in and out in vegas

i passed In 'N Out while i was in vegas. mmmmmmm..........double double. i didn't eat there though.

i did, however, play 2/5 NL cash at the venetian. was up $760 after a 5 hour session. i'm happy with how i played and i obviously hit some hands in there. i played 1/2 NL for about 20 minutes waiting for my 2/5 seat and lost about $100 there. a guy slow played aces when i hit top pair, he milked the whole way. sometimes it's harder to play well against bad players. there was a girl at the table who was very blatant in stating that it was her first time playing and that she was a donator. at least she wasn't lying. she kept getting another $100 from her boyfriend and losing it in about 15 minutes. she was a good sport though.

when i made it to 2/5, i used my initially tight image well and picked up some nice pots with marginal hands. one nice hand that has to make the blog cut is AQ. i raised a couple of limpers to $25 in late position and got 3 callers including one of the blinds. the flop was Q high and one of the limpers bet $80 into $100. i made it $185. he reluctantly called. i was sure i was good now, unless he was hollywooding me. the turn bricked. the only draw was a heart draw on the flop. i pushed all in having him covered and he called for about $150 more after some thought. sweet sweet words then came out of his mouth: "i need some help". what a beautiful phrase that is. the river was the Ad and his pair of Qs with a flush draw was no good.

i later flopped a full house with AA after i got 1 caller on my preflop re-raise from the small blind. i got 1 continuation bet out of him, but he was a pretty decent player and didn't double barrel it. he folded to my river value bet.

the last big hand i played was fairly brutal. i flopped bottom set of 4s on a 3 club board. i lead out from early position, a short stack went all in, and another guy called! i called being pretty sure i needed to improve. i checked the Kd on the turn and the other active player made a relatively small bet of $115. this screamed value bet from him, cuz i knew he played vulnerable hands very fast. i had outs and there was a chance i was good, so i called. the river was the Ac, putting 4 clubs on board and not pairing board. oh well, can't win them all. i folded to his value bet and he showed KcJc for the nuts. the other player had AA and had made a set of Aces on the river.

after my meeting, i had another chance to get in a short session and quickly was up $400. it helps to flop the nuts. i called a raise in late position with Ac4c and flopped the nut flush on a king high board. the initial raiser made a nice bet on the flop and i just called, hoping the other two in the pot would come along. they folded. on the turn, the raiser pushed all in, and i had to check my hole cards just to make sure i still had the nuts. "i have the nuts, i call." he missed his boat on the river after flopping a set of Ks for a nice pot for me.

soon thereafter i raised with AQ in late position and got 1 caller. i three barreled it making a pretty substantial bet on the river when he had check called every other street. he obviously had me beat with at least 1 pair, but the board was 10 high and i had represented pretty well. i made him feel good about the laydown though.

i lost a big hand in a re-raised heads up pot with JJ when the flop was K high. he check called the 2 spade flop. i didn't think he had a very strong hand. possibly a pair below Jacks. the turn was a third spade and he checked again. nice trap buddy. i pushed and he called with the nut flush, AsJs. he was such a dog preflop too. oh well, good catch buddy.

i won back just a little bit over the next hour before my i had to leave for my plane and left dead even on the session for the day. a bit frustrating after being up a buyin early, but overall the trip went well. i raced around trying to find the newly relocated rental car center (nice lack of signage Vegas!!) and ran into the airport, only to find my flight had been delayed.

PS they have a pretty talented HR manager for the poker room's cocktail staff. pretty talented indeed.