Third time NOT a charm!
Date: 11/26/06
Player: blnewt
For Rooms: Aladdin,Monte Carlo,Orleans,Silverton,


Summary: Third trip report to AVP, sure didn't set the poker world ablaze but had fun and played against some tough players.

Content: Started the trip well (Sunday Nov 19th)with a good 1/2NL session at the Orleans. Bought in for $100 and tripled-up in 3 hours. Went to dinner (they held my seat for almost an hour). Came back to find the ATMs had left, replaced by a mumbling unibomber wannabe, and a couple solid locals. Dropped a hundred over the next 3 hours and left up $200. Prior to dinner I was making good reads and set a nice trap when I flopped Qs full of 9s and let a gal catch her flush on the turn and broke her on the river. Much tougher to put people on hands w/ the after-dinner group.

Played the Monday 9am tourney at the MonteCarlo, card dead but should have gone further. Had pkt. 7s and flop came 235, the guy I was heads-up with I put him on a big Ace, so I was worried about a 4 and any AKQ so I bet the pot to keep him from getting odds to cathc his card. He called and the turn was a 6, still felt good w/ my 7s so I pushed the rest in (he had me covered by a couple hundred), and he called even though he was only getting 2:1. We flip and he has AK, and the A rivers, so much for pot odds meaning anything, lol. Had 40 players and I end up 18th,At least I feel good about my read on that hand and for going as far as I did with rags.(as I take the walk of shame).
Now minus the $50 Buy-in, I'm up $150

Returned to play some evening 1/2NL at the Orleans and joined a "shark-tank" where I was the only one that didn't know all the players and the dealer. Card dead again, flopped top 2pair w/ 2 clubs showing. I bet the 1/2 the pot and got a caller, turn's a blank and I bet 1/2 the pot again (which was all-in for me) and another club rivers and sure enough caller turns over 4-7 of clubs~flopping 2 pair has been my hand of death lately, and this just sealed the deal! Dropped $100, now I'm up $50 for the trip.

Tuesday play the Orleans Noon NL tourney, definately outclassed in this one, at our table I'd say 3 guys I could outplay but 4 guys were better players than myself. I fill a J-hi straight on the turn only to lose a K-hi straight when a jack rivers. Finished about middle of the pack in a 60 player field. Not good play on my part but was good to play around so many better players. Played some 2/4 fixed limit that night, the play was laughable and I watched my decent starting hands go to crap as the hands progressed since I couldn't chase anyone off their draws. I'll never play 2/4 fixed-limit again, just an agaonizing effort in futility! After $85 tourney buy-in/rebuy/bonus and dropped $80 in the 2/4 donk-a-thon I'm now
-$110 for the trip.

Wednesday was planning on 2/5NL at Palms but couldn't get on a table so just played in an evening tourney at Aladdin. The room is now upstairs (should move into a permanent upscale room next month) and is a big improvement from the roped off area downstairs a few months ago.
Again I got dreadful cards but was able to make some decent steals and a few bluffs to stay above avg in chips through the second break. The players in this one were avg at best and I felt good about my chances. Unfortunately the cards never came around and as the blinds went up I could no longer push people off w/ my junk and was eventually blinded down and moved all in w/ my best hand of the night AQ of diamonds. Lost to pkt 5s, but again I felt decent about my play w/ the cards I got, and unlike the Orleans I felt like I was one of the better players there.
minus teh $60 Buy-in I was -$170 for the trip.

Took Thankgiving off from poker and moved from the Orleans to Silverton and had a fun day w/ the wife playing video poker, watching movies etc.

Friday was our last play day so I played in the Silverton AM tourney. Hats off to Jim, the poker room mgr. top-notch guy and really apreciates the players. The room only has four tables now so the room isn't cramped and is a very nice small room (I heard they're planning a big room soon). The tourney only had 20 players but was a fun game and I played fairly well. I made the 4th place bubble as only top 3 were paid, but as was the theme for the week I did as well as I could (in my opinion) with the cards I was getting. That night I played 3/6 fixed-limit and was about even when a 1/2NL table opened up. I played OK and built my stack up to $160 from my $100 initial buy-in. There were two players that I didn't want to mess with but on one hand both were there and I had 10-J of hearts (this was my best preflop hand all night too). I had the button and the BB raised to $10, the cutoff called and I called. Flop drops 5sQhKh, SB bets out $20 and with my 15 outter I raise to $60 and he calls. Turn is 10c, SB puts me all-in and I call, he flips over pkt 5s and a blank comes on the river to bust me. I'm still trying to figure out if I played this as well as I could, maybe on the forum you could critique it, I'd apreciate it! So after dropping another $100 on the ring game and $45 on the tourney I'm down $315 for the trip total.

Summing up, I was planning on playing the deeper stack noon tournies at Venetian/Caesars but after seeing the caliber of players at the Orleans tourney I figured I'd better work on my game and give them a shot next trip in March. Definately a learning experience and a reality check and a big motivator to improve my knowledge of this game. Thanks AllVegasPoker for giving us all a place to share our poker journies.

Very nice read. Thank you for posting.

You definately stuck to some of the more "local" joints when it comes to games. The Orleans, Monte Carlo, and Silverton are all very popular with locals in the poker room. Since it seems you enjoy tournaments, I do recommend you follow what you said about playing in some of the better tournies around town (Venetian or Caesars). Note that the tournies you played in are not really a good way to guage your skills as a player, as their structures usually force you to play rather badly just to keep up. Even if you do not think you are ready to play in a $100+ tourney, you might want to, just so you can see what it is like to play with 40 levels instead of 20 minute levels that beome all in parties after an hour.

The Aladdin is indeed a traditional touristy room. I will like it a lot more when they get autoshufflers and an actual room.

I completely aggree with out frustrating 2/4 is! LHE drives me nuts!

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Incessant Twitter Ramblings available here: LasVegasMichael

Thanks for the kind words. I'm not holding back next trip, the CP & V will definately be the tournies I play. It is hard to judge your overall game on those turbo structures. I was also looking forward to cash games at MGM, so that's on the next trip agenda for sure!