Bellagio poker room

It is absolutely amazing to me how one of the biggest poker rooms in vegas can be so absolutely awful. The Bellagio is the biggest room in Vegas sporting about 35 tables and is constantly sold out. They also sport the biggest games and the best action. However the room is crowded, the cocktail service is absymal, the waiting list is kept on a piece of paper (no electronic list), the paging system is a microphone which only works in the poker room, no comps, table felts are old and need repair. It is just absolutely amazing that a room of this nature is run this poorly... On the other hand their main competition the Wynn has nice electronic lists, you can get on from your room, you can get a pager and wander the casino (and therefore lose MORE money while waiting), best cocktail service in vegas, etc... So why play at the Bellagio? I will give you one reason, the players are AWFUL!

Most poker players are stuck up ego-maniacs. They won't play somewhere where they don't feel like they are the center of the universe. The Wynn makes them feel this way. The Bellagio does not. So what you get at the Bellagio are the players who don't know any better, while all the educated good players go to the Wynn. The Wynn games therefore are much tougher than the Bellagio games, so I suck it up, put my ego in my pocket and play the Bellagio.

On to some Poker. A nice 5 hour session at the Bellagio in 4/8 went very well. I felt I played almost as good as I could, 2 minor mistakes in 5 hours is an acceptable mistake rate. The cards weren't amazing, I only flopped 1 set in 5 hours, didn't really get any big draws in big pots. I did play the hands to their maximum value and my A's (twice) and K's (once) held up to avoid getting cracked. I ended the night up 430. I look back at the session and realize I didn't really get any extraordinary hands.. I just played the hands I was winning to the maximum and got out of the hands I was losing. Played hands in position where I knew where I was, and could control the pot... it was a masterful session if I do say so myself. I realized towards the end the table had NO idea how I was winning. One guy commented how lucky I was getting and how I always hit the flop (despite the fact I fold most hands after the flop), and another guy commented that I was playing so loose (despite the fact I played very few hands). I only raised premium hands and only showed down premium hands yet I would raise A's and get 7 callers. They would then fold on the flop just donating to the pot with no chance of winning.