Vegas, Sept 18-21, Part 1

Rather last-minute, but my new lady friend Melissa(yes, in the romantic sense) was working a job in Las Vegas, and we've reached a point where it was totally unspoken that of course, I would join her.

Let the poker commence!

The first night we met up with some of her friends that happened to be in town at Caesar's.  We ate at Trevi in the Canal Shoppes, quite good, then made our way to Fizz for some cocktails, where I think we were both propositioned and invited to a swingers party.  But I digress....

I woke up a bit later than I wanted, but the afternoon was fairly free until Melissa was done, so I headed over to the new Caesar's room that I have yet to see. We were staying at Bally's, but I hate the low ceilings in that room, so I would not be going there.  This was a bit of a frustrating first session, where I re-learned the '1/2 player betting te river probably has it' rule, being bested with a two pair a7 from my AK.  After a bit of up and down I left $32 down at $168.  We ventured over to the Venetian where we met her friends again, all USC fans, to watch the game at LaGasse's.  I have no investment in this game, so I bowed out and headed to a place where I haven't had much success historically, but I wanted to blow that hex out - at the Venetian's snooty poker house.

Within four hands I was dealt the dreaded pocket Kings. I was in the hand with a fellow who was talking to the man to his left - the man to hs left, we've all had this guy before ---"Oh yes, I stone bubbled the Collossus/Jonathan Little and I had coffee/I normally dont play these limits..." you know what I mean.  The other guy was foreign from the accent I couldn't place, but he had Beats headphones and obviously fancied himself quite the player as he inserted comments with this fellow about all the wonderful WSOP stories he had. Trying to contain the vomit in my mouth from all this banter, I raised three limpers to $15.  One caller across the table, as well as Foreign guy.  WSOP talker, out of the hand, took his typical Im-oh-so-serious-im going-to-look-for-your-tells pose.

The flop is a relatively harmless J58, with two hearts, and I have the heart K.  Foreign guy leads out for 25.   Hm.  I quickly make it $70.  He asks how much that is, thinks for a second and calls.  Turn is a brick, and he pushes out $50.  I shove it.  He tanks, then folds.  A tidy sum that broight me up north of $300.

The demise of foreign guy came about 20 minutes later, when I check my option in the BB with j9 off. The flop came k8T, two hearts.  I check, foreign guy bets out 15 I believe, and I call.  The turn is another heart, I dont recall what, but it was low.  Now Foreign guy bets out 25.  If he has teo baby hearts, good for him, but I didn't read him there.  He limped - then donk bet again like he did before. He hadnt played many hands since KK so I had little concept of his range, but I thought KT might be likely.  I've still got the up and down draw, so I call.  The river is a beautiful 7, masking my straight perfectly.  He bets out 60, and I start the talk.

Me: "Can you beat a straight"
Me: "You don't have hearts."
Me:  " I mean, I have the straight.."
FG: "It does not matter."

That's all I needed. I raise him double, he calls, and mucks. He later said he had pocket 8's, but I doubt it. He left soon after.  I'm now around $450.  I think I flopped a set somewhere in there and won a small pot, and was north of $500 when I made what I thought was a major error.  A very beautiful African-American girl sat down - she seemed to know what she was doing, but in the few hands I saw, she seemed pretty straight forward.
I have black AKos and call her $8 bet(I dont tend to 3bet AK in Vegas).  Flop comes A63, two hearts.  She checks, I bet $17, she calls. The turn comes a heart K.  So, now I have two pair, and she bets out $35 bet.

Me: "Hearts?"
Her: smile
Me" "You have Hearts."
Her:" You can pay and find out!"

Hm.  I smelled a rat, so I said "This is what I'm folding." and showed.  She asked if I really want to know what she had, and she turned over black deuce 5. Why is she raising that?  Maybe she was 25 or something, but she bluffed me off successfully.

I left with $467 from $200, the voodoo successfully expunged from that room.  The next post will involve exorcising another demon at Flamingo....

edgie

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