Vegas

I have been in Vegas since Tuessday morning and have been having a blast. I am here with my brother and a bunch of his bschool friends who are highly entertaining. Between pool time, sweating tourney games, and giving my money away playing blackjack, I have been grinding the 10-20 NL games at Bellagio. I have to say, I enjoy myself much more playing live than I do multi-tabling online. Playing fewer hands is frustrating, but the banter between players and the ability to make live reads more than makes up for it.

The Bellagio regulars (probably ~70% of the players in the game) are very tough and I feel like my live instincts are getting sharper just playing in this tough a game for a few days. Like all big games, though, there are still some weak players and the game is very beatable. I have made quite a few mistakes, mainly calling guys on the river too light (live players don't bluff nearly as much as online players), but overall, I have been very happy with my play. I am up just over 4k in the game, but have given back 650 playing in two smaller tourneys.

Folding KK pre: one of the reasons I really enjoy live play is because the stacks are so deep relative to the blinds...I had more than 5k in front of me when I woke up to KK under the gun. I made my standard raise to 80 and it folded around to the small blind, a tight/solid local pro who had 6k in front of him. He made it 380 to go and I immediately put him on a very big hand (either QQ or AA). Online, with only 2k behind, this is a great spot to trap as I have position and can raise my opponent all-in on the flop (and losing 2k is fine if he does have AA). With over 5k in front me, however, I have to think about protecting my stack. If I smooth call the reraise and the flop comes rags, my opponent will lead for 600, I will have to raise to about 2k and I will probably have to call if he reshoves on me. Given my read and the size of the stacks, I decided that reraising preflop was my best play to figure out where I stood. I made it $1,280 (900 on top) to go and after much deliberation (very obviously acting in my mind), my opponent shoved all-in. I insta-folded my kings face up and my opponent quickly mucked his cards. He never told me if he had bullets, but I am confident that he is only capable of making that move with one hand. Losing the $1,300 hurt, but I like the way I played the hand.

Sorry for the long break in posts. I have not played online in about two weeks and before coming to Vegas there was very little to report on the poker front. My live poker schedule will be very busy over the next few weeks (Vegas and Foxwoods), I will be posting much more regularly.