Jeff Goes To Vegas Part 1

The disappointing aspect is the venue itself. Only a couple of miles away lie the opulence and comfort of the finest poker rooms the world has to offer, in particular the Bellagio (my favourite), but also the Venetian, the Wynn and many others on the strip. Truth be told, all are far nicer places to play poker than the harshly lit and cheaply furnished warehouse that is the home of the World Series itself.

Still, it is the only place to be if poker immortality is your goal (sadly Harrah’s are all too aware of this which is why you may pay $5,000 to play in an event and find yourself in a tent in the desert) and, as a result I soon found myself gladly handing over $2,500 to register in the next day’s No Limit Holdem event.

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READ DAVID GROSS' VEGAS DIARY HERE...

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Tired and jet-lagged after a short and mildly profitable cash game session at the Wynn, and a nice dinner with the boys, I hit the sack at the obscenely early Vegas time of 11.30pm. By 4am I was back at the not quite so profitable cash game – my Kings ran into Aces pre-flop - and after an early morning nap I hoped I was in something resembling reasonable shape to take on the other 1,200 hopefuls.

Feeling surprisingly refreshed I settled in at my table 10 in seat 8 (my lucky number – my bracelet was assured) only to see renowned high stakes and hyper aggressive tournament player Minh Ly two to my left. He proceeded to take the first two pots and was hoping he would continue in the same vain on the third hand where I happened upon pocket Aces. With 5,000 starting chips and blinds at 25-50 I opened with a standard bet of 150. All folded to the big blind who quickly called the extra hundred. The flop was A-A-4!!!! This miracle flop almost seemed wasted so early on. Still, it didn’t deter my opponent from leading out for 225. As I pretended to muse as to what to do I grabbed a couple of blue chips along with a quarter to make the call and threw them into the pot. ‘Raise 800’ cried the dealer. Somewhat confused I realised that the blue chips I had taken were not the navy 100 chips but the lighter blue 500 chips. I knew there was nothing I could do at that point other than to pray my opponent had 44 or was a lunatic. Sadly, neither was true as he mucked what he later told me was 10-10. I was obviously annoyed because I very rarely, if ever, make these kinds of basic mistakes but I was soon able to put it behind me as I knew that unless a 10 had appeared I would not have made any more on the hand. In any event I had won a few chips with the hand. Still, quad aces, third hand, such gifts are extremely rare...ARRRGGHHH!!! as we say online.

As the level (each level is one hour) continued I found a few playable hands and was probably the most active player at the table. I had also got caught bluffing at a pot with 6c-4c so I was aware of my image of being quite loose. About 30 minutes into the second level, blinds now being 50-100, my stack was around the 6,000 mark when I picked up Aces again. I was in second position and determined to capitalise this time. Due to my table image I was confident that my opening bet of 350 would attract at least one caller and sure enough the button, with about 8,000 chips and whom I had been tangling with a little, thought for a short while before re-raising to 1,100. I took my time to consider my options and decided a further re-raise would define my hand as an extremely strong one as about half my entire stack would be going in. The alternative of pushing all-in would be highly unlikely to attract a call for 75% of my opponent’s chips unless he had the other two Aces or two Kings. The range of hands I put him on was 10-10 up to A-A to A-K, and possibly A-Qs. With all of that in mind I decided to take a chance and try and play my Aces cutely as I made the call.

The flop came J-6-3. Wary of the Jack I checked quickly. He immediately bet 1,500 in such a way that I was pretty confident he hadn’t flopped top set, not least because of the fact that he bet it at all. At this point I put him on either Queens or Kings. There were 3,850 chips in the pot. I was facing a bet of 1,500 and had 5,000 in total. With no real alternative I shoved the lot in re-raising 3,500 more. My opponent thought for a few seconds before announcing ‘call’. Any lingering doubts as to whether he had Jacks were dispelled and sure enough upon seeing my bullets he revealed two Kings.

With 13,000 chips in the middle I was in nice shape to hunker down and go deep into the tournament. The turn brought an unthreatening 4, the dealer rapped the felt, burnt a card before revealing the river. The Kc. I still see him in my sleep. Physically jolted, there was nothing to be done other than congratulate my opponent with the familiar ‘nice hand’ and shake his hand as he muttered some platitude about how nicely I had played the hand.

I was obviously gutted but not really upset as I knew I could not ask for much more of myself than to get my chips in as a 90% favourite. Given our starting hands all of the chips were going in to that pot regardless of when and I knew I had to suck it up and try and think about the rest of my trip. I had played well, I told myself, though the spectre of those misplayed quads raised its head and refused to go away for a while.

Rather than tilt off a bunch of money in the cash games there I wished David luck and headed down to ‘Where It All Began’ - Binion’s - to meet some boys there who were due to play in a $150 shootout that started half an hour later. It seemed like relatively cheap therapy and I was looking forward to the company of friends. With an $8,000 first prize for winning two tables of 10 and one of six I decided it was worth taking seriously. I should say that Binion’s is pretty disgusting and I don’t recommend anyone goes there (save to play in the final few tables of the Main Event that is). Having quite fond memories of the poker room from previous visits it was sad to see.

Nonetheless, finding pocket Kings in the big blind on the fifth hand of the tournament soon had my attention, particularly with the small blind raising me after everyone had folded around to him. A raising war followed which saw us reveal our hands, and him his Aces. In the space of six poker hands I had lost with Aces against Kings and now was trying to outrun them myself. Sadly, I couldn’t. Waiting for at least one of my buddies to get knocked out (not nice I know) took longer than I expected as they all got to at least the final three. I whiled away a little time in the cash game at a game I wasn’t interested in before returning to the Rio just in time to see David get knocked out.

Day 1 wasn’t exactly going to plan...

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Come back to Poker Verdict next week to see how Jeff followed up this disastrous first stab at poker glory.