Tuesday, January 17th addendum
After pissing away $500 in the QQ v KK hand, I walked over to Pai Gow poker, played 4 hands, lost 3 of them and pushed 1 of them, pissing away another $150. It was fairly ridiculous since the house made such monster hands, I never stood a chance.
Thursday, January 19th
It was a rough day at the show, considering I had only 2.5 hours of sleep, but I managed to hold it together. For dinner, we went to Maggiano's, which was phenomenal. The best parts were the fried cheese appetizer (as always), the lobster carbonara, and the filet medallions. Desserts were also excellent. They also gave us all of the extra food to go. Since none of us were going to eat it, I gave it to 3 homeless people on the bridge between Wynn and Palazzo. Figured some karma might do me some good.
After dinner, I went with Mark to roll some dice at Casino Royale ($3 min with 20X odds). I was playing $3 on the passline, only $10 odds, and establishing up to 2 additional $3 come bets with the same odds. The dice were ICE cold. None of the first 5-6 rollers hit a point, nor did any of my come bets win, unless it was the $3 variety. After my roll I decided to say goodnight to craps, down about $175, never standing a chance.
After craps, I played a very non-descript session of 1/2, breaking about even after 3 hours and change.
Friday, January 20th
Last day of the show, and I was able to get out at about 3:00. I headed over to the Rio to meet up with my buddy Joe who lives in Vegas, for dinner at the All American Grille, and then the $125 tourney at the Orleans. While waiting for Joe, I started a new table of 1/3. The two players at the opposite side of the table who seemed to know each other, had pretty deep pockets, and played woefully bad, though the Asian woman at least did it aggressively. The big hand I played at this table was as follows. I'm in EP and I raise to 12 with QsJs. Button bad player calls (about 150), asian lady calls (about 200), and new regular calls (about 300). Flop J32 with 2 clubs. They check to me, I bet 35 and they all call. The turn is an offsuit 4, check to me, and at this point I am comfortable getting it in with the two bad players, but not against the reg. I bet 75, button folds, woman now shoves for about 150. Reg tanks, but decides to fold what he said was Ac9c. I call. River is a blank, and she rolls over AQ and I take the pot. Hmm..... Walk away after about 2 hours ahead $100 at that game, but probably should have skipped dinner to play this table, as the woman started running good and built up a stack.
For dinner, I ordered the filet with mashed potatoes. Wasn't the best meal I've ever had there, but it was quick and pretty good.
Joe knew the tourney director at the Orleans, so they saved us seats, which was good because they were filled at 200 entries with a huge alternate list. They ended up getting 244 runners. I lasted about 2 hours, before losing AJ < A8, in a pretty standard spot. Unfortunately I had to lose as a big favorite. But in general after playing cash exclusively for some time, tournament play really bored me, and I didn't feel like playing anymore anyhow. Joe was knocked out within 30 minutes after an ugly mix of coolers (set into royal flush for starters).
We headed to MGM to play 1/2. I was up 100 after a while, but had lost a bit in standard spots when this hand came up. I'm in the BB with 9d7d and a bunch limp to me. I announce a "tilt raise" to 17, and only Joe calls me on the button. I'm not sure what I was trying to accomplish with this, but I was playing maniacally and just felt like it. Flop came 9h3h3x, and I bet 30 and Joe called, saying "Let's see if you bet the turn." The turn was a 6x, and for some reason I decided to "pot control" and checked, he bet 60, and I called (I debated calling or shoving here). The river was Jh, I checked, and he looked pained on what to do....finally he settled on 40, and I said "You MF'er, you got there with hearts??". I paid him off and he showed Ah6h, for the nut flush.
So now I was definitely steamed. A while later, loose player opens to 10, I flat in the CO with Kc6c after another (I was playing awfully at this point). Flop comes J64. Both players check to me and I bet 25. Only the original raiser calls. I start thinking "King, King, King"....and the turn is a K. Check to me and I bet 60. Now the original raiser goes all-in for 225ish. This kind of surprised me, and I started talking to him out loud. The only hand that scared me was JJ, since I felt 44 or 66 were not likely in his opening range. I did feel he would potentially play AK in this manner, so after debating it for another few seconds, I elected to call. He said "Good call" to me, and the river was inconsequential, then he turned over JJ??? Apparently "good call" meant good call on him having JJ, and not actually a good call on my call on the turn. After that hand I was pretty disgusted with many things, my play, the "good call", the shitty situation, etc.....so I called it a session down about $500.
Back at the Venetian, I stepped back into Pai Gow for another $125, again not winning a hand. I ran over to the Sportsbook at 2am to cash a winning round robin parlay ticket worth about $250, then headed back to Pai Gow with revenge (or degeneracy) on my mind. I ran that money into about $1K, and decided to cash out near $600.
Saturday, January 21st
I had to leave for the airport at 9:30, so I stubbornly sat down again in 2/5, and polished off about $350 with some pretty terrible play, and more bad situations.
Introspection
Looking at my play from the entire week, there was some definite spurts of good play, but there were some spurts of absolutely impatient and horrible play. The impatient play stems from trying to make things happen, instead of just letting the game come to me (to use a sports analogy).
The bad play is more troublesome. I was playing far too many hands. Most of the bad hands that I played stemmed from a bad call or raise pre-flop. Despite making what I knew were questionable calls (most of which were at least in position), I felt I could play well enough post-flop to eliminate any negative EV that I was establishing pre-flop. Instead of focusing on making big hands and trying to play for stacks, I was trying to fight for almost every pot, and playing bigger pots with marginal hands at best.
It's a slippery slope, because at the same time I notice that I am playing my best poker when I am picking good spots to make plays on pots, usually with floats or light 3 betting. A few successful hands, and you begin to feel invincible. That translates into playing more pots in marginal spots, which makes decisions very difficult.
So for my next few sessions, I plan on playing reasonably tight and straightforward, making sure that my fundamentals are where they need to be before I try to get overly creative.
No comments:
Post a Comment