Vegas Trip Report: 10/12-10/16

[KurtSF]

I'm hungry now.

[Apoc]

[ QUOTE ]
Damn; You can EAT!!!! I thought I was Good.
You don't have the BR for 1-2NL and every meal is a 4 star Restaurant and Tao?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, there are certain things that my very nice girlfriend will pay for (like meals and drinks) and certain things that she won't (like gambling). She can tolerate my playing and wants me to have a good time...she's just not interested in being that kind of sugar momma.

Part 2, the Finale in progress...

[Arbitrage]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Damn; You can EAT!!!! I thought I was Good.
You don't have the BR for 1-2NL and every meal is a 4 star Restaurant and Tao?

[/ QUOTE ]

I was thinking the same thing, hell when I go, I'm hitting the cheap downtown buffets but playing $200 tourneys [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm the same way, the absolute max I spend on food per day is $10, I usually have enough comp$ at various casinos to eat for free. If I don't, I just eat sportsbook food.

I'd say I spend more money tipping the cocktail waitress than on food.

[Apoc]

Alright, so it's about midnight at a Saturday night, and I'm stuffed from the Wynn buffet and I've put my gf to bed, so nothing to do but play some poker! My experience in the Venetian poker room had been good so far, so I figured I'd see what was going on there. Sure enough, they had an immediate opening in the 1/2 NL game. I hadn't lost my money in this game yesterday, so I figured I'd give it another shot.

Sat down to an angry table. One guy had apparently tilted off about 6 buy-ins after getting sucked out on the river twice in a row for his stack. He was muttering to himself and raising every pot, clearly not off tilt. I bought in for $100, hoping a little of that mad money could find it's way into my stack. Unfortunately, he busted yet again in a few hands and left in a huff.

I was playing tight (as folks kept mentioning again) but when I entered pots, I still got plenty of action for some reason, so I just kept playing tight. Blinded down a little until I woke up with QQ UTG. I raised it up to $11, which was pretty standard, and get 4 callers (which was also pretty standard). Flop comes rags and I go all-in since I didn't have much behind at his point anyway. Get a caller who had been calling everything, and he shows AKs. No help on the turn and river, and I survive my first ever all-in in live play to double up. Woo hoo!

Over the course of the next few hours, I'm chatting it up with the folks at my end of the table, and we're having a good time messing around. The guy to my left had a MOUNTAIN of chips and had apparently been playing for about 16 hours straight. Both he and the guy two to my left were cool guys, so we were just having a good time showing each other cards (well, them showing me at least) and shooting the breeze. This camaraderie helped out a couple of times. Once in a pot I was in in which both of them folded and the flop came 77x and both of them muttered to each other that they had folded a 7, so I bet my baby pair with confidence through to the river and picked up a nice pot. Maybe not so high on the ethical scale, but I couldn't not hear it when they said it. In another hand with the guy two my left, I raise preflop with AK UTG and he calls along with a couple of other callers. Flop comes AQJ rainbow and I bet out about half-pot, only to be min min-raised by my buddy. Hmmm...I think and call to see if I can spike a ten and because I think I may have the best hand. Turn comes a K, and I check and he puts a pretty sizable bet out there - about 2/3 pot. I think and think and fold, saying I think I'm folding the best hand. As we were friends, he was kind enough to show me the KK, and I felt much better about my fold.

The night wore on, and I kept picking up a few good-sized pots here and there, until I was up to over $300 at one point -- not too shabby! At this point, it was getting to be about 6:00 am, and the table was playing 5-handed most of the time. A couple of nice girls who were playing dumb but clearly knew what they were doing had sat down a few hands before. Finally, it was 7:00 am and I was getting tired and they were consolidating tables but had one less seat, so I figured that was cue to leave, up $181 for the session. So, I racked up, cashed out, and headed back to the room...but not before placing a bet on my Cowboys to win against the lowly Texans in a few hours. NET RESULT FOR POKER: +$195

Two hours of sleep later, gf is waking me up to go shopping. Ugh...sure, fine...just a sec...zzzzzz....WAKE UP! I'm up, I'm up. No rest for the weary. A shower and a shave later, and I'm enjoying the beautiful sights and sounds of the Canal Shoppes on the 2nd floor of the Venetian. Meanwhile, I anxiously await text messages from my buddy who's keeping track of my fantasy football team and the Cowboys game for me. A few hours of yes, that's a pretty dress, no that doesn't make you look fat, and that color looks pretty good on you, and I'm spent. Of course, when my guard is down, we slide into the Simayof jewelry store to check out engagement rings. Now, my girlfriend and I have been dating longer than most marriages last, and wedding bells have been ringing for some time as far as most of our friends and family have been concerned. But neither she nor I are particularly into symbolic commitment, so we've simply reveled in our common law status in three states. Well, the saleswoman simply couldn't grasp that concept, as she kept regaling us with stories of couples that had proposed right there in the store. I think she was genuinely sad when we told her we were going to think about it while we walked around. That being said, the ring that my gf liked most wasn't actually that expensive in Vegas standards. I was expecting much worse.

Lest you all think someone else is writing this third part, we finally stopped for a late lunch at the food court. A nice sandwich (highly recommend the deli in the Canal Shoppes food court) but my gf's hot dog was pretty nasty. The creamy mocha ice cream drink from Haagen-Dasz made up for it, though. A little more shopping was followed by an hour or two in the Venetian sports book watching the afternoon games while the gf played video poker. She hates football, so she deserves around of applause for putting up with me in football heaven with 90 TV screens all around the room. With my football fix sated for now, we decided to head over the Bellagio to check out the pretty flowers and stuff.

Bellagio flowers weren't so great, at least not as good as the Spring exhibit when we were here last. So after a quick walk around, we grabbed a gelato at the place in the Bellagio by the Fine Arts Museum. The mango was super good and my gf claims the coconut was also good, but that can't be right since coconut is really disgusting. Anyway, freezing cold from the gelato, I managed to convince the gf that it would be a great idea if I played some poker while she played slots. 4/8 limit table open in the darkest recesses of the Bellagio room, so I bought in for my $200 and took a seat with a nice view of the Denver-Oakland game.

First hand in the blind, 74o, saw an open-ended straight on the flop which got there on the turn. And I never looked back. Over the course of the next three hours, I saw 8 pocket pairs, all of which held up despite 97 people to the flop. AA good, KK good, QQ good. 66 and TT become full boats on the flush card. When it rains, it pours. The two guys from Indy on either side of me were cool (at least one mentioned 2+2, so shout out to ya if you're reading -- hope your mouse and snake farm is doing well!) Finally decided to quit while ahead, plus it was time for dinner (I know you're shocked), so I found five racks and loaded up my $460 and off to the cage. Yeehaw! NET RESULT FOR POKER: +$455

For our last dinner in Vegas, the gf had decided she liked the Mesa Grill brunch enough to go back, so we take our seats for the 10pm reservations she made and start licking our chops. More delicious bread and butter and a glass of Spanish wine each (both of which weren't particularly good) and we finally place our order. Tamale for appetizer, seabass for her, and new york strip for me. Tamale was awesome, but I LOVE tamales, so that wasn't surprising. Strip and seabass were delicious as well, both with a little kick but nothing overwhelming. Too stuffed for dessert again (sad, so sad). Overall, dinner was better than brunch had been, so Mesa Grill moved up a notch to an A-. A few yanks of the money-sucking slot machines after dinner and it was time to head to the room.

Monday morning...checked out after cramming everything we had brought and bought into the suitcases. I called Southwest Airlines to find out if they stil offered checking bags from the Strip. Woman kept telling me I needed to call the travel agent I booked the trip with (yet another reason not to use Southwest Airlines Vacations website for booking). I finally convinced her that she could answer my general question, and she rattled off a list of hotels that offered the service. So I called around to confirm that indeed those hotels offered it, and not a single one did -- at least not one we wanted to drag our bags to. I'm almost positive I saw a sign on the strip that mentioned it, and Southwest confirmed it, but nowhere could I find it. Can anyone confirm where the heck it is, if Southwest still does this?

So, instead, we decide we'll have the Bellagio buffet for our last meal and drag our bags over the Bellagio and leave them with the bell desk. Easy cheesy. Short line for the buffet, and voila, we're enjoying the gluttonous life yet again. Pork shoulder, chicken wellington, handmade spicy tuna handroll, seafood of every make and model, and much better desserts than the Wynn. Again, I wish I had been hungrier, but we did some reasonable damage. Played a few rounds of fake keno since they show the board while you eat. Didn't win any fake money, so decided not to play for real after brunch. Good thing, as I managed to hit a nice $100 on the quarter slots instead...much to my gf's chagrin.

Finally time to head to the airport...speed through check-in and security (having checked our bags) and flight was only delayed by a few minutes so not a worry. We even got to sit together (unlike the flight out). Reverse the annoying public transit to get home, and we finally walk in at about 7:30 pm to a healthy dose of cat vomit in our bed from one of our more vindictive, yet lovable pets. Ah, good trip!

I'll be back with another group of friends over the weekend before Halloween, but may be playing more craps than poker since I'm the only poker player among this group of friends. So, maybe another trip report if you're good.

Apoc

[thedustbustr]

i dont think op is there on business

[Arbitrage]

Great trip reports, but I got hunhry after reading each one of them!

[toss]

Nice read. Hungry now.