So I just got back from a Vegas trip with a bunch of the boys. The trip was great! While in Vegas I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The first few nights we stayed in a room that was a non pool side view. This wasn’t our best choice as the hotel was undergoing construction. That meant an early wake up by the construction crew. After we complained we got moved to a poolside view. What a difference that made.

The poker lounge is located right off the main casino floor and right down the hall from the parking garage. There is a nice restaurant called pink tacos beside the room as well as a Starbucks located next door. The floor at the Hard Rock are excellent. All staff at the Hard Rock Poker Room seems to be a tight bunch. They are a very friendly bunch.

The games that were spread at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge were $1/$2 nl and $2/$5 nl. The $1-$2 had a buyin of $100/$300 and the $2 -$5 had a buyin of $200/$2,000. What I did notice is that they could only spread a $2-$5 game from Thursday to Sunday in the afternoons to early morning, which is ok because that’s when the Hard Rock gets the majority of traffic. The $1 – $2 spread 1 table in the early mornings and they would have a floor playing as a prop player to get the game going.  I don’t even play $1 – $2 so i didn’t really play at the Hard Rock until the weekend before I went out to the club.

While playing at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge I played $2 – $5 with Jamie Gold. The game was fantastic as everyone had well over 3k in front of them at one point. No clue why Jamie Gold was playing such low limits.  Most of the time i played  $2 – $5 the game was insanely soft. I would buyin for the 2k max and most players had 300 to 500 in front of them.

I did have one major complaint with the poker room. The floor did not really have a solid foundation when it came to a few specific rulings. It seemed to me that the floor basically took the majority of the player’s word when making a ruling. Maybe it was just the one floor I dealt with but that was my general consensus. Most smaller poker rooms generally make “friendly” rullings to appease the majority of the players (to get them to come back).  Stuff like this wouldn’t ever happen if you go to 1 of the 4 top poker rooms in Vegas (Bellagio, Venetian, Caesars, and Wynn).

That being said, the staff at the Hard Rock Lounge were extremely nice to the players. If you had the players they would spread whatever game and whatever limit you wanted. The staff at the poker lounge even walked us in to the Hard Rock club (Body English) on Halloween. It was pretty much the casinos busiest time of the year.

If the Hard Rock ran a $2 – $5 game around the clock every day i pretty much wouldn’t have left the casino. I did extremely well while playing there and the staff made my stay at the Hard Rock a great overall experience.

Oh and I bumped into Daniel Negraunu while playing at the Hard Rock. Apparently he was giving lessons to a contest winner. Here is a pic of me and Negraunu. I played a lot this summer at the WSOP and didn’t stop one pro for a picture. Heck I even played with Phil Galfond and Jamie gold. I guess I just consider these guys to be regular people.

Cheers,

Errol

So I have been playing a lot of 5/5 and 5/10 NL live as of late and noticed how often people try to value bet bluff the river. This usually happens when a player is heads up. Value betting is what people do when they believe they have the best hand. In NL cash games at the 2/5 of 5/5 level people usually win most of the time by betting on the value of their hand and not by bluffing. At these types of limits I strongly suggest against throwing a value bet in on the river when trying to bluff and take down the pot. The vast majority of the time this play will backfire as you will be called down with a marginal hand. If you have been betting the entire way on a draw are attempting to bluff on the river I suggest that you throw in a pot sized bet and not a ½ pot sized bet that looks like a value bet.  This way your typical calling stations will think twice about calling you. You will reap the benefits and realize how often this play will work.

Cheers,
Errol

So I actually took 4 days off from the internet world. I didn’t think it was possible. For 4 straight days (thursday to sunday) I did not play an single hand of online poker. I took a much deserved break away from my computer and headed to Niagara Falls to play some live poker. Although the limits weren’t that high i took some time to actually relax. I played some 5-5 and 5-10 nl. I got to the casino at around 10pm on Thursday and played some 5-5 nl till about 3am. The action was pretty slow as the majority of people who filled the tables were regulars. In fact except for Friday and Saturday nights most of the players who play at fallsview are regulars that play 5 or more times a week. I ended up 3 or 4 buyins on sat and crashed at the hotel (which had a great view of the falls). On friday I played some 5-10 nl from 2pm till about 8pm. Max buyin was 1k. I got sucked out on a few times real early and lost 2 buyins. HOwever i make a nice comeback and finished up 1 buyin.

The rest of the weekend was spent going to Buffalo, doing some shopping and watching the bills game on Sunday. Let me tell you the clubs in Buffalo are nothing like the clubs in Toronto. I have to admit that the Toronto social scene dominates the Buffalo scene. Anyways.. the Bills crushed the Dolphins and after the game we went to a bar to catch the Pats Steelers game. We then hit up the casino to play a few more hours before we headed back to Toronto. I won 2 buyins at the 5/5 tables and then called it a day. I think the weekend was an overall Success!

Pics from hotel and game.

Cheers,

Errol