Excessive Variance

Just got back from Vegas, and after sleeping all day to recover I’m up at 3am with nothing better to do than write an update.

This trip wasn’t really for  poker, it was to hang out and have fun for a couple days but things didn’t go exactly according to that plan.  We got there Thursday afternoon and hung out at the hotel a bit.  After ordering room service I actually got a bit sick and ended up staying in the first night.  Not the best way to start off a Vegas trip.

Friday Shiva and I went to Aria to check out the poker room and find lunch.  That place is nice, but the poker room isn’t very impressive.  They were preparing for the Million Dollar freeroll that was being hosted Saturday to promote the opening of Ivey’s room.  We decided to look around for food and found a upscale sportsbar called Skybox to eat.  They had a burger on their menu called the Firecracker Burger that  if you finished it you got a free beer.  The waitress went on and on about how hot it was and how everyone who eats it breaks out in a sweat and tears up.  Shiva off course thinks this is great as he is always bitching about how nothing is spicy enough.

So when this burger gets served our waitress stands there to watch his reaction to the first few bites, which he goes through easily.  When he gets done he said he was impressed that it was legitimately hot but he had eaten hotter things before.  The waitress was shocked he wasn’t breaking out in a sweat and that his nose wasn’t running.   As for overall food, I think the burger bar at the Mandalay Bay was better but this wasn’t bad.  Tried a butterscotch pizza for desert which was pretty good though.

Butterscotch Pizza @ Skybox in Aria

After lunch we walked around the strip checking out card rooms to find action.  After checking the Bellagio and Venetian, we ended up at the Wynn were a 5/10 feeder game was just starting.  The thing about the 5/10 games at the Wynn is they are uncapped buy-ins, so there is always someone who buys in really deep.  At our table a young kid bought in for 5k while everyone else was buying in for 1k-1500.  One other guy bought in for 4k, and this became an interesting dynamic later as the young kid lost an all in pot to him with set over set and decided to reload with about 20k so he could cover the table.  I  have no idea why he felt the need to be in the game 2000 big blinds deep when no one else had even 1/2 of that but whatever works for him I guess.

The talk at our table though was prop bets, as this girl sat down to play who had apparently just lost a chocolate eating prop bet for 6k when she couldn’t eat 12 large Hershey’s chocolate bars in an hour.  Turns out that there was a 2+2 thread covering this prop bet while it was going on.  This lead to a bunch of eating prop bets taking place at  the table that kept things entertaining for a while.  I’m not going to detail them all here, because I plan on using some of them later.

The game itself was decent for me.  I doubled up pretty early on, but then lost a big pot when I flopped a set of jacks vs another guys top and bottom pair when we both made full houses on the turn.  I didn’t play a ton of huge pots though and mostly chipped up here and there and ended up winning $2500 (and a candy bar) after 8 hours of play.  By this time it was pretty late, and I headed back to get some sleep.  before she left the girl who lost the prop bet gave me one of her leftover chocolate bars.  How many times do you see  someone sitting at a table with a stack like this?

Yes, the chocolate was in play!

Saturday was going to be my last day in Vegas for this trip since I was flying out at 8am Sunday morning.  Since  Shiva was still passed out when I got up, I got a hold of some other people we came to hang out with (but hadn’t done so to this point) and went to kick it with them.  On the cab ride over to Aria our cab driver was telling us how you shouldn’t get drunk there because they have sensors in the toilets to analyze your urine and alert security if you were drunk.  It’s amazing how silly some  of the local myth’s are in Vegas. We ended up chilling at the Aria pool for a bit which is pretty nice place to relax.  It’s a huge area and they have three pools and some other amenities  though the drinks are way overpriced.

Some of the girls we were with posing at the pool

After getting back from the pool Jake, Souk and I went to Chinatown to have some Korean BBQ while everyone else we were with went to have prime rib someplace.  This was my first time trying Korean BBQ so it was an interesting experience.  We had some ribs and a bunch of side dishes, and I actually liked everything I tried which was a little surprising.   After the meal we ran around looking for some buns from a Asian bakery for some reason, and Jake and I bought a couple bottles to start the night off with before going to a club.

Shiva called and since he was finally getting up at 8pm we swing by to pick him up.  Back at the hotel, a group of about  eight of us started drinking.  We tore through a bottle of Hennessy and Patron in about 40 minutes.  Most of which I was calling Shiva a pussy for because he kept drinking with a chaser while I was tossing back shots faster than they could be poured. A decission and some trash talk I would come to regret later.

Things I learned in the hotel room.

1. MIT grads get tongue piercings with their degrees.

2. Red Bull and tequila don’t mix.

3. Never doubt the intelligence of Asian girls named Marilyn. Oh my god!

I’m not going to explain all of those, but trust me they are absolutely true.

We went out to catch a cab but I stopped that plan and got us a limo instead.  A lot of obnoxious things happened in the limo, of which there are apparently plenty of photos I haven’t seen yet so I may have to update this later with pics.  I remember sitting on the bar in the limo for some reason, and everything else is a bit blurry.  We got to the club and headed in, where we had a table reserved and bottle service was being provided.  We started off with bottles of Grey Goose and Patron.

After this, things got a bit fuzzy for me.  I remember having a conversation with a really hot girl where I mostly just nodded and agreed because I couldn’t understand anything she said, posing for some pics with friends, getting escorted to the bathroom because I was too drunk to stand, and Shiva yelling at me for ordering more bottles which I don’t recall doing at all.  I remember looking around at one point and deciding I needed to leave because I wasn’t feeling well.  I told Shiva to get me back to the hotel, and I remember getting in a cab and him yelling at the driver to take me straight to the hotel and him paying for the cab after I gave him some money for the tab at the club.  I sort of remember walking back through the casino floor to find the elevator.  I also had problems getting to my room because the elevator required you to use your room key to get to your floor, and I couldn’t tell my cards apart so I was sticking every players card I had in trying to find one that worked. Somehow I managed my way back.

I woke up 3 hours later, still drunk, face down on my bed and as far as I could tell everything intact.  Nick was knocking on the door to get me up to catch the shuttle, so I rushed around to get ready while Shiva enjoyed making fun of me my last few minutes for getting so trashed.  At the airport I was filled in on some things I had missed, at was slightly embarrassed about, but hey… it’s Vegas so some of the details have to stay there.

I didn’t notice it before, but on the drive home I realized my jeans had stains on one side of them apparently from whatever I didn’t hold down the night before.  Travis pointed out a stain on my shirt which looked like a nice streak of blood that I also had missed. There was also a small cut on my face which I can’t figure out how it got there though it wasn’t large enough to account for the bloodstain on my shirt.  So while some of the details are still a bit fuzzy, I’m pretty sure I had a lot of fun that last night and I came back home ahead for the trip even though I only played one session.  All in all, fun weekend despite the killer hangover.

Took off work early last Friday to head to play some cards in Chicago, or more specifically the Horseshoe in Hammond Indiana.  Got off to a late start when my ride slept in and I had to go break into his apartment (that may be a slight exaggeration) to wake him up and get going.  On the drive there we made a bet that the biggest winner for the weekend had to purchase the last meal.

Six hours later after a fairly uneventful drive we had checked into the Quality Inn and headed up to the casino to find games.  There was a bit of a list for 5/10 NL so I jumped into a 20/40 limit game and played.  I ended up breaking even in the game because after getting up early I tried a bit of a creative play that didn’t work out.  I only played about 30 minutes before getting moved to the 5/10 feeder game.

The game was decent, a couple guys who seemed solid and a few soft players for sure.  I built my stack from 1,000 to 1,400 before I ended up losing a three way all in where I raised and flopped top set and got it in against a made flush and middle set.  I rebought for another thousand and started over.  This time I got my stack to 1400 when the following hand happened.

There was a guy I played with there last time who I knew was a total fish, especially for these stakes who I had been looking to play a hand with.  He opened in first position for $60, and there was a guy to my right who flat called.  I knew the fish didn’t have anything really strong, he made this raise regularly with any two face cards, or suited connectors, occasionally it might be a small pair.  I didn’t worry much about the caller because from what I had seen if he was really strong he would 3 bet there to isolate and play heads up with fishy.  I looked down at a pair of kings and had a decision.  I had been playing really straight forward to this point, and had not tried anything trappy.  I didn’t think a strong 3 bet would get called so I flatted on the button and was looking for a favorable situation post flop.

The flop came AKT, with two spades.  Obviously not the perfect situation but I definitely couldn’t complain.  Fishy lead out for $60 dollars, and he gets called again by the guy on my right.  I decide I with the possible gut shots and spade draws it’s a good time to protect my hand a little, and I raised to $230.  Fishy called and the other player mucked.  Apparently my protection was not warranted as the case K peels on the turn giving me quads.  Fishy checked and I tanked for a second while debating a bet.  I thought my best value was checking letting him think the K scared me.  It worked as he fired $440 dark before the river card came.  The last card was a total blank, a 4 or 6 that was not a spade.  I tanked again for a second and put the rest of my chips in the middle and fishy snap calls me.  He shows QJos for a flopped straight, and starts yelling at me about hitting a 1 outer.  Apparently he can’t read boards or hand values.

That got me up $800 for the night and I crusied along chipping up taking most of my pots uncontested for the rest of the night and booked a $1600 win after about 6 hours of play.

The next day we got up and Shiva decided he wanted Quizno’s, which was fine by me.  So we hop in the car, bring it up on the GPS and there is one 5 miles away.  We drive there and find out the building is vacated.   Shiva is still wanting Quizno’s so we look for the next nearest one.  He says it’s 20 minutes away and I’m just cool with riding along wherever since it was still to early for us to hit the card room.  We get on the interstate and end up in a traffic jam that keeps makes it a hour long drive to get to a fucking Quizno’s.  The best part, by the time we got to the location on the GPS, once again there was no Quizno’s to be found.  I’d like to take this time out to tell Shiva’s Garmin Nuvi GPS to fuck itself.

We had decided that if we got there and we couldn’t find the Quizno’s that we would just pick out of whatever was in the area.  So we found a colorful looking restaurant called Flavor’s.  We had no idea what was going to be inside, but thats where we went anyway.  In the entry way we were greeted by a young cute black girl with a well kept afro who told us it was a soul food restaurant that featured live Jazz music though no one was preforming at the time.   Sounded good to me, so in we went.

Have to say the food was pretty fantastic.  We had a crab meat quisidilla appetizer that was way better than I expected.  The corn bread was hot, fresh and full of flavor.   I ordered the cajun pasta (chicken & sausage) as my main dish and was very happy with it.  The portion was large enough that after appetizers I could only eat about 2/3rds of it.  Pretty happy with our choice of eating establishments we headed back to the Horseshoe.

Saturday wasn’t as good for me in the games.  It started off fine, we were playing a feeder that was never more than 6 handed and I gradually chipped up and was crusing along.  When the table filled up things started working against me and I was happy to escape the main game with my origional starting stack after having to fold QQ preflop to a guy who 4 bet me and showed KK.

The main game was just a series of bad events, but for the most part I avoided disaster getting away from an overpair against a guy who raised and flopped a set.  However I was unable to get anything going my way and by the time we decided to go hit the noodle bar I had lost a little more than 1/2 my buyin. Also during this time I was watching the Blackhawks just play like shit in game one and give up home ice to Vancouver.  At least I wasn’t upset about it as the guy who came in decked out in full Blackhawks gear at the other table.  I didn’t even have to watch the game to know how they were doing since I was getting the general idea based on his reactions.

So we take off and hit the extremely hidden noodle bar, and I order some chicken dish which was lacking much chicken at all and for the price was possibly the worst deals on food I had ever eaten.

At this point I tried to contact a buddy who lives in Chicago to see if he wanted to go out drinking since I knew he would be out watching the Mosley/Mayweather fight.  He said he wasn’t going to be out long so we just ran back to the hotel.  We watched some TV and played online, while wasting time.  I decided not to go back to the card room and get some sleep.   I had booked a mediocre win for the weekend and the Saturday games just were not as juicy as the ones on Friday so I didn’t think it was worth it to go.

We took off Sunday morning early enough that I could get into town for a afternoon BBQ that was planned.  However on the way back we stopped to hit the Nike factory outlet and then we did have a little matter of a bet over dinner to settle, which I had won (or lost) by winning the most money for the weekend.  So we stop in Ankeny  debating Smash Burger or HuHot, and when we saw the new HuHot that’s where Shiva wanted to go.  Unfortunately after parking and walking up to the building, it was clear that they were not open for business yet as it was still being set up so we had to settle on Smash Burger which is not a bad alternate.

I got home in time to make the BBQ a little late, but my timing was good because I got there just after the rain had stopped.  Met my great nephew for the first time since this was the first time my neice had been back here after she moved to Phoenix.  Hung out for a bit and enjoyed the nice weather and company.  Pretty good end to the weekend.

Addendum…

In the few days that passed from when I first wrote this draft to now the downswing at my local room has continued.  Monday I was on my 3rd buy-in when I had a chance to get even getting all in on the turn with top set against bottom set and ran into quads again when my opponenet rivered the one card that beat me.  I’m officially on my largest live downswing ever and its getting a bit fustrating.  I later lost the rest of my stack to the same player 3 handed in a flush over flush situation.  Time to get back to grinding online I suppose.