Truthfully I should be crushing the lowest buy-in cash game that Vegas has to offer, but for some reason I couldn’t ever get much of a streak going. It’s a small sample size, let’s just assume it was the asshole side of variance for now.
I’m still glad to home and playing online again. We’ll see how long that lasts…
posted by RikkiDee at 2:41 PM
7 Comments:
Well done in the tourneys, but sorry you weren't more successful in the cash games. GL
Congrats on the tourneys... cash games are tough at low limits... isn't there a level one up from that where you could do much better?
box...
hey, can you leave a comment on my blog please. I am going to vegas and have 1000 dollar bankroll. Where would you recommend me playing . I am good at the MTT tournies and i will definately hit the MGM 1/2 NL. Where are some other good places to go play
Thanks for all the commments. I agree on the lowest limit NL games being difficult to play in. You definitely have to make adjustments to your game, something I wasn't fully aware of the first few days I was there. At the MGM, there was only one consistent higher stakes NL game, and I figured that anyone who was decent would be playing there, whereas if there were many higher stakes games (2/5, 5/10, 10/20 etc..) the players would be more appropriately placed but since there was only one higher level, you would get all sorts of skill levels. Not sure if I'm correct in that assumption though..
And pokerspaz, I don't see your blog linked to your blogger profile so I'll just reply here.
1/2 NL is the lowest stakes NL you can play in Vegas, with generally a $200 max buy-in. If you are a NL player, I found it truly didn't matter where I played, the competition was always the same. I stayed at the MGM since it was close to where we were staying, had lots of tables going all the time and I got familiar with the room, rules and people in it. But I'm sure you could create a similar bond with any of the bigger poker rooms.
For tourneys I would absolutely recommend the daily Sahara tournaments as they only cost $62 to enter and they have a great turnout and chip structure. I would stay away from almost every other low buy-in MTT/SNGs in Vegas, as they generally have horrid structures.
Good luck, have fun.
Thanks alot dude. I forgot to mention, congrats on the win. So cash games are similar everywhere thats cool. I watched you play on poker stars and i try to emulate your playing style, but i occasionally loosen up when i get bored. probably my worst vice in MTT games. haha. but yeah. Definately gonna hit the sahara. I heard the hooters were pretty good also. tournaments too?
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