Bellagio Trip Report

[dal1]

I decided to take a trip out to Vegas this past weekend and play some poker at the Bellagio. Well it was a poker player's dream....world poker tour events and satellites and a ton of cash games going round the clock. As usual I love to people watch and keep my ear close to the ground to see what is going on in the poker world...The following are some of my observations and things that I overheard during my stay:
....during a satellite event, the gentleman from England to my left spots T.J. Cloutier walking by (in full Pokermountain.com gear, by the way). He says, "T.J. remember me ? I lent you $700 T.J...$700 T.J. 9 months ago ..T.J. responds in his Texas drawl, "don't worry I remember you, but now just isn't the right time.." A half hour later I see T.J. at the craps tables (but it was the $5 minimum table)....sad, sad, sad.

One of the dealers told me how he dealt some high limit blackjack to Sammy Farha recently...5 hands at $100,000 each....Sammy lost all five but laughed and joked the whole time according to the dealer.... more on Sammy later.

Freddy Deeb told a story at the $100-$200 No-Limit table...A while back Freddy walked into the MGM with $60K and decided to play some Baccarat...Freddy lost it all in about an hour...As he was getting up to leave he realized he still had $2k in his pocket and he proceeded to go on the run of his life and he left with $240K and change....

The big game Saturday night was found in the back table on the upper level of the Bellagio poker room...it included Brunson, Reese, Chan, Negraneau, Reese, Hansen, Greenstein, and Ivey....mountains of chips and lots of action...

Watched Fossilman at the $100-$200 No-Limit table battle against Tobey Maguire and Eric Lindgren amongst others...Not sure about the outcome..(Fossilman care to comment ????)

Speaking of Tobey Maguire...my man is really starting to look like a poker player...I saw him wear the same clothes 3 days in a row...he's now got a poker gut...hadn't shaved or combed his hair for what appeared to be weeks...the dude was playing round the clock and having a blast...I saw him take down two monster pots in the cash game...He and another guy got into a raising war pre-flop. All of their chips and cash ended up in the middle of the table. Tobey shows Aces and other dude has kings..Tobey wins about 50K...2nd monster came about 7 a.m. next morning when Tobey hits top two pair and takes down about 60K...Later Freddy Deeb joined the table and won about $16K playing some real junk hands...a young kid from New York took a shot at the table and ran his $10K up to about $40K before getting broke a few hours later....Everyone had a great time at the table and Tobey played some solid poker...

I spotted Annie Duke sweating her bro Howard as he played in his 25K heads up match against John D'Agnostino...Looks like Annie got some new breasts...Nothing to flashy just a nice B-cup..

A well known pro from New York talking about how he went broke on the stock market and ended up having to pawn some watches to raise a bankroll...

Watched Chris Hinchcliffe (the big construction worker that came in 3rd at the partypoker million wpt event last year) nearly throw down with some dude at the $25-$50 no-limit table...Chris has apparently been a fixture at the Bellagio since his $400k score.

Watched old vegas hustler Bob Stupak get into a domestic dispute as his girl ran into the arms of another man...Stupak drank and chain smoked the rest of the night at the bar outside the pokerroom.

Watched the following scene occur too many times to count..Young dude on the rail with his buds...Jaws dropped and eyes bugged out, "holy [censored] is that Phil Hellmuth !! Dude, Hey Phil you rock man !! Woa, there is Phil Ivey!!...Is this like the final table...like where are all the cameras and [censored]...This is soooo cool!!!!!!

So how did I fare ??? I played the 3k buy in tourney which had a little over 400 people. I'm still in it when it hits the 100 mark when I get moved to Sammy Farha and Jason Lester's table...I win a big pot off of Lester and couple of others against Farha... I got greedy and decided to go for the kill against Sammy, only problem was that he had pocket Aces and I only had pocket 8's...not good...I still had a great time and had fun playing with some of the big stars like Hellmuth, Sammy, Dewey Tomko, Evelyn Ng, Alan Goehring, and Ron Rose... Can't wait until I can do it all over again...

[DonkeyKong]

nice. is the Bellagio Utopia?

[wray]

That's a great report. I appreciate the time you took passing it on.

[shadow29]

I believe it's "Is [Bellagio] heaven?"

"No, it's [Las Vegas]".

[jayheaps]

thanks for the report. i didnt know there were $5 craps tables at bellagio.