Edit: Fixed AA hand history

After living in Vegas for 2 months, I finally got out to a card room (Red Rock) to put in a proper session. Because of the players at my table, and one next to us, it was absolutely the most interesting night I've ever spent playing. But first, some hands...

-The 5th or 6th hand of the night, I picked up KK and raised to 15 from the blinds, folding out 2 of the 3 limpers. Flop was AXcXc. I bet, he called. I led the turn, a blank, and got called again. At this point it was clear he had an ace. River was ck/ck and he tabled A7o. I lost about $60, which was the worst hand I suffered all night.

-Interesting hand of the night: AA on the button!!! There were 3 limpers, I made it 17 and got 3 callers (BB came along). Flop: 59Qr. BB, older guy who just sat, leads 50 into ~65 (he has ~75 behind). Very tilted guy (he had taken a 3 outer and lost QQ AIPF in the last 20 minutes) to his left thinks and tilt calls (~50 behind). Drunk guy shoves for 45 total. I put the drunk guy on exactly 55. From watching him play, I think he puts in a PFR w/ 99, AQ, and KQ and know he does with QQ.The bottom o f his range is QJ, which is unlikely with a big bet and call in front (he had proven he could fold here). As far as the other two guys, I was sure one of them had to have a big Q and was pretty confident that neither would not fold a hand like AQ to a shove. BB fit the profile of a guy who overplays TPTK and tilted guy wasn't going anywhere with the size of the pot. I'd find it hard to believe that the BB would bet so strong on such a dry board with 9's or Q's. Tilted guy could have anything from Qx to JT to Q9. Based on all of that info, I decided to shove, sure I was getting called somewhere. I got called in BOTH spots. The board bricked out, drunk guy tabled 5's, tilted guy mucked, I suspect with JT, and BB tables two black aces for a chop of the side pot. I lost ~30 on the hand.

-KdJx on the CO, one limper, I make it $10, btn flats, hu to the flop: T62dd. I cbet 16, btn calls. The btn is a station. If he limped a hand pre, he was calling a raise 100% of the time. He chased draws and ALWAYS bet when checked to HU. Turn is a Q. I thought about betting, but realized I am not repping much by doing so, esp vs a guy who is likely not folding any of his range here. I decided to check/call and bet any 9, A, K, or diamond. I got the diamond, led $28, and raked the pot.

-The one hand I REALLY wish I had back.... AsQx in LP 6-handed. I raise to 10 and get called in one spot by a blind. He is a young guy, seems to be not a great player, but our history is only a few orbits. Flop is T52ss. He checked, I bet 11 and he min raised to 22. I called, looking to take it away as I put him on a vulnerable made hand like JT, etc. The turn is a blank and he checks, which makes me sure he has 66, 77, 88, 99, or Tx. I feel like I could have bet here and fired any river and gotten a fold a ton of the time. Instead, I decide to check and bet the river. Not sure if I like that choice, but whatever. The river is a great card, as the K falls. He checks and I, for who the fuck knows what reason, tank for a minute and check back. I just completely bailed on the plan.........no clue why......just terrible. Before he flipped his cards over, I called out his hand, he smiled, and I mucked as he tabled QT.

Other than that I had about 15 pp's that saw a flop and I didn't make one set. I looked down at AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ, QJ, etc. about 5000 times and never really made a hand. I didn't win a single showdown and only won one hand that saw a river. It was a pretty painful night poker-wise.

All that said, it was a great deal of fun socially. I had a drunk Armenian to my right all night. He had a friend by his side whot is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor that has his belt under a Carlson Gracie black belt (I forget his name). It was pretty awesome to talk to him - he clearly knew his shit. He said he hosts Rousimar Palhares whenever he is in town. Anybody that follows UFC or BJJ knows that dude is a f'n killer. His leg locks are SCARY. This guy keeps good company! Oh, I forgot that he said he often works as a body guard for the Saudi Royal Family when they are visiting anywhere on the West Coast. He spoke fluent Arabic, which is how he got the jig.

So these two Armenian guys have another friend sitting at the 2/5 table right next to us. It turns out he is John Dolmayan, the long time drummer for System of a Down. I have been a big System fan for more than a decade, so it was very cool to meet him and chat with his friends. They were all very nice guys who ended up giving me a standing invite to their private UFC parties at Red Rock. I look forward to taking them up on it and hopefully someday scoring some System tix and/or BJJ lessons.

Speaking of the drunk Armenian...he was massively entertaining. He ragged on everybody at the table, but it was in a non-douchey and pretty funny way. He had us all in stitches for 5 or 6 straight hours. One of his favorite targets was Frank.

Lets talk about Frank for a bit!

This dude sits down with $150, a big ugly watch, and a stripper looking girl (later confirmed when her friend, who was CLEARLY a stripper, came over to chat). He isnta-noticed my CR shirt (I wasn't thinking when I got dressed) and asked me where I got it. I told him I work here, which was the end of the discussion. Or so I thought. 10 minutes later he asked me who I knew at CR. As I kinda had my spider senses tingling, I told him, "everybody." And that was the end of the discussion, or so I thought. Fast forward 10 minutes:

"You know Brian?"

"Hastings or Townsend?"

"Townsend"

"Yeah"

"He is a good guy"

"Yeah, he is"

"What about leather ass?"

"Yeah, a bit"

And that was the end of the discussion. Or so I thought.

Basically, he was BEGGING me to ask him who he was. He really wanted to tell me....you could see it. Finally he couldn't take it any more and handed me his business card:








He proceeded to donk off all his money in the weakest possible way. This guy was so weak it was amazing. He kept check/guessing, putting himself in spots on the river where he had to decide to call/fold. Inevitably he ended up folding and saying, "I'll let you bluff me this time."

A bit later a guy sits and sees the business card before rolling his eyes and saying, "That guy was here?" According to this dude, Frank is totally busto and known as one of the worse regulars in Vegas. I guess he also had a booth of some sort at the WSOP. It also bears mentioning that the drunk Armenian spent the rest of the night flashing Frank's card every time he was in a big hand, trying to intimidate people. It was pretty funny.

This morning I checked out Frank's book on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Professional-Poker-Players-Alive/dp/0578011271/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311787872&sr=8-1). Here are two of the four reviews:

"This is far and away the worst poker book I have ever read. I didn't even buy it, someone gave it to me because they said it was the worst book they had ever read and they didn't want it anymore. I couldn't even make it all the way through the book with all of the grammatical errors, spelling errors, and idiotic sentences. If you have watched any poker on TV, you know more than you could ever learn in this garbage rag. I would bet money that anyone giving this book a positive review is the actual writer of the book or someone related to him."


"I read the first half of this book out of morbid curiosity after playing live poker at the Venetian with the author a while back. The guy is a terrible player, and the book is horrible. If you play regularly with someone you'd love to beat on a regular basis, give them this book as a present. If they're dumb enough to read the whole thing, they're bound to become worse.

Apart from that, avoid this book."

lulz

Overall I really like Red Rock's room. The play was much more passive than I am used to on the strip (not that 1/2 or 1/3 is that aggro anyway) with a virtual lack of complete idiot donators. I am going to try and put at least 2-3 more sessions in before I decide if I am OK there or need to venture to the tourist-rich lands of MGM, Mirage, etc.

-Jeff