Long time reader here and I've enjoyed many trip reports. I'm going to take a shot at making one and keeping it semi-live as I go. Hard to say what will happen!
Arrive from Toronto on Monday July 3rd and departing from Vegas on the red-eye Monday July 10th. This will be my 12th trip to Vegas and I've pretty much got it down to a science of fun stuff that I love to do. I will be travelling with 7 of my poker buddies-with a few more perhaps making a 3 or 4 day visit if possible with work schedules.
I'm a recreational gambler. I've got records to show a slight profit at the horse races-thoroughbred only- over the last 12.5 years. I'm a losing online poker player. I'm a small loser at live casino poker at 1-2 NL stakes and I don't get to play more than about 10x per year at the casino. I'm a perennial contender at my monthly home game NLHE tournaments which average 30 guys and I show a small profit at this game. I used to work in the gambling industry for a number of years and I saw way too many people blow their brains out so I vowed that my gambling would always be in control. Before my wife and I got married I explained to her that gambling was important to me and as long as she could tolerate annual swings of +/- a few thousand we could go ahead and get married
Now I've got family obligations and adulting things to do so gambling is my outlet and I'm blessed with a great wife who lets me spend 1 week per year in Las Vegas.
We are staying at Harrahs for the week. The plan is as follows:
1. Lots of drinking
2. Lots of horse races during the daytime. We generally play at the Harrahs, Flamingo and Bally's racebooks. Listen for loud, drunk guys with small sums of money wagered (think $10-$20/race) cheering horses home as often as possible.
3. Lots of poker in the evenings. We generally play at Harrahs, Flamingo and Ballys. We are small ball and will be playing 1-2 NL but a couple of the guys want to take one shot at 2-5 NL. If I happen to go on a heater I will take a shot with $500 and try to play with the big boys.
4. Annual trip downtown. We always hit the Heart Attack Grill and play one session downtown at the Golden Nugget.
5. We have tickets for The Ultimate Fighter Finale and UFC 213 on July 7th and 8th respectively.
Thanks for reading!