PDA

View Full Version : vegas trip report


daryn
01-16-2004, 03:38 AM
vegas baby! ok.. so i leave boston on sunday the 11th and after stopping in phoenix, i'm in vegas around 2pm sunday. i hit up a rental car and off i go to the strip. i had a room at the imperial palace for 3 nights. the location was perfect, and the rate was very cheap, not a bad place to sleep and shower. the only problem i had with the IP is the layout of the hotel itself. i would love to slap the architecht across the face. it's so hard to get around the place, and seems like everywhere you turn you run into a dead end. oh well... who knew i would spend most of my time in the bellagio poker room anyway.. well, i sort of had a hunch. anyways..

the plan was to relax a bit... see the city and all it had to offer before actually hitting the poker tables.. but that went out the window real fast somehow, and i hit up the bellagio.

man, what a poker room! i usually play at foxwoods and have played at the taj a few times, but man.. this is the best room i've ever played in by far. it's a lot smaller than foxwoods.. which i think i liked. that's what i liked about the mohegan sun room too i think. the first thing that i loved was that you can get real drinks and real beer in bottles for free. not like foxwoods at all! in fact compared to the bellagio room, the foxwoods poker room is a straight up dump.

so i get a seat in a 15-30 game and get down to business. the whole time i was playing i was getting involved in interesting hands, and i kept thinking i'd like to remember them somehow so i could post them on 2+2 in my trip report, and get some feedback on my play. so much for that! i think i ended up getting in there around 8pm, playing all night, and leaving around noon the next day. not bad, 16 hour session. i was playing well, and definitely running well and ended up making about $1200 over the 16 hours. i bought in for a rack of reds and just kept stacking and building more racks... me and the guy next to me were having a little race to see who could get more racks faster. what a great time.

also while at bellagio i had some pro sightings. i saw johnny chan, gus hansen, tony d, and phil ivey. also i think i saw chuc huong as well. the funniest line of the trip was when i saw tony d. he had a surgical mask on.. maybe he is afraid of sars? anyways.. this guy next to me was like, do you know why he wears that? i said no and the guy says, he was sick of people coming up to him and asking how he could make that laydown agasint hellmuth in the wsop. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

after that long session i had an unimaginable hunger... funny how you don't notice it while you're playing poker.. but the second i got outside i started starving.. anyways we hit up the buffet at the rio for some serious eats. it was the best sushi i ever had (DISCLAIMER: i only had eaten sushi a couple of times previously, and never at a place known for good sushi.. so while this is not saying a lot, it was still pretty good, especially for me). i left the rio buffet very full and drove back to the IP where i hit the sack around 3pm.

i woke up around 6pm monday.. that's right, a whopping 3 hours of sleep. after taking a shower and watching some tv, i couldn't help but to go right back to bellagio. i got there around 9pm, and went right to the counter and asked for a 15-30 seat. the guy says, yes, we have one seat, and he points to the exact same table and seat where i spent 16 hours at the previous session. so i sit down.. nobody at the table was there my last session.. but as the night went on a few of the same characters showed up and sat. at round midnight, the same guy who was on my right the previous night (the guy who i was having the rack stacking contest with) shows up on the table, and eventually makes his way around to the same exact seat on my right, at which point we continue our contest and start racking up again. this time i sat for about 18 hours.. until 3pm tuesday. i ended up making $1900 for this session.. not bad for two days at bellagio. like i said i know i was playing well, making good plays, but i was definitely running well at times.

after this marathon i was again hungrier than ever and hit up the bellagio buffet this time.. oh brother.. what food... this was a fabulous buffet! after a meal fit for a king i hit the hay again.. hoping to catch a quick nap and then wake up for the night's festivities. i had planned on going out and checking out the night life with a couple guys i met playing poker, but my brain forgot that my body had only slept for about 3 of the past 83 hours, and i hit the sack with a vengeance, sleeping for about 10 hours. i woke up around 3am wednesday and decided to just take a walk around the strip. it was colder than i expected, but still warm compared to boston. on my way around the strip i somehow ended up at the mirage poker room. my aim was just to check it out.. see what it looked like, but i ended up sitting in a 3-6 game while waiting for a 10-20 to open up. i saw only one hand, my first.. KK, i raise, almost everyone calls. i flop top set of kings on an all heart flop. there's an early bet, i raise.. and 3 of us see the turn. i bet and they both call.. the river puts some silly [censored] on board.. 2345.. so you need the ace for the straight. i check and there's a bet and a call, i fold and two clowns chop up my pot with two weak aces. that was nice.. then i'm called into the 10-20. i sit there for a bit.. get AA, serious action on the hand.. the flop was all spades, and i had the A /images/graemlins/spade.gif, heavy flop betting, i started to get worried, the turn paired the board and still heavy action.. i was thinking the guy had the flush and i had to fill up or hit the spade, well the river was an A and i made a strong hand.. but it turns out the guy providing the serious action didn't have a flush after all.. he was just insane. so that was good. then a few hands later i called with 6 /images/graemlins/heart.gif5 /images/graemlins/heart.gif in middle position after a few callers, the big blind raised, and we all called a second bet. the flop comes 6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif6 /images/graemlins/club.gif5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif.. what a delight. turns out the big blind had KK.. oops.. i told you i was running well. anyways i left that game up $200 after about 20 minutes of play.. and continued my late night walk up and down the strip. after the walk i hit up the room again for a little more sleep /images/graemlins/blush.gif before check out at noon.

at noon i checked out, put all my stuff in the rental car, and drove around to other casinos that i hadn't seen yet. then i drove downtown, checked that out.. just basically spent the day driving around and checking things out. i had a few more hours to kill before the plane left for boston, so i hit up bellagio again.. this time for low limit action, just to pass the time before i left. i sat at the 1-5 stud game with my brother to have some fun. lost around $100 there.. some fun, and then we hit up the airport.

not a bad trip financially.. all expenses such as room and car deducted, as well as souveniers bought, and i ended up netting $2500 on the trip. i like it! i definitely fell in love with vegas and i can't wait to return.. i want to come back as soon as possible,.. maybe within a month or something.

NutCrackerr
01-16-2004, 09:43 AM
Great report! Sounds like one hell of a trip. How did the Bellagio 15/30 game feel compared to on-line limits? I'm headed out there in April, staying at Flamingo, playing at Bellagio/Mirage and was trying to decide what limits I should play at. Normally on-line I play mostly 3/6 and 5/10.

Ash, Housewares
01-16-2004, 11:01 AM
"Are all men from the future loud-mouthed braggarts?"

"Nope, just me baby.... just me."

superleeds
01-16-2004, 01:15 PM
great report, glad to here you did well. Many differences between LV 15/30 and Foxwoods 15/30?

CrackerZack
01-16-2004, 01:43 PM
Yeah. There is a 15/30 in LV and not at foxwoods. Other than that, the games are nearly identical.

superleeds
01-16-2004, 02:13 PM
i've only played upto the 5/10 kill game on the few occasions I make it to FW. I guess I'm asking is there much difference in the quality of players at similar limits. Was your answer in the 'Other than that' comment. I would have thought there is more gamble in LV just based on the fact there are more people on vacation etc. Just MHO

CrackerZack
01-16-2004, 02:21 PM
FW has a 10-20 and a 20-40 game. I've only played the 10 personally and only played the 15-30 at bellagio briefly. Given the description MK gave me of the game and what I saw what I was there they were nearly identical. The FW game can get some unbelievably terrible players in it so from my experience it was better, but they were comparable.

I've heard they've had up to 5 20-40 games going on weekends now, if that's really the case, at least 3 or 4 will be soft.

daryn
01-16-2004, 08:57 PM
i usually play 10-20 shorthanded online, and the highest i had ever played live was the 10-20 at foxwoods.. but the 15-30 seemed to be no problem. i guess that's easy to say when you're running well, but there were definitely a few straight up clowns at the table. if you play 3-6 and 5-10 online i would say you should jump right into a 10-20 at the mirage or 15-30 at bellagio.

daryn
01-16-2004, 09:19 PM
the 15-30 didn't seem too tough at all. i expected it to be tougher i guess, there were definitely a few good players, you can tell. maybe 4 or 5 good players to a table. i never really felt like i was the best at the table, but definitely thought i was at least 2nd or 3rd at all times.

it's funny, i had this mountain of chips, and you could see all the vegas regulars swarming around the table like buzzards waiting for a chance to jump in and clean me out... ha