Fear and Loathing in Locke Vegas 2010: Parts 4 and 5

This series of blogs first appeared on the PKR Forum in June and July 2010.  I won a WSOP Experience Package worth $4,000 through a PKR Road To Vegas Tournament League that ran for several months.  Most players are referred to by their PKR user names. 

Part 4

'The line between madness and masochism was already hazy'

Six a.m. Friday morning. Somehow I manage my best nights sleep in Las Vegas at a grand five hours. Just enough time to hit the buffet before playing the $150 1pm Aria Deep Stack for the 2nd time. This time there are about 60 runners. I make it to about 20th before the standard bad beat disposes of me. Zero luck at the tables since arriving in the desert and with expenses I am now stuck about $900 on the trip. This was supposed to be a decent working holiday, a cake walk. Damn you Poker Gods. Yet another awkward cash game session follows.

I escape the tables in decent time to get ready for the PKR Party. The party is at the side building of Mandalay Bay called, creatively enough, The Hotel. A group of us grab a taxi. I feel a word is in order about Vegas taxi drivers, on the whole they are an incredibly amiable bunch. The rare one does not speak much English but most are very chatty and very likeable. They also have lots of great tips on where to go and what to do. My favourite turned out to be the son of a prolific TV scriptwriter and his two brothers were both published authors. Whilst the writing bug had passed him by he was a keen thriller reader and we had a good chat about his favourite writers, a number of whom I had met. Vegas is a strange place but an oddly friendly one.

At The Hotel we wonder round lost for a bit before running into PKR_Paul and Ashley Hames with their video camera. They lead us to the private elevator to The Mix Lounge, the venue for tonights party. At the queue outside it are loads of old friends. Not just qualifiers but other members of the PKR Massive including JJBird22 and Chivalrousgent. We are finally let through and find ourselves in a glass elevator going up and up with an awesome view of the Vegas skyline by night. The lounge is on the top floor of the building and with an outside balcony area offered an awesome view all night long. Loads of the PKR gang turned up throughout the night. Apparently other guests including Kara Scott and some of the Cardrunners crew were there too. Clearly I was talking too much to notice, oops. Drink was free all evening including champagne and anything else you could think of. I met Scardey77 from Canada, the only Canadian qualifier for the WSOP package  . He was having a great time but felt a bit guilty being away from home as he was away from his three month old baby for the first time.

The View from The Mix Lounge

The evening went far too quickly. At 2:30am we were getting bundled out by the bouncers when it felt like we could have stayed for hours longer. At this point Zlatan35 was in a particularly amusing state of free bar drunkenness that saw him wrestling with Ashley Hames on the Casino floor. He was also falling over quite a bit and got stopped by a casino floorman after attempting to climb onto a dancing podium occupied by a scantily clad gyrating woman so that he too could express himself through dance. We were eventually able to bundle him into a taxi. A few more drinks at the Aria and it is yet another 5am finish to the day. Vegas is part holiday, part endurance test.

Ashley Hames wrestled by Zlatan35

Part 5

'Against that heinous background, my crimes were pale and meaningless.'

As had become routine I awoke midday Saturday and sought out the buffet. The moment I got off on the promenade level it was obvious just how much busier the Aria was. 4th of July weekend was bringing the people in big time. I had to queue for a buffet table for 20 minutes (/OMG) when I had previously just walked in every time. I also had to smile at the American capitalist machine at work. On previous days you could get breakfast from 7 -11am, then brunch up until 7pm at which point dinner kicked in. Though saying that you could pretty much get dinner at any time of the day, it just cost the different prices. As I reached the front of the queue I could see today had no breakfast option (I was too late anyway) and only a 'Holiday Brunch' was advertised. This cost me $33 dollars rather than the $22 I had paid for brunch the day before. What extra delights did I get for my hard earned 10 bucks? Sod all... exactly the same as yesterday but a $10 hike just to milk the weekend 4th of July trade that little bit harder.

I hit the $150 Aria Deep Stack again but this time there was a strong PKR presence and a lot of uber-donks in for the weekend. The tournament had about 74 runners. At the first table is some of the most retarded poker play in the history of the universe, I mean worse than the dumb nonsense you see in the PKR Open on a daily basis. My favourite guy is a massive overbettor. Blinds are 25/50 with a 10k starting stack. 3 times in two rounds he open raises to 1,300... then con bets on the flop for more than half his stack...for the love of God just give me a hand!. LeRouli stacks two players on about the 3rd round... overshoving his full house on the river and gets called by not one idiot, but two, with a straight. A couple of rounds later he makes another full house and sucks in Mr Overbet who calls with trips. The table doesn't get any harder and myself and LeRouli just carve it up between us. We redraw from 3 tables to 2 with 18 left about after 5 hours of play. Suddenly I feel like I'm sat at the final table of a PKR Primetime as I have old adversaries Trymean77 and Azurecoil to compete against. The whole dynamic of the game just shifts. There are a couple of other okay players at the able so what had been a cakewalk took on some higher level dynamics with some more intricate play going down. On the other table are 3 more PKR players, 1BlackMamba3, LeRouli and a guy whos name I don't know.

At the final table of 10, with 7 places paid, I am still in along with Trymean77, Azurecoil, 1BlackMamba3 and the unkwown PKR player. We should have had Paul down with his camera as this was clearly just a PKR event in disguise. Az busts in 10th to a bad beat. Our nameless guy then shoves all in for about 4 big blinds. I have a decent stack and look down to find pocket 8s. I call. I then wish I hadn't as an old American uber-nit jams over the top of me for another 20,000 chips. It is a horrid spot. I'm convinced he has AA or KK but even if he does I am still priced in to call. This is a snap call in a cash game but here it is a stop and think moment. I factor that if it is even remotely possible he could have AK in his range here then I would be making a hideous fold and bite the bullet. Shortstack turns over pocket 10s (oops), Nit turns over KK. First card out is an 8 (fist pump on standby) and the 2nd card is a king (FML). We are down to 8 players, I need some chips fast and Old Man Nit is now the chip leader by a decent margin. I manage to double through with A J against K J and the bubble bursts just after. I am still short at this point. I raise up with a pair of 5s and 1BlackBamba3 jams over the top. I know he is an aggressive player and will do this with a lot of high card combos so I have no choice but to make a reluctant call and hope I am flipping. He shows jacks and I am gone in 7th for $330 dollars. 1st prize was $3.5K so I wasn't particularly happy, especially as the 4 non-PKR players were all awful. I believe a 5 way deal was struck which Trymean77 was a part of. Maybe I was a little too aggressive in this one but meh, that's my game.

Mclash 80, Jabba, Danski, PKR_Simon at Pure

Another evening another VIP Party to attend (God, isn't life just hideous). This time we are at the VIP area of Pure over at Caesars Palace. The taxi ride over takes forever as traffic on this busy weekend seems to have jammed up the entire centre of Vegas. Eventually we make it. Pure is a nightclub. A nice one but still... just a night club. There is a large main room then a VIP lounge area and a small room off of that. We had the 'Owners Room' to ourselves and a couple of lounges in the area outside. I hate to think how much it cost overall, a lot. There was also an upstairs area which lead out onto a rooftop terrace that looked out onto part of the strip. There was a lot of talking, laughing and drinking. Kelly Rowland appeared in the main area and performed 2 songs. Must be nice to be paid a small fortune to turn up and do less than 10 minutes work...

KingKai and Waswini

It was day 2 of event 54 today and about 7 players had made it through from the 2 day 1s. At the club we heard about the varying stories of people who had been playing but none was crazier than that of Beyne. Beyne played on the Day 1b on Friday and after the 2 day ones had finished there were about 700 left in and Beyne had the 39th biggest stack. Now some time after this and the PKR party at the Mix Lounge several of our crew had found themselves sat at 5am in the morning playing Black Jack. Day 2 of the tournament started at midday. Apparently a dealer took offence to a comment Beyne made and asked him to leave. Beyne didn't think he had done anything wrong (and probably hadn't!) so refused. Unfortunately he also decided to refuse to leave once the Cardroom Manager asked him to. So the police were called and although he wasn't charged with anything they held him for about 12 hours. Beyne finally made it to Day 2 of the tournament very, very late. So late that when he got there all that was left of his 39th biggest chipstack was 4 big blinds. The crazy part, although some might say this is just standard on Planet Beyne, is that he was able to bounce back and turn that 4k back into 200k and put in a deep cash finish... MBN as they say.

At about 2:45am myself and PirateNation decided to head back to the Aria, or at least that was the plan. As we exited the club area into the main floor of Caeser's Palace we were confronted by a worried looking Jake who asked for some help. Slightly to one side being stood over by a large bouncer and Ovnis was our very own Waswini, slumped in a wheelchair. He was just about responsive if you tapped his shoulder but only to the extent of a small twitch. He couldn't hold his head up and certainly couldn't talk. The bouncer was saying an EMT (paramedic) was on the way and that if we couldn't walk him out then he would have to go to hospital in an ambulance. We try standing him up but it just isn't happening. The EMT arrives and has a look at him. He breaks out the smelling salts which induces the biggest reaction yet. Waswini twitches up about ten centimetres then slumps down again. Despite this the EMT is not overly worried about him but confirms we need to get him out or he has to go to the hospital. We wheel him down to the taxi rank. Quite wisely the taxi drivers take one look at him and tell us nooooo way. Jake, ever the thinking man in an alcohol based crisis, grabs a limo instead. The driver is quite happy to charge through the teeth to take a drunken Fronk home. Myself and PirateNation have to grab an arm each and manouver him into the back of the thing, no small task. At the other end We have to repeat the same feat and carry him towards the door of the Aria. The doorman quickly grabs another collapsable wheelchair and we put him back in, head slumped. We wait with him whilst Jake goes to find out what room he is staying in. I comment to the Doorman 'Another quiet night in Vegas.' He gives me a look before saying 'This is the tenth one like this tonight.' Fourth of July weekend...

Eventually Jake returns with the room number. We wheel him up in the lift. Jake is looking at himself in the mirror and questioning where the spots on his face have come from. I suggest that getting more than 30 minutes sleep a night might help. Jake leaves us once satisfied the door key works. We wheel Waswini into his room inadvertently waking up the friend who is staying with him. There is a good selection of spirits on the table and a large amount of empty pizza boxes. Pirate rolls Waswini into bed at which point he decides to roll back towards the wall and start vomiting. Satisfied that our public service remit has been filled for the evening we leave, safe in the knowledge that at least some one is there to keep an eye on him.

 

Fear and Loathing in Locke Vegas 2010: Part 3

This series of blogs first appeared on the PKR Forum in June and July 2010.  I won a WSOP Experience Package worth $4,000 through a PKR Road To Vegas Tournament League that ran for several months.  Most players are referred to by their PKR user names. 

Part 3

'It won't be long before they tear us to shreds.'

The PKR welcome party is at the Deuce Lounge, one of the many separated areas on the main floor of the Aria. The PKR staff posse are all present as are some of the qualifiers. More turn up as the evening wears on but not everyone makes it due to flights and other annoyances. Everyone is is in good spirits. Most of the staff have already been out for a few days or more.  For the most part they actually got a few days off of work to do this rather rather than spend these hard days by the poolside Cabana on the blag.  PKR_Jake, the VIP Manager, doesn't seem to have had more than one hours sleep a night for about a week. This is never a good sign. Beyne has been on psycho blackjack swings all week. Reports have him from anything to up $50k to down $100k in the space of the same evening. Bellagio comp room buddy James666 shakes his head whenever the subject comes up. Suddenly at 24 James is looking like the sensible and mature one on Team PKR Pro - how on earth did that happen? PKR_Jake is having his own table games rollercoaster and from here on in I think should be known as Mini-Beyne.

PKR Welcome Party

Jabba explains PKR V2.0 has been delayed by a few weeks and assures me fun and exciting ideas are coming soon for the tournament section, subject to 'patent approval'. Being starving myself and Jabba order some snack food from the menu. You know you are in VIP land when 4 mouthfuls of food set sets you back $20. Also at some point during the evening a smart toilet attendant appears as happens at some posher clubs in Britain. Some things I don't mind tipping for, but seriously, don't expect a dollar when I am perfectly capable of reaching for the paper towels all on my own TYVM. This is probably a recurring theme from our VIP week. I'm sure these places have staff that are used to big tippers in their VIP areas, I bet none of them counted on stingy tight ass poker players.

Beyne and Danski

At about midnight I put in a couple of hours at the 1-3 NL cash tables before heading off to bed. Reported sightings place some of the more hardcore members of the staff heading back out of the Aria at 5am in the morning having already been out to a club inbetween. Hardcore degens.

I wake up after 4 hours in bed once again. Still, I need to get to the Rio to preregister before the event so this is not a bad thing. I stuff myself silly at the gorgeous Aria buffet so I will not need to eat for a while once the nerves kick in. The buffet is just awesome, stuff from all over the world, lots of things that just do not belong on a help yourself line. I get a taxi to the Rio. As I walk from the main casino through to the convention centre it slowly becomes more WSOP orientated. Giant banners of past players of the year fill the hallway. After registering I dawdle around. At the moment barring a few cash tables the two halls are empty. Tables are everywhere. The scale is immense but not as intimidating as I expected. I sit in the Poker Food Hall with DWH103and another qualifier  With 20 minutes to go the nerves start kicking in. At this point I just want to start playing. Not playing is now worse than playing could ever be. I pace around for the last ten minutes and find my chair.

WSOP at the Rio

 I don't recognise anyone at my starting table. With my fairly deep knowledge of poker this is a good sign. After the immortal 'Shuffle Up and deal' I am suddenly playing in the WSOP... /OMG. First hand I am in the big blind. A few players limp in and I look down to see K 9o. I check the option and am rewarded with a K 9 3 rainbow flop. I check, as does everyone else. I bet small on the turn and everyone folds. I have won the first hand, not a big pot, but it makes me feel better. I pick up and lose a few small standard pots but am glad to see I am fast picking up a strong read of the table. In the first big hand on the table I put both guys on their exact hands. There is such a thing though as concentrating too hard however as my first key hand showed. This is probably the most embarrassing hand of poker I have ever played. A guy raises in late position who has been more active than most and I look down to see 10 6 of clubs. I decide to flat call and screw with him a little if the opportunity presents. The flop comes low with 2 spades. He fires a standard small continuation bet. I decide as a lot of hands he has here will be two big overs to try and raise him out. If he jams I know he has the big overpair. If he calls I know he has a likely weak overpair and I can then check the turn and try and represent the spade draw if it lands on the river or bet it if the spade hits the turn. He calls and the turn is a brick. He checks, I check. The river is not a spade. He checks again though... suddenly I feel like bluffing again may take the pot anyway. I fire out a decent bet into the pot. He calls pretty quickly and I just want to muck my 10 high. As experience has taught me that weird things happen in poker I show my cards face up after looking like I want to muck them. When the dealer says flush I almost fall out of my seat. I have been so intensely concentrating on my bluff line that I clean failed to notice that I had runner runnered a club flush. The other guy is of course disgusted that his pocket 10s (exactly the sort of hand I put him on after he just called the raise!) have been beaten by some donk who doesn't even know when he has a flush. This table image would have been perfect for exploitation though sadly they break this rather soft starting table just fifteen minutes later.

My 2nd table seems okay to start with and I am up 1K on my 3k starting stack after close to 2 hours. After the 2nd level we break. The trick to finding a toilet during a WSOP break is to start walking to the far end of the Rio as fast as possible. The queues are actually bearable down the far end. I run across a few people for a quick update but it is straight back into action. No PKR staff are anywhere to be seen after the particularly heavy night they had.  In quick succession the 3 guys at my new table I marked as idiots bust out... none of them throwing chips my way. In the most annoying fashion possible each is replaced by an obvious online Pro. To my left sits down a Russian guy, not one of the top tier of superstars, but some one who I recognise. He strikes up a conversation with the guy to my right who he knows about how well all the guys he is staking (thousands of dollars worth) have done during the last couple of weeks. He knows the guy to my right because he is being staked by Timoshenko.  I buckle my seat belt and  prepare to dig in. I of course go card dead at this point and get played back at constantly in the sort of ugly spots you just can't do a lot about. After 3 and a half blind levels I am down to 1.8k from the 3k starting stack and take a stand with pocket 6s against an obvious big ace. He turns over A Q and the flop of course drops A Q x on me. You have to win flips to win bracelets and I haven't in this one. I spend the next few hours catching up with who is in and who is out. I spotted Gavin Griffin and Kara Scott playing but then in quick succession saw most of the rest of the poker world. Moneymaker, Dennis Phillips. Going into the other room were some sick tables, especially in the $25K six max event. At one table is Greenstein, Seidel and Sam Trickett. On the next one over Phil Ivey is drawing a huge rail as always. At a feature table is John Juanda, and at the main flashy TV table sits John Duthie. Elswhere is Juha Hellpi, Barney Boatman, Vanessa Rousso and on and on it gos.

TV feature table

 At this point Pirate Nation arrives having only just got into Vegas. We head back to the Aria and hit the NL tables. I have an annoying session where I can't win a flip. Despite that I am only down about $100 dollars. I spot a super soft table nearby and ask to go on the waiting list. As this happens I see a player get up and Japete gets the seat before I get a chance, damn you Spaniard! I wait 90 minutes dying a slow death at my nitty table watching the drunks dumping their their cash off left right and centre. When a seat finally opens the game has broken up within 10 minutes. FML. I think about sleep, it now being about 1am but instead take a seat at the $4/8 limit game where PKR_Danski, PKR_Jake, PKR_Scott and PKR_Harry are engaged in psychotic action with an uber-donk and a couple of spewtards. 4 or 5 players are regularly seeing the 5 bet cap putting $100 dollars into most pots preflop. As a guy who plays a lot of $3/6 and $5/10 limit the scale of the action is mind blowing. Being rivered in a $300 pot at $4/8 limit is just not an average occurrence. Sick beats go down left right and centre. Insults and banter fly. A really nice guy joins the table who claimed to be 54 but looked about 35. The PKR posse took to calling him Peter Pan for the rest of the night, when Dan wasn't calling him his 'Dawg' in a really bad American accent. The game broke at about 6am in the morning by which point Danski was pre tipping every dealer and taking the piss out of their names ('Ping' being the favourite) and tipping everyone at the table each time he won. Somehow I ended up stuck about $200 dollars despite being the least drunk whilst Scott and Harry walked off with about $600 a piece.

Fixed Limit degeneracy

Stay tuned for the truth about Waswheelchairgate, which PKR Pro spent the morning in a Las Vegas jail drunk tank and more exciting adventures!