Vegas Bound

Participated in Event No. 3 of the Ante Up! Intercontinental Poker Series II: Electric Bugaloo yesterday -- Pot Limit Omaha (High). The tourney was a bit of an anticlimax, I’m afraid. In preparation for the event, I’d been playing a lot of PLO (and some fixed limit Omaha) over the last two weeks or so. Won a couple of sit-n-go’s playing against the Ante Up! crowd week before last, then had a decent week at the cash tables. In fact, I may have to write about one particular session I enjoyed Friday night which ended up contributing to my single most-winningest day of online poker ever -- by almost twofold -- a great deal of which involved playing $0.10/$0.25 PLO. (Still trying to come to grips with what exactly happened there, actually.)

As I said, though, the tourney didn’t provide much fodder for your humble self-chronicler. Finished 36th (out of 65), but never really got anything going for the 75 minutes or so I remained alive. I think I won three pots total, all smallish.

So let’s talk about something else. Let’s talk about Vegas, baby!

The Hard-Boiled Poker World Tour will be pulling into Las Vegas in a little over one month. Will only be there for a few days -- from Wednesday, April 18th through Sunday, April 22nd. This isn’t primarily a poker trip, if you can believe that. Rather I’m accompanying the lovely Vera Valmore to the 2007 Rolex FEI World Cup Finals. Vera rides dressage (that’s horse ballet, y’all), and is looking forward to seeing all of the world’s greatest riders coming together for this internationally-recognized event.

Vera plans to attend almost all of the individual events. I’ll be going to one -- the big dressage final on Saturday night. We’ll also likely see a show or two while there, though haven’t planned anything else specific just yet. I will be on my own, though, for those times when Vera is at the earlier jumping and dressage events. Right now there are three things I know I want to do that week . . .

1. Play poker! My live experience is highly limited -- indeed, I’ve only actually played in Vegas one time before. Then I played $2/$4 limit hold ’em and came away a loser, though looking back I think I did well considering my relative inexperience. I recall a lot of limping and chasing going on, typical for the low limit games (as I now know). Usually at least six players saw the flop. One dealer we had would always announce the number of players prior to each street. I recall one hand where every single player at the table had limped in. “Only nine to the flop,” the dealer sarcastically chimed.

This was at the MGM Grand. They rotated the dealers fairly frequently -- some were funny and very competent; others less so. I remember one hand where I held KJ in late position and just limped. The flop came QT9 and someone in early position bet out, another called, and I raised. Both called. The turn was a king, and ultimately all three of us ended up capping it both on the turn and the river. Each of my opponents had a jack in his hand, so the hand ended with a three-way chop (with the casino being the only actual winner thanks to the rake).

What made the hand particularly memorable -- besides the bad luck of flopping a straight, then having to chop -- was how in my inexperience I had committed the sin of reaching for my chips before the action came to me. I probably wouldn’t have even known I was doing it, but THE DEALER POINTED IT OUT TO THE ENTIRE TABLE! I kid you not. I think it was on the turn when the dealer said “he’s already reaching” or something, and suddenly I realized he was talking about me! I was embarrassed (though not overly), but more so miffed that the dealer would say anything at all about such a thing.

Anyhow, I’m looking forward to playing again. Not sure as yet where I’ll play or even at what limits, though being “short-stacked” I’m fairly certain I’ll be sticking to the lower limits again. Not really looking to make the big score or anything -- just want to have some fun and get a little live experience.

2. Visit the Gambler’s Book Shop. Have heard a lot about it, but never been.

3. Check out the Fifth Annual Five Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. The main event starts on Saturday the 21st, so I’m imagining there will be a number of pros around during the week. Am going to have to duck in there at some point just to see what I can see.

That’s the plan (for now). I’ll probably be writing again about the trip here before we go, and most certainly will deliver a report (or two or three) after we get back. And anyone with any advice or suggestions, send ’em on! (Can you tell I’m excited?)