Vegas Trip - Venetian Deepstack Tourney

Day 2, 9/22:

Saturday started out like any other day....any other day that smacks you upside the head at the CRACK OF DAWN! I'm on a typical vegas-poker diet. You know the one where you play so much and go past "normal meal" times then end up not eating at all. Since I don't like eating late at nite, I'd skipped a meal on Friday which ended up leading to a pounding headache promptly at 6:30am Saturday morning. Resolved not to get any more sleep, I dashed out to one of my favorite breakfast places, Blueberry Hill. These things are all over town, nothing really special about 'em 'cept good food at good prices. For what would end up being the 1st of two times I was "mistaken" for a local. I guess not many tourists make it out to North Decatur at 7am for grub Snag a counter seat and people watch, you won't be disappointed! After some biscuits&gravy, it's back to home base to get ready for the day. By 10am, I was on my way to TI so say hello to the gang in the 9am mixed-game.

When I got to TI, the game was going strong with LVM, Yappy, Mrs Lederer and J20. It was nice to watch the game and talk shop with fellow cards fiends Try as he might, Mike kept trying to get me to join the game, "we'll teach ya" he pleaded....but my standard response was, "I don't even know how to spell Badugi." Besides, I was playing in the Venetian Deep-stack and needed to get going. Off I hoofed over the walkway and down into one the best poker rooms around! I got registered then went up to the little Italian Cafe for a drink and pastry and some more people watching before heading down for what I'd hope to be a marathon poker session....final table visions danced in my head!

We got kicked-off just after noon with a surprisingly low number of entrants, at least to me. A paltry 4 tables had been enrolled for a total of 36 entrants. 5 would be paid with 1st-3rd locking up 80% of the $17,460 prize pool. 10k chips, 40 minute blinds and just about the best structure I’ve seen keeps me coming back to this tourney time and time again! I’d vowed to myself to be observant, be more aggressive, think through hands better and just play plain ‘ole good poker. And if I can break my own arm I have to say, I played some of the best poker I’ve EVER played in my short poker playing life! In quick order I was able to peg players, take advantage of my image and lighten the mood with some harmless frivolity.

I was stuck in the 10-seat, one of my least favorite and had already identified trouble sitting 2 to my left. He was a VERY serious player who didn’t crack a smile the entire time. And since we all know that chip flow clockwise, I’d need a plan. This guy was playing poker and playing it well. Using position, open raising with “ATC” and making calls so he could take pots away if you showed weakness. He could also make lay downs and that would fit nicely within my plan and my eventual tight image! It’s always good to keep your eyes and ears open as you never know what you’ll pick up. Things like who are friends at the table, how they just played the last hand they’re rehashing, as well as who the local “pros” are . It’s simply AMAZING what you can pick up! Had I not been observant I woulda been racking my brain all day to figure out why the player seated on my right looked familiar. But since I was able to glance at his registration card, it was easy to come up with an answer. It was none other that John Strzemp. Now of course, he’s not a Doyle or Daniel but I’d recognized him from “tv poker” and knew he knew his game. All it meant was I had another piece of the puzzle. Turns out he’s a pretty damn tight player and that’s saying a lot coming from someone like me. He’s also a very grumpy person, thankfully he didn’t last too long, going out on a “bad beat” and not taking it well to boot!

[I’ll detail some of the more interesting hands in the next post for those actually interested]

By the 1st break, we were down to 3 tables and I’d been able to chip to around 18k. Not too bad considering I hadn’t seen a pocket pair better than 7s and no AK connecting post-flop. Levels 5&6 killed me! Combined with the escalating blinds and trying to take a pot off a loon cutting his relatively new chops (during level 1, this guy flopped quad queens holding pockets then not an orbit later turned a straight flush and got paid off on both), I was promptly smacked back down to around 11k. We went into our 2nd break with 2 tables left. Our table stayed in tact with new players rotating in, good for observation. But beware, as every time a new player is added, the table dynamics change! As mentioned, it’s always nice to be friendly as you can really reap some benefits, some better for poker than others. I was completely floored when a local (who thought I was local - I need to work on my image) actually started soft-playing me. I’m not condoning the action, and would certainly never do it myself but I’m going to take advantage of all that’s offered me….

Thanks to some real “lucky” hands (2 to be precise); by the end of level 3, I’d chipped up to 45k, enough to be a table leader at this point! We headed into level 10, 1k/2k/300 with 6 players at our table and 5 at the other. One more bust and we form up the final. Not that it means a DAMN thing as we all know where the money’s at With 9 players left, the hand that would end my night came up. 3 of us got it all-n pre-flop and when the dust settled, I’d experienced my 1st bad-beat of the day. A crushing blow for sure but nothing I could do about it ‘cept say, “nice hand, good luck y’all” then stroll out of the casino as there’s no reason for the 7th place finisher to stick around. That was a "$6,000 hand," and had it held up; I would’ve held 1/3rd the chips in play and been a “near lock to go deep! As it stood, all I could do was haul my depressed arse over to TI, hoping to find commiserating souls to share my story of “bad luck.”

Thankfully I found several, including LVM and my friend Cindy. I shared my “bad beat” and they took it in as gracefully as any player who’s heard it all before possibly can I needed to eat and clear my head. Cindy was nice enough to “lend me some comp dollars” and off to the coffee shop I headed. After a nice meal, allowing enough time for digestion of the meal and the tournament, I headed back to the poker room. Cindy was in the tournament and I’d decided to hang around to wait for a friend of ours that was also in town. Time quickly passed and before I knew it 10pm was rolling around. I knew I shouldn’t play and more cards, since after 7&1/2 hours of play at the Venetian, my poker playing mind was mush. We can all see where this is heading, right?

Not only did I play more cards, I got talked into joining the mixed-game You’re an EVIL, EVIL person LVM Mike would teach us newbies the ropes as we started up a 2/4 mixer and off it went! We had a great time with several AVPers (Mrs Lederer, Motorcycle John, OtherDave and a lurker) as well as those looking for more than just another Hold ‘Em game. I only bought in for $100 and ended up having a GREAT time. When 1am rolled around, it was time to call it quits. I was up and down all session, getting back to “even” a couple of times. When I cashed out, I was down $30 for my lesson. Not too bad for NEVER having played the games in rotation prior to sitting down.

All in all, it was a great day and I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. And since I don’t leave for another 7 days, I’m sure I’ll have a chance to repeat!

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