The Vegas Chronicles - A trip report by CappyAA

[CappyAA]

Well, I just got back from Vegas yesterday, and I must say that it was a hell of a trip. 5 action packed days with 6 of my friends in the most exciting city around is something that can hardly be put into a trip report, but I’ll do my best. To fully illustrate how awesome the trip was, I am going to blend together the gambling with the other parts of the trip, so this report will not contain only poker talk. So sit back and enjoy 5 days of life in Vegas for a 24 year old single guy on NCAA First Round weekend. Please note that I consider a day from the time I wake up till the time I go to sleep.

Wednesday

We get to Dulles Airport in the afternoon only to find out our flight is delayed so we won’t be landing in Vegas until 8 instead of 5. I’m a little upset, but what can you do? We head to the airport bar to kill a couple hours and have a few drinks before our flight.

After landing in Vegas, we got our bags, cabbed it to Treasure Island, and checked into the room. The other 5 guys are coming in later at night, but Kevin and I are fully ready to go. We even grab beers at the bar to bring to the room with us before we check in. We are giddy as we shower and change in a grand total of about 15 minutes before starting the gambling.

We got changed and headed straight to the Wynn to play a little 1/3 NL. We are seated right next to each other and buy in for $300. Kevin is a good NL player so I’m glad he’s on my right. The table is filled with some fishy calling stations. I spot 1 good player I’m staying away from, but the rest are fair game.

After about 2 hours, my cards are just awful. And when I am getting cards, I can’t do anything with them. I just got K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] on the button facing a raise to $12 and a call. I reraise to $50 straight and I got one caller. Flop is A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], and villain open leads all in. I disgustedly toss my hand into the muck. The good news is that I have drank about 12 miller lites so far and I am getting drunk. Our waitress is gorgeous too.

I am down about $100 so I have a $100 bill riding behind my $200 in chips. I look down to see A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] UTG. I raise to $15 and a hyper aggressive player reraises to $50. I put him on KK-JJ so I just smooth call and plan on check raising a great flop. The flop comes 873 with two hearts. I have the A of hearts. I check and villain bets $60, I raise to $160 and he pushes. I instacall and villain has QQ. My AA holds up and I scoop a nice huge pot and I’m now up $200.

It’s about 3 am and my friends are just getting in. Kevin and I are drunk. Kevin is up about $30, and I’m up about $170. I look down in the CO and see A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. I raise to $21 after 3 limpers and I am called by 2 players. The flop is gorgeous. J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. I bet out and I am facing a check raise. Villain is tricky, but I’ve seen him check raise with TPTK before, so this doesn’t necessarily mean anything. JT maybe? AJ has me in great shape. I think about this for a while. Villain had a stack of about $140 before the flop, so he’s pretty much pot committed, and I’m not getting him to fold. But with 12 outs to the nuts, I’m not folding either. I push and he calls with 87. I brick the turn and river to lose a decent size pot.

The next hour was pretty much worthless as nothing exciting happened. I get up from the table up about $40 and pretty drunk. I go over to meet up with some friends playing blackjack. Since I am drunk I sit down and get just killed. I lose about $300 in about 20 minutes. Blackjack is way way way –EV.

On the walk back to T.I., it is about 5 am, and we run into this random hot girl walking by herself. I am drunk and stupid so I go up to her and ask her why she’s walking around Vegas by herself. She’s crying and says how her friends left her by herself, so we invite her to play some craps with us.

Brandi is lady luck and I am up about $100 after a fun hour of playing craps. We leave and head to the T.I. lounge bar. It is about 6 am and we’re still going strong. After about an hour at the bar, Brandi is all over me, so she and I go to hang out by ourselves and grab some breakfast. I love Vegas!

Thursday

I am still up and we say our goodbyes. I call my buddies up and they are at The Mirage. It is 8:45 am. I have to hustle to get back there in time to bet on the basketball games. I’m down about $160 for the trip but I’m fully ready to turn this whole thing around.

Fast forward to about 1 pm – Basketball is killing me. I won my first bet with Wichita St., but Tennessee is the bane of my existence. They can’t cover 5 ½ points vs. a 15 seed? That is pathetic. I head to my room to take a quick nap. I am angry.

I wake up a little bit late from my nap. I run down the sports book to bet on my lock of the week…GW giving 2 points to UNCW. I plan on betting $500 on the game. I get to the book about 15 seconds too late after it closed. Now I am angrier, so I decide to spread my money out over a few other games. Gonzaga -5 looks good. So does Syracuse at Pick’em. I throw $250 on each of these games. Well Syracuse looked like garbage, and Gonzaga gave up a garbage layup with 2 seconds to go to win by only 4 instead of 6, so I’m out $500.

We head back to the Wynn at about midnight to try to make some money back. I am close to even for the night and I pick up AA vs. Captain Calling Station. Someone raises to $20 preflop, I reraise to $60, and CCS cold calls. The first raiser folds. The flop is K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. CCS has about $100 behind, so I lead out for all of that. He calls and has K6 of clubs. He obviously spikes a club on the river and now I’m getting frustrated. The rest of the session was frustrating as I finished down about $120. I get up half drunk to play more craps.

Playing craps is a bad idea. No one hits a point for the time I was there…down $200. I need to turn this trip around, so I go back to the room early (4 am) to get some sleep for the next day of Vegas.

Friday

I wake up around 12 pm. I have missed the first couple groups of basketball games but I am determined. We check out of T.I. and move over to the Luxor for the second leg of the trip. After checking into the Luxor, I head over to the MGM Grand for a little 1/2 NL. The session runs much much better this time. I am up to $275 when I run into the big stack. I have 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] in the CO. After 2 limpers, I limp. There are 6 to the flop. The flop is 6 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. The BB leads out for $10 and the big stack raises to $40. I smooth call trying to price BB into the hand. BB pushes all in for $38 more. Big stack pushes all in. I call. BB shows a strangely played AA and Mr. Big Stack shows 5-4, so I am in great shape with most of my outs intact. The turn is the glorious 8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] and the river blanks. I win a $600+ pot and the Friday session finishes great, as I’m up over $400.

We decide to go out on that fantastic St. Patrick’s Day night to the Bar at Times Square in New York, New York, and who do we see? We see Phil Gordon at the bar, and he is tanked. I am really drunk so I tell Phil I want to play him heads up. He can’t walk straight though. My buddy Kevin plays him in Ro Sham Bo for $1 and loses when Phil goes scissors on Kevin’s paper. Then he asks us for a credit card to swipe it on some girl’s ass over the bar, repeating the phrase, “It’s not working, It’s not working!” It was pretty much hilarious. See the picture of me and Phil below as I’m wearing my St. Patrick’s Day outfit. Kevin is the goofy guy between us.



Saturday

I get killed again during the day in College Basketball. Also, we’re playing blackjack at the Luxor and I get aces vs. a dealer’s Q on a $50 hand. I split them to get another A. I split again to get another A. I split again to get another A. So I have 5 aces. With my aces I get a Q, K, 5, 8, and Q. The dealer turns over a 6 and then busts. So I turn to my buddy and give him a big high five. The pit boss comes over to yell at me for being to excited and that I’m bothering other players. My response was, “You’re f*cking kidding me?!?” He then tells me to watch my language or I’ll get kicked out. The moral is…don’t stay at the Luxor. They suck.

Saturday night, my friends are being babies and they stay in, so my buddy Mitch and I decide to play 2/4 limit and get drunk. I got retarded drunk by drinking beers and Jagermeister shots all night long. It was very fun, and I was only down $8, so that’s always good for a night of drinking.

Sunday

I’m up and hungover, but I still feel like playing cards. I head over to MGM again for another 1/2 NL session. I am waiting to be called in the other room when my buddy Josh calls me from the poker room. He tells me to come over and check out seat 3 at this 2/5 game. I look over and see Jimmy Johnson, the old Cowboys/Dolphins coach sitting there. So I look in my wallet, decide to grab $500 out, and sit down at the table. I played tight most of the time there, taking down a few pots. I stayed for about 4 hours and was up $64 when I left. However I saw Jimmy get busted on a big hand. He didn’t really have a huge stack and pushed with A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] after a 2 raises in front of him. Nothing hit on the board, and Jimmy was sent home packing. He was a really nice guy though.

I got up and headed over to the Mirage with a buddy. We decided to change it up and sat in the softest 5/10 Omaha Hi/Lo game I’ve ever seen. People were playing KK77 for 3 bets preflop. It was great as both Josh and I finished up about $200 in a few hours of play. All of that money went to the hot bartender at Pure that night at Caesars. So thank you Omaha table for paying for my bar tab.

Monday

The rest of the guys flew out around 3, and mine and Kevin’s flight wasn’t leaving until 10:45 pm. We checked out of the hotel at 12, so we had some time to kill. So after lunch, we headed back to the MGM Grand for an 8 hour 1/2 session. I only had about $410 in my wallet after the drunken show from the night before, and I didn’t want to go to the ATM, so it had to last. I was also loaning Kevin $200, so I really had $210 in my wallet for the session. I was up pretty well right away to about $320 when my QQ reraise preflop paid off as I got a guy to fold KK face up to me on a flop of A46 when I c-bet $50 on the flop.

I took a couple tough beats at the table, including a really strange AA play when I had KK. Villain limped UTG along with 3 others. I raise to $16 out of the BB and villain smooth calls along with all 3. I lead out for $60 on a flop of 9-5-3 rainbow. Villain pushes for $90 more and I call as he flips his AA.

I took another tough beat with AJ on a flop of AJ4 when someone with A4 spiked another 4 on the river. So I was down to $50, but determined not to go to the ATM. I just figured I’d be tight and play tough.

I saw A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] in the small blind. A solid player, possibly a 2p2er, raises to $15 preflop. I reraise all in for my $53 and he thinks for a while before calling with JJ. The flop was K-J-x rainbow. I was ready to get up and leave when I spike the miracle T on the river for a nice double up. The next hand, I have A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] on the button. I raise to $12 after one limper. The BB, a donkeyish player, reraises to $40, so I push all in, and he folds, bringing me up to about $140. The very next hand, I pick up K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] in the CO and raise to $12 again with 3 callers. The flop is a glorious KK2. All check to me, and I bet $35. One calls and folds to a blank turn when I bet out $60. 3 hands turns $50 into just over $200

The rest of the session turned out ok as I finished up about $22 after 8 hours of play, but that was probably the best I played in any session of the weekend.

Recap

Well the trip turned out incredibly. I finished up about $700 in poker for the week. However craps, blackjack, basketball, women, and alcohol put me down for the trip. It was definitely one of the best 5 day spans of my life though, even though I may have to drop down to NL50 for a couple weeks to regroup before resuming play at NL100.

For anyone planning on going to Vegas during this week, we have learned a lot about the trip. The contributing factors for staying in a hotel would be good poker room, good sports book, and women. Judging on these three things, the best places to stay would be The Mirage, MGM Grand, or The Wynn. Whatever you do, just don’t stay at the Luxor. They are terrible at the tables, their poker room is awful (NL 1/2 game with a $50 max buy in?), and the sports book is so out of date.

I am going to put out a Vegas poker room review in the next few days, solely concentrating on the NL games in the casinos. I hope this wasn’t too long and boring for people.

[ajmargarine]

Enjoyed this alot. Trip report of the year so far.

VVNH.

[CappyAA]

Oh and I forgot to add for Frank that chasing hotties is ++++++++EV while strippers are ----------EV.

[CappyAA]

Bump for the morning crew.

[vulturesrow]

Cappy,

Nice work. That picture with Phil Gordon is great, he just looks absolutely tanked, as you mentioned he was.

[Grunch]

Nice post!

[Isura]

Nice report. OMG, just noticed Phil Gordon's t-shirt. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[4_2_it]

Wow! Excellent trip report. You need to make that picture with Phil Gordon your avatar. Actually, you should send it to him as an 8x10, I think he would sign it.

You have set the bar for all future Vegas trip reports. very well done. One question, how right was I about the Wynn servers? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[CappyAA]

Great idea 4_2! Avatar is changed and done. I was drunk at the bar too, so of course I mention to him I just got his book and I like it...which I'm pretty sure he didn't care at all about.

As for the Wynn servers, they are phenomenal. I don't think I flirted with any servers more...except for one at the MGM who knew me so well by my last day that when I was ordering coffee instead of beer and/or shots, she was shocked and horrified. She even messed up my order on the first round cause she didn't believe I ordered the coffee.

The group of 7 guys and I are all emailing each other back and forth today putting together a rating scale for the Vegas hotels and which ones to stay at based on different categories (price, poker rooms, location, nightlife, etc.), so I'll put that up here when we get something that might be useful to anyone.

[4_2_it]

Nice work on the avatar.

Somebody needs to organize a SSNL vegas boondoggle.............that would be mucho fun.........