So I got into Vegas on the 3rd and have been playing mainly cash games at the Rio and Wynn. The Rio cash games in the tournament hall are mostly uncapped however there is a cap at 2/5 (500 buyin). The most action game that I saw was the 25/25 plo (pot limit Omaha) game. I have mostly been playing 5/10 nl. One hand cost me a few k however this has been a profitable trip so far. The hand was played at a 5/10 nl game at the Wynn where I had a pretty tight aggressive image. It was 4 limped around to me on the button and I raised it to 45 with 5d6d. Flop came 2h 4d ks. (5 people in the hand) First guy made it 25 to go and 2 guy called. I thought I spotted weakness and continuation raised them to 200 total as there was 225 in the pot preflop. First guy called and others folded. Money card hit the turn 3d. He led out for 300 i re-raised to 900. He pushed for 2200 total and I snap called. River hit 2h and he showed 44. That’s poker however considering he had 9 outs to win the hand as he was holding the 2d.

Later on in the week I played some 2/5 with 5 deep stacked players. One of them included the ever so animated Alan Boston (7 Card Stud player). I recognized him from being on poker after dark. What a table this was. Alan probably went through a few buyins (unwilling to lay his hand down after missing many draws).

He told me that he would be disappointed if he didn’t make the 7 card stud 10k buy in. I saw him at the Rio during the event and he said he was playing solid however was card dead for most of the event. He also mentioned that he got into an accident with his Ferrari before the event started. I made a few buyins at the cash game with Boston and got some great insight into the world of sports betting. Alan told the table to put money on game 1 of the nba finals and the series. So I took his advice and bet the Celtics for both bets. So far I already cashed in on game 1 and am waiting to cash my 1.7 to 1 ticket if the Celtics when the series.

Cheers,

Errol

I decided to take a week off from my life in Toronto and head to Vegas. Before I knew it the week was over and I decided to extend my stay one more week.

While in Vegas I mostly played cash games at the Wynn and a few tournaments at the Venetian. The Venetian was holding their Deep Stack Extravaganza. I played 2 $500 buyin tournaments and 1 $1000.00 buyin tournament. All the results ended the exact same way. I ended up doing the exact same in each and every one of the tournaments. The majority of the field in each tournament were just plain right offs. I mean you wouldn’t believe what people were pushing with. The tournaments started at 12:00 and there was a 45 min dinner break at 7 or 8pm. Needless to say I didn’t get to that point. I got knocked out in each tourney just a few minutes before dinner break. I believe I finished 55^th out of about 200 in the 1k buyin. And yes I went in with the best hand and got sucked out on. That’s the beauty of tournaments. I actually don’t know how I lasted that long in the 1k buyin tourney. I didn’t see a pocked pair higher than 10’s until about 7 hours into the tourney when I got AA and lost to a set of k’s. Blinds were 800 1600 with 75 ante and the chip leader on the table raised 3k in early position. A short stacker then pushed all in for 12k (just more than the 10k starting amount) and I found AA in the big blind and went all in for 22k. The chip leader had pocket kings and the case king came out on the flop. The short stack had AK.

On to the cash games. That’s where I really made my money on this trip. I was playing 5/10 nl uncapped at the Wynn. The amount of tourists that were playing was amazing. For the most part the regulars were solid players minus a few, so I tried not to get into too many confrontations with them. The good thing about deep stack poker is that you can be really aggressive and get people off hands. The action during the two weeks that I was there was terrific. I have to tell you about one hand that went down. I really couldn’t believe it. One of the regulars who just sat down posted out of position. An older fellow sat down with about 5k in chips. He must have come from playing one of the table games as he had a bunch of yellow chips. There was a raise from the regular and a call from the older fellow. The board came Q83 rainbow. The regular raised and the older fellow said “I call you all in”. After much debate the floor came to settle the dispute and it was ruled to be just a call. The turn came an 8 and the regular put the older fellow all in. He instantly called and the river came a 4 (which was a blank card). The regular turned over AQ and the older fellow mucked. The pit later told us he saw the guys cards and that he had a 10J calling a 3k or so turn bet with a Gut Shot. If the 9 would have peeled off then I don’t know what would have happened.

For those of you who like an uncapped NL game the Wynn is a great place to play. For the most part the average buyin at the 5/10 game was around 2k, however the regulars mostly sat with a lot more. And the 2/5 game saw most people buying in between 500 – 1k. Oh and if you are big into tournaments the Wynn is having their annual Wynn Classic all through out march. These tournaments should bring lots of action for the cash games as well!

Cheers,
Errol