Vegas Trip Report (LONG)!

[Jeffage]

Hey everyone. This is my first time writing one of these, but I will do my best to make it at least somewhat interesting [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]. I loved Vegas...to quote SKP, I could live there and just love it. I love the cardrooms, the town and even the weather (lemme tell you, 114 degrees there beats 93 with 100% humidity here anyday).

I got to Vegas at a little after 11 local time on Thursday...we threw our bags in the room at Harrahs and ran right into the Mirage across the street. I planned to play mostly mid limits on this trip but decided to open with a little 6-12 to get my feet wet since I was staying till Monday morning. Of course, this turned out to be a huge mistake...even though the game was very good, I managed to get CRUSHED losing about $450 and starting the trip in somewhat of a bad mood. The session was punctuated with many missed huge draws and big pairs being beaten by sets.

My thoughts on the Mirage room: Damn, is this place small. I mean, it's nice and the surroundings are cool but I really couldn't see it as "the center of the poker universe." Most of the rest of my time there, I played 10-20 in the top section and thought that the floor was a bit chaotic and unorganized, and some of the regulars were really obnoxious, needling, slowrolling, the whole bit. Also...it seems that string raises are perfectly legitimate at the Mirage, as they are never called and if you say anything you are treated like less than dirt. String raises happened repeatedly...at the Taj in AC, if you are playing 20-40 and accidentally only put $75 out to raise the turn...you have called. PERIOD. I like that better. One horrendous ruling occurred in a 10-20 game where I was headup with a weak player. I flopped top top and planned to raise the turn. He bet $10 on the turn (literally threw it out) and the dealer informed him the bet was $20. Then he said, "Oh" and tried to check. The floor was called and ruled he could check. Now...this is a joke, the man is playing 10-20 and bet the turn. He should know it is a $20 bet. I thought that ruling was irritating. I did like the room overall but improvements could definitely be made.

After wandering the hotels for a bit we were exhausted at 10pm Vegas time considering we had gotten up at 4:30 EST to make the flight. We planned to take an hour nap and when 11 came around and the alarm went off I felt like I was hit by a pile of bricks and wanted to stay sleeping. But my buddy Dave said we needed to get on Vegas Time...so we went to the Bellagio where I was too exhausted to play anything but 4-8. I REALLY loved the Bellagio room...elegant surroundings, good coffee (IN A GLASS!) and beer in a bottle made me feel spoiled after the watery draft beers and cheap coffee in paper cups of AC). I thought the dealers were overall very good and the action was better than Mirage where tight locals were more prevalent. I won about $300 at 4-8 before we decided to hit the town.

We went to a bunch of casinos, playing some blackjack at some local dives like Barbary Coast ($1 drinks yea! Sweat joint to the max...they looked like they wanted to backroom this guy and his wife for betting green and winning). We hit the bed at like 7 am. On Saturday and Sunday, I played almost Bellagio 15-30 almost exclusively. The games were fantastic...they typically start tight with 3 or 4 people who bring new definitions to the word ROCK folding 99% of the time. But once they left, the other tourists arrived and the games got real wild, and real ram jam. There were large swings...I had several monster hands cracked. One I remember was a hand where I had AA and it was capped 5-way action preflop. Flop came 8-8-2 and I lost to a regular who called $65 cold out of the SB with A8o. In several hands I flopped sets and lost to straights. But man, you couldn't beat the action with a stick.

I saw Sklansky in the 60-120 Omaha (I THINK, it was top section) but he looked real tired so I didn't bother him. No sign of Mason. I got excited when I heard "Ray Z" called on the mike until I saw it was some old fogie playing 1-5 stud.

Other trip highlights: CRAZY HORSE...great strip club, nice lapdances...real fun. More strippers per capita than I have ever seen in one place. No regrets about the 120 I dropped.

Went to Circo (I think) at Bellagio for a pretty good, but expensive meal. Free range chicken "under a brick" was quite tasty. I liked the Mirage buffet.

Blue Man Group: One word: Awesome! Totally bizarre and out there, definitely go see it! Thanks for the recommendations and I appreciate your comments.

For future reference, I will be on Vegas for Business in October...the trip ends Friday so I'm staying the weekend. I'd like to grab a bite or drink with some of you before hitting up Bellagio.

All comments on this report appreciated!

Thanks,
Jeff

[pufferfish]

Thanks Jeff,

Good report!

TC,
pf

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Jeff:

Sorry I missed you. Because of the explosion in book sales, I haven't been in the poker room as much as I would like. Perhaps I'll be around on your next trip.

Best wishes,
Mason

[slamdunkpro]

Interesting! Well written. I totally agree about the Mirage; my thoughts are if you can win at the Mirage or Binion's, you can win anywhere.

[rigoletto]

I got excited when I heard "Ray Z" called on the mike until I saw it was some old fogie playing 1-5 stud.

Sounds like Ray to me [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Mark Heide]

Jeffage,

Sounds like you had a good trip. I like the weather in Vegas too. Next time when you sign up for a game just say you are "Ray Z." I'll bet that Ray does not use his real name to sign up for any games. I don't think I could recognize Ray from the picture on the back of his Hi Lo book. But, you are sure to find him at the worst resturants eating tofo hot dogs.

Great report!

Good Luck

Mark

Hi Jeff,

Glad to hear that you came back in one piece. Would like to hear the details when I see you at TAJ. Will you be there this Sat or you're still recuperating? Nice report.

[CrackerZack]

Great report. I'm a big fan of the bellagio over the mirage also. I also really liked Monte Carlo for small stakes. I saw Mason both days I was in the Bellagio but never saw David until the seminar.

[Uston]

my thoughts are if you can win at the Mirage or Binion's, you can win anywhere.

My thoughts are that if you can play regularly in Binion's for a decade without contracting a respiratory ailment, you're practically superhuman.

[slamdunkpro]

I dunno, don't they preserve meat by hanging it in a smokehouse [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]