Blast from the Past

It has been one heck of a busy week with Estie visiting from Atlanta from Tuesday to Sunday I had to get as much class in on Monday and Tuesday as I could. Class is going well if a bit boring now as all we do is sit around and play poker, take turns dealing different games, making mistakes and learning from them. I am about ready to find 8 people to play poker for 4-5 hours while I deal and get in the ryhtym of the rake and the game at the same time. The rake is really the only thing holding me back from being finished now.

Estie got in Tuesday night, and wednesday morning we headed over to the South Coast for the tournament. When I first started playing poker all the various concepts were very new to me, and I had a hard enough time figuring out what the right play was in any given situation... I had no time to pay attention to vibes, feelings, instinct, etc. Now I have gotten to the point where those decisions have become second nature and I can relax more... Unfortunately I find myself NOT paying attention to my instincts and getting into trouble. That happened again on Wednesday morning's tournament as I limped in from early position with 8/9 suited. As I was thinking of entering the pot I noticed the guy across the table fingering his chips. He was short stacked and I got the feeling he was going to push all-in. This was not a hand I wanted to play all-in, I wanted to hit or miss a flop and get away from it. Instead of listening to my feelings though I called anyways, he did push all-in, another guy called and I had to call getting the right price. The flop hit me marginally and I called off the rest of my chips getting the right price again and was out. I got stuck in a pot I should never have been in because I didn't pay attention to what the other players were doing, and didn't listen to the signals when they were there.

Wednesday night we headed over to the MGM where I played marginally well making a lot of mistakes and trying to hard several times. I finished up 114 but nothing remarkable to talk about... never got any high pairs or AK so it was good to survive that day.

Thursday we went and visited the new Red Rock Casino that opened on Tuesday night at midnight. They were having $2 movie day and showing older movies, so we went and saw The Family Stone. What a great movie that was... I really enjoyed it. The original plan for Thursday night was to go see a show... but all the good shows were sold out so we decided not to go to one and played at the MGM again. A solid day of poker and nothing impressive to tell put me up 187. It seems the more I play the more often I don't hit any hands, any draws, any major pots, and walk out with more money than I came in with. There is something to be said for playing it close to the vest....

Friday we hit the early South Coast tournament again and again I made a major mistake. The most important thing to determine before bluffing is WILL your opponent FOLD. I failed to read that properly and even though I read that he WANTED to fold (which he said later he did), he was not GOING to fold ever... I ended up pushing all in with Q high and he called with pocket Aces. An afternoon nap and then off to downtown and the Fremont Street Experience. The 7 PM rebuy tournament at the Plaza was pretty decent getting 30 people and 27 rebuys, a couple of coin flips later and I was out... I walked into a huge pot with top pair top kicker against a set. I just reacted without thinking and crippled myself. After getting knocked out of the tourney that Estie was still in I played a few hours of face up double deck... A good run saw me up 900 and made getting knocked out of the tournament early OK! Estie went out 8th but they only paid top 4.

Saturday I slept in for awhile before heading over to the Venetian to play. The Venetian was a tough game that got a little crazy at times, but in general a solid group of players. I struggled without any cards or any flops and managed to finish up 91. About 9 PM we went to eat at a mexican restaurante upstairs... Wow was that nice. It was right on the Gondala River running through the Venetian where they do the gondala rides. So we got to eat under the "stars" by the river with Gondalas going down the river singing to their patrons in Italian. It was amazing.. and the food was good as well!

Sunday was Estie's last day so we went down to the Wynn to play out the string. So far this week I had gotten horrible cards, missed most flops, draws weren't coming in, no sets flopping, etc. It was a miracle I was up at all... All that turned around at the wynn as the draws came in and huge pots came my way. I hit quads early on which really set the tone, made the right calls on a few hands which came in, and a huge draw on a nut flush against a made straight and suddenly I was up 300 and the table was backing down to me. Unfortunately I got a little big headed and ran off 130 of that trying to "ride the wave" before hitting a few hands at the end of the day and running up to +418 for a nice 6 hour session.

In the middle of that day we went over to the Wynn Buffet as I had two free buffet comps there, and WOW was that a good buffet. Some amazing creamed mushrooms, buttered carrots, salmon, awesome prime rib... just great! I would definately recommend it again!