Vegas Trip Report

[RagnerRocker]

Trip occurred Oct. 18th-22nd

Traveling with buddy (without our wives) for a 4-day weekend of beer, football, and poker.

Early 7AM Flight on Midwest out of Milwaukee.

After uneventful flight, picked up our car (full size, Priceline, $15.00/day).

Played at Caesar's, Excalibur, Orleans, Hooters, and Wynn.

Most of my hours were at 1-3NL, but played a decent amount of low limit (2-4).

I'll split my comments by room vs. chronological order.

Caesars - Over the weekend, maybe 12 hours of 1-3 NL. Overall up $1250 (including high hand jackpot of $101 for
quad 6's). Very nice, well run room. The inaugural Caesars open was running during my stay. I'm guessing this
may have changed the character of the room somewhat.

Fairly surprised at the passive play and how small the games played. Lots of short ($100-$200) buyins.
7-8 players (9 seated) to the flop. $10 was standard raise.

TAG play - pretty much netted me nearly guaranteed builds of my stack. Donators abounded, calling down top pairs
and flopped two pairs, with obvious straights/flushes reaching at the turn/river.

Our table ran off a couple of +regulars+ ("Julie", "Kenny", and a chubby internet wunderkind with a degenerate-level
sports gambling problem). All decent enough, but I think they "expected to win" a bit too much. I wouldn't even
comment on it, but each left the table in disgusted huffs. (well, "Kenny" had the grumpy old man thing down as soon
as he sat down.)

Not being a LV Poker veteran, but I think the #1 rule to being a "regular" out there is that not everyone plays
poker for the same reasons. They are not playing for "rent", they are playing mostly for fun. And yes, they will
raise with 9-4 offsuit and turn trips on your pocket jacks.

Spotted Johhny Chan, Eskimo Clark, and Montel Williams of all people.

Excalibur- Went here to play 2-4 limit (mostly to rent a table for the Sat. College games). Having been kicked
out of the area that is now the sportsbook. It's now out on the casino floor. A nice advantage is that the
sportsbook screens are visible from most of the poker tables. Plus, the cheering coming from the book keeps you
keyed on the action. Also, drink service was amazing there. Nothing special, but if you want to slam Corona's and
down the occasional shot of iffy tequila, it can't be beat. Dropped about $60 (with a win for $20 on the spin
of the wheel with cracked aces).

Hooters - Pathetic "room". 3 tables sandwiched near the bar/elevators. Went here with similar strategy as the
Excalibur...wings and a little NFL watching. Sat at the 1-2NL table. Boring grind, except for the drunk
Puerto Rican girl wearing a black LA Dodgers hat ("just for fashion, honey"). She verbally abused just about
everybody, but I wouldn't have anything of it. Being married to a Puerto Rican myself, I pushed verbally and
eventually felted her with a flopped straight to her Queens (fitting). Entertainment of this session far exceeded,
the +80 bucks I took off the table. Bottom line: Nice little casino once inside, but the common areas (garage, elevators, and grounds) are pretty "ghetto".

Completely off-topic: Why the hell would the Hooters Restaurant not open until 11AM on the weekends? NFL games were already on at 10AM!

Orleans - During the mid-afternoon Sunday, played low-limit in a continuation strategy from our earlier Hooters
play. Ugh, the average age of the dealers had to be 70 and the age of the players 50+. Not a bad table, but
we cut our visit short. Bright spot: Drink service was quite good with nearby bar and the waitresses were stunning.

Wynn - Short session before catching plane on Monday. 1-3NL. Small room, all said. Dark decor made it feel
even smaller. All said, was not impressed by the "room". Expected more from the Wynn.

$3 chips are ridiculous. Slowed the game down as everyone made constant mistakes in making bets/calls. Standard seemed to be to just yell out "9 chips", "10 chips", etc. Just not worth it. I also felt
it made the game play even smaller, since people had a tendency to make it $9 and $12 to go. Drink service
was adequate, but the waitresses were nothing less than 8s or 9s.

Being fairly early afternoon, competition was pretty soft (trended older), but fairly tight. No real action, but found a way to drop $100. Short session, had to bolt for the plane. I hope the action is better at night.