Trip Report - Whiffleboy in Vegas Part 1 (30% poker content)
Whiffleboy
Once again, I find myself taking deep breathes to curb that panicky feeling
I get with a bout of nausea looming in my innards as my 42 minute flight
from L.A. descends into McCarran Airport. Was it the seven Tecates from
the
night before? Or the consistently user-unfriendly air masses surrounding
my
destination? Probably both. Whatever the cause, its 10:34am, I'm
hungover,
jostling 3,500 feet above the desert and about to hurl a sour stomach full
of coffee and cinnamon roll on the nice lady in seat A. God help me, I'm
headed to Vegas...
It's a yearly thing now - all "the boys" head to Gambleville for a weekend
of 30-something [very tame] shenanigans. Not an unusual circumstance in
Vegas, I'm sure, but exciting for all of us anyway. Finally, this
Angeleno brotherhood gets to enjoy a trip to Vegas sans significant
others. No curfews, no fancy-pants dinners. Just a lot of poker and
comparing your woman to those at the pool.
This year, without a bachelor party to piggy back on, there are only 6 of
us. We've had up to 16 in previous years, but this time it's ž of our
no-limit home poker game regulars and no one else. I'm flying in and
will take the Sunday I-15 torture trip back. Four of our party had
decided to drive in to hit the Primm Valley golf course for an 11am tee
time. I don't golf and I certainly didn't want to sit around for 7 hours
at Stateline. Eff that. You guys drive. I'll fly.
I managed to keep my breakfast down as we landed. I bob and weave my way to
the transportation area. The taxi line at the airport is long. It's also
hot. And I don't mean in a chick way. Of course, I expected this and
prepared for it. Stripping down to my wife-beater, my upper half now gets
with the program my bottom half had been with all along - dress less. With
flip-flops, boardshorts, and a heat-friendly T-top now aiding the biding of
time, the 25 minutes in the taxi line begat the perfect "no conversation"
cab ride to the Mirage. I love that, btw. I'm not a conversationalist at
heart and not having to talk to some pinhead behind the wheel was a nice
post-nauseous blessing to a very bumpy flight. I reward him for the
peaceful ride with an extra nice tip.
It's straight to the Paradise Café poolside for a real meal. I plan on
killing a few hours in the sun before tabling the rest of my Friday hours
away. I play poker alot and don't have that same "got to get into a game"
appetite I read about so often here on RGP. I'm also in the middle of a
losing streak. That,combined with an [expectedly] expensive Maui trip in
6 weeks, drastically reduces my urge to jump into a game right off the
bat. I'm short rolled this trip, basically.
2:30pm rolls around and I decide to test the waters. After a shower, I
jump in a 3/6 game. Now I really haven't played 3/6 in a long time as I
play a little higher these days. However, bringing only $500 as a roll
and not wanting to cut into my Maui savings, it's really the only logical
option.
There are a few fish at the table and a couple of rocks. Guys with
dentures, guys with accents (ok, I'm used to that one), guys with bad
breath and guys with bad breath, dentures AND accents all rolled together
into one. I'm able to take a few pots down on the flop - most from making
moves. I haven't won a showdown yet. Hmmm...I think the cold cards
followed me to the desert. I'm getting a lot of what I like to call
"oppoflops" - flopping the exact opposite of what you want. Whatever,
it's temporary I'm sure. Fish are fish, and fish like to bite. It'll
turn around. It's not working so well and I hover around the even mark
for a few hours. I am now getting quite bored. Luckily, I've recently
mastered the "chip riffle" and found plenty of time to increase my riffle
capacity (I'm up to two stacks of 6!). Finally, the boys show up and I
cash out about $15 down. 3/6 sucks.
Being a loosely-knit group of guys, we basically all just touch base and
each
goes about their own business. Most go right to the poker room. I chose
to
hit up some blackjack. At the Mirage, there is only one table I play
blackjack at. Coincidentally, it's right behind the south poker room rail
next to the Sports Bar. There's a history of massive wins and $40 buy-in
to
$1400 cash-out runs at this table in previous trips. It's legendary to us.
Last boys trip, I myself managed to pluck $400 or so from it. Today, I
pull
$300 in a short amount of time. Cool! I can probably bump up to 6/12 now.
I love you blackjack table.
It's 7:30pm and we all connect at the coffee shop for dinner. This time,
Tony's buying. Actually, the Mirage is buying. You see, Tony is the only
true "real" gambler in our group and he gets a good rating here. I think
he
could get a hooker comp if he asked. He doesn't play much poker on these
trips and sticks mostly to blackjack so we usually only see him in the
middle of the night when he decides to check up on us. He always brings
with him tales of $1200 bets and $10,000 wins. Thanks dude. You have a
way
of making our already low-rolling asses seem that much more pathetic. :-)
After dinner, I decide to go back to poker and upgrade to the 6/12 game.
Having only recently kept my B&M gaming to the 9-18 and our no-limit home
game (salivating just talking about that one), most of my pokerhood was
carved out of the L.A. 6/12 games. Having $800 in my pocket now with my
blackjack win, the upgrade was very welcomed. The only seat available was
a very loose-aggressive game next to the Keno area. Of course, this is a
good thing.
I sit down in the 6 seat. The two players to my right have all the chips.
Cool. The five seat is a nice horrible holdem player with about 4 stacks
of reds and some blues. He's getting lucky. On his right sits a VERY NICE
old southern lady. Currently, she has about $700 in front of her. While
sitting out the orbit for the behind-the-button post, I watch about 8
hands. She has yet to fold a hand before the flop and has only shown one
- a 36o. She won that one. In fact, she won 6 out of the 8 hands I saw.
Only one of them went to showdown. She calls ALL raises. There are lots
of eyes rolling, lots of cards folding and lots of faces frowning. She is
holding the table hostage. Money comes from your right, folks. This
could be good. ChaChing!
My starting cards are good. 10-10, JJ, QQ, AK, suited connectors in late
position, 5 or 6 handed flops. The flops the first hour present no
apparent
dangers but I flop no "made" hands per se either. At least not for a loose
table with baggage to the river. Luckily, I get some great flush draws
with
major payoff potential. Alas, they would all allude me (more on this
later). 2 or 3 hours pass and I've built up some big pots for those lucky
folks who hung in there for the river. Amazingly, the nice old lady with
the [continuously growing] chip stack in the 4 seat shows me respect on my
raises. I'd prefer she didn't, but at least I didn't lose any hands to
her.
No one else was as lucky. She's still killing them. Unfortunately, I had
to reload $100 to keep me going. This is a good game dammit! I gotta
stay in it.
Interesting situations arose in my big blind...
Several times it was folded to the button. This means I have the old
southern lady on the button and the other loose gentleman next to me in
the SB. Each of those times, I held excellent cards for the situation
(10-10, QQ, big Ace, etc). They would call and I would raise. Nice old
lady would fold and the SB would call me down to the river. He won every
time. Each time with two pair or better. Ouch.
I'm a fairly calm player with a decent amount of discipline. I recognize
poor players are my moneymakers. The past 3 weeks have been tough,
though, and it's starting to take its toll. I have found myself tilting
some recently. This is a rarerity for me. However, I'm down to $6 now
and I feel it coming on again. I really should be winning here. I lose
my all-in in a situation as described above and decide to call it a night.
I'm assuming my 3 week-old cold streak is continuing at this point, my
roll is not enough to handle 6/12 AND a continuing cold streak. I don't
want to risk it and I muster the discipline to get up. Let me go drink
now. Oh, btw..the old lady cashed out something like $1100 or so.
Drinking is funny. Actually, it makes you do funny things. You know,
things like making an ass of yourself, groping she-males, betting on
roulette...huh? Betting on roulette? Yes. Mikey sees me get up and
asks if I want to go do some mindless gambling. Now ya'll without sin
cast the first stone, but, seeing as how I was previously *thinking* and
losing my money, the idea of a game that I could lose my money at - where
the only requirement was for me to stare at a little white ball - sounded
like a pretty good proposition. Hello, Mind? You can go to sleep now. Let
Uncle Beer drive the chips for a while. We pound some drinks and head
over to the roulette wheel. OK, if I remember correctly, it was actually
fun for a few minutes. That anticipation, that "I know for sure it's gonna
hit on this one"
uberknowledge - roulette is fun. I see why it's so popular. I also see
how
the casino keeps the lights on. I lose my $100 in about 15 minutes. It's
bed time. I'll start fresh tomorrow with the $400 or so I have left.
Part Two coming up...
Whiffleboy
_________________________________________________________________
Posted using RecPoker.com - http://www.recpoker.com
NChrisH
From: "Whiffleboy" anon...@weho.org >><BR><BR>
Humerous report, I enjoyed it.
<< Drinking is funny. Actually, it makes you do funny things. You know,
things like making an ass of yourself,
groping she-males >>
<BR><BR>
Groping she-males?
I'm not sure I even want to ask about this one.
Chris H.
NChrisH
Make that
Humorous report....
Bennett Niizawa
<snip trip report>
Nice report - looking forward to the rest!
Despite the fact that I played some on my last trip, I really don't like
blackjack that much. Instead of the good table as you seem to have,
whenever I get close to one, mechanized arms pop out, grab me, flip me
over, shake a hundred or two loose, and the drop me down to the carpet.
I hate that.