Vegas Trip, Chapter 1 Continued
Where was I? Oh yeah . . .
So at about 1:30 am, exhausted from my trip but invigorated by the prospect of actually moving some chips around, I headed down to the Orleans poker room. They have a nice room, set pretty far back from the noisiest part of the casino (there are a few slot machines, but nothing obnoxious). I would guess that they have thirty tables, and 10-15 of them were filled at 1:30 am Thursday morning. Not bad. The staff is generally friendly, with a few dealers that seemed a little snippy. I liked the room management very much--more on that later.
As an aside here, let me talk about my impression of the dealers I played with over the course of the weekend. The last time I was in Vegas was in September, and I will quite honestly say I didn’t notice their level of skill one way or another. But using my four previous trips as a basis for comparison, I have to say that the level of dealer skill has gone down DRAMATICALLY in the last few years. Many of them are comparable to the crappy dealers you see at the casinos in East Chicago (to be fair, I haven’t been out to EC lately). Don’t get me wrong--there are certainly still some very competent dealers, but not nearly the high percentage that you used to see. Even the Mirage, which I tend to hold up as the standard of poker excellence, has a number of dealers that have no business sitting in the box.
There was a short list for the $10-20 game, and I was simply too tired to sit around and wait for a game, so I sat right down in a $4-8 (with half blinds) game that was eight-handed. They don’t make new players post, which I like, so I got to start playing the moment I arrived.
Very first hand, I am one off the button with AJo, and raise behind two early position limpers. The big blind, a middle-aged woman with glasses (MAWG), and the limpers all call. Flop is T-8-K, two-suited. Checked to me, I bet out and lose both limpers. Turn is an offsuit 2, and the BB checks. I obviously don’t know these players, so I think it’s likely that she called my flop bet with a pair or better. I check the turn through. The river is a J, and she checks again. I bet my 2nd pair for value. She calls, and immediately turns her hand face-up: 69o.
Um . . . what?
For a second, I assume she is showing a straight and I just can’t see it. Then I think that maybe she misread her hand, but if that’s the case, she is a genius at hiding her emotions, because she gives no indication that the hand is called any differently than she expects. No one at the table reacts to her showing either, which allows me to conclude that this is pretty standard play for her. My mouth starts watering.
So she is in to the river on almost every hand for the next hour, and with the lack of any solid players at the table (there may have been one), I am pretty much playing anything for one bet, right down to medium unsuited three-gappers. Almost every flop is seen at least 5-8 handed . Unfortunately, starting cards were not kind to me, and I had to fold many hands pre-flop. I was BY FAR the tightest player at the table, without really wanting to be.
The key hand for me was a big blind special. J7o in the BB, and we see the flop eight-handed: 8-9-10 rainbow. I check, and an early position player bets out. FIVE callers (including MAWG) to me, and I decide the pot is big enough to check-raise. All but one player calls. The turn is a suited 3, and I bet out. Four callers this time. The river is an unsuited ace, and I am drooling because I am hoping this makes one (or more) players’ two pair. Alas, my final bet only gets two callers. When the action is done, I show my straight, and MAWG turns over her hand, K2o. Even if her king was good, she still had kicker problems.
She left the game soon after, and when another fishy player left, we were six handed. I like short-handed play, and with the sans-MAWG table tightening up, I was stealing blinds left and right. Stealing blinds is all good and profitable, but really not that much fun when you come right down to it, and I didn’t come to Vegas to grind a few dollars out of a bunch of rocks. I lost some decent-sized pots here and there, sometimes when I was sucked out on, sometimes when I was behind all the way. After about an hour, I got tired of the slow pace of the game (the last dealer was atrocious), and decided to call it a night.
I got to sleep within 30 minutes of walking into my room--unheard of on a first night in Vegas. I usually toss and turn all night. I fell asleep dreaming about MAWG. Not about her soft, flowing hair, her strong, supple legs, or her full, firm breasts, but about the way she would gaze tenderly at me as she called me down on the river with her unpaired middle cards.
Session Time: 2:00
Session Total: +39
Cumulative Total: +39
So at about 1:30 am, exhausted from my trip but invigorated by the prospect of actually moving some chips around, I headed down to the Orleans poker room. They have a nice room, set pretty far back from the noisiest part of the casino (there are a few slot machines, but nothing obnoxious). I would guess that they have thirty tables, and 10-15 of them were filled at 1:30 am Thursday morning. Not bad. The staff is generally friendly, with a few dealers that seemed a little snippy. I liked the room management very much--more on that later.
As an aside here, let me talk about my impression of the dealers I played with over the course of the weekend. The last time I was in Vegas was in September, and I will quite honestly say I didn’t notice their level of skill one way or another. But using my four previous trips as a basis for comparison, I have to say that the level of dealer skill has gone down DRAMATICALLY in the last few years. Many of them are comparable to the crappy dealers you see at the casinos in East Chicago (to be fair, I haven’t been out to EC lately). Don’t get me wrong--there are certainly still some very competent dealers, but not nearly the high percentage that you used to see. Even the Mirage, which I tend to hold up as the standard of poker excellence, has a number of dealers that have no business sitting in the box.
There was a short list for the $10-20 game, and I was simply too tired to sit around and wait for a game, so I sat right down in a $4-8 (with half blinds) game that was eight-handed. They don’t make new players post, which I like, so I got to start playing the moment I arrived.
Very first hand, I am one off the button with AJo, and raise behind two early position limpers. The big blind, a middle-aged woman with glasses (MAWG), and the limpers all call. Flop is T-8-K, two-suited. Checked to me, I bet out and lose both limpers. Turn is an offsuit 2, and the BB checks. I obviously don’t know these players, so I think it’s likely that she called my flop bet with a pair or better. I check the turn through. The river is a J, and she checks again. I bet my 2nd pair for value. She calls, and immediately turns her hand face-up: 69o.
Um . . . what?
For a second, I assume she is showing a straight and I just can’t see it. Then I think that maybe she misread her hand, but if that’s the case, she is a genius at hiding her emotions, because she gives no indication that the hand is called any differently than she expects. No one at the table reacts to her showing either, which allows me to conclude that this is pretty standard play for her. My mouth starts watering.
So she is in to the river on almost every hand for the next hour, and with the lack of any solid players at the table (there may have been one), I am pretty much playing anything for one bet, right down to medium unsuited three-gappers. Almost every flop is seen at least 5-8 handed . Unfortunately, starting cards were not kind to me, and I had to fold many hands pre-flop. I was BY FAR the tightest player at the table, without really wanting to be.
The key hand for me was a big blind special. J7o in the BB, and we see the flop eight-handed: 8-9-10 rainbow. I check, and an early position player bets out. FIVE callers (including MAWG) to me, and I decide the pot is big enough to check-raise. All but one player calls. The turn is a suited 3, and I bet out. Four callers this time. The river is an unsuited ace, and I am drooling because I am hoping this makes one (or more) players’ two pair. Alas, my final bet only gets two callers. When the action is done, I show my straight, and MAWG turns over her hand, K2o. Even if her king was good, she still had kicker problems.
She left the game soon after, and when another fishy player left, we were six handed. I like short-handed play, and with the sans-MAWG table tightening up, I was stealing blinds left and right. Stealing blinds is all good and profitable, but really not that much fun when you come right down to it, and I didn’t come to Vegas to grind a few dollars out of a bunch of rocks. I lost some decent-sized pots here and there, sometimes when I was sucked out on, sometimes when I was behind all the way. After about an hour, I got tired of the slow pace of the game (the last dealer was atrocious), and decided to call it a night.
I got to sleep within 30 minutes of walking into my room--unheard of on a first night in Vegas. I usually toss and turn all night. I fell asleep dreaming about MAWG. Not about her soft, flowing hair, her strong, supple legs, or her full, firm breasts, but about the way she would gaze tenderly at me as she called me down on the river with her unpaired middle cards.
Session Time: 2:00
Session Total: +39
Cumulative Total: +39