Belated trip report.
So, haven't had time to write this up till now. Details are a bit fuzzy. Dogweed (new member, hasn't posted a damn thing yet!) and myself and a few friends from Vancouver went down to Vegas a few weeks ago for 4 nights and five days of debauchery.
Stayed at the Aria. Nice place, very high tech, very sleek. Geared towards the 20-30 somethings with lots of new money in my opinion (none of us fell into that category). Constantly felt like I was in a night club. Great breakfast buffet though, which we indulged in heavily. Fair amount of pumped up male bravado wandering around the entire hotel, balanced with a massive amount of the shortest skirts, longest legs and plastified chests I've ever seen. However, the place has no soul or character. Based on scattered info, the place cost between $8.5-10 billion to create. On day two of the trip, they had an Ivey invitational tourney where the winner got to play Ivey heads up for some huge amount of cash. Watching him play live was pretty cool. The man is a statue and destroyed his opponent fairly quickly.
Day two of our stay we decided to play the Mirage daily for I believe $65 buyin. Ended up with around 65 players and I came in second for $350 of which they with held $90 for taxes. They gave me some forms to get this back. I believe Voodoo created a thread a long time ago about how to do this. I'm not sure it will be worth the time for the amount I'd get back. Good tourney, friendly people, friendly dealers.
Continuing day two, myself and my buddy Dennis did this:
That was awesome, and Compuease I'd definitely recommend it for when you're down there. For $100 it was the best experience short of skydiving I can imagine. Except for the terrible suits they make you wear to completely remove any sense of maleness you might have had prior. The only time I was actually nervous was approaching the platform you jump off of. Once I got there I couldn't wait to go!
Day three we wandered about, sat by the pool at the hotel, then off to The Gun Store. Opted for the choice of three gun package for $160. I picked the .44 magnum, the .308 sniper rifle and the M24SAW machine gun. Despite the reviews I found on the net where people said the staff were total assholes, we found the guy who dealt with us to be a blast. A bit of a gun nut redneck, but what else were you going to expect. I told him I was originally from Kingston, and he had spent a bit of time just over the border in Fort Drum marine base. This alone got me and my friends a whack of free shots with the .44! Loads of fun and a free "I don't call 911" tshirt with a big Gloc on it.
Yes, I geeked out and wore my P* hat and regretted it shortly after we left town. The SAW was awesome and I want one. At a reported $125K, it will have to wait... I do however have a line on a totally legal .44 and GF has granted permission as long as we have no other financial priorities in the way. That means I'll never get one....
Eventually took a cab to the Orleans for their daily tourney per the suggestion of a few people we'd talked to. What a dump. $70buyin. The tourney was..ok, but there were a ton of regulars there who I'm sure grind this thing every day. On top of this they were total degenerates and assholes and constantly bitched about everything they could. I now understand why Wetts says he hates poker players. I couldn't help myself and ended up laughing at one of them, which gave me the feeling I was going to get stabbed to death upon our departure. Ten minutes into the tourney, none of our crew even wanted to be in the building anymore. We all crashed out and didn't come anywhere near cashing. We left with our eyes burning terribly from the poor ventilation.
Day 4 involved more sitting about by the pool and eventually the Aria daily $120 buyin. Great structure, great dealers, quick waitresses. For the first two hours I got absolutely nothing in terms of cards. I honestly believe 77 was the best cards I got. Getting blinded out in a state of despair I eventually went all in with 68os and doubled up. Got moved, more despair and bad cards. Went all in with A3 and doubled up again. Very next hand got QQ, allin, taken out by AA not even remotely close to the cash.
Last day of our stay we wandered around the shops in the hotel looking at almost empty stores which obviously meant they carried stuff we couldn't even afford to look at. Decided based on timing and our flight out, the last tourney we'd be able to play would be the Monte Carlo daily $60buyin. Wow. Tiny poker room with around a dozen tables if that. They said they usually get 30 players, ended up with 13. The players were the friendliest and worst players we'd experienced since our arrival. It was like being at a home game. Great time and confusion at some of the calls being made. Ended up heads up and the chip leader and myself chose to chop it for $250 each. The floor guy just handed us the cash and didn't bother at all with the tax with holding. Not sure if there's a minimum where they don't bother or not.
Off to the airport and home with a renewed sense of confidence in my game. This was of course quickly destroyed once I began playing online again, especially in the forum tourneys...
Great times for a third trip down. Will definitely go again soon and bring the gf as she's becoming a very competent player live. Will likely not stay at the Aria next time. Nice place, but didn't do it for me.
Stayed at the Aria. Nice place, very high tech, very sleek. Geared towards the 20-30 somethings with lots of new money in my opinion (none of us fell into that category). Constantly felt like I was in a night club. Great breakfast buffet though, which we indulged in heavily. Fair amount of pumped up male bravado wandering around the entire hotel, balanced with a massive amount of the shortest skirts, longest legs and plastified chests I've ever seen. However, the place has no soul or character. Based on scattered info, the place cost between $8.5-10 billion to create. On day two of the trip, they had an Ivey invitational tourney where the winner got to play Ivey heads up for some huge amount of cash. Watching him play live was pretty cool. The man is a statue and destroyed his opponent fairly quickly.
Day two of our stay we decided to play the Mirage daily for I believe $65 buyin. Ended up with around 65 players and I came in second for $350 of which they with held $90 for taxes. They gave me some forms to get this back. I believe Voodoo created a thread a long time ago about how to do this. I'm not sure it will be worth the time for the amount I'd get back. Good tourney, friendly people, friendly dealers.
Continuing day two, myself and my buddy Dennis did this:
That was awesome, and Compuease I'd definitely recommend it for when you're down there. For $100 it was the best experience short of skydiving I can imagine. Except for the terrible suits they make you wear to completely remove any sense of maleness you might have had prior. The only time I was actually nervous was approaching the platform you jump off of. Once I got there I couldn't wait to go!
Day three we wandered about, sat by the pool at the hotel, then off to The Gun Store. Opted for the choice of three gun package for $160. I picked the .44 magnum, the .308 sniper rifle and the M24SAW machine gun. Despite the reviews I found on the net where people said the staff were total assholes, we found the guy who dealt with us to be a blast. A bit of a gun nut redneck, but what else were you going to expect. I told him I was originally from Kingston, and he had spent a bit of time just over the border in Fort Drum marine base. This alone got me and my friends a whack of free shots with the .44! Loads of fun and a free "I don't call 911" tshirt with a big Gloc on it.
Yes, I geeked out and wore my P* hat and regretted it shortly after we left town. The SAW was awesome and I want one. At a reported $125K, it will have to wait... I do however have a line on a totally legal .44 and GF has granted permission as long as we have no other financial priorities in the way. That means I'll never get one....
Eventually took a cab to the Orleans for their daily tourney per the suggestion of a few people we'd talked to. What a dump. $70buyin. The tourney was..ok, but there were a ton of regulars there who I'm sure grind this thing every day. On top of this they were total degenerates and assholes and constantly bitched about everything they could. I now understand why Wetts says he hates poker players. I couldn't help myself and ended up laughing at one of them, which gave me the feeling I was going to get stabbed to death upon our departure. Ten minutes into the tourney, none of our crew even wanted to be in the building anymore. We all crashed out and didn't come anywhere near cashing. We left with our eyes burning terribly from the poor ventilation.
Day 4 involved more sitting about by the pool and eventually the Aria daily $120 buyin. Great structure, great dealers, quick waitresses. For the first two hours I got absolutely nothing in terms of cards. I honestly believe 77 was the best cards I got. Getting blinded out in a state of despair I eventually went all in with 68os and doubled up. Got moved, more despair and bad cards. Went all in with A3 and doubled up again. Very next hand got QQ, allin, taken out by AA not even remotely close to the cash.
Last day of our stay we wandered around the shops in the hotel looking at almost empty stores which obviously meant they carried stuff we couldn't even afford to look at. Decided based on timing and our flight out, the last tourney we'd be able to play would be the Monte Carlo daily $60buyin. Wow. Tiny poker room with around a dozen tables if that. They said they usually get 30 players, ended up with 13. The players were the friendliest and worst players we'd experienced since our arrival. It was like being at a home game. Great time and confusion at some of the calls being made. Ended up heads up and the chip leader and myself chose to chop it for $250 each. The floor guy just handed us the cash and didn't bother at all with the tax with holding. Not sure if there's a minimum where they don't bother or not.
Off to the airport and home with a renewed sense of confidence in my game. This was of course quickly destroyed once I began playing online again, especially in the forum tourneys...
Great times for a third trip down. Will definitely go again soon and bring the gf as she's becoming a very competent player live. Will likely not stay at the Aria next time. Nice place, but didn't do it for me.
Comments
Nice trip report though... I would like to give the shooting a try sometime...
As for the tournaments you were playing, you're never going to get much play at those buyin's, they're strictly crapshoots... As far as I know only the Mirage witholds for any winnings, all the rest withhold 30% for amounts >5K. That's why it is important for Canadians to ask first.
This takes away from the hotel?:bs:
Good trip report. I've been thinking about making the Aria the next hotel I stay at down there. You mention you went to the pool. How was it? Was it a relaxed pool or more of a party and puke all over the place spot?
Hmm, that's weird Moose. When I click on it, it opens two photobucket windows. One is a pic thingy like you mentioned, and the other shows the video after buffering it out. Photobucket videos can be a pain.
Nope, that definitely didn't take away from the hotel! Generally it was the meatheads they were with that gave you the "you lookin' at my girl, cuz I'll kill ya if y'ar." look that was annoying.
The pool was really very nice and certainly not a party and pukefest. Lots of security around the hotel and you have to show your room keycard everywhere you go, so you don't get passerby riffraff dropping in. They have a nice little clubby/bar type thing nearby that we never made it into. One of the older security guards I talked to said you might have to wait for an hour to get in if you didn't look like a musclebound meathead with a serious hotty on your arm.
Don't get me wrong, the hotel itself was really nice. If you like remote controls that can do everything including opening the blinds, etc. and motion sensors on virtually everything so you get billed for anything extra in your room you touch. The place just didn't have any.....I dunno, theme...character....something that made it special I guess. I didn't want clowns or desert scenes everywhere mind you, but something would have been nice.
Is the thing youre shooting at supposed to be a Taliban?
They found Osama!:D
Yep, Osama. I originally grabbed a zombied nazi. The guy who worked there took one look at it and said "Yer kiddin' me right?" He just grabbed Osama and stuck it on the track thing instead. I'll see if I can find the stupid targets. In a drunken stupor I stuffed them in my luggage along with a spent .44 shell. Not a good idea. When we went through security, some alarm went off and one of the guards said "We may have had a breach!" Basically the whole departure area ground to a halt. I stood there and prayed they didn't have some burnt cordite sniffer thing might have caught the .44 shell. After a few minutes things started again and I started to breath again.
We played on the Sunday afternoon. They didn't run the afternoon tourney on Saturday due to Ivey's tourney, and we were up to other things in the evenings. About 80 players if I remember correctly. I swear I didn't see one hand go post flop all day except for the ones I went all in preflop with.
lol, get on the ground now motherfucker!!!!:D
Yeah, I'd never fired a handgun before, so starting with a .44 revolver was a bit much. I eventually got more used to it. I'd been told it was going to break my wrist, but after a few shots I realized that warning was crap and I was one handing it.
I think they might have had a Spas 12 guage autoloader for the Terminator fan crowd, but my Boss said not to bother with any shotguns down there. He'd fulfill any and all shotgun shooting desires I had... He's got a few. He even gave me a bonus paycheck the day before I left. Looked me in the eye and said "Shoot more bullets with this. No poker. Bullets."
I see what you mean.
Thanks!
+1 on that one. I've been there..thrice (?) now (not sure if its twice or three times) and each time there I have nothing but positive things to say about the knowledge of the staff and the service they provided. Heck, they even convinced a friend of mine...a girl that's MAYBE 5'3 on a good day 120 soaking wet to shoot a couple of rounds