I can offer a ride. Email has been sent.
Slee
Not there yet. See my blog (link in sig) for the excruciating details.
This is just unreal. How bad is this???
*Jack Mahalingam is all-in for $5,000 and is called by an opponent in late position. Mahalingam shows 8s 8c and his opponent has 5h 5c. The flop is 6s 5s 5d and his opponent flops quads. The turn is a 9s giving Mahalingam a gut-shot straight flush draw (his only way to win). The river is the 7s giving Mahalingam the straight flush and the hand. *
It would take me a long time to recover from this beat.
From today’s play.
Good luck Dopers!
Yeah I just read that. Unreal.
No, I didn’t manage to fall off the Earth, just have been SWAMPED with work and trying to get ready for the trip out. I work for a company that does low voltage work(personally, I design home theater/networking/automation packages for new home builders), and it’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Was working 14 hour days up to the day I left.
I’m out here now, I’m still alive, and play on Tuesday in day 2A. Just like last year, the last 3 levels were cold for me. I had 3 legitimate raising hands in the final 6 hours, but I’ve managed to stay alive. I’m down to just under 9K chips. I’ve got about 17 BBs left, so I can probably sit for another orbit or two before I HAVE to make a move…we’ll see. I was discouraged when I left this morning, but the more I think about it, I’m pretty happy, all things considered. Last year when I folded for 6 hours at the end of day 1, and finally got knocked out, I told myself I would spend the next year working on generating chips with any 2 cards, and it has paid off. I need to find a spot to double up early on Tuesday and I’ll have a playable stack.
I’ll be at table 124, seat 6 on Tuesday. I play for Bodog, so I will have their gear on.
A- I just read your blog…that stinks. Same thing that happened to me. In every tournament, you are going to have your streaks…you just have to hope you don’t get hot when the blinds are tiny and then cold as they grow.
I was actually surprised at the level of players at my table. Of the initial 10, 9 were solid, aggressive players. Somehow, we all ended up making initial PF raises set to 4-6x the BB. I recall very few pf raises less than 4x.
I pretty much hung around 12-13K chip mark early, then after dinner lost 4500 when I got 99 and raised 4x the BB. Got one call from an early limper. This guy never limped, so that should have set off alarms. Flop was 6 7 10. He made a bet of about 1/2 the pot, I came over the top and he moved all in. I laid it down, he had limped with JJ. I got blinded down to around 5K chips, then got Ah4h in the SB. Chip leader was UTG and limped(he had turned into a calling station after making a huge double up to around 45K chips). Play was folded to me, I raised 1300, BB folds, UTG calls. Flop is 4h8xJh. I push out 1500, he calls. Turn is Kh, I check, figuring he will take a stab since the flush card hit, but he checks. After river I push out another 1500, and he calls, more than doubling me up to around 11K. More cold cards over the last level and here I sit, waiting for Tues.
I was really pushing the players to my left around early, stealing quite a few blinds with hands like K7, Q8 suited, etc, but late I was getting 37, 49, over and over. Hopefully I’ll at least have playable cards(if not good ones) early Tues.
Aholibah - so sorry to hear you didn’t finish as well as you hoped, but it sounds like you did everything right except get the right cards - which, if you remember at the MC Brew Pub was my question - skill or luck in this game?
It was, however, great to meet you and everyone else! I hope any of you fellow Dopers ever returning to Las Vegas will drop me an email and we can get together for drink even without a mini-Dopefest as a draw. At some point I have to hear how the evening at MC Brew Pub ended…was the Monte Carlo security involved in getting you guys to leave? Just wondering.
It was really a lot of fun - kinda weird to think you can have such a great evening with what is essentially a group of strangers, but it only took a NY minute for it to become a group of old friends hanging out together!
In a recent thread, someone asked what you will do when the Rapture comes and the pious and holy will be swept up to heaven…well, now I know what I will do…I’ll just mosey on down to the MC Brew Pub and book about 45 tables and wait for the Dopers to show up - should be fun.
Looking forward to seeing you all, and maybe some new faces, in Las Vegas again soon!
Here’s the link to the coverage (and great shout-out to the boards) from Poker Stars.
Too bad the boards were down when the blog was front-paged.
I had a great time Friday. I apologize for the confusion; some of this trip happened at the last minute. (I now know it’s possible to plan for a Vegas trip kinda spur-of-the-moment.)
It was really nice meeting all y’all. Thanks to slee for offering the ride and LVGeogeek for the rides to the brewpub and back to my hotel. And thanks to DMark for his suggestions and to Yeti for putting this together. I’m sorry we weren’t able to do more, but we’ve been connected to the in-laws.
Aholibah, sorry you didn’t do as well as you had hoped.
Robin
Aholibah, I’m sorry to hear about your luck. You’ll get 'em next year.
I enjoyed the mini-dopfest though I didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone as much as I would have liked to. We’ll have to do another one soon.
Slee
Same here. Maybe I’m just gettting old, but every place in Vegas just seems too damn loud to talk.
I am glad that Duck and Yeti convinced me to play $1-$2 no limit poker rather than limit. Now that was fun.
I’m still surviving Vegas. I had an exciting day on the craps tables yesterday: I got up about $200 then slowly lost it all until I was down to my last $26 in chips out on the table (twice), then got back up and ultimately walked away with $250 in profit. I’ve still been feeling too gunshy to take another stab at live poker, but I might conquer my qualms today, now that I’m feeling a little more comfortable with my bankroll.
Capa – how did it go yesterday?
Where are you playing Craps? Casino Royal usually has a $2 or $3 table with 100x odds. I won $1200 there once.
She was playing at the Monte Carlo. I went over and shot with her for a couple of hours Saturday night. Put my stake back in my pocket ASAP and ended up even on the session, she was up quite a bit when I left that night.
It was funny, Friday I mentioned that I loved to shoot craps. Aholibah mentioned that she didn’t care for it, it was too much happening at once. Next thing I know, she’s a crap shooting dervish! We had a blast, I could have walked away over $175 up at one time, but was betting enough each round that just a couple of outs sucked my stack back down. Still, a lot of fun.
I had a good time playing poker, mostly. Friday evening I was able to whip up on the table bullies on Aholibah’s end, but only put me up $103 for the session (A had me up $3 on her blog, but I had loaned her $100 and re-bought for $100). The second session I lost $150 or so when the guy I was all in against had quad T against my boat…and my boat was 7 over A, no T involved. So I lost my $100 plus what I was up for that session. The third session I just couldn’t get going and finally went all in preflop with pocket QQ, one caller pocket AA.
Had a lot of fun eating and drinking and meeting the Dopers. Seeing Aholibah on the crap table was worth the price of admission 
When are we going to see photos of Yeti wrestling the giraffe? 
That’s the first time I tried $1-$2 No Limit as well…and that WAS AWESOME!!! [/Farley]
Let me recap THE HAND (#1) that made my night on Friday…
I was dealt Qh 4h in middle position and I limped in (hey…it’s only $2!). A raise made it $10 and about 4 players called (including me). Flop came up Ah - dirty rag - 5h. SB (or BB)…who I was informed just 10 minutes earlier (when he sat down at our table) that he was a very aggressive bettor (mentioned by a player to my immediate left) and he had already lived up to that description by taking a couple of pots with preflop and postflop bets in the $20-$40 range.
Anyways, I had about $220 in chips in front of me, when SB/BB bet about $20 postflop. I called, and so did the guy on my left and another guy in late position. Turn was another dirty rag with no pairs on the board. Aggressive guy bets $30…I call…guy on left calls, and late position guy folds.
River card was a heart! (I forgot what it was…but it wasn’t Kh)
Aggressive guy took no time to push the rest of his stack in…$165. I counted what I had left…$156…I purposely took my time and double-counted my chips to stall and then called. Guy on left is beside himself…“I think I got HIM beat! But man, that’s quite a bet.”…he was hemmin’ and hawin’ over whether to call or not and he exposes his hand a little for me and the guy to his left…he was holding Jh 9h! My mind was racing…“OMG…PLEASECALLPLEASECALLPLEASECALLPLEASECALLPLEASECALLPLEASECALL…”. Ten seconds later he pushes in his $165…
Aggressive guy: Two pair…(I didn’t even see what it was…I just heard it called by the dealer…probably Aces and rags)
Me: Flush, Queen high… 
GOL: Flush, Jack high…(sound of seizing throat is heard)
Pot: about $700
THAT…WAS…AWESOME!!!
Oops, I meant we both had Ace high flushes, but I had the Queen beat his Jack.
A- I started with 8500 chips. Within an hour, there were 7 other stacks at my table of 80K or higher, including a couple nearing 200K. Michael Greco was at my table. I got all in with KQ vs AK and a flop of AJ10, but the river was a Q, so we split. I later raised in SB with 1010, UTG calls after limping , flop is 10JK, I check raise him all in and take it down. Later I get KK, small stack pushes all in for 7K, I call and it holds up. I have 16K at first break.
Second level-Guy on my right becomes chip leader by taking out another big stack of 100K or so chips. We have knocked out 3-4 people already, and every person that sits down has 80K or more. We start to get heavy ESPN buzz. I again get KK, and get a guy pushing all in with AQ, my KK holds, I double to 28K.
3rd level- I get AsQs on button, raise it up, flop is two spades (J high), SB raises, I push all in, he folds. Right before dinner, I get KQ UTG. I know I can’t raise here, but I wonder if by limping I can buy myself a free flop. Everyone knows how aggressive I’ve been, and a smooth call UTG would set off alarms(I’m hoping). I call, everyone folds, Greco calls, Big Stack checks. I know neither of them have an A, so I figure I’m good with any AKQ on the flop. Flop is 5 A 9. Big stack pushes out, I come over the top. He thinks for awhile and folds. I show my KQ. At dinner I’m at 32K. Chip leader to my right is at 300K+. There is another guy with 250K who flopped a set twice, once against AK and against AA.
4th level- Carlos Mortenson joins the table. Ferguson and Vos are at table behind us. My deck goes really cold. I steal blinds when I can. I get 8s9s on button, raise it up, BB calls. Flop is 2 5 8. He bets about 1/2 pot. I figure if he has overpair, he has to reraise me preflop. I put him on two overs, and want to end it here. If any over cards come, I won’t have any way to know if it’s his or not. I reraise all in. He thinks for a few minutes and calls. I say"there is no way you can have 10s or Js and not reraise preflop". He turns over JJ. River brings a 9. I turn to chip leader and say"thats the first time I’ve rivered someone all summer…now I know what it feels like". ESPN is all over this hand. Then I look up ,thank the poker gods, and promise to never throw my mouse at home on a bad beat again. I have 50K at end of this level.
Rest of night–deck stays cold. I get nothing to steal or do anything with, get blinded to 40K . By now almost everyone else at table is well over 100K chips. Amarillo Slim comes over to say hi to some guy across the table from New Mexico that he knows from ???. Don’t know their history. Ferguson checks out our table because he heard “all the chips are there”. Vos is hanging around alot too, since he and Mortenson are FullTilt guys, and he is right behind us. Matusow comes over running his mouth, saying that “he had to come over here so he could see 2 people he recognized”. Chip leader makes more horrible calls, and his luck starts running out, he donks off 100K chips.
Next to last hand…Mortenson raises to 6K UTG, chip leader calls. I have AcKc. I told myself all night not to play a hand unless I could raise, since everyone has me covered, the only way I can really have enough chips to have fold equity is raising PF. I almost lay it down, but decide to call. Player behind me with 85K immediately goes all in. Mortenson and chip leader wait a while and fold. I have 33K left, 30K in pot, +his raise. I’m getting 2 to 1, and figure it’s 80% he has JJ or QQ, 10%KK or AA, and 10%bluff. I assume that Mortenson has an A, raising UTG, and chip leader was calling all night with any K or any A.
I figure my best case is a coin flip vs JJ/QQ with at least 1 out in Carlos’hand, and maybe 2outs gone. I lay it down. He shows QQ. We turn flop for fun, it was Q85. I dodge a bullet.
I ended the night with 33K. I quaded up, but really wish I had around 50K. I had 2 power hands early(KK), +1010. Thats it, for the whole night. All I’m trying to do is survive til I catch a rush.
My brain is in shut down mode. That is by far the most intense poker I’ve ever been around, and it was EVERY hand for 12 hours. There was 1 hand all night that folded to the BB. ESPN, media, other pros, were on top of us all night. At each nights end, you break tables and reform. My new table has several stacks of 30-50K, which is good, although my table image at the old table was strong enough that no one picked on me, and I was able to steal blinds often enough to survive.
I could probably write a book about everything that happened last night. The table behind me had a hand where 2 ace of spades where shown. I saw a first timer call down a check raise by Mortenson for most of his stack, and turn over bottom pair (6s) on a board of 6-J-Q-J-K, and he was right. He had him beat.
Anyway, off to Friday we go. If my run continues like it has, I’ll get a few power hands early, make some chips, then go cold late after dinner. If I can quad up by dinner Friday, I’ll feel good about making a run. If I coast into dinner close to where I am now, I’ll have to start shoving and praying. I’m really not fond of the idea of bubbling on Friday. I think I should be able to get pretty aggressive with the other small stacks though.
Nice write up. Sounds like it’s intense.
That’s bad, right?