Back Street Boys

 

Back Street Boys

An inauspicious start to yesterday as I had an upset stomach and decided to take a quiet day in my room, reading and snoozing.

By late afternoon all appeared fine, so I left about 5:45 and made my way to the nearby Venetian. The place was mobbed, but thanks to their use of the Poker Atlas app, I was able to add my name to the list before leaving my room and got seated immediately upon arrival. The table was mainly tourists for most of the night and generally not too challenging. I was picking up my share of small pots, but it was taking a while to get going. I ended up staying for 5 hours, during which time I was in 4 big pots - winning one and losing 3. The first one saw three limpers and I, on the button, looked down to see beautiful AA. I raised to 20 and got 2 callers, going three way to the flop. 862 with a flushdraw was pretty good so I bet 40. One caller folded and the other raised to 80. I wasn't thrilled but there were many hands that raise there that I am beating. I elected to call and then villain led out on a Jack turn for the rest of hist stack - about 150. I'm really not liking it now, as it smells like a set, but it could also be consistent with QQ, 75s or perhaps the nut flush draw with a pair. The player in question had made some big bluffs earlier, so I gritted my teeth and called. He had the 88, and I'd lost the first of my big pots.

I rebuilt slowly and managed to win a big pot on a bomb pot against two players who (like most, but perhaps to a bigger extent) didn't understand the differences in hand strength and profitable drawing opportunities in PLO, especially double-board. I got it in with the nut flush draw and a straight on the bottom board, and two pair on the top. I rivered the boat on top and scooped to whole pot to put me nicely ahead again. Woohoo!

Next big pot saw two limpers raised by an aggressive kid with a relatively short stack. A loosey-goosey player in the SB, also with a short stack called the raise. I had AJ in the BB and decided this was a pretty good squeezing opportunity and re-popped to 70. The kid immediately shoved for 135 and the other player folded. I'm happy the move was the right one, but obviously I didn't like the insta-shove. I was hoping for TT, but AKs was what he flipped. I managed to outflop him with an AJT flop, but he turned a queen and I didn't hit my 9 outer on the river.

Last hand of the day, some 90 mins later was similar. UTG and three other players including the button and the loosey-goosey SB limped. I had AJ in the small blind and raised to 25. I didn't like 4 callers - UTG, Button and SB. I needed a good flop, and thankfully it came JT2 with a flush draw giving me top-pair top-kicker and some back-doors. SB checked and I paused for some thought. There were going to be a lot of draw possibilities and one pair hands. JT was possible, but less likely as I held one. JJ/TT very unlikely as they hadn't raised pre-flop. 22 was the main concern, but a risk worth taking. I needed to make all the draws pay, so I made it a chunky 65. UTG called, but when the button shoved it was a bit icky. If we were deeper I might have found a fold, but given the board and the size of the pot I had to make a crying call. Amazingly the button had JJ which he had limp-called preflop. UTG called and we had top set against the flush draw. The flush came in and UTG took down a huge pot. I called it quits and made my way home.

Sadly that proved not so simple, as the Back-Street Boys are currently in residence in the Venetian, and my leaving co-incided with the end of the gig. Hordes of wobbly 40-somethings dressed in white were moving glacially and I had to join the throng. Worse was to come when we got onto the strip as some maintenance men were fixing a leak on the footpath outside the Best Western. Unfortunately that meant the only way through was the narrowest path on the strip perhaps, through the Casino Royale casino lobby. There was no crowd control and it was a pretty uncomfortable crush for about 10 mins before finally managing to get out.

Wanted Rating: 0/5 stars
Cars Stolen: 0
Prostitute Encounters: 0
Poker winnings: -$300