Wildbill's Vegas TR, Dec2011
So, just to make this clear from the get go… This trip was very much so about taking my wife to Vegas for the first time and just experiencing the whole scene with her. She’d never played live at a casino with dealers before and was a little nervous about the whole thing.
Might as well clear this up as well. As I type this, my mind is very scattered but I don’t think that’s necessarily all that different from most days so there ya go.
While we’re clearing things up, if you’re expecting a high(er) roller tr go to GTA’s tr. You will find it more interesting than mine.
Anyhoo, we departed on Thursday from London direct to Vegas. For those of you from the SW, MW Ontario area, I’d highly recommend this. Westjet started direct flights from London to Vegas a while ago and it was a great option. Don’t have to deal with Toronto whatsoever, much less stress. Sorry, I’ve lived in a small town for 3 years now after living in Vancouver for 15 years. I no longer have much time for Toronto. Just a personal preference, no offence intended.
Arrived at the Aria Thursday evening and checked in. This was significantly less painless process than the last time we stayed there. Took less than 15 minutes, as opposed to the hour it took last time. I was quite unsure of the Aria after my last experience there. Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice. I just found it soul-less last time, but it grew on me more this time.
Wife felt very ill after the flight and didn’t feel like she could go anywhere. So, the other couple we went with went down to the Todd English Pub at the Aria for beers before my buddy and I went out to play a bit of poker before crashing for the night. It’s a nice pub, but we found one thing disconcerting shortly after we arrived. I’ve been to some nice restaurants in my life, but I’ve never been to a place where they had a person in the bathroom offering you soap to wash your hands with and expecting a tip.
My friend’s wife came out of the bathroom killing her self laughing about this and demanded that when I had to go to the bathroom she would accompany me with her camera for pics of the experience. This was going to be embarrassing, but she wouldn’t let me out of this. Off we went. Thankfully the process of me peeing wasn’t photographed, but the bathroom (female) concierge got quite a kick out of it and allowed the pics to be taken in good spirit. I just found this whole thing a little out of place for a pub. Nowhere else in Vegas did someone offer to soap my hands after I’d peed. Anyhoo, enough about that. I might add the pics later.
Getting late in the evening we decided to head to Bill’s Gamblin hall and Saloon. I know it’s a down and dirty joint, but I certainly wasn’t rolled to play any cash games of any consequence. Wife and I were in Vegas to play some <$100 tourneys. Period. The poker room is fairly small, to say the least. One table running, you guessed it, the .50/1.00. Some characters at the table, some quieter ones. Ended up and down for a while. Drank rather heavily, but wow was the draft terrible. Switched to screwdrivers pretty quickly. By 4:30 in the morning had to call it quits. Wow, up $40. Back to the hotel.
Friday was a day for touring about showing the wife the sites. As most of you will have seen these several times before, there’s no point redescribing here. Toured all the way down the strip to sadly see the Sahara with the plywood wall surrounding as it closed May 21 of this year. Checked out the ‘biggest souvenir store’ and for the first time, walked out with nothing. Maybe that means I’ve matured as a Vegas visitor. Probably not. Did the New York New York roller coaster prior to any ingesting of alcohol which I thought was a smart decision. Shoulder braces weren’t secured tightly enough and the damn thing shook me around till I thought I was going to get a concussion.
Friday night, back to pokering. Checked through our meagre info about tourneys and decided on Oshea’s at 8pm. Didn’t realize until we got there that it’s a bloody one table sng and only one spot left. Not going to happen. Getting frustrated we finally decided on heading back to Bill’s as they had a 8:30 for a whopping $30. This was satisfactory as the wife doesn’t play a lot for real money and this would be her first poker in Vegas. This however would be a bingoment of all bingoments. $30 buyin, $3K chips, fast levels. Tourney had a few interesting people including one guy from Brooklyn who wouldn’t quit sighing and shaking his head grumbling at how bad people were playing. No real interesting hands to comment on. I bombed out, no cash. As did wife. Too tired (and possibly intoxicated), we decided to stay and jump on the cash table.
If GTA is reading this (I’m sure he would have stopped long ago) I seem to recall him having a button or a shirt or something that said “I DON’T FUCKING CARE WHAT YOU HAD!” I want one. I had this degenerate sitting next to me all night who wouldn’t stop telling me what he had and how he would have had a boat 8’s full of 4’s, etc. I was sure I was going to end up in prison for life at some point.
Most memorable had from the night (my memory was foggy again, damn screwdrivers) was some guy with a Montreal Expos hat and huge sunglasses sitting down with a $40 buyin. I’m dealt QJo, I raise, all others except for Expo fan fold. Flop is QJX. I raise, he goes all in, I call (probably a bad idea). He shows….. a pair. I took his stack, he got up and left after one hand.
Anyhoo, 2:30am arrives and I’m pooped. Off to the hotel. Damn screwdrivers. Up $40, again, I’m noticing a trend. Not much profit is not a nice trend.
Saturday arrives. Buffet at the Aria is great. Room came with a $44 daily credit which covered the weekday brunches, almost covered the weekend brunch. I’d heard some good, some bad about the Aria buffet, but it was easily better than any buffet breakfast I’d ever been to so we were happy. We mucked about for a while and eventually decided to pick a tourney.
Planet Hollywood was close, $70 buyin, 6K chips, decent blind structure, wife approved. Poker ‘area’ was reasonable. Nice tables, nice seats, however the waitresses were incredibly slow and when they took an order they most often forgot about it until you reminded them for a second time. My table was like a morgue. Barely anyone spoke a word. My wifes table sounded like a winning craps table! Anyhoo, COMPLETELY card dead for the entire first two blind levels. Couldn’t get anything going. Eventually started getting some momentum going as we approached the final table. Finally, down to 10bb I shoved AKs and got taken out by A10 who hit a 10 on the flop. Poor me. Kind of a boring tourney all in all.
Wife and I wandered about the mall. I’m not a mall person. Nothing to comment about here.
Later, deciding to play yet another tourney for our last full day in Vegas we decided on the 8pm, $60 buyin, $9k at Hard Rock. Had never been there before so figured it would be worth checking the place out. We went to register and found out that because we registered an hour early, we got an extra $1K in chips. This sounded odd as I’d never heard of this before. It didn’t add to my confidence about the tourney, but whatever. We’re here, let’s play this thing.
Went to the “Pink Taco” at Hard Rock for a great Mexican meal. Very reasonable prices, large portions (USA big surprise) nice atmosphere.
Went back to the poker room as the tourney was about to start. Dealer (one) is seated, nobody else there. Uh oh. I ask the floor guy how many are registered. He says “9 at this point.” Hmm. Eventually others show and things get started. Another couple register and now the floor guy asks the crowd if it’s ok to run 11 at our table? He’ll split things up if someone else registers…. Again, kind of weird, but whatever.
I have one dickhead at my table who again tells me what he “had” and continually berates others for their play. On top of that, he keeps going for smoke breaks and palming his smoke to play hands. Finally a dealer snaps at him and he puts the brakes on this. Blah blah blah, tourney continues and I hover around stack average. No seriously memorable hands in this entire tourney. Finally, it’s chip leader and me heads up. I’ve been pissing him off for a while continually doubling up through him. He’s going insane running back to his wife at a slot machine telling her he’s “GONNA TAKE THIS DOWN!” We go back and forth for a while, and eventually he’s got me down to a little less than a third of his stack.
Then he asks me if I want to “chop the stack”. I look at him thinking he means chop the payout and finally say “Chop it, sure whatever.” I’m tired and getting a little impatient. Another dealer watching says something to our dealer who says “hang on, not chop the cash, you take second he takes first” or something like that. Basically, he’s asking if I want to surrender and just take second place. “Nope, forget it. Play it out.” I’ve never heard of this before, and can’t figure out why anyone would agree without a seriously convincing reason. Anyhoo, we played it out and to his massive excitement he won. Him $370, me $160. Hmm.
Memorable moment? Jesse James of Monster Garage wandered through the room.
Very tired at this point we cab it back to the Aria to find the hubby of the other couple pissed drunk in the Aria poker room. He played the $125 1pm, and the $125 7pm and was now seated at a $4/$8 limit table being taught the game by other players. Seemed to be having a great time, we thought we’d leave him to these sharks. Noticed Elly Elezra on one table and Scott Siever on another. Apparently Daniel Negraneu was in there a few hours before.
Next morning we find out that my buddy didn’t leave the Aria poker room until 7:30 in the morning after pounding back MANY white Russians and Irish whiskey. Oh dear. Despite losing only a few hundred, he described this as one of the most fun nights he’s ever had. At one point they had an Aria poker room floor guy, and an Aria dealer playing at their table and still got told to keep it down by the current poker room supervisor. He was basically a mess for most of the day. A double shot of Gastrolyte didn’t touch his hangover. Gastrolyte for those of you who don’t know about it is very handy for these types of situations.
Last day in Vegas we decided to hang up the poker gloves and wander. With a 44K person marathon running down the strip that day, a major rodeo happening that weekend and some serious Nascar event going on somewhere nearby it was kind of a freakishly mixed crowd.
Anyhoo, last day was lacking in excitement, so I’ll leave the TR here at this point.
Came home to find Queenie and the new pup Ace at the farm where we left them. Surrounded by 10 Great Danes, Ace playing the ankle biter, ignored by these gentle beasts who could have squashed him in a millisecond, Queenie milling about like she always belonged there. Very nice.
Another trip to Vegas. Drank like a fish, ate very well, saw lots of sites, didn't lose my shirt.
Plus, wife said she would definitely go back again. I was a little worried.
Might as well clear this up as well. As I type this, my mind is very scattered but I don’t think that’s necessarily all that different from most days so there ya go.
While we’re clearing things up, if you’re expecting a high(er) roller tr go to GTA’s tr. You will find it more interesting than mine.
Anyhoo, we departed on Thursday from London direct to Vegas. For those of you from the SW, MW Ontario area, I’d highly recommend this. Westjet started direct flights from London to Vegas a while ago and it was a great option. Don’t have to deal with Toronto whatsoever, much less stress. Sorry, I’ve lived in a small town for 3 years now after living in Vancouver for 15 years. I no longer have much time for Toronto. Just a personal preference, no offence intended.
Arrived at the Aria Thursday evening and checked in. This was significantly less painless process than the last time we stayed there. Took less than 15 minutes, as opposed to the hour it took last time. I was quite unsure of the Aria after my last experience there. Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice. I just found it soul-less last time, but it grew on me more this time.
Wife felt very ill after the flight and didn’t feel like she could go anywhere. So, the other couple we went with went down to the Todd English Pub at the Aria for beers before my buddy and I went out to play a bit of poker before crashing for the night. It’s a nice pub, but we found one thing disconcerting shortly after we arrived. I’ve been to some nice restaurants in my life, but I’ve never been to a place where they had a person in the bathroom offering you soap to wash your hands with and expecting a tip.
My friend’s wife came out of the bathroom killing her self laughing about this and demanded that when I had to go to the bathroom she would accompany me with her camera for pics of the experience. This was going to be embarrassing, but she wouldn’t let me out of this. Off we went. Thankfully the process of me peeing wasn’t photographed, but the bathroom (female) concierge got quite a kick out of it and allowed the pics to be taken in good spirit. I just found this whole thing a little out of place for a pub. Nowhere else in Vegas did someone offer to soap my hands after I’d peed. Anyhoo, enough about that. I might add the pics later.
Getting late in the evening we decided to head to Bill’s Gamblin hall and Saloon. I know it’s a down and dirty joint, but I certainly wasn’t rolled to play any cash games of any consequence. Wife and I were in Vegas to play some <$100 tourneys. Period. The poker room is fairly small, to say the least. One table running, you guessed it, the .50/1.00. Some characters at the table, some quieter ones. Ended up and down for a while. Drank rather heavily, but wow was the draft terrible. Switched to screwdrivers pretty quickly. By 4:30 in the morning had to call it quits. Wow, up $40. Back to the hotel.
Friday was a day for touring about showing the wife the sites. As most of you will have seen these several times before, there’s no point redescribing here. Toured all the way down the strip to sadly see the Sahara with the plywood wall surrounding as it closed May 21 of this year. Checked out the ‘biggest souvenir store’ and for the first time, walked out with nothing. Maybe that means I’ve matured as a Vegas visitor. Probably not. Did the New York New York roller coaster prior to any ingesting of alcohol which I thought was a smart decision. Shoulder braces weren’t secured tightly enough and the damn thing shook me around till I thought I was going to get a concussion.
Friday night, back to pokering. Checked through our meagre info about tourneys and decided on Oshea’s at 8pm. Didn’t realize until we got there that it’s a bloody one table sng and only one spot left. Not going to happen. Getting frustrated we finally decided on heading back to Bill’s as they had a 8:30 for a whopping $30. This was satisfactory as the wife doesn’t play a lot for real money and this would be her first poker in Vegas. This however would be a bingoment of all bingoments. $30 buyin, $3K chips, fast levels. Tourney had a few interesting people including one guy from Brooklyn who wouldn’t quit sighing and shaking his head grumbling at how bad people were playing. No real interesting hands to comment on. I bombed out, no cash. As did wife. Too tired (and possibly intoxicated), we decided to stay and jump on the cash table.
If GTA is reading this (I’m sure he would have stopped long ago) I seem to recall him having a button or a shirt or something that said “I DON’T FUCKING CARE WHAT YOU HAD!” I want one. I had this degenerate sitting next to me all night who wouldn’t stop telling me what he had and how he would have had a boat 8’s full of 4’s, etc. I was sure I was going to end up in prison for life at some point.
Most memorable had from the night (my memory was foggy again, damn screwdrivers) was some guy with a Montreal Expos hat and huge sunglasses sitting down with a $40 buyin. I’m dealt QJo, I raise, all others except for Expo fan fold. Flop is QJX. I raise, he goes all in, I call (probably a bad idea). He shows….. a pair. I took his stack, he got up and left after one hand.
Anyhoo, 2:30am arrives and I’m pooped. Off to the hotel. Damn screwdrivers. Up $40, again, I’m noticing a trend. Not much profit is not a nice trend.
Saturday arrives. Buffet at the Aria is great. Room came with a $44 daily credit which covered the weekday brunches, almost covered the weekend brunch. I’d heard some good, some bad about the Aria buffet, but it was easily better than any buffet breakfast I’d ever been to so we were happy. We mucked about for a while and eventually decided to pick a tourney.
Planet Hollywood was close, $70 buyin, 6K chips, decent blind structure, wife approved. Poker ‘area’ was reasonable. Nice tables, nice seats, however the waitresses were incredibly slow and when they took an order they most often forgot about it until you reminded them for a second time. My table was like a morgue. Barely anyone spoke a word. My wifes table sounded like a winning craps table! Anyhoo, COMPLETELY card dead for the entire first two blind levels. Couldn’t get anything going. Eventually started getting some momentum going as we approached the final table. Finally, down to 10bb I shoved AKs and got taken out by A10 who hit a 10 on the flop. Poor me. Kind of a boring tourney all in all.
Wife and I wandered about the mall. I’m not a mall person. Nothing to comment about here.
Later, deciding to play yet another tourney for our last full day in Vegas we decided on the 8pm, $60 buyin, $9k at Hard Rock. Had never been there before so figured it would be worth checking the place out. We went to register and found out that because we registered an hour early, we got an extra $1K in chips. This sounded odd as I’d never heard of this before. It didn’t add to my confidence about the tourney, but whatever. We’re here, let’s play this thing.
Went to the “Pink Taco” at Hard Rock for a great Mexican meal. Very reasonable prices, large portions (USA big surprise) nice atmosphere.
Went back to the poker room as the tourney was about to start. Dealer (one) is seated, nobody else there. Uh oh. I ask the floor guy how many are registered. He says “9 at this point.” Hmm. Eventually others show and things get started. Another couple register and now the floor guy asks the crowd if it’s ok to run 11 at our table? He’ll split things up if someone else registers…. Again, kind of weird, but whatever.
I have one dickhead at my table who again tells me what he “had” and continually berates others for their play. On top of that, he keeps going for smoke breaks and palming his smoke to play hands. Finally a dealer snaps at him and he puts the brakes on this. Blah blah blah, tourney continues and I hover around stack average. No seriously memorable hands in this entire tourney. Finally, it’s chip leader and me heads up. I’ve been pissing him off for a while continually doubling up through him. He’s going insane running back to his wife at a slot machine telling her he’s “GONNA TAKE THIS DOWN!” We go back and forth for a while, and eventually he’s got me down to a little less than a third of his stack.
Then he asks me if I want to “chop the stack”. I look at him thinking he means chop the payout and finally say “Chop it, sure whatever.” I’m tired and getting a little impatient. Another dealer watching says something to our dealer who says “hang on, not chop the cash, you take second he takes first” or something like that. Basically, he’s asking if I want to surrender and just take second place. “Nope, forget it. Play it out.” I’ve never heard of this before, and can’t figure out why anyone would agree without a seriously convincing reason. Anyhoo, we played it out and to his massive excitement he won. Him $370, me $160. Hmm.
Memorable moment? Jesse James of Monster Garage wandered through the room.
Very tired at this point we cab it back to the Aria to find the hubby of the other couple pissed drunk in the Aria poker room. He played the $125 1pm, and the $125 7pm and was now seated at a $4/$8 limit table being taught the game by other players. Seemed to be having a great time, we thought we’d leave him to these sharks. Noticed Elly Elezra on one table and Scott Siever on another. Apparently Daniel Negraneu was in there a few hours before.
Next morning we find out that my buddy didn’t leave the Aria poker room until 7:30 in the morning after pounding back MANY white Russians and Irish whiskey. Oh dear. Despite losing only a few hundred, he described this as one of the most fun nights he’s ever had. At one point they had an Aria poker room floor guy, and an Aria dealer playing at their table and still got told to keep it down by the current poker room supervisor. He was basically a mess for most of the day. A double shot of Gastrolyte didn’t touch his hangover. Gastrolyte for those of you who don’t know about it is very handy for these types of situations.
Last day in Vegas we decided to hang up the poker gloves and wander. With a 44K person marathon running down the strip that day, a major rodeo happening that weekend and some serious Nascar event going on somewhere nearby it was kind of a freakishly mixed crowd.
Anyhoo, last day was lacking in excitement, so I’ll leave the TR here at this point.
Came home to find Queenie and the new pup Ace at the farm where we left them. Surrounded by 10 Great Danes, Ace playing the ankle biter, ignored by these gentle beasts who could have squashed him in a millisecond, Queenie milling about like she always belonged there. Very nice.
Another trip to Vegas. Drank like a fish, ate very well, saw lots of sites, didn't lose my shirt.
Plus, wife said she would definitely go back again. I was a little worried.
Comments
Not me with the button or shirt.
Sounds like you were there just before me. I arrived the night after the marathon.
With all the PFCers heading to Vegas this month it's amazing that we all just miss each other.
It is now my goal in life to find one of those shirts though.
Maybe we can make a contest to create the best "I DON'T FUCKING CARE WHAT YOU HAD!" shirt or maybe just remove the expletive to make it more poker room friendly.
I'd want something more pro-active that people would notice as soon as they noticed me and understand my position no this. The time taken to show/have thrown at the chip saying STFU could result in a "Heh, I had A2o, I woooould uh had a pair of Aces. Huh."
Don't worry about everyone else, just have the trip you want.
I loved the Aria room. Great decor, great staff, and most importantly, timely and friendly cocktail service
Can I ask what you paid for the London/LV flight? If you don't want to say, no worries.
Did you remember to get a Total Rewards Card from any of the Harrah's properties? It will come in handy for the another CPF trip in the future.
It was cold when I was there (high of 4-7), but has gone up to a high of 12 (of course) since I left. Lows at night were around 0.
Awesome report Bill!
How about a baseball cap? Can get them done fairly cheap.
Type it in Notepad 1st, then copy and paste.
Yep not much consolation but agreed and we've all been there...don't trust the web (browsers).