November 26th 2007

So we get to the final full day of my 2007 Las Vegas trip. Poker wise it has been a bit of a let down, but the rest of the city and the break has been great. To be honest I have not played as much poker as I usually do this trip. What I will do is post a general Vegas post to highlight what I think are the do's and don'ts of Vegas.

So the morning started with a re visit to the Venetian card room. Len and Dave wanted to enter the $150 mid day buy in tournament. There were about 40 runners in this, starting chips of 7500 and 30 minute blinds. A very good quality tournament for Vegas. Len made the final table of this tournament but went out when his dominating KJos went heads up against KTos on a K high board. Of course the ten hit the river and the tens remained to be Lens bug bear for the holiday.

I didn't enter the tourney but played a $1 / $2 cash game. Second hand in I was able to get into a pot with 77 in the SB. The flop came down 37A with the 3 and the 7 being hearts. I put in a small bet and was re raised by the under the gun player and then this was re re raised by a mid position player. I loved this action and firmly believed I was ahead. The under the gun player then acted out of turn and called this re re raise (flush I thought). She was forced to leave her bet there whilst I contemplated my next move. Putting her on a flush draw due to the flat call I decided to raise it up and get head to head with the mid position player who I put on the ace. I bet an extra $100 into a pot of what was now about $60. The UTG player folded and the mid position went into the tank. After being prompted by the dealer he pushed all in having me covered, I instantly called. He had 2 pair A7's. My set held up and I was firmly ahead for once.

The session went nice and smoothly after that and I was able to increase my winnings by making a few nice hands and good calls (calling my ace weak kicker in the BB after a bet of $50 on the river by my opponent into a $60 pot when the flop paired my ace and getting my read right).

Once I was nicely ahead I decided to finish my poker playing for the trip and leave on a positive high with at least one winning session of note.

So from there on it was relax, have a drink and go to see the Phantom of the Opera that evening.
The show was excellent, they had apparently spent $45 million on the set and it showed. The sound of the orchestra combined with the excellent performances of the actors and special effects gave it the air of watching a tv programme rather than being at the theatre. Anyone visiting Vegas should at least see one show.

That's all for now, I will put a summary post of the trip up shortly (after my jet lag subsides) along with a few photo's.

For now here was the days wins / losses:

Buy Ins - $200

Cash Out - $525

Profit - $325