Interesting Spots In Las Vegas

Since the world didn't end last week, I better get back to blogging.

I documented my entire Las Vegas trip through my Twitter account. But sometimes 140 characters just doesn't do a situation justice. So here's an extended version of some interesting spots.

- Stratosphere 7pm $65 12/07/12

74 runners for this one. We started with 9k chips. This tourney has a decent structure for a donkament, but any donkament with 74 players will become a shovefest long before the Final Table. I did a decent job of building a big stack before the Push-N-Pray started with a few tables left.

When we got down to the last two tables, I was at Table #3, so I was moved to a new table. I had 42500 in the 2k/4k level, which was a little over average.  The player on my right was a 50's gentleman whom we will call Larry, and is on the rather large size (over 350 lbs). He also had a near average stack somewhere around 35k.

Larry was mumbling to me and himself about the great poker that he's been playing. Evidently this happened right before I got to the table, but Larry was quite proud of how he skillfully folded AK from UTG. He said there was too many players to act after him, and it would have been reckless to raise with all those players to still act.

Venetian $150 NLHE

"Shuffle Up & Deal" - This is the 12n $150 daily at the Venetian. We get 12k chips with 30 min levels. The Bravo timer says 54 players. My table has six players with no dead stacks. I'm the youngest at this table by at least five years.

End of Level 1 (25/50) - Timer says 73 players. My table has seven players, and another already busted out. Good table so far, as I'm still the youngest. Table has been on the weak passive side.

The one who knocked out a player is on my Left+2. He seems to be on the looser side, but he could just be catching cards.

I have 12500 chips.

Level 2 (50/100) - Timer shows 90 players. My table has nine players. A Krasian Kid sat down, and was gone ten minutes later. Another Kid sat down on my direct Left, and has been very calm so far.

Las Vegas News & Notes

I arrived home Monday night after spending 6 days in Las Vegas. The official Trip Total was -$67 before expenses. That may seem like it wasn't too bad, but it was a very frustrating and disappointing trip. But more on that in a different post.

I documented my trip via Twitter this time. If you're interested in the details, check out my Twitter page. The whole trip was almost 100 tweets, so you'll need to scroll down a ways before you start reading.

I plan on doing 4 or 5 blog posts surrounding my trip. This one will be News & Notes concerning the poker scene around Las Vegas.

- Starting Monday, December 17, all Caesars' properties will be merging their promotions into one Mega Bad Beat Jackpot, similar to what they do in Atlantic City. It will start at $200,000. The qualifying hand is Quad Aces beaten. As the jackpot grows, the qualifying hand will slowly drop. The jackpot award 10% to the Winner, 20% to the Loser, and 70% to Share across all rooms playing that game. (Not 100% sure on all detail, so don't quote this as fact.)

And when I say all Caesars' properties, that also includes Harrah's Laughlin and Harvey's Lake Tahoe. Also, I assume all other promos (High Hands, Aces Cracked, Free Rolls, etc.) will be reduced or eliminated to fund the Mega Bad Beat. I wouldn't be surprised if Caesars eventually raises the Jackpot to $2 instead of the current $1.

So look for the Mega Bad Beat Jackpot to be near $500,000 during the WSOP.

December News & Notes

- The best phrase to describe my WSOP-C Tahoe trip is "Crash & Burn", as my bubbling the first event was the highlight of my trip.

I played in three Ring Events, an Omaha-8 tourney, and a nightly 7pm tourney. I airballed all five of them. The $1/$3NL game was just as fruitful. I only had one small winning session, and finished -$1167 in 16 hours.

But you need to remember that one trip does not make a career. Even though this year's Tahoe trip sucked, last year's was wonderful thanks to my 5th place finish. Between both years, I've played in eight tournaments, and I'm still up $805.

The WSOP-C raised the rake on all of their tournament for this season, like $345 to $365. Most of the players have been complaining about this. However, Tahoe had record fields for many of their events, so it looks like the higher juice tournaments are here to stay.

- I have one more trip for this year, and it starts on Wednesday. I'm driving down to Las Vegas, and coming back on Monday 12/10. I got a really cheap room at the Imperial Palace ($147 for 5 nights, which includes taxes & fees).