Vegas Trip Report (WAAAAAY too long)

[wayabvpar]

Apologies for any grammatical or spelling errors- pretty much stream of consciousness here. Comments welcomed.

Friday Sept 16th-
8 am flight from SeaTac (after a sleepless night)- get to Vegas about 10:15. Collected luggage, then caught the shuttle to Bellagio. Took about 45 minutes to get there, but I enjoyed the ride; I haven’t been to LV since 1992, so there was a ton of new stuff for me to see. Got checked in at Bellagio (thank GOD our room was ready), and headed upstairs for a quick nap. Met up with my buddy and his wife, and we headed to Monte Carlo for some beer and food at the brewpub there. Beer was decent, Wild Mushroom and Three cheese pizza was incredible.

Friends had to take off for dinner and ‘O’, so my wife and I wandered past NY NY to Excalibur. Played some blackjack (up about $30), then wandered over to the Tropicana (‘won’ a sweatshirt playing their rigged $20 slot game, but it was fun) and MGM (played some more slots). Got back to Bellagio around 9 and relaxed in our room for awhile waiting for my buddy to get out of O.

Buddy calls about 12:30 am, and we head down to the poker room for my first Vegas poker experience. We get on the list for $4/$8 and loiter around the entrance. A very small Asian man wearing headphones walked past me to have a cigarette, and I realized it was Chau Giang! I then peered into the back room, and realized that Jen Harman and Barry Greenstein were also onhand playing. Starstruck!

Got into the $4/$8 game. While I was waiting for my blind in the 9 seat, a drunk guy at the other end of the table was doing his best maniac impression and completely pissing off the guy next to me. I soon realized that most of the maniacal behavior was an act, and that this guy (while drunk) knew what he was doing. Guy next to me busts and leaves in a huff, and I the dealer if I can have the seat. “Sure- you can’t play any worse than that guy did!”. Heh. I drag a couple of pots, have some fun, and end up ahead $79 before I am too tired to continue. Head upstairs for some sleep.

Sat. Sept. 17th.
Get out of bed and get ready- meet our friends and head over to Paris for the buffet
Stand in line for about 45 minutes, but it ends up being worth it. Wow- very nice spread from Paris. I particularly enjoyed the Eggs Benedict (I am a sucker for hollandaise). Stuffed, we wander through Paris and work our way up the Strip on foot, stopping every now and then for a quick $slot or blackjack hit and a cocktail or two. We find an empty $5 BJ table at Imperial Palace, so we all sit down to try our lucky. Buddy his first base, his wife, then me, then my wife. I clean up, while everyone else loses. My wife swears she will never sit to my left at a blackjack table again (I stole about 10 cards that would have given her winners! Heh)- See Pete Rose signing autographs in the Forum shops, and am almost killed by the irony of seeing him in a gambling town =) Eventually head back to Bellagio for a some downtime with plans to head downtown later.- Up about $40.

Friends have rented a car, so they pick up my wife and I and we head to Binion’s. Downtown was a freakin’ ZOO- there was some sort of biker gathering going on. Not really my crowd…Wander into Binion’s so my buddy and I can see the Wall of Champions. Finally find it, and the brush talks us into playing some $2/$4 while our wives and his MIL watch the Fremont Experience outside. I drag the first 2 pots, then go ice cold. End up down $38, but up cocktails, so it wasn’t a bad trade. Forget to take a pic of the Wall of Champions (the whole reason I went there in the first place). ARRGGH.

Head back to Bellagio (with a quick detour for In N Out….woohoo!). Play a couple of slots, then head to bed- early day tomorrow for football!

Sunday Sept. 18th-
Get up at 8 (ugh), shower, then head over to my buddy’s room. He has his laptop set up with Internet access, so I check my fantasy lineups, do some quick online banking, and then we head to Caesar’s (the book we had decided on in our scouting trip the day before). Get there right around 9, and the whole damned place is full already. Bugger. End up sitting in the Keno area on the edge of the book; security forces us to play Keno while we study the morning game lines. I end up taking Baltimore (ugh), Minnesota (double ugh) and Jacksonville (who thankfully cover the generous +9 they were given, even though they lose). Buddy had Indy and Minnesota, so he is 0-2.

Wives stop by to see us right before the afternoon games start. They take one look at how tipsy we are already and my wife exclaims “Have you guys EATEN ANYTHING?? I tell her that I had an olive in my first Bloody Mary =) She rolls her eyes, and her and buddy’s wife head off to get us some food before we drink ourselves dead. We bet the afternoon games, have some more cocktails and sit back. I take the Chargers (who end up pushing), and put $55 on Seattle (my home town boys). The Seahawks run out to a 21-0 lead at halftime, and I call my dad to wish him a happy B-day and chirp about the money I will have after the game. Then the dreaded Seattle collapse starts, and I have to keep pounding drinks to keep from slitting my wrists. Finally they hold off Atlanta, and I cash out up $65 for the games. Buddy and his wife are flying out Sunday evening, so we bid them goodbye and head out.”

Wife encourages me to try a few spins at a $1 Megabucks machine on the way out of the book, so I comply. 2nd spin, I hit for $150, so I cash out the rest and head on my merry way. So begins a night of slot heaven- I couldn’t freakin’ lose. I hit a couple of small wins (doubling up my original $20 investment) playing Jackpot Party at Treasure Island and Wynn, and empty the hopper at a Jackpot Party machine at the Venetian (paid out 480-odd quarters. Wandered the Strip in a drunken haze the rest of the night, pausing long enough to win $75 at a Treasure Island BJ table playing like a donkey (and totally pissing my wife off, since she can’t seem to win ANYTHING this trip). Head back to Bellagio dead tired and footsore, but up for the day. Is there anything better?

Monday Sept. 19th
Get out of bed around 10, shower, and head downstairs to catch the Bellagio buffet (no line- gotta love weekdays!). Chow down some decent grub, then decide to play some more poker while the wife goes shopping. I immediate seating at a rocky $4/$8 table and play for a couple of hours. Someone asks about tournaments, and there is mention of a Mandalay Bay tourney starting at 6pm. I call my wife and see if she wants to meet me down there (I haven’t seen MB yet). She agrees, so I cash out at Bellagio up $7 (big score) and make my way down to Mandalay Bay.
I find the poker room about 4:45 PM and get signed up for the tournament (which is limited to 30 players…doh! I doubt I would have come if I had known how small it is). Get seated in a $4/$8 game and am instantly confused by the blind structure- the blinds are $1 and $2, and there is also a half-kill going. I eventually figure it out, get comfortable, and take down a few pots. Cash out up $70 in time to play the tourney.

Slowly accumulate chips with some tight aggressive play in the tournament (which ends up with only 25 players). I get the honor of busting the first player out, and then cruise to the final table about 2nd or 3rd in chips. We get down to 6 handed (it pays 5), and then everything stalls. Every time a short stack gets all in, they win the pot. We play this way for a good 30 minutes. I take advantage of bubble time to steal a ton of blinds, so my stack is headed north (although I get caught stealing once with 97s and double the bb up, but such is life). Make it down to heads up with a semi-hot blonde who has a 3-1 chip lead on me. She is still playing it close to the vest, so I steal most pots with a preflop raise. We end up about even in chips, when I shove with J9o in the small blind. She thinks about it for a bit and finally calls, turning over J9s! We end up chopping the pot.

After some back and forth, I can’t get her to commit any chips (she has a slight chip leade at this point). I get AJs and decide to get cute and limp from the button. She checks, and we see a flop-884 (no diamonds for me). She checks, and I bet $1900 (min is $1600). I am trying to represent a big hand trying to get paid off with a little bet. She thinks and thinks, and finally shoves for about $4000 more. Figuring I am more or less committed, I call. She turns over Q4, I get no help and take 2nd place and $300.

After the tourney, wife and I hit Shark Reef, which was about as cool as I could have hoped (I am a big zoo.aquarium nerd). Totally worth the time and money (and the freakin ½ mile walk from the casino…it is buried WAY in the back of the place!). We head back to Bellagio after a brief stop at Luxor (drop $40 in slots there). Grab a late night bite at Noodles (LOVED it) see Robert Willliamson III chilling in the Baccarat Bar, and then head to bed about 1:30 am .

Tuesday Sept. 20th-
Get up about 10, get packed and go check out. Leave our bags with the bell station. Wife goes shopping, I go to the Bellagio poker room. Have to wait about 30 minutes for a new game to start, so turn $20 into $100 playing video poker right outside the room. Get called for the new game, and proceed to see exactly dick for cards for 2 straight hours. Get AK once, pot gets capped 5 ways preflop. Had a wheel draw busted, so fold the river when a 2nd 4 hits the board. Winner tables quad 4s, then proceeds to make quad As then very next hand with A8s on a AAA75 board (this guy hit everything he looked at the first 2 hours). I buy another rack of blue and hope my luck improves.

I finally break my session cherry about 2.5 hours in when I make a continuation bet after raising preflop with AJs. Both opponents muck ,and I take down a tiny pot. Yay! Best hand of the day- I have 53o in the big blind, and actually get to take a flop with 5 others. Flop is 355. Hey, that might work for me! SB checks, I check, luckbox quad guy checks,1 bet, 2 folds. SB calls, I call, and luckbox raises. Original raiser calls, SB folds, and I call. Turn is a T. I check., luckbox bets, 7 seat folds. I raise, luckbox re-raises, and I raise again. He calls instead of capping, and we see go to the river. A 6 comes off. I bet out. Luckbox says “do you have a straight?” and calls. I table my hand and take down a nice pot- SB says “VERY nicely played”. After that, I go ice cold again. I finally cash out down $147 for the day (just ugly).

Wife comes back ,and we have about an hour to kill before we have to hit the airport. I haven’t played craps the whole trip (haven’t played in like 12 years and can barely remember how it works), so we bite the bullet and I snuggle into a $10 table (which is a little high for my limited bankroll, but I am up for the trip, so what the hell). Bounce up and down for a few shooters, and finally get my chance to throw the dice. Hit 3 points and a couple of hardways, which makes me pretty popular at the table. Eventually crap out, play through one more shoot, and leave the table up $70, This gambling is easy!

Finally head to the airport and find out our flight has changed to be an hour earlier. Luckily we were at the airport early, so this is good news for us. Of course, the flight gets delayed and eventually takes off at almost exactly the same time as originally scheduled. Bumpy flight home, but nice to sleep in my own bed and see my poor cat (who assumed we had left him for good!).

Had a GREAT time, and can’t wait to go back (winning about $600 didn’t hurt). Now that I have seen almost everything (missed the Mirage and Aladdin this trip), I can concentrate on playing more poker and hitting some more tournaments next time down. Can’t wait!

[Slow Play Ray]

[ QUOTE ]
See Pete Rose signing autographs in the Forum shops, and am almost killed by the irony of seeing him in a gambling town =)

[/ QUOTE ]

This is funny, because I also saw Pete Rose signing autographs when I was in Vegas earlier this year. The guy promoting it was yelling "Sports legend Pete Rose!" and some guy walking by yelled back "you mean GAMBLING legend Pete Rose!" Ah man, I was dying.

Nice report.

[trotski]

Craps is a horrible game. My buddy tried to teach me at the Paris one time. So, he's placing his bets, telling me to play the Pass line and what not...literally 5 minutes later "and that is how you lose $125 in 5 minutes."

I've stuck to $2 craps at Fitzgerald's downtown ever since. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[tonypaladino]

[ QUOTE ]
Craps is a horrible game. My buddy tried to teach me at the Paris one time. So, he's placing his bets, telling me to play the Pass line and what not...literally 5 minutes later "and that is how you lose $125 in 5 minutes."

I've stuck to $2 craps at Fitzgerald's downtown ever since. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

The "what not" bets are what may have done it for you. Next time stick to the Pass / Come

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
Craps is a horrible game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Variance can run the other way, too.

Plus you can be drunk off your ass and still play a simple strategy that gets the house edge under 1%, without the pit boss sweating your play.

Edit
Sorry to highjack this thread. The trip report was entertaining. Here's hoping it does not take another dozen years before you get back next time.

[IronDragon1]

As long as trip report is good-as is this one-it, by definition, cannot be too long.