Johnny Cheng was up with the birds, and the other 2 of us woke in time for a breakfast at the Teahouse around 10 am. Immediately after the meal, the 2 of us go down to the IP poker room and we each got seats in a 2/4 limit game. About half of the table had little to no clue how to play and both Johnny and I ended up the short session with modest wins. The Shoeshiner was rolling over his table and ended up about 100 bucks ahead after only an hour or so. Considering how weak the game was, it was kind of hard to leave the IP, but we had planned to play the 2pm tourney at Planet Hollywood and we stuck to that plan.
The room at PH had a nice modern feel to it. The dealers were pretty good, but I wasn’t in love with the wood ‘racing track’ on the tables. The tourney had about 75 runners in it, and I got off to a pretty nice start the first hour. I won a decent sized pot with K10 suited against a young girl who probably wants to be Brandi Hawbaker, but was a tad over weight. She was playing pretty fast, and it seemed like she was bluffing a lot early. Not long after that hand I pick up AA in the big blind. A Dude chugging rum and cokes raised from 1 spot behind the button and the Brandi wannabe smooth called from the SB. I popped it up 1K and original raiser folded, but Brandi moved all in immediately. I called, she showed 55, my AA held, and she was headed for the exit. I won another decent pot when I flopped 3 of a kind with KQ off, and won a few more pots before the end of the first hour. I had more than doubled up before the first break and liked the spot I was in. The next hour was atrocious as I got very few cards and was only able to steal the blinds a few times. I think I ended up the second hour with fewer chips than I had at the end of the first.
Johnny busted out during the 2nd hour, but the Shoeshiner had a decent sized stack. We were down to 25 players or so when we started the 3rd hour. I am in the big blind the first hand I have 3500 chips left after posting the 2K bet, it folds around to the SB who limps, and I put the rest of my chips in with garbage hoping the lady to my left folds. She calls off half her stack with J7 off, a J comes on the flop and IGHN.
I spent the rest of the time sweating the Shoeshiner who made the final table, despite taking a nasty river beat when they were to 11 or 12 players. The final 10 got paid and the Shoeshiner played some nice poker and ended up getting 4th for $350. We had all exchanged 15 of each other, so I got back about 50 of my 60 dollar buy-in. After the tourney, we went down to the Spice Market Buffet which was very good, but slightly expensive.
We head back to the IP and agreed to play there the duration of the night. The Shoeshiner and I started to play some Pai Gow and have some drinks. After a few hours we decide to get in on a 2/4 game hoping it was as weak as this morning. It was, but I lose some big pots and end up losing a good chunk of my buy-in before deciding to go back to Pai Gow. I got up and left and the Shoeshiner and Johnny joined me not too much later. We are playing and a hand comes up where the dealer set her hand wrong, although no one caught it at the table. I think she set a flush behind and a very weak two card hand up front, when she could have set a pair up front and a pair in back. She went through most of the table pushing with everyone and taking their cards. A pit boss walked up and notices that she set her hand wrong and proceeded to give everyone their cards back and reset her hand. Everyone raises a big stink and I ask if we can all reset our hands after everyone’s hands have been exposed. He said yes, and I reset my hand to where I could still push with her. This pissed him off and he set my hand back to where it had been in the first place and takes my bet. This really pissed me off and I go into a profanity laced mini-tirade about how he had just told me I could reset my hand. Everyone at the table is yelling at him. He ends up giving me my bet back, but everyone at the table got up and left. I don’t know what the proper ruling is there, but it seemed like a pretty poor decision from a PR point of view.
We decided to take our Pai Gow tour next door to the Flamingo and got seated at a ‘mini Pai Gow’ table. This game was played with 6 cards, with a 1 card poker hand up front and a 5 card in back. There was no 5% rake which cut back the house edge and ended up making the game run smoother. I ended up a few bets after 2 hours or so and got a pretty nice buzz going from the 2 stiff 7 and 7s I drank. We head back to the IP around 6 am and crash having to check out 11am. We all made it up on time and caught our flight back to reality.
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