Suppose They Gave a Poker Tournament & Nobody Came?

Poker & The Coronavirus

I am a victim of coronavirus. 

No, don't get me wrong.  I don't have coronavirus, thankfully.  But I am a victim of it, nonetheless.

More accurately, I am a victim of the hysteria surrounding it.

You see the other day I went to Walmarts to do my weekly shopping.  And a lot of items were just missing from the shelves. 

Even before I started shopping, I noticed that those disinfectant wipes that they usually have as you enter—you know, to sanitize your shopping card—were missing.  Apparently they were all out of them.

I wasn't in the store for five minutes before hearing an employee tell a shopper that they were all out of hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and alcohol (the kind you sanitize things with, not the kind your drink).  And as I did my shopping, I saw that all those things were indeed missing from their shelves. 

Also missing:  water.  I mean bottled water.  All gone.  Mostly missing was hand soap, they had maybe 10% of their usual stock on the mostly empty shelves.  Toilet paper was available, but that section was at about 25% capacity.

It was kind of ridiculous.  Why this virus should produce a run (so-to-speak) on toilet paper is a mystery to me.  The virus is not known to produce gastric distress.  But perhaps the threat of the virus has a lot of people scared shitless, thus the stocking up of TP.  Apparently some people bought hand sanitizer as if to prepare for a year of shortages.  And people must be using those disinfectant wipes and alcohol to rub down every item in a 100 yard radius.  And I guess they think the virus will get into the water system and infect our water?

I'm not a doctor or an epidemiologist—and I don't play one on TV—but I don't think this kind of panic is anywhere near warranted.  I could be wrong of course.  Perhaps in a month, the last surviving human being on the planet will come across this blog post and get a good laugh at it.  But that seems unlikely to me.

I mean, I use Vegas as my reference.  Late last week they reported the first known case of Covid-19 there.  Think about that. If any place is susceptible to an epidemic, it's has to be Vegas.  Thousands of people flying in and out every day, from all over the world.  It's gotta be the germ capital of the world.  I can't count the number of colds I've contracted there.

If the virus was as bad as the panic would seem to indicate, by now every single resident of Vegas would be dead by now.  At least, everyone who spends a few hours a week in a Vegas poker room (or really any part of a casino) would have contracted the disease, right?  Those cards, those chips, they're filthy and germ-ridden.  You mean to tell me no one from China or Italy or South Korea or the state of Washington who has the virus (and presumably doesn't even know it) has found his or her way to a Vegas poker table by now?

And it seems to me that unless you're old (over 70) and/or have a chronic medical (respiratory) condition, it isn't that serious if you do get it.

But with a willing media needing something to hype, they are making it sound like this is the end of the world.

Thus the shortages.  Thus I am a victim.

My non-professional advice….relax

Now, I could be a victim of this virus in another way.  And that has to do with my job.  If you pay attention to poker Twitter—or any other place poker is discussed—you've no doubt seen some discussion that the WSOP could be cancelled this year.

Up until a few days ago, I thought this was a preposterous suggestion that could never come to pass.  I just never believed the health risks would warrant it.

Now I'm not so sure.  Seeing how the panic and hysteria have set in, I have a genuine concern that enough people will be scared off that they might just decide that it wouldn't be profitable to hold it this year.  I still think that's a long shot but I can't rule it out.  After all, conferences and conventions all around the world have been cancelled because of concerns over this virus. And they just cancelled a major professional tennis tournament because one person in the county (presumably not connected with the tournament) tested positive for COVID-19.

Needless to say, such a cancellation would be quite a blow to the poker world.  And if poker series in Vegas and elsewhere start getting cancelled, I wouldn’t have much work to do, would I?  (Yes, it's always about me).

I started thinking about this when I was writing my next Ante Up column last week.  In order to write it, I ended up begging a few poker room managers/tournament directors to give me an advanced peak at their summer schedules so I would be able to write about their series.  I got a few to review, and for the moment, all the schedules appear to be prepared assuming business as usual.

That means that, as in the past, a large percentage of the scheduled tournaments have guarantees.  And the guarantees on based on normal attendance, based on how many folks showed up last year.

I can definitely see a problem with that.

Now I assume if the WSOP does actually get cancelled, most of the Vegas series around town will be cancelled too.  I mean, those series are all based on the belief that every poker player in the world will flood Vegas to play in the WSOP and these other series.  With no WSOP, the poker players certainly won't be coming to Vegas in the numbers we're used to. 

But I started wondering what happens if they hold the WSOP and vast numbers of players are afraid to attend? That they stay the hell away out of fear. 

Most of the WSOP events do not have guarantees, so they could just run them and have smaller fields and therefore smaller prize pools.  They might just decide to forego the guarantees on the events they run that usually do have guarantees in order to insure they don't have any huge overlays.

I could see that happening.

But what do the other venues around town that run summer series do?  They pretty much rely on their guarantees to attract players, to compete with the WSOP and the other venues.  Guarantees are expected these days.

But what if, at some point, it becomes obvious that this summer, people are just not going to show up in the numbers that they usually do.  You can be sure that all these poker rooms around town that offer these summer tournaments around town are not going to just have overlay after overlay on their poker tournaments day after day.

At what point will they change things? After a big overlay or two?  Or before anything even starts because they see reservations down and hear from their regular players that they are staying away?  You can be sure that if there is still widespread panic over COVID-19 come May, those guarantees will be reduced or removed.

Since, again, this is always about me, let me just say that if they all do change their schedules and their guarantees at (near) the last minute, I would have the opposite problem I alluded to earlier.  Instead of too little work to do, I would be overwhelmed, changing details and guarantees on tournaments I already entered once.  In fact, I might have so much work to do at the last minute I'll be wishing the coronavirus had already taken me out.

Of course, it's not just the guarantees that will be affected.  Whole tournaments will likely be cancelled.  The summer is when you see a whole lot of mixed games/non-hold'em events run, not just at the WSOP but all around town.  They can offer them because the sheer mass of poker players tends to ensure that there are enough players in town who have interest in these events (which are much less popular the No Limit Hold'em tournaments). Some of these events typically do not have guarantees (though plenty do). But with a lot less people coming to town, can they even afford to run them if they will be poorly attended—even if they don't have guarantees?

Another thing to consider is that poker players look at all the schedules around town to plan their trips.  When can a week in Vegas (or whatever amount of time they have to take off) get them the most bang for the buck, i.e., the most tournaments that they want to play?  If they plan based on certain mixed game events, and also certain big guarantee tournaments, what happens if those events get cancelled?

It'll be a mess, to be sure. 

And if the venue decides to run events as planned, and sees they are getting hammered by overlays, how long before they do remove or lower the guarantees?  Obviously once a tournament starts, they can't (legally) lower or remove the guarantee.  But they can do it before hand (after a day or two of big overlays on their previous days' tournaments).  How much before?

Well, legally I think they can do it right up until the first card is dealt—assuming they announce that and offer a refund to anyone who wants to opt out before seeing the first hand.  But on a practical basis, what is enough "notice"?

As I said, people plan months in advance.  If players come to town and find out a day or two before a big guarantee is gone from an event they planned their trip around, there will surely be some upset poker players.

How would you feel if you were about to buy into a tournament with a huge guarantee only to see a sign at the registration window informing you that the guarantee had been removed or greatly reduced?

Or would it be the case that if this was necessary, the health news would be such that this was pretty much expected and no one willing to play would be surprised or disappointed?

Because that's what, at this moment in time, is what I think is most likely to happen.  The WSOP will take place, as will the other events around town. And they may have to take a look at any tournament offering a guarantee to see if it is still realistic.  And players will hopefully be understanding.

How much notice would you consider fair for a change or an elimination of a guarantee?

Of course, what we would all love to see is that everything gets back to normal relatively soon, in time for a very normal Vegas poker summer.  And I still think that is very possible, and perhaps even likely.  That's certainly what I'm hoping for, as I'm sure you are all (because it would mean the threat from the virus has either been greatly reduced or it turned out that it wasn't the threat some have feared).

I guess we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, relax, take a deep breath, don't panic and drink a Corona.

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.

Why Did He Shove?

Saturday I had another 1/2 session in Ventura.  I will probably be playing that game more often than the 2/3 game because I think it might be more +EV.  The 1/2 has a max $100 buy-in, which is too low, but I'm starting to believe that the quality of the competition in that game is significantly lower than in the 2/3 game (which has a $300 max buy-in). 

Anyway, there is a hand, the last big hand, that I want to discuss.  Obviously, I try to learn how to improve every time I play.  A lot of time I analyze my hands (or ask you folks to help analyze them).  But you can obviously also learn from how your opponents play or misplay hands.  In this case, the villain did something I found odd which may—or may not—have helped me out.  I don't understand why, maybe you can help.

I'd been having a fairly good session.  I'd run my $100 buy-in to $165 and was ready to call it a day.  One good hand came when I had Queen-8 off in the big blind and with no raise flopped two pair.  For good measure an 8 hit the river filling me up.  I took a decent sized pot off the guy who will be referred to as the "villain" in the big hand coming up.

Another noteworthy hand came when I raised with pocket Queens, got called only by an off-duty dealer.  I c-bet the Ace-high flop and he folded a low pair face up.  Oh, and I opened to $8 with pocket Aces and didn't get a call.  The table was weird, a few aggros but lots of limping too.  We went a few orbits where most times the blinds would chop, and then others where there were some big raises, big pots.

I had decided to leave when the big blind came to me, but as I played my UTG hand, I decided I should play one more orbit. So in that hand, I picked up pocket 10's.  A guy in early position opened to $5 (a very common open for this game).  The villain also called.  I threw in the three extra bucks to call as well.  Note:  I'm not sure if there were one or two other players in the pot.

Anyway, the flop was sure nice:  Ace-10-9, rainbow.  I decided to check to the raiser.  And if the raiser didn't bet, I had a strong felling Villain would.  Both of these guys had big stacks, had me covered by over $100 each.  The preflop raiser was a fairly average player who had made a few hands.  Perhaps he was a bit on the nitty side.  But the Villain was fairly aggressive, and as he built up that big stack, he had tended to get more and more aggressive.  If it checked to him, I figured he'd likely bet to steal it even if he didn't have anything. 

Well, the preflop raiser bet—but only $5.  If there was anyone else in the hand, they folded to Villain who smooth called.  Now it was back to me.  Honestly, with that fairly dry board, I might have been tempted to slow-play it and just call there, but the size of the bet was too small to do that.  I felt I needed to get the pot bigger, and if I bet everyone off of it and picked up a small pot, so be it.

So I made it $20.  The preflop raiser said, "Oh, the ol' check-raise, huh?"  Now it is no big deal, and I've heard that before, but honestly, isn't that poor etiquette?  I mean there's another player in the hand, perhaps he wasn't paying attention and didn't know it was a check-raise and not a regular raise?  Or perhaps just his pointing out that it was a check-raise would make him think about the hand more than he otherwise might?  I mean really, what's the difference between saying that and saying, "Oh, there's two spades on the board, you on the flush draw?"

Whatever, after tanking for a bit, he folded. I wouldn't have been surprised if Villain folded too, but instead he very much did surprise me.  After a few seconds, he announced "all-in."

Really?  I didn't snap call, I gave it some thought, though, honestly, am I ever folding middle set there?  Maybe on a monotone board (I said "maybe") but as I said, this was a rainbow flop.  So I had the second nuts.  And there was no way I could see him playing a set of Aces this way.  Realistically, there was no way he wouldn't have three-bet pocket Aces preflop.  And it seemed unlikely he would keep slow-playing a set of Aces and just have called the $5 flop bet (though I think a call there is more likely than a call preflop).  Regardless, if he's trapped me with a set of Aces and I lose my whole stack there, that's poker.  I leave, the drive home is less than pleasant, and I'm out my $!00 buy-in.

So I called.  As the dealer was about to put out the turn card, Villain proudly turned over his hand.  Ace-10 (I believe off suit).  So he flopped two pair, pretty good flop for him.  I turned over my 10's, and he groaned.  Someone else at the table said, "Oh, what a cooler."

He still had outs, but I was better than a 90/10 favorite.  No Ace came. One of the cards was a  7 and the other was like a 5 or a 4.  All it needed to be was not an Ace.

The guy took it pretty well and I suddenly had over $300 in front of me.  Not to look like a hit-and-runner, I stayed an extra orbit on top of this extra orbit I'd already stayed for (and was quite happy about that last minute decision, obviously).  I didn't get another playable hand.

I cashed out $335, a $225 profit.

It was a fun ride home.  Eventually though, I started thinking about how he played that hand.  The more I thought about it, the less it made sense to me.  I was thinking I really lucked out that he played it so aggro, because he didn't have to double me up there.  Now, I'll get back to that thought later, but for now, let's just consider his shove.

At the time, I assumed his shove was most likely a big Ace.  Probably not Ace-King because he didn't three-bet pre. But maybe Ace-Queen, Ace-Jack.  I had seen him shove top pair, mediocre kicker earlier in the session (but that was on a wetter board).  Maybe he would do that with a straight draw, like Queen-Jack, but he hadn't raised big with a draw before that I had seen.

Why didn't I think he had Ace-10 or Ace-9?  Because if he thought he had the best hand with two pair, which he clearly thought he did, why would he bet so much?  Now, when I watch poker training videos I sometimes hear the poker coach talking about "allowing your opponent to play perfect poker."  This is an example.  With that huge bet, going from $20 to effectively $140, he allowed me to play perfectly.  I'm not gonna call with just an Ace.  Not unless I think there's a really good chance he's bluffing or semi-bluffing.  Ace-9, well yeah, I probably call off my stack.  Queen-Jack?  Well, he didn't give me the odds to call and chase the draw.  In other words, he made it so I'm pretty much guaranteed to only call if I am well ahead of him.

I should add that this guy had been playing with me for a couple of hours.  I'm sure he noticed that this was my first check-raise of the day.  Oh and in case he hadn't noticed that I check-raised, the guy who opened the betting had just reminded him (at least he hadn't said that it was the first time I'd check-raised all day).  So….does he really think I'm doing that with just a straight draw?  If he's been paying attention at all, I don't see how.

To me, my play screams that I have a set, and I would have preferred not to play it that way, but again, I felt I needed to build the pot.

Does he think I'm doing that with Ace-King, Ace-Queen?  A check raise?  Again, I suppose he might have if he hadn't noticed how tight I'd been playing.  But if I was in there with a hand he beat, why not just call or perhaps raise a more reasonable amount—say to $50-$60—and get more value for his top two?

Ok, so maybe my check-raise is a big hand, but not as big as his top two?  And I will call off my stack.  But again, that could only be Ace-9 (that he beats).  Does he want me to fold Ace-King or Ace-Queen so I can't hit my three-outer to beat his second pair?  I would think he'd want Ace-King or Ace-Queen to keep calling his bets.

Also, if he was prepared to shove there, why did he initially just call the original $5 flop bet?  To keep me in?  To get just $5 more out of me?  I'm not sure I get the transition from calling the $5 and then shoving over my check-raise.  Maybe he put me on only two hands…Ace-10 or Ace-9.  If I call with Ace-9 that's sweet for him.  If I call with Ace-10 we chop it up.  And maybe, just maybe I fold Ace-10 putting him on a set.

The initial thought I had was, he didn't have to double me up.  If he slowed down he could have saved himself some chips.  But after thinking about it, it was probably inevitable.  I mean if he was trying to get max value for his hand, he was gonna keep betting until I'd be able to get the rest of my stack in by the river. That is, unless he sniffs out that my check-raise means there was a good chance I had the set (and he'd put me on 9-9 before 10-10 since he had the case 10).  But he can't be certain and so maybe he wants to get to a showdown as cheap as possible.  If he does that, and just calls, calls, calls, I probably don't get all my chips in on the river.  Not because I wouldn’t want to, but because I'd bet smaller to make it more likely he'd keep calling me. But that wasn't the type of player he was.

As long as he was seeing his two pair as the best hand (despite my check-raise), he's gonna double me up.  And if that's what he thought, why did he shove on the flop and make it easy for me to play perfect poker?

I'm not complaining, to be sure.  But I want to try to learn from his mistake.  Maybe I'm missing something.  Any thoughts?

Parking For Misfits Only

Well it's been a while since I did a post about parking in Vegas, hasn't it?  And since I know it's everyone's favorite type of post, I thought I'd do one today.

Let me interrupt myself to give a rundown on the current Strip parking situation, in case you have not been keeping score at home.  Every casino with a poker room on the Vegas strip charges for parking with the following exceptions:  Treasure Island, Venetian and Planet Hollywood.  If you consider Stratosphere on the Strip (I don't, to me, it's just north of the Strip), then they also don't charge for parking.  Neither does South Point but that's way south of Strip.  Note:  Wynn charges, but they will validate your ticket for free parking if you play 2 hours of live poker or buy into a tournament.

If Planet Hollywood not charging surprises you, well, their parking structure is actually not owned by Caesars (who owns the hotel/casino).  It is owned by the Miracle Mile Shops, that huge, circular shopping center that you have to walk 180° of to get from the garage to the casino. Apparently the owner of that shopping center understands the value of having customers access their business cheaply so they are encouraged to visit and have more money to spend on their actual product, not on a side profit center.  You know, unlike the owners of the casinos.

But don't worry, this really isn't another rant about having to pay for parking on the Vegas Strip.  I've said my piece on that on more than one occasion.  Besides, I have yet to pay even a dime for parking in Vegas. I've still been parking for free.  At least for now.  I know nothing lasts forever.  My current feeling is that the first time I actually have to pay to park in Vegas will be the last time I go there.  This post is more about the peripheral problems caused by the decision to charge for parking—and about the problems caused by the new T-Mobile Arena that opened a year or so ago.  Ostensibly, the opening of that arena was the justification for MGM to get the ball rolling on charging for parking.  After all, every sports arena in the country (over) charges patrons for parking at their venue, how could MGM be the first one that doesn't?

When they built the T-Mobile arena, located behind and between NYNY and Monte Carlo, there wasn't space to build a standalone parking garage for it.  So they use their nearby casinos' garages for parking.  And if you are going to an event at T-Mobile and pay for parking for it, you get charged more than if you were visiting the same casino to gamble or eat or whatever.

So they reserve spaces at the garages of NYNY, Monte Carlo, Aria, Excalibur and MGM whenever there's an event there.  Well the first two are pretty close to the arena, but man, you are in for a lot walking if you park at MGM or Excalibur  If I wasn't familiar with the area and paid $13 to park at MGM or Excal for the T-Mobile Arena and then saw how much I had to walk, I'd be royally pissed.

The real significance of this is that I have to plan out my visits to the corner of the Strip where the arena is located.  I've mentioned that I sometimes park at NYNY when I play at MGM.  But if there's an event at T-Mobile, I want to stay far away from NYNY—the garage will be a mess, traffic will be mess getting in and out, it's much better to just go to MGM—even though it is also used as a parking option for the event.  It's not as popular as the NYNY garage is for the event, and it's a much bigger garage in the first place.  It's messy, but not impossible to deal with.  But honestly, on nights when the T-Mobile is in use, I try to stay away from there entirely and play someplace else.

Which means that before I even arrive in Vegas, I go the T-Mobile events calendar and mark on my own calendar which days they have an event there (and what time, which is also a consideration). 

So, on the particular night in question, the Thursday before New Year's, I checked and saw that there was no T-Mobile event.  The next one wasn't until NY's eve—an afternoon hockey game, I believe.  So I could have parked at NYNY.  I should have parked at NYNY.  But since I wasn't planning on eating at NYNY (one of the main reasons I park there for MGM, the other one being that it really is easy to access the structure, much easier than MGM), I decided to park at MGM. 

So I drove down Tropicana Ave from the west and tried to cross the Strip.  As soon as I did I realized that something was going on.  Although traffic was fine before I crossed the Strip, it backed up immediately on the other side.  It was just the left lane—the one I needed to be in to turn into MGM—that wasn't moving.  Damn.  Something must be going on at MGM?  Or perhaps there was an accident near the entrance to the parking garage?

It added about 20- minutes to my travel time as I inched forward.  And when I finally turned into to entrance for the garage, there were parking attendants directing traffic.  Ugh.  You usually only see that when there is some kind of big event going on.  Although this close to NYE, I wondered if maybe it was just the NYE's crowd jamming everything up.

But no, that wasn't it.  When I finally got near the entrance gate, it was stuck on open, there were attendants right there at each gate (you usually don't see that) and there was a really poorly made, hand-written sign that said,  "Parking: $15."

The attendant was stopping every car and dealing with each one in some fashion.  I wasn't worried about being charged, I knew my gold MLife card would be good for free parking, but I was curious as to WTF was going on.  When I got to the gate, I volunteered to the young  lady that I was there to play and I showed her my gold card.  She said fine and even though the gate was open she put the card in the slot for me (so I would be registered and there and be able to leave normally, I presumed).  But I had to ask.  "What's going on here tonite?"

She said, "The Misfits are here!"

So of course I replied, "This is Vegas.  Aren't there misfits here every night?"

Actually, I only wished I'd said that.  I didn't think of it until five minutes later.

But she said "The Misfits are here" like I was supposed to know what that meant, and even that maybe I should be excited about it.

Will it shock any of you to learn that until that moment, I had never heard of the group, "The Misfits"?  I didn't think so.

Anyway, since traffic around NYNY was light and it wasn't on the T-Mobile calendar, I had to assume The Misfits, whoever the hell they were, were not playing at T-Mobile but were playing in the MGM Grand Garden instead.  For years big concerts and even sporting events were held in the MGM Grand Garden (which, conveniently, is in the MGM Grand).  It still exists but most of the events that in the past would have been held there have moved to T-Mobile.  Why The Misfits weren't playing across the street is anyone's guess, especially since the arena had been dark for a few days before this, was dark this night and wouldn't be used for a hockey game for another few days.

Perhaps The Misfits have a contractual deal with Verizon or AT&T and couldn't be booked at a place with the name "T-Mobile"?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Perhaps better.

The garage was much fuller than usual but I was able to find a decent spot on the fifth level.  But I knew instantly that I had made a huge mistake and exiting the garage at the time I most likely would was going to be a bitch.

On the way in, I saw the big billboard for the concert.  The Misfits had apparently sold out the Forum in L.A. and needed to book this extra concert for their fans.  Because the Forum is only like 300 miles away from Vegas. 

So from now on, I know that I have to also note events at the Grand Garden. So I looked at the calendar.  But the next event wasn't scheduled until February, long after I'd be gone, so this wasn't going to happen again.

I did notice an interesting sign for the concert.  Per request of The Misfits absolutely no cell phones or tablets or computers were allowed in the venue during the performance.  So maybe that's the reason for not using T-Mobile.  Perhaps T-Mobile didn't want to host a concert where cell phones were banned?  You know, because that's how they make their money?

Anyway, after playing poker I saw the casino was just loaded with Misfits fans exiting the concert.  The place was packed.  I waited inside the casino an extra hour or more before I braved going to my car, hoping the traffic would thin out.  Fortunately the club was open so I wasn't exactly bored sitting around inside the MGM.  But I guess I didn't wait long enough.  Even at 12:30am the garage was plenty busy.  And then, I saw that the traffic for exiting the garage was backed up all the way to the fifth level, the one I was on.  Perhaps it was even backed up higher.  The hell with that! Before getting in that line of cars, I backed up and found another way to get to the lower levels.  Once I got down to level 3 there was a parking attendant directing me to an exit.  It was actually the same exit I would have gotten to from the fifth level but I somehow managed to avoid the crowd.  I guess I kind of cut in but I was only following the attendant's instructions.  Yeah, that's my story anyway.

I still had to wait a good long time to exit.  There were three gates for exiting and all of them were backed up.  Again, the gates were stuck in the open position and there was an attendant at each gate.  They were taking turns letting traffic from each gate out to get to the actual exit onto the street.  The problem here was that traffic from the street was preventing people from exiting quickly. There were just too many damn cars leaving the same place at once.

Now here's the thing.  Once it was one lane's group of cars turn to leave, they all just drove through….no paying for parking, no putting in the MLife card to confirm free parking….no nothing.  Every single person who left the structure at that time just left without paying attention to any parking fee.  WTF?

I admit I have a perhaps morbid curiosity with how this whole thing works.  Was this somehow a "parking loophole"?  A way to get free parking if you knew about it in advance?

Here's what I mean.  I assume there were three groups of people using the garage that night.  People like me, who are entitled to park for free.  Concert goers who (if they didn't also have an upgraded MLIfe card) presumably paid $15 up front for parking.  And other people who just happened to go to MGM that night to gamble, go to the club, eat at a restaurant, whatever.  These are people who presumably didn't pay $15 up front because that's more than the normal $12 for 4-24 hours of parking would be.  So I'm assuming that they would have somehow gotten a ticket and then had to pay to get out.  Perhaps they pulled into the garage at 4pm before the attendants showed up.  Perhaps when they told the attendant they were just there to play so the attendant got the machine to give them a ticket. Whatever.

Now I did see a bunch of people trying to figure out the kiosks before getting to my car so I know there were people who had tickets and had to pay.  But once they got to the gates, they were given a free pass?  Well of course most of them probably heeded the signs that said, "Pay for parking before getting to your car."  But those gates also have ways to accept payment as you leave (credit card only).

So if you were waiting to pay at the exit gate, did you beat the system and park for free?  I repeat, there was no one or no closed gate stopping anyone from leaving and no one paid at the exit.

Not that I'm crying for MGM if some people got free parking that they shouldn't.  Of course not.  I just find it interesting.  I mean it's hard for me to believe that MGM management hasn't made certain that they squeeze every last parking dollar they can out of their customers.

Anyway, as a result of exiting the MGM without having to insert my MLife card, the next time I visited MGM, I couldn't use my card to get in.  It said something to the effect that I was already inside!  If I had tried to park at a different MGM property first, I might have been told I was at the wrong car park!  I had to take a ticket, but then when I used my card to exit, the balance of nature returned and all was suddenly right again in MGM's parking world. But that did make me wonder why the attendant I encountered when I entered the MGM bothered to put my card in the slot for me.  It just needlessly complicated things.  And backed up traffic getting in.

You know….like charging for parking in the first place.

No Antes? No Bueno

One evening back in June I decided to do something I haven't done in quite awhile—play in a small, low buy-in tournament. 

For the past few years, I've almost exclusively played tournaments that have $100+ buy-ins, figure to have at least 90 or so runners and have 30-minute levels or more.  Once I started playing those, the smaller buy-in tourneys didn't much appeal to me.  I was "spoiled" by the Aria and the Binion's tournaments I would play regularly whenever I was in Vegas.  I branched out to play even bigger (buy-in wise) tournaments that were part of a big series.  And I pretty much left the small tournaments behind.

The larger prize pools were a big factor, but honestly, the biggest reason was the length of the levels.  Also, the bigger tournaments tended to have larger starting stacks.  In other words, there was a lot more play in them than the smaller tournaments, as you would expect.  And I got used to that.  The downside was that you could play in those bigger tournaments for a long, long time and bust out after hours and hours and have nothing—or very little—to show for it.  At least with the smaller tournaments, well, they were over fast and if you didn't cash you hadn't lost a whole day or evening (or both) for nothing.

So generally, when thinking of playing a tournament, I don't even look at anything that cost less than $100.  And if I see a tournament with levels less than 30-minutes, I also am inclined to give it a pass.

But on this particular evening, after working all day, I really felt like playing a tourney.  And when I considered my options, I decided to give a smaller tournament a shot.  This time of year, with all the big series running, there were actually a number of options for bigger tournaments that started in the evening.  But the best options were ones that would likely run until 4-5 AM—and I had to work the next day too. 

So I looked at all my options to try to figure out the best value.  Fortunately I had just written a column about tournaments around town for Ante Up.  There were actually some tournaments that had buy-ins at $100 or more that didn't figure to last more than 3-4 hours.  Right amount of time, but why would I pay over a hundred bucks for tournament when I was sure I could find one that had a lower buy-in with relative similar structures (and therefore length).

To make a long story short (yes, that's a joke), I ended up at the Mirage for their $65 tournament at 7pm.  It had a 10K starting stack with 20-minute levels and the structure seemed ok.  I noticed that there were never any antes in the structure, so I figured that would make the tournament play a little longer.  Seemed like the best deal available at that hour.

I thought I would like the fact that there were no antes.  When I first started playing tournaments, I wasn't thrilled with antes.  I wasn't used to them, since you never see antes in the low-limit cash games I played.  They were a nuisance and I saw that they helped bleed your stack when it was getting short.  One of the things I really liked about the Binion's Saturday tournament when I first started playing it was that the antes didn't kick in until the 8th level (since changed).

But I got used to the antes and I understood the concept that they induced action.  Still I figured that fact that the Mirage tourney I was playing didn't have them would be a good thing, especially for a low buy-in tournament designed to last just a few hours.

Well, I was wrong.  The tournament convinced me that antes are necessary.  What happened was that I was really card dead and so I got short stacked.  And thus I was at the point where I was in shove or fold mode.  But the trouble was, I realized that shoving and winning without a call wasn't worth very much.

By the time I get to that point (if I do) in one of the usual tournaments I play, it's good to steal the pots that way because the antes on top of the blinds make it worth it.  But without antes, all you get is a blind and a half. It doesn't have much an impact on your stack.

Yes, I know, without antes your stack bleeds slower, and that should make up for the lack of return when you steal....but your stack gets short anyway and then you can't make up for it with steals.  It doesn't seem to balance out.  That steal attempt is no longer worth the risk when it usually only get you 1-1/2 blinds.  Whereas it would be if you were also pulling in the antes.

As such, I quickly realized that I had to adjust my thinking for when it was time to shove.  I mean I did it once or twice when I thought I should have but then I realized I wasn't accomplishing much.  So I actually changed my strategy.  I started just raising in spots where I really had too few chips to do that, where I should have shoved.  The idea was that I was committed but I was hoping for a re-raise so I could shove (which is what I wanted to do) so there'd be more chips when I did it.  Of course that was riskier because I had less fold equity and might get called by a hand that was better than mine but would have folded to a shove).  I just felt because of the lack of antes I had to take more risk to get chips.  Maybe I was looking at it the wrong way, but I was kind of making this up on the fly and that's what I came up with.

So for example, in the 6th level, I was down to about $12K and had about 7 big blinds (the big blind was $1,600). That's ordinarily just a shove or a fold for me.  But with pocket 9's I instead raised to $5,000 instead of shoving.  Well that time I didn't get a call so it didn't make a difference.

But later I had Ace-10 and a big stack limped in.  I made it $7K and the big stack called.  The flop was 10-9-7 and he had checked dark.  I shoved, which I was planning to do with most any flop.  He folded.

Then I had Ace-10 again.  A short stack shoved for $2,500. I thought about shoving but I was still trying to figure out the best play with no antes.  So I just called.  There was a guy behind me who had a similar stack to mine.  He took forever but finally called. The flop was Ace-high, 1 club.  I shoved.  Again, he went into the tank.  But again, he called and turned over Ace-7 of clubs.  I was ahead. All I had to fade was a 7 and running clubs.  So of course he caught runner-runner clubs.  To add insult to injury, the river card was the 10 of clubs, giving me a losing two pair.

I had less than a blind left so I went all-in on the next hand with King-8 and lost.

My assessment was that tournaments without antes are bad.  I won't play them again.  But good for Mirage and other rooms for offering them.  Obviously some people like them, and it's great that they have that option.

But then, I still don't like playing low buy-in, quick tournaments with 20-minute levels.  I just got spoiled a long time ago with the 30-minute levels at the Aria where you get much more play, at the "cost" of playing a much longer time if you run well.  I honestly wonder why people like those quicker tournaments.  I mean obviously the shorter length has an appeal, as it did for me on this night.  But they turn into shove-fests after just a level or two.  I don't enjoy that.  Others must, because except for a few of the biggest rooms, you find just about every room in town offering them. 

They're just not for me.