Vegas Trip Report and Puzzle - very long

[Stephen H]

Vegas Trip Report - POG style

I've removed all the casino names and replaced them with numbers (Casino1, Casino2, etc). At the end, I've listed all the casinos mentioned, and the puzzle is to figure out which casino names go where. So there's no reason at all for this trip report to be in any other forum.

And now, My Vegas Birthday Trip. It's exceptionally tl;dr, but I'm sure you all realize by now that's just how I write.

My wife managed to talk me into a birthday trip to Vegas this year. It took her almost a whole minute to convince me. We flew in Saturday morning. The day started off a little shakey with it starting to snow in Dallas on the way and warnings that there was snow on the ground in Lubbock (flying Southwest out of Dallas is more complicated than it should be). We took off on time out of Love Field, but there was no promise that Lubbock wouldn't hold us up. As we flew in, there was a nice snow covering on the ground all over Lubbock; but they had the runways clear so we managed to get in and out and land in Vegas a good 15 minutes early.

Saturday

We'd planned ahead to be able to get out of the airport quickly and off to a lunch buffet before they closed. Step 1 - carryon luggage only (last trips to Vegas the wait for bags was horrible; an hour or so). Step 2 - Check into the hotel at the airport. Turns out the hotel we were staying at, Casino1, has a check-in desk right at the airport. No line; fastest Vegas check-in I've ever had. Step 3 - Rental car. No waiting in the taxi line, no getting driven all over with an airport shuttle, and we didn't have to go to the hotel first to drop off our bags. So off we went to Casino2 for lunch (technically brunch) buffet and some Video poker. The buffet was one of the cheapest around, and frankly, you get what you pay for; I wouldn't bother to go back. Having full-pay VP, however, is a big plus, as that's all my wife will be playing this trip, and I plan to split my time between Video Poker and the poker rooms. We drop some $$ in the VP and by the time we leave a few hours later I'm up about $45. My wife, however, has blown her gambling budget for the day, so it's time to go.

Finally, we head to our hotel to drop off our bags and get off our feet for a little while. I decide to drop down to the poker room while my wife just relaxes in the room for a while - there's no good VP anywhere on the strip, and Casino1 is no exception. The poker room, however, was fantastic, and Saturday evening was a perfect time to hit the tables. I landed at one of the juiciest $2/$4 games I've ever been at, including such players as Crazy Bad Australian Guy and his friend, Reasonable Australian Player; The Two Brothers Who Only Play A Home NL Game; and Two Club Girls. Very loose table; mostly passive but with one or two people who would often raise post flop with bottom pair or worse, calling stations galore. I played about 2.5 hours and as several of the people left the table I got up with an extra $80 in my pocket. Pretty good for 2/4.

Dinner we cross over to Casino3 to eat chinese at ChinChin. Decent enough, although the General Tso's sauce wasn't so good and there was actually a bone in the chicken. We decided to try out Casino4 next door, which did have some VP for my wife to play. I handed her my poker winnings so she'd have something to do and I tried out the poker room there. Big mistake - the room was terrible compared to Casino1 and the games were no where near as good. Pots were smaller and everyone seemed like they were mostly just waiting for jackpots to hit. I break even after a few hours of play and decide it's time for some sleep.

Sunday

It's Easter, and my birthday! We met some friends who were also in Vegas for brunch at The Steakhouse in Casino5. The casino is kind of a dump, but The Steakhouse is first class - that was a crazy good brunch buffet. After that we changed into some regular clothes (we were all dressed up for Easter Brunch) and headed off strip again to Casino6. This place has a ton of good video poker and we hung out and played for a few hours; I ended down about $40 or so, but my wife hit 4 deuces (I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] deuces wild VP) and was up around $300.

After several hours of that, we had dinner plans to meet up with some long lost cousins of my wife that happen to live in Vegas; we met them and their mom at the Prime Rib Loft in Casino7. I wasn't overly impressed with the meal; it was good, but I wouldn't call it special. However, the price was perfectly reasonable, so if you're looking for a decent enough prime rib without breaking the bank, look it up. It's pretty small so a reservation doesn't hurt if you're going prime dining hours. We considered gambling at Casino7 after dinner, but instead took a quick jaunt up to Casino8 to go gamble with the trendy people or something.

The poker room(s) there were small but happening. I got seated at a table with some complete nuts - some guy with a squeaky chicken, his buddy, and his dad all playing and gambling it up. "Maniacs" of the traditional sense all the way, and I was very sad to see them leave the table. I was down $100, but mostly I just wish they'd stayed longer so I could have won it back. After they left the table tightened considerably; an obvious regular sat down next to me and commented on how loose the table was; I let him know he'd just missed the REAL action. I called it a night shortly after, as the avg pot sizes had about halved and the table had gotten tougher. Oh, and it was like 3am and if I drank any more scotch I was probably going to need to crawl out.

I kind of dug the offstrip gambling, though, and I suspect when we go back next we may stay at Casino7 - Casino8 is probably out of my league $$-wise.

Monday

We slept in a bit, then met the cousins again for lunch. We hoofed it across the street back to Casino3 and grabbed some Mexican food, which was surprisingly good - being from Texas I'm a little leery of getting Mexican food anywhere else. We then drove back offstrip to Casino6 for some VP and maybe check out the poker room - and the worst beat of my trip. I looked upstairs when we got there and there was only 1 table going, 2/4 limit. It had an open seat, but I decided to go play a little VP with the wife for a while before settling in. I managed to turn $40 into $100 in about an hour or so, and my wife hit 4 deuces again - about 2 machines over from where she hit it yesterday. I took my hundred upstairs and left the wife well-funded for some VP. I sit down and find out that while I was downstairs, the bad beat jackpot hit at a partner casino, and everyone playing in this poker room got paid $650 or so. That's what I get for not sitting down. I played for a few hours until dinner, finished up just enough to give the poker room manager a tip (he'd put up with a lot of crap while I was there and kept the game going well the whole time) and break even. I definately made my share of mistakes here and there were only a couple of players I was confident I was better than. 3-betting my K9 on a board of AAAK2 was not the smartest, that's for sure.

Our dinner plans bailed on us, so we went to the buffet at Casino9. My wife loved it the first time we went, and the last time we were in Vegas we were pretty disappointed when it was closed the day we went due to construction. It was decent this time, but the Famous Chocolate Cake just wasn't the same, and I doubt we'll be putting that on our list again. We trucked it outside to finally see the fountains at Casino10 - all this time we kept meaning to see it and never got around to it. It was pretty awesome and I recommend anyone going to Vegas see it at least once - it's worth it.

We had to leave pretty early the next morning, so back to hotel and I decided to play a few hours at the poker room before calling it a night. I get into a 2/4 game pretty quickly and either play it a little too aggressively or perhaps just get into some bad spots.

***WARNING: bad beats to follow. My last orbit was just brutal. I start by picking up AJo on the Button with a fair number of limpers and raise so I'll get checked to on the flop, as well as having a nice sized pot to win. Flop comes Axy rainbow; the low cards were both below a 9 and I forget what they were. I get checked to and bet it out - a couple of callers. I end up betting it to the river and UTG has AQ.

Next hand, I get JJ in the cutoff with only UTG limping, so I raise to get the button and maybe clear out the blinds. They all come along. Flop comes K high, I bet and am called all around. Check it down to the river and the button has a K...well, at least he didn't bet it at me.

3rd hand, I find AKs one off the cutoff and a table full of limpers. You betcha i raise it a 3rd time and after flopping a flush draw I pay in a few more bets and don't hit anything. A few more hands go by and I'm UTG+1. UTG, who has been throwing around some loose raises here and there, raises and I find KK. I 3-bet and it gets heads up. Flop comes Q92 and UTG bets into me. I figure she'd bet into me with a queen, AA/KK/JJ/TT, or Q9. I perhaps get too fancy and just call, hoping to raise the turn and then get a bet in on the river. Q comes on the turn and I call it down and she flips up KQ. I should probably find a fold there but there's a reason I'm a 2/4 fish.

After picking up nothing UTG, I scoop up what's left of my chips and cash out for a very tidy -$88 for the session and an overall loss at the poker tables of something around $100. My wife's winning ways at the VP managed to make us +$20 on gambling for the trip, so not all is lost.

On our way out, I take the $25 a buddy gave to me to drop into the slots. One pull of a $25 machine later, and it hit a cherry and I'm bringing him home $50. He did better than we did being up +$25.

Summary:
Went to Vegas; had a blast. Played poker like a chump, dropped about $100 at 2/4. Mrs H picked up the slack winning about $125 at video poker. Happy birthday to me!

And now, the Casino List, in alphabetical order:

Aladdin/planet hollywood
Bellagio
Circus Circus
Excalibur
Fiesta Henderson
MGM Grand
NYNY
Orleans
Palms
Sam's Town