Jerrypards
08-31-2003, 11:06 AM
Spent part of the Labor Day weekend in Vegas, Thursday - Saturday. My wife made the trip so poker playing was limited. Spent one night at Bellagio and one at Mirage.
I did not play at Bellagio but did watch some $4-8 from the rail. The poker room is as nice as everyone describes; no smoke, comfy-looking chairs and right next to the plush sports book. Ate dinner at Shintaro, sat at the sushi bar and had a great dinner, highly recommended.
Woke up Friday morning and called Mandalay's poker room at 8:00 a.m. to ask when they start taking names for the 10 a.m. freezeout. The poker room manager said they only had 7 spots remaining and I would need to get there fast if I wanted a seat! I thought there was no way to get from Bellagio to Mandalay in time to get a seat but my wife was
going shopping and I figured if I missed the Mandalay tourney, I could take the tram to Luxor and play in their noon freezeout. So I took off on foot for Mandalay and made it to the Excalibur tram station in 15 minutes (I was haulin'). Just before I got to the tram station, I called Mandalay to see if they had any spots left and was told, "one or two". The tram ride was very fast and soon I was at the poker room and sure enough, I got the very last seat! While waiting for the tourney, I ate a very good hot pastrami sandwich at the snack bar next to the poker room and checked out some of the lines at the sports book
nearby. I have been playing poker for about 1.5 years and this was my first Vegas freezeout tourney. Just as described on RGP, the tourney players were a mix of locals and tourists, I would say 75%/25 in favor of tourists on this particular day. Tourney started on time and on the first hand dealt to me in middle position, I get pocket aces! Raise and get a few callers, flop comes blanks, raise and one caller on my left calls. Turn is blank, bet and called only by guy on left. River, blank, same thing. Turn over aces and guy on left turns over pocket kings! Good start. The rest of the tourney was uneventful, didn't catch any cards and got knocked out 12th after going all-in
with A-Jo and losing when a guy catches second pair on the river. As I leave Mandalay, I recall RGP/twoplustwo posts and think I must really suck if I can't make it to the final table of the Mandalay/Luxor freezeout, oh well.
For new players like myself, the Mandalay freezeout is a great tourney to get your feet wet and get comfortable playing live. The players are mostly tourists and very laid back; dealers were pleasant. The entire atmosphere was very relaxed. I have read about the strange table rules at Mandalay but did not experience any problems during my brief session. After busting out, I headed back to Bellagio to check out of Bellagio and move over to Mirage. (The reason we changed hotels was because the Friday rate at Bellagio is quite high, Mirage on Friday was only $129 and I wanted to check out their poker room anyway). Got to Mirage and spent the entire afternoon at the pool with my wife.
Ate dinner at the Noodle Kitchen at Mirage, good food but nothing spectacular. After dinner, walked across the street to Casino Royale for some $2 BJ since my wife likes to play. Played for a couple hours and got free drinks, we posted a $9 loss. We head back to Mirage and no suprise, the poker room is packed. I put my name on the $3-6 list
and wait in the Keno room with my wife. We play keno and get free drinks and about one hour later, I get called. I buy in for $100 and get seated at table 18, the wife heads to bed. As soon as I sat down, I could tell the table was loose. There were a couple rocks but everyone else looked to be tourists, mostly young guys drinking a lot of cocktails. (This was also confirmed when we changed dealers
early-on and the departing dealer mumbles the words, "action table", to the new dealer as she gets up and leaves). The next two hours couldn't have been more profitable for me. I was getting good cards and when I got the nuts, I would get paid all the way to the river. I
am not going to go in to detail on all the hands but I could do no wrong. Whether it was catching the nut straight on the turn, flopping a set or hitting aces full, I would get called all the way. So after two hours, I look down at my chips and I have re-racked my first hundred and have an additional $150! I play a several more hands and
lose a few dollars. I know I should stay and play but I am getting tired and kind of like the idea of posting a sizeable win in a two hour session. I lose one more hand, rack the rest of my chips and cash out, up $142! (Please advise on my decision to leave this soon).
The Mirage poker room is very comfortable and smoke free with great dealers. The key for me was playing late on a Friday night and during a busy holiday weekend. As described in other posts, these times seem to bring out the loose players; the ones that are there to gamble. They like to see every flop and only fold at the end. I rarely called in middle to late position. Raising for value really paid off in this session. On my way out, I asked the room manager, Dennis, about the poker rate. It's $85 during the week with 5 hours play and $119 on the weekend with 8 hours play.
Thanks for reading!
Jerrypards
I did not play at Bellagio but did watch some $4-8 from the rail. The poker room is as nice as everyone describes; no smoke, comfy-looking chairs and right next to the plush sports book. Ate dinner at Shintaro, sat at the sushi bar and had a great dinner, highly recommended.
Woke up Friday morning and called Mandalay's poker room at 8:00 a.m. to ask when they start taking names for the 10 a.m. freezeout. The poker room manager said they only had 7 spots remaining and I would need to get there fast if I wanted a seat! I thought there was no way to get from Bellagio to Mandalay in time to get a seat but my wife was
going shopping and I figured if I missed the Mandalay tourney, I could take the tram to Luxor and play in their noon freezeout. So I took off on foot for Mandalay and made it to the Excalibur tram station in 15 minutes (I was haulin'). Just before I got to the tram station, I called Mandalay to see if they had any spots left and was told, "one or two". The tram ride was very fast and soon I was at the poker room and sure enough, I got the very last seat! While waiting for the tourney, I ate a very good hot pastrami sandwich at the snack bar next to the poker room and checked out some of the lines at the sports book
nearby. I have been playing poker for about 1.5 years and this was my first Vegas freezeout tourney. Just as described on RGP, the tourney players were a mix of locals and tourists, I would say 75%/25 in favor of tourists on this particular day. Tourney started on time and on the first hand dealt to me in middle position, I get pocket aces! Raise and get a few callers, flop comes blanks, raise and one caller on my left calls. Turn is blank, bet and called only by guy on left. River, blank, same thing. Turn over aces and guy on left turns over pocket kings! Good start. The rest of the tourney was uneventful, didn't catch any cards and got knocked out 12th after going all-in
with A-Jo and losing when a guy catches second pair on the river. As I leave Mandalay, I recall RGP/twoplustwo posts and think I must really suck if I can't make it to the final table of the Mandalay/Luxor freezeout, oh well.
For new players like myself, the Mandalay freezeout is a great tourney to get your feet wet and get comfortable playing live. The players are mostly tourists and very laid back; dealers were pleasant. The entire atmosphere was very relaxed. I have read about the strange table rules at Mandalay but did not experience any problems during my brief session. After busting out, I headed back to Bellagio to check out of Bellagio and move over to Mirage. (The reason we changed hotels was because the Friday rate at Bellagio is quite high, Mirage on Friday was only $129 and I wanted to check out their poker room anyway). Got to Mirage and spent the entire afternoon at the pool with my wife.
Ate dinner at the Noodle Kitchen at Mirage, good food but nothing spectacular. After dinner, walked across the street to Casino Royale for some $2 BJ since my wife likes to play. Played for a couple hours and got free drinks, we posted a $9 loss. We head back to Mirage and no suprise, the poker room is packed. I put my name on the $3-6 list
and wait in the Keno room with my wife. We play keno and get free drinks and about one hour later, I get called. I buy in for $100 and get seated at table 18, the wife heads to bed. As soon as I sat down, I could tell the table was loose. There were a couple rocks but everyone else looked to be tourists, mostly young guys drinking a lot of cocktails. (This was also confirmed when we changed dealers
early-on and the departing dealer mumbles the words, "action table", to the new dealer as she gets up and leaves). The next two hours couldn't have been more profitable for me. I was getting good cards and when I got the nuts, I would get paid all the way to the river. I
am not going to go in to detail on all the hands but I could do no wrong. Whether it was catching the nut straight on the turn, flopping a set or hitting aces full, I would get called all the way. So after two hours, I look down at my chips and I have re-racked my first hundred and have an additional $150! I play a several more hands and
lose a few dollars. I know I should stay and play but I am getting tired and kind of like the idea of posting a sizeable win in a two hour session. I lose one more hand, rack the rest of my chips and cash out, up $142! (Please advise on my decision to leave this soon).
The Mirage poker room is very comfortable and smoke free with great dealers. The key for me was playing late on a Friday night and during a busy holiday weekend. As described in other posts, these times seem to bring out the loose players; the ones that are there to gamble. They like to see every flop and only fold at the end. I rarely called in middle to late position. Raising for value really paid off in this session. On my way out, I asked the room manager, Dennis, about the poker rate. It's $85 during the week with 5 hours play and $119 on the weekend with 8 hours play.
Thanks for reading!
Jerrypards