Tag: Cash Games

Going Cold at Caesars Palace

Nick Momrik2 Comments

As mentioned before, I was in Las Vegas on Friday night and early Saturday morning on a layover coming back from San Francisco. One of my college friends picked us up at the airport and gave us a ride over to Caesars Palace. We checked our bags and headed for the poker room.

The Caesars Palace poker room is definitely one of the nicest rooms I’ve played in. Dave and I were seated at a 3-6 limit table in the back corner of the room behind a divider wall. This kind of sucked because cocktail service tended to forget we were there. It also seemed to be a prime spot for the air conditioner to blow on us all night. I’ve never been so cold in a casino in my life and I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt the whole time.

There’s really not a whole lot to say about my play at the table. I didn’t get many playable hands. On the hands I could play I usually missed the flop. If I’d hit top pair, either all scare cards would come on the turn and river or someone would suck out on me with their 3-4 out draw. After awhile I started to play hands I know I shouldn’t have played. We played from about midnight until 5:30 in the morning when our table was the last 3-6 limit game and we lost our 5th player. I ended up losing $96 on the night.

We walked around the casino a bit and had breakfast in a cafe by the reservation desks. Took a taxi and got back to the airport about 3 hours early for our flight. I’m not sure why we didn’t try and get on an earlier flight by standby, but that’s a whole other story.

Quick Las Vegas Visit Planned

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Each year I attend the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, CA. On the flight home, we try and schedule a long layover in Las Vegas, NV. This year is no different. I’ll be landing in Vegas on Friday, January 18th at 10:16pm and flying out on Saturday, January 19th at 9:25am. The past two years we’ve played low limit hold’em at the MGM, but I think we are going to try Caesar’s this year. We’re looking for a card room that will stay relatively busy during the time we’ll be playing, so if you have other suggestions, let me know.

I think the last time I played poker was last year on the Vegas layover. My game is going to be a little rusty!

Review: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King

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The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All TimeInside the Richest Poker Game of All Time

I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf since Christmas, when I received it as a gift. A few weeks ago I finally got around to reading it and finished it last week. It ranks right up near the top with some of the other poker related books I’ve read.

Before starting on the book I knew the general idea of what the book was about, but I really had no idea the events discussed in the book happened so recently. The “Richest Poker Game” was just before and around the time of Chris Moneymaker’s famous World Series of Poker win.

For those not familiar with everything, “The Professor” in the title refers to poker pro Howard Lederer, “The Banker” refers to Andy Beal, and “The Suicide King” is the King of Hearts because of his sword stabbing his own head. The “Richest Poker Game” was a limit hold’em heads-up match between Andy Beal and a group of poker professionals. The game was played at limits up to $100,000/$200,000, so swings of millions of dollars were not unusual.

Michael Craig did a great job telling the story by piecing together information from many different sources about the game. It’s really an insightful read into the high stakes poker world. I’d easily give it an A.

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 4

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First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 1

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 2

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 3

Monday, July 3, 2006

I think I woke up around 9:30 or 10am. Grabbed some overpriced drugs from the hotel and headed to the pool. Start off with a large Bailey’s Irish Cream and coffee. After about 2 hours I head back to the room, shower, and nap for over an hour. I’m definitely coming down with something and coughing up a storm. Off to the poker room. Open seat at $4/8 so I take it. Juicy game but as has been the case the entire trip, I can’t get any cards. Plan was to meet the girls at 5:30 and head over to the Rio, but I can’t leave this game. They go, I stay.

I call pots I know I’ve lost. Donk away chips. Table turns to a full kill. I pick up Big Slick UTG on the first kill pot and raise. One caller in late position. On the Ace-high flop she says she wants to check it down, but I’m not having any part of that. I bet the entire way and she calls me down with Ace-Ten. Wow, I finally won a big pot!

Video Poker Straight FlushTalk to Jere at some point and plan is to meet him downtown at 8. I catch a cab and he’s waiting for the bus somewhere. Forgot to warn him the bus sucks. I grab the 99 cent shrimp cocktail at Golden Gate again. Sit at a nickle video poker machine and I get dealt a King-high straight flush. Jere arrives and I cash out. A full bucket of nickles spit out. Old school machine. $27 and change for a $7 profit.

We putz around since they’ve never been to Fremont Street and end up eating at a buffet somewhere for about $13. I’m the least hungry, but eat the most. I’m sick and need some energy. Five of us jump in a cab back to Excalibur and they all head off to bed by midnight since they have a wedding the next day. I head back to the poker room and play more $4/8. Lose more and head back to the room around 2:30 sick as a dog.

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 5

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 6

First Trip to Las Vegas: Final Thoughts

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 2

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First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 1

Saturday, July 1, 2006

Woke up to sound of someone exiting the shower. Practically jumped out of bed because I thought it was at least 10am. “Who wants breakfast?” Looked at clock and saw it was 5am, only an hour after I went to bed. Quickly settled down and went back to sleep. Woke up around 9:30 and headed to the pool. Ordered a large strawberry margarita in a football cup thingy. Didn’t use any sunscreen and burnt my back and shoulders.

After changing, played some video poker waiting for the girls. Took off down the other side of the strip on our way to the Venetian for Blue Man Group. Some neat little shops there. Does M&M really need 4 floors? Stopped at the Alladin buffet to eat. Getting there at 4pm allowed us to catch the lunch and then also get dinner as they made the switch. Ordered 2 Red Bull and vodkas at Blue Man. Cost $20 but they were good. Much better than those weak casino drinks. Blue Man Group was a great show. Some very neat things. They overdid it a bit with the toilet paper shit and the Twinkies routine. Not sure I’d pay $120 to see them again.

Started back to the Excalibur after the show because Julie’s eye was bothering her. Got there close to midnight after checking things out along the way. Girls were making it another early night. I took off around midnight for the MGM again. Played some more $3/6 limit and I think it was the only session of poker I finished ahead. Walked out shortly after 5am. Holy shit the sun is coming up! Sat down at a video poker machine on my way to the elevator at Excal and put in $10. Played 5x 5cent bets for an hour and a half on that $10! Hit quads four times and went through 2 coffees and 2 bottles of water. Made it back to the room at 7am.

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 3

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 4

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 5

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 6

First Trip to Las Vegas: Final Thoughts

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 1

Nick Momrik3 Comments

Friday, June 30, 2006

I woke up at 4:15am on Lindsay’s couch. Our flight was scheduled to leave Detroit at 7:00am, so we cleaned up and were on our way. The flight to Minneapolis/St Paul went off without a hitch, but the flight to Las Vegas wasn’t quite as smooth. The plane had an oil leak in the right engine, which took the mechanics awhile to pinpoint. After an hour delay and the deactivation of a reverse thruster (apparrently a plane is only required to keep one opperational) we were finally on our way to Las Vegas. It wasn’t the end of or delays though. Once the plane landed in Vegas the pilot announced we weren’t being allowed to exit the plane yet. Apparently there was some sort of security breach in the airport and no planes were allowed to unload. Of course everyone on the plane was antsy to get out to the casinos for some gambling and fun in the desert heat. After 30 minutes we were finally allowed into the airport.

The rest of the trip reports will be in turbo mode. I just don’t feel like typing out every little detail of the trip. I’ve already lived through it once!

Room at Excalibur$10 round-trip shuttle bus to the Excalibur. Got to our room and it was like, “What now?” Decided to eat quick at the Excalibur’s buffet. Started walking the strip. Damn, the strip is hot when it’s over 100 degrees around 3:00pm! Definitely won’t go out walking in the middle of the day again. Legs finally got sore and we walked across the street to Harrah’s. Found poker room and played $3/6 limit. Girls came to poker room at 11pm just wasted and were on their way back to the Excal. Played another 45 minutes. Caught them on the walk back…somewhere near New York, New York I think. Left them to sleep and went to MGM for more poker. Left around 4am. Lost $ in both poker rooms.

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 2

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 3

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 4

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 5

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 6

First Trip to Las Vegas: Final Thoughts

Party Bonus #2

Nick Momrik1 Comment

I 8-tabled the $1/2 tables at Party Poker again last night for almost 2 hours after work and then another hour or so before bed. I was able to clear over 1,700 raked hands to make the 1,500 I needed for the 2nd of their 3 bonus offers. I’ve yet to see the free $100 hit my account yet though, so I sent in a support email. In addition to clearing the bonus I made $120 at the tables. In the past several days I’ve made about $450 (bonuses included). It’s nice to see the bankroll increasing again.

The next chance I get to play I think I’ll move back up to the $2/4 tables. I’m confident in my ABC poker game again and that’s really the only game you need to beat these games. Especially when playing 8 tables. It’s amazing how much fun poker is when you’re winning.

Grinding

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Once again I’ve gone back to grinding the low limit games at Party. A couple of times in the last week I’ve hit up the $1/2 tables, running 8 at a time. Gotta love the dual monitor setup! This is my favorite way to whip through one of their bonuses, but it also helps to get my game back into focus. I have fun playing like this and it’s not very difficult to keep up with all 8 tables as long as they’re all 10 seat tables.

January and February weren’t good poker months for the bankroll and I was losing interest in the game. That always seems to happen when I move up limits. I get a case of FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) and I lose my mind. At least I know I’ll never have what it takes to be a poker pro, which is a good thing.

Slowing Down

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Thursday night I went to a sleep clinic to try and figure out my sleeping problems so Friday was going to be a sick day until a storm hit and SVSU closed for the day anyways. After getting home around 6:30am I decided to play some poker for a few hours. Big mistake!

I went to 4 tables of $5/10 limit like I had mentioned in the last post. Towards the end of my 3-4 hour session I missed about my last 20 flush draws. It was unreal. Most of the time I either had the nut draw so I had an ace for 3 more outs or I already had a pair so I could have hit 2 pair or trips to win as well. I didn’t win a damn one. Those draws should have been hitting by the river 33% of the time. Instead I hit none and lost 1/5 of my bankroll.

I’ll be moving back down to $3/6 for awhile until I can get my head on straight again. Or I might try out some tournaments. Maybe I’ll even get into Omaha 8/b like I’ve planned to for nearly 6 months.

Nickels and Dimes

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I’m still playing the $5/10 limit games on Party Poker. I haven’t played more than two tables at a time yet, but might try 3 or 4 soon. I’m feeling more and more comfortable with the stakes of play. The biggest differences from the lower limit games are there are more opportunities to steal and you tend to need better hands to win a large pot.

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