SATURDAY November 8
Late night before, not awake in time for
the AllVegasPoker AVP tourny I planned
on playing. Got up at 1pm. Arrived at the
GOLD COAST Buffet at 2:55pm.
Buffet closes at 3pm for one hour.
Reopens at 4pm for dinner. Played slots
to kill an hour. Anecdotally, the slots seem
to have tightened up a lot. Heard numerous
others throughout the trip mention they
felt slots werent paying out as well as
they had in the past. Burned through - $20
in no time at all. Put $10 in video poker and
milked that until buffet opened.
Drink service on the floor was really slow.
Ordered 2 Crown Royals at a time because
it'd be 20-30 minutes before you saw a
waitress again. Sonny and Tom joined us
for dinner before heading to the WYNN
to play another deep stack tournament.
G.C. Buffet was good as always.
$6 each with ACG.
Next stop, the HARD ROCK Poker Lounge.
Very busy. Nice atmosphere, a little loud
at times. Good dealers, omfy chairs.
$1/hr comps. Tourny going on while there.
Seen JAMIE GOLD, SHAWN SKEIKAN,
THOR HANSON, JEAN-ROBERT BELLANDE.
Also, The Duke of Fremont made an
appearance, shook everyones hand but
didnt play poker. Good session, + $ 247.
Went back to the strip to check out some
of the smaller poker rooms and maybe
find a soft game. BILLS Gambling Hall was
super busy. All 3 tables in the Poker "room"
were full but lots of short stacks.
Hit OSHEA'S, same thing. FLAMINGO poker
room was reasonably busy, but didnt seem
that inviting. Walked over to the IMPERIAL
PALACE. Short waiting list and the floor
said he'd likely open new table within 20 mins.
Good to his word, 15 minutes later we were
seated at new table. Speaking of tables,
they're huge. 10 man rectangular tables
with no drink holders. They had a giant
PINK dye-sub poster of 2 women printed
on the felt. Very distracting and likely to
cause drunks to miss poker chips that
blend in with the print colours.
Poker wise, it was a rollercoaster night
for me. I couldn't close any of my huge
draws all night, 2 royal flush draws,
2 open ended str8flush draws, 1 dbl gutshot
str8flush draw, they left me hangin without
the payday.
Got stacked at one point and had to
rebuild. I was on the good side off
AA vs. KK and set over set 555 vs. QQQ
to rebuild my stack. I finished the IP session
+ $ 220.
Gina hit her first live straight flush.
10 high with 78 of clubs in her hand.
High hand jackpot paid her + $250 bonus
on top of what was in the pot. She finished
the night + $ 340.
Went back downtown for $6 CALIFORNIA
breakfast buffet. Great value. I can eat $6
worth of bacon...lol. - $20 on video poker.
When we came out to the car, it was raining.
A first for me, raining in vegas.
FRIDAY NOV 7
Drove back down to the SILVERTON for
Lunch Buffet. Excellent as always.
Awesome desserts. Carrot cake and the
chocolate crusted pecan pie are A+.
Approx. $9.50 for 2 with ACG coupon.
Back third of restaurant was closed off
for slot machine storage. Explains why
the lineup was so long the other day.
At 1pm the Silverton poker room had
one table. Old farts pushing small pots
back and forth to each other.
The Bass Pro Shops inside the casino
always has some good deals. New Balance
running shoes $34.95. 1/2 price Tommy
Bahama shirts $69.
2pm.
Checked into RIVIERA. As a money
saving measure, they have kiosks for
self check-in. It was pretty simple,
swipe your credit card and it brings
up your room reservation on screen.
Downside, you couldnt select what tower
you wanted or offer a 'tip' to the staff to
upgrade you to a nicer room. Room 934
in the North Mediteranian Tower.
Nice pillowtop king size bed.
In room fridge, flat panel tv, dressing table
(no countertop in bathroom. Tall shower
faucet, plenty of HOT water with strong
pressure. In room safe for extra $3 a day.
More cowboys everywhere. Lots of SEMA
(auto industry) guys everywhere. Supposedly
130,000 people here for the convention.
Went to the WYNN to play $1/3 cash game.
They use $3 chips, which sounds good in
theory, but i don't like it. I won + $145
in the first half hour so i took that money
and bought in (late) to the 7pm $140+$20
deep stack tourny that Sonny & Tom were
playing in. Good structure, 1/2hr blinds
& 10,000 starting chips.
I didnt last more that about 20 minutes.
Only bad beat story in this entire report
( I Promise ). I raise with TT, villain (AK) raises,
I call. Flop is T 4 A. I bet, villain raises,
I push all in (started hand with $9400).
Villain hesitates only 3 seconds then calls
and rolls over AK. Yippee for me. Wait for it.
Turn is K. River is K. I lose. Good example
why I prefer cash games instead of tournys.
Tourny, I'm out and donkey continues.
In cash game, I rebuy and win my money
back from him. On the bright side,
the tourny was basically a freeroll using
other peoples money from the cash game.
Went back to RIV to freshen up before
heading back out. Walked everywhere
for the rest of the night so we could
get our drink on. Walked directly accross
the street to SLOTS O' FUN. Used ACG
coupon which got us a chili dog and
a Corona for free. That is one messy
chili dog, bring moist towelettes.
SlotsOfun was very busy place.
No service staff at the booth except
during day because of layoffs.
Had another coupon $15 in chips for $10.
Tables were too busy so saved for later.
They offer $3 Craps, $3 BlackJack,
and the min bet on Roulette is 50 cents.
No wonder this place is busy !
1:30am
Walked down to SAHARA, hoping to
hit a juicy cash game full of people
knocked out of the late tournament.
No $1/2 games going, only 2/4 Limit
and a single $2/5NL game. I sit down
at the $2/5 game, everyone else heads
for the casino floor. My cash game
didnt last long, broke up within a half hr.
I almost had the one guy convinced to
play heads up (the dealer agreed to deal it)
when his girlfriend arrived and that killed
my plan. It could have been good if there
were more players. Left - $10. Watched
PaiGow poker for a couple hours.
Sonny left Pai Gow to shoot some craps
and made a nice + $500 profit after a
young kid got on a hot roll.
6am
We walked down to the PEPPERMILL
restaurant which is right beside the Riviera.
HUGE portions, fair prices. Sonny, Gina
and I ate for $53, I was the only one who
finished my plate. Having been awake all
night gambling, its not that surprising that
conversation turned to prop bets.
Sonny spotted an item on the menu
called 'Fruit Platter'. Seeing how huge
our portions were, he figured that has
got to be a lotta fruit. Gina mentioned
that I dont eat fruit. Its not that I dislike fruit,
I'm not allergic or anything like that,
its just I'm not a big fruit eater.
Sonny suggested a prop bet that I couldnt
finish this fruit platter. I'm not a big eater,
but I have won a couple food bets in the
past (eating worms, crickets etc). I was
pretty close to taking the bet on a whim,
without even setting out a prize if I completed
the task. Sonny, trying to get a better idea
of what he'd have to offer as a prize,
asked the waiter "what exactly does
the fruit platter come with ?". HAHA !
It contains: 1 whole Pineapple, half of a
watermelon, a honeydew melon,
canaloupe melon, several bananas,
several apples, orange slices, grapes,
kiwis, etc. Plus a LOAF of Banana Bread
...LOL ! If I wasnt out of the country, I might
even try this just for laughs. But there's
no way I could make a real attempt at it
without spending some serious time
on the toilet afterwards. My body is
designed for protein, not fruit.
THURS. NOV 6.
Temps: High 66F (19C) , Low 46F (8C)
Up way too early, 9am. Forgot to turn the
ringer for my cellphone off. Went to the
FREMONT Hotel for breakfast buffet.
2 for $7.32 with coupon. They have instituted
a "One coupon per person Per Year" policy.
241 buffet coupons are the main (only)
reason I have for visiting the Fremont.
Good news is, a new year starts soon.
Buffet wasnt as good as on previous trips.
Less selection.
Back over to the EL CORTEZ to put some
valuables and cash in the lock box at the
front desk. Won + $7.50 on HootLoot slots,
enough to play for breakfast.
When cashing in the ticket, I noticed the
ATM fees. $3 + 3.95%. To take out $1000,
the fee was $51. Ouch. Bring cash.
Drove to the Walmart at Charleston & Jones
to get Gina some better shoes. The ones
she brought were giving her blisters.
I was looking for a replacement camera
and some antihistamines.
No luck finding the same model camera.
Next stop was the VENETIAN Hotels
poker room. + $140.
Went for dinner and met up with
SONNY 'The Money' RATTAN &
TOM WHATTAM (guys I know from
http://www.elitepoker.ca/ in Hamilton).
Wanted to do the SILVERTON Casino
buffet, but the line up was long, 1hr +.
Sonny mentioned the Green Valley Ranch
had a 7pm Omaha tourney thursdays,
so we headed there for buffet.
Buffet was decent. I had several
ACG coupons left, so we all got it for
1/2 price. Turns out the info Sonny saw
posted on the AllVegasPoker website
was bogus. Monday is the Omaha tourny.
Thursdays is Holdem. We all decided to
play the holdem tourny since we were
already there anyways. Rake was high,
about 30%. 26 players. I finished 8th.
Tom chopped with 5 left. GVR had
7cash tables going. Three $1/2NL,
three $2/4L, one $3/6L.
Back to BINIONS to play a couple more
hours of poker. ED WOODS from Hamilton
was there and having a real good time.
I really didnt get dealt much that was
playable. + $45 for the session.
Went back to EL CORTEZ.
Won + $11.77 on Turkey Shoot slots,
enough to pay for something to eat.
The El Cortez Cafe was under renovations.
Very limited menu after midnight. 2 breakfasts,
salads, fruit, and drinks. No burgers, fries,
sandwiches, etc. Breakfast was $3.95 .
Home fries were cold, eggs were just ok.
$11.31 for 2. Rate it: 2 / 10
This will be a less detailed TR than usual,
so it's not necessarily complete or accurate.
I just didn't take as many notes or pics this trip.
WEDNESDAY NOV 5.
Left London bound for Detroit Wednesday
morning. Paid $287 inclusive for my flight
on Spirit, it actually dropped after booking,
cheap enough that I didn't cry.
Arrived in Vegas without any problems and
headed for the Rental Car Terminal.
Alamo didnt have a car for us.
Actually, they didnt have a car for anyone..lol.
The place was nearly empty. They would just
offer you a car as one was returned. Not what
we ordered, but the Chevy Malibu they offered
us was acceptable, better than waiting.
It was a quiet car, a bit of a pig on gas..
but at $0.50/Litre ($1.80/gal) you can afford
to drive a guzzler down here.
(Paid $124/8 days + $27 gas).
5:30pm
Headed downtown to check in at the
EL CORTEZ hotel. Room 5567 in the
Pavillion tower. $15 a night w/ACG coupon.
Room was adequate. Bed was comfy.
Some minor complaints: No hot water on
second day, shower tub very slow to drain,
Traffic noise, big gap around door. It was
noisy because of the setup of this tower.
Its more like a motel. The hallway entrances
are outside the building. The floor material is
uneven tile, so the laundry carts pushed by
the maids make a racket in the morning.
But hey, for $15 a night, how much can I complain.
Went down to the ElCo casino floor and
played out $10 slot freeplay from the
ACG book. Burned through it playing
Turkey Shoot and Hoot Loot.
Every trip I like to hit a few different places
to eat and play poker. The first new casino
was the GREEN VALLEY RANCH located
south of the strip in Henderson NV.
Dropped my camera getting out of the car, oops.
Smashed the LCD display. Putting a positive spin
on it, it was my $120 "vegas camera" and not my
expensive Panasonic Lumix.
The 'Feast Buffet' was good, but not
exceptional. 2for1 ACG coupon, 2 of us
ate for $20. I wouldn't recommend it
at full price, there are better.
Features: crab legs, mongolian grill,
custom pasta station, prime rib, sliced
turkey and pork ribs. Overall rating 7.5 / 10.
Obama wins ! Plenty of mixed reactions
from players at the poker tables about
their new president.
Headed over to BINIONS to check out their
recently renovated poker room. Its a big
improvement. It's quieter, stylish-modern,
and essentially smoke-free. Rolling office-style
chairs that adjust up and down.
New tables, but someone wasn't thinking
too clearly. They ordered tables with 10
cupholders when they only ever play
games 9 handed. There was some confusion
about who gets which cupholder.
But at least it's an improvement over the
old tables with no cupholders and having
to use those crappy plastic ones that you
have to jam under the table's padded
elbow rest. It wasnt set up yet (the room is
that new) but a table-based player management
system is probably in place by the time I post this.
Now all they need to do is upgrade the
dealers & floor staff and this will be a top
notch room. Binions pays $2 an hour comps.
They record them with pen and paper so
its a little sketchy that you actually get what
you earn. heard a few stories of them not
accurately logging hours. Regular players
accumulate hours towards entry into a freeroll
(25hrs to qualify). Update: When I cashed
mine out at the end of the week, it was short.
This should be corrected when the new
card-swipe player mgt systems is installed.
Saw " The Duke of Fremont ". This guy is a
real character. I had actually seen him on a
previous trip over at the Golden Nugget.
He's always dressed in a fancy suit or tuxedo,
usually has a fedora and cane and walks
around like his shit don't stink. He comes
into the poker room and sits down at $1/2
and pulls $10,000+ in cash out of his briefcase
and puts it on the table. When I saw him do this
the first time, I thought it was a joke,
a casino promotion or something.
Usually he doesn't even play any hands,
he posts his blinds and folds, then disappears,
schmoozing around the casino until he returns
a half hour later to post his blinds, then
disappear again. At Binions, he never left his
seat. He actually played a few hands, not many
but a few.
I played fairly conservative poker.
I had been up or over 24hrs now, it's silly
to get too fancy. Finished the session + $90.
Hit the 'Lanai Express' inside the FREMONT
Hotel before heading back for sleep. Had the
2 item combo plate, spicey rice with orange
chicken and mongolian beef for $6.
Very Satisfiing
The PBR (Professional Bull Riders) were
holding their World Finals event this week
in Vegas, so lots of cowboy hats and
belt buckles everywhere we went.
