Vegas Report

This was my third Vegas trip of the year, and by far the most fun. I met so many cool people, at the poker table and away. All I did was play poker and party. The perfect Vegas trip.

The first night I played way too long. I was playing at Hooters and wanted to catch the monorail back to my hotel before it closed, which I thought was 4am. I wanted to stop playing at 3:30am. By 3:30am I was tired, but didn't leave. I was up a couple of hundred and proceeded to donk off my chips until I was behind in chips. I ended up having to catch a cab back to my hotel at 5am.

All night I dreamt poker. I kept waking up and seeing what time it was. I forced myself to stay in bed until 9am so I could make it through the entire day without getting too tired. I got ready and went downstairs and played some PaiGow until I woke up enough, then headed back to Hooters for their noon holdem tournament.

I was the last person to sign up before they closed the tournament signup. 20 players, $35 buyin, unlimited $15 rebuys, and a $5 addon. I had to rebuy once and used my addon, so I spent $50. I sat next to this very attractive girl named Lindsey. She was a good player and had a lot of attitude. She had some crazy tattoos and lots of ear piercings. She got a bad beat early and was cursing under her breath for a long time. I stopped talking to her while she was steaming. We both made it to the final table, where again I was seated next to her, but this time I acted before her. I was low on chips the whole time but have learned patience and waited. Only 2 placed paid, so I knew I had to make a move to double or triple up. When we were down to 5 players, I made my move with JJ against A5o. My jacks held up and was able to be patient again for a few more blinds. The blinds doubled every 15 minutes, so things were getting expensive. When we got down to 3 players, I was low stack and suggested a deal so that third place got $100. They both accepted. I then won a hand on the button and was second in chips. The next hand the button, who was now low chip stack, goes allin. I call heads up with KK (lucky me). Her QK didn't improve and now I was chip stack leader. I made a deal with other player and we ended the tournament.

I think I am getting better at small tournaments. Need to work on my big tournaments now. Not that many opportunities to do that without spending alot of money, or playing online, which is not the same to me.

One thing that peeved me was after the tournament, I was going through my money to tip the dealer. I was planning on giving him $10 which would be $15 total since I gave the dealer from my first table $5. Since I an fairly new to winning tournaments, I have no idea how much to tip. While going through my money, I came across a $5 bill. I dropped it in front of the dealer and kept searching through my bills for another $5 bill. The other player, very loudly, said 'Is that all you are going to tip?' I told him I needed change and was planning on tipping more. He gave me a look of disgust. What really upset me, was it turned out he was a off-duty dealer at this casino and all dealers split tips, so he might be getting a portion of my tip. I thought it was very wrong of him to comment on my tip since he worked there, even if my tip was low.

I would love to get feedback as to what others tip, or what the norm is.

That night I met four college girls from Los Angeles and we went club hopping. We started at Coyote Ugly, where they danced on the bar, and ended up at Studio 54 where we stayed until about 5am. We all got loaded and danced until we were falling down, which some of them did. I got an invite to visit them in LA. Since LA has poker and some of my best friends, I told them I would take them up on their offer.

I may skip my next trip to Vegas, and go to LA instead. Still have not made up my mind. Until I do, I will be busting fools in the local scene and online.