Evening all. I still have blog-writer's block at the minute so I'm just gonna power through it by writing a boring diary post that goes something 'like this happened and this happened, then this happened'. Here goes:
I landed in Vegas on Friday at around 3pm, getting through customs was thankfully no bother this time around. Dave picked me up from the airport and after we dropped off my stuff at his apartment we headed straight to the Rio. I was a bit knackered but I wanted to stay up till normal time to try and push through the jetlag straight away. We met up with Dom and strolled about in the convention centre for a bit, ending up meeting Neil Channing at the rail of the round of each final table, watching Paul Parker and Ben Grundy.
I can't watch poker being played, it's far too boring, so when Tom Middleton and Nicky Evans showed up and asked if I fancied throwing a few dice and drinking with them I gladly accepted. I was throwing like Steve Backley for a while, managing to last about 40 mins on one roll before finally accidentally landing a die on the don't pass line which therefore turned up a seven. The $1k profit slipped almost as much as the free cocktails, by then a big session was in the offing so we retired to the bar in the middle of the Rio where they have those interactive tables where you can order drinks and spy on other tables. Dave and Dom arrived and quite a few more drinks and a cigar slipped down before I ran out of energy completely and had to quit. Think Dom, Tom Johnnybelow and Nicky kept going for a quite a while after though.
Anyway I woke up at around 6am after about 4 hrs sleep (when will I learn? you can't cheat jetlag). I sat playing around on the laptop for a while then we headed to the rio to play some cash. I ended up playing about 4hrs of 2/5 holdem and 2hrs of 2/5 PLO. I'm pretty confident I can hold my own with 100bbs in PLO nowadays, tourney or very deep play is a different matter, but in this game everyone was sat with $1k with an almost compulsory button straddle so I was fine. Both the holdem and PLO were too tough for Vegas though, still value but there are definitely easier spots. I finished +$300 or so for the whole session.
On Sunday I woke up at a normal time and we headed straight for the Rio again. I decided to give the satellite room a try, see if the value was any better there. I played a $525 single table satellite, 10 handed with the winner getting $5k in 'lammers' and $120 cash, and ended up taking the lions share of the prize pool and 6-way last-longer bet for about $3.9k. I actually got heads up with 18,500 of the 20,000 chips in play, declined a chop to give the other guy his buyin back, and then lost the next 5 or 6 pots, inc 2 all ins, to let him back in the game. Leading 12k to 8k we decided to split $4k of the prize pool up $2.2k to $1.8k and play for the rest, which I thankfully won. After dinner I played a $275 with Dom which I lost and another $525 where I got heads up with $12k to $8k again. The other guy was a good player but I couldn't accept his offer to split everything down the middle so decided to play on. Next hand I got A7 on the button and 4bet shoved into his ATs and lost. No deal could be reached again and soon after I busted for nothing. Still I've decided these stts are ridic value and will be playing them over cash games whenever I can.
On Monday I played the $2.5k 6max bracelet event. Well, I dunno if I can say I played, it was more of a fleeting visit than a game, I was gone before I could even open my All In energy drink. Hand: I just spent about half an hour bollocking around with pokerhandreplayer.com just for it to fuck up the bet sizing every time and then finally crash when I figured out its stupid system. Shit site. Anyway basically UTG raised to 125 which I called in the SB with ATs, the bb made a tiny 3bet to 450 which we both called. The flop came down 9h8h6c giving me 2 overs, a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw so I decided to get it in and ended up busting to the BB's flopped set of nines. Incidentally this 3bet preflop is terrible, not enough to make anyone fold, it opens up the betting again in case someone wants to 4bet with AA/KK and reduces the BB's implied odds for flopping a set.
So that was a fun $2500. After I rang Dave to come and pick me up (he had barely got back to the apartment), we chilled out for the afternoon and headed to caesars palace so Dave could work his magic on some girl who gave him her number at a cash table in the Rio on Saturday.
Blog post to be continued tomorrow, I'm heading out the door to the Rio again now. Inabits..
