Vegas Trip Report

Tues Nov 3:

Flight out was on time, but crowded and very warm.
Another great airfare deal, $63 each way plus tax.

Arrived in Vegas approx 4pm. Picked up the rental car,
a Chevy Aveo. Budget car for sure, manual windows
and locks. No cupholders, WTF ! Only 30,000 miles
but rattles galore. First bet of the trip... will this car
reach 50,000 miles before being scrapped ?

Made our way to the RIO. Fast, smooth check-in.
Room 1622 was big and clean. In room safe, fridge,
couch and granite writing desk were nice features.
Beds were acceptable but nothing to write home about.
Less than expectation. Rooms were complimentary,
so no complaining from me. Starbucks located at the
elevators on way up to rooms is a plus, although line up
was often lengthy.

Very hungry so went across the street to the Gold Coast.
Quality of the buffet was less than previous trips.
Hard to beat AYCE for two for about $12 (with 241
ACG coupon). Used ACG $5 match play on roulette.
Ran that up to +$15 and quit.

Drove to the 99¢ Store to stock up on snacks, beverages,
vitamins and toiletries. -$20 but worth every penny.
Save a lot of money buying stuff like gatorade/energy drinks/
protein bars there rather than $3 each at 7-11. Feeling very
tired so headed back to the RIO to have some mindless
slot machine fun and sleep. +$18

Wed Nov 11:
Up before 7am (a vegas first for me). Wanted to
make it in time for breakfast at the South Point.
Used 241 POV coupon. $7.51 for two of us.
Nothing amazing, but left very satisfiied. 7.5/10
Poker room was totally empty at 10am. Slots were
very tight, ate my $20 bill in no time. No rewards/offers
for new club signups. They did have $5 blackjack
and craps tables open early.

Went to the Venetian for a dose of $1/2 NL holdem.
Pretty good action just ran bad $-160.
Gina had a good session. +$305

Headed downtown to Main Street Station for some food.
MSS is generally considered the best buffet downtown and
didnt disappoint. $11.88 for 2 with ACG. Good hot food. 8/10.
-$20 playing video poker.

Walked over to Binions and played some Pai Gow
for 2 hours. -$10. Binions poker room wasnt too
busy so we sat down and played for a bit. I saw a
4-way all in pot worth over $900 and no one showed
the nuts. Finished +$50.

Hung out on fremont street and watched the light show.
Had a 99¢ deep fried Twinky and a deep fried Oreo cookie
from Mermaids. They were as disgusting as they were cheap.
Mermaids was packed with drunk kids under 25. I'm sure
they love these nasty greaseball treats.

Back to the RIO poker room for a couple hours before bed. +$86
Thurs:
Drove down to the Silverton Casino. Their buffet is no longer open for breakfast or lunch during the week.
Kinda disappointing.
Went to the Orleans buffet instead.
Food was hot and flavorful. 9/10

Next stop, the Monte Carlo poker room. Only 1 table
of $2/4 limit holdem going. Put our names on the
interest list for $1/2 NL and sat down at the limit table.
Didnt take long, couple of orbits before the NL table
started up short handed. Got hit over the head
with cards, wish I could get cards like that with
a full table and deep stacks. +$110.
Good drink service, strong cocktails :)

Went to check out Caesars Palace poker room.
Not sure why, its been pretty disappointing the
last couple visits. Their Bad Beat Jackpot was
at $210k with quad 3's qualifier. - $200.

Back to Silverton for dinner. A little early,
so did some browsing at the Bass Pro Shop
on the other end of the casino. Stumbled across
a demo setup of Nintendo Wii Fishing.
Havent really played video games since i was
a teenager, but had a riot. Thursdays is hawaiin
themed buffet (one of Silvertons primary clientele).
$21.61 for two (ACG) including free mai tai's,
which were totally delicious. 8.5/10

No better way to spend an evening in vegas than
at the Venetian poker room. Another bad run of cards
for me. Had to lay down top set with KK on KJT flop
and a Q on turn. Later, my KK ran into AA, all in preflop.
Ended the session -$200.

Fri:
Slept in a bit and Checked out of the RIO.
Went to Terrible's Casino for a cheap and easy breakfast.
$8.64 for 2 with ACG. 5.5/10. There were lots of machines
that were shut down or malfunctioning. Not sure what that
means. Casino was busy though.

Checked in at Imperial Palace around noon. Room 1669 was
pretty typical of other rooms at the IP. A/C wasnt super cold,
probably would have to change rooms if it was mid summer.

Headed up the street to the Mirage. Decent room, good drink
service. +$19 Posted Rake is $1 per $10 in the pot ($4max)

Dropped by the Orleans to kill some time and play some slots.
Very busy. Shitty drink service.

Went to dinner at Makino for sushi. Its close to the RIO,
just north of Flamingo Rd. on Decatur. Excellent sushi,
sashimi. Dessert and hot food ok, the rest was Fantastic.
9.5/10

Back to the IP to play some poker. I continue to run bad.
Had 3 sets cracked in 45 minutes. Had JJ beat by T2,
all in on a flop of T73. Finished session -$300.

Walked down to the Flamingo poker room. Had 83 in sb.
Flop 832 with two clubs. utg+1 calls my donk bet of $10.
Turn is 7clubs, i check, he bets $30. I insta-muck face up.
utg+1 tables 83off, same hand. I guess my poker's not at
a high enough level to put an early position player on 83o.
Only other hand I played, I have TT in small blind.
Cut-off raises to $10, i call. Flop is 963 rainbow,
I check raise all-in. Opponent shows QQ. -$100.

Walked down to Balleys. Made up some lost ground.
Stole some orphaned pots, and somehow made AK
into a winning hand. +$425

Sat:
Drove downtown for lunch buffet at the Fremont Hotel.
$11.85 for two buffets with coupon. Improved since
last visit. All the food was very hot. Ate my monies
worth in smoked salmon alone. 8/10

Went across the street to the Golden Nugget.
Lost 2 short stack buyins of -$100. Bad players,
just got unlucky.

Played Pai Gow over at Binions for a couple hours.
Was ahead most of the time but left -$50 because
of a sick run by dealer.

Binions poker room was a little better to me.
+$320 mostly because of one hand i slowplayed.
Limped with JJ in middle position. Board came
KJQ 9 9. Opponent shoved on the river with his J9.
Basically got me back to even for the day. Had dinner
at Binions Cafe (downstairs at the back, near
Bennys Bullpen). Prime Rib dinner with potato,
veggies, and hearty soup for $9.95. For two of us,
the total came to $19.73 with drinks after $3 players
club discount (used comps earned playing pai gow).
Highly recommended, great hot home cooked type food.

Went back to Imperial Palace for more poker.
Fast drink service, but they tasted brutal.
Note to server: most people who drink Crown Royal
can distinguish it from Jack Daniels.
Witnessed one of the most brutal procedural rulings
by a floor manager ever. After the flop, the dealer
prematurely swept in the board cards, thinking that
all players had folded to a players bet (but there was
still a player with live cards yet to act). Floor is called.
He gives the player who has yet to act the option to
1) fold and forfeit the pot, or 2) call and turn over both
hands to see who wins (has the best TWO CARD HAND,
no board cards). IMO, the stub was not fouled and was
easily retrievable. The 3 flop cards were KNOWN and
retrievable from the muck.

The most fair thing to do would be to recreate the board
and continue. The least fair option is to decide who wins
based on who had the best starting hand. I offered the
supervisor example of flopping an open ended
straight-flush draw with suited connectors, versus an
opponent with pocket 22. While the 22 technically has
the best two card hand, the open ended straight flush draw
is a 70% fave ! Being the smart ass I am, I requested that
the floor spread a No Flop Holdem game, winner is decided
by their starting hand. He declined. Ended the session +$65

Walked next door to Harrah's poker room. -$174
i got stacked twice, taking two tough beats.
Also had KsQs on JsTs3h board, got it all in,
was called by 99, LOL. No help.

Went over to the Flamingo. +$25.
Regulars/locals started rolling in at 2am.
Game got real tough quickly. Starting at 4am,
all of the high hand bonuses double. Would have
like to stick around for that, but the game sucked.

Back to the IP. Played some video poker before bed, +$11

Sun:
Strolled by Tix4Tonight at Casino Royale on our way
to breakfast. Picked up 2 tix for the Cirque de Solei
show Mystere, $58 each incl service charge.
Also got 2 vouchers for $14.95 ($5 off) for
Todai Sushi at Planet Hollywood. Walked across
the street to Treasure Island to pick up the tickets,
always a good idea to p/u early to get first choice.
Got some nice seats in third row.

Drove to Silverton for sunday champagne brunch
2 for $18.36 (ACG). Some nice smoked salmon and
stuffed crab. The french toast was tremendous.
Desserts were A+. 9/10.
Hit the bathrooms on our way out. Saw an elderly man
stealing a large quantity of paper towel. He managed
to conceal them well and evade security on his way out.
Another vegas first !

Decided to give the Stratosphere a try.
1 table of $1/2 going plus about 20 players in a tournament.
Started playing shorthanded at a must-move table before
playing at the main table. Very friendly and social game,
lots of laughing and jokes, lots of $2 limping
(just the way i like it) with generally bad/weak players.
Example: there was an all in raise-fest on a JJ622 board.
Two players show a 2 and third player mucks.
Played from 3-5pm. Finished -$8. Placed some futures
bets at the Strat sports book. I got a couple tickets for
my nephews christmas stockings. $5 on Montreal,
$5 on Calgary to win the Stanley Cup.

Headed back to the room at IP to freshen up and
relax for a half hour. Back to the Harrah's poker room.
Plenty of weak players, just couldnt get dealt many
playable cards. +$40.

Walked up to TI for the Cirque show. Pretty amazing.
I see why Guy is a billionaire. Cant get enough poker
so we went next door to the Mirage poker room.
The room was busy but seemed poorly organized.
Got seated at an outer table by the sportsbook,
very smokey, almost unbearable. Didnt stay too long. $+26

Mon:
Had lunch at Todai Sushi $34.43 for two.
Pretty decent, but not amazing. 8/10

Downtown to the ElCortez. Free slotplay, played Deuces Wild
video poker, cashed out +$5. Thought about playing the $1-6
spread limit poker game at the ElCo, but owner Jackie Goeghan
wasnt playing so I headed to Binions instead. About 2:15pm,
only 3 tables running, no one moving so I had to wait.
Somehow I had my seat given away while i went to the
washroom (away 3-4minutes tops). Dealer/floor lady didnt
seam to understand what the words "Lock Up" that were
written next to my name meant. I told the guy who
was at the desk when I left, that I'd be right back so please
lock up my seat. He apparently went on break but wrote it
on the sign up sheet. Took another half hour for a seat
to open up. Didnt take me long to realize that 7-8 of
the players at the table were good, i left after 15 minutes
with a $4 profit. Basically, a total waste of the afternoon.

I did learn something though.....
Monday afternoon is a bad time to buy drugs on Fremont.
Walking along the Fremont Street Experience on my way
back to the ElCo, I saw 5 people tweeking hard.
One guy wearing a shirt and tie was preaching to an
invisible congregation. Testify ! Another was trying
to take a shower fully clothed in the bushes. When the
sprinklers failed to give him adequate (any) water,
he got on his knees and demanded that they turn on.

Back to the Mirage for some early evening poker.
First table was tough, too many skilled players, asked for
a table change before the end of the first orbit.
Was granted one quickly. New table was much softer.
Ran into one of the worst dealers ever (#1?).
Her name was Rachel, a puffy eyed bleach blonde lady
of 55+years. She did her best to tilt me with her total
incompetance. First hand she dealt, she collects the bets
and makes a pot before the action is complete.
Big blind raises and there's total confusion as to
who has how much in the pot. Overall, slow as fuck !
Slow dealing, slow counting the box, slow following
the action. Later, she pushed a pot to Ace high
when there was full house on board. I managed to play
my 'A' game the entire trip so far with the exception of
a couple hours of 'B' game play when i was tired late.
This dealer drove me to drink...lol
I started feeling pretty good in no time.
There was a 35 year old couple that wandered into
the poker room from the sportsbook. I could hear her say
" I don’t think we're allowed in here" as they sat down
on one of the couches by the big screen tv.
I leaned over and said with a totally serious face
"someone's going to ask to see your ID in a second".
Before the panic spread from the woman’s face to the
rest of her body, I let her off the hook with a big roar
of laughter. Turns out they were from Ottawa, first trip
to vegas, so we had a long chit-chat about where to go,
what to see and do. Cocktails ! Left +$86

Got a $20 comp from the supervisor. Not too hard to
get if you ask. Went to the BLT Burger restaurant
inside the Mirage. Ordered 2 Angus burgers, 2 fries
and 1 shake. $40 ! Pretty steep. The comp ticket
took a bit of the sting out, brought it down to
fair market value. 7.5/10

Off to Harrah’s for an hour of poker. +$40
Watched Monday Night Football.
Steelers win, therefore do I. +$20.

Back to the IP poker room. Another sketchy floor ruling
(same supervisor). Guy to my right had the clock called
on him (lol) by a feeble 80yr old man. Old guy wasn’t in
the hand and dude barely got 30 seconds for his decision
before the supe was called over. I objected.
I wasn’t in the hand, but the guy deserved more time.
It was for his whole stack ($200+). I don’t remember
the exact cards on the board, but it was coordinated enough
that any thinking player would need some time to analyze it.
I asked the floor what amount of time should pass before a
clock is called. His reply…”the time it takes for me to
walk over here”. I said “ so if I call the clock on someone
the moment its their turn and you get here 5 seconds later,
they have a total of 65 seconds to decide or their hand is dead ?”
......Yes ! After the hand was complete (buddy timed out
and was folded) I told the old man, “No disrespect sir,
but you better make your decisions instantly or I’ll be
calling the clock on you every hand.” Despite attempts by
several players at the table to get him to stick around
(and continue donating), he and his wife left after
another orbit to spread their miserable attitudes elsewhere.
The room was super cold, but at least the Corona’s
were coming frequently. Another table broke and
3 aggro kids with big stacks joined our table.
Killed action from the weak players. Left after two orbits.
Ended the session +$100. Late night snack at the Cafe at
Bills Gambling Hall. $5.95 Steak + Eggs special. Pretty good
value. Seat by the door, not sure if the whole restaurant
was smokey or if it was just because of our proximity to
the casino floor.

Tues:
Last day, so up early. Hit the Harrah’s Café for
breakfast at 10:30. Didn’t seem like great value.
2 eggs, hashbrowns, 3 strips of bacon,
toast, coffee, (x2) came to $28.06 + tip.
Used harrah’s points to pay since it
seamed like a rip off paying cash.

Walked up to the Venetian. Played poker for 2 hours.
-$18, not much action, pretty nitty. Made the last of
my sportsbook wagers -$40 (until they win).
Got a good price on Pittsburgh to win the Superbowl 9/1

Went back to the IP to get the car. Car Gone ! Car Gone !
Looked everywhere, no car. Took a while to realize we
somehow walked back to the IP from the Mirage last night.
Walked over to the Mirage to get our "stolen" car…lol.

Drove down to Balleys. Got a good view of a young woman
flashing her bare crotch going up the escalator. Yeah Vegas !
Played poker and drank a lot of Corona’s for 3 hours. +$110.

It was nice having the IP room comped for an extra night,
there was no rush to check out. Went back to the room to shower
and relax for a half hour before having to leave.

Hit the Gold Coast buffet one last time for some quick eats.
$12.50 for two using ACG coupon.

Refueled the car ($-23 for the week) and took the shuttle to catch the plane.

A totally great trip, didn’t bring home stacks of money,
but had as much fun as I’ve ever had.

'The Real Deal' is a Done Deal

I'm glad I got to see it before it
closed for good. Seemed obvious
at the time that it wasnt likely to last.

As posted on WickedChops.com .....

The Venetian Pulls Plug On The Real Deal
It's officially curtains for The Real Deal.
After an eight-week run, the folks at
The Venetian have finally pulled the plug
on its poker-themed stage show which
starred big name pros such as Daniel Negreanu,
Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen,
Gavin Smith and Antonio Esfandiari.
We could tell you that the piss poor economy,
launching the show three years after the height
of the poker boom and people's overall lack of
interest in poker-themed stage shows were
to blame but that would be glossing over the
real reason why it bombed: not having co-host
Lacey Jones appear in nothing but body paint
nightly. That would have been a hit. Huge hit.
Todd Brunson plump-ily sitting at a poker table,
not so much.

Real Deal Co-host Lacey Jones

Vegas Wednesday (END)

WEDNESDAY NOV 12

Checkout day. Up before 10am.
RIVIERA's Kiosk Checkout was easy.
Headed downtown to BINIONS to cash in
our comps in the gift shop.

The Real Deal playbill had a coupon for
"1 free book" from Cardoza publishing,
the guys who print Doyles and Daniels
books. The ad shows SuperSystem,
Caro's Book of Tells, Poker Tournament
Formula, etc. Being the gullable type guy
I am, I made the assumption that I could
choose from one of the books shown
in the ad. Wrong. The free books are
actually booklets on offbeat topics or
contain only rudimentry content.

AVERY CARDOZA, did you approve this ?
Do you realize how many people you are
going to piss off ?

Remember the potential prop bet with
Sonny involving the fruit plate from
Peppermills ? Gina and I thought it would
be funny to send Sonny a fruit basket.
We hit the Walmart Super Centre and bought
a basket, clear wrapping and fruit galore.
Along with a watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas,
bag of apples, there were a bag of lemons,
a coconut, and an onion...lol. Got a few strange
looks putting it all together on the trunk of
our car in the parking lot.


The Wynn employs 50 Full-Time pastry chefs !

Too long without food so we hit the
WYNN buffet. Gina earned 2 free buffets
earlier so we wanted to use them up.
Excellent food as before. Desserts are superb.
Tremendous selection. I love that they
have bathrooms located inside the dining area.
Most buffets, you have to leave and use facilities
on the gaming floor. Their bathrooms actually
have private rooms with real locking doors,
not just partial metal walls.

Headed back up to SLOTS'O'FUN to use our
$15 for $10 coupon. Crapped out and headed
next door to CIRCUS CIRCUS, to use the same
offer there. Half hour of play and left with an
overall +$7 in profit between Gina and I.
Woohoo !

3pm.
Went to the VENETIAN to cram some
poker in on our last day. Saw TEDDY
"The IceMan" ONROE. He holds the record
for most WSOP television coverage disproportionate
to his results. et up with high school chum ANDY
BRUINEWOUD and his wife GLORIA in the poker
room. They are vegas veterans and gave me
the scoop on what they saw of the WSOP
final table from inside the P&T Theatre.
Played at the V until 8pm (+ $76).


Headed to the MGM and left the fruit basket
for Sonny at the Bell Desk. Would have been
way funnier if we could have gotten into his room
and filled his room with fruit, but we didnt
have time. Dropped off the rental car and
headed for the plane.

Overall, great trip. Left + $1500 so I can't
complain. Bye Vegas, see you next time
(hopefully in a few months).

Vegas Tuesday

TUESDAY NOV 11

Had GOLD COAST lunch buffet using 241
LasVegas Advisor coupon. $9.03 total for two.
Very slow drink service. It was busy, Veterans Day.
6x points so there were seniors galore.
Used a $5 matchplay from ACG on Roulette.
Will + $10. Gina + $10. Free lunch !

Back to the VENETIAN poker room. Got two more
free REAL DEAL tix from Mr. Bill, the floor guy.
I love this room !. + $251 playing 2pm-6pm.

Headed over to the ORLEANS for Dinner buffet
and brought Tom with us. $7.53 each with ACG
coupons. Great buffet as usual. Didnt use the RD tix,
couldnt make it back from buffet in time.






Dropped Tom off at the MGM and headed
downtown to BINIONS to play poker.
Had plenty of good starting hands,
just couldnt hit the board to save my life.
Was down $ most of the evening but hit
Quad Deuces to get back to even.
8:30pm-1am. Left minus - $10.
Earned + $9 in comps so we'll call it even.
I played Zeus, HootLoot and Shopping Spree
slots (+ $8) while Gina was playing Pai Gow.
She was doing well so I popped across the
street to the NUG to check out the poker room.
Sat down at a $1/2 table with 3 russians.
$2400, $1600, and $800 stacks. Very suspicious.
They were the only ones who ever won a pot.
I sat for 2 orbits then left. Talked to a guy at a
limit table on my way out. He said I'm the first
person all night who left the table with money,
they knocked out every single player who
sat in the game. Not sure what was going on,
something didnt seem right. Walked back over
to Binions and convinced Gina to leave
with a + $50 profit at Pai Gow.

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.

Vegas Thurs

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

Tuesday cont'd

Cruised over to the ORLEANS for the
French Market Buffet. Pretty long line up
for the 11am Lunch buffet, but it moved
quickly. 241 ACG coupon. $10.65 total
for me and G to eat. Lots of creole food,
crawfish, jumbolaya, asian, and italian.
The seafood fluorentine and the onion rings
stand out as memorable tasty selections.
Similar food to Gold Coast. The buffet was busy,
crowded and a bit of a clusterfuck.
Fast drink service. Clean bathrooms.

Orleans Poker Room was really hoppin'

for mid-week and middle of the day.
More spacious and modern than I expected.
They had 2/4 L, 4/8L, 8/16L, 1/2NL, 2/5NL Holdem
and 4/8 Omaha HiLo games all going on.
Pretty impressive for 1pm. They even started
an $8/16 Omaha game later in the afternoon.
4 ahead of me on the $1/2 ($300max?)

list so I had to wait about 45 minutes

for a seat. Overall, pretty organized with

computerized list, although its hard to hear

your name called unless you are inside

the poker room, and they only have 1 screen

showing the lists and its inside the poker room

at the sign up desk, so you cant go too far

if you get near the top, or you'll lose your seat.

Played well, but ended the session -$70
(about 4 hours). Could have been a huge session,

but lost a $900+ pot to runner-runner suckout.

The poker room and buffet are both located

right beside entrance doors, which is great

after you've been there once, you can

park right there and avoid a long
walk from the other end of the casino.

Drove over to the VENETIAN around 6:30pm.
Very nice hotel. Expansive and beautiful
poker room. Great table side drink and
food service. Short wait. Very hard to hear
your name called even if standing right at
the poker room entrance. They said
"Will for 1-2, Last call Will".

I guess your first call is also your last call ?.

If you're not there within 10 seconds

of the start of them calling your name,

they wipe you off the list and call the

next name. I recommend you talk to
the brush when you sign up and tell him that
you'll be sitting in the lounge that's inside the
poker room, and make sure they dont take you
off the list because you'll be IN the poker room.
Wasnt much action at my table.
Finished the session up +$65.