The Student
05-02-2005, 01:56 PM
Hey all -
I wrote this last night, but decided to split it into two parts, so you've got an unabridged version and a cliff notes version (for you 8-tablers). Hoping to see some of you other posters out there next time I make it to LV.
------------------------------------------------------------
UNABRIDGED VERSION:
It’s Sunday evening and I just got back from 2 nights in Vegas for my friend’s 30th birthday party. Still awake from last night and trying to not crash on the couch right now and then [censored] up my sleeping schedule for the next week, so I thought I’d write this report to let you all know what’s happening in poker rooms in LV right now.
Armed with the advice from other posters (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=2267994&page=&view=&s b=5&o=) about where to find the hottest scrippa talent and the softest low-limit games, I arrived in LV from Oakland at about noon on Friday. Since my friend was driving from LA after some work he had to do in the morning, I had set up my flight to give me a solid 7 hours of poker before he even arrived. Checked into the Monte Carlo (only thing we could afford for the weekend, and it was still $220/night averaged over 2 nights /images/graemlins/frown.gif ), did a sweep of the pool area and was glad to see that there was absolutely no reason for me to waste anytime outside of the poker room – all unattractive tourists. Even the gaggle of USC sorority sisters were not worth a second glance. This was a surprise for me because I thought they only offered ‘SC sorority chicks in the hot and hotter varieties, but apparent things have changed since I was an undergrad /images/graemlins/confused.gif. So I headed to the Monte Carlo poker room, all 6 glorious tables of it. I played about 6 hours of $1/$2 NL ($100 - $200 buy-in) with a couple of drunk, young business guys, some tourists, and this one guy from LA who was bullying the table with marginal hands. He was very good at sensing weakness though, and steadily built up his castle of chips to about $900 while we were playing together. This one guy to the bully’s right was so bad that the busted out three times while I was playing and eventually the whole table start calling him “ATM” to his face. It was evil, but it was hysterical too. Sadly, I was not able to partake in the fish’s riches, although I was able to take two bad beats in the session. /images/graemlins/mad.gif
The birthday boy finally got in from LA, and we decided to start the party with a couple shots of Cuervo, and headed over to the Bellagio. Once we got there, we quickly settled into a steady diet of roulette, craps, and blackjack for the next couple of hours. We met up with some other friends who were in LV for the weekend at the Caramel bar at the Bellagio, and proceeded to drink (why pay for drinks in a bar when you can get them for free 10 yards out the door? I don’t know, but you can be sure that I didn’t pay for them /images/graemlins/wink.gif) as we watched a working girl hump her johnny on a barstool. Although my friend’s not a poker player, I managed to convince him that he had to see they newly expanded Bellagio poker room. They just added another 10 tables and re-opened earlier this week, and I still rate it as one of my favorite rooms in the city. They also just added a private room, Bobby’s (Baldwin) Room, where I caught a peek of the super high-roller game (including Jennifer Harmon, Johnny Chan, and Chau Giang). I was waiting around by the door for Giang to win a hand to see if he would rub his nips and say something about loving poker, but we were swept aside by a floor manager before I caught Giang buttering himself up.
We then headed over to the Barbary Coast to find the last remaining $5 blackjack tables on the Strip on Friday night. After hearing about Irieguy’s magical spinning technique for shooting craps (although not actually knowing anything about how its done), I decided to give craps a try. Unfortunately, after a nice run of hitting some numbers for the table, I channeled Skipperbob more than Irie, and managed to peg another customer in the chest with the dice on one of my throws and was informed by the croupier that if I did it again, I would have to leave the casino. /images/graemlins/blush.gif
Next day I headed over to the Luxor to check out the poker room there, and ended up playing some 4/8 for a few hours. The game played like a Party 3/6 table with little respect for PF raises and lots of limpers and people calling 2 bets cold. Saw a groom-to-be get into a fight with his best man at the table because they kept raising each other with rags, but aside from this little entertaining interlude, the game was pretty quite and dull.
We went to Outback for the birthday dinner (the birthday boy is a huge fan of Aussie steaks), and realized that you can really piss off the servers there if you ask for the Awesome Blossom – which apparently is the trademarked name of Chili’s fried onion appetizer, which should never be confused with Outback’s Bloomin’ Onion, the trademarked name of Outback’s fried onion appetizer. We then checked out the MGM’s new poker room, which has probably around 25 tables, and some very fishy clientele. However, the waitlist was an hour long for the $1/$2 NL game, so I sat down in a 4/8 game that was not quite as fishy as my Party standards. There was at least one off-duty dealer in the game and I heard him refer to another player as a pro (how you can be a pro at the 4/8, I’m not sure, but that’s what he said). Anyways, after a couple hours there, I was tired of hearing the slot machines in the distance (the poker room is really a poker atrium in the middle of the casino), and we decided it was time to move on. Despite a valiant effort to persuade the birthday boy that he needed some lappies at Sin or Crazy Horse II, he took advantage of his status as king for the day to declare that we must check out the Wynn on its opening weekend. So with a defeated heart and an unfulfilled desire to witness the artistry of LV’s hottest citizens /images/graemlins/frown.gif, I hopped in a cab to the Wynn.
My take on the Wynn: it’s the Bellagio with bad, abstract wallpaper. I don’t care how much $ they poured into it, but I don’t think it’s any nicer than the Bellagio. However, it does have 3 great draws: the cocktail waitresses, the cocktail waitresses’ outfits, and the poker room. I don’t know how he gets them, but Wynn pulled in all the top-shelf cocktail bunnies in town for his staff. Of the 10 or so that we saw, at least 6 of them were absolutely gorgeous, and the other 4 were only smoking hot. The outfits show the proper amount of leg (a lot) and cleavage (a hell of a lot), and are not as hideous as the outfits at other casinos. Also, although I didn’t actually play there, the poker room looks great. Nice, comfy chairs, a big variety of games, and it’s in a corner of the casino, away from all the loud slots. Also of note, the quality of the arm candy/working girls was much higher at the Wynn than anywhere else we went to for the weekend. Not sure if this is an opening weekend bubble, but I wouldn’t be surprised if all the top quality working girls are stationed at they Wynn for the next few months.
Finally, at about 5 am Sunday morn, we got back to the Monte Carlo and I jumped back in the $1/$2 NL game for about 4 hours until I had to catch my flight. I ran my stack up to about $450 before I got rivered for $250 of it and then gave the rest of it away 3 hands later when my overpair Qs ran into a flopped set of 3s. Ouch, so much for my first live NL ring game experience. After that there was nothing left to do but head to the airport.
CLIFF NOTES VERSION:
Stats for the weekend
Poker rooms visited: 6
Poker rooms where, in conjunction with the dealer’s decision to prove that queens do in fact beat kings for $400 pots on occasion, my altruistic nature lead me to make charitable donations to the aquatic wildlife: 1 /images/graemlins/mad.gif
Fish fed at the NL tables: 3 /images/graemlins/crazy.gif
New games developed: 1 (baldies vs hookers – it’s a variation of punchbuggy. For example, as you are walking out onto the strip from a casino, you call hookers, and then proceed to punch your friend’s arm for every hooker you see. Of course, he gets to punch you for every baldy he can spot. It provides a fascinating social survey of the Strip’s night time population and is absolutely hysterical after several drinks)
WSOP bracelet winners spotted: 2
Times Chau Giang was seen rubbing his nipples: 0 /images/graemlins/frown.gif
Times random guy was seen getting slapped for grabbing a non-working girl’s tit: 2 (once for each tit)
Times I hit innocent bystander with dice at craps table: 1
Times I rolled 8 the hard way in a row: 5
Times I won money on it because I had bet it: 0
Meals skipped because LV doesn’t have food service at tables like LA casinos do: 2
Stuffed animals spotted at poker tables: 2
Stuffed animals at poker tables that were raptors: 0 (unicorn and a monkey)
Lappies received from LV’s finest inspirational dancers: 0 /images/graemlins/frown.gif
Cirque de Soleil shows seen: 0 /images/graemlins/grin.gif
Until next time.
ts-
I wrote this last night, but decided to split it into two parts, so you've got an unabridged version and a cliff notes version (for you 8-tablers). Hoping to see some of you other posters out there next time I make it to LV.
------------------------------------------------------------
UNABRIDGED VERSION:
It’s Sunday evening and I just got back from 2 nights in Vegas for my friend’s 30th birthday party. Still awake from last night and trying to not crash on the couch right now and then [censored] up my sleeping schedule for the next week, so I thought I’d write this report to let you all know what’s happening in poker rooms in LV right now.
Armed with the advice from other posters (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=2267994&page=&view=&s b=5&o=) about where to find the hottest scrippa talent and the softest low-limit games, I arrived in LV from Oakland at about noon on Friday. Since my friend was driving from LA after some work he had to do in the morning, I had set up my flight to give me a solid 7 hours of poker before he even arrived. Checked into the Monte Carlo (only thing we could afford for the weekend, and it was still $220/night averaged over 2 nights /images/graemlins/frown.gif ), did a sweep of the pool area and was glad to see that there was absolutely no reason for me to waste anytime outside of the poker room – all unattractive tourists. Even the gaggle of USC sorority sisters were not worth a second glance. This was a surprise for me because I thought they only offered ‘SC sorority chicks in the hot and hotter varieties, but apparent things have changed since I was an undergrad /images/graemlins/confused.gif. So I headed to the Monte Carlo poker room, all 6 glorious tables of it. I played about 6 hours of $1/$2 NL ($100 - $200 buy-in) with a couple of drunk, young business guys, some tourists, and this one guy from LA who was bullying the table with marginal hands. He was very good at sensing weakness though, and steadily built up his castle of chips to about $900 while we were playing together. This one guy to the bully’s right was so bad that the busted out three times while I was playing and eventually the whole table start calling him “ATM” to his face. It was evil, but it was hysterical too. Sadly, I was not able to partake in the fish’s riches, although I was able to take two bad beats in the session. /images/graemlins/mad.gif
The birthday boy finally got in from LA, and we decided to start the party with a couple shots of Cuervo, and headed over to the Bellagio. Once we got there, we quickly settled into a steady diet of roulette, craps, and blackjack for the next couple of hours. We met up with some other friends who were in LV for the weekend at the Caramel bar at the Bellagio, and proceeded to drink (why pay for drinks in a bar when you can get them for free 10 yards out the door? I don’t know, but you can be sure that I didn’t pay for them /images/graemlins/wink.gif) as we watched a working girl hump her johnny on a barstool. Although my friend’s not a poker player, I managed to convince him that he had to see they newly expanded Bellagio poker room. They just added another 10 tables and re-opened earlier this week, and I still rate it as one of my favorite rooms in the city. They also just added a private room, Bobby’s (Baldwin) Room, where I caught a peek of the super high-roller game (including Jennifer Harmon, Johnny Chan, and Chau Giang). I was waiting around by the door for Giang to win a hand to see if he would rub his nips and say something about loving poker, but we were swept aside by a floor manager before I caught Giang buttering himself up.
We then headed over to the Barbary Coast to find the last remaining $5 blackjack tables on the Strip on Friday night. After hearing about Irieguy’s magical spinning technique for shooting craps (although not actually knowing anything about how its done), I decided to give craps a try. Unfortunately, after a nice run of hitting some numbers for the table, I channeled Skipperbob more than Irie, and managed to peg another customer in the chest with the dice on one of my throws and was informed by the croupier that if I did it again, I would have to leave the casino. /images/graemlins/blush.gif
Next day I headed over to the Luxor to check out the poker room there, and ended up playing some 4/8 for a few hours. The game played like a Party 3/6 table with little respect for PF raises and lots of limpers and people calling 2 bets cold. Saw a groom-to-be get into a fight with his best man at the table because they kept raising each other with rags, but aside from this little entertaining interlude, the game was pretty quite and dull.
We went to Outback for the birthday dinner (the birthday boy is a huge fan of Aussie steaks), and realized that you can really piss off the servers there if you ask for the Awesome Blossom – which apparently is the trademarked name of Chili’s fried onion appetizer, which should never be confused with Outback’s Bloomin’ Onion, the trademarked name of Outback’s fried onion appetizer. We then checked out the MGM’s new poker room, which has probably around 25 tables, and some very fishy clientele. However, the waitlist was an hour long for the $1/$2 NL game, so I sat down in a 4/8 game that was not quite as fishy as my Party standards. There was at least one off-duty dealer in the game and I heard him refer to another player as a pro (how you can be a pro at the 4/8, I’m not sure, but that’s what he said). Anyways, after a couple hours there, I was tired of hearing the slot machines in the distance (the poker room is really a poker atrium in the middle of the casino), and we decided it was time to move on. Despite a valiant effort to persuade the birthday boy that he needed some lappies at Sin or Crazy Horse II, he took advantage of his status as king for the day to declare that we must check out the Wynn on its opening weekend. So with a defeated heart and an unfulfilled desire to witness the artistry of LV’s hottest citizens /images/graemlins/frown.gif, I hopped in a cab to the Wynn.
My take on the Wynn: it’s the Bellagio with bad, abstract wallpaper. I don’t care how much $ they poured into it, but I don’t think it’s any nicer than the Bellagio. However, it does have 3 great draws: the cocktail waitresses, the cocktail waitresses’ outfits, and the poker room. I don’t know how he gets them, but Wynn pulled in all the top-shelf cocktail bunnies in town for his staff. Of the 10 or so that we saw, at least 6 of them were absolutely gorgeous, and the other 4 were only smoking hot. The outfits show the proper amount of leg (a lot) and cleavage (a hell of a lot), and are not as hideous as the outfits at other casinos. Also, although I didn’t actually play there, the poker room looks great. Nice, comfy chairs, a big variety of games, and it’s in a corner of the casino, away from all the loud slots. Also of note, the quality of the arm candy/working girls was much higher at the Wynn than anywhere else we went to for the weekend. Not sure if this is an opening weekend bubble, but I wouldn’t be surprised if all the top quality working girls are stationed at they Wynn for the next few months.
Finally, at about 5 am Sunday morn, we got back to the Monte Carlo and I jumped back in the $1/$2 NL game for about 4 hours until I had to catch my flight. I ran my stack up to about $450 before I got rivered for $250 of it and then gave the rest of it away 3 hands later when my overpair Qs ran into a flopped set of 3s. Ouch, so much for my first live NL ring game experience. After that there was nothing left to do but head to the airport.
CLIFF NOTES VERSION:
Stats for the weekend
Poker rooms visited: 6
Poker rooms where, in conjunction with the dealer’s decision to prove that queens do in fact beat kings for $400 pots on occasion, my altruistic nature lead me to make charitable donations to the aquatic wildlife: 1 /images/graemlins/mad.gif
Fish fed at the NL tables: 3 /images/graemlins/crazy.gif
New games developed: 1 (baldies vs hookers – it’s a variation of punchbuggy. For example, as you are walking out onto the strip from a casino, you call hookers, and then proceed to punch your friend’s arm for every hooker you see. Of course, he gets to punch you for every baldy he can spot. It provides a fascinating social survey of the Strip’s night time population and is absolutely hysterical after several drinks)
WSOP bracelet winners spotted: 2
Times Chau Giang was seen rubbing his nipples: 0 /images/graemlins/frown.gif
Times random guy was seen getting slapped for grabbing a non-working girl’s tit: 2 (once for each tit)
Times I hit innocent bystander with dice at craps table: 1
Times I rolled 8 the hard way in a row: 5
Times I won money on it because I had bet it: 0
Meals skipped because LV doesn’t have food service at tables like LA casinos do: 2
Stuffed animals spotted at poker tables: 2
Stuffed animals at poker tables that were raptors: 0 (unicorn and a monkey)
Lappies received from LV’s finest inspirational dancers: 0 /images/graemlins/frown.gif
Cirque de Soleil shows seen: 0 /images/graemlins/grin.gif
Until next time.
ts-