D.H. in Las Vegas

[D.H.]

Den här bloggen blir på engelska eftersom en del som vill läsa den ej kan svenska

 

Hi everyone, this is my first blog entry so here is the mandatory introduction. More coming up soon.

 

About me

My name is David Hedqvist, I'm 25 years old and I live in Gothenburg. I've been living here since I started studying computer science in 2000.

 

Poker

I've been playing online poker since 2003, for real money since the beginning of 2004. I used to play mostly FL Hold'em cash games (up to $10/20) and some NL Hold'em tournaments but recently I switched to also playing NL cash games. My greatest poker experience so far is when I got to play the Party Poker Million last year.

 

WSOP

I qualified for WSOP in a tournament on the Gaming Club. I won the entry into the main event and some extra cash for flight and hotel. We (me and my girlfriend Johanna) will arrive in Vegas on the 29th of July and my first day of play is on the 31st. We'll stay on the Gold Coast hotel, next to Rio where WSOP is played.

 

What else?

We have never been to Vegas before so we'll try to see as much as possible. A day-trip to Grand Canyon is all that is planned so far. Any other Swedes staying at the Gold Coast (or nearby), please PM me, it would be nice to meet you, have a beer, a round of bowling or whatever.

[D.H.]

Winning a trip to Vegas can get surprisingly complicated. I've had a few very stressful days.

 

Short version

I was supposed to play on the 31st, but apparantly this was not confirmed and I instead have to play on the 28th. Our flights were not changeable so The Gaming Club (TGC) paid for a new flight for me, but not for Johanna, which means that I'll be going to Vegas early tomorrow morning. I will play on Friday and then Johanna joins me on Saturday.

 

If you're bored, feel free to read the long version below.

 

Long version

Soon after winning the satellite TGC tells me that i will be playing on day 1D and suggests that I fly on the 29th from Sweden. Flight+hotel is included for me, but nothing for an extra person. After a few phone calls and e-mails I convince them to instead give me the $2500 and let me do the flight and hotel booking. That way I figured that I could find something a bit cheaper and afford to bring Johanna with me. After a few nervous days watching the flight prices go up and down while Johanna tries to get confirmation that she doesn't have to work I finally book the tickets for the 29th like TGC suggested.

 

I asked TGC a few times for details on what I need to do when I arrive in Vegas (to get my WSOP seat). They said that they were waiting for details from Rio. A few more days go by and I get nothing. Then I read on the Internet that day 1D is full, I get a bit worried and ask TGC if I am actually confirmed on day 1D. I am told that there's nothing to worry about and that they will get back to me with info soon. Another day goes by and still no information. I decide to call Rio myself to see what the status is for my registration and the only answer i get is that my name is not on the confirmation list. I get more worried and once again contact TGC to get some answers.

 

The next morning (this was yesterday morning) I get a call from TGC saying that I will have to play on the 28th, but that they will pay the cost of changing my flight (but not Johanna's). This of course sucks since even if we can pay for changing Johanna's flight she can't go on the 27th since she has to work. Anyway, I contact TravelNow, the website where I booked my flight tickets. They claim to have 24h e-mail support (no phone number) but I don't get any reply. Meanwhile I contact US Airways directly to see if they can help me but I get the answer that I have to contact the travel agency. So, I wait and wait and finally I get my e-mail. The e-mail kindly says that I should contact US Airways to change my ticket. Gaaah!

 

I send a reply and while waiting I try US Airways again (this time using their american number). Now someone is willing to help but after checking a few things I'm told that the ticket is not changeable. After asking the guy for a good solution he finally tells me that I can cancel my ticket and get credit that I can use for another flight. Oh, OK, that will do, I think. But the prices have gone up a lot and it would still be $1400 extra to pay. I tell him that I will call back and contact TGC again to see if they are willing to pay the $1400. They tell me that this is OK and I once again call US Airways. This time I get a girl who says that I won't be able to get any credit. All I can do is cancel the ticket and book a completely new one. She checks the prices and tells me that the cheapest one is almost 3000 dollars. Ouch. I once again tell them that I will call back.

 

I now check the flights on their webpage and find a flight for a little bit less than $1400. Great, I think, TGC was willing to pay $1400 so I'll just book this one and cancel the old one. I go through the reservation process, enter all my details and then when I'm about to perform the last step I get an error message saying that this part of their website is not working right now and that I should call the Internet helpdesk to finish my booking. Oh well, ok, I can do that. I call the number and the person asks for the details for the flight I was booking. I give her all the information and after being quiet for a while she tells me that the flight now is full. There is some seat left but this will be almost $3000. Sigh...

 

I'm not sure what to do anymore, but before contacting TGC again I call SAS to see what their cheapest flight is. The guy on the phone is very friendly and tells me that they have a flight for... SEK 42000. Uhm, OK, I say, that's rather expensive, I'll call you back. I contact TGC again to tell them about my situation. They tell me that they will contact Rio to try again to change my starting day. You'd think that they would be a little bit flexible here and help us out by letting me play on day 1D. But no, it doesn't seem that way.

 

After a few hours of waiting I find a flight with KLM that is only $1600. I contact TGC and they suggest that I book this flight since they haven't had any success with Rio. I book this flight and finally we have a solution. Not a very good solution since I can't go together with Johanna but OK, it will do. The next thing to do is trying to book our hotel for the extra 2 days that I'll be in Vegas. It is of course full now. I send TGC a message saying that they will have to arrange the hotel for me and then I go to bed after a looong day.

 

The next day (today) they book a room at Harrah's for me for the first days and everything is finally settled. Phew.

 

So tomorrow I'll be in Vegas!

[D.H.]

Alright! I'm in Vegas! Flying alone was a bit boring, the leg space was bad as usual, but whatever... I'm here, I'm tired, and tomorrow it starts!

 

Harrahs had a desk at the airport where you could check in and get the room key so I did that and then I took their "shuttle" to the hotel. I got off the bus at the Venetian since I would have had to go around Vegas for 20 more minutes before arriving at the Harrahs otherwise. The Venetian is very close to Harrahs and some women on the bus told me that it was easy to just go through the parking garage. I got lost for a little while in the parking garage... people probably wondered why I was walking around with my suitcase in a parking garage. Anyway, I found my way out and was almost run over by some cars when crossing 3 lanes.

 

Finally I found my way into Harrahs and my hotel room. I tried calling TGC to set up a meeting with Lesley who is supposed to have a t-shirt and some stuff for me. No success. I then decided to go to Rio and see what it was like. It was huge. After a while I found a desk where I could get my seat for tomorrow. If anyone who is there is interested I will start at table #97, seat 9.

 

A general observation: It's too hot outside and too cold inside. I'll bring a sweater to Rio tomorrow. Tonight I'll try to go to bed pretty soon. I only slept for 3 hours last night and last night was a long time ago... probably not the best way to prepare for a poker tournament.

[D.H.]

My first day at the main event was... weird. I played two hands, the first one I raised it up with KK and won the blinds. The second one I folded pre-flop. Then I got the message that I should play on day 1D.

 

What happened right before we started playing was that another guy with the exact same seat as me turned up. We called the floor and they would look up what was wrong and in the meantime I started playing since I already sat at the table. Apparently they had made a last minute switch of me from day 1A to 1D. I have no idea how they could possibly do this when I had already picked up my seating card.

 

So, this means that I could have travelled with my girlfriend on our original flight and Gaming Club wouldn't have had to pay a new flight ticket for me. Well, well, I guess that the good thing about this is that I can get a few nights of good sleep before playing on Monday.

 

I forgot the cable to my camera so I can't share any pictures yet. I'll see if I can find a cheap memory card reader so that I can get the pictures up.

 

Today I'll probably spend a lot of time by the pool, maybe I'll play some poker later in the evening.

[D.H.]

Oh, another fun thing. This will be the first tournament where hundreds of players play with their shirt inside out. They made it very clear when we were about to start that there was to be NO .com logos in the room. And there was a lot of pokerstars.com t-shirts in there...

[D.H.]

Today is a good day, Johanna finally arrived! Me and my driver picked her up at the airport in the gold colored limousine.

 

Now, that is actually true. Earlier this afternoon I got this SMS from Lesley (from The Gaming Club): "Because of all the inconvenience you have been caused I arranged a limo to pick you up at 5.30pm at the Gold Coast... a gold colored limo. They will take you to the airport and bring you back to the hotel." Big thanks to Lesley, that was a really nice gesture. Actually, TGC have been great to deal with through all this. The WSOP people are the main reason for all the problems.

 

Anyway, the limo ride was pretty cool. After picking me up, the driver (James) took me to the airport. He was opening doors and showing me the way. I chatted with him while waiting for Johanna, he had been in Las Vegas since 87, all the time working as a limo driver at the Golden Nugget. I asked him if he likes Vegas but he shook his head and said "No grass, no trees...". I wonder how you end up in Vegas and stay there for 20 years without really liking it. I guess he's well paid.

[D.H.]

OK, here's a little report from the main event. The reason that I'm not writing it until now is that I came home around 01 and went straight to bed since we were leaving for a grand canyon tour at 06 the next morning.

 

Anyway, my first table had no known faces and everyone was pretty quiet except for a canadian guy who was talking constantly. The table was pretty tight and had a few good players. No maniac and no obvious calling station either. I got pretty good hands during the first period but none of them hit the flop. I got AK, AQ, AJ and AT but didn't win any of them... when I made continuation bets someone else wanted to play and I had to give them up. Luckily I got AA once and won a pretty big pot so I was up to 12600 in the first break.

 

During the second period our table was broken up I and was moved to the seat where Eric Seidel had just been knocked out. Didn't sound like a lucky seat to me... he had busted with AA against QQ. To the left of me sat a very interesting player. He didn't say much and he didn't play anything. For the first hour or so that I was at the table he didn't play a single hand. He had around 11000 though so he must have played something before I got there. Suddenly, after a few players had folded pre-flop... Boom! All-in! 11000 when the blinds were 50-100. Everyone folded to the guy in the big blind, a good aggressive player who was very aware that this player had been folding for the last hour. He thinks for a little while and then calls with KK. The other guy obviously turns up AA and the BB doesn't improve. He then goes into folding mode again.

 

For me, I was winning some smaller hands, hit a set of jacks once but the pot didn't get very big. I still didn't hit any of my high cards and my continuation bets almost never succeded. At the end of period 2 I was down to 7600.

 

I don't remember any particular hands from period 3. Won a few, lost a few and was at 8300 at dinner break.

 

After dinner we were playing with antes and I started to feel a bit shortstacked. At one point we had a very old dealer who had been dealing the WSOP for 30 years(!) He couldn't reach very far so he told us to put the chips a little more to the middle of the table to help him. One guy at our table got very irritated when he was told to push his chips in and there was an argument between the two. Our dealer was almost screaming at him... was pretty funny... like a 80-90 year old guy trying to lecture his 50-60 year old son.

 

I still didn't win any big pots, was between 5000-8000 all the time. At the next break I was at 6000 and since the blinds were going up it was about time to wait for a big hand and go all-in with it. At this point our folding guy played a hand again. The guy he played it against was new at our table and didn't really know his style yet. The folding guy had limped (he didn't bout once every hour) and called a raise I think. The flop came QJ8 or QJ9, not sure which. Folding guy checked and when the other guy bet 1500 or so he instantly raised around 10000. The other guy was really confused... I think that all other guys at our table would have folded aces or kings there without thinking to much about it. After thinking for a long time the guy raises the few chips he's got left and is all-in. Folding guy instantly calls and they both show AQ, noone improves and they split the pot. Wow.

 

Later I call a raise in the big blind with AQ and me and three other players see the flop. The flop is QJ8 and I check-raise all-in. The other guy calls with JJ, I don't improve and I'm out. I had around 6000 at this point, the blinds were 150-300 with a 25 ante and we had been playing for around 12.5 hours.

 

Oh well, I'll win it next year instead.

[D.H.]

Here's a little summary of what we've been doing the last few days. The day after the main event me and Johanna went on a 1 day bus tour to Grand Canyon. Since it takes some time to drive there it is a lot more of sitting in a bus than seeing the Grand Canyon on those trips. But it was OK, we stopped at two different viewing spots for a total of 2.5 hours or so. On the way there we also stopped at the Hoover dam where I noticed that my camera wasn't working... all the pictures came out black or in a total mess. We bought a few one-time-use cameras to be able to get some shots of the canyon.

 

When we arrived I was happy to see that my digital camera was working again, so I think we got some nice pictures of the view. Now my camera is broken again, by the way. It was nice to get back to the hotel and stretch our legs in the evening 'cause even though the bus was supposed to be a "luxury bus" I have to say that it had great similarities to what I call a "regular bus".

 

The next few days we were checking out a lot of the different casinos and saw some of the free stuff that each of them has... such as the water show at Bellagio (which is pretty cool, especially in the evening) and the vulcano at the Mirage. We also went to Lance Burton's magic show, a typical Vegas show that's been going on for a while. Some of the tricks were truly amazing... I have no idea how he does it.

 

After Johanna left yesterday morning I've been playing some poker, I tried to get into the $1500 through a $175 satellite but with no success. Those were really kind of a lottery since the blinds were high to start with and increased quickly. I went out in 6th place with 88 against AA when I was starting to get shortstacked.

 

Yesterday evening I took the shuttle to Orleans to play in their $60 (with 1 $40 rebuy) tournament. After around two hours the blinds were 50/100 and I had around 1000 in chips. I call and see the flop with 3 others with 88. Flop comes 345 rainbow and the first guy bets out 200. The next player calls and 1 player fold. I go all-in for a total of around 900. The original bettor calls with just a straight draw, hits his straight and I'm out.

 

Today I'll play some cash games and win back my money.

[D.H.]

Last message from Vegas. Tomorrow morning my flight leaves for Sweden.

 

I was playing some cash games here at the hotel today. While waiting in line for the only NL game going (blinds 1/2) I played at the only available table, a 2/4 limit. I fold two hands and on the third I pick up QQ and hit a third Q on the flop. I get some callers all the way to the river. The river brings a second 8 on the board, I bet and get raised, reraises and get called by trips of eights. Now my seat is ready at the NL table so I leave after 3 hands, up $39.

 

At the NL table I won one hand in the first 2.5-3 hours. That was quite an interesting hand though. I make a rather loose call with :diamond:T :diamond:7 after a few callers. The flop comes 89A with the :diamond:9. I don't remember the action here but I hang around for the turn with my straight draw. The turn brings the :diamond:J so now I have a made straight and a straight flush draw. One guy bets and another one raises all-in (around $100)... I'm a little bit afraid that he might have QT but with my draw in addition to my straight I push all of my $140 in the pot. The first bettor folds and the river comes.... :diamond:8. The other guy turns over A9 and I show my straight flush.

 

I now find out that this qualifies for the high hand bonus which is at $300 for a diamond straight flush at the moment. A guy comes over, I have to show ID and sign some paper that I don't bother reading. I ask him if my swedish driver's license is OK and he says: "Yeah, whatever, it can be a fake ID for all that I care". I wonder what that ID check is actually good for...

 

So, with 300 extra dollars that puts me up around 400 dollars for the session. I win maybe 3-4 hands during the entire 4 hour session but end up winning $375. It was a nice and friendly table, 3 other swedes and 2 guys from denmark, one drunk Chris Ferguson lookalike (who was the big fish at the table), a british guy and some Americans.

 

This is probably the last entry in my Vegas blog. Thanks for reading.