Vegas Trip Report 5/1-5/4 (Long)

[Holybull]

I finally made it back to Vegas for a conference last week. I spent alot of time gambling/drinking but played only about 12 hours of poker. Due to lack of sleep and no lack of alcohol, the details are a little fuzzy.

Thursday, May 1st:
Arrived at McCarron at 9:00 Thursday am. Dropped my bags off at the MGM and walked to Mandalay Bay to try and enter the $25 morning Holdem tournament. I got there at 9:45 and found out all of the seats had already been reserved.

There was one seat open at the 4/8 game, so I sat down. Of the 10 players at our table, 7 were local rocks. They seemed almost offended at preflop raises, and they really weren't happy when I check-raised. One of the regulars, Mike I think, had a pair of pocket Kings that turned into quads. His hand was disqualified from the high hand jackpot because he and another player were discussing the hand while it was being played. He wasn't happy, but understood the ruling and seemed to get over it quickly.

I played the 4/8 for about 5 hours, with very little fluctuation. Ended up down $25. The players seemed very tight and very predictable. One example of the tightness was a lady called in late position with A 6. It was just her and the 2 blinds. The flop was A A 4. It was checked around on the the flop, turn, and river. Her 3 Aces held up. She said she didn't bet because she didn't think her kicker was good. There was another hand with a pot of about $95 (give or take), and the dealer said it's the biggest 4/8 pot he'd ever seen there! He even called the floorperson over to tell him about it. In the meantime, I hit a nice horse bet, so I'd be playing with the house's money from then on.

I must say that I was impressed by how friendly the Mandalay staff was. They seemed genuinely happy that I was there. The floorpersons called me by name all the time. I'm very disappointed with the $1 and $2 blinds, though. I usually play at Canterbury with the $2 and $4 blinds. I didn't do very well at adjusting to that structure. Thursday morning, the table was very tight preflop. Friday night when I played there, it was a 7 or 8 way family pot nearly every hand.

Had dinner, and later that night played $10 blackjack at the MGM with decent luck. I then went with a colleague to walk down the strip at about midnight. We stopped at Paris, sat down at a slot machine until the cocktail waitress came. We took our drinks out, and walked to Bellagio. We played blackjack again, made a few dollars and left after an hour. We walked to Caesars, played craps for the first time, and actually came out ahead about $50.

On to the Mirage, my friend played blackjack, I sat at a 3/6 holdem game. Another drunk guy there and myself turned it into a tilty raise-fest. It was fun, but not surprisingly I lost $150 in 2.5 hours. Finally, we started walking back to the MGM. We felt like we needed a rest halfway there, so stopped at Monte Carlo. I played an hour at the 4/8 holdem game (1 and 2 blinds again). Dropped $80 from having a few hands cracked. Finally went back to the hotel to sleep.

Friday, May 2nd.
Meetings/actities most of the day. Had dinner at the Bellagio buffet. What a good buffet! Excellent meats, seafoods and desserts. After that I went to the poker room, hoping to play some $8/16. It didn't look good because the list for 4/8 and 8/16 was at least 35-40 names long. I put my name on the list anyway, then walked around the room to watch some games.

It was fun watching the higher limit games like $75/150 stud, etc. Went to the back and I'm not sure, but I think I saw Annie Duke at the $80/160 holdem table. She had her bare feet on a chair, so that's why I assumed it was her. There was a $400/800 mixed game with Phil Ivey and Jennifer Harman and 6 players I didn't recognize. It was fun watching that game, especially Phil Ivey as he was very, very aggressive.

Since I couldn't play there, I eventually made it back to Mandalay Bay. The floorperson had told me on Thursday that they get a $6/12 game going on weekend nights. Unfortunately, all they had was $4/8 again. He said he'd check interest in a $6/12 game, but I don't think he did. There were 2 other guys on the $4/8 list that told him they'd like $6/12 also.

I played 4.5 hours, with not much action happening. This game was a little looser than earlier, but there wasn't much raising going on. The pots were small - in the $45-$50 range at best. Pretty boring I think.


Saturday, May 5th:
More group activities, then more gambling. Lost a couple hundred on the Derby when Atswhatimtalkinabout only finished 4th. Won a few baseball bets, and played more blackjack and craps. That concluded the gambling.

Scorecard:
Horses: +600
Poker: -250
Craps/Blackjack: even