Friday morning I wake up and head for the 4-8 (half-kill) game. As with other times I’ve been to GC, it’s full of gamboooooling Asians. Awesome. I rock it, winning 3 kill pots in a row at one point and leave +$200 after 2 hours.

One win of note: I’m in middle position with pocket red Kings. I raise pre-flop, and am called by the button - a super loose Asian guy who had been hemorrhaging chips since Steve was at the table last night. Flop: Ks 9s 2s. I bet; he raises; I re-raise; he calls and shows his buddy standing behind him his cards. Buddy shrugs. Umm, OK, thanks for that. Let’s not see another spade come. Turn is not a spade, river is not a spade, but he calls my bets at both, then mucks when he sees my set.

Lunchtime at the Port-o-Call buffet means it’s budget-balla time again, and the 5 of us eat for $4.95 each with coups. 6/9 for food/service. None of us sampled the delicacy below:



Jon & Ubaldo arrive Friday afternoon and meet us at Bally’s, where we’re staying for the weekend. We had heard that the north tower was way better, but the place was packed, so we got south tower. Our view is below. No complaints.



Ubaldo, Alex, Matt, & I want to work out, and head for the Bally’s spa, despite the $22 non-budget-balla price. On the way, I put $60 on Butler (+10) to cover against Florida. I’m from Indianapolis originally and know Butler plays that old-school Indiana farmer type of ball that Florida won’t be able to handle.

We get to the spa at 4 and find out it’s $15 after 5:30. The manager rounds up the clock and we’re in for 15. I just stick with dumbbells, but the place is way decent for a hotel gym, and that’s before we wander into the spa side. The attendant hands us robes, towels, & sandals and we do a steam room -> cold tub -> hot tub -> sauna cycle. We wear towels around our waists the whole time (including in water) to avoid seeing each other’s junk, but a few cat brains get exposed when sitting down. We clean up in time to see Butler lose only by 8. Totally refreshed and me +$54 from Butler, we meet up with the rest of the group to walk to our Friday night dinner spot, the budget-ballin’ paradise Ellis Island. That is, after we pass by this pick-up truck in the Bally’s parking garage:



It’s an easy walk to EI from the back of Bally’s. Here’s Steve and Alex leading the pack, then Dave, Ubaldo, Nate, and Matt trailing.



They told us it would be at least an hour wait for a table at the Ellis restaurant, so what better time to make use of some unlimited-drinks-for-2-for-one-hour coupons from the POV? I shared mine with my brother, and Steve shared his with Ubaldo. We gave the other guys a couple of 4-free-cocktails coups and we were good to go. I don’t remember much of that next hour or so except running to bar every 5-10 minutes in between blackjack and craps. We had all these blackjack match-plays but somehow I still dropped 40, and then 20 or 40 at craps, which I’d never played before. Yeah that was smart.

Finally, we sit, and it’s $4.95 steak dinner (always that price at Ellis, no coup needed) time. Steve & I bust out the buy-one-get-one-free coups for some appetizers, and wings & chicken fingers are on the way. If you haven’t had the EI steak dinner, you need to. Food/Service = 8/10.



Here a couple endorsement pics. Steve & I with the POVs:



And one for Ellis:



Being the budget balla that I am, I cover dinner for our group, which was a whopping….



The guys throw on a $20 tip, and we’re outta there. (let me clarify that even though we were budget ballin’, we never skimped on tips)

Back to Bally’s, we meet up with Sam, and decide on courses of action. The poker players of the group want to go to the Venetian, and the other guys come along. Finally some more poker action.

The V is packed but there’s only one 4-8 on a Friday night. Steve, Dave, and I eventually get spots at the table, and my first hand, BB, 63off. 3 limpers, no raise, I check. Flop is J 7 2, gets checked around. Turn 6. I bet, call, call, fold. River 3. I bet, call, call. I show two pair, and an Asian woman next to Steve scolds me for playing it. Okay, if that makes you feel better for not betting your jack on the flop. The guy next to me told me she was crafty, so she’ll be known as Crasian in this story. Here’s a blurry picture of her (to Steve’s left):



Two hands later, I have AdQd on button. Folders, then Crasian raises, fold, fold, I re-raise, Crasian calls. Flop is Ah Ks X. She checks, I bet, she check-raises. I’m thinking if she had AA, KK, or AK, she would have re-raised pre-flop, so I call the check-raise. Turn is a Qh. She bets, I raise, she calls. River’s a 2c. She bets and I just call because she’s got me all confused now. Of course, she shows AK for a better two-pair.

A few hands later, I raise in MP with QQ. Crasian’s in SB and calls, BB calls. Flop’s K J T. She checks, BB checks, I bet, they both call. Turn’s an 8. Check-check-I bet- Crasian calls, BB folds. River’s X. Crasian checks, and I just check, again all confused by her. She shows pocket Kings; I ask why she never raised, and she says she thought I had AQ again. I say, if so, you should’ve folded. She shrugs.

Any commentary on the above two hands is appreciated. I feel like I played them pretty decently?

So with those hands and some stupid limping, I’m down like 120 after 30 minutes, then things get a little better. I hit a set & boat and happen to not be involved in pots against Crasian, and end the session down 75. At one point a group of hot girls walks by our table, and one of them waves and says “hi boys”. The whole table turns their heads. One end of the table is whispering and I can’t hear it, then later Dave tells me it was Nicky Hilton. We had the obligatory Johnny Chan sighting too, who walked by Matt & Alex’s NL table.

On the way out I put a buck in the nickel salmon-n-bear slot by the bathroom, and it starts spinning itself for about 2 minutes, and I cash at $50. I’ll take it.

Back to Bally’s and half-sleep from 4 to 8am.

--end of part 2--

Summary: Morning gambooling w. loose Asians @ Gold Coast 4-8 table = +$200. Move to Bally's. Work-out/spa visit at Bally's. No, we're not gay. Ellis Island $4.95 steaks + unlimited drinks = -$80 at blackjack & craps. But that's not the point, is it? Confusion against Crasian @ Venetian 4-8 table = -$75. Salmon + bears = +$49.

lakeoffire says

MMM...meat salad. Great trip report very entertaining and informative. I like the way you roll! You might have just called the AQ hand against the crasion, it's hard to tell where you are in a hand against a station, the best you could have done was save yourself a bet or two. QQ against KK...ugly flop! I would have played the hand like you did and bet the turn (3/4 pot) to see where i was, and checked river if i was called again. I think you played the hands alright. Once again great trip report!
LakeofFire

04/14/07

scotty-win says

Thanks for the feedback - I've got this trip report on three different sites, and you're the first person who's actually commented on the poker

04/14/07

EdmondDantes says

Nice trip report. As for the two hands, I think you played them fine. Crasian, of course, kind of butchered them. In hand 1, she could've had AK, but as played, I'd be thinking AQ, AJ, probably KQ. I don't expect to see a set or straight here given her turn call. I call the river bet, hoping to see a weaker A or KQ and when she tables her AK congratulate myself that she didn't re-raise the turn. As for the second hand, given the pre-flop action, when they just call your flop bet, I'm thinking they've got a piece of it, maybe some kind of draw. A weak K bets or check-raises the flop to see where he stands, yes? Once they call the turn bet, though, I like the river check behind. And when she shows the KK and comments that she put you specifically on AQ (and not a range of hands) and therefore didn't bet or raise her top set, I change her name from Crasian to PleasedontleavethetableAsian. You get make money when you maximize the value of your winners and limit your losses with your 2nd best hands. She's doing the latter for you. Give her a hug!

Edmond

04/14/07

tateissy says

On the hands you posted you played fine, probably better than I would have played them <G>. On the 63 hand I'm not sure I understand her comment about you playing the hand. You were in the blind and got a free look at the flop. You then got a free look at the turn, so it wasn't until you paired your six that you were really making any decisions. By the river you had a winning hand. Very weird comment.

On the AQ hand you saved yourself some money by just calling the river bet. Not sure what else you could have done so in my book you actually won since you on the only 'poker' decision, you made the correct one -- hey, saving money by not betting in limit is basically the same as winning an extra bet.

On the QQ hand, again you had no way of knowing she had such a strong hand, although she didn't really need that strong a hand to beat you. Again, limit is tough. You get a great hand like QQ, but there is no way of really protecting it PF, so once you see a flop with a bunch of players, the QQ isn't really that strong. Maybe you could have played it a bit slower, but probably not given that she decided to play her KK so slowly.

So it looks to me that you played all hands just right given the situation you found yourself in. Hey, you're a WSOP ME bracelett holder, you don't need me to tell you that you know what you're doing <G>.

04/14/07

scotty-win says

Thanks for the comments. Yeah, although I thought Crasian was crafty when I first got to the table, her stack just hovered around $100 the whole 3-4 hours we were there. Crazy is a better word for her than crafty.

04/15/07

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