Well, I just got back from Vegas, and I’ve finally played some no-limit poker. It did not treat me well. Still, I have some great stories.

I went there with a co-worker, a veteran NL player who supplements his income playing poker in Atlantic City. We went to the Horseshoe first. I thought it would be nice to play where the WSOP all started. It was kind of neat, though there wasn’t much going on. They have the Wall of Champions, with the pictures of all the world Champions. They also have a row of those electric massage chairs you can hop in (free of charge, natch).

One word of warning: if you ever play at the Horseshoe, bring a parka. They keep it at about 58 degrees in there.

While there I lost roughly $400, but I had a great time losing it. Several poker dealers were playing there, which is always a bit dangerous, as dealers have seen more hands played out than God. A professional Omaha player from Dallas sat with us for a while too. He had more diamonds on his hands than most A-list rap stars, and he had been playing poker for over 30 years. He also owned several businesses, and was clearly a multi-multi. Incidentally, Jaxia, there are plenty of live games going on in Dallas according to this fellow–you just have to know where to look.

I only really butted heads with him once, when I had top-pair, top-kicker. He blasted me out of a pot with a massive re-raise. He had over $1000 in front of him (the Horseshoe has no max buy-in or bet on ANY of their games), and I respected his raise & folded. It turned out he had an open-ended straight-flush draw, which was a favorite to win with two cards to come, despite my being ahead on the flop.

I also played the most lucrative hand of my life at that session. Here’s the story:

I had just sat down at the table a few minutes ago ($1 - $2 blinds), had only played a few hands, and had spent most of my time folding. This was my first time ever playing no-limit mind you. I was beginning to worry that my image was becoming too tight and that I wouldn’t get any action when I had a good hand, so when everyone folded to the button, who raised to $10, I decided it was time to do some advertising. The small blind called, and I decided to loosen up my table image a bit by making a loose call from the big blind with J-10 suited.

I knew it was a loose call at the time, but what a call it was. The flop came 10-10-10.

It was the best of flops, it was the worst of flops. I had made quads, but I was going to have a hell of a hard time making any money with them. I had the stone-cold nuts, with the only possible draws against me being roughly 1000-1 shots (i.e. they would require two perfect cards in a row). My only hope was that one of my opponents had a pocket pair, giving him a full house. Regardless, I planned to just check, hoping the turn or river would give someone a pair. This was a mandatory slow-playing situation.

The small blind checked, I checked, and the button bet $30. This made me very happy, as I’d now won at least another $30. He could have had a pocket pair, or he could have been on a steal. Either way, I was happy, though I was hoping he had a pair in the hole. Then the small blind raised to $60. At that point, the Hallelujah Chorus started playing in my head. While the button might not have anything yet, the raise definitely meant a full house was out there. The two guys to my right were both good players, and they were going to war. I just called the $60 bet. Then the button re-raised all-in.

I was very sad, at that point, that I had only started the hand with about $140 in front of me. Both players to my right had more chips than I, so the most I could hope for at this point was to win $280. With more money to call with, I could have won over $400. The small blind, without pausing to think, called. I put in my last $70 or so.

The button had Q-Q. The small blind had been slow playing K-K. Almost apologetically, I turned up my cards and said, “I have the ten guys.”

And that, as they say, was that. It was also pretty much the highlight of my no-limit play in Vegas, second only to winning a $40 buy-in tournament at the Stratosphere, which I’ll post about some other time.

Happy hunting!

Posted by Beck in Poker