Las Vegas Poker!

I spent the morning finishing up business and packing before heading to LAX for my US Air hop. Everything went pretty smooth, except the Vegas shuttle driver. Of course, since I was in the property closest to the airport I was the last to drop off. Go figure. Next time I’ll just taxi. Anyway, I checked into the Excalibur on a great rate, partially comped in one of the remodeled, wide-screen rooms.

After taking some time to get settled in, Seymour and I headed downstairs to the Excalibur Poker Room. As written elsewhere on this site, this is simply an area in the middle of the casino, although this one did have a hip wall with glass above to separate out the worst of the noise and smoke. Two 1-2NL games going and I get immediately into a game. This Tuesday evening there are no tourists, just a bunch of local regular players, many of whom I remember from past LV trips. They are not especially good, but no one is incredibly bad either, with only one player, two seats to my right, that I would consider dangerous. The trouble is, I get lots of drawing hands that never get anywhere. I have never had a run of so many suited connectors and one-gappers that I can remember. Nothing gets there, and my buy-in melts slowly away. I reload to keep enough bullets but the drain continues. Finally, I blow a big pot when I bluff with air against an old man holding TPTK on a very scary board. The bleeding continues and I begin to get frustrated. After three hours I cash out over $300 down. Even with the regulars, it is an extremely beatable game, I think. I just didn’t get the cards or situations to get it done.

I grab a bite at Baja Fresh on the casino floor of the Excal– two fish tacos – not great, but make me feel a little better. It is still fairly early, so I decide to move my game over to the MGM. They were just opening a 2-5NL game so I happily buy-in for $500. Most buy in for about $300, although one Young Asian Guy (YAG) sits down two seats to my right with about $600. Second hand there are two callers and I look down at AhKh. I raise to $20 (I know, a little low) and get three callers. Flop is J35 all hearts. BINGO! YAG bets AI ($600 into a $$60 pot). With the nuts, I call with him having me covered, hoping he doesn’t have a set. Turn is another heart, so my A high flush still seems the best. Another 5 hits. Sure enough, he shows 35offsuit. And I am down $500 on two hands. Immediately I am on tilt and make the good decision to go for a long walk.

I wander to Aria and check out City Center. It is impressive and expensive on some level, but on another level it reminds me of the “futuristic” cities I used to see on the cheap SciFi movies of the 1960s and 1970s. It just doesn’t seem to have a soul to me, like NYNY or Venetian or Bellagio or even the Wynn does. We shall see. I peaked into the poker room.

Ended back in my room about 1am, still grumpy from the poker results for the day. Still, I am well up overall for the trip. In part II, I’ll have to see if I can forget the bad and work on the positives. Tomorrow I plan to hit the MGM again, with possibilities of more time at Excalibur, before doing more poker at Venetian and maybe Mirage.