The TalkingPoker.com Forum - 2Tone Vegas Trip Report #14: Winning a tourney, losing money

(Like hotel floors, there is no report 13)

After my WSOP flameout in early June, I had hoped to return to Vegas once more before summer ended. I didn’t quite make it, but this past weekend I was back once again.

The cast of characters this time around were two good friends who have been along for many of these prior misadventures, and a couple of casual buddies. Our crew was six guys total.

We flew down from Seattle on Friday afternoon, and cabbed to the “Jet Luxury/Platinum” hotel on East Flamingo, a couple of blocks behind Ballys. It was running us $60 per guy per night, which was a pretty good deal. Very large rooms, full kitchens, spotless and comfortable. It was nice not having to stumble through a casino at 4 a.m. on my way to bed, but I still prefer the Venetian for its combination of luxury and location.

Three of us hoofed from there over to Treasure Island, enjoying the 90 degree sunshine, and stopping for a cold beer along the way. We arrived just in time for register for the 7 p.m. $125 bounty tournament. $50 bounty paid for each player you knock out, remainder goes to the price pool. We started with 32 players, 6000 in chips, and very generous 30 minute levels.

I pretty much treaded water for the first hour, splitting one big pot when both villain and I had AK with an Ace on the flop. But with players falling by the wayside, and antes kicking in, it was time to chip up. Some aggressive plays in late position and being lucky enough not to run into resistance got me through another hour. Soon enough we were at the final table, with me having collected two bounties, and a decent size chip stack.

Top five were paid, and we weren’t seeing a lot of post flop play – the blinds were high enough that if you were going to call, you might as well shove. Which made my decision with pocket Aces pretty easy – and I was very pleased when a shorter stack insta-called. I was a little more nervous when the small blind, who had me covered, tanked for a minute or so, then called as well. But I was in excellent shape when short stacked showed Kings, and SB showed AK. The flop was blanks, and I had a commanding chip lead, plus another bounty.

A decent player then went on a tear, knocking out all the other players, until we were heads up and he had me outchipped. I probably should have been more aggressive at this point, but I was card dead and he was keeping the heat on. I eyed our stacks, and offered him a 60/40 chop in his favor, with us each keeping our own bounties, and him taking care of the tip. Having played for more than four hours, we were both ready to call it a night, and he accepted. I walked away with $608. My buddies and I had split all action three ways, so it was only $75 profit for me personally, but very satisfying, and a big confidence booster.

Post tourney, we cavorted on the strip, hitting Harrah’s, Margaretville, etc. before crashing back at the room after 4 a.m.

We were up early enough on Saturday to get breakfast before entering the noon tourney at Ceasars. $85 to play, and a whopping 8k starting chips, but blinds double every 20 minutes. Players were allowed to buy in late and/or buy back in if busting out in the first hour, so we ended up with nine tables, but over 100 buy-ins.

I played almost nothing for the first hour, and the blinds were small enough it didn’t do much damage. I finally picked up a few hands, and was able to start building a stack, including getting lucky when I flopped bottom trips and took out a guy’s top two pair. I was feeling pretty good throughout hour three, and by hour four, we were down to the final two tables, with the top nine getting paid. At this point, blinds/antes were astronomical, and everyone was in push mode. With 14 left, I was at the lower end of the chip counts, with an M of 7 or so. I open shoved with Ace Jack, and was instacalled by a short stack with Queens. That crippled me, and two hands later, I was gone. I was bitterly disappointed at having come so close, but after a post-tourney beer, had to feel pretty good about a second consecutive strong showing.

Most of my buddies are University of Washington alumni, and that evening they had a game against Stanford. Between my friends, they had well over a grand riding on the game, which we watched in the Ballys sports book, where you could get a bucket of beer for $20. Having not eaten and being a general lightweight, I proceeded to get wrecked on cold domestic beer, while they watch $1k disappear as the Huskies got crushed. Being drunk, I go along the logic that we should make up the losses playing craps and blackjack. You can imagine how well that went. The real tragedy is plans to hit the strip club go up in flames when all of a sudden everyone’s wallet is much lighter.

Ah well. Having stuck mostly to beer, I’m doing OK the next morning after large doses Tylenol and coffee. Over to the Hard Rock for the last Rehab pool party of the season. I have my Iphone, so the mega-line is no big deal – I’m enough of a nerd that I actually do an hour’s worth of work while waiting in line to get in. Cover charge this time was $75, down from $100 last time.

Not much different this time around than previous visits, but as always, I had a blast. No celeb guests, but DJs this time were excellent -- all from the SKAM collective, playing interesting mash-ups, high energy hip-hop, and keeping the crowd pumped up. Weather was perfect – under 100 degrees, bright sunshine. As usual, many of the girls behave as if they are visitors from Planet Pornstar. What possess a young woman to bend over and demand of passers-by “Smack my ass!”? A need for attention? Shots of Patron? It remains a mystery, but I’ll willing to oblige.

Sunday night I went to the Encore, which was gorgeous. Wynn’s properties are definitely superior to either the Venetian or the Bellagio. But poker went poorly. I’d run well in the tourneys, and it caught up with me in the cash games, as I dropped $200 in an aggressive 3/6 limit kill game, which is just embarrassing.

While definitely not profitable, I’m glad to have done my part to support the floundering Vegas economy. I hope to be back in early 2010 to hopefully reclaim some of my losses.