Vegas TR Sept. 6th-12th; Lots of drinking, some poker

[swede554]

Some short background info:
I’ve played poker for about 3 years, started in small college home games, found out about online poker, moved up and down in limits since then, and even though I’m an overall winner, since I can’t keep a fukin’ bankroll due to spending my dough on non-poker related [censored], nothing higher then 10-20 limit or 2-4 no-limit.

This was the 4th time I had been in or through Las Vegas in the last 12 months; 1st time- college graduation gift last summer from my parents, 2nd-3rd times- two short stays as I drove between Lake Tahoe and Florida this past winter. (I worked as a ski instructor/ski bum this winter at Squaw Valley just to take a break before I actually got a “real” job, which I’m still looking for by the way.)

It’s the first time I was there with a group larger than just me and girlfriend, and only one of my friends play poker, so needless to say, poker was going to have to take a backseat to drinking and partying this trip. All in all there were six of us, me, my gf, and three friends, one of which brought his girlfriend along. I was hoping to get most of my poker playing done during the day, while my gf was shopping and my friends were doing tourist crap, and in the early mornings after everyone had passed out.

Sept. 6th-
We fly out of Tampa at 9 p.m. eastern time, down a few beers and drinks at the airport before we have to board, I drink a couple of Jack and Cokes on the flight to get ready for our first night in Vegas. We get there, take a cab to the finest muthafucking hotel the strip has to offer, the Excalibur, and check in. Oh yeah, four of us are splitting a two queens bed room, to save some scratch, while the other couple decided to live balla-style at the Aladdin. [censored], for $400 a person for 6 night/7 days including our flight I’ll sleep on a bench somewhere, but if I can get a room on the strip for that kind of price, considering I don’t have a job right now, I’ll take it.

So we freshen up and head over to the Aladdin, and to keep things short, we had decided to take it easy the first night, so we have a few drinks at a bar over there, then I play some 3/6 because I’m drunk and I don’t want to blow to much money my first session, I have about five more Rum and Cokes, and leave around 5 a.m. to go pass out up $100 somehow.

Oh yeah, as I’m walking home two hookers try to pick me up, one was nasty, the other one was semi-nasty, I think about it for a 1/10th of a sec, decide it’s not worth getting herpes or my gf kicking me in the balls over so I politely tell them bitches to find business elsewhere.

Damn, to keep this report from being 10 pages long, from here on out, I’ll just mention the more interesting happenings and poker sessions.

Sept. 7th-
Get up early and take a cab over to Caesar’s to play in their noon tourney. By the way, I had planned on maybe spending $40-50 on cabs while here in Vegas. Try $150-200. Taking cabs everywhere gets expensive and I’m to lazy walk anywhere in that damn heat.

The tourney was great, first time I’ve played in it. Structure was good, allowed for plenty of play. About 90 runners. I’m card dead but I steal myself up to about 8,500 from my initial 4,500 starting stack (I rebought right away), then with blinds at 400-800/100 ante I get caught making a move when this really weak-passive player limps on the button and I move in with 59o in the SB. He thinks for about 30 seconds, then makes the call with 44 and I lose the flip to get knocked out 3 hours into the event in 25th place.

That night, we hit up Mandalay Bay, drink at some bar over there, can’t remember the name, and then we go and gamble at the Luxor. While my friends are playing blackjack I sit down at the $50(?!) max buy-in 1-2 nl game they have there. That’s a great drunken no-limit game. One hand the action goes UTG+1 raise to $10, MP1 reraise to $25, MP3 re-reraise to $70 and I look down at QQ in the CO having $120 behind, and not realizing yet that this is an insta-push in the game, I fold. All three other players end up all-in and I see JJ, A10, AK. I think “Fuuuuuck”, until the guy with JJ flops and rivers a J for quads. Not the first time I see quads Jacks this trip. More on that later. Anyhow I proceed to drop $135 before I call it a night.

Sept 8th-
We had decided before we left that Friday night we wanted to hit up Tao, the much talked about nightclub at the Venetian, and from what I hear, only Pure at Caesar’s compares to it in popularity. After some pre-drinking we roll up there around 11:30 p.m., and the line is probably a 100 people deep, if not more. Combine that with the fact that our group consists of four guys and two girls and this is looking bleak. Fortunately, my girlfriend is hot (way out of my league according to one guy I played cards with) and good with stuff like this, so she walks up to one of the bouncers with me in tow and says “Hey, I work in the business, I know how this works, so how much is it going to take for us not to wait in line” and he says he can’t help us, but grabs this other guy who works there. I in the meanwhile hold 3 $20’s in my hand that the other guy takes notice of, I slip them to him and he says “come here” and opens the rope to the VIP line and lets us through. No wait, no cover. To say the least we were all pretty stoked and ended up getting shitfaced. Be warned though, drinks are EXPENSIVE.

See Antonio Esfandiari in there, he’s dancing on some sort of stage, making out with a girl. That guy just comes of as a tool to me, but who knows, maybe he’s a nice guy. Anyhow the night ends with my girlfriend throwing a drink at me because she thought I was checking out some other girl (which I might or might not have), and we get kicked out of there. No big deal, I was drunk, she was wasted, I just took it in stride and was pretty calm about it, at least until she starts yelling at me in the staircase going to down to the casino floor. I ignore her so she starts punching me so we get kicked out of the Venetian too. Fun. I take a cab back to the hotel, she walks.

Drunken fights leads to good make-up sex though so it’s all good.

Sept 9th-12th will follow soon…...

Andy

[punkass]

Good TR so far.

Man, those drunk GF's sure make for a good trip report. I hope she doesn't kill you before you finish, like some other 2+2wannabe.

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
Good TR so far.

Man, those drunk GF's sure make for a good trip report. I hope she doesn't kill you before you finish, like some other 2+2wannabe.

[/ QUOTE ]

truth

And, AAC, do not sweat the length of the report, this is good stuff.

[moris]

don't worry about the length. It's foreplay for us leading us to the chip dumping.

[CanIPlayII]

MORE, we want MORE!!!!

[swede554]

I'll finish it soon. I wanted to add some pics with last 1/2 of it, so I'm waiting for my gf to either send them to me or bring them over to my place.

Thanks for reading [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

Andy

[darrenn8]

BBBBOOOORRRRIIINNNNGGG!!! This trip sounds gay... All I know is that I'm glad I wasn't one of the guys staying the the same room as you, while you were having make-up sex with your girlfriend. Finish the damn story already or I'm gonna start blabbing about my few badbeats although they were only at the 4-8 and 1-2NL games.

[Photoc]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm gonna start blabbing about my few badbeats although they were only at the 4-8 and 1-2NL games.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahh, they'll move your posts to BBV or just ban you all together. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I'd vote ban for bad beat stories.

[darrenn8]

Don't worry, I'm not gonna complain about any BadBeats. Just want to see AACardPlayer hurry up with the 2nd part of his Vegas Report, even though I was there. I loved the part where his GF threw a drink at him and then got kicked out of the best nightclub in town and then the Venetian all together. Hilarious

[swede554]

Alright, finally got around to writing part two of this trip report. Added some links to pictures with it too, at the bottom. Enjoy.

Saturday, Sept. 9th-
I wake up around 11 a.m. with a ridiculous dry mouth and hangover. Look around for something to drink, spot the empty bottle of Southern Comfort and half-empty bottles of Bacardi and Jack Daniels. Decide to go with water instead. Probably a good (pussy?) move.

Notice my shirt and pants I wore the night before and wonder why the [censored] they’re soaked and stained. Did I fall over pissing or something? Have one of those “the morning after getting wasted” memory flashbacks, and suddenly remember that my gf threw a drink at me. Aww thanks baby, how did you know I craved another drink that much that you drenched me with yours? Bitch.

Since we were going out tonight again (obviously), and those were the only dress pants I brought with me, I told her to call room service to see if I could get them dry cleaned. Nope. They said if I wanted my clothes back the same day, they needed to have it by 10 a.m. Whatever, my gf ended up buying me another pair of (identical) pants from Express later that day. I paid $50 for them in Florida, but here they cost about $90. You got to love that Vegas markup [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

Anyways, I skip breakfast because I’m still feeling like [censored] and head over to the Paris to play in their 1 p.m. $55 tourney. When I sit down to play though I’m shaking so bad from all the alcohol still in my body and from skipping breakfast, so the people I sat next to probably thought I was strung out on coke. I can’t focus one bit, the structure kind of sucked, and I end up pushing A-10 into AA, about 45 min into the event. I was almost happy to get knocked out so I could finally go and grab some lunch.

After lunch, I head over to the Bellagio to play some $8-16. Before I get seated though, I see him, first time I’ve ever see him in person, and I stare in awe of his greateness (but not really). It’s Mr. 2+2 himself, David Sklansky. He’s acting all pimp and shiit talking on a phone that’s hanging on the wall by the high limit area. “What the fucck, why is he using the house phone, can't he afford a cellphone? He must be having a tough year or something” I find myself thinking.

I sit in the only $8-16 game going, and I realize that this is the limit that no one plays. People either play $4-8, and don’t like to play higher, either because they suck, are new to the game, or think is to much money, or they play $15-30 or higher. $8-16 is kind of an in-between limit. The game was alright, no exciting hands, I left up $80 after 3 hours.

That night, while my friends went and saw the Blue Man Group at the Venetian, me and my gf head over to Pure at Caesar’s to check it out. Or so we thought, the line was fckin insane!! The “girls only” line itself was probably about 100-150 deep, and the GA(general admission) line ended somewhere down by Mandalay Bay. We didn’t even bother trying the ol’ “you help us out, we’ll help you out” trick because we asked a bouncer who was working the line and he said two guys had got fired on the spot a few weeks earlier for taking bribes.

So we roll over to the Venetian to meet up with my friends and while we wait for them to get out of the show I sit down to play some $4-8, so me and my girl can get liquored up. As it turns out, the game was absolutely [censored]’ great! There was this drunk maniac who kept check-raising every time he had any piece of the board, and I tried my best to isolate him by 3-betting hands as weak as 2nd pair, and before anyone caught on to what was happening my friends show up and I’m out the door up $150 in 30 minutes. Nice way to start the night off.

We head over to New York New York, hit up this Irish pub, Nine Fine Irishmen (sounds kind of gay I know), the band that’s playing is [censored] rocking the place and everyone is having a good time. I buy a round of shots, 3 tequilas, and 3 jagers, but my buddy’s girlfriend don’t want one, so I end up taking a tequila and jager shot back-to-back. Tasty combo. Then we walk across the street to MGM, go to the Tabu ultra lounge there (what the hell does “ultra lounge” mean anyways?) and continue getting drunk. Fortunately the gf is behaving tonight, no throwing drinks.

After that we end up at a blackjack table (surprise, surprise), and I proceed to drop about $180 and make my way back to the hotel around 7 a.m. One of my buddies in the meanwhile proceed to get cut-off by the pitboss for being to drunk and tilts away about $300, and right before he losses the last of his money on the table (around 9 a.m.), the pitboss lets him starting drinking again. Real [censored]’ nice of him . So my buddy downs a few more beers and ends up making it back to the hotel around 11 a.m.. Overall, a very good night.

Sunday, Sept.10th -
While my gf shopped and my friends rested up from the previous nights endeavors, I decided to hit up Bellagio for some $8-16. The game was good, but it broke after an hour. I was kind of pissed, since I was up $202 since I sat down, but oh well, [censored] happens.

That night we were heading to Fremont Street, and after that we wanted to check out Ghostbar at the Palms, so when I left Bellagio to go back to Excalibur I asked the cabbie how much it would cost to take a cab downtown. He said around $22-24, but since there were six of us and cabs are only allowed to carry five people, we would have to take two cabs. So he suggested we called one of the local limo companies because Sunday night is usually pretty slow and you can get a good rate, so I did. Turns out a limo for 6 people for a one-way trip downtown was only $47, pretty much the same price as taking two separate cabs.

So we go downtown like true balla’s and hit up the cheapest mouthafuckin steak and lobster place, Tony Roma’s, at Fremont Hotel & Casino. $11.95 for lobster tail and steak, can’t beat it with a stick, the waitress even initially forgot to bring my lobster tail, so I got two instead. After dinner I played a little 1/2 NL at the new Golden Nugget poker room. Very nice room, def by far the nicest downtown now, and the game was pretty soft too.

Around midnight, we call the limo driver again, he comes and picks us up, and we head for the Palms. Get there, locate the entrance to Ghostbar, pay the $10 cover, and take the elevator up to the 55th. If you’ve never been to Ghostbar before, it’s quite the [censored] experience. The bar area is cool, the view from the “Ghostdeck” is amazing, and there’s this 6x6 ft. see-thru acrylic floor on the deck that you can stand on and its [censored] nerve-wracking, at least until you get a few drinks in you haha. It feels like you’re floating on air, and when you look down, there’s nothing but open air to the pool 55 stories below.

So we’re chilling, drinking, just enjoying the atmosphere and I go over to see-thru floor again to check it out, and I see this dude hanging out there that I recognize from somewhere. I say to him “man don’t I know you from somewhere, you look like that guy on Sportcenter.” He says “Yeah, people tell me that all the time. What’s your name?” So I respond “It’s Andy, what’s yours?” He says “It’s Steve”, and I’m like “Hey, that’s that guys name, man it is you haha”. So it turns out that its Steve Levy, the Sportcenter anchor. He was in town for a friend’s bachelors party, this 300-pound dude who kept on trying to break the acrylic floor by jumping on it. Maybe he was having regrets on getting married [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

After Ghostbar, we head back to the hotel, I decide to play some 1/3 NL at the Excalibur, and [censored]’ catch fire. Play for 2 1/2 hours, pretty much don’t lose a single hand, win two big hands in the first 30 min., one bottom set vs. top two on a 267 board, and then top two vs. a draw (I think, he never showed), end the session up $510, my biggest win of the trip, and go to bed around 6:30 a.m. very happy.

Monday, Sept.11th-
Played in the Caesar’s noon tourney. About 65 runner. Rebought right away (total $130), and not much happened the first few levels. Won some pots, lost a few more. By level 4, 200-400/100 ante, I’m down to 1500 at one point, steal myself up to 6700, and before the very last hand of the level is dealt, before we go on our second break, our table breaks and I get moved to a new table. 3 tables left now. I get moved in the SB (I didn‘t think I could get moved into the SB, but the dealer said I could in tournaments so whatever), get dealt 6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Asian lady minraises UTG+1, folded around, I call, BB folds. Flop K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], I check, she moves in, having me barely covered, I call, she shows K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], turn 5 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]...and I know I’m drawing dead….river 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] …..and I’m out due to runner-runner spades. If I win that pot I got an above average stack with 26 people to go. Oh well, I say “nice hand mam,” and get the hell out of there.

That night, I played some $15-30 at the Bellagio, the game was real loose and crazy, I ended up escaping only down $40, but mainly due to me hitting a two-outer on the river with my 44 to crack aces for a $400 pot. I don’t even want to tell you about that hand, it was that horrible played, but it involves me check-raising(?) an 39J flop. Haha it was ugly, and the guy I beat was rightfully pissed.

A pretty funny thing happened though, there was a big 200-400 NL game going on in Bobby’s Room, the reallyyyy high stakes area, where the “Big Game” is usually played. I only recognized Joe Bartholdi, the guy who won the WPT Championship last season, this other pro I’ve seen on TV before who got second in a circuit event to that Canadian guy, something Lee, he looks kind of weird, and Brad “Yukon” Booth.

Well, I guess Brad took a beat for a monster pot in there, he mumbled something about losing with two pair and a flush draw to a lower flush draw and a gutshot, so he decided to blow off some steam by sittting down in our game. So he starts raising blind and playing aggressive, but he’s not playing bad. He takes another beat when a flush gets there or something, leaves, comes back again, and says he’s just going to play blind to the river now. So the next hand the action is capped preflop, and I had garbage unfortunately, so I folded. Flop is AA10, it goes like 2 or 3 bets on the flop, turn is a 7 , and on the turn Brad actually peeks at his hand. Turn gets capped too, and then the river brings another 7. So the final board is AA1077. Brad just gets up in disbelief, checks, the other guy in the hand bets, and Brad shows his 1010 for a flopped boat and mucks it. The other guy shows A3 for aces full on the river and Brad takes off again, back into Bobby’s Room. It was hilarious to us, maybe not so much to him, I hope he didn’t tilt off to much money that night.

Tuesday, Sept. 12th-
Last day, I wanted to get a piece of that $15-30 action again. However, all the action was gone. In its place was a few good players and a bunch of loose-passive players. I was ok with that though, this was more like $4-8 lineup then $15-30. I hit a few hands, made a couple of good calls, and brought my inital $700 buy-in up to $1000 in about 1 1/2 hours, when I ran into this hand. Villain had just sat down, but he seemed to know what he was doing.

Villain raised UTG+1 to $30. I coldcalled right behind him with 7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. I was hoping for some more callers, most hands people would come along with marginal hands for two bets, but here only the BB called as well. So we're 3-handed to the flop.

Flop comes J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], and I'm already trying to figure out how much money I will/can win here. BB checks, villain checks, and sometimes I check here, sometimes I bet. This time I bet, if anyone had anything I wanted to build a BIG pot. I was hoping someone had a club draw or was slowplaying a jack. Now BB check-raises me and villain calls(?). I decide to get my raise in on the turn and just call.

Turn is a 2 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] . Good card. BB bets out, villain calls, now I raise it up to $60. BB folds (guess he was just messing around), but now villain makes it $90, so now I think he was slowplaying a monster, like AJ. I bump it to $120, he caps it at $150, which worries me a little.

River is the 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. Good card again I think. Villain bets out again, and I'm thinking about calling, but [censored], I got 7's full and the only hand that's beating me now is JJ. (He's not raising preflop with J7). So I raise it to $60 and I cry a little on the inside when he makes it $90. I call and already know what he is going to turn over. Quads.
Bye bye $700 pot, of which about $300 was mine.

Oh well, what the [censored] can you do?? I got up, walked around for a few minutes, got back in and kept playing. 3 hours later I cashed out $1120, so $420 profit. Nice way to finish the trip. Flew out a few hours later, and back to reality it is.

Thanks for reading.


Andy

Pics:
(When you click them, a security warning might pop up, at least it does on my computer, so you'll have to hit "open" to view them)


Me and my gf

Me and the gf at Tao

Everyone at the Irish pub

Fremont Street

View from Ghostbar

Drinking at Ghostbar

Me and Steve Levy