Tao of Poker

Vegas Poker Play... Day 2

Day 2 (Sunday): - $50 (8 hours)
Total (2 days): - $45 in 18 hours

I played for a solid 8 hours. I sat on a $2-6 table for 30 minutes before I moved to a $1-3 seat. On the $2-6 table, I lost $15, most of it on pocket Queens. They did not hold up against someone's two pair. On sunday afternoon, they're weren't as many drunks playing. However, I found myself in a bad rut of cards. When I got strong hands, they got cracked and I lost to folks staying in until the river, and then catching a hand slightly better than mine. My A-K suited lost to a pair of fucking 6s. I was raising every time and the guy caught a six (he held K-6 unsuited) on the friggin' river. It was ugly. I was down $80 by my second hour of playing. Even my pocket Aces couldn't hold up. I wondered if I had to re-buy another rack of chips.

I begun to play semi-loose. On the button and in the late position, I was playing almost everything playable (when theere were no pre-flop raises). I went on a nice run, and within a half hour, I picked up a quick $100 in chips to go up $20. I won a big pot on 5-6 suited. A few hands later I had a 2-4 suited diamonds. The flop was: 3d-5d-Kh. I had an open ended straight flush. I got raised on the flop. I said "fuck it". No matter how much it was going to cost me, I was going to try to pull my first staright flush ever by the river. Another K fell on the turn. I made the raiser for triple Kings. I called, and I pulled a Jack (diamonds) on the river. It wasn't pretty and I got a few frowns from the locals, but I didn't care. I won a big pot against a truck driver from Tacoma (earlier he got a straight flush and only won a hat!), whom I went heads up with a couple of times. He out kicked me once with a A-Q when I held A-J. I seemed to get A-J a lot! I really got not so good hands. I got a flurry of pocket 4s and 5s. When I dropped pocket 6s on a preflop raise and re-raise.... you guessed it, a 6 fell on the flop and two pairs (Aces & Kings) won the pot.

On the button, I had J-7 suited and flopped top 2 pair. I kept raising until the river and won a medium size pot. The other big pot I won was on a Q-8. I flopped a full house and slow played it.

Speaking of slow playing, there was one old lady who did not raise any pots pre-flop. She hid her pocket Kings twice and she had A-K three times (in the first 2.5 hours I played at her table). I lost one pot to her, but Derek took a nice one against her.

By the end of the fourth hour, midway through my session, I had broken even after I won pots with A-J and A-Q off suited.

Then the last half of the session, I played like shit. I got no cards and slowly lost my stack. I walked into blindly losing a huge pot. I had K-10 and flopped two pair. I dismissed a possible straight from a guy and made him for a high pair. I thought wrong. And I made a bad play and made sure that didn't happen the rest of the night. I lost big pots on A-2 (again flopped two pair). By the end of the seventh hour of my eight hour session, I was tired and not pleased with my hands. As always, I lost too much because I played too many hands. I managed to hit a big pot with a K-Q suited and I won some of the money back I lost to the guy who beat me on the straight. I loooked and saw I was only down $50. It was almost 2 am, so I decided to call it a night. I won $5 on Saturday, and lost $50 on Sunday for a total loss of $45 through two playing sessions, or 18 hours worth of poker in Las Vegas.

I played with a couple of women throughout the night. I also played against a couple of cowboys in town for the Rodeo stuff. They were drunk and playing a lot of hands.

Monday... tourney at the Luxor and more poker at the Excalibur and possibly the Mirage. Stay tuned.

A Las Vegas Blog