I have been soooo lazy about writing this report, which is pretty awful on my part since I enjoy so much reading some of the reports here.
Anyway, onto the job in hand.
I flew from London on May the 1st. Last time I choose to stop-over !!!. Yes , you save money, but it's just too much for me. I hate long flights and after crossing the Atlantic with relative comfort and some good movies on offer to have to wait for another flight (in this case from Detroit) and suffer a super-boring flight on a boring aircraft to Vegas is a no-no.
I arrived in Vegas mentally and phisically exhausted. Thankfully that'd be the milder day of my stay (temperature wise)so I could drag myself to the cab lane and onto the Sahara.
I decided to stay at the Sahara because it was really really unexpensive, and overall wasn't that bad. Some of the employees are quite nice and it's well connected to other properties via monorail and for a night walker like me it's cool to walk back to the hotel at night when it's not boiling outside.
That first night (it was around 8 pm by the time I had unpacked) I couldn't help myself and checked the Sahara poker room. I sat at a 1-2NL (all trip consists of 1-2NL except one session at Caesar's and one at TI 1-3NL so I won't mention it again). That'd be my only poker session at the Sahara, did not like the feel of it for a cash game, had only one decent hand in which flopped two pair with J-10 in position and a guy tried to push me off the hand God knows with what, money went in and he mucked when I showed my unimproved two pair. Ended up $70.
Saturday 2nd.
Big day for me. Went to the Venetian after an excellent breakfast at the Peppermill (thanks to the AVPers that suggested it to me). The peppermill is to me a must-drop-by eatery in between the Riviera and the Wynn. The session at the Venetian was great, love the place. I bought for $200 (as ever, won't repit myself) and had only one player to worry about, unfortunately on my left. I got quite lucky in one spot in which I pushed with a nut flush draw, got called and rivered it. The rest of the session was more about playing solid and reading people well. I cashed out up $1000 for the best win of the trip.
Took a break and at night went to MGM, was the night of the fight and was hoping to catch some crazy action. None of it. I requested a table change a couple of times but i found tightish players, rocks and the sort.Very dissapointing. Left up $100.
Sunday 3rd.
Great day for me also. Day time session at the Venetian. Average table, solid performance. up $150. Evening session, very eventful. Went to the IP, met a really nice Italian guy , who with I would have some meals/shopping/poker for the rest of the week 1. Onto the poker i worked my 200 to over $1000. That really was a gold-mine. People were donating left and right. I was button-straddling every single time and there was a really nice black lady paying me off everytime. Then, I knew I should have left at that point, a guy arrived with a short stack, playing ATC, quite funky player, and started to get involved with me in many pots, the worse when he called one of my raises (I had QQ) with A-4 and flopped the miracle 448 and i was so silly to double him up. Anyway, I guess when you've been running so good and then lose a few pots things go BAD. I left up about $400.
Monday 4th.
Terrible day. Daytime session, rollercoaster. I won great hands and lost a couple of them, one against a guy who flopped a set and a very painful one in which I doubled-up a newcomer to the table when we both flopped a flush. After that hand I tilted a bit and got my money in coin-flips which sent me packing down $200. Evening, went downtown, had a nice steak dinner special with my new Italian friend at the California and played at the Golden nugget. Overall the GN was ok. Play was very loose and I was doing well till.........flopped another flush over flush, which again sent me tilting again, I could have saved some money in that hand, the guy checked the river to me and I bet into his nut flopped nutty flush one more street. Down $300 there.
Tuesady 5th.
Steady day. Daytime, as usual , Venetian. I really love that place, and going comped to the Grand Lux Cafe it's always a treat. Nice food, nice service, I highly recommended. Poker uneventful up about $75. Evening went to Caesar's . Nice room, I can see why appeals to some players, you can concentrate on the cards really well there. Met a really nice Mexican lady and her American friend, decent players. I found my table to be on the tough side. Left up $100, but it wasn't an easy ride.
Tuesday 6th.
Uneventful daytime session at the Venetian. Left up about $100. Evening played at Harrahs. Started awfully bad, down one buy in in no time. A few local rocks there. After that I adjusted, changed the game plan a bit plus we got some gamblers newcomers and left up $400 at 5 in the morning ( that would mess up my sleeping patterns for the rest of my holiday!). One hand of interest, got AA UTG, limped , 6 more limpers (S---). Flop A high, nice, all checked. TURN 8 , board A886. I checked again praying for some action. Asian lady bets $20, one more caller so do I. River, whatever, I bet $60 (that's about what she had left) and both called with 8x, showed my house and get a nice little pot with my limped-slow-played AA. Another hand I turned a fush with 3-5c , slow-played it to death (risking the pot with two more players) and they both ended paying me off when rivered the nut straight.
Thursday 7th.
Uneventful day. Tried Bellagio at night. Awful management .Godd action, bad cards. Money even.
Friday 8th.
Start of the weekend, I was hopeful, but it did not start great. Day session at the V. Even . Evening at Bally's. It was good overall, but I was expecting more fish and easy money down there. I left up about $200, had some nice hands, but witnessed some short stacks and rocky play I wasn't expecting. Far from the Gold-mine I was wishing.
Saturday-Sunday 9-10th.
Marathon session !!!! Started terribly, ended terrific!!! Day time at V uneventful , pretty even. Evening at MGM nightmarish, I was outdrawn so many times and second best far too often. I lost about $300 , decided to borrow $200 from the cage , worked really hard and couldn't get anything going at all!!! I left with $91 in my pocket very fed up at about 4am. I was pretty hungry so decided to check the Steak special at Bills but the waiting list was BIG. Went to have the Special at Harrahs instead, was pretty good for the price, something like $7. Then I got some sort of CALL and a little Angel/Demon told me to rush to the IP Poker room with my $91.
There I went, and have to say, had a BALL. Found this very large guy that looked like a half baked potato donating money left and right. He had about $700 and left penniless after a few hours. There was a nice bunch of guys there and we had a really good time. I played till 6 pm!!! Left up $809.
Monday 11th.
After the blast on Saturday-Sunday quiet day for me. Did some shopping , played some cards, tried the Electronic tables at the Excalibur, hated them.
Tuesday 12th.
Day time at the V. Stable session , up $300.Evening at the V. Terrible turns/rivers , down $200. Night at Bellagio, tried to push a good player aout of a pot, cost me my stack, down $200.
Wednesday 13th.
Nice day at the V. Up $250. Went to Mirage in the evening. I had all sort of bad beats, including my flopped set of JJJ rivered by a caller I put all-in on the flop ( ha had A high and a gut-shot , hit the latter ). Softest table ever, just plain unlucky, left even. Overall nice room although I did not like the feeling for some reason.
Thursday 14th.
Uneventful day, by this stage I was looking forward for some easy pai-gow poker and bloody Mary at the Sahara everynight :-). That day tried the Orleans. Pleasant enough, large room, friendly players. Got a bit tilted and lost $200.
Friday 15th.
Nice day at the V, pretty even during the day, made about $400 in the evening. Nice hands. I almost push a nice Asian lady out of a board QQ85 in which I was almost certain she held my hand ( AQ ).Pot got massive , chop chop in the end.
Saturday 16th.
Sad day. i knew it was my last poker-Vegas-holiday proper day. Even day at the V and my only TI session in the evening. I found the game at the TI to have more skilled players than I was expecting. My AA got cracked and got $75 out of the wheel, did not feel like staying longer since the table was not soft (AT ALL). I had tried to play at TI a couple of mornings but never found a table open or only one that was full. Overall nice little room and very nice staff, competition much tougher than I was expecting.
Sunday 17th.
Back to London. Sad. Overall I had great meals in Vegas, enjoyed the poker, made a nice poker profit that paid for the rest, met some nice people.
Regrets, no trips out of town( far too hot ). No shows.
I cannot wait to go back , October 2nd-24th !!!!