Session summary (Palms, Rio, Venetian)

Just got back from the strip where I posted a great session at the tables with a net of about $2500. Ben went to see Ocean's 13 at the Palms and dropped me at the poker room there; unfortunately they only had like 6 NL tables total with nothing over 2/5NL, so I headed over to the Rio in search of 5/10 goodness.

After wading through the jumbled mess of disorganization that Harrah's casinos are known for, I finally got a seat at a great 5/10 game. There was a crazy asian guy in seat 2 that was sitting with about 3500 and was spicing the game up a ton -- he especially loved to overbet bluff the river when he thought you didn't have anything. The player to his left also had a big stack and was playing too many hands as well. I sat with 2k and eventually this hand came up:

Preflop: 3 limps to me, i make it $35 to go with 85d in the hijack seat (a total sweetener bet designed to inflate the pot instead of force people out), button calls, asian guy calls from the BB, and the limpers all call.
Flop: Jh7d4c. Checks to me, I put in $85 with my gutshot, folds to the asian guy and the other loose player who both call. Everyone else folds.
Turn: 9d. Great card -- gives me a double gutshot straight draw plus a diamond draw now, both of which are perfectly hidden if they hit. Checks to me again, and I bet $300. The asian guy asks me how much I'm playing, and I announce that I have about $1600 behind. He calls, and seat 3 folds. C'mon T,6,5, or diamond!
River: Th. Bingo. I was honestly very surprised that he checked to me instead of taking a stab at the pot himself, and my mind was working furiously to figure out how much he would either call or a good bet size to induce him to re-raise me allin. I decided to bet $500 for value here, and unfortunately he folded after thinking for a very long time. In hindsight, I'm interested to see what either a $200 river bet (to induce an allin reraise) or a flat shove might have accomplished.

I later busted the other loose player for his last ~$1k on a pretty standard hand (pair + open ended vs his TPTK) when the table was breaking down. Ben picked me up after this, and we headed to the Venetian poker room to meet Nate and his Yale friend Jason.

Meyvis greeted us at the poker room entrance saying, "I'm sitting at a really good game, you should give it a shot." So I sat at the empty seat at his table right when the next hand was being dealt, and was there just in time to get a hand. I sent the chip runner off to bring me $1k (which was the max buyin for Venetian 2/5 games), and looked down to see 97c in LP. I overlimped and couldn't believe my eyes when the flop came down.
Flop: 5h6c8c. I flop the nuts with the straight flush redraw on my first hand...pretty standard really. Checks to me, and I bet about $20 into the $25 pot. Guy to my left quickly reraises me to $65 (he was sitting with just under $1k), and it folds back around to me. I borrow $200 in chips from the player to my right (chip runner wasn't back yet) and decide to smooth call since a raise would kill my action from all one pair hands and most two pair hands.
Turn: Kd. I check, he bets $100, and I think for a second before announcing I was moving allin. Now this is quite a massive overbet raise, and I didn't even have chips to push into the pot, but I felt that there was a decent chance I'd be called by a set, flush draw, or possibly a combo draw type of hand. Also, about half of the deck would kill my action on the river, so I wanted to get the money in now. The guy goes into the tank (aka he thinks about his decision) for a long time, during which my chips finally arrive. I tell the chip runner not to run off just yet since, "I might have to buy more chips from you if I bust on my first hand here." My opponent turns his hand over, showing K8o, in an attempt to get some sort of read on my reaction to seeing his hand. I didn't flinch, and he finally decided to make a terrible call.
River: Tc. Straight flushes are pretty good, but they're a lot better when the poker room you hit one at has a "high hand" bonus to go along with the pot you win. Oh well, I'll take a quick double up on my first hand. Nothing else too interesting happened for the rest of the session; the play was about as poor as other 2/5 games elsewhere, and I cashed out of the Venetian for about $2300 before heading back to the house with Nate and Jason.

I hope to go out on the town tomorrow night and have some fun away from the tables. That's it for now, time for sleep.