Vegas Poker Scene—August 2019

Here's my latest column for Ante Up (or the version I submitted).  You can find it in your local poker room.  Enjoy!  The actual pdf of the magazine is still not online yet as I post this, for some reason.  I am assuming that means the shift to the new Ante Up website is eminent, hopefully.  But I know the magazine is out because I saw a copy in Ventura yesterday.  

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The Venetian hosts Deepstack Extravaganza III, September 2 – 22.  A $340 No Limit Hold'em DoubleStack kicks things with the first of its two starting flights on September 2.  Players start with 25K chips and play 40-minute levels.  The prize pool is guaranteed to be $100K.  This exact same event repeats starting on September 9.

A $400 MonsterStack has two starting flights beginning September 6.  Players get a 30K starting stack.  The first 20 levels are 30-minutes and then increase to 40-minutes.  The guarantee is $100K.

A $600 DoubleStack event with three starting flights begins September 12.  The starting stack is 30K, the levels are 40-minutes and the guarantee is $200K.

The main event of the series is a $1,100 Mid-States Poker Tour tournament with two starting flights beginning September 20. Players start with 20K chips and play 40-minute levels.  The guarantee is $250K.

A $400 Seniors event runs September 5, offering players 15K starting chips, 30-minute levels and a $20K prize pool guarantee.  Most of the evening events have $200 buy-ins with 9K guaranteed prize pools.  These include bounty and rebuy events.

Also in September, The Venetian will run two cash game promotions.  For the entire month, every half hour between noon and midnight, a random active player will be selected for a $600 cash prize. Additionally, players will be logging hours during the month to be eligible for a cash drawing to be held on October 9.  One drawing ticket will be awarded to players who log 100-199 hours during the month  Five drawing tickets will be awarded to those who log 200 or more hours. 

The regular tournament schedule has been updated.  Mondays through Thursdays at noon, a $150 NLH tournament with an $8K guarantee is offered. Friday a $200 SuperStack runs with a $20K guarantee.  Optional $100 add-ons after levels four and eight are available.  The Saturday tournament is the $340 DoubleStack with a $25K guarantee. Sunday a $300 rebuy tournament with a $25K guarantee runs.

Monday and Thursday evenings, a $125 Bounty tournament with a $4K guarantee and $25 bounties takes place.  Tuesday it’s a $200 Bounty tourney with $50 bounties and a $9K guarantee.  Wednesday a $125 rebuy tournament runs with a $7K guarantee.  Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays the tournament is a $125 SuperStack with a $4K guarantee.

SAM'S TOWN:  The popular locals joint on Boulder Highway is attracting nice turnouts for its two new weekly tournaments.  On Monday at 7 p.m., they offer a $60 Beat the Boss Bounty tournament. Players start with 10K chips and play 20-minute levels.  There's a $10 bounty on each player, plus a $15 mystery bounty at each table.  There is a $100 bounty for knocking out the boss, who moves to a different table every level. 

Saturday at 1 p.m., the $55 tournament has a $2K guarantee.  The starting stack is 10K and the levels are 20-minutes.  There is one $15 add-on for 5K chips available for the first hour.

Both of these tournies have been averaging 80-90 players each week.

Tuesday through Saturday at 7 p.m., a $50 tournament offers players 10K chips and 20-minute levels.  A $10 add-on for 2K chips is available. Every other Friday at 7 p.m., the $50 tournament is replaced by a $125 Deepstack.  Players start with 15K chips and play 20-minute levels. 

Sunday through Friday at 1 p.m. the $45 buy-in gets players 5K chips with 20-minute levels.  There is a optional $10 add-on for 2K chips any time during the first hour.  Daily at 10 a.m., a limit/no-limit tournament is offered for $30.  The first hour is limit hold'em, then the game switches to no limit after that. It's the only tournament of its kind in Vegas.  The levels are 20-minutes.

The most popular live game here is $2-$6 spread limit hold'em, with a $30 minimum buy-in.  A $3-$6 Omaha8 with a $30 minimum also runs daily.  During busier times, you can find a $1-$2 NLH game with a $100 minimum and $300 max.

There are high hand bonuses for both hold'em and Omaha.  Other promotions change regularly, call the room for details on the latest.

BINION'S SUMMER SERIES:  The $1,100 PLO Championship finished on June 21 with the top four players making a deal.  As a result, Jacob Corda of Alabama took first place for $10K, Ray Larouech of New York and Richard Chiovari of Chicago each took home $9K and Evan Shaughnessy of Denver received $8,400. The event attracted 42 entries, creating a total prize pool of $42K.

Aleksandr Shevlyakov of Russia won the $1,100 NLH championship on June 26, earning $72K. Hong Kong's Yunye Lu was runner-up for $44K and Wilfredo Carrion of Texas placed third for $30K. There were nearly 300 entrants and the prize pool was $289K.

GOLDEN NUGGET: Andrew Kivela of Vegas took home the $41K first place prize in the first multi-flight event of the Grand Poker Series in early June. The event had three starting flights a day for three days and offered a $300K guaranteed prize pool. The event drew 3,469 players creating a $537K prize pool, crushing the guarantee.  Chicago's James Battaglia finished second for $31K and Sacramento's James Purdie earned $29K for third.

PLANET HOLLYWOOD:  The top prize money in the $600 Ultimate Goliath Stack was split evenly between the top two finishers in early June.  Michael Lech of Arkansas and Rambo Halpern of Oregon each took home $36K. The event had 660 players and a $346K prize pool, surpassing the $300K guarantee.

ARIA:  England's Ben Farrell parlayed a last minute entry into the WPT 500 into a $155K first place prize on June 27. Farrell registered late into the last of the eight starting flights of the event, which was a turbo flight. India's Nikita Luther received $109K for second and South Korea's Sung Joo Hyun earned $75K for third.  The $570 event had 1,900 entrants and a prize pool of $966K.

The Premature Ace of Diamonds

This is just one hand from a poker session up in Vegas last week.  It has to do with a dealer error and a player going on tilt as a result.  I was, arguably at least, the beneficiary of the dealer error.

I won't mention the room this took place, although it really doesn't matter.  This error could have taken place in any poker room in the world; dealers are, after all, human and there is not a one who hasn't made a mistake, or for that matter, this particular mistake.  That's why there's a rule for handling such errors, and as far as I know, it’s the same rule in every poker room.

The game was 1/3 and it was a fairly new table, both the other player and myself had been in the game since it opened.  In the cut-off, I limped in with Ace-7 of clubs.  At least one player had limped in already, maybe two.  No one raised and four or five of us saw the flop, which was 9-8-6.  There was one club, but more importantly, there were two diamonds.

Someone bet $10, and I called with my open ended straight draw, plus the back-door flush draw.  Two other players called and there were four of us left to see the turn.  The turn card was nice for me, it was a 5.  I didn't remember the suit afterwards, but it was neither a club nor a diamond.  I had the second nuts with my straight; only 10-7 could beat me.  The big blind, who is the other key player in this hand, checked.  So did the player who bet $10 on the flop, as did the other player. I was last to act, and I wanted to chose my bet carefully, so I was thinking for a bit.

Obviously there were two diamonds on there and it was very likely at least one of the players who thought the hand was worth $10 on the flop had the diamond draw.  And of course any time you have a straight with four on the board you are very vulnerable to getting counterfeited.  I ended up deciding to bet $40, which was just a bit under the size of the pot.

After placing my chips in front of me, I looked up and saw the big blind was upset, and motioning to me.  Now I was in seat 2 and he was in seat 6.  He was an older fellow and had seemed like a pretty friendly, pretty happy guy up until that point.  But he was motioning to me and said something indicating that I had bet out of turn and it was actually his turn to act.  Huh?  Hadn't he already checked, as had the two players behind him?

I started to say something like, "You checked," when I looked at the board and noticed that there were actually three, not two, diamonds on it.  And that one of the diamonds was in fact the Ace of diamonds.  But it was the last card out there, in the fifth spot.  The five of whatever was no longer the last card on the board. Somehow the river card had been dealt while I was making my turn bet.  I did not see the dealer put out the river card, but the evidence that she had was quite obvious.

I said to the guy, "This is my turn bet." The dealer immediately realized her error.  She said, "I thought you had checked."  I didn't have to insist I had not, she knew immediately that I hadn't.  So she called the floor, while the older gent in the big blind started to stew. I don't think he said anything at this point, but he was visibly shaken.

Fortunately the floor came over right away and the dealer explained the situation.  The floor ruled, as I knew he would, that the river card, the Ace of diamonds, was coming back, coming off the board.  Now I suppose he was going to explain that, after the action on the turn was complete, if the hand was still alive, the Ace of diamonds would be returned to the remaining deck, the deck would be reshuffled, and then a new river card would be put out, which of course, could conceivably have been the Ace of diamonds again.

But he never got that far.  Once he said the Ace was coming off the board, the big blind was just livid.  He flipped over his hand and you could understand why.  It was King-4 of diamonds.  In other words, the Ace of diamonds was absolutely the perfect card for him, giving him the stone cold nuts.  It was exactly the card he was hoping for.  It was the ultimate tease for him, out there for a second and now pulled back.

Anyway, he took the King-4 of diamonds, and threw them away.  I don't mean he mucked, I mean he threw them toward the dealer.  Not hard enough to hit the dealer, they just more or less hit the muck, just hard enough to let you know how pissed he was.

The other players in the hand folded in much calmer fashion, so I was awarded the pot.  I did feel bad for the guy, but his over-the-top anger made me feel less bad for him than I might otherwise have.  After all, he still could have called me.

The guy was expressing his anger toward the dealer.  I think he was just grumbling incoherently, I didn't hear him curse out the dealer or anything like that.  Maybe he said something about how the dealer should have been more careful.  Someone said to him, "Well everyone makes mistakes, she's human."  He said something like, "Yeah….but I've been losing constantly.  I haven't won a pot in two days." 

Meanwhile a couple of the players around me were talking about it too, quietly.  I said, "He could have called, he still could have gotten a diamond on the river, possibly even the Ace.  He didn't have to fold."  Another player, "he wouldn't have called your bet," meaning if the dealer had not put the turn out prematurely, he would have folded to my big bet anyway.  Well yes, I did bet big to deny equity to flush draws, that was my intention.  But here's the thing…I think if play had occurred normally, he would have at least taken time and thought about it.  He would have processed it.  In this case, his anger caused him to react without thinking. 

Despite the bad odds I was giving him, he might have considered implied odds.  If I was betting that big with a straight, perhaps if he hit his flush he could squeeze some money out of me anyway, it's not easy to fold a straight.  Also, he might have considered the possibility that someone else had a weaker flush draw and would call him if he hit his flush.

The thing is, he was never gonna see that Ace of diamonds on the river without having to call a bet on the turn.  It was a cruel tease, but he was not going to get to see it for free.  If there had been no dealer error, he'd have to consider my bet and then make a decision.  Again, I think he might have reasonably considered calling, especially because there would have been two players behind him, either one of whom might have called giving him better odds. Of course, one of them could have raised too, but that seems unlikely.

In fact, if you think about it, since I was always going to bet the turn, that prematurely exposed Ace of diamonds gave him additional information that he shouldn't have had.  Had things happened properly, he would have to take into account that even if he hit is flush, it would only be the second nut flush, and conceivably someone could have had the Ace-high flush.

But with the exposed card, he knew that no one had the Ace of diamonds in their hand.  It was in the deck.  So if any diamond hit the river now, it was as good as the Ace of diamonds.  Because either the Ace of diamonds shows up on the river (again) or it is in the stub.  A deuce of diamonds on the river is just as good for him as the Ace.  If he had had any concern that he could make a flush and lose to a higher flush, he now knew that was impossible.  And he shouldn't have known that and you could argue that the dealer's error hurt me more than it hurt him.

But the poor guy just flew off the handle right away, and didn't take any time at all to consider the situation.  As I said, he was an older guy and seemed to be a fairly knowledgeable player.  So I assume he knew that the Ace would be put back in the deck and could come out again on the river (however unlikely that would be).  Perhaps he thought it was now out of play and that he'd have one less diamond available to him to make his flush, making calling my bet even less EV.  But honestly, it didn't seem like he had time to even think about it.  He just mucked his cards too fast.

Well, it was unfortunate for him the dealer made the error, but he sure didn't help his own cause by flying off the handle and reacting without thinking it through.  So I guess he got what he deserved.

I feel a little bad, but of course we'll never know for sure if he would have called me if the hand had played out as it should have.

In any case, I am suffering no guilt for taking that pot.

Where's Rob?

Well, it's no secret that I haven't posted much lately.  Where have I been?

Mostly, I've been right here, but not writing.

I have several excuses.  Lack of material is the main one.  Since it had been over half a year since my last visit to Vegas, there hasn't been much to write about.

Also, I have to admit that my enthusiasm for sitting down in front of the ol' PC to hack out a blog post just ain't what it used to be.  Some of that is due to the aforementioned lack of material, but some of it is just getting a little bit tired of trying to come up with fresh and entertaining content.

But the good news is that I now have some new material that should be forthcoming.  You see I just got back from a sort-of last minute visit to Vegas on Tuesday.  I was there for a week and should be able to get a good number of posts from a mostly successful trip.

I'm sorry I didn't let you folks know I was headed to Vegas.  As I said, it was somewhat last-minute, and I planned to announce it when I got there.  In fact, I was hoping to do some blogging from there.  But I just got so busy from the get-go, then when I didn't post anything the first day or two, I just figured I'd wait until I returned.  And I had business obligations while in Vegas.

Then when I got back Tuesday night, I meant to post this right away but I was really tired and then had to spend the next two nights writing my newest Ante Up column in record time (for me).  So I finally have a chance to breathe.

So give me a few days and let's see if I can get something more interesting than this posted.  In addition to the new Vegas stories, I believe I can do a post on my last Ventura session from before I left town and I also even found a story from my Xmas Vegas trip that I can write up--at least I think so.  I've completely forgotten what it was now so I'll have to re-listen to my tapes to find it.

Man, I just noticed that I only had two posts in the month of July!  That's pathetic. I'm sure I can do better than that going forward.

So hang in there and thanks for your patience.  Stay tuned!