Back to Earth from Poker Heaven

My first session after I'm back from Vegas. Well, it's somewhat difficult to go back to earth after you played in heaven.

My session lasted 13 hours (plus a three hour train trip in each direction). I was on the road for 21 hours. That was tough.
After 10 hours in the great seats of the Wynn I only felt tired. After 13 hours here (and the place isn't that bad) I felt like after an interkontinental flight from Germany to L.A. Those resizable and comfortable chairs at the Wynn may sound just like a nice gimmick. But if you play long sessions you really feel the difference - especially if you're a guy of my size.

Overall it doesn't run too well currently. I was up a little after 2 hours but didn't catch any good cards for about half of the night. Went down and recovered (but not completely) in the early morning. Nothing compared to the guy who accumulated 8 racks (each $100) in about 6 hours on 4/8. Not a really good player - but very very lucky. Caught a lot of quads, trips, full houses, straights, flushes against other high combinations (so he had big pots all the time).

So is there anything wrong with my play? I'm not sure. My numbers say that I'm well into one standard deviation. If I get good cards in a reasonable frequency I win and dominate tables. If I don't get them - I'm lost. I know this is supposed to happen ... but at this time I'm not sure if I just have a bad series or if I don't play enough hands. This night I saw some remarkable bad beats: Getting A,9o and folding it as there had been tree (!) raises in front of me. With three players I decided that the pot wasn't big enough to invest 3 more bets here (I was BB). The flop came A,9,3 :-((( This kind of weired things happend very often this night. I don't mind if I would have flopped quad 7's with a folded 7,2 (happend this night too) but it's really hard to see those A,9 things happen.
But well, I see what happens after you play this kind of game more loose. I saw big winning stacks shrinking very fast to zero. So I'm not that unhappy that I can usually handle sessions of this length with $300 or less but winning some in a row would be nicer. ;-))

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It's not over before its over...!

Well this is not really poker related but the end of my trip got a nice twist:

Waiting at the gate for my flight as they asked for volunteers because the flight was overbooked. I was offered a flight via Frankfurt which resulted in a 6 hour longer trip. Due to the compensation I received I reduced the cost of my flight-ticket to $80 (!). In addition I was booked on business class...Now that's positive standard deviation. Or just plain luck :-)))

So I'm currently sitting at Frankfurt Airport writing this last chapter of the first poker trip to Vegas. And in about 2.5 hours I will be at home again.

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The last hours... :-((

No more Poker ... I decided for an easy going last day.

So here's my summary:
Time played: 46 hours 25 minutes (more than expected)
Game 4/8 Hold'em
Result: -84,62 BB (worse than expected, 45 of these are from the Commerce!)

Tournaments: 6 (less than planned) in 12 hours
Placed in the money: One time at 11th place
Average Buy-In: $69,16
Result: -4,12 Buy-Ins

I have to analyze these results when I'm back but my impression is that they are well into normal standard deviation. But of course I would have been happier if I went back with a win.

Missed opportunities:
Played in the same room with Daniel Negreanu twice but wasn't able to ask him for a chip signing as he was busy both time. (First was a photo shooting and the second time he was playing a 300/600 Mixed game with some friends).

If I go with the girlfriend next time I think I will take her to the Wynn. Poker room rate is $129 weekdays and $199 weekend. I have to see those rooms at least once!

Here are some photos (of course from the Wynn). Added 3 more in older blog entries below:









I have another three hours to kill before I have to head to the Airport. But I don't expect to get bored in L.A. ;-))

Have a good time and good cards (you need them - regardless how good you are).

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The Commerce ... it's huge and it's ugly

The Vegas part of the trip ended with another nice win at the Wynn.
Had a short 2 hour session before my flight and got a nice 4/8 table.

Comment of my neighbor: "This is a tough table". Mmmh...I thought it was an easy one. Easy to dominate. Different perspectives.

As I wasn't willing to pay the $129,- per night at the Commerce I found a much cheaper and good hotel (with free internet) nearby.
Good choice! The commerce is a cultural shock if you're used to Las Vegas poker. The place is huge! The biggest poker rooms in Vegas (Bellagio, MGM, Wynn, Orleans) have around 30 Tables. The Commerce has 5(!) times of that. About 150 Tables. But the place is an ugly dump. I never saw so much morons on one place together. "I play always low unsuited cards...they hit more often on the river. You can only lose with high cards. Believe me! I've seen this so often", "No, I'm not drunk I just had my fourth Heinecken in one hour...raise...I've only sh*** but I raise. See my 7,2 hit on the river". Wow, I hate this place. And to top this I had a horrible night. QQ lost, KK lost, some others failed...and at the end I lost a big pot with KJ. Me and to others at the end of a huge pot. I beat one with a pair of Jacks and the King. But the 3rd one had AJ for the better kicker. The only good thing: The guy I lost too was one of the few good players. He deserved it...as well as I :-((

I learned an important (but expensive lesson) that night: Never play were you don't feel comfortable. This place may be a cash cow (if you can stand the swings) but I don't feel comfortable at this dump. While BJ is a game of pure math you can play this without faults even if you don't feel good. Poker is different. There is a lot of math involved but you have to deal with the unknown. You have to make decisions that will be influenced from the way you feel. If you don't feel good you will play badly. That's one more reason why I prefer places like the Wynn - even if my longterm winrate is lower.
BTW - Moron lost all of his big stack he accumulated in just an hour and left...enter next moron...

So I decided to go to the Bycicle Casino in Bell Gardens on the next day. They have a noon Tournament which I wanted to enter. The "Bike" is much nicer than the Commerce. I didn't play for cash there as the tournament took 5 hours and I was exhausted and needed a break...but the overall impression was much better.

The tournament was very interesting. Most memorable hands: I hit my second Jack (had AJ) on the river while being all-in and beat a pair of sixes early in the tournament. At the end I was short-stacked and had barely enough for my big-blind in the next round (2000/4000 blinds and 500 ante - that's tough!) as I got pocket queens. Went all in, got two callers and got a third queen on the flop. Strrrrike! :-) At this time we all were in the money but I wanted to end better than 16th place. And I did. And it could have been better. Some rounds later I was the big blind (and again had just enough left for the small blind) and was dealt AK. All-In. One caller with A4s. I was clear favorite until the river...were the dreaded 4 hit the board. Out on 11th place. Too bad I missed the final table for just one place. But still made $130 for $60 buy-in and 5 hours of play. 1st place paid about $1.700.

I was too exhausted to play a round of cash game and went for some shopping time to Santa Monica. I had a great time and decided not to go back to the Bike that night. I took my time and went back to the hotel by midnight.

Maybe I will play tomorrow morning before my flight (if I'm up early enough).

This week went so fast - but I had a great time. I'm down so far but I learned a lot. And I can't wait for the next trip.

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I love those internet kids!

The original plan was to go to the Wynn on afternoon and change to the MGM by night. In reality I started the Wynn at 2pm and never left it before midnight. The time went so fast it was unreal. This table was fun. Not only by the people itself (we had some good laughs) but also from the winning perspective.
Now it was like it was supposed to be and I got some good cards from time to time. Pocket J's that made a set on the flop, Pocket Q's, some good AK's were you hit something etc. Even 5,2 (on the big blind) that made a full house on the flop. The table was full of those internet kids (sunglasses and iPod are so cool on a 4/8 game!) that went into calling stations whenever you bet a good hand. Later it got even better with an "action" player ("We have a live straddle"), that could be check raised an re-raised.

Most impressive pot was one I wasn't involved (had only crap): Seven of nine went to the flop (with raising each other to the cap), getting a flop like 7,5,9. Raising and reraising again on the turn and river (getting some higher cards there with still three or four players at the end). So you expect somthing like big pocket pairs? No way - the winning hands was a pair of nines...

Now that was ten hours of fun with a decent win. At the end the table dryed down somewhat. I was the only one left from the beginning - all other seats had changed at least once durning that time. So I called it a night and cashed my poker comps. Thanks to the "unlimited" $1 per hour on the card I accumulated a nice $26 amount that went back to the Wynn at their coffee shop. Nice place and good food.

Usually you get a good game in the late night and early morning hours but at the Wynn this seems to be the toughest time of the day (at least now). Lot's of "sharks" that wait to get some money from the drunk and tired tourists. Saw the same faces again from yesterday. Late afternoon and early night is much better here.

Now I'm off to my last session in Vegas. Flying to Los Angeles to check out to Commerce and the Bike.

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Longest session so far

I'm really tired but I promised to write a daily entry if possible! Just came back from the Wynn and my longest session ever played. Started at 10:30pm and went until 6:15am the next morning. Wow, that was strange. How the type of players changes as the night is getting older and the day is dawning - amazing.
But a good place to practice. I realized that I started to play way too passive. I still get not much playable hands but I added some nice aggression to them - with surprisingly good results.
As I had another short (2h) session at the Wynn on afternoon I still stick to my opinion: the Wynn is the much nicer poker room. For me it's No. 1 before the MGM. Even with the cocktail waitresses that are still as confused as pretty.
The major downside: There's a lot of poker dealers from other casinos playing there. Not all of them are good players. But some are! So beware!

Earlier the day I played the Aladdin and the Orleans tournament again. Went better than the day before but still out of the money.
A short trip to PiYee-Press (bj21.com & ssb.com) completed my day. I picked up my copy of "Weighing the Odds in Hold'em Poker" (I wished I would have been able to read it before my trip) and met Chris Kelly (a really nice guy who is responsible for the bj21.com and ssb.com Websites).

Will go to bed now and hope a short nap is enough as I want to use as much as possible from the day that already had started.

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More bad beats and a nice meeting

Nothing special at the Aladdin tournament. At least not for me :-(
But it's a nice tournament and I play it again the next day. The poker room is nice too - but has tough competition with MGM and Wynn in the future.

After the tournament I went to the MGM again for a 4 hour session with several bad beats. Worst came at the last hand - making a flush with AKs that got beaten by a Full House on the River.

Back to the Aladdin for a meeting with one of the posters in Shadow's german forum (let's call him John Doe as I respect his wish for privacy). We went to the spice market buffet and had some nice conversation about poker and BJ. He's a real nice guy and we had a lot of fun. So we decided to go over to the Orleans for the 7pm tournament.
Wow - that is a big one. $45 Buy-in with unlimited re-buy for the first hour ($20). A total of 213 players made a price pool of over $17.000! (Paying more than $4.000 for first place down to $300 for 15th place).
Got some nice hands (and a big stake) to the break after the first hour. Decided to cool down after the break and play only premium hands. Guess - I got QQ a little later. Raised it - everyone folded and the button went all-in. As I had covered her but had to invest a decent amount of my stake (about 2/3) I thought about it but finally decided that you have to call this with 3rd best hand pre-flop. Unfortunatly I ran into the best hand - AA that improved to a set on the turn.
I never really recoverd form that bad beat. After the blinds went up fast I had to go all-in about half an hour later with AKs. Was a good spot as I got about five callers (3 of them all-in). A decent pot that provided a great position for the winner. Unfortunatly it wasn't me as my AK never improved and I was beaten by a set of 10's.
While I started to play the 4/8 game John Doe was still in the tournament and ended up in the money.

The 4/8 game at the Orleans is somewhat strange - the have 1/2 blinds and a half kill. I don't really like it. More worse: The poker room is big but really loud. Great tournament but not a nice place for cash games.

Going to bed - more to come tomorrow.

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Tough competition at Binion's

The Binion's tournament had 112 participants and I was out at 106th place :-((
This is a really tough tournament. A lot of tight rocks. I think they are beatable if you play them tight-aggressive (as they are way too passive) but for aggression you need at least some hands worth a raise. Unfortunatly all I got was things like 7,2o or 10,3o. And my best hands like A,K or 9,8s got cracked. Well...shit happens.

After that I checked out the MGM Poker Room (long walk from the garage). Nice room with a lot of space. Totaly different to the stylish Wynn room. Very modern. The marble edge of the tables looks nice but gives you a feeling of a small table. The room is well run. Only downside: they couldn't make me a players card due to some computer problems.
After about 15 minutes I got a seat at a 4/8 game. Full table most of the times. For a short period we played with only 5 players until the table filled up again. In that short-handed period they reduced the max rake from $4 to $2.
Went down about $150 in the beginning with no good hands at all but it got better in the second half and I was up $31 after 4 hours of play. Most remarkable hands: Holding A,J with a flop 10,Q,K. As I clearly had the nuts here I wanted to raise but was raised and re-raised by two others. This went on till the river. Obviously they held A,J too or they didn't knew what they were doing. At the end one had indeed A,J while the other guy read the board wrong and thought he had 4 Kings or so. So it still was a nice win after splitting the pot.
I made myself a big mistake throwing away a winning hand. We both had same two pairs but I realised too late that I had the better kicker. Uugh - good thing it was a small pot.
Another big win came with A,10 that improved to a Full House.

So which room is the better one - Wynn or MGM? It depends. Both are nice but completely different. If you like a modern room with lots of space the MGM is your choice. If you like it more stylish then of course it is the Wynn.
While I'm usually prefer the modern things I go with the stylish Wynn here. Just more atmosphere.

Regarding the players: The MGM has a lot of fish. This room attracts the typical tourist. I'm not sure about the Wynn right now. The competition may be a little tougher here...but time will tell.



While I'm writing this I'm sitting at the Starbucks at Fashion Show Mall adjacent to the Wynn Las Vegas. It will be a nice and sunny day. And I'm now off to my second tournament - at the Aladdin.

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First night's action

O.K., I'm finally here and got my first nice surprise: As I got my hotel stay comped due to my former BJ action I am staying at the Circus Circus for the first nights. I didn't excpect anything special, just hoped that it wasn't too horrible (I don't like Circus Circus - the casino).
But the hotel rooms in the West Tower are really nice. Nothing fancy but in good shape and very clean! I still don't like the casino(floor) and all those crying kids everywere. But from now on this place will be on my list if I'm searching for something cheap to stay in Vegas. And due to the Wynn this now became a good location ;-))

No tournament on the first night. Unfortunatly the Sahara tournament started at 7pm not 11pm. So I went directly to the Wynn...



...and this place is georgous! You have to see it!
It's like Bellagio and at the same time it's totally different. It's like Mirage but totaly different. You go through the casino and the hallways and feel at home if you know (and like) the former two but you realise that this is something special.
All that hype just for another casino? No, it's not just a casino - it's what he wanted to call it first: "Le Reve" (a dream).
The place was rocking on Saturday night and I expect it to be much nicer if the masses aren't there anymore in a few weeks. But all this has a price tag ... the restaurants - including the 24h coffee shop - are top priced (e.g. $12 for an omlette).
I like the mix of warm (red) colors and white sections (with a lot of marble). But I think the atmosphere of the buffet (which is in a white section) feels a little bit to "cold".

After strolling around a little I went back to the poker room - which was the first I saw in this place as it is directly at the entrance of the parking garage (very conveniently). And if you won big you may step into the Ferrari dealership next door ;-))



After a short 15 Minutes wait I got a seat at a 4/8 Hold'em game. Very mixed people. Some awful players but also some very decent. At my table played a Mirage day-shift manager with her boyfriend. Strange couple, she was a nice and decent player (but a little bit too chatty sometimes) and he was definitly drunk and a horrible poker player. His action slowed down the table - fortunatly they left sometime later (unfortunatly not before he manged to spill some of his Heinecken over the table).
BTW: dirty language is not allowed. The guy got a warning from the dealer that he must not use words like f* etc. or he has to leave the table. This hs Wynn house policy!

I saw Mason Malmuth from 2+2 but wasn't able to talk to him. Too bad David Negreanu wasn't there - I wish to meet him one day...

For the first four hours I didn't get any good cards at all. And those marginal playable hands got cracked very often. So I was down about $250 at one point. Then it started to get better. I saw my first QQ, AA, TT and things like that.
Unfortunatly my AA was cracked by a horrible flop: T,J,Q - and of course no other ace showed up and somebody held K,A :-((
After about 6 hours of play the table started to break. As it was 4am in the morning I called it a night - down $155.

They comp $1 per hour - with no daily cap!

In general: this room is great. As some stated before it is a little cramped (about 5 tables less would have been nice - spacewise) but the room is very stylish.
One downside on this night: After the shiftchange the cocktail waitress service was plain horrible. It took me three orders and 1 hour to get a simple coffee! Hope this gets better in the future!

So I went back to the hotel for a short 6 hour sleep.

Today I will try to sign up for the 2pm Tornament at the Binions. Not only because it is a tournament - but you have to have played at least one time at the place of the WSOP.

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Almost there (short stop in L.A.)

As you can see from my counter I am now on my way to Vegas.
Had a Non-Stop-Flight to Los Angeles with "Eskimo Airlines". Actually it was Lufthansa but the air inside was freezing. Well, 12 hours in that plane should be a good preparation for the casinos freezing air condition ;-))

While I'm writing this I'm sitting at Gate 5 of Southwest waiting for my connection to Las Vegas. If they are on time (usually they aren't) I should be in Vegas shortly after 6pm PST (3am MEZ).
After picking up my rental car and checking into my hotel I will try to sign-up for the 11pm Poker tournament at the Sahara and of course make a short visit to the Wynn (I can't wait to see it).

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