Odds & Ends--The June Trip Wrap Up

As I tweeted a few days ago, I am presently back in Vegas.  I've already gotten a few great anecdotes to blog about, but not enough time to write them up. So in the meantine, I have a bunch of little stories left over from my trip to Vegas last month (the “Bloggers Trip”).  None of them merit their own post (because, as you know, it is against my religion to do a short post), so I’m throwing them altogether here hoping that, when mixed together, I get something readable out of them.  Warning: there might even be some poker content involved.

First thing I want to talk about is that straight flush I hit my second night in town.  The story is here. In that post, I started the story with “details to follow” but I pretty much told the story of the hand there, nothing much to add.  Except maybe this.  The person who bet out on the river, who had trip 8’s, was a BSC regular I’d run up against before.  He’s a good player, and in fact, is the guy who took a nice bit of my money when he limped with pocket Aces against my pocket Queens. That story is told here. Hmm…..I just reread that story and was surprised that I had actually given the guy a name on the blog.  I guess I figured I’d run into him again, and I was right.  So, it was Willie, the guy who limped with Aces, who came up against my straight flush.  And because he’s a good player, he didn’t lose very much on the hand, damn it.  It would have been nice to have gotten all my money—and then some—back from him on that hand.

Truth be told, I’m not sure too many players would have lost much more to me on that hand though.  With a paired board, and both a straight and a flush out there, only a real fish would have dropped a bundle to me there.  I needed someone with a full house—or perhaps the nut flush—to really have paid me off.

My hand wasn’t the only monster I saw that night.  An incredibly hot, incredibly well-built woman came to the table. I believe she was attempting to test the reliability of the Jennifer Tilly Effect. She was wearing a low cut dress that revealed her impressively large breasts.  Now, admittedly, the previous sentence is totally gratuitous and really adds nothing to the story. But you know, talking about cleavage and breasts gratuitously on this blog is most likely the reason that women keep coming up to me in Vegas—once they know who I am—and pulling down their tops for me (see here and here).  So it seems I have a pretty nice incentive to mention cleavage and large breasts whenever possible.

Anyway, the very first hand she was dealt she ended up with quad 10’s.  Tens seemed to be an appropriate hand for her.  She was definitely a “10.”  And with four of them, the total of 40 might have come pretty close to equaling her bust-size.  But I’m guessing she’d need at least a four kicker to make that really work.

Unfortunately, she and I were on opposite sides of the dealer, so I only really saw her when she sat down.  I want you all to know that at one point during the session, I did have the opportunity to move to a seat directly across from her, and I stayed put.  No matter how big those gazongas were, I wasn’t about to leave a seat where I’d already been dealt a straight flush.  I do have my priorities!

Earlier, on my first day in town, a dealer at the WSOP venue told us a few cute stories.  One was about his observations dealing in the Seniors bracelet event a few days before.  He said he dealt it the whole day and it wasn’t until his last down that he finally saw somebody three-bet!  He said it was the tightest group of players he’d ever seen.  At the same event, he actually saw a guy fold pocket Aces pre-flop!  He insisted he saw it with his own eyes.

It was early in the tournament, first level, everyone had more or less their starting stack.  The guy in question raises with his bullets, another guy 3-bets him, and then another guy goes all-in. So the original raiser shows his Aces to the dealer as he folds!  He said to the dealer (after the hand, I assume) that he knew for certain that one guy had the other two Aces and the other guy had pocket Kings and he didn’t want to chop the Kings’ stack with the other guy who had the Aces!  That’s what he said, anyway.  Very strange.  And it turned out the guy was exactly right, one guy did have the other two Aces and the other guy had two Kings.

Someone at the table asked who won the hand.  The dealer kind of stammered and then said, “Well, as it turned out, it was the guy with the Kings….but that’s not the point!  I have no idea if that story is true but is a great poker story, regardless.

While I was in town this trip, I did finally check out the new poker room at The Palms, now run by Cantor Gaming.  Instead of being just near the Sports Book, like most poker rooms, this room is more or less inside the Sports Book.  I’ve heard complaints about this because the noise from the sports book can sometimes be overwhelming.  Not just the people watching the games in the book, but the sound from the gigantic TV screens.  However, when I was there, this wasn’t a problem.  Of course, I went in there on a night when there was an NBA finals game, but only after the game was over.  I suspect if I had been trying to play poker there during the game, I would have found it a rather unpleasant experience, but I’m only guessing about that.

The room is otherwise nice, roomy, comfortable.  The other issue is that from some seats in the poker room, those giant TV screens can be rather blinding, especially when the picture has a predominately white background.  I found it more than annoying the few times it happened when I was in the wrong seat.

Other issues—well, they do have the dreaded button straddle here. But at least the action starts UTG and not on the small blind.  Although there was some confusion over that by the dealer and some of the players.  The dealer said this was his first or second day working there and in the other room he works, they do it the other way (action starting on the small blind).  So people were folding out of turn until he figured it out.  I’ve got an idea how to clear the confusion.  Get rid of the god-damn button straddle.

Another issue I have is that it’s 1/3, not 1/2.  I don’t understand why a room that is struggling to get people in does that, when there are so many nice, big, busier rooms that offer 1/2.  Oh well, I guess it makes sense to them.

But they do have some great people working there, including Chuck, the star (victim) of this post.  Chuck was working there the night I dropped in and we had a nice chat as he dealt.  He told me his lovely wife, also a dealer, is now working as floorperson at the Tropicana several nights a week, so that was nice to hear.  They’re both good folks.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the hookers who were at the Mirage during the AVP tournament. The most remarkable thing about them was their location.  Usually hookers stay away from the table games and prefer to haunt the slot areas looking for suckers (or suckees, I guess, to be more accurate).  But right outside the Mirage poker room, as I was leaving it that night, I saw three gals standing just a foot or less away from the Big 6 Wheel (or Wheel of Fortune, whatever they call it these days).  There were a bunch of people playing who couldn’t get off their stools without practically running into one of these girls.  I was surprised they were willing to be so visible as they flagged down guys walking by.  If I hadn’t retired from hooker stalking, I would have hung around and waited to see if security was ever going to bust them.  But I didn’t.

Second to last night in town, I caught another monster at BSC.  It was the second of two pots in a row I won with Mike dealing.  The first one, he deals me the Josie—Jack/10. I call a small raise.  Highest card on the board is a 10.  I bet, one caller.  The turn pairs deuces on the board. I bet, the other guy shoves.  Since he was short stacked, it was an easy call even though I suspected he might be ahead.  I didn’t have to put all that much more than my original bet to call.  We don’t show.  River is a very nice 10, giving me 10’s full of deuces.  He had a deuce, so the trips he had on the turn became a lesser boat than mine on the river.  Excellent river, Mike!

Very next hand, I limp with pocket 5’s.  The flop missed me, so I was prepared to pack it in, but no one bet, so I got a free card.  The free card turned out to be a 5.  This time first action bet and I just smooth-called.  The board didn’t look all that scary with only one card to come.  The river was the case 5.  First action bet out $25.  Nice.  I just put out the minimum $50 for a raise there, praying for a call, or better, a re-raise.  Nope, he didn’t bite, and mucked his cards.

You gotta show quads right?  So as Mike is pushing me the second straight pot I had won, I flipped over my fives and said to him, “What, all of a sudden you like me, Mike?” Mike and I are pretty good pals, so he just laughed.

Naturally, he didn’t send any more pots my way that night, or the next one.

I’ll end this post on a sour note, a hand where I lost a little but should have won a lot. Of course, I had the dreaded pocket Kings.  My raise is called by two players, both women.  The flop is QJ7, rainbow.  First action bets $40.  Hmm…..what the hell?  I thought she was kind of a bad player.  I just call.  Other woman goes all in, but she only has $50.  Original bettor wants to go all in for $135!  What???  But they won’t let her.  The other woman’s all-in isn’t enough of a raise to count as a raise, all she can do is call the extra $10.  For another $10, it’s an easy call for me but I suspect I need help.

The turn is another Queen, and as it is hitting the board, the gal who wanted to shove last street says “all in.”  Shit.  Do I want to put another $125 out there with just an overpair, with a pair of Queens on the board, and knowing she wanted to shove even before she saw that second Queen?  I decided I didn’t. I wasn’t sure this girl knew what she was doing, but I thought she most likely had a set which now was a boat or two pair with the flopped Queen and now had a boat.  Even if she had Queen-anything, she had me beat.  I folded.

It was a bad fold.  River was a blank.  The short-stacked lady had a straight draw and missed.  The one who wanted to shove on the flop but couldn’t flipped over Jack/7.  Damn.  She flopped 2 pair so she was ahead of me when she bet out on the flop, but the second Queen would have helped me, not her!  She would have been counterfeited if I had called, my Kings up would have beaten her Queens and Jacks.  Ugh.

Would have won a pot of over $200 if I called.  I still think I did the right thing but…well, I guess that’s poker, right?