Poker At The Bellagio

Some friends of mine have been talking about going to Vegas for Turkey Day and considering my parents live on the other coast (Yes, it always comes back to the whole East Coast/West Coast thing) I was, pardon the expression, "all-in". Wife, not so much. She has fun when she goes, but by day two she is begging to leave. I guess its all the excess behavior (can't blame her too much). Anyway, the day our friends left, I was told I could leave earlier than usual from work, so I call my wife. After our friend and my harassment she gives in and we're off to Vegas. We stayed at the Hard Rock which was pretty fun actually. I prefer the music while gambling as opposed to the sounds of those pesky slots. I sat at the Blackjack table and was later joined by a guy I play hockey with that moved to Vegas and later by my wife. After we were each up a few hundo, we decide drinking at the "Pink Taco" was the next logical step. I proceeded to get way too drunk. So drunk I woke up drunk. We couldn't get tickets to Avenue Q with our friends so my wife and I went to Blue Man Group, good stuff. I then decided that moment was probably going to be my best chance to get some poker in, though I felt like crap still and still smelled like booze. Not exactly what I had in mind going to the poker room at the Bellagio.

I got in the 2/5 NL Hold Em after about 20 minutes, maybe 15. I played well at times and others I played as if I had never seen a card before. At one point I was down to about 50~60 then battled back to about 350 (oh yeah, 200 buy-in to the table, no more, no less). This is generally where some people who don't "feel it" get up and go home, especially if they had played for 2 hours. Me, not really. Though I had my moments of stupidity, I had the table pretty much pegged. And I honestly believe they thought of me a worthy adversary. Then after about close to five hours of play, the cards turn luke warm. Five out of six hands were pocket pairs. But with some retarded raises and semi-scary flops I folded what turned out to be winners. Tilt begins to creep in when I look down and see QQ. Frustrated with the lack of preflop calls when I raised I switched from my "normal" 15/25/30 preflop raise and raised to 20. I had been careful to vary my raise amounts and with which hands I raised with so not to say if I raise 25 I have Ace low kicker, 30 Ace high kicker etc. This actually did raise some eyebrows and to my dismay I received five callers. Scary. Flop came 10 7 7. Not too bad. I was only scared of pocket 10s, higher pocket pair (not really since there was no re-raise) or someone staying in with a lower pocket pair. I did think about the K 10 or A 10 as a reasonable hand to call a preflop raise, but I still felt my Queens were good. I bet 65 into a 100 something pot. Folds except for one guy. He mulled it over for a moment which told me A 10. My though was (as was his probably) I'm probably beat right now, but if an Ace comes up my two pair beats his or if another 10 comes up it will be concealed. Turn is another ten and I push the breaks and check, he checks. River is a Jack, he bets 40 and I call knowing I'm beat but on the off chance I'm wrong, I win about a $300 pot. I was right A 10 suited. My first "good" pocket pair and I get that. TILT TILT TILT. Maybe my preflop plan sucked, who knows but by this point I was ready to call it quits, depending the outcome of the next couple of hands. (I don't give up too easy) Needless to say I lost it all on the next hand on a semi-decent call when this total wild card went all in, and based on some of the cards he played I figured my A8s was good. Plus the fact that there was a raise with five callers then two people all in, so about 400-450 in the pot before I call. So I had the one guy but nut job actually had a hand, KK. Two diamonds did come but no Ace and his third King came which was unnecessary.

All in all, I had fun and I'm positive I could make some serious grip if I don't get trashed the night before, not that I'm making excuses. My B-/C game did well at that table so I'm sure my A game would bring in the bacon. Can't wait to go again, in the meantime, back to Hawaiian Gardens and The Bicycle to hone my skills.