Vegas, Baby!

Yay to McCarran Airport, which has free wi-fi. I'm returning from 2.3 days in Vegas with my friend Barry. We stayed at the Stratosphere.

My poker record was pretty good, where basically my cash-game winnings paid for my entries into 4 tournaments.

My hold-em tournament record:

Friday:
Stratosphere Midnight Tournament: 5th out of 36. (no money)
Saturday:
Harrahs 3:30pm: 12th out of 40. (no money)
Stratosphere Midnight Tournament: 1st out of 32. "You're so money, and you don't even know it."

I also played in a no-limit Omaha tourney (Sunday Stratosphere Midnight tourney) of about 30 people, but (as I expected) I didn't do nearly as well in that one. I still don't really have a good feel for Omaha (especially since the only Omaha spread locally is high/low, and this was high only).

The tourney win paid for the whole trip, so it was definitely a success!

The big hand of the tourney went down like this:

We were 3-handed. Short stack on my right with an M of about 2. The other guy and I had about equal stacks (M around 5) but I thought he had me covered. I think I had a pretty good table image as a tight solid player, so since the blinds had just gone up, I wanted to steal them. I was in the small blind, and the short stack folded UTG. I looked at my cards (T3o), but tried to see AJ in my head as I raised it up (to about 2.5x the Big Blind). Big blind calls, after thinking for a bit. At this point, I've forgotten my actual hole cards, but going back to look at them would give away my weakness.

The flop comes AKJ, all diamonds. This seems like a fairly scary board, so I think for a bit, then push all-in. (I'm thinking he definitely credits me for an Ace, and figure he can't call without a diamond draw and at least a pair.) He thinks, and thinks, and thinks some more. He finally calls me. As soon as he calls, I say "Great call. I have nothing." He turns over KJ (no diamonds) for 2-pair. (I'm thinking, "Why'd it take so long, I would've called pretty quickly with that.") I turn over my cards (also no diamonds, but I didn't remember that when I pushed), and start to get up, when I realize I have four outs to the straight.

I luck out and get a queen on the turn, and luck out again, when he *doesn't* hit the full-house on the river, and then luck out *again* when, to my surprise, I actually have him covered.

Now I'm heads up with about 9x chips of my opponent, and get Ax the next hand. I put him all in, and he calls with Kx, which doesn't improve.

Overall, I was pretty happy with my play. I was shortstacked most of the tournament, and played with patience, picking my spots. That big hand was the only time I had all my chips at risk, other than when I got KK (which held up against AQ). I did definitely get lucky to win, but I think that it's probably necessary to suck out at least once in a tourney to win.