Vegas Trip Report - Long, little content

[Masquerade]

Decided to treat myself to a week of poker in Vegas. I wanted to get a feel for the life of a pro player and probably succeeded quite well as I now have absolutely no desire to ever have to grind it out for a living! At least not in real casinos - online is another matter.

The nicest place by far was the Wynn which I hadnt been to before. Fantastic poker room, electronic waiting lists, cocktail waitresses who looked like supermodels, funky little side tables for drinks and you could even order food to be brought to your table. How's this for customer service: I was waiting some time for a 15/30 seat and finally I see it become available [there were only two 15/30 tables at the time] but before I can even start walking to the front desk the woman supervisor comes over to me, asks if I'm Matt, and points me to seat! Sweet!

All the dealers were excellent but Matthew was particularly funny and also deftly handled the situation when the f-word was becoming a little over-used. The table was fairly lively with a black lady called Erica wearing a cowboy hat driving most of the fun and games. She wasn't very selective about starting hands, favouring Jacks a lot, but played post-flop very well. She did hit runner-runner to bust my flopped set, which turned a boat, with a better boat on river and deprive me of a profitable session. She was doing great at one point but then hit a bad spell where her good hands were ironically getting beaten by garbage and she left unhappy. Most of the players seemed pretty good and one local pro Shaun seemed very eager to switch to the other 15/30 table so perhaps I was just unlucky that night. Only criticism of the Wynn is that there werent that many games going and so you had to wait a while for a spot. So please get down there and ensure this room's survival.

I was staying at the Aladdin as I expected to spend a lot of time at the Bellagio which is just over the road (and it's a lot cheaper!) but they screwed me on the room this time and I don't think I'll go back. I got a room with a connecting door to the adjacent room. This was cunningly designed without a proper lock [just a catch each side that wouldnt withstand any pressure] and allowed plenty of noise through. As an added touch when the neighbours went out the air pressure of them shutting their door caused this inner door to vibrate violently enough to wake me up. Nice. The poker room at the Aladdin is very friendly and ideal for beginners to get a taste of tourneys. They have daily tourneys for $40, $60, $100 I think and I managed a 2nd and an 8th in a couple of the $100s I played for a decent score. The 10 am $40 is a gentle wake-up for the day before the serious action starts.

The real action was always going to be at the Bellagio though. Nice room, little cramped, good waitress service. I played in 3 of the $500+40 daily tournaments. They were tough but I went deep in one before crashing out a little unluckily and managed 5th in another. With hindsight I made an error in not accepting the proposed chop when we were down to five. The two monster stacks were a fearsome Asian dragonlady who had been brutally bullying with her big stack, and a heavy-set middle-aged guy of possibly Mediterranean origins. I don't know his name but he was a very strong player. I was particularly impressed with his turn and river play which was subtle and lethal. Dragonlady was more allin with top pair, ace kicker on the flop [which works fine if you have a big stack]. After declining the deal I went out 5th as is traditional but those are the breaks. The payout was handled very professionally by the tournament director Maria who took a photocopy of my UK passport and gave me the appropriate forms to sign so she didn't have to take 30% witholding tax off the top! My payout was only a little over a grand [1st was around $11K I think, with about 60 entrants]. These tournaments did have some fish, probably more at the weekends [$1000 entry on Fri/Sat] and probably provide rich pickings. They also had some unpleasant players and the atmosphere could not be described as friendly! Minor disputes tended to escalate quickly. No particularly interesting hands but I did lay down QQ pre-flop face-up at one point after raising an early limper and facing an allin from a very solid player. We both had similar stack sizes and no need to gamble at that point so after some thought and seeing how he looked I decided my queens were no good. I didnt see his cards so don't know if it was a good laydown but about 10 minutes later he did say to me unprompted that it was good and other players at the table who knew the player seemed to agree. I also had one beautiful hand where I limped with Th 8h after some limpers and got a flop of Tc 7h 9h! We got the money in and the other guy hadnt raised pre-flop with his Kings and got busted when one of my zillion outs came.

I also played a lot of 15/30 at the Bellagio and contrary to other posters found the game often slow to get started and short-handed. Playing on Saturday night people were remarking at how quiet it was and there were empty tables. This is probably a function of all the new poker rooms opening and Bellagio should prosper as it's one of the better ones. The waiting lists are split between Limit and No Limit with different podium to sign up and it seems well-organised. The day supervisor Charlene was a small blonde woman with a voice like a New York tugboat [how? this defies the laws of physics] and in the evening a tall bald moustachioed guy took over - Nate - who was a no-nonsense type but kept things moving along briskly.

The funniest moment for me was when an excellent lady player was ruthlessly amassing chips and could obviously play 15/30 in her sleep was "confidentially" (at a volume half the room could hear) asked by a concerned regular whether she was in danger of having too much to drink. [She'd had something like 3 cocktails in 2 hours.] Jim, she was a shark! I ran bad that session with flopped sets losing etc but overall felt I was better than the average 15/30 player there. The weak tight players tended to limp with any pair, even small ones, in early position trying to hit her their set. To counter this it was important to raise more pre-flop with two big cards as they wouldnt be able to continue post-flop most of the time.

Played again on Saturday and an older guy Frank was putting all the young probable 2+2 ers on tilt. He was playing virtually any two cards but catching a lot and playing post-flop sensibly enough but they couldnt seem to adjust. In end it was ridiculous as I watched him show a random pair against a board of rags and the pro [headphones, shades, hat] couldnt beat it. This guy was a very good player but I watched him flush at least $1000 in the session [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Another time Frank showed Ace-Queen high and another young good player couldnt beat that. There was a good older player called Paul I think who adjusted to Frank's play well and made some huge laydowns on river to him when it was obvious that he'd hit his hand.

Overall Bellagio was pretty good and is a classy well-run room. There is a nice deli-style place just outside called "Snacks" where you just order at the counter and can eat inside. The food was excellent and the portions huge so I was surprised it wasnt more popular - easy to get a seat. Also the ice-cream place at the bottom of the stairs out to the Strip have some hot sandwiches that were OK.

Next stop was the Mirage and I have to say a massive thumbs-down here. I entered one of their $100+30 tournaments and was doing well for a while although ultimately I didnt cash. However imagine my horror when I started reading the small print and found that a witholding tax of 30% applied to non-resident aliens [ie. me] and you still needed an "ITIN" for the tax-treaty exemption to apply. I found out later what an ITIN is - it's basically a sort of identifying Social Security Number that the US gives you when you dont qualify for a SSN. I'm on holiday from London so surprise, surprise, I'm not going to have an ITIN so they would have taken 30% off my prize even though I could show them a UK passport. This is so wrong. It's counter to the whole idea of tax treaties and is certainly NOT required by the IRS as my experience at the Bellagio showed. It might be because Bellagio pay in chips rather than money [chips which I can then of course instantly convert into money] but the Mirage are making a huge error here. I know in theory I could claim it back but it just makes no sense to me to play any more tournaments there with this rule in force. All UK players [and others from tax treaty countries] please take note! One nice hand from this tourney. I limp with Js Ts for 150 and a raiser then makes it 300 total and only I call. Flop is Axx all spades. I check to let him bet at it with his probable ace but he only bets very lightly. Somewhat disappointed I go allin anyway but when he calls I see why he hadnt wanted to drive me out - AA for top set! But of course I am a 2-1 favourite and dont suffer any board pairing for a nice double.

I think the US has really taken a big step down the wrong path with the application of witholding taxes to poker tournament winnings. I enter a tournament for $100, win say $1000 and have $300 taken off the top, whereas if I sat down with $100 at a NL table, ran it up to $1000 then I don't pay a cent? Well that's logical?!?

Finally I checked out the MGM poker room. Very nice room but their morning tournament structure is a joke. The blinds double every time and you only get a ridiculously small number of chips. A slots tourney would be as valid a test of skill. The 3/6 game seemed very weak but I just cant be bothered to play for such low stakes for any length of time. Snack bar conveniently located right nearby but the food wasnt up to much.

A friendly young Chinese lady a the Wynn recommended just staying there and getting the poker rate and that's exactly what I'm doing next time - it was just the nicest room by far. Hopefully its popularity will continue to increase. I'll certainly be visiting the Bellagio again for those daily $500s but am henceforth boycotting the Mirage for their absurd tax policy and I'll leave the MGM to the two-bob chimps. The Aladdin is not really for medium stakes players but is very friendly and I'd recommend it for newbies who want some live experience.

[jba]

what is this tax treaty business? if you earn or win money in the US you have to pay taxes here, regardless of nationality. i have no idea of withholding rules though.

nice trip report, can't wait to go back

[Wake up CALL]

Good report although I did find this to be quite funny,

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There was a good older player called Paul I think who adjusted to Frank's play well and made some huge laydowns on river to him when it was obvious that he'd hit his hand.


[/ QUOTE ]

Huge laydowns on river, not generally good poker.

[Masquerade]

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Huge laydowns on river, not generally good poker.

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Exactly, thats why I remarked on it. But Frank was predictable - if he bet on river he had it. Trust me, they were good laydowns.

[Masquerade]

[ QUOTE ]
what is this tax treaty business? if you earn or win money in the US you have to pay taxes here, regardless of nationality.

[/ QUOTE ]

No I don't. I don't get a vote in the US, why should I have to pay income tax on poker winnings?

Tax Treaties

"Gambling income of residents (as defined by treaty) of the following foreign countries is not taxable by the United States: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom."

From this IRS website