MuckPls & Whale - a March Madness TR part III

Is there a way to throw a towel over it or something? Alternatively, there’s gotta be a shop that sells sleep eye masks.

For my first poker session this trip I headed over to Venetian, where 'MuckPls' was already in a game. I said hello to him, and after waiting for around 25 minutes a new game started up.

The first hand is a 5-way bomb pot and I end up flopping the nut straight on the top (with JT) along with two pairs Q9. On the bottom I have a straight flush draw with 9Thh on an Ace high board with two hearts. A female player who is not experienced in Bomb Pots bets out $25 and I make it $75 to get it all-in versus her $100 stack and hopefully drive out better flush draws on the bottom behind me.

We end up going all-in on the flop(s) and I scoop the hand after turning a full house on the top (another 9) and filling my flush on the bottom. Although not a huge pot, that was a nice Welcome to Vegas present for me 😀

Then I find AKo on the button and make it $16 over two limps, which is a bit too small even though I am in position. A middle aged Asian in BB thinks for a bit before making it $40, and he is the only one so far (although I only have a sample size of 15 minutes) that has been a bit active at this table. He starts the hand with around $250, and with us being a bit shorthanded for now and BTN vs BB I think my hand is too good to not get in here. I 4-bet to $116 (in hindsight I could just jam) and he starts thinking for a while before sliding out a call.

Weird stack sizes, but I will be getting it on most flops here. A-K-3 qualifies as such, and when he checks to me I wasn't sure what to do. I ended up betting $50, he jams for $130 or so and I obviously call. We chop against another AK, but I could probably just have jammed pre. As it was on the flop I just have to hope he has AQ, as QQ/JJ probably folds to my bet. Maybe I could have made it ridiciously small like $20 to hopefully get those types of hands to take one off?

Then we find 88 UTG at what is now a full table, and I raise to $12 as always. I get no less than 4 callers, and we see the T-4-T rainbow flop. In hindsight I definitely missed a bet here, as I checked and it got checked around. Turn was a J, and after a bet and two calls I exited the hand.

However, on the flop my hand needs a lot of protection and if I bet something like $20 I still think I will get called by 55/66/77, as well as A4s or similar. So I think it was a mistake to check there, although we are 5-handed and I will have a weird spot on the turn if I get called (almost always have to check).

Then a new 30-ish guy who I remember playing a session with last year at Venetian makes it $10 on the button. I have JJ, and 3-bet to $45 only to see him insta-fold. Although this guy is clearly some kind of local reg, I will however say that he is pleasant to play with and often in a good mood. So that helps.

A while later I find 76hh in hijack and make it $12, and only an OMC in BB calls. The flop is great with J-7-6 two diamonds, so after he checks I bet $16. He folds quickly, but I can easily make it $20-$25 here. I unblock top pair, and hands like 89 or diamond draws are going to call regardless of sizing.

Then we find AJss on the button and make it $12, only to see that there is a limper in front. Oh well. It didn't end up mattering much though, because BB makes it $48. This is a new Asian player with a facemask who doesn't look (although I can't see his face) like he is huge action, but I thought in position and with being $300 deep I could see a flop here.

So that is what we do (limper obviously folded) and it comes 7-8-9 two spades. Amazing flop where I have two overs, a flush draw and a gutshot to a Ten. He bets out $50, and although I don't expect him to fold out overpairs I will have a ton of equity against all of them. And with the pot already being $150 I see no other sizing here but all-in. I jam, and he thinks for a while but ends up folding. I assume he only had AK or similar.

Then it's time for another bomb pot and once again I flop decent. I have top two pair on Q-7-2 and I also have middle set on K-T-4 two clubs. After a couple of checks I bet $25 and get two callers. We turn a full house with another Q on the top, and the 8s on the turn means my set of tens are still the second nuts there. I bet again and this time I am met with two folds.

The very next hand I am BB and see three limps for $3 to me. I have AKo (black cards) and make it $21. UTG calls and surprisingly enough also SB. The flop is the rather unpleasant 7-2-6 with two hearts, so I decided to check and see what develops. UTG immediately grabs chips and bets $65 which is pretty much pot sized. I was planning on maybe check/calling against one player, but not for this sizing. So I just fold.

After this I go card-dead for a bit before picking up JJ from UTG. I make it $12 and get no less than three field callers + Small Blind. So we go 5-ways to K-J-T two diamonds. Interesting board, but with a lot of scary turns and someone could in theory also have AQ here. SB checks, and with me unblocking top pair I go for $40 into $63 only to see everyone fold. I could size up even more, but I was very suprised to see everyone just fold out. What were they calling with pre-flop?

Then we play two fun hands in a row versus seat one, the guy who bet pot when I had AK a few hands ago. It starts with me raising A7cc from 4th pos to $12, and he is the only caller. The flop comes K-Q-3 with two clubs, which is interesting. I start off with a small bet of $10 with the view that I can easily call a raise should it come in. He calls quickly.

Turn comes with a red J and after thinking for a few seconds I decided to check. I thought he would like this board a lot after calling the flop, and here I don't want to get raised. He bets out $20 and I call, with plans to probably lead river should a club appear.

A club did indeed appear in the form of 4c, so we make the nuts. I actually changed my mind here and decided to check, although that is a big risk against a lot of competition at these stakes. But my hand doesn't really look like a flush draw in my opinion, and unless he has something like KTo I thought he could bet again for value.

He does bet for $40 and I obviously went for the check-raise up to $145. He thought about it for quite some time, but ended up folding. In hindsight I do think it's better if I just lead river though, and I can even go quite big. Because even if he is afraid of a flush I think it will be hard for him to just fold two pair or a straight. By playing it the way I did, I probably made it too easy for him to get away in the end.

The very next hand I raise 66 to $12, and he is once again the only caller. We see an interesting flop in 6-8-2 all hearts. I bet out $10 again, mostly because theory says to go small on these boards, only to see him raise to $30. With a set I am obviously not going anywhere yet, so I call.

Turn comes Kh and after I check it seems he did not like this card, as he checks back quickly. River is a black 7, and I decided to go for a 15% sizing here and bet out $11. I think this block-bet can get called by worse for sure, and it also prevents me from fazing a bigger bet in case he has some kind of non-nut flush. And I didn't really think he had a flush very often anwyay, so I was mostly betting for value. He folded instantly.

A bit later I am in the Small Blind, and a fishy guy with a convention tag limps in. He had won the $200 high hand earlier but also overplayed a bomb pot recently and had gotten a bit short. I find KK and raise it up to $16, which is a bit small but I didn't want to give him reason to fold. He calls and we see T-8-2 rainbow on the flop.

I bet out for $20, he instantly grabs his entire stack ($97) and jams, and we obviously snap. We get a bad runout though with 9 turn and 7 river. And sure enough we lose, although not in the way I had expected. He has T7o for two pair. He immediately racks up after that hand, although to be fair he said he had to go regardless of the result. So I didn't think it was poor etiquette or anything like that.

I also racked up shortly after, as I was getting a bit tired and felt like heading back to the hotel for a nap. The end result was a pleasant +$309 USD, which I am very happy about for such a short session. Could have been over $500 if the Kings had held up, but such is life.

Cash Games:

Hours played: 2h 30min
Won/Lost: +$309 USD
Hourly rate: +$123.6 USD

No idea, don’t want to risk burning my room down [emoji23] but it’s super annoying, the room is extremely bright.

After getting back to NYNY I took a two hour nap, which felt glorious. I then headed out to the pool, which was a very pleasant experience. Perfect temperature both outside and in the water.

After spending way too much time on this TR as always, I'm gonna head out and find another game now.

Get an eye mask. Heck, the front desk might even have some. A high roller like you? They’ll bend over backwards to get you one!

Will drastically improve your sleep there.

From memory, there is a way to turn that off?

I will check with front desk before heading to bed.

yeah, call the front desk in a calm way and i bet they'll happily oblige to something

I didn’t really feel the energy tonight so I ended up cashing out after 2.5 hours and FINALLY having a winning session at the V. I only need 11 more hours to qualify, easily doable.

Stats so far, I’m averaging 9 hours a day since I landed:

stats look very good for 1/3

remind the fans of the detail of the tourney freeroll thing you're qualifying for?

Sure, here it is. I have no chance of reaching top 10 so won’t even try:

FREEROLL POKER TOURNAMENTS
Join us for our weekly freeroll promotion. Only 30 promotional eligible cash game hours needed each qualifying period to qualify for the weekly freeroll poker tournament for that week. $200 minimum payout just for qualifying. The top ten (10) promotional eligible cash game hour earners each qualifying period will receive a $300 bonus payout ($3,000 total bonus prizes weekly) once they register for the weekly Freeroll poker tournament for which they qualified for.

The first prize according to players I talked to is around $2500, but I’m obviously happy with $200 as well. Que sera sera.

IMO, NYNY food options are pretty good but there rooms suck. Other stuff I can’t say.

We did 4 days there to check it out, even wifey who is the degen so doesn’t care about poker, said never again.

For poker it largely sucks unless your target room is Grand. Nothing else is convenient.

Or maybe a covid mask and wear it over your eyes?

Crap, I typed out a long reply, but my daily wifi renewal message wiped it out, so you get the Cliffs now.

I have 14.25 hours to go. I plan to devote as much time as I can, after the stock market closes at 1 pm. As for feel wrath asking about player types, two examples:

1) Flop my third set of the 3 day trip, so I want to milk it. I'm letting the villain omc type drive the bus. Check flop, call his $40ish turn bet, raise his $60 river bet with a $140 shove... and he folds quickly.

2) I fold pre with 78 offsuit, another player somehow flips my cards up when he folds, and my neighbor, who's been mixing it up pretty good with the table, is shocked that I would fold such a quality hand.

But we LOVE the BigWhale hand histories!!! Gotta give the people what they want.

Welcome to Vegas, BW. Enjoy it, and please-please-please keep the HHs coming in your spare time!

Aria is like 5 minutes away through Park MGM tho, probably even closer than the Grand.

Good morning from Las Vegas! My favorite kind of morning.

I have to respectfully disagree with what another poster said about NYNY btw. Sure, the bathrooms are a bit dated and the gym is a bit too small, and it's not exactly center strip. But it's not very far away either, and I really enjoy the area around here and the general atmosphere. And there is a lot of good food options for those who are interested in such, I guess.

But let's get out some text from yesterday's small adventure

---

Yesterday evening I didn't feel like walking far, and thus just headed across the street for a quick session. That means MGM Grand, where they were holding some kind of press conference before this upcoming Boxing Match (I assume). They were interviewing a guy on the stage who talked about the two fighters, and there seemed to be some media around filming it etc.

As I had seen on Bravo, they had immediate seating for $1/$3 and I sat down with $300 which seemed like more than enough to be competitive. There was one annoying guy to my left with probably $8-$900, but apart from that not really any huge stacks.

Despite this being a very short session, there were a lot of interesting spots. First one comes when an old woman (OWC) raises to $7 from UTG, EP1 calls and I have KJhh in EP2. Decent spot to squeezze but given the look and the position of the raiser I chose to just call. BB also calls, so we go 4-ways to A-K-3 one heart. It's not an amazing flop, and after BB checks the OWC bets out $15. EP1 folds, and it's on me - except that BB folds out of turn before I can do anything. With that information available, I think I can call once in position and see.

That is what I did, and we get the 9h on the turn. Now I actually have a 4-flush, so when she bets $30 again I have to call again. River comes 4h, which means that we make the second nuts. She bets $30 again, and have around $100 back. I obviously set her all-in, and although she thinks about it for 30 seconds she ends up folding. I overheard her telling the OMC next to her that she thought I had flopped a set.

A few hands later I am in the BB, and there is a raise to $9 from UTG and 3 callers. I find no less than KK and raise it up to $55. Sadly everyone folds out.

Then there is a raise to $6 from UTG and two calls before I find KQo on the button. Again a spot that I could squeeze, but the raise came from UTG and I am in position. I call, and we end up going 6-ways to K-4-4. BB checks, the raiser checks, and then an OMC bets $15. I call, and everyone else folds out.

Turn is a 7 and he bets $20 this time. Still nothing to do for me but call; I should hardly ever be up against AK here but from time to time he can have A4s I guess. That is what I am hoping he has at least, as the river comes another K. He quickly bets out $45, and although it felt a bit pointless I have to raise here. He has around $220 left or so it seems, and thus I decided to just click it up to $96. A jam would be only to chop or lose (against 44), and I think a sizing like this is the only one can get a sigh-call from 4x.

As it was, he called quickly and we ended up chopping against KTo. Too bad about that river, otherwise I could have taken him to valuetown on that street (I strongly assume he would have checked).

Then we play a fun one when I find ATss from UTG and raise to $12. Only a 30-ish guy in 4th position calls, and we go heads-up to K-8-3 one spade. I should have started a bet here, but instead I checked and he quickly checked back. Turn comes a red 9 and after I check again he now bets $15. I wasn't really buying this story as I think a lot of his medium pair hands would bet the flop when checked to, and a draw like QJ or JT seemed more likely. I call.

River is a 5 which fills 67 but otherwise doesn't change anything. I check and he thinks for 10 seconds before betting $40. I guess a hand like 76s makes sense here, along with 99, but it just felt off for me. I still thought he would have a lot of hands that needs to bluff here, and although my hand blocks some combos of JT I decided to trust my gut on this one. I flicked in the call, and he announces 'good call' and shows A2 suited. Not really a hand I considered (he never had any draw), but it feels damn good to make those hero calls and be correct.

Up around $250 now and it's time for a Bomp Pot! MGM Grand have also started doing PLO Bomb Pots now (last year when I played here they were Hold'em), and I get dealt a pretty mediocre T822 no suits. However, I end up flopping a set on both boards:

K-2-5
9-8-2

I bet out pot for $30 when it gets to me (6 players) and get two callers.

K
J

Both are pretty bad turns although I make a full house on the top, as there exists some K5-combos and there is a straight at the bottom now. That said, I do block it slighty.

The OWC now leads for pot ($120) in front, which I didn't love but I just don't see how I can fold here. At least not yet. The third player in the hand is short stacked with $75 behind and new to Bomb Pots. I call, and the third player calls all-in.

A
A

Two Aces complete the boards, and she quickly jams all-in for $240. I did not love it and took close to a minute, because there exists combos that scoop me. But that would have to be a very specific combo like K5QT or similar, and how many of those are there really out there? Aces also beats me, but there is no way she leads pot in front on the turn with just a pair of Aces (unless AAQT). But there are only one such combo available.

In short, I ended up calling and ended up chopping against her as she has QTQ4 or something for nuts on bottom but only two pair on top. The worst part is though that the young guy with the short stack has K5, which means he and the OWC scoops me on the main pot. So all in all I lost around $150 on that hand. Could be worse obviously, but felt like a really gross spot.

I do get some back in my last hand though when I raise TT to $12 from UTG and get calls from the annoying big stack to my left and an OMC in the field. The flop comes A-J-6 all diamonds, and I have Td in my hand. I decided to check this one with the view to check-call, as I am very unlikely to get a better hand to fold here. It quickly checks around.

Turn is another 6 which feels harmless, but I decided to check again. Annoying guy now bets $20, the OMC fold and I think I have an easy call here. He can obviously do it with a Jack, but he can also be starting a bluff as no-one seems interested in the pot.

River comes with a Q, and after I check he quickly throws out $100! Wtf. I went hard into the tank here, but a lot of things were tipping me towards a call. I have the perfect combo, as I am double blocking KT for the straight and I also block a flush. And there is no way he is taking this sizing with QJ or something like that. So it looks to me like a slow played flush, a random 76s or nothing.

I decided to once again trust my read and slide out a $100 stack, only for the dealer to announce 'raise!'. I am like 'Eh, I called?', only to look to my left and see that the bet was never $100, it was $50 (!). I was so tired that my brain calculated the two green $25 chips as two $50 chips! That is insane, and also plays into the hand - if I realized he was betting $50 into $80 I would actually have found more folds.

Despite my fluster the guy folded immediately to my 'min-raise' so he was clearly bluffing and I am very happy that I sniffed it out correctly again. But I immediately stand up to cash out, as I realize my brain is not functioning 100% and there is no point to keep playing. I also had other plans that evening, so this was going to be my last hand regardless.

After a quick 1h 30 min session, I cashed out with a profit of $156 USD.

Hours played: 4h 00min
Won/Lost: +$465 USD
Hourly rate: +$116.3 USD

-----

Quick thoughs about above numbers; a really good start to the trip although 4 hours falls under 'LOL sample size'. But I was very tired last night, and the first day or two in Vegas is always brutal for me before I start getting used to the time difference.

Today I woke up at 6am, so it slowly goes in the right direction. I am not 100% sure what my plans are today, but I will have a think about it now. But I am encouraged by how comfortable I have felt in most hands, and that I seem to be making decent decision. Just have to keep that up, although I must admit I was also running pretty well yesterday.

MuckPls, I know you are checking, but you should 100% be able to turn that light off -- at least I can in the rooms I've stayed in. They are so annoying.

Thanks for posting, you guys. So much fun to ride along.

I only saw a few $6 raises but it’s always a real brain buster to see them. My minimum open size is $10 in these games.

And I like the $55 raise with KK. Collecting $36 without seeing a flop is always good.

Wishing continued run good!

If Aria were only 5 min, Grand would be 3. Grand is much closer.

From NYNY hotel desk to the Park-Aria-Bellagio tram (which is a waste imo) is 5 min. Aria is farther than the Park tram stop (but don’t use the tram anyway as that will be slower)

I solved it yesterday but forgot to take a picture. I checked if the light gives off any heat and since it didn’t I moved the trashcan in front of it. Just forgot to take a pic.

Why would you go with the tram? 2 minutes walk from NYNY to Park MGM, it’s right across the street. Then walk inside Park MGM to Aria and you are in the poker room. Even if you are super slow it’s maximum 10 minutes walk.

The worst thing about NYNY is if you're driving. The only way out points you west on the Strip. Mostly I always needed to go east from NYNY. It's not that easy getting turned around on the Strip unless you make an illegal u-turn right in front of the hotel. Which cabbies always do but I don't want to put on my license.

edit: everyone tells Muck he can turn the ight off but nobody told him how.

Pig's has had this complaint for a while, but I think he's mistaken. If you need to go east on Trop (or north on the Strip), can't you exit from Park Ave on to the strip and make the immediate left on Trop or go left from Park Ave for the strip? I know you can from ParkMGM. Or is the arena in the way? "NewYorkNewYork" (street name?) connects to Park Ave.