Vegas - Misc Trip Report - pics included

[adamstewart]

Okay, my wife and I just returned to our 'home and native land' this morning.

This was my second time to Las Vegas, her first. (My first trip was last December, with "the guys" [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ).

Once again this was an excellent vacation... a very expensive, excellent vacation. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] Man, can Vegas ever suck the money out of ya, eh? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

We stayed at New York, New York. It's a great hotel for a younger crowd, imo. Only major problem for me is that there isn't a poker room there. Nevertheless, it's only a quick walk and a tram ride over to the Bellagio - a trek I made several times this week. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

We saw pretty much all of the hotels on the strip. Each is impressive in its own way. Notable attractions for us included the Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum at the Venetian, and the Lance Burton Show at the Monte Carlo. (I highly recommend the Lance Burton show!! He's an excellent magician with a very entertaining show).

As for the poker, I had a great deal of fun, probably spent an average of 5-6 hrs per day at the tables - mainly at the Bellagio $15/$30.

I will say this, however: I think I have had my fill of "live" poker for a while. I really don't know how the pros, and more specifically the grinders, and spend so mainly continual hours at the table. Compared to the speed of hands online, and the ability to multi-table, "live" poker is played at a snail's pace. The loooonnnngggg run is that much further away, it seems. Throughout my play at the Bellagio $15/$30, I was down about 55 big bets. The players, generally, were a little better than anticipated - not expert, but some were decent. Of course, some were horrible. Thus, I don't necessarily think I was being "outmatched" at the Bellagio games, but rather my 55 bet downswing was the result of a miniscule snapshot of variance. Even with a horrible player to my right, I'm only seeing about 30 hands per hour, only a small fraction of which are playable... as a result, in live play it takes a long time and patience to be able to capitalize on the poorer players. (And one week of playing is nowhere near the 'long run').

One thing I found surprisingly similar between live versus online play is the "trash talk" and "table coaches" at the tables. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] Man, I ran across a few morons this week..... especially this young, twenty-something, tilting table coach at the Bellagio $15/30 one night. He sits down with sunglasses, posts from the LP, and has his first hand (AK) rivered by a nice lady's AT. He immediately starts tilting... shooting his mouth off, murmering to whoever would listen... obnoxious. When I finally left that night, he was away from the table, and got to use a line I learned here .... I said to the guy on my right, another person who this table coach had been criticising, "Someone should tell that guy his seeing-eye-dog licks its balls every time he flops top pair." He had a chuckle. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Even though I was down in this week, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Live poker is an enjoyable, social, change of pace from online. I play it for leisure rather than money. The poker atmosphere at the Bellagio is unmatched. Especially when I look over to my left and see players like Doyle Brunson, Gus Hanson, and Sammy Farah playing no more than 30 feet away from me. Other notables that I saw at the Bellagio this week included Barry Greenstein, Ted Forest, Howard Lederer, TJ Cloutier, Antonio Esfandairi, "that French guy" who won a WPT tourney last year, as well as that "Brooklyn Kid" from one of the WPT events last year. Btw, it seemed Gus Hanson was there every night for hours on end... seems like he was spending more time at the Bellagio cash games than at the WSOP.

I also caught a few $4/$8 games at the Monte Carlo and MGM Grande (highest stakes they had [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]).... man, are the players HORRIBLE at those levels.... wow. Ironically, there are even more table coaches there.


Oh ya, Di lost a tonne on slots, and so did I on Blackjack and Pai Gow. Food, drinks, and entertainment were expensive as hell. And the shopping malls also drained the cash, but at least there you have something material to bring home with ya. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]


Viva Las Vegas. It's an amazing place.



Adam


P.S. I kinda wrote this on a whim, so more to follow if I can remember...

[adamstewart]

Misc Pics:


Oh no!! Some show actually show more than the back of my head!! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Btw, some of the included celebrities may or may not be wax figures...


Me in front of the Monte Carlo:



My wife, Di, with David:



The Bellagio:



Di and I on the Bellagio 'auto-walkway':



Front of our hotel, NY NY:



Nic and I:



My wife, "Di", and Princess Di:




Ben and I:



Playing Ball with Shaq:




Wtf does she think she's doing?:



Tiger and I:



Hangin' with Hef:




Adam

[kurosh]

FWIW, I would do your wife.

[Evan]

You look younger than me.

[adamstewart]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I would do your wife.

[/ QUOTE ]


lol, um,... thanks. I'll be sure to tell her. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]



btw guys, how old do you figure she is?? (Honestly?)




Adam

[adamstewart]

[ QUOTE ]
You look younger than me.

[/ QUOTE ]


c'mon, how is that possible? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Firefly]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I would do your wife.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

i like the poses you are doing w/ teh wax dudes.

[BottlesOf]

It's not, and you don't.

[smartalecc5]

Nice post man. Is the picture with the guy at the poker table a wax guy or real person??

Your wife...she is about 27 give or take 5.5 years [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]