Dont go much on asian food normally but that has got me, looks epic

Another session at the V in the books.
+$34

Grabbing a quick bite and then hopefully some sleep. Running on 3 hours sleep today. May play the deep stack tourney tonight at the V depending on ability to catch a snooze.

I know it's borderline blasphemy to most, but I love sushi but hate wasabi almost as much.

Is it possible to go to a place like Kabuto and not get wasabi on everything, and, if so, will it offend them?

For the most part wasabi was on the side and you could choose exactly how much or how little to use. The staff are very accommodating at Kabuto. If you have likes or dislikes, just mention it up front. Before you begin they will ask you about allergies or anything of the sort - that would be the ideal time to mention it.

Played in the $200 DSE event tonight.
Outcome: -$200

Played some cash for a couple hours afterwards.
Outcome: -$166

Seven or so hours at 1/2 at the V today:
+$130

Floppy's right. In addition, I hate the horseradish dyed green that passes for wasabi in 95% of sushi places but found the real stuff that they serve at Kabuto much more palatable.

Was at a table at the V for a while yesterday with a host from the Wynn. Quite the gig as he basically gets paid to party for a living. Made for some interesting stories at the table for a while. His buddy left the 1/2 table with about $1,400 to go play 2/5. An older Russian guy on my immediate left ran a stack up to over $1,500 while I was there. I really should have switched seats. Funny enough most of his stack came from people with position on him. He luck boxed pot after pot all day.

I held JT on a board that ran out QQJJJ and couldn't get paid at all by the lady holding a Q, though I did manage to get a little in behind on the turn.

I managed to lose a good sized pot with a 9 high flush against a K high flush at some point. Other than those hands nothing really stood out for me. I only had to showdown a few winners all day and every other pot I took was without showdown with c-bets or barreling.

In the DSE tourney the other night I chipped up at the very beginning of the tourney playing five handed and then went card dead for a while. I lost a chunk of my stack when I called a pre-flop shove from a guy with about 4.5K left in his stack. He had been sucked out on twice in the last twenty minutes and was a little tilty. His AJs caught the A on the turn and my QQ went kaboom. I chipped back up a bit and was just under the average stack at the first break. At 200/400/50, with about 11k behind there was a MP raise to 900 with 3 callers and I shoved AT from the BB. The open raiser called with KK and that was the end of my tourney. I almost didn't play as I was feeling like such crap but hauled my butt over there and was glad I did. That will likely be the only tourney I play while here.

Enjoying this. Thanks!

We had dinner at Picasso last night.

See:


Outdoor dining was an option and here is a bit of our view:






And imgur is taking a crap, so I will pick this up later.

Went back to the V for some more 1/2 while waiting for my wife to emerge from hibernation. The wait was worth it as I was dealt AA, KK and QQ on my last few orbits.

+$480

Bouchon for a late breakfast.

Lobster hash for her (Wow):


Chicken and waffles for me:


I was skeptical. I mean, it's just some waffles and some chicken. Blah blah. Wow, amazing!!!

Another nitty session at the V.
-$64

Biggest hand of note was me raising pre with AJs and firing three barrels on a K high flop, brick, brick, into JJ. Chipped back a bit over time.

Wandered up to the Wynn this afternoon and dropped my wife off at the Fashion Show Mall. Beautiful day today. Each day this week has been progressively warmer.

Trump and Fashion Show:


Fashion Show and Palazzo reflection:


Wynn and an airplane:


Palazzo from the other side:


Popeye:


Stuff:

Rewind to Picasso the other night. After much deliberation we opted for the degustation tasting menu with Chilean Sea Bass as the main. At one point we almost were in for the Truffle menu but my wife decided that $1K+ on a meal was overkill. Similarly we stayed away from the Wagyu Filet Mignon supplement for an extra $150. Then later said she gets to spend the difference shopping. The Sea Bass wasn't being served outside so it was swapped out for Red Snapper.

The amuse bouche was a delicious potato leek soup and pheasant croquette. It all leaped into my mouth before I could consider snapping a pic.

The first appetizer was Maine Lobster Salad. Delicious!


Next appetizer was a Pan Seared U-10 Day Boat Scallop. Also amazing. I wanted to lick the plate but the fact that it was in a bowl and I didn't want to get au jus in my eyebrows prevented me from acting on the impulse.


Next came foie gras. I always love foie gras and this time was no exception.


Then was the main, Red Snapper. This course was a miss for me as the fish was a bit too dry for my liking. I probably should have opted for the lamb, but tend not to be a huge fan of it.


My wife ordered a cheese plate and some sort of banana waffle concoction for dessert and I had a liquid dessert, Warre's Port. (1985?)

With the exception of the main course, dinner was excellent. The patio is pretty amazing. As we were getting ready to leave a table of four was served up their first course of a Truffle tasting menu. The smell was AMAZING. We would make a repeat visit for sure but the Kabuto dinner wins.

Couple more shots of the view:




Bally's and Paris:


Bally's:

We went to see Absinthe at Caesar's last night. Such an awesome show, I highly highly recommend it. If you happen to be of Arab descent with a thick moustache attending the show with a slim Arab friend, do not sit in the front row. Just don't sit in the front row period if you can help it. I'm not quite sure where it is safe to hide but a couple guys got picked out of the crowd and had to do a strip tease/lap dance contest.

The show was extremely hilarious and was filled with amazing acts. Rather gorgeous almost naked women didn't hurt either.

Before the show we were planning on going to the Bacchanal Buffet and use the 24 hour pass to hit breakfast and lunch the next day as well but bailed on that while in line. We wandered in to Mesa Grill instead and ate at the bar. This turned out to be a very good decision as we were extremely pleasantly surprised by the Mesa Grill. I had the pork tenderloin and my wife had the rabbit. Both dishes were excellent!

I'm tiring of snapping pics apparently - just one of the bar at Mesa Grill:

This is our last day in Vegas. We have definitely rolled nit style - no hangovers (well, wife is a bit hungover this morning, but in Vegas terms really no hangover) and neither of us have gambled a penny yet. I haven't played any game other than $1/$2NL and all at the Venetian. Despite the owner of the V being Satan, I really do love their Poker room. I almost played some 1/3 at the Wynn yesterday but with four names on the list for another table I didn't feel like waiting.

We have no plans for today but I do hope to slip in some more poker. Wife wants steak tonight and casts her vote to Gordon Ramsay while I say Cut. Who wins?

Duh. Wife always wins.

Bam, reservations at Cut! She is still gun shy after her Samba call. I'm sure either Gordon Ramsay's or Cut will be great though.

We had another late breakfast at Bouchon today. Eggs benedict were great but kind of hard to compete with the chicken and waffles. Had a couple drinks with breakfast just to be able to say we did drink before 11am at least once on this trip.

Then I headed to the V poker room again for one more session. I was only involved in one big pot. I had T9 in the sb. UTG+1 raised to $7 and got three callers before it got to me. The flop came down K 7 J. I checked, pre-flop raiser bet $10, 1 fold, mp raised to $30, another fold, I made it $100 to go, pre-flop raiser shoved for another $60 or so and guy behind him tank folded a King, I called and watched the board pair the K and the 7. Guy showed AA and my hand is good. I bled off some chips slowly over the next couple hours but finished up overall.
+$117 for the session.

Some of my wife's shots from Absinthe:

Thanks for the TR. looks like you guys had lots of fun.

Have eaten at Cut @ a half dozen times in the last few years and last year we decided to mix it up and go to Ramseys. Huge mistake IMO. You are definitely paying for the name on the door and the atmosphere (REALLY F'N LOUD). Our waiter even had some spiel about Gordon Ramsey at the beginning of the meal that included trying to upsell our group to a special tasting menu that included a signed picture of GR. Oh boy! So cheesy.

Food was pretty good but the rest of it was just - no thanks, not my thing.

Have never had one thing to complain about at Cut - we're going back next month.

We marched down the strip, which was pretty hopping on Saturday afternoon, to check out a few of the casinos and hotels we had never been in before. Took in lots of sites on the strip on the way. I got to see the poker "room" at PH. We checked our Aria, which is a pretty impressive property. We also ducked into the Cosmopolitan on the way back up the strip. We parted ways at Bellagio and I was going to go in and finally play a bit of poker at a room other than the V. But alas, my guilty conscience prevented me from cheating on my fave poker lady. I didn't have much time before having to get ready for dinner but did sneak in one last quick session at the Venetian.

I did lots of folding for the first bit, getting complete crap and then won a couple small pots with opening raises and c-bets. The only notable hand was me raising utg with QQ, c-betting a raggy flop to get heads up with the BB on my immediate right. Turn paired a 5 on the board and I bet again when checked to and promptly got check-raised. Had this been a nitty (even nittier than me kind of nitty) local reg or old dude I probably just give it up but this was a young fairly drunk sideways cap wearing kid who could tell what a chicken**** nit I was and knew that I would be easy to push off a hand, so I called. River completed a couple raggy straights and he fired $70 or $80. I thought there was a legit chance I was legitimately beat but I also thought there was a very good chance he was just trying to push me off with a worse overpair or a couple missed overcards. I talked myself into an FU call and as soon as I stated it he let me off the hook with a quick "good call" and my QQ is good.

+70 for last session.

A few Aria shots:











Aria's poker room looked very nice. Aria, Bellagio, Wynn and CP poker rooms all look very worthy of a visit. I will have to return some day.

We had dinner at Cut in their A5 room, which was perfect for us. We really liked the vibe and while the main dining room was full the A5 room was relatively quiet. I took zero pics but my wife came through with some.

I started with some awesome tuna tartare:


She started with a nice butternut squash soup:


Her main was an American Wagyu filet mignon. It turned out to be a bit too rare for her liking but it really didn't detract from the overall experience:


I showed up fully intending to order the Nebraska Cut ribeye but the server sang the praises of the American Wagyu and I ended up going for the tasting of New York Sirloin which included small servings of American Wagyu, Nebraska cut Sirloin and Japanese Wagyu. The American Wagyu and Nebraska were not quite as good as I was expecting but the Japanese Wagyu far surpassed my expectations. The pinot noir the server suggested was pretty amazing as well.


The bar:


Better shot of the pro working the bar. I missed her entrance but was told that she was definitely sporting impressive chest implants. We spent much time debating whether she might have butt plants as well:


I had some liquid dessert. I have always heard amazing thinks about Rosebank and thought I'd take the opportunity to try their 20 year old Chieftain's (was very good but I wasn't blown away). The server also suggested a little taste of Dalmore King Alexander III which is matured in six different casks (this was far better than I was expecting). I also had some Balvenie 21 year old Portwood which is probably my fave of all time.




We never settled the butt implant debate. Off she goes to catch the bar diners at the door:


All in all a fantastic meal. The service was great and the main server was extremely helpful. We did a number on the alcohol bill at this one. We also had an amazing cheese plate after dinner which eclipsed the Picasso cheese plate. Great place, would return for sure.

Wow. That building in the 3rd pic looks like it has a serious lean.