Well im still catching my breath from what was a brilliant 6 weeks in Vegas. Not really sure where to start so i think its best to break Vegas into 2 posts (poker/non poker)
Poker:
It turns out i was fairly lazy with regards to grinding out here. In six weeks i managed only 12 cash sessions and 8 mtt's which compared to people like Spinks and Ellwood was a bit of a joke. If i could of played online it wouldn't have been a problem but its tough to motivate yourself to play long sessions when its fairly mundane and your often hungover, got regular chinese games going, cinema etc etc.
Cash went ok, ran average and made $11,650 in 12 sessions (around 55 hours)thats a nice $212 hourly which is higher than my online hourly but given i'd have put in 120-140 hours in this time it probably works out slightly less profitable for me. I started off playing 5/10 but towards the end of the trip i played $10/20 since mtt's and staking went well. I played $5/10 at the Venetian, probably my favourite cardroom in Vegas as its well run has plenty of games running. Towards the end of the trip i played at the Aria since the Venetian seldomly got 10/20 going and the Aria was nearest to where i was staying (the signature). Playing 10/20 in Vegas is actually fairly annoying, the Rio is 10/25 with a btn straddle so i wasn't keen to play there as its too big, i don't like the bellagio card-room so ruled that out. I like the Wynn/Venetian but games seldomly run there. So i was stuck with the Aria. It was a fairly poorly run room imo, understaffed huge waiting lists and no-one really taking charge but i was limited in choice.
The games i played in probably weren't the best. I generally grinded 6-11pm, on the occasions i played later and till 4am i noticed the games were alot softer but this was later in the trip and if i find myself bumhunting live games i need to acknowledge i have issues. The bumhunting in Vegas was absolutely rediculously, arguably worse than online. On numerous occasions i 3bet a player they folded and they snap asked for the table change btn which is rediculous. I could understand if i had direct position and was making it tough for them, but it was often one single 3 bet which didn't even make showdown. In my last cash session at the Aria a 10/20 game broke leaving me and Olivier Busquets playing HU to keep the game alive, that was cool and im fairly sure i held my own against one of the best and a genuinely nice guy.
So in total i played 8 mtt's. Overall things went well, in most mtt's i was actually really card dead and never really chipped up. i came 55th in the $2500 which i mentioned in my previous blog post and came 5th in a Venetian $2500 for $34,667 which is my biggest cash. I played my best mtt poker in this mtt where i finished day with 22bigs, went on an absurd heater on day 2 to be 5/21 in chips from 275 runners. 5 handed i had 30% of chips in play and was CL when i maybe made a mistake which cost me serious bean ($150k up top). I flatted KK vs HJ open as he opened off 30bigs and it went 3 way to an 822 flop. I min-raise the OR cbet and get overcalled by the player who nearly has me covered (we have around 65% of chips in play and theres 2 fairly short stacks considering the avg stack is 90 bb's). The player in question was a fish and a really nasty guy who had actually been berating me a fair bit even though hands hadn't gone to showdown often. Anyway he lead a 9 turn which i peeled and c/r allin on a J river where i bet 1/4 pot to induce. He had 88 and proceeded to call me a clown and mock my call :(. I didn't say a word but one player threatened to "knock him out" if he continued and the floor almost had to break up a fight lol. Next hand i have 30bb's and 99 5 handed and lose to JJ. I maybe should have folded the KK hand since there were shortstacks (ICM suicide blah blah blah), but he was a big fish on what was otherwise a fairly tough table so i just couldn't find the fold button.
The ME went badly, i can't recall many hands but basically struggled to win a pot on a really soft table and bust in level 4. Still waiting to make a day 2 in the ME :p. Sucks abit because i kept all my own action swapping out only 20% but no-one i swapped with cashed. Staking went well for a change, i had 5% action of Paul Nash who came 5th in a bracelet event netting me $6k. I ran absurdly good at CCR and chinese netting me some profit, although i spent alot of money on nights out a new watch, cabs, tipping, Trips, go-karting and general Vegas shannanigans which ate into my profits. I'm extremely grateful to come out ahead for the trip to Vegas since a few guys i went to Vegas with had a rough time (poker wise).
Vegas results:
Live cash hours: 55
Live cash game profit: 11,650
Live MTT profit: $14,761
Staking: + $5.5k
Vegas results: + $31,911
Back in the game
5 months ago
