Shuffle up and Deal - And the Bellagio Conservancy is Aquarium Delight!

Shuffle up and deal! The WSOP at the Rio is off with event #1 (Casino Employees). Las Vegas itself is getting flooded with rich poker players, pro poker players real and imagined (in their own minds) and others who just want to scratch the big poker tournaments off their bucket lists. My first foray will be Saturday when I will be one of tens of thousands playing the Colossus tourney. The first half of the field kicks off Friday morning.

Along with the tournaments, the cash games around town get soooooo good. My normal games are 1/2 or 1/3NL with occasional forays into 2/5NL. Come WSOP time I stay in 2/5NL pretty consistently and sometimes foray into 5/10NL if the game looks good and my bankroll allows.

Poker Action - The Orleans

My wife wanted to see a movie at the Orleans, so while she watched her film I spent a couple of hours at the Orleans Poker Room, The Orleans I believe has the largest off strip poker room, and is quite busy, especially with Limit Hold'em and especially Omaha. I love playing Omaha, and I love the tournament structures, but I have had terrible luck at the Orleans.

This session didn't change anything. I caught few cards. I had few situations to make plays in position. Three times when I did wake up to hands I ran into AA each time. Yeah - bad mojo the whole way. I was happy just to get out of there having only lost $200.

The Summer Conservancy at the Bellagio

One of my favorite free spots in Vegas is the Conservancy at the Bellagio. This is a large area just off the main hotel lobby where the staff does major decorations depending on the time of the seasons and year. This week they broke out their Summer, and I loved it as it basically made it like you were inside an aquarium, complete with seahorses, jellyfish, bottom-of-the-briny-deep-treasure and a smirked sea tortoise. See the pictures:

Poker Action - Bellagio

Bobby's Room was closed but the rest of the room was rocking as serious and pro poker players were hitting town for the WSOP. I grabbed a seat at a 2/5NL game and fun began almost immediately. There were two larger stacks in seat 2 and 3 in the $2000 range. Everybody else ranged from about the max buy in of $500 to $200. In one of my first hands I raised to $25 from the button with Ad9d with Seat 1 ($500) and Seat 4 ($200) calling. The flop comes T high with two diamonds. Seat 1 bets about $40 and after Seat 3 mucks I re raise to $100 and Seat 1 calls. A blank on the Turn is followed by a check from Seat 1. I bet $180 and Seat 1 goes all in.

At this point I know I am beaten. However I do have the draw to the nut flush. Plus at this point I am in for $310, $190 remaining to call for a possible $1000+ pot so at 5-1 odds I am stuck. I call. The river pops a diamond. I show my nut flush. Seat 1 shows his TT for flopped set and goes freaking nuts.

I am an idiot, a donkey, how can I call that raise with just a draw. Don't go away because he is going to get my entire stack and every dollar I have in the ATM.

I nod and agree with him, which makes him dig even deeper into his wallet to rebuy.

Life is soooooooo good.

He eventually rebuys twice more, once leaving for about half an hour, a twenty dollar bill left at his seat to hold it, while he tracks down more money somewhere. He mocks me a couple of times when I reluctantly fold on the river when I knew I was beat.

"That King of Diamonds isn't so good now, is it?"

(I actually had a pair of Aces but it was clear from the action a single pair was dead).

Meanwhile he continues to spew chips. There are four others at the table who I generally stay out of the way unless I have a good hand. They are low-level pros or solid regulars. But there is a rotating cast of 3-4 weak players including my Seat 1 Spewer and I leave four hours later with four racks of red chips.

As I rack up to leave Seat 1 comes up and apologizes for his earlier action. He normally doesn't do that sort of thing.

"It didn't bother me guy," I say. "We're good."

And as I cash my chips I am very good. How I love the cash games around WSOP time!

Playing Against a WSOP Bracelet Winner

Memorial Day is fun in Las Vegas. We are hours away from the start of the 2015 World Series of Poker and the big names are starting to come out of the woodwork. I sat for a few hours at the Bellagio Poker Room playing 1/3NL.

The Big Game was going on in Bobby's Room. I don't know everybody who was playing at the table but I did recognize Doyle Brunson, still taking his place with the high rollers at the fresh young age of  82.

Then while I was squeezing cards and stacking chips I suddenly realized that non other than Barry Johnston was sitting at our table.

Barry is a dignified man who won the 1986 WSOP Main Event as well as a total of five WSOP Gold Bracelets.

Oh, and he is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.

 He bet, I called. Flop came blanks. He bet, I called, hoping against hope. Blank Turn came, he bet and I folded so fast I might have sprained my wrist. It is tough when you have to play 1/3NL against WSOP champions, but that is Vegas sometimes.

After about 20 hands he got up and went to a table with bigger stakes.

Yeah, it's that time of the year.

As for me it was a wierd session. When I first sat down there was one tourist from France in the 4 seat with about $1300 in chips in front of him. The rest of the table had less than $300 and most were buying in for only $100. In fact I had the second biggest stack with my $300 buyin.

A wild ride began as I was getting big cards and getting smacked the bad way. My pocket pair QQ lost to an All In 55 when he hit a set on the flop. Thank God he only had about $80. A couple of  hands later my KK ran into AA - again, short stack limited the damage. In just a bit I was down about - $150 and considering rebuying.

But then AA held up for a decent pot. Then my own 55 struck set gold and I raked a good sized pot. Then my evil side kicked in and I raised on the button with 72 - off suit of course. The flop was 228 and I dragged another good pot from two others playing - K high?????? Uff da!

The games then began.

In the end I had to go pick a friend up, otherwise I would have stayed longer. Five hours and up about $450, I'll take that.

Wednesday is the start of the WSOP. I can't wait!

THE SUPER AWESOME BELLAGIO CASH

Wow, just wow. I don't get too up or down on what my results are when I play poker, but cashing three racks of chips will make everybody feel good.

In my last post at the Venetian I talked about how I was fortunate to be a solid winner during a 1-2NL game when I literally did not make a single hand.  It was boring, hard work, but I'll take a small win anytime.

Wednesday I decided to take a break from the Venetian and headed over to the Bellagio to play some of their 1-3NL. I am soooooo glad I did.

I suppose I should mention that at one time I really hated the Bellagio poker room. Hate, true loathing. This was in the 2002-2004 time range when the staff was snooty and the low limit players were stacked like sardines on incredibly crowded tables. Since then the Bellagio has upgraded their room, took out some tables so now they are comfortably spaced. The staff is much better, although drink service can still be glacially slow. It is just a much better place.

It also has a lot more monied and aggressive players than the Venetian tends to have, and the Bellagio tends to have some more knowledgeable players even at the low limits than those that go elsewhere.

Boy I landed in it. At a 1/3NL table with a $100-$300 buy in I had one guy to my right sitting on a stack of $800(BSR). To my left was another guy with around $700 (BSL). Across the table was an Asian guy. At first glance he didn't seem to have much, until I realized one of his stacks were all green ($25) chips and he had several black ($100) chips.

The cards started flying and the chips did too. Where at the Venetian the average opening raise tended to be about $8-$10, Here at the Bellagio this table was opening with $17-$25.

I buckled up for a wild ride. It was a good thing, because while the day before the poker Gods refused to help me, now they were throwing the deck at me.

In the first half hour I made a boat, two sets and a flush, taken chips from the Asian Guy and BSR and I had ballooned my stack to almost $700. I got a bit cocky then and pushed into some bad positions, giving back chips until I was down to around $500. I then won a couple small pots and was feeling better, when the hand of the night hit.

A squeaky green tourist (SGT) had about $250 raised $20 from MP. On the Button I looked at 86 offsuit (killer of champions) and called simply because of my position. BSL also called and I was actually worried about him. Here came the flop...

862 rainbow.

BSL checked and SGT bet $25. I called as did BSL, which worried me more. The Turn was a J, BSL checked and SGT bet $35. I raised to $70. BSL called and SGT went all in for about $110 more. I thought a quick minute. I was sure by this time that SGT had a big over pair, AA or KK. BSL was my problem because he could have a set and was happily letting us bet the pot up, but he could also be on some kind of straight draw or two pair.

RULE #3 When in doubt raise and let the other guy make the decision under pressure.

So I re-raised all in, which just about matched what BSL had at about the time. Yeah - sounds stupid, going all in with only 2-pair 8/6, but at that point my gut told me I was ahead and I didn't want BSL to get lucky.

BSL took a long time to decide and I was immediately happy. I was sure if he had a made hand like a set of Jacks he would have quickly called.

Eventually he called. The River was a Q, which worried me a moment. I showed my 86 for 2-pair. SGT showed the dreaded AA and BSL showed 82off (?????) for a smaller 2-pair. I stacked both and dragged about a $1300 pot. The rest of the players murmuring for a good half hour about a winner of that size of a pot with only 86 off.

One lady was mumbling about a later hand in play when she nodded to me...

"And who knows what this guy is playing..."

The sweet spot.

My run continued, the deck slapping me silly. When I hit $1600 I was getting hungry and a bit tired so I decided not to press any more. Not bad for a $300 buy in.

And by the way, I REALLY LOVE the Bellagio now.