The Circus
- Puddnhead
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
Hobbled
My Circus Circus hotel room smelled like funky chemicals. I noticed it immediately. Oh well, I was only there a week while I played some tourneys down the street at Wynn. This was a cheap but not “motel cheap” option.
My first night there I got dinner at the Circus Circus Steak House. There were 5 of us at the bar and everyone had arrived alone. One lady was telling bad beat video poker stories. Another guy was talking about the rehab centers he owns while he drank a double. The bar had a stained glass decor. Trashy old school Vegas vibes. Decent steak.
After dinner I was walking over to Wynn to get the chips I had wired there when my back started itching. That's annoying. I was dealing with some inner knee pain too that I just noticed the morning of my flight to Vegas. Also annoying.
When I woke up the next morning I had an itchy spot on my neck and hives on my back. I searched for bed bugs but found none. Maybe an allergic reaction? Some other insect in the room? Anxiety?
I fired a few bullets in a $600 multi-day at Wynn and couldn't find a bag. On breaks I was applying hydrocortizone to my rashes.
Then I played all day in an $1100 triple triple draw and bubbled. The big lesson I took away from that one was to always raise the convertible pat hand in position on the 2nd draw. Twice I just called and broke the winning hand after my opponent patted. Never again!
On the walk back to my hotel I was trying to beat a light crossing Las Vegas Blvd and broke into a zombie jog. One knee worked, one knee didn't. Was I going to be riding a scooter around the WSOP like Matusow by the end of the summer?
Turbos
Saturday I skipped breakfast and came straight from an online WSOP fantasy draft to hop in the Wynn $600 2-7 mixed limits. I was running on fumes which apparently makes me more gambly. I was 2 of the first 5 eliminations and called it quits to late reg another flight of the $600 NLH instead.
In the holdem tournament I had some east coast guy at my table who seemed to be tweaking and wouldn't shut up. Eventually he offended an old Asian guy at the table when he got rivered and called the old man a motherfucker. I stood up for the old guy which drew the ire of the tweaker and also an Austrian reg on the other side of the table - Oliver Bösch. They thought I was being a snowflake. I thought the tweaker was way out of line. You don't insult the old man coffees!
I busted that one too then dragged myself across the street to the food court at Fashion Show and got a slice of pizza with breadsticks. I felt better after filling my stomach and made a resolution to always eat breakfast before I jumped in a tournament for the rest of the summer.
In the turbo night flight of the $600 I played a bit better. I made a nice bluff to get a guy off a chop in a huge pot:
I also made a couple big mistakes, getting it in with AQo vs a back-raiser's AA in one spot and misclicking then leveling myself into paying off an obvious straight with my trips in another spot. I did find a small bag though - my first of the summer.
The morning of Day 2 in the $600 I had a virtual doctor's appointment with my MN primary care physician. Except that I had accidentally scheduled it a month out. Oops. So I canceled that and turned to Claude for medical advice instead.
My fading hives and the new itches on my hand it said could be anything. My best guess was an allergic reaction to Circus Circus cleaning products. Could have been some night crawler in my hotel room though I guess.
Claude's best theory for my knee was that it was an MCL sprain caused by being an unathletic drunk 41-year-old at the bar the night before I left for Vegas. Claude said ice and elevation. So I got ice from the hallway ice machine and put it in a plastic bag. I applied it to my knee while I watched YouTube before heading out for Day 2.
Day 2 in the $600 I was short stacked and hung around a while but eventually busted to pro poker player turned missionary content creator Cory Waaland in a hand I think I could have got away from:
That evening I played a turbo flight for an $1100 Wynn multi-day and got off to a hot start:
This flight was full of battly regs and fake regs who kept getting it in against me with weak holdings. I was a big stack all the way up until the bubble, where I got moved to the immediate left of Oliver Bösch. We meet again! I thought we were destined to play a chip leader pot but when that pot came it was against a different guy:
Another small bag, but I felt like I was playing better. No big blunders in this one.
Unfortunately it was another unremarkable Day 2. I laddered up a bit but was out in 67th for $3k, well short of the final table.
PLO
The WSOP was now underway, so after busting at the Wynn I headed over to the Horseshoe and late regged Event 1 - the $550 Mini Mystery Millions. Half an hour later I was out and sitting at a video poker machine while I waited for a satty to the $5k PLO.
The first time I ever cashed a PLO tournament was a month prior - a $300 daily at my local casino. Then at the Firekeepers MSPT series a week before leaving for Vegas I had played two PLO side events and cashed them both. I was still a noob but starting to see some results. Playing a $5k seemed irresponsible. But not a $585 satty to the $5k!
This was a quick one in which I ran like god and had reached the landmark of 100k chips to win the $5k before late registration even ended. And wouldn't you know it, I KOed my early series nemesis Oliver Bösch to put me over 100k chips! 4 PLO cashes in a row.
Day 1 of the $5k PLO was my last morning at Circus Circus and I woke up with a giant welt on my forehead. What the hell!? Two more itchy spots - this time on my forehead and with lots of swelling. One last gift from the Circus.
Don't stay at Circus Circus. Just read Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. That's a better way to experience the Circus.
I iced my forehead and knee and then cabbed over to Harrah's where I would be staying the next month. Good riddance!
Most of Day 1 in the $5k PLO I did not recognize the players at my table. I was hanging around a starting stack or slightly above for the first several levels. Then I got it in with a pair and the nut flush draw vs two players who both just had naked top 2 pair. I binked the flush on the turn to triple then had chips to play with the rest of the way.
When my table eventually broke I got moved to every legendary poker player's table. First I was seated across from Phil Ivey. Then I got moved to Yuri Dzivielevski's table. Then Mike Matusow's.
We were ending Day 1 near the money bubble and I was not getting after it too much. I bagged exactly average chips for Day 2 and was ecstatic.
Day 2 in the $5k PLO I played four pots against Jesse Lonis and lost all four. He was tournament chip leader coming into the day and potting every hand when it folded to him.
A couple of the hands I played I think were reasonable BB defends but maybe I should have folded preflop. The biggest hand I played against him I think was a mistake:
After losing that hand the tournament director announced we had lost two players and there would be no hand for hand. We were in the money! 5 PLO cashes in a row.
Jesse was very friendly and gracious in victory. He complimented me for having heart when I mentioned maybe I should not have played all those pots against him on the bubble. I'm a fan.
Jesse ended up busting me on a bit of a cooler. I got my baby stack in with AQQ6 and he played a side pot against Nick Schulman that went to a river of ATTA6. I thought I was probably winning but Jesse tabled AT65 or some such and that was curtains. Min cash for $9944. Not bad off a satty though!
I wasn't planning to play poker the following day so I thought I'd make a drinking tournament out of the Wynn $1100 nightly turbo. My first drinks of the trip. Jakey Long was playing it too so I had a drinking buddy. He said he'd been on a bender since he arrived in Vegas and was already stuck a lot. Spoiler - he's not anymore:
I blew through a couple bullets quickly. I don't think I was playing poorly just running quite shit. The worst beat I took was probably a hand I chopped against some French fish:
My third bullet I guess must have gone pretty well because I made the final table. I was quite drunk though and don't remember much of it. I know I was focused on not drunk spazzing off my stack. At one point I limped blind vs blind and the BB raised. I had the chips in hand to jam K7o and remembered that I was trying not to spazz. I set the chips back down.
When we made it to heads up I had the chip lead and had to pee like a motherfucker. Thankfully it was a pretty short heads up. Unfortunately I lost. We played 2 all in pots that were reasonable by both of us and he won them both. The tournament director said he'd take care of my payout first and I said nope! Bathroom first!
Second place for $21k and a good start to the summer.
I woke up the next day hungover but with two pain-free knees and no itching. Time for the World Series!