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.