Vegas with the Squirrel (and Vegas Jimmy), Pt. 3

With the Squirrel at her conference I thought it would be a good time for me to try and make back some of what I lost yesterday. With my bankroll somewhat diminished I thought the smart play would be to go over to the MGM and play on the $1/$2 No Limit tables there, and so I did. That decision worked out great for me, as I managed to win about $275 while playing on the tables there. Not bad for a $100 buy in! There was one hand that stuck out for me. I was dealt pocket Aces (AA) when I happened to be in first position. I decided to limp for the $2, hoping that someone would raise and then I would reraise when it got back to me. The table had been fairly active so I felt that this would be effective. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong! One by one, every player at the table just called the $2 and no one raised! We now had 9 players getting to see the flop. Against a single opponent, pocket Aces are about an 80-87% favorite to win. Against two opponents, Aces drop to about 70-75%. Against three opponents, it goes down to about 60%, and with four opponents it is less than 50%. So here I am, holding Aces, and I'm not even the favorite to win against the whole table, and I'm out of position after the flop hits, too! Awesome! (note the sarcasm).

So to the flop we go. I've already made the decision that I'm not going to go broke with Aces here since I decided to play coy before the flop and got caught by my own cleverness, but maybe the flop will help. Well, the flop comes: 6-6-4. The blinds check, in staying conservative here I check, and everyone else checks. This actually gets a small chuckle from the table when the last player checks. The turn is a 7. Once again everyone checks until we get to the end, where one player decides to bet $15, slightly less than the pot. The action folds to me, and since it wasn't too much I decide to stay conservative and just call. Everyone else folds. The river puts a Jack out there, so now the board reads: 6-6-4-7-J. I check, being content to show this down cheaply. My opponent decides that a $45 bet is warranted. Well, it's still not that much considering the way things have gone for this hand, so I decide to make the "crying call". As soon as I do, my opponent mucked his cards! He was on a stone cold bluff! I never even had to show my Aces to win! I was happy to take down the pot, but a lesson was reinforced here...Don't limp with Aces! If you do, be prepared to throw 'em away. Now I didn't throw them away, but the pot was kept small enough to stay in the hand. Had he thrown out $75, $100, or more, I think I may have been forced to accept my preflop mistake and fold. Oh, well. I got lucky that time. It sort of makes up for a little of what happened at the Wynn, or at least that's what I was telling myself.

After wrapping that session up I met with the Squirrel back at the Excalibur. We both wanted to play a poker tournament, and I had found some tournaments with decent structures that I thought we should consider. One of those was at the Hard Rock Casino. They were opening a new poker room, correction, a poker "lounge", and we decided to cab it over there to check things out. All I can say about it is "Wow! Gotta like that eye candy!" It turns out the room hadn't "officially" opened yet, and they only had one cash game going. The tournament was only expected to have a handful of entrants so the Squirrel and I opted for a different tournament. We decided to head downtown to Binion's, where I thought I remembered that they had a nightly tournament with a good structure. The Squirrel hadn't seen the Fremont Street Experience either so this would give us something to do while we waited for the tourney to start.

Well, we checked out Fremont Street, grabbed a bite to eat at Binion's diner, and when we got back to the poker room we found that there were only 10 entrants for the tournament! The tourney would still take entrants through the first three levels, but that wasn't the turnout we were expecting. We started as two tables of five, and luckily we weren't at the same table to start. That would have sucked. Levels were half an hour each, we started with 6000 chips, and blinds started at 25/50, so there was plenty of time to be patient. One more player did sign up during the second level, and with one player's elimination we all got to go to the final table! Woo hoo! Ok, I'm sort of kidding, of course we made the final table.

Because of the structure and the small number of players we had plenty of time to chat with everyone at the table, and when we combined at the table I drew the seat to the Squirrel's immediate left. Often times when talking to her I would call her by her nickname, "the Squirrel", and before long the entire table was calling her the Squirrel. The Squirrel also has a heavy weight to protect her cards, and, of course, it's a little squirrel. She likes pointing the squirrel at her opponents and the table was getting a kick out of the use of the squirrel. So much so, that one of her opponents, who the Squirrel eventually eliminated, gave the marker the name "Vegas Jimmy". The Squirrel was doing a good job of amassing chips, too, having doubled through someone with AK when the board hit her for two pair, and also when getting someone to get it all in with her when she had pocket Aces. For a brief period of time I think that the Squirrel and I were the two chip leaders. Because of the small number of players only the top three places were getting paid. When we were down to five players I was the chip leader, and had a comfortable lead over everyone else at the table. When we hit the break a couple of us started discussing possible "chop" options. We had been playing for over 4 hours at this point, and we were thinking that we felt it would be good if everyone came away with something. We decided to put to a vote the following: Taking $100 off of the 1st place money and paying 4th and 5th $50 each. The entry to the tournament was $125, so although it would be a loss, everyone would still get something. The table agreed, and play proceeded.

I was fortunate enough to find myself in first position, Under the Gun, with pocket Queens (QQ). I raised, and the player behind me immediately went all in for his remaining chips. Everyone else folded back to me, and I called and tabled my Queens. He turned over Ace-King, also known as Big Slick, and off to the races we were! The flop produced a King, and I was down to two outs to knock this player out of the tournament. I didn't get there on the turn or the river, and I suddenly found myself in 4th place in chips out of the five of us. Since 4th and 5th were paying the same thing it didn't matter to me what spot I ended up in if that was to be my fate, so I knew that aggressive play was the way to play. About a dozen hands later, everyone folded to me in the small blind (SB), and I looked down to find pocket 6s. I moved in, and the big blind (BB) woke up with Big Slick...again!! He called, and I was off to the races one more time with this guy. This time the river was the King, and I was now eliminated from the tournament. Now it was time to be a cheerleader/observer from the rail. The Squirrel was still alive.

The position I had on the rail was allowing me to observe the player who knocked me out and the hands he was playing/folding. He was an older gentleman, and he was playing very tight, folding his blinds to almost every raise. The other three players hadn't really picked up on that yet, and I was hoping that the Squirrel would as I knew she was going to need some chips soon. Eventually, the short stack and the player that was 2nd in chips at the time got it all in, and I got the opportunity to tell the Squirrel that I thought she should be stealing more. I wasn't going to tell her what the older gentleman was folding, but I was hoping that she would be able to chip up a little bit. They were now down to three players, and each of their games had to be opened up a little bit more.

It was only a short time later when Dave, the player on the Squirrel's right, raised from the button the minimum amount. From the rail I had guessed this was a steal, since it appeared that Dave had also picked up on the fact that the older guy was folding everything. The Squirrel was next to act in the small blind and she just called. She was also the short stack in chips. I didn't know what she had yet, but I probably would have pushed all in..."if it's good enough to call, it's good enough to raise". If it wasn't that good, then folding was the play. It didn't matter, as the older guy moved all in after the Squirrel's call. I knew that had to be a huge hand. In that spot facing a raise and a call in front of me, and as tight as he was playing I was expecting him to turn over AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, or AQ. Dave immediately folded, sort of confirming that I thought he was stealing, and now the Squirrel had a decision to make for all her chips. She eventually called and tabled: AJ. The older guy turned over JJ, which is almost as bad as it could get there since that left the Squirrel with only the 3 Aces to catch or to make a straight or flush. None of that hit the board, and the Squirrel and Vegas Jimmy were out in 3rd. The only thing I would have done differently was probably shoving preflop after Dave's raise, and I'm sure the old guy calls anyway and the result would have been the same. She did get $220 for her efforts. I was happy for her considering the lost wallet and cards thing had happened I did want something to go well for her after that.

Not too much to tell after that. We played some craps at Binion's, and the next morning The Squirrel (and Vegas Jimmy) headed off to the airport early because of the lack of ID. I had another brief session at the Wynn because I needed to hit the Hooter's casino to get my stamp for a contest that Hooter's is running this year, and I headed home that afternoon. It was a very entertaining trip.