The Guy Who Wouldn't Chop

This is an evening from my summer trip to Vegas, a couple of cash games.  I played at Venetian and the Wynn on a Saturday evening.

First I played at Venetian in the late afternoon.  It was my first game of the day, it was one of those days where I just couldn't get moving and got a very late start.  The game was rather unexciting, although I did manage to break even without getting involved in any memorable hands.

But the one thing noteworthy was the guy who wouldn't chop.  I was sitting in seat 1 and when the table got a little short handed, it folded to the guy in seat 9, the small blind.  He put in a buck to call.  I talked past the dealer to ask him if he wanted to chop.  He said no.  "You don't want to chop?"  I guess I was surprised.  But he said no.  OK, with my 10-6 off I just checked.  The flop missed me, no betting.  The turn and the river were also worthless.  Every time, he checked and I checked behind.  Finally after he checked the river, I flipped over my hand and said, "10-high."

He immediately mucked without showing.

I guess I wasn't that surprised, but really….what the hell did he have that he didn't want to chop with that couldn't beat my 10-high???  In fact, I actually tweeted out that very question after I stacked my massive winnings for that hand, a whole $3 (of which I had contributed two-thirds).  I actually got a few responses….he was looking for a jackpot.  Maybe it was 3-2 suited?  Or some other hand you could conceivable make a jackpot with.

Well, the only promo they had at the Venetian at the time was the bad beat jackpot.  So yeah, if he made a straight flush, and I made quads—with a pocket pair of course—there's your BBJ.  But of course that is such a ridiculous long shot.  And if he actually wanted to get the better payoff for the BBJ, ie, the losing hand, he really better have a pocket pair himself and hope I get the straight flush.  But of course if he had a pocket pair—even deuces—he'd have beaten my 10-high.

I mean, if the room has high hand bonuses I can see playing if you have a pocket pair or a suited connector.  But just playing for a bad beat?  Really?

But he did the same thing at least two more times.  He just didn't ever chop.  He gave me a dollar twice this way.  The second time I had something like 5-2 and caught a 5 on the river and took it down.  Then finally he put out a big bet on the flop and with nothing of course I folded.

It actually makes no sense to play hands like that, but I guess this guy just never chopped.  Dumb.  In situations like that, if I'm the small blind and the big blind doesn't want to chop, I'll just slide my dollar over to him and think, "If you want this buck so badly, you can have it."  I don't say that aloud, but I try to convey that with my attitude.  I guess I wouldn't do that if there was some kind of promo that made it sensible to play it out.

That's about all I have to say about this session, but as long as I'm talking about the Venetian, I'll give you guys a little heads up.  As I mentioned in my Ante Up column that I just sent off, Venetian is changing their 1/2 game to a 1/3 game in January.  Same buy-in as before ($100-$300).  They are going heavily into promotions too, changing their BBJ back into a progressive one.  And they have high hand promos or splash pots or drawings for next year at least until the summer poker season starts.  And they will be taking a $2 promo drop starting in January.

So after I was finished playing I had some dinner at the Venetian.  And may I just say, as casino restaurants go, Café Lux at the V is one of the best deals around. I mean even if you don't have poker comps to use, but of course I did (that makes it even a better deal).  But I gotta say, the food is really good and the price is a lot lower than comparable places at most Strip casinos, at least the ones with poker rooms.

Then it was time to head over to the Wynn.  I decided to walk over there from the Venetian.  As I've noted before, I have chronic back issues so this is always a little dicey for me—the walk I mean.  It's not a long walk if you are completely healthy.  But if your back is likely to start hurting you halfway there, it's problematic.  And also, this was in the middle of summer, when its always triple digits heat outside.  Still, I decided to give it a shot.

At least for now, the Venetian still has free parking but Wynn does not.  You can get free parking at the Wynn by playing enough to get your players card upgraded—which would be impossible for me unless I lived in Vegas—or you can get a parking validation for that day's play.  That's better than most of the other rooms on the Strip that charge—they'll actually validate your parking.  To get a validation for poker, you need to play two hours of cash or buy into a tournament.  Note:  while I was in town, they started offering parking validations if you spent at least $50 at the Wynn that day.  Not sure how the validation works for slot play or table games.  But if you're planning on spending any money (non-gambling) money at all at the Wynn in a day, like say you're gonna buy a meal, it's almost impossible not to spend at least $50 there.  I mean, if you go to the gift shop and buy a couple of Snickers Bars, you're pretty much there.  Yeah, it is a bit pricey in there.

But I decided to walk over there so I wouldn't have to worry about playing a full two hours.  If I was running bad, and went thru two buy-ins in an hour, I didn't want to have to keep playing in order to get that parking validation.  Saving the $15 or whatever for parking could easily end up costing you a couple of hundred bucks.  Or, conversely, if I started out real well, and wanted to book a nice win after playing an hour and a half, I wouldn't want to risk losing my profits to save that $15.

When I got to the poker room it was really busy.  Fortunately, I had called ahead to get my name on the list so I didn't have too long to wait.

Just a couple of hands worth discussing.  In the small blind I had King-7 off and completed it in a multi-way pot.  The flop was King-Queen-Jack, two clubs, a suit I didn't have.  I called $7, then $18 on a blank.  The river was a third club and this time the aggressor bet $26.  I dunno why, but I just had a feeling he didn't have much if anything  I played my hunch and called.  As soon as I put my chips out he mucked without showing.  I always find this weird.  When he does this, he's not fooling anyone, it was obvious he was bluffing.  But isn't he at least curious what I had?  I mean, he should show just to get me to show my hand, no?  Oh well, I was happy to take it down without showing.

Later I limped in with King-10 of hearts, under-the-gun.  The way the table was running, I just didn't want to get three-bet out of the pot, so I didn't raise.  The next guy did raise, making it $15.  Three others called before it got back to me.  The pot was going to be $75 if I called so I did indeed call.  The flop was definitely favorable:  10-10-X (some low card). I checked and the preflop raiser bet $30.  When a lady called the $30, I decided to just call, thinking I could get more money if I waited for the turn to check-raise.  But then on the turn, a blank, I checked and the other two both checked behind.  Damn.  Well, the river was really nice, a King. Of course I couldn't afford to check, so I decided to bet small ($40) hoping I could get at least one customer.  But they both folded.  Still, it was a nice pot.

I won a small pot when I called $10 from the big blind with Ace-4 of spades and hit runner-runner flush—no one bet the flop or the turn.  No one called my $15 river bet.

And that was it for the poker.  But I hung around the Wynn for awhile.  I guess I've never mentioned Wynn's version of the Slut Parade. You see, the parades at other venues are perhaps more centrally located, whereas the Wynn's is virtually everywhere.  There's no one central place to get the best view. That's because the Wynn has (at least) three nightclubs spread out over the Wynn and the Encore and once it gets near opening time, there are hot young ladies walking in every which direction in both casinos. It's almost impossible to miss them.  Just stand or sit anywhere and you'll see a boatload of attractive clubgoers pass by.

One of the clubs is actually a beach club, and during the summer, attendees at this club show up in swimwear.  Of course they are supposed wear "cover-ups" over their bikinis, but most of the ladies have said cover-ups open and some forego them altogether.  This means that on a hot night, in addition to seeing plenty of beautiful girls in their club dresses, there are also girls in their bikinis to ogle—I mean admire for their sparkling personalities.

Now, one of the clubs is located fairly close to the poker  room, and wouldn't you know, it's the one with the beach club.  So if you get a seat at a poker table facing the outside of the room at certain hours, well, it can be quite distracting to say the least.

Here's the thing.  I dunno how they do it, but I swear, the ladies that attend these clubs at the Wynn are especially beautiful.  I mean seriously gorgeous.  If I didn't know better, I'd swear the Wynn has folks at every door into the Wynn just to make sure that no female enters unless she is super-model caliber.  No one who isn't at least a 9.7 gets in.  And the 9.7's only get in a slow nights.

The point being that there are worse things to do on a Saturday night than just hang around the Wynn and notice the lovely club patrons.  And if you think I didn't take advantage of this opportunity on this particular night in June, well, you don't really know me.

Eventually I had to make the long walk back to my car at Venetian.  But I had an extra $100 on me from that Wynn session. And I had a smile on my face for other reasons as well.