Vegas Trip Report: Day 4

Sunday

2:15pm-10pm: Paul and I played a session at the same time for the first time since the Phish concerts began on Thusday. We were at different tables though. When I sat down at the table it was like that scene in Rounders. I had played late night poker with a majority of the players at the table. It was cool because I knew how they played but it was also bad because I knew some of them were pretty good and since I was looking to take some loose money, I knew this was going to be a little more challenging considering all of us were vying for the same fish. I was in store for an interesting session, one I will never forget. I call it the "Mel Judah chip and a chair rally". Mel Judah won this WPT event severely short stacked and beat Paul Phillips for the title. Mel had a nice run and overcame some huge obstacles. I had the same experience but I think my run was slightly more impressive since I was playing a low limit game. You guessed it . . $2-6 at the Excalibur.

I was getting bad beat after bad beat all day long. Even some Brett hull look-a-like beat me like a dog. What made losing to this guy more painful was that he was too lazy or just too cool to stack his chips. He just left them in a pile in front of him. "Why did I even get up in the morning?" was my thought. I was beginning to doubt my play and my mental game was starting to suffer. I couldn't get that pocket 55 hand I lost a few days earlier out of my mind because that hand caused me to go on tilt. Should I quit and walk away? Am I that degenerate gambler I was talking about? As the days went by, people were starting to ask me if i was a local. Oh no! Did they think I was the loser or the good player? Ouch.

I don't want to know. I've met so many cool people and cool dealers. I've met some bad dealers and some retards but this trip was supposed to be fun and exciting. I wasn't only there to win money, was I? You bet!! I said fuck it. With $2 left from my $100 buy in, I decided to go for broke and not take the advise of the guy to my left. He said I should take my $2 and cash it in and play the Wheel of Fortune slot machine. Maybe I could be like J-Lo's mom and hit it big. I said thanks for the advice but no thanks. What was more embarrassing? Losing all your chips at the table or going back to the cashier and cashing in only $2? I chose the stay and fight route. Well that was the smartest and guttiest move of my trip because I stormed back after a ton of all ins and I looked down at one point and had $135. How about that. $100 down to $2 and back up to $135. I was a proud and shocked at the same time. Wow, what a rush.

My run was crazy. My first all in hand with a whopping $2 was pocket KK. I've never gotten as many pocket KK as I had all week, getting them left and right. I also got AK a lot too. but on many occasions both hands got cracked. I stopped raising preflop with AKo because I lost every time. AK sucks in low limit games. They always lose. Even though my pocket KK were getting cracked, I was still confident. My last $2 couldn't go into a better hand. I won and doubled up to $4. Yeah baby!! Pocket Jacks were my next hand and I flopped a set and doubled up again. 3rd hand iIgot JJ again and flopped a full house. I doubled up once again. This happened many more times until my stack was once again huge. Everyone at the table was shocked. They didn't know what to say. Every time I bet or raised, they immediately folded. Move over Mel, I was back in the game! My only regret was that I didn't rebuy in when i dropped down to $2. It was meant to be this way and I couldn't have thought of a more fun way to go from rock bottom to sky high. Sometimes it's better to forget about what would've or could've been and just enjoy the moment. Now's the right time to walk away and get some dinner. Paul and I played longer than we wanted. The chip and a chair run consumed the both of us tonight. Quizno's anyone??? I was real hungry. IMwas never more happy. my confidence came back as quickly as it left. Thank goodness for that b/c I wasn't ready to walk away from poker.

Midnight-2:30am: After eating at Quizno's we decided to play some more. I was so tight after my earlier play that I ended up folded 5 or 6 winners preflop and postflop. Oh well. They weren't good hands but they would've been winners. No worries. That happens quite often. If you play those medium hands, you'll lose more than you'll win but unfortunately you remember the ones you would've won more than the good folds that would've lost. That's poker for you. I had several flushes outkicked in this session but left up over $100. I had a huge stack of $1 chips. Woo hoo. Too bad they weren't $100 chips! The weird thing about this session was that one of the Excalibur dealers was sitting next to me playing. Her name was Patty and was half Chinese and half Thai. She had been talking to me all week but I never won any hands when she dealt to my table. Last night I had asked her where she played poker and she said the Bellagio, the Orleans, and the Palms. I asked about the Excalibur. She made a face and said she never plays here. Well what do we have here? Miss Patty is sitting right next to me playing at the place she never plays at. She claimed this was her first time. All the dealers agreed with her. They were shocked. She was playing very poorly. She was making me laugh all night and brought me tons of luck. I won so many monster hands with boats and A high flushes it wasn't funny. everytime Patty the dealer played a hand and called a raise, she would shout out in her Corona induced stupor and say, "I'm going fishing!" She was hilarious. Patty would disappear from time to time. She would announce to the table that she was going to the bathroom to cry since she lost her hand. She was joking of course. the funny thing is though . . everytime I went to the bathroom, I would see her playing video poker or slot machines. Patty was crazy for sure. She takes breaks from the poker table to play video poker and $1 slot machines. Too funny. She won more money in the slots than the poker table. It was a hilarious and fun night. I won money. I was on a run. Binion's WSoP satellite tourney on Monday for sure!!!!