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Vegas - Without the Gambling!
As some of you will know I luck boxed a trip to Vegas with Sky Poker, winning one of the weekly prize draws, so got to go to Vegas without even trying. You won’t see me complaining that Poker Points are a waste of time! Anyway here is a brief report on that trip.
We decided (me and my better half Beaula) to combine the trip with a couple of days in New York and I’m glad we did.
NY was well worth the detour. We went on a boat trip around Manhatten island, which I would highly recommend. We went under 21 bridges, 21 Tikay! That’s enough to satisfy even a bridge freak like you, as well as getting up close to the Statue of Liberty etc etc. I would certainly recommend a trip on the Circle Line Ferry to anyone visiting NY for the first time.
Then went up the Empire State Building, which is quite tall and has a not too shabby view from the top.
The next day we went to the World Trade Centre memorial which we both found very emotional. Reading some of the thousands of names inscribed on the memorial brought back the sheer scale of the devastation the various attacks had. I am not ashamed to admit that names followed by ‘and her unborn child’, and the white roses inserted in the names of those who should have been celebrating their birthdays brought tears to our eyes. Personally I couldn’t understand how people could take smiling ‘selfies’ in front of those reminders, but they did.
We couldn’t bring ourselves to go around the WTC Museum so instead finished our trip to NY with a few quiet hours in Central Park before heading off to the airport to catch a flight to Vegas.
Sadly, due to flight delays, we missed the welcome party but caught up with everyone the next day for the bus trip round Vegas. It was lovely to meet some of the people I have had the pleasure of playing against on the site and other Sky regs, Tom, Pom, Mark, Phil, Chris, Eamonn (apologies to anyone I’ve missed), as well as Sky duo Sam and Mark and of course the legend that is Tikay, sporting a lovely pink T shirt that wouldn’t have looked out of place in some of the gay bars in Brighton.
We were each given an envelope with $1,111 in and then watched like hawks to make sure we all registered rather than running off with the cash. Having been told it rarely rains in Vegas it proceeded to absolutely throw it down when we were due to get back on the coach, making us feel much more at home.
Tuesday night we saw One, the Cirque de Soleil Michael Jackson themed show, absolutely brilliant, amazingly talented dancers and acrobats. We heard it was the best show on The Strip and would agree with that, it would take a lot to top it.
Wednesday night was Top Golf night and I was nervous about that having not hit a golf ball for over 30 years but Neal (Hendrick) and Paul (Jac) would have been proud of one or two of my shots (not the rest obviously) and it reminded me how addictive the game can be. B struggled with the golf and I turned round to explain that she would probably beat the others at tennis as that was our sport. Turns out that one of the guys we were playing with had been a tennis coach before turning to poker and another played for his county, talk about a comment back firing!
One of my objectives for the trip was to try and show my other half that not all poker players were degenerate gamblers. That wasn’t helped when Tommy D ditched the golf to play beer pong and win a $50 bet. Back to the drawing board with that one then!
Thursday afternoon/evening was the Little One for One Drop. Suffice to say I lasted only 4 hours. I was pretty card dead and I think my exit hand was pretty much a cooler, certainly I wasn’t good enough to get away from it. Had the pleasure of watching Daniel Negreanu play on an adjacent table although his play consisted of going all in blind until he busted, no chance of seeing his hand reading skills there then.
I had shared a taxi cab to the Rio with Chris. Chris paid and I promised to pay the fare when we returned the next morning (ever the optimist.) I waited for 45 mins after busting as he was fairly short stacked and I could return the favour and pay for the cab fare back, well he managed to last longer than that and despite passing the time by chatting with Will Kassouf and Neil Channing, eventually I returned to the hotel with my tail firmly between my legs. If I meet you on the cash tables, Chris, I am sure you’ll win the taxi fair off me in fairly short time!
Friday evening we saw Maria Carey in Concert at the Caesars Palace, I’m not really a fan and certainly wasn’t converted. Her singing was average and she wobbled about stage on heels so high she could hardly walk, sort of like a pregnant penguin moving in slow motion. Her fans seemed to love it, each to their own I guess.
Saturday saw us take an executive trip to the Grand Canyon, with GC Tours. Got off to a bad start as they started the trip by saying that their permit to the National Park hadn’t been renewed yet so we had to go the West Rim instead of the South. To make up for it they paid the extra $35 as the West Rim is in a Native American Indian reservation and costs a bit more. They also took us to the Hoover Dam on the way back and then a gold mine (Eldorado Canyon).
The Grand Canyon has to be seen to be appreciated, it really is a ‘wow’ place, or swear words to that effect anyway. It’s 18 miles across and a mile deep. Simply awesome and one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The Hoover Dam was impressive too, although the water level was 100 ft down. Just to put the Vegas heat in perspective on the way back from the dam the two coaches registered outside temperatures of 136 and 140 degrees F, That’s nearly 60 in Centigrade! Like opening the oven door and then stepping inside. The concrete was simply too hot to touch for more than a split second. Hot even by Nevada standards.
Eldorado Canyon is well worth a visit too. It’s like an old western movie set and is in fact used as one frequently. They had caught 15 rattle snakes in the previous 10 weeks so we were advised to ‘be a little careful when poking around!’ You didn’t need to tell us twice!
Our last full day was Sunday and we started as we had the previous few days by waking up at 6 am to watch the Wimbledon tennis on one of the three TV’s in our hotel room. Feds won the final easily and although I wanted him to win I did feel sorry for Cilic who was obviously injured.
We ended Sunday by seeing another show, Baz, at the Palazzo. Brilliant show with an amazingly talented cast only let down by the fact that the theatre was only half full.
Also met Steve Davis coming out of a restaurant. I guess he was either there to play poker or the world pool championship that followed on from the WSOP, either way he was obviously in a rush and I didn’t keep him.
Flew back Monday afternoon and arrived home Tuesday afternoon after allowing for the time difference. Knackered. Checked diary to find I had a 200 mile drive for a work appointment Wednesday morning. Ho Hum.
So a big thank you to Sky Poker for the opportunity to play the WSOP. I would certainly never have gone without winning a trip.
Comments
here's my exit hand if anyones's interested, I would welcome comments.
I have approx 9000 chips with the blinds at 100/200 with a 25 ante (so I have 45BB). Been playing just under 4 hours and so far, on a very active table, I have had 55 twice and AQ. The first 55 hit a set on the flop but a really scary board prevented me getting paid off well, the AQ I folded pre after a raise, 3 bet and 4 bet pre (too tight?) Other than that I had seen mutiple 8,3 10,4 6,2 type hands and no other premium hands.
Then, in the last hand before the break I get dealt KK in the big blind (Yippee). UTG flats (?), mid position (had been quite active) raises to 550 and mid position +1 (had been tight) raises to 1800 so there are 3100 chips in the middle.
I made it 3000 leaving me just over 6000 behind, the idea being that it should force out the limper and initial raiser, unless they had monsters and leave me heads up with the guy who bet 1800. I put him on 10’s or above or AQ, AK.
Limper folded and mid position folded. Mid position+1 dwelled for some time before calling. His dwell convinced me that I had him beat (i.e. he didn’t have AA). Before the flop was dealt two of the other got up to go on the break with one of them saying ‘it’s all going in on the flop anyway’. I had actually left myself enough to possibly get away from an Axx flop if necessary.
The flop was 2,3,J rainbow which seemed pretty perfect and with a pot of over 7000 already I pushed my 6000 remaining chips in so that he has a decision to make, with his AK, AQ, 10’s type hands. He snap called as the decision is not so tough with Jacks!
No miracle K and I’m out.
Any comments welcome, could I play the hand differently or possibly get away from it?
I might size the preflop 4 bet a little higher to hopefully isolate those TT JJ QQ type hands. I also don't mind the higher sizing to get more value out of the TT/JJ type hands as a lot of the time the flops will kill the action.
Obviously the bet you made achieved this anyway and you got it heads up with the JJ. With the size of the pot, flop texture and stack you have behind I don't think you ever can or would want to get away from it mate. Just brutal that opponent has spiked the set :-/
So yeah, just tough luck mate and not much you could have done IMO. Hopefully next time you are the one that spikes the set and gets paid off
It was a pleasure meeting you, I think the whole New York/Vegas idea is something I'd like to do in the future.