Vegas Trip Report... My Quest For A Bracelet!!

Tuesday 10th June and I arrive in Vegas looking forward to 10 days of poker, beer, and anything else the town has to offer. I think this is my twelth straight yearof holidaying in Vegas, and for the last 4 years I've always visited during the wsop at it's a great time for poker players with so many other festivals running at the same time. I've always stayed at the Imperial Palace, but this year decided on a change and booked into the Paris in the centre of the strip. It's a nice place to stay but one disappointment was the lack of action in the poker roon. It only opened at 6.30 in the evening and generally only had one cash table running which was generally full. Still, plenty of other places to play and I soon found myself a regular at the Planet Holywood room next door to the Paris - I liked to PH room a lot - friendly, 4 tournies a day, and round the clock action.

My first two days are a bit of a blur with a few cash sessions where I mainly managed to double my $300 buy ins with sensible ABC poker. At the $1/$2 levels your full houses tend to get paid off when someone hits two pair or better! So full of confidence I wander over to Caesars one morning to play the $200 deep stack. Nothing more to add, other than the first time I got dealt aces on the whole trip was my exit hand! Caesars is a great room and the deep stacks offer great value for money - they were getting 450 runners for these tournies so plenty of prize money available.

I wanted to play a wsop event and decided on the $3000 no limit. At leat this offers a fairly reasonable 6000 starting stack. I put on my lucky shirt, stayed off the beer the night before (sort of) and sat at the table ready for battle. At the first break my starting stack of 6000 had grown to... ermm.. 5600 which was, I kept telling myself, just below average! After the break I hit a roll, my pocket sixes flopping a set and pocket Queens winning me a nice pot too. Break 2 and I'm up to 16000 and loving my table - the standard of player in wsop events is variable - of course, there are many better players than me but also some real donkies. One player on the table donked his stack off in the first two hours calling huge bets with bottom pair. Another guy was running well until in a blind on blind confrontation (raise, reraise call pre flop) and an A99 flop player one bets pot, player 2 raises, player one goes all in. At this stage player 2 has about 12000 left behind and it's 9000 to call. He calls, player 1 shows K9 for tips, player 2 shows the mighty KJ offsuit!

Anyway, just before dinner break I'm on 18000 and on the big blind with pocket kings. A short stack moves all in for about 4500. Mr big stack on the button raises to 10000, trying to isolate. I confidently move all in and he goes into the tank and asks for a count. That's good, I know I've got him beat now. Eventually he decides he's priced in and calls, so it's cards on their back time. First all in shows K3 offsuit. Button shows pocket 9's. Flop is three blanks, turn a blank and river (of course) was a 9. So I depart the table to the sound of American celebrations with lots of whooping and high fives going on. Now if I had won that hand I'd have had double the average stack, but I didn't win it so I left the Rio, got the free shuttle back to the Paris and ordered a large burger with an even larger beer.

The following night I played in the Harrahs 8.30 $150 deep stack. I recommend this tourney, it sells out all 70 seats and with 20 minute levels and 10000 starting stack it's a decent structure but wont take all day to finish. At last I hit a rush, my pocket queesns hitting trips to knock out a bloke who couldn't lay down KK, and I'm up to 35k after an hour. Five hours later I'm at the final table, and eventually find myself heads up against a drunk college kid who has all his mates railing, so more whoops and high fives will have to be tolerated. He's 3/1 chip leader as we start heads up. "I'm not chopping" he says as I politely offer him a 50/50 split. A few hands into the heads up and he raises and I call with J9 off. Flop comes AK4 all spades. I have the 9 of spades. I check, he goes all in. Now this sounds a donkey call and it probably was, but I just knew I was going to win this hand. After a minute of thinking I stand up and call, and he shows 6 8 offsuit with no spade. As a spade hits the turn all I can hear from the college brigade is "sick call", "how could he call that" and "he called with jack high??" but sometimes you have to go with your feel and this paid off. Three hands later I get it all in on another flush draw which hits on the river and that's it.... I've won!! $3,700 in the pocket with entry to a winners tourney in July (won't be there). Had a few railers so it was off to the Imperial Palace for a celebration.

The following night I play the Harrahs deep stack again and grind my way to final table again. With 5 of us left, huge blinds and fairly equal stacks we do a 5 way chop so I pick up another $1,250. Unfortunately, just as I'm getting on a roll it's time to come back to reality and I have to leave Vegas and the bracelets behind for yet another year.

A great break and for anyone who hasn't been to Vegas during the wsop I highly recommend it. I bought myself a wsop hoodie too, so I'll be, as usual, the height of fashion next time you see me at the tables!! I came back to find I'd been dumped from the Blonde team for Blackpool, then I fell over and cracked my head open (I wasn't drunk) but apart from that everything is back to normal!!

Have a nice day!!