Back In the Game...

8/30/08

Back In The Game...

Another buddy of mine, R.V. (no permission to use his name),
came down with some of friends to Vegas on Wednesday.
Like I always say, Vegas is indeed the center of the
universe. You just tell anybody in the world to meet you
in front of PURE at Caesar's in Las Vegas, and they know
what you are talking about.

Anyway, R.V. and his boys are here for one of their friends
Bachelor Party. They were also here to do their annual
fantasy football draft. What a good plan, a new excuse
to head out to L.V., nice...

I knew that he liked to play poker, so it was a good
reason for me to enjoy a "work day" with one my friends.

The first tournament we hit up, is one of my favorites.
The Caesar's 12 pm tourney for $135.00. We traded
25% of each other's action, meaning that if we made
the money, we would give each other 25% of our gross
winnings to each other. I usually do that with friends
of mine before the tournament, kind of like a friendly
insurance and better chance to cash. It was uneventful
though as we both busted out before the money spots.
At least I lasted longer than him in the tournament.
I hope you read this R.V., I want to twist the knife
deeper in your back, lol...Oh, this was last Thursday.

Later that day we hit up the $65.00 NLHE tourney at
Paris. As I may have said before, I do not really
like playing these tourneys as you don't start off with
that many chips and the blind levels are pretty quick.
You started with $2,000.00 in chips and blind levels
changed every 15 minutes. You have to play pretty fast.
To make a long story short, I made it to the money,
placing 3rd out of 31 players. Not a bad result, but
not much money - $243.00, but gave $13.00 to tip the
dealers, $65.00 to my buddy (gave a little bit more
than 25%, but I felt it was better to give him back
his complete buy in).

Today we played the 12 pm NLHE tournament at the
Venetian. That was the first time I played any
poker there, since I've moved over here. It is a
good format, very similar to the Caesar's tournament
that runs at the same time, Sundays to Thursdays.
The buy in total is $150.00. One of his other
friends from SD came into town and played in it
also. He seems to be a very good poker player
as well. We all decided to trade 10% to each other,
if any of us made the money.

One of the hands, I would like to discuss is where
I hit the ultimate nuts (meaning the best hand ever).
It was just before the end of the 3rd level of blinds
at $100/200. R.V. was sitting in the #2 seat to my
left. He raised to $600.00, under the gun. He got
5 additional callers, which put the pot at $3,200.00.
I had an additional $400.00 to call into that pot.
I peeled up King/Jack of Hearts. I had an 8 to 1
call, you pretty much call with anything. I had about
$3,100.00 left in chips at that point. I decided to
call and see the flop. So now the pot had $3,600.00
total. The flop comes out Queen of Hearts, Ace of
Hearts and Deuce of Clubs. I flopped a big draw, a
Royal Straight Flush draw to be exact. I paused for
a minute and thought about what I wanted to do.
I was shortstacked at that point, so I decided to go
all in. If I get a call and win the hand, I would
more than double up. Hopefully R.V. doesn't call me.
I decided to go all in. R.V. is next to act and he
thinks pretty hard to see what he wants to do. After
his contemplation he calls my all in (he still had
about another $4,500.00 left). All the other players
fold. I flip up my cards and he flips up his as
well. R.V. had Ace/King OS for top pair with King
kicker, he's in the lead. The dealer then puts out
the turn card, Bingo! a Ten of Hearts - I actually
hit the ultimate nuts, a Royal Flush! Wow! I've never
had one of those (I have straight flushes before, but
not that). I apologized to him, but I wish someone
else called. I can't blame him, he couldn't lay his
hand down, with the lead on the flop. The river card
was meaningless, he would not be able to redraw for
a better hand. Sorry R.V., I had to do what I had to
do.

I made it to the last 5 tables (181 players started,
we had about 45 to 48 players left at that point).
I had a good amount of chips, $24,000.00, but blinds
were kicked up to $800/1,600 with $100 antes.
The hand that started the downhill slide, was where
I raised it to $4,100.00 in the cutoff seat, with
Ace/Nine of Clubs. Everybody folded and the big
blind player called. About $9,800 was in the pot.
The flop came out Ace/Deuce/Three OS. The big blind
player thought for a minute and pushed all in for
$7,900.00. I thought for a moment and I didn't think
he had top pair beat. I had a pair of Aces with
a Nine kicker. That should be the best hand. If
he had a premium Ace (with a kicker of at least
a Ten, Jack, Queen or King), he would have most
likely reraised me preflop. If he hit a set, I
think he would have slowplayed it. After my
contemplation, I decided to call. I made the
right one, he tabled just a pair of Fours. He
had outs though, he could still win with another
Four for a Set or hit a Five for the Straight.
That would be a total of 6 outs, with two cards
to go. The turn was dealt another Deuce. But
of course the river rolled out a Five. Poker
is sick sometimes, but that's what makes it
exciting.

I could not recover this late in the tournament
and finally busted 39 out of 181. They were only
paying the top 18, so no money again.

Good thing we all traded percentages, because
R.V.'s boy made it to the final table and
was the chip leader. The final 5 player
decided to chop the rest of the pot, but
R.V.'s buddy got the most as he held a
3 to 2 chip lead against the rest of the
players. He made out with $4,000.00. He
then in turn gave me and R.V. our $400.00
each, for the ten percent trade.

Not bad, it's always good to be on the positive
side of things. Shouda' traded for 15%, lol,
that would have been Six Hunny, hehe. But, I'm
more than happy to be back in the game...