Went to Vegas this weekend

Yep, I went to Sin City this weekend. I stayed at the Mandalay Bay and had a great time. I cant wait to go back.

I promised to let some of you know how I did pokerwise because I rarely play live poker. I've always played blackjack at the casinos since I'm pretty new to poker.

Let me just tell you that the $2/$4 limit game was terrible. It was WAY worse than even the lower limit rings at Titan. There was usually like 8 players per hand, playing any 2 cards, and almost no folding. I would wait for a huge hand and it would end up getting beaten by a 6,10 o or something. I have a hard time playing this kind of poker. We didnt arrive in vegas until about 9:00 pm and I started at that table at about 10:30 or so. I played there until 7am when I finally lost my $100 buy in.(At this point I had been up for about 28 hours straight so I was kind of thankful, lol. I'm sure my play wasnt great either at this point.)

The next day I went back and decided to try the $200 buy in, No limit, with $2/$4 blinds. I have never played No Limit live before, so I was a little nervous. I didnt know what to expect. Heres my 1st live No limit hand ever:

I look down at my cards to find my 1st ever NL hand to be AQc. I bump the bet up to $20, get 2 callers. Flop brings an Ah ,Jc and a low card club.
This time I bet $50, and get 1 caller. I put him on AK or a club draw at this point, I was hoping for a fold. Turn is the Qd. Theres lots of money in the pot, Id like to win it now, even though its my 1st NL hand ever I push the rest of my chips in! He calls and we turn over and he has A,3? River was a blank and he had to rebuy. The only thing I can think of is he thought I was trying to pull off a 1st hand bluff or something. Anyways, geat 1st hand huh?

Well about 3 hands later I busted the guy sitting next to him when I checked my trip 8s on the river and he decided to push all in wth two pair.
So I got some respect early at that table which helped me out. One time I had pocket 3s and and 2 aces were on the board and I had the worst hand. The 2 better hands were talking and brought up a time earlier when I checked 3 aces to them and they wouldnt bet lol. They were scared. I didnt win that hand, but at least I got to see the cards free I did do a lot of trapping that day.

Anyways to make a long story a little shorter, I ended up leaving that table with an extra $380. I learned that I cant play my kind of game if I cant bet people out, bluff, or trap. I think I'll stick with the NL from now on. It just seems you have more tools to win. I didnt get a chance to play anymore poker, I wasnt there for very long and it was my GFs brothers B-day so we had to do family stuff. I did mange to win $185 in blackjack while they were eating though I cant wait to go back.

Sounds like a great time! Next time, try your luck in the tournaments. Low buy-in tourneys at the Sahara are great. Decent number of chips and a little more time at each level. Avoid the Mandalay, Excalibur, Circus, Luxor, etc tourneys. Low number of chips and fast levels, so they are basically crapshoots.

Nothing like walking away a winner when you hit a casino. Good Job 666. Early on I would play limit when I went, but the last 2 years I've only played no limit and if nothing else, the bad beats became a lot less frequent. I'm heading there in August with some family, but they'll be at the casinos with me so hopefully I can get some serious gaming in.

Lightning- I would have loved to try some tournaments, but we got there late friday night and left early sunday morning so I just couldnt find the time. I definitely will next time. Does the sahara have them on weekends also? I know Mandalay only had them on the weekdays.

Ima6T4- Good luck in August! I may be going back in July for a bachelor party poker

Threesixes - Sahara has three each day - at (I think) 11 am, 7 pm, and 11 pm. It is at the opposite end of the strip from Mandalay. Buy in is $42. There is the opportunity for one rebuy until the first break at the one hour mark.

If you want to spend a little more than that, the MGM Grand and Caesar's Palace have some good mid-day ones. Bellagio and Wynn have some great ones, but they cost more.

The worst thing about having a successful trip to the Las Vegas poker tables? You want to get back there right away!!

Hey 666 Hope You wore a Cardschat T-Shirt, LOl, nice job playing in the 200 buyin, and your rite, theres so many tools you can use in No Limit that you cant do in a Limit game, thats why i like No Limit >>buck

Great Job Threesixes! I can't wait to play my first live game!

Great Job 666:

Im glad you had fun, an wish you all the best on your next trip to Sin City. I also cant wait to go back to my NEXT live game. I played this past Saturday at San Pablo Casino in San Pablo California, like 20mins from my home, buy-in was $55 with a $2500 pay-out. You play against 50 players, first place only get paid. It starts at 10:00am but the tripped out thing is you have to be sitting down playing like $3/6,$6/12, $12/24 prior to it starts. Well sign-up for the tourney starts at 8:00, since I got there at like 8:45am I had to sign up as an alternate. I played $3/6 till it started bought $80 worth of chips, an lost $51 before I got called to play at 10:15 after they took three hands of blinds from me (total was 75dollars worth of chips) blinds are $25 an ante is $100sb/$200bb, everyone who was on time was given 7500chips to start. I last till after the first break, which came 20mins after playing , then went out at #36 , but over all I had a great weekend playing on PartyPoker, won some hard tourney's between dinner's/ movie's/ basketball/shopping/playstation/resting


SHERMSTICK

How to go 6's. Good time and won money, hard to beat that combo. See you at the tables.

WTG Three!

Sounds like you had a blast for your short time. I can't wait till I have some cash again to play live again!!!

Sounds like a great time (except for Mr Bust-out lol) and a nice little profit

Viva Las Vegas

IanT