Pounds of Flesh

Having started the poker element of the trip at the closest card room to me in Caesar's, yesterday morning I went to probably the next closest - The Venetian. This has often been one of my favourite rooms. The tables are spacious and comfortable, there are free help-yourself coffee and soft drinks, and the dealers are usually pretty good. The crowd there varies, but there are usually a mix you'd expect and hope for depending on the time of day. I forgot to take a picture, but here is one from t'internet which is actually the table and (one of the) dealer I had yesterday

Poker at the Venetian

Given that it was 10 am or so when I landed, I didn't expect much partying to be going on, but there was a guy drinking a corona immediately to my left, so not all bad. He turned out to be a fairly tight local regular, but he was a nice guy and we had some fun as we had many pots where it was checked to me, and as the Venetian don't allow a pre-flop 'chop', we would check it down to the river. I won every single one of about 10 hands, but sadly, most of my best hands were reserved for these spots 😒

There were a few other regulars at the table that I'd played with before, as well as a few Europeans. There are a few quirks about the Venetian room compared to others. They take a bigger 'drop' (which is bad), but they do have a couple of prizes etc (which is good, as it encourages action) - a high-hand jackpot every 30 mins - of which there were 3 at my table. Hit that and you draw an envelope from a drum. The drum is filled every 6 months with a small number of really big prizes (e.g. $10K, and lots of smaller ones in the $150-$300 range). Sadly none of the 3 were mine, and all the winnings were sub-200.

I didn't really get any decent cards, and the rare times I got a decent pair/high cards, there were usually folds. I did manage to win one nice pot, when I read my opponent well and forced him into folding what I'm sure was a better hand than mine on the river.

There was really only one hand that gave me pause for thought afterwards. A new player (although I think I played him on a previous trip) came in for a live straddle to $6. After 3 folds, I looked down to A6s and decided it was worth opening - raising to $20. Straddle called and we went heads-up to the flop. The flop was 632 with two to a flush and a backdoor flush and top pair for me. Surprisingly the other guy donked for $25. I called and the flop came 8, to give me a flush draw and second pair. Another $25 and I called again. The river was an offsuit King and he checked to me. If I had more miles on the clock I think I'd have read this better. Instead of checking back the river and hoping my sixes were good, I could also have noticed that he'd pretty much defined his hand as a middle pair (e.g. 99-JJ) and a chunky bet representing everyone's bogeyman of AK could force a fold. I checked and his JJ was good enough.

Wanted Rating: 0/5 stars

Cars Stolen: 0
Prostitute Encounters: 0
Poker winnings: -$34