Good luck man. I completely envy you right now. Who knows, maybe this journal could turn into a good book and then a movie one day.

This one is infinitely better than Xas'...read it all.

Living Iceman's Dream...

I can't say I've played great since I've come to Vegas. I've played 3 sessions. (Don't worry the hours will start to pileup now that I've moved in.) I've had 2 losers and 1 winner which equals to about even. I'm playing 2/5 NL to start. I hope to work my bankroll up quickly and jump up stakes in 3 months. We'll see. I'm not worried about it.

I'm out of practice. Before I left for Vegas I hadn't played regularly for about two months. The whole internet poker debacle had me down emotionally as well on immediate cash. It took me two months to get my money off of Prima. Sick.

I had a fun and interesting journey on the drive to Vegas. All of that will be posted on my personal journal later tonight. (www.xanga.com/kennyg9)

Anyway, on to poker.

I stayed two nights with MVP (Adam) at his place right outside of the strip. There was much drunken debauchery, though somewhat surprisingly, no paigow. I donked around with him the first night at Caesar's 1/3NL just to get back in the flow.

I managed to lose half my stack with a 9-2 offsuit. Regardless of the play after the flop, I think we know where the mistake was! I'd blame Adam but he has enough woes to worry about.

The second night was at the Wynn 2/5 NL game which was incredibly insane. A cool Russian guy was pwning me as well as the rest of the table. He was terrible. Loose-passive and willing to call enormous raises, he just kept getting lucky.

IE:

I raise [Kc] in late position. He calls in the blind behind a few other callers.

FLOP [5c][3s]

He actually leads out into me like $100. I decide just to call figuring either I have him crushed or he has me crushed. I wanted more information for the turn.

TURN [5c][3s]

He checks. I decide he is weak. But I know he'll call a lot of money with a pocket pair. I bet $300 leaving me with around $200. He calls.

RIVER [5c][3s]

He pushes the last $200. I tank but can't get myself to fold in this huge pot. I call with a sigh and he shows A3 for the river trips. I mucked.

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Here's an example of how ridiculously stupid the table was:

Theres a decent sized raise preflop and a bunch of callers.

FLOP [Qs][9s]

Preflop raiser with an enormous stack bets like $100. Next guy goes all in for $500. Russian dude calls. Preflop raiser calls. So there's more than $1500 in the pot.

TURN [Qs][9s]

Preflop raiser bets $500. Russian dude calls.

RIVER [Qs][9s]

Preflop raiser pushes for like $2500 which is about equal to Russian guy's stack. Russian guy thinks FOREVER and after 5 mins folds A9 for trips, top kicker.

Preflop raiser shows KT for the straight and the other guy that moved all in on the flop mucks.

the VERY NEXT HAND:

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Russian guy is on tilt. He makes it $50 to go. He gets like 5 callers including the big stack guy that just won.

FLOP $($250)

It checks to the russian guy who bets around $200. The SB (the guy with the huge stack that won the last hand) check raises to $500. Adam whispers in my ear with this sexy, smooth voice, "He's got a set praying the russian dude will push. The russian dude has jacks! jacks! "

The Russian pauses and thinks for about 3-4 minutes. He looks around, weighing his options. He has the look of steam... he knows he should fold but he doesn't want to. He just wants to go all-in and bust this bastard. He just can't convince himself to lay the hand down. He just wants to see it to the end.

Adam whispers "Jacks, He's gonna push with jacks!"

Finally the Russian gives in and says with outstretched arms and a heavy accent, " I'm all-in." The super stack SB calls instantly and flips over his set of 3's. Adam says, "HA! I knew it. Now flip over the jacks russian!"

The Russian looks at the set of 3's with no emotion... the turn card is about to be dealt.... and flips over pocket 9's. Top set. The whole table went into an uproar! Everyone was completely fooled.

Adam and I agreed we would have bet our entire bankrolls with the set of 3's. The Russian's acting job was superb! Seriously, he deserved an oscar. It probably wouldn't have mattered either way... but wow. It was awesome.

I actually saw the Russian two days later again at the Wynn. He told me he made 2 grand that previous session and hadn't played since. He didn't understand English too well. I told him I was up this session finally and he seemed genuinely happy for me. I wished him a fun vacation and shook his hand. He's a bad player and he took me for around a grand that night, but I think the money was worth witnessing that spectacular hand.. Maybe I'll be better suited to audition for some roles after his gripping performance. "Jacks." ha. Jacks indeed.

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My next session was also at the Wynn.

I had a guy talking shit to me. It's the first time. I don't talk too often at the table. Sometimes I'll strike up conversation with people next to me and ask them where they're from.

I don't enjoy chatting about hands at the table. I don't want to give away that I know what I'm doing. I don't want opposing players to consider how to play hands. I want them to drink and have fun.

He started talking shit after he laid down pocket kings to me preflop.

I raised to $20 from UTG w/ [Kh]. He reraised to $70. A loose calling station called from the button. I decided to reraise again. The reraiser looked strong.. he was looking at the chips from the corner of his eyes. However, I couldn't let the loose player come in. He could hold any two cards and was getting decent odds with a pocket pair. I made it $220 (something around that.)

$70 reraiser eventually folds "pocket kings." I believe him because he kept saying it throughout the night. The loose player folded after two minutes. I was happy with the results and mucked.
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I tangled with the loud mouth again:

I limp 75o in a multiway pot.

FLOP [5s][Qs] 6 handed.

Checked around to me. I check.

TURN [5s][Qs]

Checked around to me. I throw in $20. Guy to my right (not involved in the hand) says to me, "Obviously a what-the-fuck bet." It actually was kind of obvious. It goes back to the loud mouth moron. He makes it $70. It folds back to me.

I tank. "What's taking you this long son." I decided I had the best hand. 3rd level thinking I believe. He knew I had shit, but I knew that he knew I had shit. hehehe. I probably should have reraised but anyway, I just called.

RIVER [5s][Qs]

He checks. I knew he was weak. Just in case he had a broken two pair, I bet $100. He folded after fake thought.

After the hand the whole table started talking about me as if I couldn't hear them. Loud mouth says, "He obviously had KQ." Another replies, " But wouldn't he bet the flop?" "The businessman chimes in, "He likes to slowplay, probably a set." It went on for a good 5 minutes. I chuckled inside.

Beyond that hand, I just won some small pots with good cards for the most part. I took a two outer bad beat to end the session though. I got it all in with KK against 77 on a dry flop. He rivered a 7. I laughed it off and a got a couple of comments on how I took it so well. I left a few minutes later to go pick up Adam and create more havoc in the wee hours.... but that's another story altogether.

dood, i've diagnosed bipolar disorder to one of my uncles. Can I read the thing you wrote?