Toddy Vegas
Brian Yates: “I’m all in.”
Tod looks down at his hole cards. First card: king; a good start. He says nothing, but eyes Bri with a steely glare. Second card: king; and thinks “er, better just check I haven’t looked at the first card again” – no, he definitely has two lovely cowboys side by side, the likes of which he hasn’t seen since Brokeback Mountain.
Tod Wood: “Call!”
Bri says something rude and foul-mouthed and flips over K2. No miracle on the flop and Tod ‘the Tiger’ Wood is going to Vegas!!!!!
(OK, I just made that Tiger nickname up, but you can’t go to Vegas without one.)
So, this is my brief write-up of my Vegas Dream Trip, paid for by kind donation from certain BCPC members. J
After my wife turned me down flat I invited my brother-in-law, Lee, to join me on the trip. So we set off Tue 15 November in the early hours of the morning and 24 hours later landed in Vegas. By the time we got to the hotel (Bally’s) and unpacked it was around 10pm so we went out for food. I had a half rack of ribs which would be regarded as a generous full rack in the UK. So that was nice. And I do like a nice rack. (Incidentally this was the same restaurant where they had the $35 3lb burger – eat it all and it’s free! – we saw one such gentleman take on the challenge and emerge triumphant, though by this point resembling a large Weeble.
Wed 16 Nov
After a morning of sightseeing, we made our first trip to the Venetian to play in the $150 Deepstack (playing for self). Wow, how many tables? Staff very friendly and $1 Buds – what more can you ask for for the start of your trip? 194 entered paying top 18. I crashed and burned in 23rd place, though given I went all in with AK and got called by J9 (I would have been back to chip average) then it was less crash and burn and more hijacked and flown into the nearest building. This was a bounty event though so at least I won $100 by knocking four players out. Lee could obviously see I was upset so to cheer me up he decided to finish in 19th position. He’s now very keen to get a ‘I was Bubble Boy at the Venetian’ t-shirt. (The remaining players took pity on him anyway chipping in $120.)
Thu 17 Nov
The $350 Deepstack (playing for BCPC)! This is the one!! One time!!! I lasted about 2 hours.
Lee did well(ish) again though, finishing 90th out of 400 odd players. (And some of them were very odd.)
Interlude 1 – Famous people
The trip was enhanced immeasurably by the celebs we saw while there. They included:
- Gavin Smith
- Ashton Kutcher
- Jerry Springer
- Mr Miyagi
- Hurley from Lost
Fri 19 Nov
A cheeky $70 tourney (playing for self) at the Flamingo. Lovely. 4000 chips, 20 min blinds starting 50-100. Then 20 mins at 100-200. OK. Then 10 mins at 200-400! What!?! 40 mins in I have 10 BBs. Anyway after running into QQ and 77 I was duly dispatched, never to darken their door again (except to walk through late at night and look at the pretty ladies).
In the afternoon we played the $150 Deepstack again (playing for self) – haven’t been able to stay away from the Venetian so far (Flamingo debacle aside). Lee faltered this time but with 210 runners paying top 27 I came…. 38th. Dammit!!! I was in a dark mood as I went to bed that night…
Interlude 2 – Films I saw on the plan (in chronological order)
- Thor (it was alright)
- An American in Paris (it was alright)
- Captain America (it was alright)
- The A-Team (it was alright)
- What happens in Vegas (it was alright)
Sat 20 Nov
Inexplicably, I woke up giddy and happy. Started the day as normal by using our daily $9 breakfast supplement (turkey, egg and cheese bagel, with hot tea, lovely) and then over to Caesars Palace for the APAT North American Championships (playing for BCPC).
From the off this was a fantastic tournament. I enjoyed Caesars more than the Venetian as although they also had a large number of tables the different sections of the room made it seem more cosy somehow. All the dealers kept exclaiming their surprise at such a deep structured tournament. The few Americans playing were keen to chip in with the banter and the 50 odd APAT regulars there gave it a real ex-pat feel and the beer and laughter were flowing in abundance. Lee again faltered early running 99 into Laxie’s 44 on a 422 board, so I resolved to finally get a cash for the two of us. Having been moved twice I found myself on a table with Scouse and a genuine US maniac, playing almost every hand and betting large on the river to put maximum pressure on opponents. My plan here was simple – stay out of his way and he’s bound to run into someone else’s big hand sooner or later! He finally fell and not long after I woke up with AA for the first time since landing. Pocket rockets! American Airlines! The weapons of mass destruction! Ashton K raised, I min 3-bet, he 4-bet shove, me cally-cally. And I now have chips to play with! Final hand of the night Glen Lamming pushed all in and I found JJ for some more chips – now up to 75,000.
A happy though restless night’s sleep ensued but the next day I was ready to go.
Sun 21 Nov
15 left, average around 60K, so I’m doing OK. Jack Prime raises to 7,000. Stuart Ward flat calls. I go all in with AQ. Jack dwells for a while then calls, shows AK. Stuart folds. Q on the flop and happy (if embarrassed) days. Next hand I have A4 on the button. Decide to put Jack all in for remaining 15,000. He calls with TT – oops! Ace on the flop, nice and easy. Definitely off Jack’s Christmas Card List, though.
Final table followed and I was chip leader. From there it kind of all went wrong. With blinds quite high I was playing aggressively.
– Raise with AJ, get rerasied by tightest player at the table, Oregon’s Michael Murphy. Fold. MM shows kings. “Nice fold, sir.”
– I raised one hand with 8Tc and got one caller in the big blind, again Mr Murphy. He checks the JJK board and with two clubs on the board I bet out. He reraises me all in. Now, again I’m getting raised by the tightest player, and check-raised at that. Maybe this was the point I should have gambled but I genuinely thought I could be drawing dead. My experience of playing with him till this point was that he wasn’t the kind of player who would flat call with the (effective) nuts in order milk you through all the streets. Anyway I fold and he says he had JK. Did he really? Who knows.
– Not long after I have 99 in the BB. Laxie raises on the button to around 16,000 so I make a healthy reraise to about 40,000. Laxie dwells then calls. Flop: undercard(club)- undercard(club)-queen. I bet out 22,000, Laxie pushes all in. I fold, obviously, and am later told by the rail she had JQ of clubs. Jeeeez.
So now I’m down to about 40,000 and there’s still 9 left. From there I get a bit lucky in that there are clashes of big hands around me and people start getting knocked out. Eventually there’s 5 left. I raise and get shoved on so now I’m quite low – around 33,000 from memory. Rodders in the SB raises my BB and he has a lot of chips at this point, so when I see K7 and with 8,000 already in the BB I push the rest in. I reckon he’s bullying me and so I have a great chance to double up and if he has something then I’ll probably have two live cards. Rodders shows AT, and with an Ace on the flop it’s all over. I was very happy with the run, though – $764 dollars to split with the club and 14 points to take me to the top of the APAT rankings – and overall it was a hugely enjoyable tourney. Lee and I remained on the rail to watch the rest of the final table. Was willing the US’s Mr Murphy to do well as he was a top bloke but I was very happy to see Micky win.
So that just left Monday for more sightseeing and general slobbing around and then Tue morning we flew back to Gatwick. What an amazing week and one that I’ll never forget.
