BBC Z's Oct 13th - Oct 16th Las Vegas Trip Report (w/ hork42 & buddy) - Day 2
Day 2: - “You didn’t come to Vegas to sleep†– Mirage/Bellagio/ TI/ Ballys / Alladin/ Tropicana – Friday Night/Saturday Morning
It’s around 4pm. I’m sleeping in bed. I kind of regain consciousness. I think “Boy my bed feels strangeâ€, “Hey wait a second, I’m not home anymoreâ€, “Where am I?â€, “Oh yeah, I’m in Vegasâ€, “Well if you are in Vegas, what the hell are you doing sleeping? Do that stuff at home.â€, “Ok, time to get upâ€. That’s four hours of sleep after a 30 hour drunken poker fest.
I flip through the Vegas book to find some buffet to eat at and proceed to fall back asleep. 6pm phone call from Kevin saying they’re done golfing and coming back. We decide to hit the Mirage buffet. I make the worst hitting of a buffet in the history of Vegas. Although I’m really hungry, I’m also really tired which causes the old brain to care less about eating than sleeping. I pick over some small food and we hit up the poker room. It’s a nice room, they’ve got games going up to 10/20 limit and 2/5 NL. I sit in a 3/6 game featuring the worlds most annoying rock woman ever on my left. She would constantly be jabbering about whatever small rule violation occurred or about how “There’s a live bet in front of a dead brain†to the LAPs on the far side of the table. I make friends with her by not saying much but I really do think she put me on background tilt or something with the combination of hangover and cheese grater personality.
I pick up a bunch of big hands that go nowhere and I perform my first magic trick of the weekend. Presto change-o in about 2 hours I was able to remove a zero from my $200 buy in and walked out with $20. Lance Burton and David Copperfield eat your heart out. I proudly proclaim that the Mirage sucks as I round up the boys to get the hell out of there. Kevin heads over to the Bellagio for a little 4-8. I decide I’m in no shape for a 4-8 game after my 3/6 pummeling. It’s around 10pm and Hork and I walk past the Imperial Palace and stop in. Hork wants to show me what a REAL crappy poker since I think he fell in love with the mirage or something.
He was right about the crappiness. I buy in to the only limit game they spread. 2/4 and play on the worlds largest holdem table ever. I mean HUGE. The middle of the table was sized like a regular table except there was about 4 feet of felt outside that. The game was the usual loose 2/4 and I proceed to drop $60 in the 30 minutes we’re there as the next new theme of the trip starts. “I don’t win potsâ€. I had kings cracked by T9o and other various hands lose to the good old inside straight draw on the river. We leave IP and go over to check on Kevin at the Bellagio. It’s around 11pm.
Ahh the Bellagio.. Is there anything more scenic than watching some bum walking past Gucci and Prada stores? We arrive and note the following pros playing in “Bobby’s Roomâ€: Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Chip Reese and Sam Farha. Two tables going, unknown game. We check up on Kevin and find him sitting at 8/16. We sweat one hand.
Kevin picks up QQ 4 off the button and raises. He gets two callers. Flop comes Q8x. Kevin bets and gets one caller. Turn brings a low blank, no flush possibilities. She checks, Kevin bets, she raises. She has this smug smile on her face as she places her check-raise chips on the felt. Kevin immediately 3-bets her and the smile is INSTANTLY gone. It was quite entertaining to see someone switch emotions that fast. She calls and 1 bet goes in on the river. She flips over 88 for the slow played under set.
I decided I was in no condition for 4/8. I remember reading that Ballys had a poker room and since I was in a touristy “Lets play in a bunch of rooms regardless of how crappy they are†mood, I headed over there with Hork.
Ballys is a nice room, not crappy likeIP but it’s no MGM. There’s around 12ish tables but plenty of TVs and drink service. As I’m buying my rack of BLUES (took me a while to adjust to not calling them whites) I see a pocket guide on how to play holdem. I decide to take it and put it in my shirt pocket. Immediately, the drunken guy to my right notices the guide and starts helping me out with strategy, what the blinds are etc. I decide to have a little non-poker fun of my own and play up the newbie angle.
A hand comes up where I’m in the small blind with TPNK in an un-raised pot. I check and my ‘helper’ bets with the button. I raise. He turns to me and says “You know, check raising isn’t very niceâ€. I pull out the guide and point to item #6 from the list of house rules: “Check raising is allowed.†The table including dealer burst into laughter.
The table landed up being pretty tight for late-night 2/4. I was in seat 4 and everyone to my left would fold most hands leaving me with drunk guy’s brother-in-law in S1, a NL player who lost $500 earlier in Seat 2. Luckily they were so bad the game was still good.
I land up having a great result in the 2 hours I was there. (+$74) I had “my buddy†calling me down when I showed the nuts and fold when I had nothing. It was poetry. Game breaks up on me and I decide to move on. I’m starting to feel very tired on my 4 hours of sleep so I start the trek back to the Boardwalk.
I walk past Paris and check out the ‘poker room’. It was very unimpressive with one game running. I must say I was also unimpressed with Paris’ urinals. They’re the small bowl style and very high off the ground, making privacy impossible. I guess those guys in France love showing off.
I leave Paris and go onto the Aladdin. There are 3 games going on. They have a BBJ and a high hand jackpot that averages to around $300 for quads or $599 for a straight flush. I get to the room and really decide that I’m far too tired to continue playing. I decide to play a penny video poker machine instead and kill 25 minutes or so.
Left the Aladdin to go see what was happening at the MGM. I catch a burst of energy that makes me want to play poker. I arrive at 3am to find a 5 person list for 2/4. I ain’t waitin’ on no list at 3am. I look over all the tables and leave. Apparently, I missed Kevin there playing 4-8. He had a beret on in public anyway, so I didn’t want to associate myself with him.
I move on down the strip to the Tropicana. It’s an ugly room with around 6 tables. They deal 2/4 Limit and 1/2 NL. I take a seat and find myself in the middle of a rock garden. No one really drinking because service is non-existent (I find out later that there was one waitress for the casino). I’m leaning towards leaving. A very bizarre incident occurs. We get a new dealer down who proceeds to deal for 6 minutes and then leaves the table. This meant the single person working the floor/brush/cashier (FBC) had to deal. The FBC proceeds to admonish the table for never tipping. So all I could piece together was that the dealer was fed up with dealing and getting no tips. I know I had to be missing something but I have no idea what. I drop about $20 and leave to finally decide to go to sleep.
On the way back I get solicited by my first prostitute. I must be losing my game. I only ran into two for all the hours I spent walking the boardwalk late at night.
Around 5am I head back to the room to find (To my surprise) Hork and Kevin both asleep in the beds. DAMN. I decide that I have to sleep and I can’t foresee staying awake playing 6 hours of $5 BJ. I steal a pillow and make the floor the third bed, using a bath towel for a blanket. I manage to survive a drunken Kevin trying to step on me and my glasses.
Needless to say, I didn’t really sleep much that night.
End of Day 2.
Down about $200 so far on the trip.
Edit #1: It was Imperial Palace, not Treasure Island
Edit #2: Provide Link to Day 3: http://www.pokerforum.ca/forum/index.php?topic=6362.0
It’s around 4pm. I’m sleeping in bed. I kind of regain consciousness. I think “Boy my bed feels strangeâ€, “Hey wait a second, I’m not home anymoreâ€, “Where am I?â€, “Oh yeah, I’m in Vegasâ€, “Well if you are in Vegas, what the hell are you doing sleeping? Do that stuff at home.â€, “Ok, time to get upâ€. That’s four hours of sleep after a 30 hour drunken poker fest.
I flip through the Vegas book to find some buffet to eat at and proceed to fall back asleep. 6pm phone call from Kevin saying they’re done golfing and coming back. We decide to hit the Mirage buffet. I make the worst hitting of a buffet in the history of Vegas. Although I’m really hungry, I’m also really tired which causes the old brain to care less about eating than sleeping. I pick over some small food and we hit up the poker room. It’s a nice room, they’ve got games going up to 10/20 limit and 2/5 NL. I sit in a 3/6 game featuring the worlds most annoying rock woman ever on my left. She would constantly be jabbering about whatever small rule violation occurred or about how “There’s a live bet in front of a dead brain†to the LAPs on the far side of the table. I make friends with her by not saying much but I really do think she put me on background tilt or something with the combination of hangover and cheese grater personality.
I pick up a bunch of big hands that go nowhere and I perform my first magic trick of the weekend. Presto change-o in about 2 hours I was able to remove a zero from my $200 buy in and walked out with $20. Lance Burton and David Copperfield eat your heart out. I proudly proclaim that the Mirage sucks as I round up the boys to get the hell out of there. Kevin heads over to the Bellagio for a little 4-8. I decide I’m in no shape for a 4-8 game after my 3/6 pummeling. It’s around 10pm and Hork and I walk past the Imperial Palace and stop in. Hork wants to show me what a REAL crappy poker since I think he fell in love with the mirage or something.
He was right about the crappiness. I buy in to the only limit game they spread. 2/4 and play on the worlds largest holdem table ever. I mean HUGE. The middle of the table was sized like a regular table except there was about 4 feet of felt outside that. The game was the usual loose 2/4 and I proceed to drop $60 in the 30 minutes we’re there as the next new theme of the trip starts. “I don’t win potsâ€. I had kings cracked by T9o and other various hands lose to the good old inside straight draw on the river. We leave IP and go over to check on Kevin at the Bellagio. It’s around 11pm.
Ahh the Bellagio.. Is there anything more scenic than watching some bum walking past Gucci and Prada stores? We arrive and note the following pros playing in “Bobby’s Roomâ€: Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Chip Reese and Sam Farha. Two tables going, unknown game. We check up on Kevin and find him sitting at 8/16. We sweat one hand.
Kevin picks up QQ 4 off the button and raises. He gets two callers. Flop comes Q8x. Kevin bets and gets one caller. Turn brings a low blank, no flush possibilities. She checks, Kevin bets, she raises. She has this smug smile on her face as she places her check-raise chips on the felt. Kevin immediately 3-bets her and the smile is INSTANTLY gone. It was quite entertaining to see someone switch emotions that fast. She calls and 1 bet goes in on the river. She flips over 88 for the slow played under set.
I decided I was in no condition for 4/8. I remember reading that Ballys had a poker room and since I was in a touristy “Lets play in a bunch of rooms regardless of how crappy they are†mood, I headed over there with Hork.
Ballys is a nice room, not crappy likeIP but it’s no MGM. There’s around 12ish tables but plenty of TVs and drink service. As I’m buying my rack of BLUES (took me a while to adjust to not calling them whites) I see a pocket guide on how to play holdem. I decide to take it and put it in my shirt pocket. Immediately, the drunken guy to my right notices the guide and starts helping me out with strategy, what the blinds are etc. I decide to have a little non-poker fun of my own and play up the newbie angle.
A hand comes up where I’m in the small blind with TPNK in an un-raised pot. I check and my ‘helper’ bets with the button. I raise. He turns to me and says “You know, check raising isn’t very niceâ€. I pull out the guide and point to item #6 from the list of house rules: “Check raising is allowed.†The table including dealer burst into laughter.
The table landed up being pretty tight for late-night 2/4. I was in seat 4 and everyone to my left would fold most hands leaving me with drunk guy’s brother-in-law in S1, a NL player who lost $500 earlier in Seat 2. Luckily they were so bad the game was still good.
I land up having a great result in the 2 hours I was there. (+$74) I had “my buddy†calling me down when I showed the nuts and fold when I had nothing. It was poetry. Game breaks up on me and I decide to move on. I’m starting to feel very tired on my 4 hours of sleep so I start the trek back to the Boardwalk.
I walk past Paris and check out the ‘poker room’. It was very unimpressive with one game running. I must say I was also unimpressed with Paris’ urinals. They’re the small bowl style and very high off the ground, making privacy impossible. I guess those guys in France love showing off.
I leave Paris and go onto the Aladdin. There are 3 games going on. They have a BBJ and a high hand jackpot that averages to around $300 for quads or $599 for a straight flush. I get to the room and really decide that I’m far too tired to continue playing. I decide to play a penny video poker machine instead and kill 25 minutes or so.
Left the Aladdin to go see what was happening at the MGM. I catch a burst of energy that makes me want to play poker. I arrive at 3am to find a 5 person list for 2/4. I ain’t waitin’ on no list at 3am. I look over all the tables and leave. Apparently, I missed Kevin there playing 4-8. He had a beret on in public anyway, so I didn’t want to associate myself with him.
I move on down the strip to the Tropicana. It’s an ugly room with around 6 tables. They deal 2/4 Limit and 1/2 NL. I take a seat and find myself in the middle of a rock garden. No one really drinking because service is non-existent (I find out later that there was one waitress for the casino). I’m leaning towards leaving. A very bizarre incident occurs. We get a new dealer down who proceeds to deal for 6 minutes and then leaves the table. This meant the single person working the floor/brush/cashier (FBC) had to deal. The FBC proceeds to admonish the table for never tipping. So all I could piece together was that the dealer was fed up with dealing and getting no tips. I know I had to be missing something but I have no idea what. I drop about $20 and leave to finally decide to go to sleep.
On the way back I get solicited by my first prostitute. I must be losing my game. I only ran into two for all the hours I spent walking the boardwalk late at night.
Around 5am I head back to the room to find (To my surprise) Hork and Kevin both asleep in the beds. DAMN. I decide that I have to sleep and I can’t foresee staying awake playing 6 hours of $5 BJ. I steal a pillow and make the floor the third bed, using a bath towel for a blanket. I manage to survive a drunken Kevin trying to step on me and my glasses.
Needless to say, I didn’t really sleep much that night.
End of Day 2.
Down about $200 so far on the trip.
Edit #1: It was Imperial Palace, not Treasure Island
Edit #2: Provide Link to Day 3: http://www.pokerforum.ca/forum/index.php?topic=6362.0
Comments
This happened to me at Rama on Sunday night. I was next to a guy who talked and talked and talked to me, despite the fact that I eventually not only stopped listening to him, but I was facing in completely the opposite direction. I would still hear him talking to the back of my head, in confidential tones, about what he put this player on or that player on and why that player shouldn't have raised with that hand, etc etc etc etc. I background tilted away half my winnings and left.Â
Reason number 82 why online poker is better than live poker.
It's fun to read about your first trip to Vegas. It's like the first time for... well... a lot of things. Very memorable, exciting, and as good or better than you'd ever hoped.
I can't wait to go back there. Poker stories from Vegas are always amusing. Perhaps we should start a thread called "your funniest poker moment in Vegas".
Damn, this happened the last time I was at Brantford too! Guy would bitch and bitch about "How do I get myself into these messes? What the hell can they have? You have to chase to the river to win at this game..." Etc., etc., etc. The 5-10 game in question had turned into a capping circus with 2 maniacs (sandwiched between them no less and the chatty bastard on my left was one of them). For a good 2-3 hours the norm was a 6-7 way capped preflop pot with 3-4 in it till the end. So many times I wanted to blurt out "No-one forced you to call 3 cold with 5-3o.", or just a simple "Just shut the @#$% up and play!" It was an endless recording session into my left ear for like 3-4 hours. The thing was the game was SOOO juicy with these idiots, I felt I couldn't in good conscience leave, even though I knew I probably wasn't on my A-game due to the background tilt. I felt my D- game was good enough to beat the game, but unfortunately the deck was fairly cold and I ended up dropping a bit back to the table... Frustrating to say the least.
Looking forward to Day 3 BBC_Z
I'm on course this week for work and was only able to get up to halfway through day 3 written on the plane, so 3 and 4 are a few days away..
Hork is far too boring to post a report but heres a summary:
"I woke up at 9am, argued with Kevin for two hours, sat in a poker game, argued some more with Kevin, lost at poker and went to sleep. At midnight. Sober." x4