I got back Wednesday from a short fling in Vegas with RoccoBoxer and Mookie (Mrs Mookie joined us later). And all in all, things went pretty darn well.
Sunday we landed at about 9am Vegas time and sprinted over to the Luxor where Mook was staying for his Conference. I made it to the sports book before the 10am kicks and got in the three early bets I needed to make. Only New Orleans covered though, so my buddy ended up short $20. We settled into the $50 NL game there which is a tricky game because a $15 bet is a committing bet when you are sitting on $50. It took awhile, but I was able to claw out a small profit for the night ($60 I think). I also placed a bet for another buddy on New England to cover. Eh, not so much.
Monday the plan was to meet up with Don, Carmen, and Aaron for dinner at Nine Steakhouse. Don and Aaron were also thinking of playing the noon tourney at Ceasars. They didn’t make it so Jim, Mando, and myself settled in. Jim was out early when his KK could not beat an AA. Mook lasted quite a bit longer, until there were 5 tables I think. Myself. Well, I played a mean short stack. I was short for litteraly 3 hours of the 6 hours I played there. I think I played one of the best tourneys I have ever played (including the no-rebuy, no-addon run I made at Mook’s house a few weeks back). We cracked the bubble and one of the guys would not deal at all. He didn’t have huge chips, he just didn’t want to make a deal. I ended up 5th of 79 runners for a $569 payday. The entry fee was $135 and I toked $40 so about +$400 for the 6+ hours of play. Not bad. I only lost one race (AQ vs 44), and really just busted because I made a move with A7 on a short stack and ran into AQ.
Diner at Nine was spectacular. The bone-in ribeye was cooked to near perfection and the sides were quite tasty. Todd Brunson was a few tables over- my only “star” sighting.
We hit the MGM for a bit of cash game after dinner and I was involved in the single most expensive pot ever for me. I had about $200 in front of me, as did the adversary for this hand. It was a 1-2 NL game and I popped it to 8 with AJ in late possition. A few callers. The flop came J48 and one of the blinds bet out 10. It folded around to me and I made it 25 to go. He called. A second 8 fell on the turn which is quite a scare card in these low-limit games. He checked and I bet 30. Call. The river is a non-coordinated 6 and he things for just a sec before pushing. I have about 160 behind at this point and he has me covered by 15 or so. I thought a *long* time. Adrenaline rushed though me, I was actually shaking. Why would he push? If he had an 8 wouldn’t he want me in the pot? This just screamed that he didn’t have the 8. No way he has the straight, there was no flush. He can’t have a boat- because he would want to make money on that. A jack then? Yeah, probably. I have the best jack. I called. He flipped over J-rag and I scooped a major pot. It was about $450. Biggest pot, hardest call, and probably the wrong one- but it worked out. I was still shaking for 15 or 20 minutes, it just wouldn’t flush out of my system. Mrs. Mookie called, she was at the airport and we needed to run. We said farewell to Aaron and Don (Carmen wondered off somewhere :-)) and cashed out- +200 for the session.
After picking up the Mrs. we headed back to the Luxor and cashed it up. I was dead tired and cabbed it back to the Rio to crash about 2AM. Total for the day +700. That was a nice feeling.
Mookie had his conference on Tuesday so Jim, Mrs. Mook, and I donked it up at the Luxor. I ended up down a couple of buyins and sat out for awhile. Jim needed his hours for the chop and Mook showed up at 5 to hang out. I got a hankering for a Hot Pot but no one else did, so I made my way over to the Crown and Anchor. They had a special Hot Pot made with lamb rather than beef. Tasty Tasty. The draft beer is free if you play the video poker so I donked off a bit of change there. Sometimes you make money, but the real trick is not to lose more than the beer costs. It was a wash for me. They have a very odd liquor license there- only beer and wine at the bar- full service in the restraunt. Very odd. Back to the Luxor (I had the car) and donked off another 150 to a few really solid players. I wasn’t on my game and there were a few too many quality players there. I bailed and cabed it back to the Rio. I got a beer and a shot at The Bar for $14. Yep, $9 for a shot of semi-cool Jaegar. Ooof. When I got the room they show adds for the hotel on the TV and showed some hottie dancing on a stage at that bar- not when I was there. That might have made it worth $9 but I doubt it. For the day: -250.
The room was comped, so airfare, rental car, and parking and I was into the trip for $250. I came back with more cash than I left with even with the food, random drinks, and tipping. A very nice feeling.
‘Till next time, Viva Las Vegas.