i just got back from vegas yesterday, mostly for a bachelor party for cooper, a friend of mine from my old summer camp. i had only hung out with him a handful of times since we stopped going to camp in 1999, and i didn't know most of the other guys , but it was 10 guys getting drunk in vegas, so of course it was awesome. i went out a day early and stayed a day later to play poker, and since i'm a poker nerd and this is a poker blog, i'll get to some poker.

my flight left boston at 7 AM on thursday. i'm staying up past 4:00 pretty regularly on nights that me and amanda (the poker tutee / lady friend) don't spend the night together, so i didn't see any reason to go to bed before my flight. i was expecting to be totally exhausted when i hit the ground, but i slept pretty solidly on the plane and felt fine when i got to vegas.

the first day went pretty well. i played 1/2 NL at binion's, flopped some pretty good hands and hit some draws. i mostly won medium-sized pots with them though, and didn't get paid off on the river. this turned out to be a bit of a theme of the trip, and i felt like i wasn't making enough when the cards we're falling my way. i went to bed as soon as my room was available and got up the morning well rested.

the next day i played 2/5 NL on the strip. it was all going pretty well until one unfortunate hand. (for the non-poker nerd set, you can skim or skip down to the ***).

i opened for 20 in EP with AcKd and got called by four people, including both blinds (this is not that rare).

flop (5 players, $95 after $4 rake and at least $1 tip): Ah Kc 5c

checked to me, i bet $80, folded to the BB who calls, saying "what the heck, i'll gamble with you."

turn (2 players, $255): Ah Kc 5c Td

BB checks. i have about $340 left. if i had been paying a bit more attention to exact stack sizes, i would've bet $100 on the flop to leave myself with an easier push on the turn if i got one caller, but i didn't and left myself with a sort of awkward stack size. i decided to bet $200 and hope he didn't realize that a call with a hand like Ax would leave him totally committed on the river.

he says, "i'm on a flush draw," hems and haws for a minute, and calls.

river (2 players, $655): Ah Kc 5c Td 3c

ugh, the flush draw gets there. he pushes for my last $140 saying "i hit my flush draw. i'll show if you fold." i'm pretty confident at this point that he's telling the truth about both, but i call anyway. i dunno if i should've called but my weekend would've been ruined if i had folded and he had showed AQ or something. he had Tc 8c for a flush draw on the flop and a pair + flush draw on the turn.

i left a few hands later when it was my turn for the big blind, annoyed with how it had turned out. i was wondering if i should've just pushed the turn given what his hand was. here's the math...

i'm trying to decide whether to push for $340 or to bet $200 on the turn and push the rest on the river. there are 44 cards left in the deck on the turn. 8 are clubs (i have one).

assume first that i bet 200 instead of pushing, and i lose the rest of my stack even on the worst clubs, the Qc and Jc (because they put straight draws on the board). i also lose my stack on either of the two remaining tens. so 10 times i lose $340 = -$3400

31 cards are blanks, and i win the $255 pre-turn pot plus $200 more on the turn. assume that he doesn't do anything stupid like bluff into me for my last $140 or call a push with just a pair of tens (i'd be surprised if he did). 31 times i win $455 = +$14105

3 times he hits two pair and he pays off a river push. 3 times i win $595 = $1785.

in total the expected win for betting $200 on the turn is then $12490 / 44 = $284

now assume that i push the turn. if he folds 100%, i win the $255 in the pot. if he calls 100%, then he wins 10 / 44 times and i lose $340 and i win 34 / 44 and i win $595. the total is a win of $382. i won't bore you with the arithmatic, but that means if he calls with Tc8c 19% of the time then i'm better off pushing the turn. will he call that often? i dunno, probably not, but i'm not sure. in any event, my line wasn't a disaster against his particular hand, Tc 8c. against AQ/AJ i think that the installment plan is better, against AT it's better to push now and not let a Q or J hit, against a set or QJ i'm screwed no matter what.

*** (end of hardcore poker nerdery)

that day left me down a few hundred, which was kind of annoying. i was hoping to be able to tell the bachelor party group that i had already paid for my flight already with poker, or at least that i was even but it didn't happen.

i played a little uneventful poker once everyone else showed up, which i hadn't really been counting on. but cooper plays some and a few times he asked me if i wanted to play, and i was happy to take him up on it.

i played in a small tournament at the aladin at 2 AM. another good friend from camp, tom, had also registered to play in the tournament and paid the entrance fee. when you register you get a little card that tells you what seat you're in. tom was pretty exhausted/drunk and would have been quite the wreck if he had played, so i walked with him to try to unregister and get his money back. i was pretty skeptical that it was going to work, but the guy was super accomodating and gave tom his money back even though he had lost his card. it's nice that behavior that would be embarassing and would cause a scene is taken in stride in vegas.

after everybody left i still had most of two days left on my own. my last day in vegas was by far the best poker-wise. i played 1/2 at binion's and won over a thousand dollars, moving me from down a few hundred to up a nice chunk of change.

but i want to end on a positive note, so i'll come back to that at the end. first, there's the tale of three assholes.

asshole #1: i was in binion's, waiting for a seat to open up, and standing up and watching a game. the 50ish guy who's sitting at the table in front of me finishes his bottled beer, or "finishes" it, and puts it down on the floor with an inch of beer left in it. obviously a dubious individual already. a few minutes later he kicks it over and it spills on my foot (i'm wearing flip-flops). we have the following nonsensical exchange:

me: hey man, you just spilled beer on my foot
a#1: it's your fault for putting it there
me: it's your beer
a#1 [as if i'm an idiot]: that's my empty

it was such a stupid response that i couldn't even talk to him any more.

asshole #2: this guy was definitely more of an asshole. i was playing blackjack with three or four other guys in the bachelor party, and the dealer was a chatty guy, seemed friendly. he was talking about guys who he had dealt to, and said he had dealt to a Haissadic Jew, and made a comment to the effect of "and he tipped as bad as you'd expect."

for those who don't know me in real life, my father is jewish and i look pretty jewish. my nose is, as they say, "not small."

i just picked up my stuff and left immediately. i decided that wasn't enough of a response and i walked back past his table a minute or two later, leaned over the table, and gave him the finger.

it reminded me of a great story my mom told me about my dad. she was at some kind of wedding or something in new orleans with my dad, talking with some southern blue blood types, the kinds of people she grown up with. one was describing the downtimes of a family and said "one sister had an abortion and the other married a Jew." my dad, who looks obviously jewish, said, "well after the Jew, the abortion doesn't look like a big deal." they got the message. i wasn't as clever as my dad was, but i'm alright with my response. i would've been really mad with myself if i had kept my mouth shut or just slinked away.

asshole #3: i'm playing 1/2 NL at binion's. if you don't have one or two $1 chips to post your blind with exact change, it's standard to post a $5 chip and the dealer will give you change. in one hand a 40ish woman is in the big blind ($2), and there's a 30ish man in the small blind ($1). a few players limp in, and the dealer tosses the small blind $4 in change and starts to deal the flop. the big blind objects, "where's my change? i put out a 5."

there's some bickering, the dealer pretty clearly doesn't believe her (and the arithmatic of the pot means there is basically no way she could be right). eventually the floor manager comes over and gives her a few dollars (leaving the pot $1 short, but no one cares enough to slow down the action and tell the floor manager). i assumed that the woman was obnoxious and mistaken, but it turned out she does this habitually. an off-duty dealer sat down next to me and when she came up in conversation, i started to mention that she had a dispute with a dealer earlier, and he said, "lemme guess, she said that she put out a $5 chip for a blind and demanded change. she tried to pull that on me a few days ago when i was dealing and i know she had $1 chips because i had just given her change the hand before." haha, what a loser. it was the first time i've ever seen someone cheating in a casino.

and i don't know if this really qualifies as an "asshole" story, but i thought it was pretty lame and i want to put it in before i got to the good last day. i was playing 1/2 NL in binion's again, and i thought i saw a card that the dealer gave to the guy next to, and i said so.

dealer: what was it?
me: you want me to say it out loud?
dealer: yeah
me: four of diamonds

she looks at the card and says, "nope," and the hand continues. it turned out he had the three of diamonds. if i were him, i'd be pretty pissed. the table now knows that he does not have the four of diamonds, and that he probably has a card that looks kind of like it. i thought it was a pretty terrible ruling.

ok, finally to the good last day. i've been writing this for way too long, so i'm going to try to write quickly. this was the first day that i really took to heart the lesson from earlier - that a lot of people were folding for biggish bets on later streets - and tried to apply it. i still haven't had the guts to raise preflop and bet the flop, turn, and river with air (i think it would be pretty profitable, and i've read that it is in sklansky and miller's NL book), but i took some nice shots at people.

3 hands with one guy:

1: i raise KK utg, 2 callers. everyone checks the ATx flop. BB bets 10 into 30 on the turn and only i call. he bets 25 into 50 on a blank river and says earnestly "i have it." i fold and he shows TT for a set.

2: 6 limpers including the SB (same guy from the KK hand) to me and i check 97 in the BB. flop is T86 with two clubs (i don't have a club). i bet 15 into 14 and get 3 callers. turn is the ugly Jc, and SB leads out for 30 into 75, and i call and the others fold. river is a blank and SB leads for 100 into 135 and i call. either i'm remembering a detail wrong or i calculated the pot wrong at the time, because i thought it was more like 100 into 165, but in any event i call and he shows me Ac Qc for the nuts.

he tells me after the hand, again seeming very believable "i don't really get crafty. if i'm betting i pretty much have the nuts." there's another hand where he made a small flush on the turn and then called two very small bets on the turn and river to lose to a higher flush, and says, "i should have known he had it when he bet again. first mistake i've made all day." (his actual mistake was not raising).

3: on limper in MP, button (same guy) raises to 10, i call in the SB with Th 9h and the limper folds. i check on a flop of Ad Jd 8c, button bets 15 into 24, and i call. turn is blank, and i'm sitting there for a second waiting for him to do something, because i forgot i'm acting first. he says, "you want to check, i'll check with you." i take him up on his offer and we both check. the river is a small diamond and i'm annoyed at first that i missed my straight, but then realize this is the easiest bluff ever. i bet 50 for an approximately pot-sized bluff, and he instantly folds AK face up.

he goes pretty quickly from being very friendly before the hand to being kind of an asshole, asking angrily why i called the flop when i didn't have odds. at first i tried to keep up appearances that i had a flush (i thought i might get a free card on the turn, i had a gutshot to go with my flush draw) but then when he got more annoying i told him i had T9. haha, loser.

i picked up some other pots with bluffs and semi-bluffs. on one hand i raised Ks 9s in MP and got called by the button and the SB. we all checked the Qc 7c 3d flop, and the SB led the turn when the Jc hit. this guy had been super aggressive, and i put in a decent sized raise. he folded AQ face up, which i was very surprised by.

here's one of the rare hands where i was firing multiple barrels, and it wound up working out (because i suck out good).

i raise Ks 3s to 10 in LP and only the button and BB call. i bet flop for 30 on a Js 9s 7d board and only the button calls. i bet the turn for 60 on a Js 9s 7d 8h board and the button raises 110 more. ugh. there's 180 in the pot now and i have to call 110 more, so it's a bit more than half-pot. i decide that the odds are very high that he has a T to make that raise (which is a huge raise for this game) and almost never the nut flush draw (unless it's As Ts) and that he'll probably vomit and call off his last 200 or so if i make the flush, plus i have a few chop outs with a T, so i call. the river is a beautiful 3s, i push, he tanks and calls, and he shows T6o.

one weird trend i've noticed with live poker is that people have an odd idea about how pot odds work. often if 5 or 6 people limp and then someone raises, either all of them will call or none will. once the first person has called, the next person thinks (and sometimes says out loud), "now my pot odds look juicy, so i'll call," and this effect is stronger as the raise goes around the table getting called. it's like people don't realize that the enticing extra money in the pot is balanced out by the fact that now to win the pot you have to beat 5 people instead of 1. this is not a big problem for a hand like 55 that tends to flop monsters or flop nothing, but for a hand like KJo it's a major problem because the odds of your one pair winning go down dramatically.

i think there's also a mentality of not wanting to be singled out. if you're the only person calling a preflop raise, then it's all up to you to beat the preflop raiser. if a lot of people do, then you're all working together to bring him down.

well, this is a good bit longer that i expected, and there is very little in the way of organization, but hey, that's the internet. in conclusion: las vegas is fun.