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View Full Version : Las Vegas Trip Report - Long


06-12-2002, 10:26 PM
I made a trip to Las Vegas last week to attend the Casino Chip Collectors Conference and to play a little poker. The chip collecting club I belong to organizes an annual convention in Las Vegas and the past couple of years it has been at the Tropicana. The conference starts Wednesday night and ends Saturday noon time.


I decided to leave for Vegas Thursday morning, getting on the road at about 6.00am, it usually takes about 4 hours to drive from LA to Vegas and this trip was no exception. This time was different in that it was the first time in about 12 years that I have driven to Vegas in my own car, we made a trip in April and I drove a rental there and back. Since 9/11 I have tried to avoid airports, even before, the time from "door to door" was about 4 hours whether you drove or flew, and now with the "inconviences" of flying I have just decide to drive.


This trip I decide to stay at Casino Royal, for a couple of reasons, I am trying to stay at every strip casino/hotel, and it was Casino Royal's turn, well actually it was Barbary Coasts turn but they were booked due to a slot tournament. Casino Royal is nicely located being directly across from both Caesars and the Mirage and next to the Vanetian and Harrahs (this location also make me concerned how much longer it would be there, with the Vanetian or Hurrahs buying it out and expanding their own operation). Another reason being price - $50 weekdays and $70 weekends - possibly the most affordable on the strip. Now it is an "older" place, but I was on my own (my wife doesn't care for Vegas), and all I used the room for was the 3 S's - Shave, Shower and Sleep,(I also changed clothes there). The room itself was clean and comfortable, it also included a coffee maker and a small frig, something I haven't seen in other strip hotels.


After arriving and checking in I decided to eat breakfast/lunch, and tried the restaurant in CR, I was seated by a window with a direct view of Mirages' volcano, it would be a good place to view it at night, the food however was only OK. After eating I went to the Trop via the Ballys MGM monorail. It was OK, however by the time you walk through Ballys, wait for the monorail and walk through MGM you could have walked up the strip. You are however in an air conditioned environment. I spent a few hours at the convention looking at and buying chips (got a very nice .25 Golden Gate chip from the 60's), chatting with friends I only see once a year and attempting to enter the club poker tournament. Each year we have a poker tournament (members only) we design and make our own tournament chips, your entrance fee entitles you to a set of the chips. Like I said "attempting", the tournament was Sold Out - that sucks, next year I will pre-register. The tournament is always a lot of fun because some of the chip collectors really have no idea how to play and you usually see some really goofy things happen and every body ends up having a good laugh. The Orleans hosts the tournament, which was on Thursday night.


Leaving the convention late Thursday afternoon I went to the poker room at the Mirage and got a seat in the 10/20 hold'em game. There were four (maybe five) older locals in the game, I was seated next to a (local) lady called Emily (I think), another local (and vocal) lady at the table was Maureen. Seated next to Emily was an older local gentleman who kept making notes on 3x5 cards, I thought he was making notes on players, however after a while Emily asked him what he was doing and he said he was "tracking the dealers" to see who were good dealers to him. He seemed to have some sort of a system whereby a dealers tip depended on the number of pots the dealer had pushed him, if the dealer had given him a "bad beat", he didn't tip him/her until he had recouped the bad beat. The game itself was quite good, I tried to play solid poker, and played until 10.00pm, six hours, and decided to quit for the night with a profit.


Friday was just as hot as Thursday and I decided to "leg it" to the Trop and spent the day there, chipping and chatting with fellow chippers. Again I left late afternoon for the Mirage, and the 10/20 game. Huck Seed was in the poker room Friday night and I believe he played (not for very long) in the 20/40 game. I was at a table with a couple of young local guys, one tight agressive and the other loose aggressive, both however seemed to know what they were doing. I started chatting to them (having the loose aggressive on my right) and they both indicated to me they would be visiting LA, Commerce, this week for the tournament and the ring games. They were both familar with the 9/18 game at the Commerce, is it really that infamous?, and I said I'd look out for them this week. The loose aggressive player got sucked out by a tourist (not me) going runner runner for a straight on the river, against QQ, I whispered to him don't worry he's just preparing you for next week. Again I played for about 7 hours and again I showed a nice profit. I really believe the 10/20 game at the Mirage is a good game.


Spent Saturday morning at the Trop, and volunteered to help clean up after the convention. Got to the Mirage mid afternoon, in time to see the Belmont and got a seat in the 10/20 game. Around early evening a young man sits to the left of me and starts playing a decent game, we start chating and I deduce he is a 2+2 poster and in fact it's Dynasty. We played until about 10.00pm keeping out of each others way, although I think we bumped heads a couple of times, he taking one pot and me the other. We racked up and went to the buffet and chatted over dinner. He explained to me that he lives walking distance from the strip and appears to be living the life of "Riley". I enjoyed both playing poker and having dinner with him, and I wish him every success.


Sunday for something different I walked down to the Bellagio, and got into a very good 4/8 game, like all Vegas games it had a mix of locals and tourists. I played until about 5.00pm (5 hours) and decided to walk back to the Mirage, before entering the game I had a pizza in the pizza place (California Pizza Kitchen) near the Poker room, after two glasses of wine and a Peking Duck pizza, I was ready for some poker. Well whatever had been working so well for me before stopped working Sunday evening, good thing too because I was leaving Monday morning, I struggled in the 10/20 game, mostly folding for a couple of hours and decided to try a 6/12 game with similar results. I believe a friend of Dynasty was in the 6/12 game, anyway I booked my only losing session on Sunday, but overall had a very good, and profitable poker trip. One thing to note about the Vegas 6/12 and 8/16 games, they are played with $5.00 and $1.00 chips which is different for me, in LA we play 6/12 and 8/16 with $2.00 chaips and 9/18 with $3.00, so it takes me a while to get used to how much to put in the pot, I usually end up calling my call, bet or raise and figuring out the chips later.


I woke up early Monday and loaded up my car, it was only about 65 degrees at 7.00am , checked out of the CR, took one last trip over to the Mirage Poker room to see what was going on - nothing, so I walked back to the car and headed for home, arriving about noon Monday. Well that's about it, if any of you are interested in chip collecting let me know, there is a local chapter in Las Vegas. Hope I didn't bore you all too much.


Jim

06-13-2002, 12:49 AM
It's nice to see someone else's experiences of Las Vegas expressed so clearly. The poster Dynasty you mention, reading his posts and now your experience, make me think I know him.


Totally different from my last. I go alone, but an old gangster friend of mine met me there for four days. He was hot to meet a show girl. I made the mistake of telling him that the show girls go to Drai's at the Barbary Coast, I saw that on the Travel Channel, if you see it on national television, how worn out is that place likely to be, but surprise, it isn't worn out and show girls do go there. If a man is worried about getting older, go to Drai's, your age will become crystal clear. Even laying out the dance floor is a dance. This hip hop music has taken me away from jazz.


We went to the Crazy Horse. Please don't tell my mother. No wonder people worry about the end of the world.


We went to RumJungle. Catch that rhythm, buy a $500.00 bottle of wine, and make some friends.


Being gangsters we both 'don't' play craps, but I don't like the way he plays so we stayed away.

06-13-2002, 05:57 AM
The poster Dynasty you mention, reading his posts and now your experience, make me think I know him.


If so, make sure you introduce yourself. It always fun to meet 2+2ers.

06-13-2002, 03:30 PM
I found your post to be very interesting and informative.


As someone who doesn't get to visit Vegas nearly as often as I like (used to come up all the time when I was in the military stationed at Miramar near San Diego years ago...) I enjoy reading posts from those who have recently taken trips and are nice enough to share their experience - specifically as it relates to poker - with the rest of us.


I will be in the area about this time next month and while I don't know if I'll play much 10/20 I'll definitely be at the Mirage and would enjoy meeting other 2+2's as well - including Dynasty. :-)


Speaking of that - how do you guys end up finding out who posts here? I would guess that it somewhat creeps up over conversation but interested to know how you find that info out without sounding like an idiot...


Thanks again for the post Jim - much appreciated!

06-14-2002, 12:03 AM
My friend, the gangster, doesn't play poker. But, I do. So, we played craps. He went his way and I went toward the smart way, according to me, I try to win. He wants to win.


Some may want a show girl. But, others may realize the sex is about having children. Even with a knock down, tear your eyes out show girl.


If you could win a show girl in a poker game, would that have poker content. The current value of a fine show girl, with a mind of her own. It's aways about dollars.