Vegas Trip Report

I didnt take many notes so this will be
a quick, not so detailed TR.

Arrived in Vegas June 24th.

Stayed at the Imperial Palace.
Comped rooms from my play at
Caesars Windsor. Room was quite
satisfactory for me. Quiet and clean.
No smells and the A/C was cold.
IP maids appreciate good tippers.
Left a huge stash of towels, soaps etc.

Played quite a bit of poker.
Overall, the play was more aggressive
than the typical low stakes tourist filled
games I'm used to. This was probably
due to the influx of players from the wsop.
I think the large number of $1500 wsop events
available this year combined with the large
buy in deepstack events at Caesars and
the Venetian had a lot to do with it.
Talked to a lot of guys at the table who were
in vegas specifically to play two or three
of the $1.5K events.

Some of the games were so aggressive,
it was almost like playing 6max online
rather than a 9 or 10 handed live cash game.

Guys opening pots with Any ace, king or
pair from Any position. 7x the bb, 8x,
even 10x raises. 3bets preflop, 3bets on the flop.

In these capped buyin games, an 8bb preflop
raise denies proper odds to set-mine, and
suited connectors lose a lot of value because
these guys are decent enough to not pay
you off every time you hit. If your cards are dry,
it really limits me with the style i like to play.
To play more effectively, you really need to
loosen up and be a bit of a lagtard against
these LAG and TAG players.

I did run into some softer, less aggressive
games here and there. The games at Binions
and Ballys were pretty soft. Binions pays
$2/hr comps in their poker room. Somehow,
I have $53 in comps there.

Playing at the Imperial Palace and Flamingo,
I discovered that they offer the option of
what they call a "Mississippi Straddle"
(this is not truely a MS by definition).
IP/Flamingo version is a 2xbb straddle
from the button. The action doesnt start
under the gun, it starts with the small blind.
In my opinion, this is absolutely horrible.
Action starts with the two people who
have involuntarily put money in the pot
out of position. Usually the two blinds fold.
A much better protocol would be (like the
Hard Rock does) to start action under the
gun so that the blinds may be enticed into
the pot by other players who limp in,
then give the button straddler last action.

Watched some Beer Pong at O'Sheas.
(http://youtube.com/watch?v=JOYduGqZSRc)
Oh to be 22 again. I probably could have
been good at that game back in the day
when I could stomach shitty draught beer.

Ran into old friends Kim Gies and
Rob Pincombe playing poker at the Flamingo.

At the Venetian, ran into Sonny "The Money"
Rattan, Tom Whattam and Dan Moser from
the Elite Poker Tour (http://elitepoker.ca/).
They were playing a $330 Deep Stack event.

Played a private NLHE tournament
at the Golden Nugget hosted by
http://suitedpockets.net/ . Was seated at
the same table with poker authors
Lou Krieger (http://loukrieger.com/),
Haley Hintze, editor at (http://pokernews.com/)
Lawrence "The Prez" Prezman , Teddy Sevranski, Gianni "VegasRunner" The Scammer (sports betting gurus)
and Ashley Adams (author of Winning 7-card Stud)
who was graceful when i knocked him out of
the tournament. Also there was Frank Wiese (http://eatprofessionalpokerplayersalive.com/)
who wrote a new book on "medium ball" poker.
I went deep, a few spots away from cashing.
Lots of cool free swag from poker site sponsors.

Went to the RIO to check out the WSOP.
Got to railbird the $50,000 HORSE.
Was standing over the shoulder of Chau Giang.
Really cool to see his hole cards and watch
how he played. Even neat to watch the other
players at the table (Andy Bloch, Todd Brunson,
Joe Cassidy, David Bach - the eventual winner, etc)
because you get to see some of the action with
the cards face up in the stud games.

I hit 2 high hand jackpots. Quads at the IP
and a straight flush at Ballys. Lost more
$ drawing to (and missing) numerous other
royal and straight flush draws... than what
these two jackpots paid me.

Had heard many good things so I checked
out IN-N-OUT BURGER for the first time.
Excellent burger and milkshake.
Not a fan of their fries.

Tried Jack In The Box for the first time also.
Not amazing, but superior to McDonalds.

Drove out to Arizona Charlies on Decatur
for some cheap eats. Buffet was $7
minus the half price coupon. Not top notch food,
but cant beat the price. Won a few bucks on
slots on the way out, enough to cover gas
to get there and the cost of the buffet.

Made 2 attempts at getting a Deep Fried
Twinky from Mermaids Casino on Fremont St.
Unsuccessful both times. What kind of a
casino is closed at 1am on a saturday night ?

Had TODAI Sushi (at Planet Hollywood).
Pricey ($30) but absolutely AWESOME !
Huge selection of seafood and sushi.
I wish i had a bigger stomach.

Tried Golden Nugget Buffet for the first time.
Disappointing. Overpriced ($20). Nothing
specifically wrong, just not good value
compared to other buffets. Wouldnt return.

Used several match-play coupons from the
LasVegas Advisor and American Casino Guide.
$5 and $10 roulette, craps & blackjack matchplays
at Plaza, Las Vegas Club, Binions, Hard Rock,
Planet Hollywood, etc. Definitely +EV

Rental car was a Kia Rio. Who knew a 4 cylinder
shitbox could get a mere 18mpg ! ? Gas was
relatively cheap ($0.70/litre), but my 1979 Ford
with a carburated V8 got better mileage than that.

Vegas Monday

MONDAY NOV 10

Up at 10am and out of the room by 11am.
Off to the SILVERTON for Lunch Buffet.
$9.63 for two. Their pecan pie tastes like
a giant butter tart. Played another session
at the VENETIAN. + $26







Recieved 5 comp tickets to the REAL DEAL,
a poker based game show that recently
opened up at the Venetian. Sonny, Ed, and
Tom were just finishing up tournament at
the WYNN so they joined Gina & me.

The premise of the show, two poker pro's
and 4 (somewhat) randomly selected audience
members play a game of holdem on stage.
The rest of the audience plays along on
computer touch screens.

The audience sees its hole cards and bets
or folds based on the flop, turn, river.
There are also mini contests throughout.
Pick 5 random cards from a deck of 52
and the top 3 people with the best hands
win a prize. The final hand, you randomly
select 5 cards and if you hit a royal flush
you receive $1,000,000 (over 25 yrs).


The two pros for this session were
TODD BRUNSON and JENNIFER HARMAN.
Jennifer was high energy and seemed
sincerely interested in being there.
Todd, no so much. VINNY FAVORITO
(I played poker with him on a previous trip)
was the MC and did a great job trying to
keep this contrived production seem natural
and moving along.
LACEY JONES co-hosted and did an
acceptable job. I was a little shocked
to see Lacey, who was voted "hottest
girl in poker", only 5 feet away. I guess
you can have skin as rough as T.J. Cloutier
and still be hot. I'm sure she's a nice girl,
she comes across as friendly... but I've
met hotter poker girls.

Back to the Real Deal...

One of the big flaws I found was in the
software. There was a serious time lag.
On a couple occasions, the live hand
was being dealt before action was complete
on the handhelds. I was able to fold on the
turn, saving myself a $16,000 wager
because I saw the dealer on stage deal
out the river which gave one of the players
a full house which beat my two pair.
If there were serious prizes at stake,
there'd be lawsuits flying. Prizes were decent
although not enough to make me drool.
Sony headphones, a portable dvd player,
autographed posters, books, a bunch of
$50 gift certs for V restaurants. I left with
a pretty good booty. Everyone left with a
RD hat & deck of cards because the crowd
won 5 or 6 hands. I made trips with one of
my random 5 card selections so I won a
poster autographed by the RD poker pros.
When I went to collect it after the show,
the girl says "oh you won the books ! ?"
I said, "sure ?!" She gave me autographed
copies of SuperSystem2 and Daniel Negreanu's
Power Holdem. Autographs include Harman,
Brunson, Laak, Esfandiari, etc.


Overall, I liked the show.
Would I pay $75 for it ? ... No.
If it was free, I would go again and again.
There were about 100 people in the audience
and some of them were people who actually
paid full price for the show, including 2 people
who paid $140 for VIP front row seats
(my freebee seats were in the 2nd row)
and they got to meet and take pictures
with the pros backstage.

Immediately after the show we headed
out to the GREEN VALLEY RANCH to take
a shot at the PL Omaha 8OB tournament
that we missed earlier in the week.
Had I known the structure and rake (30%),
I would have skipped it. We arrived
a little late but got on the list to be put in
as other players got eliminated. By the time
I got seated, it was late into the $100
blind level. Starting stack was $2000.
This basically gave me no play at all.
Example: 1st time I play my big blind
there are 4 players to the flop. Pot is $400.
Under the gun bets pot $400.
If I bet the pot ($1200) I have committed
65% of my chips to this hand and there
are still 2 people to act behind me
+ the original bettor. No wiggle room at all.
I finished 11th out of 36 by folding a lot.
Gina came in 9th and Sonny came in 6th.
On a positive note, I made + $ 80 playing
the cash game while I waited for everyone
to bust out.