Where do I start? At the beginning of course. Another couple and my wife and I headed to Vegas last Saturday for a week of gambling, drinking, and being tourists. Note that drinking and gambling were separate as they do not mix well if you want to make money.
Based on feedback from various sources, response from the forum was appreciated, and research I had done online, my fishing choices were narrowed to the Luxor and the Excalibur and I was staying at the NY NY. Can you believe there is a casino in Vegas that does not have a poker room? Yup, the NY NY is sans poker room. Unbelievable.
We left Tampa at the butt crack of dawn and were in Vegas at 1:00 Vegas time. Got ourselves situated in our rooms, kissed the wives goodbye, and headed over to the Luxor. My plan was to play limit first, see if I could generate a positive flow of income, and then tackle the no limit tables. When the poker manager said he had two seats at two different tables for 1-2 available, I quickly pulled a $100 from my wallet. As he grabbed 20 $5 chips, I realized that I was heading to a NL table. Too late to back out now.
The stack sizes varied from less that a $100 to at least $300, and I was a little outside my comfort zone. For those of you that don’t know my story, like most people, I have played various versions of poker since I was a kid, but did not start playing hold em fanatically until after a trip to Vegas last August. Since then, I have started a weekly home event in which we play low stakes limit cash games and no limit tourneys. Knowing that 100 hard earned dollars was sitting in from of me, and could be gone with one wrong move, my stomach was jumping around a bit. I know that $100 is not a large some of money, in fact, I had come to Vegas with the knowledge that my wife and I would probably go through at least a grand gambling as we were there for 7 days.
Back to poker, and sorry for the tangent. So, I had been playing for a little while, not really catching any cards, when I caught a pocket pair. Color me thrilled when I make a set on the flop, and a full house on the turn. Color me more thrilled that I have a player across from me sitting with two pair and betting as if he has the nuts. I cold call him on the flop and re-raise him all in on the turn. I had to sweat out the river card when he calls and turns over pocket kings, but the river is a blank and I now have $180+ sitting in front of me. FYI, I would have had no problem leaving right there and then.
J Sandman 1, Random Vegas guy 0.
With a larger stack in front of me, and a goal to leave with a profit, I began to play even tighter. I am pretty sure aggressive play would have netted me more money, but it was my first day in Vegas, and I was ahead! Twice I got up to see how my buddy was doing, and I was on the verge of leaving the table when I was dealt pocket 10s. Now this is where I believe hours of online play and the weekly home game helped me tremendously. The flop came out 10 blank 10. Flopped quads in Vegas! Yeah baby! Now, how do I make some money? You gotta love aggressive poker players. I check/call the flop, I check/call the turn, I raise/get re-raised/and re-raise all in on the river. And I now have $400 sitting in front of me! Sandman 2, Random Vegas Guy #2 0. Ok, now I am really ready to get the hell out of dodge! But, guess what, the Luxor pays out a high hand an hour at $150. I have to stay to collect that right?
Unfortunately, some guy hits a jack high straight flush with 15 minutes to go in the hour to wipe my high hand away, and I give back $40 on a flush draw. A $200 swing in mere minutes. I hang out a little bit longer and cash out with my profits and a big smile.
FYI, this is just day one of 7 in Vegas. Let me know if you want me to keep writing about the experience and I will be happy to oblige.
Sandman