stp's Vegas Trip Report
After booking our tickets to Las Vegas, Nevada on Expedia for a mere $597 (CAN) back in January, Kate and I were eagerly awaiting this moment. We had sat at the Buffalo airport bar watching George Brown win yet another game to make it to the Final Four. I ordered a Sam Adams and needed to take a triple take at the bill as it cost me $6.00. I wanted to spend my money on gambling and get free drinks; nevertheless I got another and bought Kate a Vodka and Cran. We anxiously awaited our planes arrival. I have to give kudos to the airport, it was super organized, the service was excellent and the airport is small enough that you don’t feel overwhelmed by the process of flying to another country. Needless to say, I ‘d fly out of buffalo for the extra 1 ½ hours it took me to drive there for sure. The plane left from the Buffalo airport on time at 7:05pm Sunday evening. We had a one hour layover in Washington which was fairly uneventful, arrived in Vegas at 12:20am.
As most people, I was completely amazed at how much was still going on at this wee hour of the morning. Mandalay Bay, Caesars, MGM Grand and The Mirage were visually stunning. We took a Shuttle to the Sahara to check into our rooms, I was just happy to be here and had nothing to compare the Sahara to at the time. After visiting almost every casino/hotel I will definitely chose another for my next visit, nothing against the Sahara though it was great for the price. After dropping our bags in the room, we headed back downstairs to play some slots. We each lost about $40 and I vowed to myself that I would only play table games from now on, I have no will power. That was the end to our first night, went to bed and awoke the next day at 9:30am.
Our plan for today was to tour the strip and get in as many casinos as possible. The weather was great, a nice 70-degrees. We could wear shorts but not have to worry about the sunscreen. Our first Casino down the strip was Circus Circus, I won’t go through every casino here but this was the first one we saw that impressed me. I was later, much more impressed. I immediately told Kate I wanted to play something here, it seemed like everyone was having a lot of fun. I didn’t mind seeing tones of kids running around, like I said it was all fun. I sat down and played some blackjack and after playing for about 45 minutes and two free Coors Lights I ended up $20. Kate and I walked upstairs of the Circus Circus and played skeet ball, I had the best score with 230 for 10 balls unfortunately you needed 240 points to win a prize. We left and ventured down the western side of the strip. Stardust was next, the only thing I liked about this place was the free hotdog voucher some lady gave me, mmmm hotdog!
After visiting Treasure Island, which was incredible, Kate and I hit The Mirage. I was getting the itch to play. I loved their poker room, it was separate enough that you didn’t have people playing slots right on top of you but close enough that you still felt that you were a part of the casino. The staff here was very friendly. I sat down at their 1/2 NLHE table after a 3 minute wait. After two rotations of me folding, I see AK utg. I raise it up to $11 as the table was seeing a lot of flops and I figured to get at least two callers. Everyone folds to the button who announces “Isn’t anyone going to call this guy, it’s the first hand he’s played?†This guy was sitting with over a grand at this $200 max table and was clearly a good player, well good in comparison to the average player there. He folds as does the small. The Big announces “Well, I’ll call but I don’t plan on staying around to longâ€. Flop comes 568 rainbow, he checks and I fire out $17 to take down the pot. I fold for another orbit and a half or so and see 1010 in LP, folded around to the guy to my right who calls. I just call as does the button and the blinds. 5 players see the flop. Flop 10s 2d 3d. Blinds check, guy to my right bets $5, I call, Button calls, Small calls. Turn 3h. Guy to my right bets $15, in retrospect I should have raised here but just called hoping to get a few more players to come along. Button and Small fold. River is the 4d, making a flush and a straight flush on the board. Guy to my right just checks, I fire out $25 and he pays me off. Before I can flip over my cards, the chatty good player covers his eyes and says “Let me know when he’s done flipping over the nutsâ€. Now soon after this hand, Kate is sitting behind me and getting impatient understandably, she just lost another $40 on the slots and wants to cruise to another casino. The chatty guy asks me if Kate is my girlfriend, I say yes. He then starts asking me a few questions about where we’re from, staying etc. He then says “How old are youâ€, I answer “30â€. He then compliments me for the next 30 seconds on how good I look for 30 years old; oh the man flirting isn’t just confined to Canada! I leave The Mirage up $70 for the day. While playing in this game, the guy to my right whispered to me during a hand that he had $55 invested in, “does a straight beat a flush?†I answered him and he then showed me his sucker straight, turn card flushed and he folded. Another player paid off the flush with two pair. I wish I could have stayed, you know you’re in the right game when….
Kate and I end up going to bed tonight at 8:30pm as we were exhausted from the flight, lack of sleep and walking the strip. At 3:00am Kate and I wake up and head down to the Sahara Casino, we decide to play some black jack. Kate’s never played it before but we were really just looking to get a few free drinks in us and the black jack was $3 minimum. While we were playing an old man using a walker approaches Kate and tells her how beautiful she is, she blushes and thanks him. He then says, while holding onto his walker “I just wanna go Beep-Beep, Beep-Beep, YEAH!†I’m pretty sure he was trying to move his hips at the same time. Normally I may say something to a man saying this to Kate but she took it well and it was pretty hilarious to be honest. We play for a few hours and end up breaking even, I had four Corona’s in this time and Kate slammed 3 sex on the beaches. We decide to get breakfast; one money-saving fact is that it appears as if every casino has a late night value menu. Sahara is no different, I ordered the $3 steak and eggs and Kate got the $2.50 French toast. It wasn’t the greatest meal in the world, actually it was pretty bad but it was a meal nonetheless. We go back to the bedroom and crash until 10am.
Our plans for the day is to hit the rest of the strip casinos and try to take in the Treasure Island pirate show and the Belagio water show, we also still haven’t seen the MGM lions. We cruise the rest of the strip and hit the Venetian, MGM Grand, Caesars, Belagio, Monte Carlo and Barboury Coast. I mention Barboury Coast only because my Mom was there a few years back and said I HAVE to go there and sing Karaoke. For those of you that don’t know me as well, I love my Karaoke. We get to Barboury Coast at 3:00pm and hear an Elvis impersonator, once we get closer and weave our way through the crowd we see this guy. He is enormous! They call him Big Elvis, I swear he could hardly stand up. He was sitting through 95% of his performance. To give you some perspective on this guy, his stomach hung over his knees while he was sitting. Anyway, he was an awesome performer and when you go you have to see him. Apparently he was voted best Elvis by the people and visitors of Vegas. The only reason I mention his weight is because he is honestly the largest person I have ever seen.
Kate and I visit the Belagio, which is just beautiful although I honestly wasn’t thrilled with their poker room. We wanted to see the water show but due to high winds we couldn’t, same with the Treasure Island show. We’ll try again tomorrow. Kate and I go back to the Sahara and I decide to play some 1/2 NLHE, I buy in for $100. I only played for an hour as I kind of felt bad leaving Kate on her own when we only had 3 days here. This table had a great mix of weak tight players, loose aggressive players and a couple of college guys who overvalued hands. I get in a hand with the LAG, I’m holding A10. Flop comes KQx, he fires out $5 and I just call. Turn makes my broadway straight without a possible flush on board. Sweet, I’m going to milk this guy. He bets $10 now, again my mistake was to not raise him here. He always chased his straights and flushes even if they were backdoor/inside whatever. I just call. River comes a 10, he checks and doesn’t pay me off when I bet $25. Later on I limp in with AQd, flop comes all raggedy with one diamond. LAG bets $5 and gets 3 callers in front of me, I decide to call. Turn gives me another diamond and a gutshot for the wheel. LAG bets $5 again and gets two callers including me. River is another diamond but has paired the board. LAG fire outs $10 and gets raised by a new player another $25. I look at the new player and he’s concerned about what I’m thinking, Ok he doesn’t have a boat. I raise the rest of my stack another $40 and he calls me after the LAG folds, MHIG. I leave shortly after with a profit of $97. The table wasn’t particularly happy with me leaving but to be honest I wasn’t either, if I was with my guy friends I would have played in this game forever. While playing in this game the LAG guy asks me if two pair beat 3 of a kind, I respectfully say “no, 3 of a kind winsâ€. He thanks me.
Kate and I hit the buffet and the Sahara, when you sign up for a player’s card you get a ½ off voucher. It was well worth the regular price of $12/person. I decide to play the Sahara tournament that I’ve heard so much about at 7pm. The structure is decent as you get 2000 in chips to start and blinds increase at 20 minute levels. You can rebuy in the first 3 levels for $20 for another 1500 in chips. Buy-in is $42. I’m feeling confident, likely over confident in this 100+ person field. I’m sure the regular home games that I play in are much better than the field I’m about to take on. I think this thinking got me in some trouble. Third hand of the tournament, I get JJ and raise to 175. Blinds are 25/25. I get 3 callers. Flop comes A103 rainbow. I fire out 280 and fold after I get raised another 600. Guy shows me AKh and I take the re-buy. Very next hand I look down and see AKs, I limp in in EP. LP player raises to 100. Comes around to me and I re-raise another 275. He calls and we’re heads up. I have no reads as it’s early, I for some reason assume these guys are poor players as I’ve seen it in the cash games. Flop comes J10x, I bet 600. He thinks about it and then calls. Monkey man says, he has AQ. Turn comes a blank and I put him all in. He again thinks about it and calls with his QQ. Crap, I missed on the river. I’m down to 900 chips or so but battle my way back to 2500 after picking up a few blinds here and there and making some well timed steals. Blinds are now 200/400 and utg, a loose big stack makes it 1500 to go. I re-raise all in utg+1 with AQoff, folded around to the big stack who calls the extra 1000 with 44. I loose my 3rd race of the night and go home, I mean back to the hotel room in 60th place or so.
Final day, Kate and I want to hit downtown and check out some of the older casinos. I loved the older ones, the nugget was one of my favourites for sure. I played at the nugget for about two hours and ended up winning a total of about $75 playing 2/4 Limit Hold em’. One interesting hand while playing was against this guy that could not stop talking. He asked out two different girls while playing, rejected by both and basically told everyone at the table his life story. He was also a very aggressive player. So, like any decent player would do against a very aggressive player I just waited for a premium hand to milk this guy. I look down and see 54h, aggressive guy raises to $4, I re-raise to $6 and he caps, I call. We’re heads up. Flop 10 5 3. He bets, I raise, he re-raises and I just call now. Turn 5, I’m a lucky guy. He bets, I raise and he folds. I show 54 and the dealer announces “he raised you with 54†to the aggressive guy. The table has a good laugh including the aggressive guy who took it really well. We leave and hit Binions, it was really cool to see all of the pictures on the wall of Johnny Moss, Doyle, Chan etc.
We leave downtown and make our final trip to the main strip, I pick up cards from all of the places I played table games at; Nugget, Mirage, Sahara and Circus Circus. Kate I head back to the Mirage as it was my favourite casino, I’d been dying to watch how my beloved leafs and raptors had been doing but hadn’t seen anything. We get to the Mirage and at the bar are the Raps vs. The Heat on the plasmas. We sit down and get a couple drinks each, I play some video poker. I cashed out for $12 after putting in $5, it was almost embarrassing but I didn’t care a profit is a profit. After the raps tank the game we head to the cashier, I start thinking about the cashier handing me $12. “Ok, lets gamble this on a $1 slot machineâ€, Kate agrees. I deposit the ticket and on my second pull win I $60, withdraw and head back. Woohhoooo! Prior to heading back to the Sahara to get our baggage we stopped at a little eatery, which needs mention. Beside Harrah’s on the strip is a little Panda restaurant, a McDonalds and a place called ‘Chipotle’s’ I think. Anyway, it had the best steak fajita burrito I’ve ever had and was very reasonably priced. Go there!
The trip as a whole was a blast, my favourite casinos were The Mirage, Golden Nugget and The Bilagio. My favourite poker rooms were the Monte Carlo, The Mirage and Caesars. Next time I would love to see more of the outlying city, the mountains, Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon and of course play some more poker!
I’m thinking guys trip already!
As most people, I was completely amazed at how much was still going on at this wee hour of the morning. Mandalay Bay, Caesars, MGM Grand and The Mirage were visually stunning. We took a Shuttle to the Sahara to check into our rooms, I was just happy to be here and had nothing to compare the Sahara to at the time. After visiting almost every casino/hotel I will definitely chose another for my next visit, nothing against the Sahara though it was great for the price. After dropping our bags in the room, we headed back downstairs to play some slots. We each lost about $40 and I vowed to myself that I would only play table games from now on, I have no will power. That was the end to our first night, went to bed and awoke the next day at 9:30am.
Our plan for today was to tour the strip and get in as many casinos as possible. The weather was great, a nice 70-degrees. We could wear shorts but not have to worry about the sunscreen. Our first Casino down the strip was Circus Circus, I won’t go through every casino here but this was the first one we saw that impressed me. I was later, much more impressed. I immediately told Kate I wanted to play something here, it seemed like everyone was having a lot of fun. I didn’t mind seeing tones of kids running around, like I said it was all fun. I sat down and played some blackjack and after playing for about 45 minutes and two free Coors Lights I ended up $20. Kate and I walked upstairs of the Circus Circus and played skeet ball, I had the best score with 230 for 10 balls unfortunately you needed 240 points to win a prize. We left and ventured down the western side of the strip. Stardust was next, the only thing I liked about this place was the free hotdog voucher some lady gave me, mmmm hotdog!
After visiting Treasure Island, which was incredible, Kate and I hit The Mirage. I was getting the itch to play. I loved their poker room, it was separate enough that you didn’t have people playing slots right on top of you but close enough that you still felt that you were a part of the casino. The staff here was very friendly. I sat down at their 1/2 NLHE table after a 3 minute wait. After two rotations of me folding, I see AK utg. I raise it up to $11 as the table was seeing a lot of flops and I figured to get at least two callers. Everyone folds to the button who announces “Isn’t anyone going to call this guy, it’s the first hand he’s played?†This guy was sitting with over a grand at this $200 max table and was clearly a good player, well good in comparison to the average player there. He folds as does the small. The Big announces “Well, I’ll call but I don’t plan on staying around to longâ€. Flop comes 568 rainbow, he checks and I fire out $17 to take down the pot. I fold for another orbit and a half or so and see 1010 in LP, folded around to the guy to my right who calls. I just call as does the button and the blinds. 5 players see the flop. Flop 10s 2d 3d. Blinds check, guy to my right bets $5, I call, Button calls, Small calls. Turn 3h. Guy to my right bets $15, in retrospect I should have raised here but just called hoping to get a few more players to come along. Button and Small fold. River is the 4d, making a flush and a straight flush on the board. Guy to my right just checks, I fire out $25 and he pays me off. Before I can flip over my cards, the chatty good player covers his eyes and says “Let me know when he’s done flipping over the nutsâ€. Now soon after this hand, Kate is sitting behind me and getting impatient understandably, she just lost another $40 on the slots and wants to cruise to another casino. The chatty guy asks me if Kate is my girlfriend, I say yes. He then starts asking me a few questions about where we’re from, staying etc. He then says “How old are youâ€, I answer “30â€. He then compliments me for the next 30 seconds on how good I look for 30 years old; oh the man flirting isn’t just confined to Canada! I leave The Mirage up $70 for the day. While playing in this game, the guy to my right whispered to me during a hand that he had $55 invested in, “does a straight beat a flush?†I answered him and he then showed me his sucker straight, turn card flushed and he folded. Another player paid off the flush with two pair. I wish I could have stayed, you know you’re in the right game when….
Kate and I end up going to bed tonight at 8:30pm as we were exhausted from the flight, lack of sleep and walking the strip. At 3:00am Kate and I wake up and head down to the Sahara Casino, we decide to play some black jack. Kate’s never played it before but we were really just looking to get a few free drinks in us and the black jack was $3 minimum. While we were playing an old man using a walker approaches Kate and tells her how beautiful she is, she blushes and thanks him. He then says, while holding onto his walker “I just wanna go Beep-Beep, Beep-Beep, YEAH!†I’m pretty sure he was trying to move his hips at the same time. Normally I may say something to a man saying this to Kate but she took it well and it was pretty hilarious to be honest. We play for a few hours and end up breaking even, I had four Corona’s in this time and Kate slammed 3 sex on the beaches. We decide to get breakfast; one money-saving fact is that it appears as if every casino has a late night value menu. Sahara is no different, I ordered the $3 steak and eggs and Kate got the $2.50 French toast. It wasn’t the greatest meal in the world, actually it was pretty bad but it was a meal nonetheless. We go back to the bedroom and crash until 10am.
Our plans for the day is to hit the rest of the strip casinos and try to take in the Treasure Island pirate show and the Belagio water show, we also still haven’t seen the MGM lions. We cruise the rest of the strip and hit the Venetian, MGM Grand, Caesars, Belagio, Monte Carlo and Barboury Coast. I mention Barboury Coast only because my Mom was there a few years back and said I HAVE to go there and sing Karaoke. For those of you that don’t know me as well, I love my Karaoke. We get to Barboury Coast at 3:00pm and hear an Elvis impersonator, once we get closer and weave our way through the crowd we see this guy. He is enormous! They call him Big Elvis, I swear he could hardly stand up. He was sitting through 95% of his performance. To give you some perspective on this guy, his stomach hung over his knees while he was sitting. Anyway, he was an awesome performer and when you go you have to see him. Apparently he was voted best Elvis by the people and visitors of Vegas. The only reason I mention his weight is because he is honestly the largest person I have ever seen.
Kate and I visit the Belagio, which is just beautiful although I honestly wasn’t thrilled with their poker room. We wanted to see the water show but due to high winds we couldn’t, same with the Treasure Island show. We’ll try again tomorrow. Kate and I go back to the Sahara and I decide to play some 1/2 NLHE, I buy in for $100. I only played for an hour as I kind of felt bad leaving Kate on her own when we only had 3 days here. This table had a great mix of weak tight players, loose aggressive players and a couple of college guys who overvalued hands. I get in a hand with the LAG, I’m holding A10. Flop comes KQx, he fires out $5 and I just call. Turn makes my broadway straight without a possible flush on board. Sweet, I’m going to milk this guy. He bets $10 now, again my mistake was to not raise him here. He always chased his straights and flushes even if they were backdoor/inside whatever. I just call. River comes a 10, he checks and doesn’t pay me off when I bet $25. Later on I limp in with AQd, flop comes all raggedy with one diamond. LAG bets $5 and gets 3 callers in front of me, I decide to call. Turn gives me another diamond and a gutshot for the wheel. LAG bets $5 again and gets two callers including me. River is another diamond but has paired the board. LAG fire outs $10 and gets raised by a new player another $25. I look at the new player and he’s concerned about what I’m thinking, Ok he doesn’t have a boat. I raise the rest of my stack another $40 and he calls me after the LAG folds, MHIG. I leave shortly after with a profit of $97. The table wasn’t particularly happy with me leaving but to be honest I wasn’t either, if I was with my guy friends I would have played in this game forever. While playing in this game the LAG guy asks me if two pair beat 3 of a kind, I respectfully say “no, 3 of a kind winsâ€. He thanks me.
Kate and I hit the buffet and the Sahara, when you sign up for a player’s card you get a ½ off voucher. It was well worth the regular price of $12/person. I decide to play the Sahara tournament that I’ve heard so much about at 7pm. The structure is decent as you get 2000 in chips to start and blinds increase at 20 minute levels. You can rebuy in the first 3 levels for $20 for another 1500 in chips. Buy-in is $42. I’m feeling confident, likely over confident in this 100+ person field. I’m sure the regular home games that I play in are much better than the field I’m about to take on. I think this thinking got me in some trouble. Third hand of the tournament, I get JJ and raise to 175. Blinds are 25/25. I get 3 callers. Flop comes A103 rainbow. I fire out 280 and fold after I get raised another 600. Guy shows me AKh and I take the re-buy. Very next hand I look down and see AKs, I limp in in EP. LP player raises to 100. Comes around to me and I re-raise another 275. He calls and we’re heads up. I have no reads as it’s early, I for some reason assume these guys are poor players as I’ve seen it in the cash games. Flop comes J10x, I bet 600. He thinks about it and then calls. Monkey man says, he has AQ. Turn comes a blank and I put him all in. He again thinks about it and calls with his QQ. Crap, I missed on the river. I’m down to 900 chips or so but battle my way back to 2500 after picking up a few blinds here and there and making some well timed steals. Blinds are now 200/400 and utg, a loose big stack makes it 1500 to go. I re-raise all in utg+1 with AQoff, folded around to the big stack who calls the extra 1000 with 44. I loose my 3rd race of the night and go home, I mean back to the hotel room in 60th place or so.
Final day, Kate and I want to hit downtown and check out some of the older casinos. I loved the older ones, the nugget was one of my favourites for sure. I played at the nugget for about two hours and ended up winning a total of about $75 playing 2/4 Limit Hold em’. One interesting hand while playing was against this guy that could not stop talking. He asked out two different girls while playing, rejected by both and basically told everyone at the table his life story. He was also a very aggressive player. So, like any decent player would do against a very aggressive player I just waited for a premium hand to milk this guy. I look down and see 54h, aggressive guy raises to $4, I re-raise to $6 and he caps, I call. We’re heads up. Flop 10 5 3. He bets, I raise, he re-raises and I just call now. Turn 5, I’m a lucky guy. He bets, I raise and he folds. I show 54 and the dealer announces “he raised you with 54†to the aggressive guy. The table has a good laugh including the aggressive guy who took it really well. We leave and hit Binions, it was really cool to see all of the pictures on the wall of Johnny Moss, Doyle, Chan etc.
We leave downtown and make our final trip to the main strip, I pick up cards from all of the places I played table games at; Nugget, Mirage, Sahara and Circus Circus. Kate I head back to the Mirage as it was my favourite casino, I’d been dying to watch how my beloved leafs and raptors had been doing but hadn’t seen anything. We get to the Mirage and at the bar are the Raps vs. The Heat on the plasmas. We sit down and get a couple drinks each, I play some video poker. I cashed out for $12 after putting in $5, it was almost embarrassing but I didn’t care a profit is a profit. After the raps tank the game we head to the cashier, I start thinking about the cashier handing me $12. “Ok, lets gamble this on a $1 slot machineâ€, Kate agrees. I deposit the ticket and on my second pull win I $60, withdraw and head back. Woohhoooo! Prior to heading back to the Sahara to get our baggage we stopped at a little eatery, which needs mention. Beside Harrah’s on the strip is a little Panda restaurant, a McDonalds and a place called ‘Chipotle’s’ I think. Anyway, it had the best steak fajita burrito I’ve ever had and was very reasonably priced. Go there!
The trip as a whole was a blast, my favourite casinos were The Mirage, Golden Nugget and The Bilagio. My favourite poker rooms were the Monte Carlo, The Mirage and Caesars. Next time I would love to see more of the outlying city, the mountains, Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon and of course play some more poker!
I’m thinking guys trip already!
Comments
We ate there a few times when I went in October. The pizza at the pizza and bagel place there are also great for the price.
Great report. Glad you had a blast. Heading out on Wednesday and can't wait. I will have to stop in to see Elvis.
Any other "hidden" attractions you may recommend??
Glad you enjoyed the report, sorry about the lack of poker content...lol
stp
I'M IN!!!!
Sounds like you guys had a blast! I love how YOU and KATE got hit on!!!! BEEP-BEEP!!!
Great report, Shannon.
JohnnieH
I would just like to point out that not all girls ruin the whole "poker trip" thing. Some of us like playing cards for hours on end and are then more than happy to spend the rest of the time reliving all the bad beats and glorious suckouts...I'm just sayin' is all.
What's wrong with me??? I've been 21 for 3 and a half weeks now and still haven't been to Vegas!
/g2
YES!
Don't feel bad, I've been 21 for 24 years and still haven't been to Vegas
Excellent report, I really like your casual style of writing
Haddon - Didn't I see your name on the Degree list - You might want to check the rules, cause
I think you need to be 21 to play b/c of the possible trip to WSOP....last year they were
STRICT - you needed to show ID when your registered and when you took your seat.
Sure wouldn't want to hear that you got all the way there and couldn't even play
Well I sent in an altered photocopy...I figure since the casino is only 19+, I will just not win...you don't need to be 21 to get money...just for the WSOP no?
"Must be 21 years of age or older and a resident of Canada to participate in the Degree Poker Championship"
Do us all a favor who haven't made it in yet, and de-register, would you?
Johnnie
Josh, from what I understand, they won't let you take your seat without first confirming your ID. I know you must be REALLY wanting to play in it, but I'm thinking it may not happen this year.
And back to the subject of this thread....Great trip report Shannon, sounds like fun, can't wait till I get around to making the trip.
Sean S