Vegas/Orleans Open Trip Report |
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Posted Thu Jul 17, 2003 2:27 pm GMT by tonytal
Well, I am back home from Vegas. . . .I had a great time especially at the poker tables.
I had originally planned on playing in the first event of the Orleans Open which was a $100 buy-in Limit Hold 'em event. After a long night of travel I didn't have enough energy to play in the event that started the next day and had over 1000 entrants.
After watching about an hour's worth of poker at Binions one night I felt like I was comfortable with any rules, protocol, ect that I didn't know about. I mean I didn't even know who to get my chips from at first!!
On a side note, there is something about Binion's poker room that I find very intimidating. The room is very "dark" and I didn't hear much converstation or laughing. But, who knows, maybe it was the time of day or something. I noticed that the poker room was pretty busy during the late hours of the night (midnight and later).
So, the next day I was looking to start playing some poker. I was looking for low limit, like a $2-4 game or maybe even $4-8. My wife and I were on the Strip and I pulled out some info that I printed from the internet that said the Aladin had a poker room. I inquired with casino staff at the Aladin where the poker room was and they said that they didn't have a poker room and they would try to get a game going for me and it would be played at a blackjack table. I wanted my first Vegas poker game to be the real deal so I passed.
I then went into the Flamingo Hilton. I was walking around and I almost tripped over the poker room because it is about 15 feet from a bank of slot machines. I think there was about 6 tables. There was a $2-4 game going so I got on the list. I bought in for $100 bucks. I was able to get comfortable quickly, the dealers and personnel were friendly as were the players. A couple of players were drunk and one was especially annoying. He described every hand he played in the last two years and when he wasn't doing that he was critiquing everyone's play. I was able to win a couple of early hands that helped my stack grow nicely. I played pretty tight and then came in raising when I had a nice hand. I played about 4 1/2 hours and left with about 80 bucks more than what I started with (of course while I was winning at poker my wife was losing at everything else and was literally taking my chips as fast as I was winning them). So, first table was fun and profitable. . . .nice combo.
Next day I went over to the Plaza which is downtown at the end of the Fremont Street Experience across from the Golden Gate. I played there two days. The first day I didn't think that the competition was very stiff. I also thought that a small downtown hotel like this would have a bunch of grouchy old local men but most of the old men were friendly. This poker room did not seem very popular. There were only two games going a $1-5 stud game and $2-4 Hold 'em. This poker room was at the end of the casino not in a separate room but far enough from most of the other casino action not to bother you (except for one craps table that would get rowdy every 2 hours or so). If you are looking for a good beginner game I thought the Plaza was good.
I played at the the Plaza the first day for 11 hours. I got good cards but I felt I was playing them even better. I bought in for $100 and left with an additional $200. I really liked the dealers at the Plaza. They were very friendly and even helped my wife learn how to play. She never played a hand in her life but gave it a whack even though I didn't really approve. I didn't want her to slow down the play at the table (which she did). It didn't bother me but after a couple of hours it started to piss off the people that were losing money. She did finally catch on after about 7 hours!!! She broke even!!!! Go figure.
Also, after 4 hours of play at the Plaza $5 comps are for the asking. They have an above average Chinese buffet ($8.95) that we ate at 2 times.
So, I start thinking that I still want to play at the Orleans Open. I left the Plaza at 2 a.m. (which is when the poker room closes). The event at the Orleans started at noon. It was $200+30 buy-in No Limit Hold 'em event. I said to myself, "Self, you just won your entry fee. You don't have the opportunity to play in big time tourneys in Florida. Go do it." The next morning I took a $15 dollar cab ride to the Orleans from downtown and headed for the ballroom where the tournament is being held. WHOA!! An entire Grand Ballroom full of poker tables. I think that there were 160 tables in there. It appeared that they relocated the poker room temporarily since they had quite a few mid-limit games going as well.
There were several satellites playing. I didn't even think about arriving early to play in some satellites. . . .I had to shell out the entire entry fee myself. I was up against 529 other players.
I set some goals early on. I was going to play my game, I was going to make it at least past the first break, and I wasn't going to rebuy. I found my table and I was sweating like a nervous idiot. The caliber of player at the tables was much higher than at the Plaza. On that note, my first goal got shot to sh*t. I tried to play my game but the good players were running right over me, re-raising me right back. I changed my game plan to playing only solid, solid hands since after a couple of hands my stack was shrinking and I had only won one nominal pot.
The first break came. I made it to the first break!!! Unfortunately, my stack had shrunk from 1000 chips to about 240 chips. I went out into the hall to smoke a cig. My only option was to wait for a very good hand before I ran out of chips and go all in. The blinds were still small enough for me to wait for the right hand. I went back to the table and play started again. A couple of hands into the game I got K-Qs. I went all in and had one caller. I caught a king on the turn to make top pair and double up my stack (which still wasn't much to speak of). The very next hand I got A-Ks. I went all in again and again I had one caller. This time I caught the king on the river to make top pair and double up again. I was back to my original chip stack of about 1000 chips.
Our table broke and I made it to the second break. I still felt very outclassed and ,with the blinds growing, my stack was shrinking again. I wasn't getting any playable hands. My stack was back to about 300 chips and the big blind was next to me. I didn't want to deplete half of my stack on blinds so I went all in on A-3s. Not terrible but not ideal. This would be the end of my Orleans Open experience.
250 other players exited the tourney before me. I was glad I played but dissappointed that my play was SO unagressive that it almost made me puke. I am going to brush up on my skills and I will be back.
I played a little the next day at the Plaza and lost about 80 bucks in 3 hours. It was one of those sessions that my hands were always second best. The players were looser and it was hard to protect my hands without check raising and re-raising every hand I stayed in on.
So, all in all, including the $230 tourney buy in, I was -$30 for 21 1/2 hours of play.
Without the tourney buy-in I was +$200 in 18 1/2 hours of play. Which comes out to 2.7 big bets an hour. Not bad for my first live Vegas play.
I will be back!!!!!!!!!!
8) <----- tonytal at the tables
 <------ tonytal's wife's face when she made a hand.
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Posted Thu Jul 17, 2003 2:51 pm GMT by tonytal
Oh, yeah, and Kathy Liebert was there.
TT
Posted Fri Jul 18, 2003 11:01 am GMT by BigDukeSix
Nice report Tony stick at it man, it sounds like you are going about things the right way. I would'nt be so hard on yourself regarding tourney play, more agression means more buy-ins, fine if you can afford it!
enjoyed reading it
Simon
Posted Sat Jul 19, 2003 8:13 am GMT by Geno
Gr8 report man, well played, next time you'll kick ass 
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