Grinding out a cash in Vegas

I've had two laptops bite the dust over the last five months, but at long last, I own a legit computer.
So you can expect to see a few more regular updates at this site, including the recap of my Vegas tournament that I promised earlier. That's what this is. Included with this post will be the outcome of my "Hand of the week" that I posted a while back.
FINDING THE RIGHT GAME
Before we headed to Vegas, my buddy Jayeson and I did a bit of research on where the best single-day poker tournaments were held. The site allvegaspoker.com was a tremendous resource.
The general consensus online – backed up by a look at the structure sheets – is that the Venetian is the place to be. We also considered Caesar's Palace and the World Series of Poker at the Rio.
The structures at Caesar's daily tournaments are quite comparable to the Venetian, but the rake at the Venetian was markedly lower in the buy-in range we were looking at ($100-$200). The Venetian's daily $150 noon tournament returns 86 per cent of the buy-in to the prize pool, while Caesar's $85 nooner returned only 76 per cent.
The tourneys at all three places had half-hour-long levels, but the WSOP daily (non-bracelet) tourneys had smaller starting stacks, a couple of missing levels, and the antes started earlier. Not as good a structure and not as much value, and the lure of the WSOP brand wasn't enough to overcome that.
When we got to Vegas, we discovered that the schedules at the casinos were slightly different than we'd expected. Dovetailing with the WSOP, the Venetian was holding its Deep Stack series, and Caesar's was hosting its Mega Stacks series. The Venetian tourneys were out of our ideal price range – upwards of $300 – so we showed up at Caesar's for their $130 buy-in event on Monday.

HOT START
Enough foreplay. Let's talk poker.
At Caesar's, players begin with 15,000 chips and 50-100 blinds. The stacks are deep enough that you can play fairly solid poker, and that's what I did. Over the first two-and-a-half levels, I played just eight hands where I voluntarily put chips into the pot. But I won six of them, chipping up to 32,000 in the process. I wish I could remember some of these hands, but they're escaping me at the moment.
The event drew 371 players, paying 36 spots, including about $7,500 for first. I played with guys from Russia, France, Italy, England, and a few gents from other provinces in Canada. I imagine tournaments in Vegas generally have a fairly high tourist factor, but the fact the WSOP was in town made it a particularly interesting time to be there. Everybody who played poker on the planet seemed to be in town. At least, that was the illusion.
DONKEY BOMBED
There was this guy seated directly to my right who fancied himself the table captain. I might have been annoyed with him, but instead I chose just to be amused.
The dude was in his early 50s, with a greying goatee and leathery sun-burned skin. He took it upon himself to make sure everyone had their antes in, and got into arguments about etiquette a couple times. Classic. Mr. Leather Skin felt it was his God-given right to play every single pot, and he took FOREVER to make a decision pre-flop. Every pair of napkins that landed in front of him required a full-fledged production number as he moaned about how to play this monster, how he just had to call that raise and reraise. The vast majority of the time, he'd call. The man was loose-passive, and a crazy calling station.
He actually played the style reasonably well, but his chip stack obviously did a crazy roller-coaster routine. I steered clear of him for about an hour and 15 minutes, then we finally locked horns.
I hadn't played a hand in a while, so I felt the need to raise with AJ under the gun (a bit loose, maybe). I got a caller in middle position, and of course, Mr. Leather Skin just had to call in the big blind.
The flop was a beauty – AJ3, two diamonds. I decided to slow-play, and we checked it around. The turn was a club, somewhere around an 8. Mr. Leather Skin bet 1,500, and I put in a big raise to 5,000. To my utter shock, the other player in the hand flat-called, and Mr. Leather Face called as well.
The river was gross – the 9 of diamonds. Leather checked, I wasn't putting another chip in the pot, and the other player checked as well. Loud-mouth rolled over T4 of diamonds to take it down. The other player claimed to have 52 of clubs – gutshot straight draw on the flop, flush draw on the turn.
That pot would have had me nearing 45,000 chips, but instead I was knocked down to 23,000. Gaaaaaaah.
RUNNING REALLY GOOD
I felt I had the best seat at the table – to the left of the uber-loose heehaw. But for the next hour and a half, I couldn't find a reasonable hand to play with him. I was utterly card-dead. I ended up blinding down to my starting stack of 15,000 . . . and with the blinds at 500-1,000, that was rather short.
I finally found AJ in middle/late position, and pumped it up to 2500. It folded around to an affable Englishman in the small blind, and he shipped all in with a covering stack. This was not a good spot, so I mucked.
Two hands later, I found AJ again. Once again, I raised to 2500. Once again, the same player – now in the cutoff – shipped all in with a shrug. I had around 10,000 behind, and I was a little suspicious that the same player made the exact same move on me. Was he bullying me? At any rate, if I folded, I'd only have 10 big blinds left. I figured I could well be trailing, but I had to make a stand sometime, so I called.
He flipped over AK, and I was in terrible shape. The flop came down ATx, the turn was a king, and the river was a glorious queen to give me a very fortunate broadway straight. He told me he'd had AK the previous hand he'd shoved on me, as well. Better to be lucky than good sometimes, I guess.
A couple hands later, I finally found a good spot to go to war with Mr. Leather Skin. He raised in early position, and I made a beefy re-raise with KK. He called – of course – and we saw a flop of 642, two diamonds. He checked, and I made a healthy value bet – about 40 per cent of my remaining stack. He check-raised enough to put me all in, and I called.
He rolled over J5 of diamonds, and I just about barfed. He had a gutshot straight flush draw – 12 outs in all. But I managed to fade both the turn and the river, and chipped up to more than 50,000. Phew.
CHIPPING UP
In possession of an above-average stack after that double-up, I began to chip up steadily. My table broke just before the dinner break, and I joined a new table with a bunch of big-stacked players.
On the last hand before dinner, an Eastern European player raised in middle position to 15,000 (blinds were 3,000-6,000, ante 500). I found AK in the big blind, and decided a shove was in order. I pushed about 78,000 into the middle, and after a few moments' thought, my opponent open-mucked JJ. He didn't want to race there, and neither did I. That pot took me over the 100,000 mark, and I had an above-average stack as the money bubble approached.
THE HAND I DIDN'T PLAY, AND THE HAND I DID
If there's one hand where I look back and second-guess myself, it's this one.
We were down to about 40 players – with 36 getting paid – with the blinds at 5,000-10,000, ante 1,000. The player under the gun pushed all in, and I looked down to find JJ in middle position. I asked for a count, and he had about 65,000. At this point, I had just a smidge over 120,000. I felt quite strongly that he probably had AK or AQ, and ultimately, I didn't want to race for half my stack so close to the bubble. So I folded.
In retrospect, I was almost certainly ahead, so calling wasn't a terrible idea. There's no way he had AA or KK, and I highly doubt he had QQ. Given that he was under the gun, it may have been a desperate attempt to steal the blinds. But I was quite convinced of my read, and I went with it, hoping I'd find a better spot.
Two hands later, I found one. The player to my right shipped all in for about 50,000, and I woke up with KK. I re-shoved to isolate, and he had 88. My hand held up to take me to 193,000. The chip average was about 135,000. I was going to make a deeeeeeep run, I figured.
TRENDING DOWNWARD
Regrettably, that represented my high water mark. I didn't find a good spot to play a hand for a lap and a half, and with the blinds at a predatory level, I was soon back down to chip average.
The bubble thankfully burst – a player got it all in with KK, but was run down by AJ on the river. Rough. But I was happy. Not going to lie.
I didn't necessarily just sit idly by and blind away. The table was playing very standard and tight, so I got a little frisky in the cutoff and raised to 25,000 with 93o. The small blind – the biggest stack at the table – shoved all in, and I had to release.
A while later, I tangled with the same player in a blind-vs-blind battle (the player between us busted, leaving an empty seat). I had given him a walk the previous lap, and this time I limped with QJ. The flop came AT8, giving me a double-gutshot straight draw. I fired 25,000, and he called, to my mild chagrin. I put him on a 10 – there's no way he would let me see a cheap flop if he had an ace. The turn was a Q, which if my read was correct, put me in the lead. So I fired 30,000 (leaving maybe 50,000 behind), and after hemming and hawing, he folded.
The very next hand, I had QQ on the button, min-raised, got action in the big blind, and then shoved on a rag flop.
That left me at 144,500 . . . and brings us back to the hand of the week from my June 10 post. To avoid redundancy, I'll let you go back to that post to get up to speed on the action if necessary.
(Waiting . . .)
(Waiting . . .)
Okay, that's enough.
THE END
So I got to the flop holding QcTc, and saw the board roll out Q73. With one player already all in, my only live opponent bet out 25,000. I thought about it for a moment, but with only 96,500 left, I decided a shove was in order. He snap-called with 77, and I was out the door in 34th for a $250 min-cash. (The big blind shover, incidentally, preceded me out the door. He had A8o).
I was very proud to cash at a live tourney in Vegas, but I was also fairly upset with myself afterward because I had an inkling my opponent was very strong in that spot. The proverbial alarm bells were definitely going off when he bet the flop. But when you see a flop with QT, with the stack sizes being what they were, it's hard not to get married to top pair. Credit to the dude who busted me – his bet on the flop was sized perfectly. It gave me the illusion that I had some fold equity.
In some ways, the hand played itself. But I'd like to learn from it. Next time, I'll take more time to ponder the question: Why on earth would he bet the flop?
The tournament was a blast, and my buddy Jayeson also made a nice run. He finished 65th, within shouting distance of the money.
I've got tentative plans to make another Vegas run next year. This time, it'll be more of a poker trip as opposed to a tourist thing. VEGAS BABY!