TR: Small Balla (and wife) take on Vegas (7/19-7/14)

[cha59]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice, keep em coming.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Indiana]

[ QUOTE ]
Good Report....Keep 'em coming...Nice looking wifey [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

yep. nice lookin gal u got there. can't say too much for ur ugly head though)
Indy

[player1]

trip reports rule, keep em coming!

i recall asking for a courtesy upgrade the last time i stayed at the bellagio. it sounded like she was willing to help us out. so as we got our key, i discreetly gave her a 20. as we were going to the room, i realized it was a standard room, just with a better view. but as we were unpacking, she was nice enough to call us and and actually gave us the upgrade.

clearly a case of YMMV. at least we know it can be done...

[SlackerMcFly]

Very nice report. Can't wait to hear about your foray into Let It Ride as a bankroll-building session....

Were you sitting down in the pic with DN, or does Daliman tower over you??? j/k

Good luck in Vegas! SMcF

[kevstreet]

DAY II

Woke up at 6:30 am. I was a bit hungover but didn't have time to think about it. I planned to spend most of my time at the tables in the mornings. Especially today, the start of WSOP Event #17 ($1,000 NL) I showered, kissed my sleeping wife and told her if she didn't hear from me I'd meet her at the pool. I swayed my way to the Barbary Coast by 7:30 to take the shuttle to the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, the shuttle didn't start until 9 am. No worries I'll take the Bally's shuttle to the RIO. I stumble my drunk ass directly across the street and read the sign "Shuttle starts at 9 AM" Oh well, I'll just grab this Jamaican Cab driver waiting patiently to escort me safely to the RIO. I jump in and off we go. As we near the overpass, near the RIO, a clown in a BMW cuts us off. Apparently my Jamaican friend forgot all about "Irie Mon" or whatever and busts out an arsenal of obscenities including double barrel fingers and f-bombs. We approach the traffic light and oh great look, it's turning red! The guy in the BMW polishes his rearview mirror and starts making some odd gestures. "Here we go!" I think to myself as the cabbie throws the car in park, unbuckles his seat belt and swings open the door. You're kidding me right? My head hurts, I'm a little nauseous from 1 hour of sleep and I find myself in the middle of this mess. Fortunately between "stupid" and
"fawk" the light turns green and the BMW speeds away. Of course our cabbie then cuts some other guy off because he's in complete disarray and explains how he wouldn't have done that had the other guy not been such a "stupid fawk" He then asks if I'm here for "cards" and explains that he needs to take me back to the convention center. "No thanks, I'm good!" ($11)

RIO

For those of you that have not had the chance to experience the WSOP yet, the scene at the RIO is really cool! As I finally approached the poker room there was a line of people in the hallway. I worked my way to the satellite line inside where there was about 6-7 guys standing. I inquired about today's event and they said it was sold out (2000 entrants) and that there was already 500-600 alternates. This was disheartening, I really wanted to play but wasn't all that thrilled about being an alternate in my first event. There was about 10 dealers waiting for instructions and the brush or tournament director said they'd start the satellites at 9 am. Within a few minutes we had 10 for a $125 STT and soon the cards were in the air.

WSOP Satellite

If you're not familiar w/ the WSOP Satellites, it's winner take all in the 10 man STT. So for a $125 sat. you will win two $500 WSOP chips (good for any of the events) and $125 in cash. I asked around and selling these for face value would not be a problem. Of course you can't sell them back to RIO. Anyway, after reading some previous trip reports I was hoping my table would turn out to be a donkellite. Unfortunately it wasn't. The one girl at the table came in 12th last year in the women's event, the guy to my right in the 4 seat came in 80th in the ME last year (knew he looked familiar) and two of the other guys explained how they sold $2000 worth of satellite chips last year, and some other solid poker history behind the others. The structure is terrible, you start w/ t1000 in chips and the blinds go up every 2 minutes (or so it seemed) Anyway, we were all in push fold mode by the end of an hour. I doubled up w/ KK vs AT and felt pretty good. However, as the field thinned to 5 I pushed from the button holding J8s (w/ a pretty tight image) and the SB instantly called w/ AQ... I didn't improve. I picked up my stuff and walked out of the room. I was a little disappointed but for some reason I felt more good than bad about the whole thing. I was kind of thinking to myself "I'll be back here someday..." Until then I need to befriend some donks at the Flamingo and get back my losses. Cab ride ($11)

-$125

Poker - Flamingo 2/5 NL

I'm back to the hotel by approx 11 am and jump in a 2/5 NL game. I lose $100 on some mundane c-bets and missed flops early but double up with those wired crazy 8s again on the following hand: Two to the flop with a board of 899r. I check behind and the turn is a 4, Villain is an old action monkey and makes a pretty decent size bet, I think and think and think and decide to make a little raise. He smooth calls. He leads out on the river when a red Q hits the board w/ a pot size bet and I shove all in, he calls quickly but takes forever to count out his chips. I'm actually nervous he may have made 9s full but he filled up on the turn w/ pocket 4s... MHIG. I actually felted another older gentleman when I call a big preflop raise on the button w/ 78s, flop 863, turn (you guessed it) 8, I move him in and he tables JJ.

+$238

Dining - Delmonico's

Now I've been waiting for this dinner for a few weeks now. I researched this forum for the best steakhouse and it was a toss up between a few, including Craft, N9NE, etc. I came to the conclusion I'll try them all someday so I can't miss. We order the pretzel fondue and lobster bisque as appetizers, GREAT START!! I order the bone-in-ribeye and my wife has the filet. Delicious, but to be honest I've had steak that was just as good before. Although the signature steak is the bone-in-ribeye, I thought my wife's filet was just as nice. We ordered smashed potatoes and asparagus as sides, both very tasty. I give Delmonico's a solid A. I was extremely happy w/ the service and the food. $150 / $30.

Black Jack

As we're walking through the Venetian casino I can't help myself and sit down at a $15 black jack table. Dealer turns over black jack three of the next 5 hands, I'm not sure I even won a hand. Down $100 in less than 5 minutes... RIGGED! This just in, gambling and losing in front of the wife is -EV!

Coming up: Elton John, Tony G and Two (small) Final Tables

[microbet]

Wish I could see the pics here at work. Oh well, I'll see them later. $20/day for his wife/gf? Maybe she parks cars or maybe it's one of those high-roller things where $1 is code for $100.

[lacky]

[ QUOTE ]
nice lookin gal u got there. can't say too much for ur ugly head though

[/ QUOTE ]

he must have serios game to have accomplished that though, givin what he has to work with [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[kevstreet]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
nice lookin gal u got there. can't say too much for ur ugly head though

[/ QUOTE ]

he must have serios game to have accomplished that though, givin what he has to work with [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL, it's the camera I'm telling ya! It's one of those old instant polaroid joints.

[GtrHtr]

this is awesome man. Keep it coming and thanks for the report. I'm looking forward to my time there as well.

low limit ballas rul3!!!!!!

[kevstreet]

Day III

It's 7 am, rise and shine! I tip-toe around the room in the dark looking for a baseball hat, some shorts and my poker bank roll. No time for breakfast, the drunk donks from the night before are waiting.

Poker - 1/2 NL Flamingo

Sure enough there is one NL table running. I buy in for $300 and sit down in the 4 seat. 2 young kids sitting in the 7 and 8 seats look completely exhausted. Come to find out they had been playing for 20 hours straight. In fact they both busted out of the $1K WSOP event the day before and had been playing since. For the most part I avoided them, they had pretty decent stacks and really tightened up anyway. However there were 3 or 4 guys at the table that were looking to gambool it up and they were drunk. I stacked one of them when I made top two pair w/ AK, he had Ax. During this session another donk in a Barry Sanders jersey had about $70 in chips left in front of him and went all-in UTG?!?!? He was called by QQ and flipped over 99 and took the broke walk of shame back to his room. Anyway, I was able to build my stack to $563 at this point when the table started to break up. So I bought into the $60 daily 10 am tournament.

Poker - Tournament Style

The morning tournament at the Flamingo has a rough structure. t1000 starting chips w/ blinds rising every 20 minutes. Again $60 entry fee, 40 runners. I doubled up when my pocket Js held against AK on an all under board. After that the table was EXTREMELY tight and I took advantage every time I had position when it was folded to me. I didn't have a seat change throughout the tournament and the next thing I realized the final table had formed around me. It was pretty neat because there were railbirds, including my wife. Of course the blinds were huge and everyone had about the same stack size. Before a ten minute break we race off the t100 chips and I lose t400 on the deal (damn)! I pick up pocket 2s on the button and open shove, BB calls w/ KQ and I double up when he doesn't improve. I'm thrilled and fortunate to have won that race and I'm in pretty good shape w/ the field whittled down to 6. I'm sitting in the CO position and look down to find AQs. What makes this better is that a tight nit UTG limps and I'm staring at an extra 5000 chips (blinds 1000/2000) and I have about 7000 behind. It's folded to me and I push when all of a sudden the lady in the SB gets all Tiffany Williamson on me and goes in the tank forever. I put her on pocket 8s or the like. She has about 6000 behind so she's not committed. The only hand she's seen me show down was pocket 2s. I look at the BB and he's all but mucked his cards and tighty-whitey UTG is acting the same. Come on Tiffany let this hand go, please. Sure enough she calls, BB and UTG fold and I quickly show AQ, she then says "you got it" and flips over 9To... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? First of all when she said "you got it" I threw up a little in my mouth because I know that's some sort of reverse rigged psychology and second of all I know how far behind I am, in fact I'm pretty certain I'm drawing dead to her 9T!?! Flop 9 high, turn and river are blanks and I'm completely disgusted. She will not even look in my direction and I mumble a few words under my breath, something similar to the lines the Jamaican cab driver taught me. I'm crippled and exit shortly thereafter.

Walking the Strip / Fashion Mall

My wife came down to the poker room to let me know she was going to the Fashion Mall. She didn't know I entered the tournament and was pretty excited to watch, despite the outcome. Anyway, I tell her I'm done w/ poker for now. I keep reminding myself I'm still up $300 for the day but that beat still stings. FWIW I think SnGs have helped me deal w/ bad tournament beats. The Fashion Mall is a place w/ a bunch of nice stores, that is all. However, I like to spend the money I earned from poker whenever I run bad or in this case get bounced out of a tourney. So I was in the shopping mood and purchased cool cocktail glasses from Z Gallery. We then head across the street to the Wynn. The Wynn was not finished last year when I was in town so I was interested to check out the poker room. The Wynn is very nice and the poker room is beautiful. The place was jam packed and there appeared to be some pretty big NL games going on.

Night Time

One of Bobbi's requests on this trip was to check out the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Neither of us had ever been there (cab ride $10) The pool is impressive and looks like it would be a good time, especially during "Rehab". We then check out the menu at Nobu but decide dinner can wait and take a cab to NYNY. We find ourselves drinking Red Bull & Vodkas at Coyote Ugly ($25/$5) Good news, they're 2 for 1 until 9 o'clock! Coyote Ugly is fun despite the fact that AC/DC gets on my nerves after "You Shook Me All Night Long" played 5 times within an hour. The music is selected on the juke box. Leaving this responsibility to customers isn't always the freshest idea. Even one of the bartenders started bitching and asked that someone please play a song we can dance to. The next song was David Banner's "Play" which turned around the feel in the bar. 4 RB&Vs later, on an empty stomach, and it's time for dinner. The first place we find in NYNY was Il Fornaio. I order ravioli stuffed w/ crab and topped w/ cream sauce and shrimp, Bobbi has a chicken and spinach dish. It was pretty good ($50 / $10)
We cab it back to the hotel but not before drunken roulette (-$40)


Coming Up: My worst live beat eva!