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 Fremontmade 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.
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 handwith $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 realgood 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.
