Vegas Trip Report, 3/16-22

Tuesday, 3/16

I arrived in Vegas at approximately 9pm, 30-ish minutes ahead of schedule. I had booked a rental car prior to making my flight, working under the assumption that I’d be on the first flight Wednesday. Rather than change the reservation and risk losing the excellent rate I had on a full-size car ($19.99 per day), I decided to just hit the rental counter and add a day at that time – only problem, no full-size cars were available on Tuesday night, so I took a compact on a 1 day rental for about $30 total including taxes. I selected a white Dodge Neon and headed for the Mirage. What can I say, poker is booming. Tuesday night, 10pm, and it still took me 30 minutes to get a seat. I put my name on both the $3-6 and $6-12 lists and sat down to play some blackjack within earshot of the room. I got called for $3-6 first, and before I got dealt my first hand, I got called for the $6-12 and moved there, as that was the game I wanted to try. It was a good game. On my hand posted behind the button, I received the lovely Ah8c and checked, and the player to my left raised. It was about 6-7 way action, and I called the raise closing the action. The flop came okay, 8-high with 2 hearts. Checked to me, and I bet, PFR called, many other callers. Turn was the 3h. Checked to me again, and I bet, PFR and a few others just call. River is the 8h, giving me trips and the nut flush. Player to my right bets, I just call. Now the PFR raises, and the bettor and I call down – PFR had a well-disguised 33 for the turned set and rivered boat. I thought I had a nice welcome to the game, but I found myself down quickly. Other memorable hands: QQ in the SB, I raise, and it ends up 3 way. I bet the A-high flop and both call. I bet the blank turn and both fold. My friends on the late flight arrive just in time to see me gamble with KQ making a loose call on an x-9-10 flop with the bingo card J on the turn to win a nice pot. Nothing really specific sticks out about this game, other than it was mostly loose-passive, with a bit more aggressive play than the $3-6 (one time a BB 3-bet me when I open-raised in steal position – I don’t know if he had a hand or was re-stealing, as I folded on the flop that didn’t help me either way). I cashed out +$204 after about 3 hours in the game. My friends and I headed for the Orleans to unwind, have some drinks and sit at a blackjack table together, where I won another $30 playing $5 a hand. We headed back to the house in Summerlin, where we were staying, by about 3:30am local time.

Wednesday, 3/17

As is often the case in Vegas, I can’t adjust to the time right away, and one late night is not tiring enough to throw me off, so after about 3.5 hours of sleep, I woke up at 7am, and try as I might, I couldn’t fall back asleep. I left my buddies at the house and headed to the Sun Coast (only about 5 minutes door-to-door) for their graveyard special breakfast (until 9am weekdays). I am no craps player (played less than 5 times in my life probably), but for some reason, I decided to hit an open table by myself. I took a $45 lesson where I didn’t actually learn anything and decided to move on. Played some $5 Pai Gow and ended exactly even (or +1 hand, which covered the rake and the tip). $5 blackjack and I was +$55, leaving me +$10 for the day and still rolling upwards. Went back to the house to pick up my boys, dropped them off at the Luxor at around 10:30 for them to register our group for the noon tourney, and proceeded to the airport to turn in the compact car and pick up the full size – we would be 6 as of today and would need the room. Back to Luxor by 11:15, and the tourney and all alternate slots were sold out when my friends arrived – they said they started taking registrations at 10am. Oh well. Played some more Pai Gow at Luxor and took a drubbing (for Pai Gow) - $49. We couldn’t really come up with a satisfactory plan, so we joined the $2-4 cash game in Luxor’s poker room instead. I only bought in with my Pai Gow leftovers, $51. The game was so loose passive, I was playing a lot of hands, but didn’t really match any, and I found my stack dwindling. I finally picked up AA (my only of the trip) in the SB, raised and bet to the end and won without showing, and I went from nearly all-in to +$23 in the matter of the 10 hands that was going to be our last round.

We headed over to the Orleans for the 7pm limit HE tournament. Apparently, all the Orleans dailies (at least the evening ones) sell out now too, so if you want to play, arrive at approximately 5:30pm, which is when the manager checks all the live games for tournament players and then opens the registration for walk-ups. We arrived at 5:30 for every evening event we played and had no problems getting in. I don’t remember many hands from this tourney, because I didn’t catch many. The first hand I played after folding for an hour was open-raising A10o from mid-late position. So much for a tight image, as I got 4 callers. The good news: flop came K-Q-J. The bad news: all spades (I had no spades). I still bet the whole way and got one caller on the end and scooped the pot. That was it until my final hand, after the rebuy period. I raised with AQo in late position after a limper or 2. The BB 3-bet and we got heads up. Unfortunately for me, he had KK, and I got no A and was the 4th person to bust out of a 119 field, lol.

I got on the list for $2-4 and $4-8 HE w/half-kill. Again, just as I sat in the $2-4, I got called for the bigger game and took it. The game was not that good, I didn’t play well, my card drought continued, and I took some beats (QQ found KK in the same hand and the hand that busted me, featured my BB KJ vs late limper’s K10 on a flop of K-10-x). -$160. Consolation prize: I won $70 back playing blackjack, while my friends finished the tournament (nobody in the money).

There were some green-wearing drunks out this night, as you might imagine, and the Orleans was packed.

Thursday, 3/18

We wanted to try the Luxor noon tournament again (which is expanded to 61 entrants, btw), so we motivated to get there by 9:30, based on the 10am registration time indicated by the floor person on Wednesday. Guess what, at 9:30 the tournament was already sold out again, WTF? I guess I will never play in this event again. Deciding not to give them any more action, we walked over to Excalibur to play the “spin the wheels” games. Once again, these low-limit games were great fun. $1-3, $2-6, and $4-8 HE were offered, and we signed up for the classic $2-6 spread limit with one $2 blind. There was a slight wait, but with open seating in the $1-5 stud, we sat down. I played about 30 minutes and had a ball. The first hand I chose to play, I started with (AA)x and raised it up 5. I got one or two callers. I made aces up on 5th street and was leading the whole way against one opponent who also made an open pair on 5th or 6th. On the end, I caught another A, and he caught a FH card too, so he lead into me, I raised, and he just called w/queens full. I netted about $30 on the hand, and sent him to spin the wheel with a losing full house. I think he got $20 of it back. My profits were eaten away though when, against the same opponent, my (KK)x starter and he was kind enough to show me his straight when I folded on the end. Also, when I bet open 9s (with a 4 flush) into a TOM showing open sixes (meaning trip sixes), even after I failed to complete the flush. So, I ended the stud session exactly even and headed for my HE table. Again, no real memorable hands for me (I think I won a nice pot after raising AK pre-flop and hitting an A). My friend took a hard beat though, after getting into it with AQ vs. KQ on a Q-high flop with a Q on the turn – the river brought a dreaded K. I ended the session +$35.

Back to the Orleans for the 7pm Omaha/8 tourney. I won $10 (rebuy!) while playing blackjack waiting for the tourney to start. My tourney table was crazy LAG, with one guy running over the table and getting into it with all the various other characters and EVERYONE showing very unlikely made hands at showdown (turned top FH w/10s that had nothing on the 5-3-3 flop, vs 5-3 of course). Lots of sniping at each other, which I enjoyed from the sidelines. Again, I didn’t get too many playable hands. I remember one hand that I was wrapped to creation, as one guy put it, and it came in on the river for me to survive with ½ the pot. My bust out hand shortly after the rebuys ended, I had something like A-K-Q-10, and flopped 9-10-J with 2 spades on the board. I got it all in with the guy who was running over everyone. All the redraws came in against me though, as the turn paired the 9 and the river completed the flush draw, which is all he had. One of my friends made the final table but unfortunately drew the big blind. He busted out in 9th in his SB hand, as he and the button both went out (but the button started with fewer chips). I think he won about $150 or so. Me, I won $60 playing blackjack waiting for everyone to finish up the tourney. Then we went to eat at the diner there. I lost $10 on VP on the way to and from the bathroom. My friends like to jokingly play Keno while they wait for their food. So, I tried a system designed to hit the minimum numbers – 10 numbers in one row and 10 numbers in another row. We picked row 2 and row 6. Well, we hit a few 3-spots which got our money back, then, after I had already left the restaurant, my friends caught a statistical anomaly the other way, with 11 numbers coming in those 2 rows -- +$500 on a $5 ticket, which I had been participating in when I was there, and using my numbers. Oh well, they caught lightning in a bottle, lol. Note: the next day, while watching basketball, my buddy noticed the keno board with zero numbers in those 2 rows, also a $500 win on a $5 ticket (we weren’t playing at the time).

Friday, 3/19

The Illini drew an early morning game Friday (zzzzzzzzzz), but it was fun to watch them win it. Decided last-minute to play in the noon Omaha tourney. I liked the $40/single $20 rebuy structure better than the $30/unlimited $10s that the evening tournies offered. I moved tables twice and was playing pretty well in this event. I got it heads up with an all-in player with A-A-4-5 with one suited and 2 of my suit on the flop. The all in had…..the exact same hand A-A-4-5 for a chop when my flush didn’t come in. I had A-2-3-6 and flopped a wheel and 6-high straight – the 2 on the end counterfeited the other wheel, but gave someone the flush, so I went from ¾ with scoop potential (if low non-flush comes) back to just ½. I was playing well and catching cards for a while, but in crapshoot time, I got all-in with A-A-J-10 and lost to the unlikely J-J-x-x on the J-high flop. Granted he could’ve hit straights or flushes or whatever, but he hit a 1-outer for his set against me. More -EV games at the Orleans (-$5 VP, -$40 blackjack), and back to the Suncoast after everyone finished the tourney. While we were mostly poker players, we split the time spent apart at the poker tables with time spent together gambling –EV games. The –EV games continued good to me at Suncoast, as I won $123 playing blackjack and then gave $20 back on a few spins of $.50 roulette.

We finally rounded everyone up for another poker session in a new room for us: another low limit adventure at the friendly confines of Circus Circus, where they play $3-6 HE with a single $3 blind. When we arrived, I noticed that the jackpot was over $50K and imagined we’d never get seats with only 5 games going (only 3 HE), but I was only 2 down on the list, and about 4 people left almost immediately, so one buddy and I went to one of the games, and one friend went to one of the other games. My buddy and I picked the winner (as I’ll detail in a minute), as reports from the other game were unfriendly and little action. 2 of my other friends came and then left from that game, as they were not happy with the combination of the cards they were getting and the “loose” atmosphere of the room (dealers played on their breaks, and other house allowances). We demanded that my one remaining friend in the other game get a table change to our game, or as we called it, poker heaven. This was perhaps the greatest game I’ve ever played in. Any 2 cards would do - 104o, no problem to cold-call a raise, pay off with J-high at the river with 3 overcards on the board, sure! Pay off any pocket pair with any amount of overcards, yes I will, they said. Example: I flopped the nuts with KJ suited in the blind (A-x-x of my suit, no SF possible), and the flop and turn were both capped with me and the Q9 of the suit and some sort of 1 or 2-pair hand. Near jackpot hand: I raised KK after a few limpers and one of the limpers limp-re-raised me. I called as did some others. Flop A-10-10. LRR bet, I wanted to hold on to the kings so bad, but I folded. At the end of the hand, the hard part was done – the LRR had pocket 10s. If I had had AA instead of KK, jackpot, baby! I was pissed at the time when my QQ in the blind didn’t survive a 10-way raised family pot and no card above 10 on the board, but after the fact, I realized that the 22 who turned the winning set and in fact anyone else with 1-pair and any sort of straight or flush draw would’ve been foolish to fold. Ah, well. Was that a $150 or $200 pot? I couldn’t tell through my beat-stung eyes, but it sure would’ve been a nice one to take home. But, the point was, everyone at the table was having a great time – all joking about everyone else, laughing at ridiculous beats, most of which were put on by the 22 guy in my had who we all came to call The River Man. “Watch out, River Man’s going to get you.” Or “River Man is in? I’m in.” The guy actually said (if it helps, imagine this in drunken, heavily-Spanish accented English) “I want to fold, but I can’t!” Lolol. My favorite River Man hand involved my buddy and a 6-6-5 flop. Buddy had 64 in the blind. Turn was a big card. River brought the case 6. River Man called all the way with 22 and though he probably lost more than that on the hand, he collected $20 for a losing full house, lol. He was unreal, as was the rest of the table. One guy personally was into the game for somewhere between $5-700, a rack at a time. My friend nailed it after the fact when he said that guy was playing video poker. He would pay whatever it took to see if his 2 cards happened to make a winner with the final board. If it did, great, if not, on to the next hand or “rack of white, please.” I was so tired, but we could. Not. Leave. This. Game. Until it broke. One good player a few to my right had about $300 in front of him when we arrived, he played every hand and continued if he had any pair or draw, and saw the end if he made 2 pair or better. He paid off a few hands to us, but by the time we left, he had about $700 in front of him. He got extremely lucky, but generally, he knew when to get out and when to proceed. My buddy from the transfer list sat down with $30 and walked away with $250. If I had scooped the family pot, my take would’ve been similar, but without making anything bigger than top pair after midnight (when they started handing out the raffle tickets for flush or better hands), I still walked +$66. Our 3rd friend was somewhere in between us, with a win around $100. After I cashed out, I was watching the game through the glass and saw K8 and 44 go 9-bets on the river with a K-K-9-8-4 board. Good times. Got home around 5:30am, after all the donators left.

Saturday, 3/20

We slept in a little, watched a little basketball, and hit the par-3 course at Angel Park (name, not sure, right across from Suncoast). Excellent deal in golf, $17 for the round, $10 for club rental, 12 nice little par-3 holes. They let us play a 5-some as long as we kept up pace. Evening, we finally made it over to the Orleans for the last 7-stud high-low tournament ever. Too bad, it was really fun. Saturday nights will now feature a big (for the Orleans) NLHE event ($100 buy/in and rebuy). I lost $15 playing blackjack between tourney registration and cards in the air. I caught some hands and played well for a while. I had a (45)3 starter as the bring in, and caught the 6 on 4th street. I called down vs. 2 obvious high hands, they both checked 7th and I bet when I caught a 7 for a scoop. My best hand for the tourney was (AK)4 all diamonds and again the bring in. I think a late Q raised about 6 players, so I called the completion and caught a low diamond on 4th, maybe the 5d. I made an 8-low and I still had the four-flush on 6th, when I caught the bingo card, the 6d on the end to give me the A-high flush and 6 low for another scoop. Fun fun. I cost myself a lot of chips on a 4-low and 4 flush hand that I couldn’t get away from before the river brick. Then, my “getting all in with the best of it and losing” in tournaments continued. I started with (A3h)A and got it all in against another A up (maybe he had the other AA?) and a few people called. Me and the other A got all in vs a 6, whose 5th street board was 6-6-6, and who later showed QQ in the hole. I made aces up, but couldn’t fill or pull a low and that was it. I gave another $25 back at blackjack waiting for others to finish. Then back to Suncoast to finish the night – my friends played craps and I won $25 at blackjack.

Sunday, 3/21

I’m running out of steam on writing this report, and there was no poker this day, so I’ll keep it short. We watched the Illini blow out Cincinnati. We made some crazy longshot bets on the ponies (-$10), none of which came in. Played a little Pai Gow (+$10) and I finally caved and decided to try craps again with all my friends. Well, 2 of them (husband and wife) left for a date drive through Red Rock Canyon, so that left 4. As I said before, I’m no craps player, and in my limited experience, I’ve never even been at a table for a hot roll, let alone be the shooter, but this afternoon was my day. My first roll of the dice, I rolled for probably 20 minutes. I only hit a few points, but most everyone was placing the 6 and the 8, and I was continually throwing 6s, 8s and the 4s and 10s hard ways. Our takes were $250, $225, $110 (me, only taking my points and the 6 and 8, no hardways), and $100. People at the other end made a bundle too. I hit a boxcars when my friends had that bet out. I waited one or 2 more shooters after I finally sevened out and we all took the money and ran. People were coming up to me after (I had a bright orange shirt on) and saying, “let me know when you’re playing again.” The casino definitely had their eyes on us (lol) as a waitress (not our waitress at the craps table) came by our blackjack table later and said “Hey, it’s the dice guys.” I won another $40 playing blackjack immediately after. We took in Starsky and Hutch (recommended – funny stuff), and finished the night together. The 6 of us took over a blackjack table, and the pit boss comped us all to the buffet (nice gesture, as we were considering leaving for dinner). We had a range of results and after the buffet, we hit the craps table again, where I gave $70 of it back (with the others giving it partially back too).

Net gambling for the trip was +$254, which is about what I spent on all my meals, golf, and movie. I left Vegas with my original cash plus a little, and I didn’t have to visit the ATM all week. Victory.