I’ve finally played poker in Vegas. Yeah! Sin City, gambling capital of the world, etc etc. There’s something about all that glitz and glamour that just makes it different from playing anywhere else in the world. Check out some of the scenes I managed to capture on cam.
The thing about playing in Vegas though, is the sheer variety of players you meet. People from all over the world, like Israel, Greece and Belgium, just to name a few, and all with different play styles and ideas. There was this one hand I was playing against this chap from France. He was on his fourth buy-in, but managed to rebuild his stack somewhat.
I held Ac3c with a very deep stack (almost $900; yes, it was a good day!), and was sitting 2 seats behind him on the cut-off, playing $1/$2 NL on a full ring table. Thus far, I was only showing down winning hands, and the table image that I had was very strong. As is typical in a low stakes cash game, players were generally loose, and there were a lot of limpers to see the flop. This particular hand was no exception. Five players limped in before me, and I raised to $20, a very significant raise that forced all but two initial limpers to fold their hands.
The flop came 8h4c2h, giving me a gutshot, a backdoor flush draw and one over card. Action was checked to me and I made a bet of $35. First to act folded, and the French guy called, which meant that he hit the flop somehow. There was insufficient information to put him on any kind of hand since he has typically been a loose and passive player. The turn came a 4d, and he checked once more. I bet $50 and he flat calls once again. At this point, I put him on a hearts flush draw and resolved to fire a third bullet if the river comes a blank and he checks. The river puts a 9c on the board which was the blank I was looking for. He checks yet again and I bet $120. He started hemming and hawing, moving his chips, rechecking his cards, and that really made me rethink his hand. He finally says, “alright, I’ll pay you off”, and pushes in the $120. I flip over my Ace, and he shows… 72o.
The table went crazy. I bet none of you readers were expecting that huh? Amazing call. Thing about showing down these kind of hands though is that it pretty much gives you implied odds for your monster hand 3-barrel bets in all future hands on that table. I made all that money back 4 hands later with a nut straight, and cashed out after another 2 hours with almost 12x my initial buy-in. Happy times!
Three days of poker in L.A and Vegas, with a healthy profit calls for some form of celebration. What better than the Rio Seafood buffet!
Hope you guys enjoyed this peek into playing at Vegas. Till next time, may your 3-barrel bluffs never get called!
Post a Comment