WSOBP (Beer Pong)

by Karl Popper

The fourth annual edition of the
“World Series of Beer Pong”,
a frat style drinking game recently
turned popular, is coming to Las Vegas
in 2009.

Hundreds of teams are expected to gather
at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino from
January 1st- 5th to battle for the
$50,000 grand prize.

The five-day event, presented by BPong.com,
will be the largest of its kind, the 2007
tournament attracted almost 600 contestants
from 39 states and three different countries.
In addition, twenty-one satellite competitions
will be held in several locations inside the U.S.,
with the final satellite taking place in New York
on December 16th, 2008.

“It's a pastime with a very loyal following.
We introduced beer pong to the Las Vegas Strip
a couple of years ago at O’Sheas Casino and it
continues to be immensely successful for us.”
said Flamingo’s VP of marketing, Suzanne Trout.

“Beer pong” involves two teams that face-off
from opposite ends of a long table. Each team
has 10 plastic cups arranged in a triangle
at their side of the table, then both teams
take turns attempting to throw ping pong
balls into the other team’s cups.
The first team to full all the cups with at least
one ping pong ball wins the match.

In most frat-style “Beer Pong” games,
all cups are filled with beer and a member
of the defending team has to drink a cup’s
contents when the opposing team lands
a ball in it, however, drinking is not
mandatory during the “WSoBP”.

During a BPong.com-regulated game,
twenty-four ounces of beer or water is split
between six of the 10 cups .The remaining
four cups are filled with water and no one
drinks the water from these cups during
a regulation game. According to the
tournament rules, all cups may be filled
with water instead of beer and competitors
can choose if they want to drink the
contents or not.

2008 world champion beer pongers,
Jeremy Hughes and Mike Orr, are
expected to make their best effort to
defend the title, regardless of what
the cups are filled with.
The tournament is open to anyone,
ages 21 or older. All teams are welcomed
to register online before December 5th,
the Tournament’s registration is set at
$1,000 per team, and includes four nights
at the Flamingo Las Vegas.

Eric Lui buys Range Rover with Stars fpp's

Not a big deal normally. These pros on
PokerStars who play big $, they rack up
the Frequent Player Points like crazy.

Thing is, Eric Lui is a Full Tilt Red Pro !
Maybe not for long ...lol
I'm sure FTP wants him to get his name
out there, but not by posing for pictures
and writing articles for their biggest competitor.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2008/11/vip-club-liu-snags-car-with-fpp.html

Tropicana Closing its Poker Room

The poker room at the Tropicana Hotel
in Las Vegas will be closing down
permanently as of November 30th.

The rooms 19 employees were notified
today of the closing date and layoffs.

The poker room consisted of 6 tables
spreading $1/2NL and 2/4L holdem.

Sarnia SitnGo's

Point Edward Charity Casino is running
"Touchdown Sundays SNG Tournaments"
until January 04, 2009. Sundays Noon-8pm.
Watch football and play poker.

Buy-in is $25+$5, starting when 10 players
sign up. Play up to 3 SNG's per day.

Payouts: 1st - $125, 2nd - $75, 3rd - $50
Blinds go up every 15 minutes.
Levels: 5/10, 15/30, 25/50, 50/100.

Neil Millson, his wife Gloria and their
daughter Linda have had great success
at these with numerous cashes.


Had to post this picture of Neil winning a PPT
event with what is fast becoming one of my
favourite cash game hands, the Four-Deuce.

Medic, Benyamine, and Clonie

Canadian WSOP bracelet winner
Nenad Medic is still playing at FullTilt
despite (for undisclosed reasons) losing
his Red Pro status. Medic has seen playing
under his old username "Serb2127"
on $100/$200 Pot Limit Omaha tables.
Nenad has also been removed from the
FTP website showing all of the FTP pros.

Another notable pro missing his red status
is David Benyamine. David is rumoured to
be moving to another site although he
continues to play at FTP. Its hard to find
bigger action anywhere online, so I suspect
he'll continue to hang around as long as his
new site allows him.

Last but not least, Clonie Gowan is
no longer a Full Tilt pro. Further to that news,
Cycalona 'Clonie' Gowen has filed a lawsuit
in Nevada Court against Tiltware LLC,
Full Tilt Poker, and most of the big name
pros associated with FTP including Howard
Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson,
John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren,
Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello,
Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham,
Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius.
The basis of the lawsuit stems from oral
contracts which Clonie believes entitle her
to a percentage of the profits earned by
Full Tilt. She admits that no written
contract exists but is seeking $40,000,000
which is approximately 1% of the $4 Billion
that Full Tilt may be valued at.


Clonie needs the money for..... ? ? ?

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 eve

Funniest moment of the day.
Sonny is cracking up laughing and says

" You gotta see this ! " There was a guy

at the poker room cage asking his friend

to take his picture, posing as he cashes out

his racks of $1 chips, like it was a huge payday.

Being the smartass I am, I say to Sonny

" Dare me to get my picture taken with him?"
So I go over and ask the guy if I can get my

picture taken with him (and all his chips),

like he's a poker superstar. Love how he

fans out his money for everyone to see.

Classic !

12am?
Hungry. Went downtown to the GOLDEN

GATE Shrimp Bar & Deli for one of their

famous sandwiches. Had the Cable Car

(turkey, ham, roast beef, swiss cheese,
lettuce,mayo) $6.99. Great shrimp cocktails

for 99cents.

Wandered down to the GOLDEN NUGGET

to play a little poker. Got stacked by donkey

bombers. - $200. The Nugget has started

raking 50cents preflop, so if its raise and

take it with no action, the GN is still getting

there's. Boo !

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 Sunday

SUNDAY NOV 9

The big day is finally here, the WSOP
main event final table that has been
delayed for 4 months. Unfortunately, I
'll have to watch it on tv like common folk.
The line up to get into the Penn & Teller
theatre at the RIO is crazy long and the
set up isnt very good for spectators.

Went for lunch buffet at the ORLEANS
(241 ACG) and hit their poker room after.
Always seems to be a very busy room,
even during the week. 1/2 hour wait.
Their list procedures are a little sketchy.
Names occasionally appear above you
on the list with out explanation. They have
different colored symbols they can put
with peoples names. Green is phone-in,
blue is table change request, etc...
but people got bumped for no obvious
reason (locals friendly with poker room
manager ?). Watched a bit of the $4/8 and
$8/16 Omaha H/L cash games. Very juicy.
People had very little clue to what a
good starting hand is or even knowing
if they were winning.



A new must-move $1/2 table was started
and we got seated. I didnt even get to
play a hand before I was moved to the
main table. After about a half hour,
JERRY YANG - 2007 World Champion
sat next to me at our table. Super nice guy,
very friendly. He showed a big bluff the
first hand, then he played tight ABC poker
after that (He left +$300).

It was a real up & down session for me,
lots of tough decisions (which I usually avoid).
River beat me on several big hands/pots.
Sometimes I just got outflopped....
I had QQ against villains AK.
Flop is QTJ of spades. Luckily I only lost
about $60 on that hand because villain
had no spades.

I folded a flopped gutshot Q high
straight flush draw, face up to the shock
of the dealer and most of the table.
3 all-ins behind me. Had invested $50
on the flop but would have cost me my
stack, $220 more. What most people fail to
consider in this situation is what your
opponents likely holdings are. With 3
other people all in, it is highly likely
one of them is drawing to the Ace high
flush. One of my other opponents may
have already made the straight.
It is quite possible in this situation that
I am drawing to a one outer to hit the
straight flush. I might even be drawing
completely dead if one of my opponents
holds my str8flush card. Atleast I got a
"wow" out of Jerry Yang for my fold.
Left the Orleans + $25.

1am.
Decided to check out CAESARS PALACE.
The entire casino floor was nearly vacant,
very few people at all. The poker room
was the same, almost empty.
2 tables of $1/2. The high hand jackpots
were a joke. $100 for 4 of a kind,
$100 for a str8 flush, $500 for royal flush.
They scoop $1 from every pot and
all they want to pay back is $100 ?
That's weak.

Signed up with the brush and he told us
to have a seat and grab a cocktail,
wont be long. Sounds good.
After 2 failed attempts to get a drink
from a snobby Caesars waitress,
we bailed. No action, no service,
no thanks. Headed back to the RIV
and called it an early night .

Vegas Saturday

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.

Vegas Friday

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.

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

Vegas Trip Report (Start)

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.