MDD's Vegas Trip Report!! (Plus Zesty Lo-Cal Chicken Recipe)

[MDoranD]

Today I arrived back home from 5 days in Las Vegas with my brother and his wife. Here is a synopsis of our trip.

<u>Day 1</u>

Energy Level: <font color="green"> 120% </font>

"OMG VEGAS!!!" Is all I can think as my plane touches down for 5 days of fun, poker, and debauchery. There was a spring in my step as i moved thru the airport, caught the tram to baggage claim, and met my brother Mark and his wife, Gale, there. They had arrived less than an hour before me, and waited for me to arrive before heading off. Things were already looking good it seemed, as they told me that Gale was up $12.00 already playing the airport slots...aw yeah.

After briefly unloading our bags at the Westin just off the strip, we decide to take a stroll down the strip. Gale assures me its a "no big deal" walk so I leave on my unbroken in shoes
and we head out on a very sunny Tuesday afternoon. Beautiful hotels, scenery, and people are all part of the Vegas strip. Its like nowhere else in the world



But the next thing i notice is the trucks circling the strip with the giant billboards on their sides marketing their "product" LOL



Usually I prefer my hot babes direct to me within 15 minutes but I guess I understand since its Vegas that it might take a bit longer.

I soon realized that Gale had misrepresented how "short" this walk was...and I wanted to get off my feet before I had full blown blisters. My brother and I decide to play some 1/2 at the MGM Grande and take some quick moniez off of stupid Vegas tourists. Gale wanders off to go play slots as I take my seat. An interesting part of this poker room is I believe its the only one ive played at that has a direct view of OMG LIONS RUN



Oh..ok theyre behind glass so we're safe. Anyways, within 10 minutes another seat comes open at my table and my brother snatches it up and "DOH!" he posts under the gun. Mark is not the incredible poker beast as i am you see.


My image at the table becomes one of loose and slightly reckless as i win several pots without having to show down. Lucky for me they dont realize im just getting hit in the face with the deck. A couple memorable hands happen shortly after that that. I pick up AA in MP. 2 limpers to me and i make it 15 to go. Folds back around to BB who makes it 40 to go, 1 limper folds, and the other limper on my immediate right who i believe is on tilt flat calls the 40. I hesitate and put on my best "act like im isolating" face and make it 140 to go which would put them both all in. To my surprise they BOTH call. I immediately felt my AA and BB turns over KJ quickly like it was a hand or something. Board comes J44K7 and other limper mucks and I rake in a decent pot. I give my brother the "LOL VEGAS" look.

20 minutes later, and im in the BB with 10 10. There were 5 limpers to me plus the SB who completed. I make it 20 to go and get the usual "Hey man, it was a family pot Har Har" comments from everyone. Everyone folds but the table big stack who calls...a middle aged lady who had about $850 in front of her. I had seen her be very aggressive in the pots she was in, but not seen her cards yet.

Flop comes J 10 3 rainbow. I put on my "continuation bet" face and throw out $50. She waits less than 5 seconds before she looks at me and says, "All in!". The "in" part wasnt even completely out of her mouth before I looked at the dealer and announced "CALL". She tabled AJ and my hand was good...I gave my brother the "Just paid for my trip" look, and I was up over $850 pretty quick.

We stay most of the night before retiring to the hotel for a few hours rest. My brother logs in a loss for the night.


<u>Day 2</u>

Energy Level: <font color="green"> 100% </font>

Today we wake up early as we had decided to rent a car and check out the Hoover Dam. My brother likes that sort of stuff so we headed out real early.





That was fun but I was pissed that there was no line drawn in the middle of the road where Nevada meets Arizona. I swear ive seen a couple movies where its right there on the dam but its not. The line appears to be just past the dam, but its just a sign. Maybe there was a border dispute who knows.

We arrive back in town and decide on getting a "Fatburger". We didnt want anything healthy and that sounded just right at the time. If you havent had one of these burgers, youre missing out. Theyre like little pieces of heaven soaked in fatty oil....mmmmmmm.

We do some more walking around and taking in the sites. That night I find a table game in the Westin called, "Texas Hold 'Em Bonus". Sounds like something that might be fun so I take an empty seat and buy in for $100.

Simple rules really. You wager a minimum of $5 (ante)before getting your hole cards. Once you get your cards, you decide wether to play the hand or not. The decision you make here locks you in for showing down the hand. If you play, you must put 2x your ante up as a bet. Or you can fold and lose your ante. Your not playing the other players, you just have to beat the dealers random hand. Once you decide to see a flop, you can also wager the size of your ante on the flop, and on the turn. Or you can check either or both streets. After the turn decision, you put your hand down, the dealer deals the river and flips his cards/ your cards and pays 1:1 if you win.

A slightly -EV game, but terribly fun. One thing i realize quickly is that the cards the casinop uses for this game are not poker quality cards...they are blackjack quality. Which means if you do the poker player thing and slightly bend your cards while theyre on the table so you can see your cards without anyone else seeing them, it actually bends the cards...the floor tells me to just pick them up and look at them. I find this weird since there is a sign on the table that says, "NO CARD SHARING" yet by picking them up like they want you to everyone sees everyone elses cards. But hey, having that extra information almost offsets the -EV of the game i reckon.

I fold a few, win a few and realize most of the people playing this type of game have no idea WTF theyre doing...they just want to lose their money. Theyre betting every street unimproved with 74 off and crap like that. I wink at the floor and give him my "These idiots are paying your salary" look.

I take a short stroll thru the slots looking for my brother and happen upon 2 girls sitting side by side playing slots. One of them makes eye contact with me and smiles. I give her my "I know Im ridiculously good looking but dont be afraid" look and she says, "You winning?" I stop and talk to them...figuring they are just drawn in by my baller shoes. My brother comes by and we have a 4 way conversation going on for a couple minutes. These girls are cute, in their early 20s and wearing short skirts. Im thinking this is nice when all of a sudden one of them says, "You guys want to have some fun?"

...

LOLZ PROSTITUTES DAMMIT

My brother and i get out of there quickly.


<u>Day 3</u>

Energy Level: <font color="purple"> 75% </font>

We had to wake up early again to return the car to the rental place, and it came quick. We were tired and hung over but we wanted to play a tournament over at Ballys that we saw advertised from our hotel. We walk over there and sign up. Its a $65 buy in and it looks like there will be about 4 full tables signed up. I decide to show my brother how good i am at tournament poker.

I take my seat at seat 2 and my brother is at another table. You start with $2000 chips and blinds at 25/50. Blind levels move up at an alarmingly fast 15 minute level pace. My table looks like a bunch of chumps and WAY WAY too many people were wearing sunglasses. I LOL'd.

THE VERY FIRST HAND Im in the BB and look down at JJ. Action to me was an EP raise to 200, a MP caller, then folded to me. I decide to smoooooth call cuz im smooth. Flop comes 10 6 3 rainbow. I figure im ahead and will heck raise and take down the pot. I check, EP bets $300, MP folds, and I make it $750 to go. EP then immediately announces all in....and i throw up in my mouth. I decide not being out on the 1st hand outweighs possible doubling up and muck. EP flips AA Im down to 1/2 of my original stack. I look at my brother and give him my "Rigged" face. He giggles.

THE VERY NEXT HAND im in the SB. Action folded to MP who makes it 150 to go. Folded to me and i look down at 10 10. I cant help but look up at the ceiling for a second before I announce "all in" for another 750 or so. MP thinks for a moment and calls. Flop comes A35 and MP proudly tables his AJo and my hand is no good. My brother looks like a deer in the headlights when i get up and say, "well, im out". Disgusting. I decide right then and there i was going to play this tourney the next day as well.

Mark doesnt last long either and we spend the next several hours blowing money on games like roullette and craps because theyre above moderately fun.

We walk thru the Paris part of the hotel and i enjoyed that lots. As youre walking thru it appears youre outside walking thru a city...but youre still inside the hotel. Very cool indeed. We pass a glass exhibit proudly showing off 1 million in cash


for no reason i can think of other than to let us know they have a million dollars. Id probably do the same thing in my house if i had it so i dont blame them.

Mark and Gale went off to some show this evening and left me to play some cash games. I go card dead but leave for the night slightly up for the whole evening.

I meet my brother and Gale for after their show let out and we go to the older part of Vegas. We pass all the wedding chapels, and check out some of the famous older casinos. Having never been there before, I didnt realize that the walkway between the casinos was covered...and it put on a fantastic light show at night.


We also get a chance to go into Binions check it out. It turns out that the "Gallery of Champions" wall is really not that impressive.



Its just a 3/4 wall in their poker room that serves no real purpose and looks like if you leaned against it the whole thing might fall over.

I get drunk off of wine and eat 2 nasty hot dogs. Soon after we head back.


<u>Day 4</u>
Energy Level: 55%

Everyone is getting worn down now. It becomes harder to think clearly...everything moves a little slower after a few days here. The bounce was out of our step. We stop by Starbucks that morning to get some blood moving in our system before heading over to Ballys for the tourney.

Today we again draw different tables and I announce to my table that I would not be playing my first 2 hands....virtually guaranteeing an improvement over yesterdays performance. The table LOL's and I wink at the waitress. She swoons.

Early on i pick up 10 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 10 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] in the cutoff. There were 2 limpers to me and the blinds were still 25/50. I made it 300 to go and was only called by the button. The flop comes K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]4 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. I bet 375 and the button quickly calls. The turn is the 10 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Now i fire 600 into the pot and again he quickly calls. The river is the K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and i push. The button SNAPPPP calls with A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. SHIP. WTF AJ? Good calldown bro.

I win a coinflip with AQ over 99 and become one of the leaders. As we condense down to 2 then 1 table Im excited to take down a good score. Even better, my brother was still alive for some hot 1 on 1 final table action.

When we finally get to the final table, the combination of huge blinds and me not playing a hand for 30 minutes or so has left me with a very small stack. I pick up AQ in the BB facing an EP raise from a very aggressive big stack. I push my last few chips into the pot and my AQ&gt;A5 for the double up. I steal a couple blinds and eliminate a short stack with QQ&gt;A9.

We get down to 6 with the tourney paying the top 5. My brother is still alive and very healthy. Im in 3rd place. The short stack gets all in and loses and we're ITM. SHIPPIT.

My brother gets all in against the leader with KQ and loses to A4...which is incredible because my brother is really skilled at sucking out.

Down to 2 and enormously short stacked against the table leader, im just looking to push preflop and get lucky. I pick up Q7o and push and he calls with J5. Board comes 96635 and im out in 2nd place. It pays $490 and my brother got $320. We decide we are rich Ballys Ballers.

Our trip comes slowly to a conclusion with many free drinks and some roullette. Gale tells us she hit for $1000 on a penny slot and shes leaving the trip showing a profit. We make our last meal one of those "Top Sirloin steaks $13.99 24 hours" because it sounded tasty.



Overall, a great trip...cant wait to go back. Poker is EZ in Vegas. We headed out early the next morning.

Oh yeah, and since I know you only read this for the recipe, here you go!


ALMOND CHICKEN SALAD WITH GINGER MARINADE
Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients

=== MARINADE ===
1 c Prepared Italian salad
-dressing
2 ts Low sodium soy sauce
1 ts Minced fresh ginger root
(or 1/4 teaspoon ground
-ginger)
=== CHICKEN SALAD ===
4 Boneless skinless chicken
-breast ha
8 c Torn mixed salad greens
1/4 c Chopped fresh cilantro;
-optional
1/4 c Diagonally sliced green
-onions
5 Fresh California peaches;
-divided
1/4 c Toasted sliced almonds
2 tb Toasted sesame seeds;
-optional

Instructions

For Marinade: In zip-top plastic bag, combine salad dressing, soy sauce,
and ginger. Add chicken; close bag securely, turning to coat well.
Refrigerate 30 minutes.
For Salad: Arrange greens on serving plates. Sprinkle with cilantro. Top
with green onions. Slice 3 peaches and arrange on lettuce. Remove
chicken from marinade, reserving marinade. Grill or broil chicken until
browned and cooked through, basting occasionally with marinade. Halve
remaining 2 peaches; baste with marinade and grill about 5 minutes. Slice
chicken breasts and arrange chicken and grilled peaches on lettuce.
In small saucepan, bring remaining marinade to a boil (this can be done on
the grill, if desired). Add almonds and sesame seeds. Pour over salads
and serve immediately. This recipe serves 4.



edited for resizing image--thanks cking

[clowntable]

Nice [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[cking]

yay i get shout out!

Nice TR sounds like it was alot of fun

[Iron_Yuppie]

Nice TR.

I need to go back to Vegas this year.

I feel like I have problems being a tell factory when I play live; this "look like I'm isolating face" thing you describe has me intruiged though. I did a search and found this:



Give me a pair of sunglasses and a muffler and I think I'd be ready for some live poker.

[amplify]

Mmmmm salady.

[durron597]

[ QUOTE ]

We also get a chance to go into Binions check it out. It turns out that the "Gallery of Champions" wall is really not that impressive.

[/ QUOTE ]

dude you didn't play the binions nightly $60 + 1 rebuy? it's soooooo soft

[CPFB]

nice TR....

How did I miss it?

I wanna go to Vegas some time.... [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Glad you had fun! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[BenJammin']

so where's my shout-out when i called you in the middle of the week to see if you were going to the "apartment game" and you said "nah bro, i'm in vegas"...which cued(sp?) me to ask, "so i guess you're tearing up the 1/2 and 2/5 games right now...right?" to which you responded cooly, "nah bro, im at a roulette table right now blowing all my winnings and obnoxiously screaming 'COMMMMEEE ONNNN BABAAAYYYYYY, LET'S GET LUCKY!!! '"
classic matt, just classic