Not sure if I should post this in the B&M pages, so feel free to move it if necessary...

I am a researcher by trade (work in the UM Psych Dept.), and was trying to write a thesis on the Affect of Social Influences on Bipolar Disorder (free plug if anyone wants to pick up the latest copy of Journal of Abnormal Psychology at their local supermarket), when I read a discussion page at BTP by Wildbill about his trips to Costa Rica... That got me thinking, since I had already planned a trip to Vegas, which of the destinations gave the average single male more bang for his buck, so to speak... I decided that, since little had been written on the subject, and my job is basically to investigate and explain new phenomena, that I should perhaps do some field research into which is truly the "Sin City"... Unfortunately, when I went for funding under some pretense of "investigative psychological study", my professors basically said, in not so many words "Your just looking for a way to have us pay for you to whore around, gamble, and drink yourself silly..." Well, what do you say to that, except "Bingo"...

Anyway, decided to freelance a little, as it was my buddy's birthday, and I had another couple vacation days scheduled shortly thereafter... I figure, if not now, when... And with that, I embark upon my mission into debauchery...

MVP

p.s. If this post isn't written very clearly, please excuse me as I still haven't really slept, and I'm postdating this entry (ie... I should have written this a week ago, and was just too lazy, so am actually writing it my first night in Vegas...)

4/24/05...

Arrived in Vegas yesterday, dying to hit the NL tables... After a 10 hour plane flight (boy did that blow) I arrived at 3am and found out my comped room wouldn't be ready till 8am... So, I stumbled around, tried to find TUP (unsuccessfullly), ate at some 24 hour burger joint (I think it's called Fatburger), and finally crashed at about 9am, pissed that i didn't get any poker in...

Woke up around noon (I don't sleep much), ready to take on the tables... As soon as I'm getting out of the shower, my friend calls, it's his birthday, and he wants to go to the freakin pool... I calmly try to explain that we live in Florida, and I can buy him a pool if he wants... I WANT TO PLAY POKER!!!!!!!!!!! Well, it was his birthday, and with the promise of a bunch of hot girls, I headed over to the Hard Rock (nice girls, crappy casino...). It started to rain, no pokerroom... a lot of "I told ya so's", and we were out...

Finally, I get to play some damn poker after losing my ass at Blackjack... I go on a tour of what seems like every casino, looking for a 1/2 NL game that didn't have a line around the block... Found it at Ballys...

So I buy in for $200 and take my seat... Immediately, I notice that more than half the table has me covered and then some, and I bought in for the max... I'm kinda gettin a little nervous (as I don't get to play live that much) as I sit down right next to some scummy guy who I was pretty sure after about the first hour was trying to see my hole cards (which was seriously pissing me off, but not enough to really do anything, cause he was REAL bad, and also had $400 in front of him, and I was just DYING to break him, flip over the cards, and say something like "You knew what I had, since you've been looking at my freakin cards all night... Now, gimme your money..."...

Anyway, I didn't play a hand for the first hour, just watched these SUPER-AGGRESSIVE LAGGY (whatever other adjective there is for people who don't just play, but raise any freaking hand in the world) players chase anything down to the river, ignore pot odds, bet sizes, basically every facet of poker... About a dozen times, the showdown would go something like 74 v. K2 on a AKQJ7 board... Whichever bonehead happened to stumble his way into winning, everyone would comment on how great a play it was... I sat there wondering how these guys got these big stacks... But, more than that, I was waiting for my chance to take it from them...

As far as BTPers go, I know I'm pretty much a bottom-of-the-ladder type of guy skill wise... But for this table, I felt like Stu Unger, Phil Ivey, and Dan Harrington all rolled into one (I would've added Sklansky, but it's 5am here, and i'm pretty sure I spelled his name wrong)...

After about an hour and a half, I get my first decent hand... in the BB... and, as amazing as it seemed, no one threw in the customary $15 PF raise... So, I got to see it cheap...

Flop ...

I'm first to act, and since I KNOW that whatever bet I put out is called, I bet about the pot, which I think was about $15, get 3 callers... Turn is a brick, I bet $50, get 3 callers... I'm pretty sure at least one of them is drawing, and the other two are probably playing something like K8 or Q6... River bricks, I bet $100, everyone folds... DAMN... boy did i want a call there... Still won about a $200+ pot...

About another 45 minutes or so later, i get the 2nd hand that I was involved in...

Dealt in the BB... After the compulsary $15 raise and 4 callers, I feel compelled to take a shot...

Flop ...

I bet out a 3/4 pot sized bet, about $45... I'm sure all the chasers and TPTK will stay in, but only 2 do...

Turn is a and I'm boated... I check, Initial raiser throws out $50 into like a $200 pot, scumbag sitting next to me calls, i call...

River is a ... Uhoh... unless someone had pocket 8s, someones gonna lose a LOT of money here... I'm pretty damned sure the initial raiser had a Q, and I'm positive he's DYING to bet, so I lead of for $10 into a $350 pot... he raises to a big whopping $25, scumbag calls... I looked at the raiser, and he was smilin, like he had me bent over the barrell... I guess I should've been afraid of quads, but it seemed like every time someone tripped, they WAY overbet the pot... So I'm thinkin Q... As soon as I push, he calls me and flips over Q8... It took the floor person to come over and explain to him that I had won the pot... I guess he thought his two three of a kinds were worth more than my boat... I felt a little bad for him, as he was one of the "better" players at the table... But, what the hell was he doing raising PF w/ Q8 anyway... It was kind of ironic, because he was the type of player that talked shit to all the other players at the table about their hand selections...

Everyone was congratulating me the same way they did when the boneheads were raising w/ 85o and hitting 2 5s on the flop... I really truly don't think they realized that I just sat there and was probably involved in 5 hands in 3 hours... They couldn't read me as a pretty tight player, and fed into me all night... anyway, I walked out up $580, which was, by far, my best night at a B&M... The only thing I was pissed about was that I didn't get to take the scumbag "peepers" stack... Before I left, though, he told me where he was playing tomorrow and told me to come by... I think I just might...

... to be continued...

p.s. To anyone who is still awake after reading all that crap, I'm sorry this post was so long

...sweet hands! Nothing like boat over boat, and you've got the bigger boat! Hope you can write a new thesis by the time you leave..." How I won $3000 to further research bipolar Lags and debauchery"

Got my fingers crossed now, as I walk slowly and hungoverly (I'm sure that's not a word, but I just woke up) back to Ballys...

Actually, I just got back home up $1400... WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO... I was gonna keep posting in the journal, but no one seemed particularly interested, combined w/ the fact I was getting back to the hotel @ 6am, and I'm lazy, equals I quit... I'll PM you some thoughts in the early stages of the Vegas V. CR, and I'm posting the good hands in the NL section (there's a real good one there now)... Maybe I'll start a thread after the CR experience is over, and I can put a grand comparison together...

Cool... glad to have an audience... I'm working a double at work Sat., and will write a pretty comprehensive idea of what happened... It was an interesting couple of days, and am looking forward to arriving at Pt. 2 and the "P" gauntlet...
MVP

You definitely have an audience. Keep us informed.

I read your journal too.

LOL King!

Ya'll watch out...this MVP is a dang magician and a shark...don't let him kid you.

Day 3...

RANT OF THE DAY....... WHAT IN THE HELL IS ANY MALE UNDER 40 DOING BRINGING A PREGNANT GIRLFRIEND TO VEGAS.......?????????????????????????????????? Boy, there's nothing that kills a good time like a woman in Vegas... Now, I don't wanna sound sexist, but I am, and boy did it suck... The whole freakin time I'm there, I can't go to a club, can't hit a strip club... can't talk to a "working girl" cause my buddy's girl is attached to him at the freakin hip the whole time... Even without the "not being able to hook up" angle, she still sucks... Example... He's a BIG TIME blackjack player (enough to get them to comp us a couple rooms...)... So, we're sitting at a table, me with my measly $10 on the table, him with $100+... A hand comes up where he happened to put $200 down, to which she was already crapping a green brick... He gets 2 sixes, dealer has a six... So, anyone who knows blackjack (which she obviously doesn't) knows to split the sixes, and basically try to get as much money in the hand as possible, because the dealer's six means that that's the most likely hand he'll bust with... So, he splits the 6s, gets a 3 on the first, and doubles down (now there's $600 on one bet) and gets a 4... Other hand he gets an 8 for 14... She starts screaming, right in front of everybody, for him to hit... she's shaking like shes having a convulsion, all pissed off, foaming at the mouth, screaming at the top of her lungs how stupid he is to stay on 14 and 13... We try to ignore her, as the dealer flips the under card for a 4, hits a J and gets 20 to win... That's why blackjack sucks, but he loves it...
So, at this point, she's screaming and flailing and foaming about how stupid he is and how they could've used that money for them to take a cruise to Alaska and yada yada yada... Nevermind the fact that, if he would've hit, he would've busted... She didn't care... She just wanted to bitch, and basically ruin my whole time, which she succeeded...

I forgot to write anything about poker...

Anyways, her annoying me aside, had my first so-so day playing... I think I ended up about $100 or so... not too bad, not as good as I was hoping...

One of the reasons for this was that it is often VERY hard to find a 1/2 game that holds up for more than just a little while... Played at the Aladdin for a couple hours, with a horrible blind stucture (1/2 NL w/ $100 max).... I looked for TUP, but still no luck... The table was about as tight as possible, I might UBER-tight... This one guy kept throwing out a $5 flop bet and making everyone fold... I was dying to checkraise him, but just couldn't pull anything... The only hand I actually played...

I'm in the BB w/ ... limped around to MP, who bumps it up to $5 (which is an INCREDIBLY weak bet for a live game)... So I call, about 5 others call...

Flop ... Dream flop for me... I check, it checks all the way around...

Turn ... keeps getting better for me... I still check, just dying for someone to bet... MP finally chimes in w/ a BIG $2 bet... everyone insta-folds... I raise him to $10... He looks me dead in the eyes, smiles, and says "This is a $2 hand, not a $10 hand"... Shows POCKET ACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To make it worse, the ace was the heart... After that, I figured it was time to get out, taking my $4 winnings with me... There's 100000000 LAG players in Vegas, and I'm sitting at a table w/ a friggin rock garden....

Went to the George Carlin show... I like him... He's not the funniest guy in the world, but he's really smart and his humor is usually pretty good... My review.... ehhh.... It was ALRIGHT, but VERY morbid... He did 45 minutes on how good suicide is, and how his favorite things in the world are natural disasters... Kind of disturbing, but he made a lot of it funny, and overall it was a pretty good experience...

Anyways, I'm sure no one gives 10 craps about my opinion on comedians, so let me get back to more poker...

Nothing all that exciting happened to me... I was DYING to get to play at the Mirage, but I couldn't get any cards... There was a guy there that I saw blow through about $1200 in about 15 minutes... he went allin like 5 hands in a row, lost 4... He was betting chips before the lady brought his new chips from the cashier... While sitting there, I saw the WORST live poker mistake I'd ever seen in my life... I wrote it in the NL section, but will copy it here cause it looks like I'm writing a lot...

2/5 NL at the Mirage... Everyone's playin loose as hell, throwing money around, betting $100 into a $15 pot...

EP, who showed me his cards cause I was sitting next to him, and I can basically talk anyone into showing me their cards, has 96d in LP, says "Gotta be willing to die to live" or whatever that famous poker quote was (I was a little drunk), and limps... BB raises to $15, MP calls, LP says "I'm already in, maybe it's my lucky day", and calls...

Flop K72, w/ 2 diamonds...

BB, who was pretty shortstacked (LP and MP have about $700, BB has $300), immediately goes all-in... MP thinks for a while then calls... my buddy here, let's call him "the loosest caller in the world", calls w/ his draw (which people were doing ALL day)...

Turn Qd... MP checks, TLCINW bets $50... MP raises allin, about another $300 or so... Now he's sitting on a 9 high flush, and I'm SCREAMING inside to fold... This guy SOOOOOOOOOOO obviously has the nut flush, or at the very least a J high flush, that it's hurting... MP isn't an especially good player, and there's NO way I see him bluffing this, especially if the guy folds, all the gets is a $50 sidepot and a heads up w/ BB for the big pot... TLCINW thinks for eternity, then FINALLY, with a little of my psychic assistance, folds his hand (he was a nice old guy and I didn't wanna see him lose all his chips in such a bad way...)

So, MP won the hand, he's smiling from ear to ear as he throws his cards into the muck... WAIT A MINUTE... WHAT ABOUT THE BB... MP forgot about the BB and folded to a fold... They called the floorperson over, but they weren't very sympathetic (even though you could obviously tell which cards were his in the muck - he had AJd)...

The BB shows his trip Ks, takes his ~$1000 pot, and leaves right after that hand, presumably to go buy some lottery tickets... That was the first time I'd ever seen a fold to a fold, and the 3rd best hand hold up...

Anyways, stayed there for a while, moved down to the 1/2, then all of a sudden it broke up around 3am, and I was too lazy to go hunting for another game... I played a little limit, which I can't generally stand, but manage to get 2 pretty good hands early on, and actually made about $150... No memorable hands, other than to say that boy are they crappy... My buddy didn't wanna play... So, I made the unfortunate mistake of going to the Blackjack tables...

So we walk over to the tables, and it turns out they're all that single deck kind, which, for some reason, I don't like... We walk and walk and finally find a handicapped BJ table, which was fine with us... So we're playing, just the 3 of us, and my partners stupid gf sits down next to us... All of a sudden, the pit boss comes over and says that she can't sit there because they're handicapped seats... We're like "dude, it's 4 am, there's no one in the casino, don't be a dick"... He wouldn't hear it... We offered to leave if 3 handicapped insomniac gamblers happened to stroll in, but he wouldn't budge... So, with a nice, cheery, "Fuck you very much...", we head over to find another table... Unfortunately, the other side of the casino didn't have any tables either, and I was damned if I was gonna crawl back to that table with my tail between my legs... So, I look behind me, and decide to play a game that I can only, looking back now, say seemed like a good idea due to a mix of lack of sleep and chugging beers earlier in the day... WAR...

If none of you guys has ever played War in the casino, just feel like the best of it, and leave... Man, I lost all my hard earned Limit profits of about $150 in about 15 hands....

Oh well... to summarize, had an okay day, didn't get laid (damn his girlfriend...), with one day left to go...

I don't wanna bias my very objective analysis, but the cockblocking (are we allowed to say that on this forum?) his damned gf is doing is SERIOUSLY weighing my opinion toward Costa Rica, and I haven't even gotten there yet... I'll try to stay objective as I write my last Vegas review...