The Joker in Vegas

[Big Club]

Excellent work Joe! Best of luck for day 2!

[ian.ski309]

Loving the updates Joe, VWP so far and best of luck for Day 2.

[Des]

Best of luck later today Joe.

[Quasar]

Great updates Joe, thank you. GL to you and us  

[Joker161]

Woke up at 4.15am. Really? How is so hard to sleep? The bed is fine and I was playing poker all day and didn"t get to sleep until 12.30am. Got the tennis on at 5am then breakfast at 7am. Cracking Federer match! Murray was into his third set when I had to leave for Day 2.

My new table has a combination of very large and quite small stacks. A round of blinds go through me then I steal on the button. The bloke to my immediate left says he folded AQ he was so desperate to make the money! The two biggest stacks get involved in a massive pot. Raise, button reraiser, 4-bet and call. Flop 932. Bet, button raises, all-in and call! Something like 400k in there. Raiser has aces, button had J9! Another set of blinds goes through me so I decide I need to steal once a round. I raise MP with A7. The BB puts me all-in and I fold. The very next hand I get 99 and raise. I"ve now only got 45k behind. The bloke who reraised me last hand looks like he"s going to do it again, but calls, the BB, the loose player from yesterday, raises to 25k (I made it 10k; it"s 500/2k/4k). I have a good think. I probably can fold, but I know this bloke could easily be trying it on. So I go all-in, SB folds and BB has AA. Nooooo!

[Joker161]

While this is going on, it turns out that four players went out at the same time on various tables. Two on the same table, so the shorter stack is 56th, and the other three, including me, share 53rd, 54th and 55th place, so we share two prizes. So I end up with $1,356 for a massive profit of $256! I wish I knew all these exits we"re going on. I could have folded the nines and be on $2,033. Annoying. I seem to have a real problem with the early second days of tournaments. On the rare occasion it happens in APAT events I nearly always get too rash and go out too early. Something to work on. As always, the biggest gutter is not being involved anymore. After the first three levels today the blinds go up to one hour. That would have been fun!

I"m off to watch Wales now.

[Des]

Congrats on the cash!  Good start, Joe.

[Joker161]

After the match I get some lunch then get a taxi to the Rio to buy in for tomorrow. Nothing"s changed there, although I think the viewing area around the final table is not so good. I get the first shuttle back to the Strip that arrives so I end up at Bally"s and sit down at a $1/$2 cash table. It"s quite a fun table with lots of chat. Second hand I get AQ UTG and raise to $7, but of course at these tables that"s barely any more than a call. You need to make it $10 or $12 to get them thinking. So I get three callers. Flop is A62. I check, the loudest bloke bets $20 and I call. Heads up. His wife is sitting beside him looking very unhappy. I sense she funds his losses. Anyway, the turn is a king. He"s going to keep betting, so I check, he bets and I call. The river is queen. Check, bet and I raise. He says "you got trips?". I"m sure he"s going to fold, and then he calls showing some rubbish like K3! Amazing. I"m $100 up already! He tuns to his wife and asks for some money...

The very next hand I get QQ in the BB. Lots of calls, then the old bloke on the button raises to $12, I raise to $32. It gets folded round to the raiser who goes all-in for $130. Hmm. I fold face up and he shows AA. The very next hand in the SB it"s called round so I call another dollar with K3. Flop is KQ8. I check and there"s a $10 bet from loose bloke, another call and I call. Probably an error. Turn is an eight. Check, bet of $20 call and I raise to $50. Clearly a mistake because they both go all-in. I obviously fold. Loose bloke has KQ and the other one an eight. All the profit gone! Lesson - don"t get lairy just because I play for another couple of hours but nothing of note and end up $17 down.

I walk back to the hotel feeling a bit rough. I think I"ve got a cold coming on. I have a lie down and don"t really get out of bed the rest of the day. Now watching the tennis the next day!

[Joker161]

Thursday 7th July

Reflecting on the 99 hand yesterday, that was such a bad decision. I should have left the A7 alone, raised with the 99 then it would have been easier to fold, but even so, I should have found a fold there, I hate going out when I"m doing the calling rather than doing the forcing. Anyway, it"s the WSOP event today. All very exciting! Breaks every two hours so I"ll keep you posted.

[Curlarge]

Good luck today matey

[Fatcatstu]

Great updates mate, all the best today!

[Joker161]

Just before leaving for the Rio, three things. (1) I saw the smelly man again yesterday at the Venetian. His hair seemed less greasy so perhaps he had had a shower. Wasn"t close enough to test the smell factor. (2) for those of you that have been to Vegas and have been in one of those standard hotel rooms with the shower head fixed to the wall, why is it assumed that all human beings are 5" 8" or smaller? Mildly annoying. (3) I was in the "Essentials" store at the Mirage this morning (where everything is at least double the price of Walgreens) and saw that they were selling ex-casino floor decks of cards for 99 cents a pack, plus they were two-for-one! Blimey! These cards are probably £10 a pack new! I run a poker club at school and need decent cards so I bought ten packs. Might get some more. In relative terms, is this the biggest bargain ever to be seen in a Vegas casino?

[Joker161]

So only five of us at the table for 11am. One bloke raises the first four hands and we all fold. He raises the fifth, gets called down and shows J7 for a pair of sevens. He almost got the bloke to fold, but he still out half his stack. I had 32s and would have hit the flush. There are other hands where I fold rubbish and would have hit big, but I keep folding. Half an hour in I get KK in the SB. The loose bloke raises, as usual, to 150. I make it 425 and he makes it 1325! I call and stare at him and without looking at the flop reach for chips and bet 1100. He tank/folds. I showed the KK and he looked surprised. I wonder what **** he had. Nothing else to report in Level 1. The odd steal, but nothing went wrong. On just over 6k.

[Joker161]

Level 2. The loose player is now down to less than 1000. A new player raises and he goes all-in. Another player raises to 2100. The new player folds JJ and the loose player has TT vs QQ. Ten on the river. Good that the loose player still has chips! I get KK and everyone folds. Half way into the level I raise UTG with KQs. Loose, but the table is loose so I give it a go. Three callers! Flop is J95. I bet (possible error?) and get one caller. Turn in another nine and gives me the flush draw. Check/check, so a free card. River a brick. He goes all-in and I fold. Back down to 5k. Hmm. Calm down. New bloke to my left raises, the loose bloke goes all-in for 2k, new bloke calls with AJ! Loose bloke has AQ, but there"s a jack on the flop. Shame the loose bloke"s gone, but his first half hour was appalling. Two more small hands. I get KT on the button, there"s a call, I raise and it gets through. Then I raise with AJ in LP, two callers, the flop is 655, I bet and they both fold. I"m on 5,500 at the end of the level. By the way, a ripple of applause when the French score. Need to keep an eye on that too.

[Joker161]

Level 3. 25/75/150. A bit early for the antes. The bloke next to me reckons we"ll be cashing by the end of today. Ten minutes in I raise UTG with 98s (bit lairy). Nice Australian bloke to my left calls and the rest fold. Queen high flop. I bet, he folds saying he had AK. Handy. By the way, the stack to my immediate right is a dead stack and already down to 3,500. What if he/she doesn"t turn up? Free chips for the rest of us though! Literally as I type this the TD comes over and takes the chips away. Apparently after two levels if the player hasn"t turned up he/she gets a refund and the chips come off the table. Shame. I make a loose steal raise with 86s and get reraised. I fold. So the next hand I obviously don"t raise my KJ and the flop is AQT. Obviously. 30 minutes into the level I get AQs UTG, I raise and get two callers. King high flop, I bet and they both fold. Phew! A normal flop bet in these situations is a fifth of your stack and we are only on level 3! Up to 6,200. 45 minutes in the Calling Station to my right calls again to I raise on the button with A7. BB calls as does the station. Flop is 764. BB bets out 750. The station folds and I have a think. Does he had a set? I decide to get lairy and raise to 2k. He thinks for a bit and folds saying he had an overpair. I said "nines?" And he nods. He says "tens?" Station says "no, he had aces." I said "not aces, but better than nines." We move on and I"m on 8,200. Two hands later the bloke I beat gets it all-in with the Station with AK on a A85 board and the station has 55. He leaves muttering "I should have pushed all-in on the previous hand." Got away with that, then! Towards the end of the level, there"s a rubbish 350 raise, the SB calls and I am in the BB with 32. I was so close to calling because of the price, but was sensible and folded. Flop A32! The other two get to the river and the winning hand is AT. One of those...