Vegas Trip Report, Pt. II
My second Vegas session was at the Flamingo’s “poker room.” It was very small. Again, I’m accustomed to the room at Turning Stone in upstate NY that must have about 30 tables. The Flamingo’s room probably had about six or seven. I guess it didn’t really matter in the end, since there were multiple 200NL games going with open seats.
The tables were 10-handed, which was kind of annoying (both because it’s more boring and farther away from 6max than 9-handed, and the 10th player makes things a little too crowded at the table. If only poker rooms spread 6max games…), but fortunately people were constantly standing up for extended periods of time. Maybe they were taking breaks for cigs, or maybe they were going off to gamble at other tables. I once saw a guy at turning stone who would get up after folding a hand and come back with new chips from playing blackjack when he was in the big blind again. I think I’d give that at least an 8.5 on the degenerate gambling scale.
The session wasn’t too long; I would have to say over the course of three hours I only got 100 or so hands in. (Why does anyone ever play live poker?) I didn’t really do much for the first several hands and got myself into a tough spot with AQ when I flopped TPTK. This isn’t going to be a good hand recollection, because I don’t remember the exact cards. But with about $175 effective stacks, I raised to $10 from the CO. Both blinds called. The flop was Qxx rainbow and I bet $25 into about $35. The SB called, making the pot $85. The turn came what seemed like a rag, and the SB shoved for about $140. I didn’t really know what to make of this, as I was planning on checking the turn for pot control and enducing a bluff or making another value bet of my own. My read on the SB was that he was a tight player, as I hadn’t really seen him put any money into pots earlier in the session, so I just folded. That was pretty annoying.
Then my big hand came (notice the theme? aka the hand that made the session profitable). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I like my hands to have a “theme” or “moral” to the story that is a broad poker concept that I’ve learned. The moral of this story is: “Sometimes, it’s good to be shortstacked” because it’s much easier to commit when you only have one pair on the flop and avoid tough spots later in the hand.
I found AA on the button with about $130. I decided that this was a good thing, since a raise and a call would put the stack-to-pot ratio at between 3-5, and I’d be able to commit my whole stack +EV on most flops. UTG and UTG+1 limped and I raised to $15. Both limpers called and we saw the flop with about $50 in the pot. The flop came Ks7s2. Perfect. Plenty of Kings and flush draws will pay me off. Both limpers checked, I bet $30, UTG minraised to $60, UTG+1 coldcalled, I shoved for $60 more, and they both called. Turn and river were both blanks and the villains showed down KT and KJ. Wow. I tripled up and scooped a nice $400 pot.
After another hour or so of junk hands and cbetting without much resistance, I stood up with about $375, close to half my bankroll on Full Tilt. Yikes! Why can’t 200max games online be this soft?
