Card Dead in Vegas

First of all a hi to Christina, dealer at Green Valley Ranch Casino. Good luck on your writing. On a business trip to Vegas and the first day always sets the tone for me. Playing in a small $40 buy-in tournament with one table and what turned out to be about 7 alternates within an hour of arriving at the hotel. I was running pretty good and made the final 4, 2nd in chips. Due to so few players the payout was bad, only $450 total paying top two (if all players had shown up by starting time, there was a 1000 guarantee). I looked down at AJ suited under the gun, and raised to 3000 (blinds 500/1000). The big stack folded, the short stack called with all but three thousand chips, so she was extremely pot committed. She was an older player who had played very tight and only called or raised with big hands. The big blind was a little harder to read as he had called some big raises then later folded, and had also shown down some monsters and had played them well. He reraised me 6,000 all-in. I went into the tank for a moment or two, calculated the pot (13500, with the lady's 3000 sure to go in for a total of 16,500). My call, if I made it, was not too bad odds, and I would still have viable chip count (around 4500) if I lost. If the short stack got knocked out I could probably bargain for at least my buy-in back, and if I won then I would likely offer a chop for a $200 win. If the bigger stack lost the side pot to me I would then be almost equal in chips to hers and be in better position. So, with that in mind I sort of reluctantly made the call, fully expecting to see at least one bigger hand, and at least one pair. I was pleasantly surprised to see her QJ offsuit, giving her only one live card against me. His A/10 offsuit was an even nicer surprise giving me two hands that I had dominated.

The flop of course included both an ace and a 10 which not only increased her outs, but also put me in 2nd place looking for my 2 outer. The turn crushed me, with another 10 falling, leaving both of us drawing dead. She was eliminated in 4th place, we struck a deal for $50 to third, and I went out next hand to Mr. A/10 when he caught a queen on my all-in A8 suited vs. his KQ offsuit. Just some bad luck, but thinking about the action would probably play it the same way again, so it was the right thing to do.

In other action at the casino, the next day I played for 4 1/2 hours (including the tournament) and won only 3 pots, losing about $300 total. The $1/$2 no limit was bad for me, kept getting pushed off hands when I missed the flop after my raise, or failing to connect on some draws. Big regret hand was playing a suited 8/9 of hearts, the flop was 7/7/10 with 2 clubs. Pocket aces made it 20, which I called, then 4/6 clubs re-raised all-in for all my chips (aces with big stack) called before my action. I mucked my straight draw figuring I was looking at both a flush draw or trip 7's, or even a flopped full house. The flush draw missed, but he went runners for a baby straight. Missed opportunity but think it was a good fold none the less. In the tournament I won one hand, going all-in with 10's and getting a call from the eventual #2 winner with his pocket 5's. Moving on to the 4/8 limit game, won only 2 hands...pretty much with some lucky weak cards. A special promotion paid $7,777 if you flopped quad 7's. I had pocket 7's twice, but no luck with them. That would have been an excellent end of the story if I had hit them.