Right or Wrong?

Although we are not yet in Vegas, I would like to share with you one move that I did in a recent online NH deepstack tournament.
Situation: Online deepstack tournament $3.30 - 431 players - 23 remaining - $357 for the winner, $9.90 for the 23rd.
The 'good' guy (me :-) ) was chipleader with approx. 100K and the 'ugly' guy (on my right) was 2nd with approx. 90K
I am not sure about the blind but i believe it was 800/1600. This is a pre-flop situation with 9 players.
I hit KK.
UTG fold
The Ugly UTG+1 flat call.
The Good (Me) UTG+2 - raise 4BB (reasonable online? maybe 5-6 BB would have been better?)
Everybody fold until it comes back to the Ugly who shove his stack.
OOOPS what's up man...limp and all in????
Hum, what does he have(i assumed since the beginning that the Ugly was a man....girls always fall in love with the 'good guy' in the movies, isn't it)?

Before reading what happened to me below... Let me know how YOU would have done it with 23 players left and if you would have done it differently in the middle of the tournament (let's say no being ITM)

Was my move right or wrong?
Raising UTG+2 with 4BB is announcing a certain strenght I believe...he could see me with a big pair AA, KK, QQ or AK, AQ and maybe AJ..or may be in a (suicide) bluff ? or he could not see me at all (simply not even ask himself the question...pretty frequent at this level, right?)

Which hand is justifying to go allin after a limp when you are ITM and 23 players left??
Here is what i thought...
AA? - probably not. i would have cbet instead of allin
Any other pair KK-QQ? same as above
AK, JJ or smaller pair? maybe.. if my opponent has AQ, AJ, JJ-xx he would probably fold
AQ, AJ, Ax? It would be stupid to move allin with those hands..just call
Bluff? probable at this point in the tournament.

So i was convinced that the Ugly was on smaller pair or on a big bluff.
and guess what...I called
and guess what...he had AJ and a A came on the flop
and guess what...I finished 23rd
and guess what.. I tilted

Retrospectively, this was a stupid call and a big mistake. i believe my thinking was not incorrect, but at this point in the tournament, calling an allin of the 2nd chipleader was simply the wrong move... even with KK. I shouldn't have risk my stack at this point in the tournament.

Bio pass, mon sésame, ouvres-toi ?

Enfin je l'ai mon passeport bio (pour les distraits ... rien à voir avec l'agriculture ou Europe Écologie), sésame indispensable pour faire un 'move' sur le territoire US.

Plane ticket : OK

Bankroll USD : OK

Hotel coupons aussi ... le tout livré en main propre par la maison Kuoni (fidèle sponsor du VSC), merci m'selle Schmidt.

Maintenant il faut que j'attaque la valise. La valise, la grande, et ouai pour 1 mois, il en faut du matos ...

Mes chemises à double manchettes, mes lunettes xRay 3D, mon détecteur de fish, mon livre de chevet 'poker pour les nuls' (toujours relire les 'basics' ... mains de départ, position, bet sizing, vocabulaire ...) et surtout pas oublier : la patte de lapin, le gui, la gousse d'ail, le dragon chinois et mon vieux boxer bi-color (je vous laisse deviner lesquels), que je lave plus depuis que j'ai gagner mon 1er tournoi (.. ça gratte un peu la 1ère heure, mais après on s'habitue).

Another interesting daily tournament.

At the Aria Casino, twice per day their run a 100u$ +25 NLH tournament with a field average of 50 players, 8000 starting chips and  progressive 25/50 30 mins blinds.

What is so particular? Well, allvegaspoker states that the Aria Poker room is superior to the Bellagio due to layout, chair comfort, etc and almost at the same quality level than the Venetian for a fair and decent buy in.

In addition it seems that Aria have drafted the old MGM's dealers which are amongst the best in the city:  http://www.arialasvegas.com/casino/poker.aspx

POKER but not only..

Vegas will definitively be intensive poker for us. JB already announcing 10h/day, Claudio is a bit more prudent but for sure he will get into the heat as well once on side. Personally, I do not know how much time I will be playing but I am in Vegas for Poker and will play poker as much as possible (usually CG and tournament every day). EVER DAY? Almost...there will be 3 days where none of us will be playing but I believe this will give us as much fun as playing poker.
Our plan is to leave Vegas on Friday 17 (very very early..yes guys prepare to wake up with the sun or to play poker all night to avoid waking up) to pick up a nice car at the airport and start our journey with a very nice drive to Lake Powell (430 km) where we will be enjoying boating and wakeboarding within the lake canyons.

We will spend the night in the marina and drive 200km on Saturday morning for one of the most beautiful place in the world…Monument Valley. We will be visiting the site and feeling like John Wayne when horse riding mustangs in an incredibly scenic ride through classic Western landscape… hopefully no rattle snake experience…We will then drive back to Vegas without specific plans but to enjoy part of the 66 Road. Claudio is looking to organize some funny activities along the road back (I hear some automatic gun experience or similar…). Finally we will end our journey on Sunday 19 evening…and continue to play Poker… Really looking forward for this trip….hope you could be part as well…

Stacks, Buy-ins & structures

More or less we all going to play in the same series but not necessarily the same tournaments, and at some times I will be there only doing the supporting fan during the Omaha Hi-Lo games (Or eventually supporting the guys from a cash game table).

If you wanna know what are you missing and where we will be, here is the Stacks, Buy-ins & structures of the other events running alongside the WSOP 2011 for the June-July period.

Deep Stack Extravaganza Venetian 2011
The Deep Stack Extravaganza is held four times a year at The Venetian. The majority of tournaments will be No Limit Hold'em but they also include some H.O.R.S.E. tournaments, an Omaha eight-or-better tournament and a pot limit Omaha tournament and the buy-ins range from $225 to $5,000.
http://www.venetian.com/uploadedFiles/The_Venetian/Content_Blocks/Gaming/Deepstack_Extravaganza/DeepStackIII2011.pdf

Grand Poker Series Golden Nuggets 2011
Golden Nugget Las Vegas hosted its Annual Grand Poker Series June 4 – July 4, 2011, in its luxurious events center, The Grand. This month-long event featured more than 60 poker tournaments including Omaha high/low, HORSE, Pot Limit Omaha, 7 Card Stud and plenty of heart-pounding No Limit Hold ‘em action, as well as cash games.
http://www.goldennugget.com/downloads/gps_2011.pdf

Caesar Palace 2011 Summer Mega Stack Noon
From May 30-July 15, the Caesar Palace offer a schedule of special tournaments with a variety of special events, including Double Stack Turbos, Heads Up tournament, 6-handed tournaments, and Omaha events. Buy-ins range from $120-$550.  Tournaments runs daily at noon and 4pm.
http://www.caesarspalace.com/casinos/caesars-palace/casino-misc/poker-mega-stack-summer-2011-noon-detail.html
http://www.caesarspalace.com/casinos/caesars-palace/casino-misc/poker-mega-stack-summer-2011-4pm-detail.html

Vegas as sanatorium

Cette année, j'attaque ma 4e année de poker. Après avoir un peu bourlingué en Europe, seul ou avec mon buddy Mitch, je tente l'aventure Las Vegas (pendant 1 mois) avec mes poker chums Mitch & Claudio. Je prévois d'y faire essentiellement du cash game et éventuellement quelques tournois proposé dans le cadre des :

Annual Binion's Poker Classic / Mega Stack Series du Caesars Palace / DeepStack Extravaganza du Venetian / Grand Poker Series du Golden Nuggets

De plus, je participerai au Poker TDA (Tournament Director Association) Summit 2011. Mais par contre aucun WSoP au programme (je n’ai pas la bankroll et suis pas très fan des satellites).

J'essaierai ici de partager avec vous mes expériences, actions significatives, moves, runs, swings, tilts et autres bad bits (enfin ceux-ci pas trop …)

Cependant, je ne m’engage a rien, parce je souhaite jouer beaucoup (10h/jour), comme si j’allais en ‘cure’ dans un sanatorium … alors si on y ajoute 8h de sommeil (faut être bien reposé pour jouer), 1h de sport (un esprit sain dans un corps sain), 2h pour les repas et «je m’la raconte avec mes friends», il ne va pas rester grand-chose pour blogger, d’autant plus qu’à Vegas, comme vices, yapake l’poker … m'a rappelé ma maman ... ;-)

Ben didn't screw up my bankroll...

Now that Ben is dead and despite the announcement on the radio that the dollar will take the lift up, to build the bankroll it will be a bit less expensive :)

The Swiss Franc / Dollar exchange went from  1.15 CHF for 1u$ down to 0.88 CHF in a short period of time and still going down, Mitch show me the trend on the financial charts and today transactions are made at 0.87

So yes, the stay in Vegas will be 24% less expensive ... unfortunately hotel and flight are already paid since March.

I target a budget of 300u$ per poker night, this should cover most tournaments entries and cash game on the 1$-2$ tables.

Blog is here....

Here is as per popular demand, a small Blog to follow the Vegas adventure.

I have also delegate to Mich’ & JB the ‘ author’ role so they can also give their point of view and share they experience.

Specially for JB who will bre on site earlier than myself.

I’m travelling from the 11^th to 22th June