March 14, 2007
My Trip To Vegas Part 3: Sushi and Poker
Shortly after hitting my royal I steered the Chevy Cobalt over to Andy's to play some heads up badugi. I'm sure as I got in the car I had the same thought I did every time, which is "Right now, all across America, people are getting into their brand new Chevy Cobalts, looking around, and thinking to themselves 'Wow, my life really didn’t turn out how I had hoped.'" If you're over the age of, say, 25, owning a car like that can induce serious depression. It honestly baffles me that anyone can make such a pile of crap.
Last time I was there Andy and I played a bunch of heads up badugi and triple draw, mainly $5/$10. I won a pretty good amount. This time we doubled the stakes, and it was Andy's turn to bend me over. He won a bundle off me in about 3 or 4 hours. I'm still up on him in terms of big bets, but he's got me by a few hundred bucks and that pisses me off. As much shit as I give him (and I'm still positive I have an edge, though I'm sure the feeling is mutual) he does some things really well, so it wasn't a total loss. I learned a lot. And I'll be back in March.
After that me, Ethan, his girlfriend Amanda, his roommate Mike (who did the Macarena in that YouTube video I posted last summer) and my Ohioan friends Keith and Tara all went to see Second City at the Flamingo. I'd been wanting to catch that one for quite some time, as it has always gotten pretty good reviews. It was pretty good and I'd recommend it, especially since the ticket price is about half that of most other shows in town.
From there it was back to the Wynn, for another few hours of revelry with the Brodie crew, and then back to the suite at Bally's. Bally's, for those who haven't been there, is the Chevy Cobalt of the Las Vegas Strip, but the room was my favorite price, and who spends much time there anyway?
Sunday I spent the day just hanging out in the suite, working on a little non-poker project, and sleeping. Some time in the early evening I headed over to Wynn to meet up with Richard, Jenni, Allen (friend of Richard's with impeccable taste in Scotch who I've met on a few prior occasions), and Emily Jillette, the better half of the larger half of Penn and Teller.
We had a fantastic dinner at Okada, Wynn's amazing Japanese restaurant. The sushi was excellent, the caviar (of which I'm usually not a fan) was perhaps even better, and I've never had a sake I really liked before but the Divine Droplets were deserving of the title.
After dinner Allen and I went over to Sugar and Ice for some gelato and then met back up with Richard and Jenni in the high limit slot room. Allen seemed to think the speed with which I polished off waffle cones might raise questions about my sexual preference, so I asked a cocktail waitress what she thought of his leopard-print shirt. "Straight or gay?" Her response was priceless. "Well, a straight guy could wear that shirt, but…." In all fairness though, I've known quite a few gay people and none of them would have worn it (outside of a parade) either.
The next couple days were filled with poker. I decided to get some quality live action time in over at Bellagio. There was only one $30/$60 game and the list was deep so I jumped into a $15/$30 while waiting. I found out later that I should have just gone to the Mirage where they apparently had a couple great $20/$40s going. Either way I got stuck pretty deep by the time they called me for my $30 seat, so I decided to just hang out where I was. I felt like I was playing badly for a number of reasons (the largest of which was adjusting to live play) and didn't want to compound my losses by playing bigger. I mind playing badly much more than I mind running badly, and I was doing both, so I soon called it a night.
The next day I played much better and won a little bit back before hopping my midnight flight home. I resolved to start playing more live poker when I got back, and traveling more often to play live games wherever they may be.
Posted by themaroon at March 14, 2007 1:59 PM
Comments
The only thing I'll comment re: badugi.
The mistakes I make in HU badugi seem like atrocious ones because of a triple draw mindset, when they're actually (I think) only slight mistakes, that help build my image of being a luckbox.
While I caught alot of cards and only bluffed very little, I think I've found a few bluffs that people rarely do that work incredibly well. Most notably is when I'm putting you on a weak 3 card (which most often happens when you raise HU from the button and draw 1) I'll c/r with 1 draw to come and draw 1. Basically I'll bluff the strong A34 type hand, when I actually have something like 874. You're only about a 33% chance to have a badugi you can call me with if I'm correct in my read of you being on a weak 3 card, and I got lucky that you never got there when I did it, so all in all it's a good bluff, and one of the main reasons I play my good 3 card draws so strong as to set up that play.
To me the whole game is you have to be willing to value bet weak badugis on the river OOP, and strong 3 cards when you're both drawing one, otherwise you'll never be able to bluff because it'll look too much like a "he's either got a monster or crap so I'll call with something light when I don't get there" on the end for your opponnent.
I think that's why I caught so many of your bluffs because you weren't as aggressive with your 3 cards unless you really had a 3 card 4.
Posted by: andy at March 15, 2007 7:39 AM
Matt, your Vegas rants rocked. A couple questions:
1) Did AirTran stop flying direct from Ak-Can to Vegas?
2) I'll be back in Green toward the end of the month and probably jonesing for some live play. But the last time I was there, back in early February, I checked the Las Vegas Nights website and it was blank. Meanwhile, a loosely affiliated biweekly lower-stakes version seems to have sprung up at the National Guard Armory adjacent to Akron-Canton Airport. Know anything about either development? Know of any other live games in the area that are open to the public?
Posted by: unkletony at March 17, 2007 3:06 AM
I agree with much of that.
Posted by: Matthew Maroon at March 17, 2007 6:39 AM
Oh, and the Vegas nights are alive and well. I've been playing at them a lot lately. You have to call the hotline to find out where they are.
Posted by: Matthew Maroon at March 17, 2007 6:41 AM