Are the nuts, really the nuts? La importancia de la posición cuando compartes las nueces.

Esta noche jugue en Aria 2-5 NL otra vez, esta vez solo unos 90 minutos, gane unos $350 y me fui porque la mesa no estaba muy buena.
La mano mas interesante que jugue fue la siguiente, en la que se puede ver claramente la importancia de estar en posicion:

Con 10c7c llame en LP, quizás era MP que parece LP porque el juego era 10-handed, lol. Llame porque llamaron varios antes de mi y la mesa no estaba haciendo mucho raise, asi que la probabilidad de que alguien hiciera raise despues era poca; llamaron varios mas los $5 y como unos 7 vimos el flop:

AsKhQc

Checan yo checo y todos los demas checan, jajaja

Turn fue Js

Como pueden ver tengo los nuts pero pues con tanta gente jugando, seguramente alguien mas las tiene, aqui mi estrategia es tratar de ganar lo que se pueda, es decir si alguien apuesta solo llamar, si no, apostar poco, para que agun KJ o algo asi se quede, so much for the plan, BB apuesta $20, EP le hace raise a $60, mmmmmmm, no me gusta la accion pero pues los nuts son los nuts y solo llamo los $60, los demas se tiran y ahora BB decide irse all in con $261 mas, arrggghhh, porque arrrggghhh diran ustedes, despues de todo tengo los nuts no?, pues si, pero el problema es que a la mejor todos los que estamos en la mano los tienen y alguien puede tener 10s9s por ejemplo, o sea nos puede ganar en el river, asi que a lo mas vamos a ganar poco (casi nada) o perder mucho, EP se queda pensando y decide llamar los $261 (tiene como $500 mas atras), demontres, ahora mas probabilidad de que alguno tenga el flush draw, pienso un poco y decido que como EP no se fue all in, no tiene el flush draw, asi que si existe un flsh draw solo es posible que lo tenga BB, pero pues este no era particularmente un buen jugador, asi que igual y solo tiene el T y ni cuenta se ha dado del flush draw, asi que decido llamar los $261 y me quedan como $600 atras.

El river es un Ad

Perfecta carta para mi, pues tengo posición sobre EP, el checa como era de esperarse y que hago yo, pues obviamente ya se que tiene así que me voy all in, se queda piense y piense y piense como 3 minutos, agonizando pensando que me llego el full house y que yo andaba llamando con 2 pares, jaja, seguramente, pero pues al final decide llamar y se alivia al ver que todos solo tenemos el T, y hacemos un split, BB efectivamente ni flush draw tenia solo el T, lo cual hace que su movida all in sea bastante mala. Fue una mano divertida donde casi no gane nada pero jugue el river perfecto y casi me sale, pero pues se puede ver claramente la importancia de la posicion y la importancia de poner presion en tus oponentes.

Les dejo aqui una foto mas de City Center, esta es en Crystals, son esculturas de hielo, si, hielo de verdad de ese de agua congelada, jaja, y como dije en el pasado blog, todo City Center es espectacular.

Aria opened at Vegas and of course I was there to inaugurate their poker room

City Center grand opening was today, Aria casino opened at 11:59PM Wednesday, I tried to be there on time, but I couldn't find any parking and wasted a lot of time, at the end I could find one between the Montecarlo and New York New York casinos, I wasn't really late since by 12:10AM I was already in the poker room which was really packed, and by 12:15AM I was already playing my first hand at the Aria, probably the first 2-5 NL game that opened ever !!, my table was good, since only 4 of us (out of 10) bought in for $500, rest of the table bought between $200 and $300 which is always a good sign. My stack at the beginning of the session

The first hand I was UTG, so I was the first to fold a hand, next hand I won my first pot betting a K22 flop with my 78o; everybody started to play really careful, but as usual after a little while people start to get anxious to play pots, and my table didn't dissapoint, there were two German guys, one of them who tried to bluff me a little too much; one guy who was known by a lot of the people there since he was a WPT finalist or something, 3 young friends with one of them pretty happy and drinking, tipping dealers left and right and just hemorrhaging money at the table, 2 other middle age guys who looked like pros but played pretty tight for my taste, basically the table was pretty, pretty good for me, since I could not identify a single player who was going to be a threat. Don't remember many hands, one I raised to 20 with 88 in EP, German guy called me, flop was J72, I made a $35 continuation bet, he called, next card was a 7, I decided to check and he bet $50, I called, river was a 4 and I checked again, he promptly bet $100, I thought for a while and was going to muck but he insisted on showing his hand to his friend and when I hinted I was gonna call, he made a motion to show his hand, there was something about his willingness to show that didn't add up, so I called and he just had AK. Another hand I remember was a pretty funny one, between German guy, happy guy and a pretty nice lady, they were all in after the flop, German guy won the main pot, but happy guy and lady didn't realized there should be a side pot and both mucked their cards !!!, which I found pretty hilarious.
Session went pretty smooth and I booked a pretty good win, without too much effort to be honest, they let me win some pots because they didn't use too much pressure and also some of them insisted on calling all my value bets, so this was my stack at the end after 5 hours of playing (with $3 chip on first plane)

By 5AM I was really tired, so I decided to call it a night, but I think I will be back today and the weekend and hopefully I find some other good tables to play, there is a good chance since the place is new and everybody want to play and be there.

This is a picture I took from the outside when leaving



The place is really something, all City Center looked beautiful, Aria, the Veer towers, Crystals, the tram, everything was great and it was very enjoyable just to walk here and there, there was art everywhere and all was really modern and cool, man, I love Vegas.

I hate folding trips on the flop, but it was the right thing to do, or so I think

This Saturday, Sunday morning I arrived at The Winn to play 2-5 NL at 1AM, I started winning but at the end after some 11 hours it would be a disastrous session, pretty good table but I just couldn't win; I've been there, so I just need to suck it up and hope to have better luck next time.

The most interesting hand was the following:

UTG raised to $15, everybody called and I had 87o in LP, so I called with the rest of the table, family pot.

Flop: 7h7d2h

pretty nice, exactly what I want, UTG bet $20, UTG+1 raised to $80 !!, folded to me, I didn't think much of his raise, but I wanted to price the flushes over there, my options were call or raise, the original raiser was a bad player and if he had a big pair he was going to play his stack with that flop, I opted for raising, and I did it t $215, now the fun came, the next guy pondered my reraise and flat called !!!!, damn, I did't like it at all, but then the button guy went all in for like $1600, what???, what the fuck, folded to me, pretty big pot by now and I had about $600 left, so I thought my chances now where pretty, pretty slim to win and most possible I was way behind (one of the two HAS TO have 22 or something like A7 right?), so I decided to fold, next guy since he had more than $1000 behind agonized to make the decision and at the last moment decided to call his stack with 74s !!!!

Button guy had AQh !!!!!, blanks (Td and Kc) on the turn and river and 74s guy won a monster pot. It was the most commented hand of the night, everybody commenting about if button's decision to go AI was terrible or just pretty bad, if my decision to fold was right and if 74s guy decision to call was the right move.

Pretty, pretty interesting to analyze the 3 decisions, what do you think?

Mis Lugares Preferidos para jugar No Limit Holdem en Las Vegas

Hasta ahora he jugado live NL cash games en Bellagio, Ceasars, MGM, Venetian, Planet Hollywood, Winn, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, Mirage y quizás algún otro por ahí que no recuerdo al momento.

Solo he jugado 1-3 (1-2) NL, 2-5 NL y una que otra vez limit holdem, aunque muy rara vez, inclusive el 1-3 NL también rara vez lo juego y me he concentrado mas en jugar 2-5 NL, regularmente me siento con $500 y dependiendo de los stacks que haya en la mesa a veces me siento con mas (si es permitido por el casino).

Definitivamente mis 2 lugares favoritos para jugar son el Winn y el Venetian, a toda hora (de las que yo he ido) hay juegos, y el ambiente de estos 2 casinos para mi es mucho mejor que el de los demás. El parking lot en el Winn es super conveniente, aunque igual y no tengo problema en caminar lo que sea necesario para llegar al poker room de un casino, pero quizás el que el poker room del Winn este ubicado en un corredor rumbo al parking lot lo convierte en una distracción, imagínense nada mas la pasarela interminable de mujeres guapísimas en altas horas de la madrugada !!; el Venetian seguramente se convertirá en EL lugar para jugar poker en Las Vegas si no es que ya lo es, quizás ahorita vayan demasiados pros ahí para mi gusto, pero hasta ahora me han tocado suficientes mesas buenas, inclusive alguna vez que estaba en una mesa no muy buena por que parecía que todos eran regulares/pros, me pude aprovechar un poco de la situación puesto que ellos me veían a mi como el "turista" al que había que ganarle las fichas, y pues como no me conocían, eso hacia que no jugaran optimamente contra mi estilo de juego.

Trato de variar y jugar en la mayor cantidad de lugares posibles para tener un bajo perfil, pero sin lugar a dudas mis preferencias son por el momento el Winn y el Venetian.