Road Trip!

Mad and I spent last night in Las Vegas. We stayed at Palace Station, a little ways off the strip, but just about the best hotel you could ever get for $45. Plus, who cares about being off the strip when you have a brand new car to take you to the strip!? Anyways, we went first to Mandalay Bay where we dined at House of Blues, then I dabbled in craps as Mad looked on. I was up and down and up and down until finally an obnoxious guy came over and bet on the darkside, and then it was all down, $210.

We drove down the block to the New York New York and rode the roller coaster, which was a blast. Afterwards, we proceeded to the Venetian where I played $1/$2 for about an hour, lost $128, biggest pot I lost was with KQo in sb. A player in EMP, with whom I'd already had one confrontation of which I was the victor, raised to $10, two players called including the button, I called, and the four of us saw the flop: K64 rainbow. I went into check/call mode, $20 on the flop, $30 on the turn (7s adding the flush draw) and $50 on the river (offsuit J), the other two players quit after PFR's first bet. I did feel that I was likely beat as I can't beat much other than a bluff, especially since if he did have KJ he was now ahead. However, considering we had one confrontation already and I figured him to be an aggressive player, I thought I was strong enough to look him up. My biggest mistake in the hand was probably the preflop call, but I think my subsequent play was fine/standard. He turned over two Aces and dragged the pot.

I followed those two stellar performances up with a speedy exit in the 12:30am nightly $150 tourney at Harrah's, right nextdoor. I was literally plugging my ears to block out the middle aged drunk hicks at my table, only reminding me why online poker>live poker. I suppose I got a litte impatient, but again I was confident about my edge on my opponents, so after playing it tight for a while, I got a little frisky with my QhJs in MP, limping in after two others. The button limped and we saw the flop: J84 all hearts! When four players checked to me, I fired out 300, the button flatted, the first limper flatted, and we saw the turn, which I was planning on checking almost regardless of what it was. Unfortunately, it was the Qc, giving me now two pair and a decent heart draw. The button had been solid, but for whatever reason I couldn't give him credit for having slowplayed. I fired out 1000 and he raised all in for 1400 more. I never plan on making a Hellmuth-esque fold in this spot, but I wonder how loose his range really is here? It obviously didn't feel good, and it felt a lot worse when he turned over KThh, leaving me 4 outs, none of which decided to make an appearance on the river. I hung around as a shortstack until finally my A4 fell to 33.

Not a very lucky night in Vegas, but I had fun!

In the morning, we got on the road and made it to Salt Lake City around 8:30, where Mad had contacted a co-worker from ARCC who had been generous enough to offer us a place to stay. We got to see a fair bit of the city, got a bite to eat, and now are resting up before finishing up the drive tomorrow.