Vegas Bound

The World Series is the greatest festival of tournament poker on the planet. However Vegas during the world series is also on of the best festivals of cash game poker on the planet. Years ago the side games were far more important than the tournaments as the best players in the world would compete with wealthy amateurs for dizzying sights. This year saw a renaissance of the big side games as Brian Townsend (online known as sbrugby) joined players like Sam Farha, Mirage CEO Bobby Baldwin and Patrick Antonius to play a huge side game in Bobby’s room at the Bellagio. They played PLO and NLH with blinds of 1,000/2,000 often with a 4,000 straddle with players winning or losing well over a million dollars in a day.

On arriving in Vegas this trip my sights were set a little lower but I knew the cash games at the series represented a great chance to make some proper money. One of the best pieces of advice I can give if you come to Vegas is not to play poker for at least 48 hours. You’re tired, jet lagged and it’s pretty impossible to play you’re a game. Of course I followed this advice to the letter….if you change all the letters.
I’d been in the promised land for less than 24 hours when, slightly fuelled by complimentary beverages, I was shuffling through the Palms resort and casino. Alongside me fellow poker media whore / player / man about town Matt Broughton. We decided to check out the poker room, ‘just to see what it was like’.

Well much to our surprise it contained people playing poker for money. As we stood and watched however we realised it was a good game; actually it was a ‘goooodddd game. The game was wild with players throwing their chips in as if poker was going to be banned before the morning.
As we watched from the rail a seat became open. My mind was awash with conflict – this was a great money making opportunity the kind of game you can spend days looking for. On the other hand I was tired, jet-lagged, I’d had a couple of liveners and playing tonight was not the plan. In the end it took some wise considered words from Matt to make my decision ‘Are you going to take that seat mate?’ – I was yes.

For the next 4 hours I sat with the drunks and the loons and waited to make a big score. It was a 2-5 no limit game but there was several thousand on the table and the kind of game where you could make enough to pay for your trip if the cards fell right.
I’d played pretty quietly for the first hour taking a few smallish pots before a hand arrived that would spark a bit of first night fun. In the big blind I was dealt AhAc. It was limped round to me and I put in a big ish raise that got one caller. The player who called had been playing pretty loose so this wasn’t a surprise.
The flop came 3d4d5h. I led out for a just under the pot sized bet and my opponent moved in on me.
This was a massive over the pot sized bet. There was about one hundred in the pot and he’d moved me in for the remaining five hundred in front of me. This is a horrible spot for me as he could be making a big move with a big draw or has a made hand he thinks he’ll get paid on by making this bet. Either way I had a decision.
As I was thinking he flipped over the 5diamonds and started chatting it up a lot. Though he’d been playing loosely he hadn’t made this big move before. Also he seemed confident and relaxed and there are so many hands that have me in trouble or crushed here I pretty quickly decided I’d fold and look for a better spot.

However I was enjoying the banter and quizzing him about his hand so I didn’t fold immediately. After no more than a couple of minutes the one seat – a guy with a tiny manicured moustache who looked like he tucked his shirt into his underpants – called a clock on me.

A clock!!! In a cash game… a 2/5 cash game. Poker on TV has a lot to answer for. I was just in the middle of saying ‘a clock – in a 2/5 cash game’ with suitable incredulity when the floor man strode over and put the clock on me. H did this in the manner of a man who a) has almost nothing to do most shifts for many hours and b) bought a new watch with sweep second hand specifically for this purpose and was finally getting to use it.

Naturally being a mature and considered individual I spent the 60 seconds of my ‘clock’ lambasting the guy who had called the clock and promising to all a clock on him most hands for the rest of the night.
After mucking the hand, and enjoying more of the complimentary beverage service Matt and I spent several gleeful hours shouting ‘Clock’ at him every time the action got to him. I don’t think we’re on his Christmas card list.

So far the lettuce has been eating the rabbit and I’m down in the cash games but by the end of the trip I promise I’ll get ahead and be sitting in Bobby’s room… provided I can sneak in when all the big boys are off having a quick nap.

Originally published in Poker Player magazine.

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