I do. From a rules-mechanics point of view, straddles offer action which opponents choose whether or not to accept. It's a transparent exploitive strategy and the counter strategy is obvious.

From a social point of view, if my straddling results in somebody else's misery that's on them. It's a common, simple and unambiguous rule. You might as well object to check-raises or buying in short.

Thanks for the comment. 😊

Fair enough. I don’t take it personally when people straddle, but I do prefer when it’s sporadic rather than every hand.



DAY 5

I had a slow start to the day, and went for a walk to a room which used to be great but has really gone downhill – The Venetian. By the time I was sat down, my wife had finished her first session of the day at Aria, reporting a result of +$510 😊. Great result for team Whitman and I’m embarrassed to say this is a bigger win than I’ve ever had in Vegas . <- NIT

Early in my session, it seemed that my poker instincts (such as they are) were completely off. I folded 66 on the button to an open of $16.
Both blinds ended up calling and two players quickly stacked off on a flop of 26Kr – both had top pair.
I was really 50/50 about calling pre-flop – I had a stack of $190 and both players covered. Thoughts?

Then the very next hand I raised to $12 from cut-off with 67.

The SB called and so did one limper.

Flop was 289 and both checked to me.
I bet $25. SB called and the other player folded.

Turn was the rather ugly looking 2.
SB checked and I continued for $35. SB called.

River was 28928 to put two-pair on the board.
SB checked again and I decided to give up and checked back.

SB shows 103

I added on $100 more but the session didn’t get much better. The table wasn’t great and I gave up after about 2 hours for a result of -$202.

I cheered myself up with a late lunch of Chipotle at PH. That place is great. We have lots of similar Mexican places in London, but ingredients seem consistently fresher at Chipotle.


Suitably refreshed, I bought in for $260 at Aria. Slightly more that my usual, but I gotta try and get ahead of the wife!
The table didn’t seem all that great. There were three businessmen on convention together, but sadly they seemed thoroughly competent.
But I was getting cards and was up to about $330 when I lost a $500 pot with QQ against one of the businessman’s AJ (flop was Jack high, but I forget the exact run-out).

At this point my wife texted me that she had finished her afternoon session at Bellagio with another great result of +$337 (so +$847 for the day). Rivalry aside, I was delighted for her and it helped offset the loss-making day I was having.

I topped up for $160 more but didn’t get any positive momentum and ended the session with $0 for a $420 loss (-$622 for the day). On the plus side, the drinks service was excellent I was steadily on my way to being pleasantly blasted.


I met up with my wife for dinner at Cucina in Crystals, helped by another MyVegas voucher (that game is total time drain, and probably not worth it, but I’ve probably saved about $600 from it over the years).

Food was good, stout was excellent. Some pics courtesy of my wife:




After the meal, my wife decided to book her day’s winnings and headed back to the room.
As she left, she quietly suggested that I may not be in the best frame of mind to keep playing.

But I was $600+ down, full of whisky and it was Friday night in Las Vegas.
I headed out into the crisp November air to find another casino…. what could possibly go wrong?*



*Cliffhanger is being slightly overplayed. I just have to go to bed now.

Sorry for the delay – not trying to drag this out, just been busy with Christmas parties.


DAY 5 part 2

I started my evening session about 10pm at MGM; bought in for my regular $200.

The table was interesting. I sat in the 5 seat which gave me the perfect view of the ongoing battle between the 2 seat and the 8 seat.
Both were LAGs playing almost every hand. One was an old man and the other was in his early thirties.
The younger guy wasn’t having it all his own way but seemed to have the a slightly more coherent strategy was gradually taking the chips.
There were some pretty mad hands with bets like $200 on the river when one had ace high and the other 3rd pair.

I sat down, sipped my Jameson’s and enjoyed the show.
I had chipped up to about $300 by the time the old guy lost his last buy-in and left the table, with the younger man quitting with his $1200 stack shortly after.

By this stage a new player had sat in the 7 seat. He was about 30 years old and over the next couple of hours he was really crushing. He was definitely on the LAG side and what really impressed me was his play on the river. He seemed to almost always make a great decision. He consistently made big bets. When they called he was betting with narrow value and when they folded he showed an audacious bluff. In between he settled for a correct hero call.

After one such river, I asked him what he did for a job and he replied “this” with a smile.

It reminded me a little bit of this great 2p2 thread which I read recently:
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...ve-nl-1169750/


Fortunately, I wasn't one of his main victoms. When I’m drunk, my most nittish tendencies are smoothed out and I think I’m a lot harder to read (alcohol gives you confidence / relaxes you!).
At worst, this means I play far too aggressively and donk off my chips, but tonight it was *mostly* under control.


The only hand I remembered in detail was against this $1/$2 poker pro. Figures are approximate:

I was in the hijack with about $400 and he covered.

Pre-flop: Tight player in MP raised to $10, I called with 77 and he called on the button.

Flop: 567 ($30).
MP checked, I bet $15 and villain called.

Turn: 5679 ($60).
I bet $25 and he re-raised me to $80.
I was pretty sure he had an 8, but allowing even a little implied odds I was happy to call.

River was a beautiful 5 ($220)
I bet about half pot and he reluctantly called with 108.
This was the only "mistake" I saw him make on the river .

I cashed out around 1am for a profit of $534.
TRIGGER WARNING: 10 CHIP STACKS




Results so far:

Me: -$94



Her: +$551

DAY 6 (Saturday)

While I spent the morning in bed, my wife was playing at Aria. She actually prefers the morning sessions as people play more predictably.
Sure enough, she was up a fair bit when I checked in with her. It was at this point I realised her results were much more exciting than mine, so I asked her to take a photo of her current chipstack:



She finished her session at Aria +$302 for a 3rd great result in a row. 😊


Whereas my wife likes Aria best, I am not a huge fan because I tend to find better players there. So I walked to Excalibur instead and my table was very friendly and pretty straightforward. I was also getting more than my fair share of premium hands, however I struggled to get much value with them.

After playing for about 3 hours, I cashed out +$98 to go and meet up with my wife.
Nothing special with this small profit in itself, but I noticed that this did put me into profit for the first time this trip – a whole +$4!!!!!


After a pleasant walk to the other end of the strip (via Chipotle), we met at Fashion Show Mall and my wife "got rid of" some of her winnings on a pair of shoes. Form there we went to the Wynn where she looked sat down for some more $1/$3.
Before she played, she asked what Wynn was like? I warned that it tends to play bigger than other rooms, with a combination of the $500 cap, more whales but also more good players as a result.
It ended up playing out that way, with people sitting on huge stacks and typical opens of $50 pre-flop. She said she didn't much enjoy that kind of game, but still managed to cash out +$392.

Bearing in mind that she almost always buys in for $200, these last 4 results are pretty epic. It also put her comfortably above $1k up for the trip so far.


I wasn’t in the mood for poker there, so I wandered about for a bit before choosing another one of my favourite rooms, Mirage.
I like Mirage because it tends to have a relaxed atmosphere.
However, unfortunately this time there was very rude woman who acted as though she was the dealer, constantly telling people what to do. She also berated players who she thought played badly. Lovely lady…

Besides listening to her, I was also having a bad start, being $150 down within the first half hour, mostly from a pot where I got stubborn with 88 against someone who flopped top pair on a 942 flop.

I topped up another $100 (in for $300 total), and after a 3.5 hour session managed to grind out a $30 profit.
Apart from the 88 hand, the only one I remember was a multi-way pot where the aggressor kept betting just small enough for me to chase a gutshot with 57o and the river obliged to give me the nuts.
The aggressor, who had flopped two pair, was also kind enough to pay off my raise on the river. Thank you sir, you are a gentleman.


Nothing else to report from day 6 except that we finished the day with a late dinner at Blossom (posh Chinese restaurant at Aria). Really chilled place, the only downside being that you can’t use your poker comps there any more.

Thanks for reading. 2 days left.


Results so far:

Me: +$34



Her: + $1245

Enjoying this but given results I wish your wife was doing the TR

I could not agree more!

Maybe next time. Or at least she might take a few more pics of her chips.

Hope you and your wife continue to run/play well!

Thanks TJ! Time for the next update...


DAY 7 (Sunday) – Part 1

While I was sleeping in, my wife was sticking to her morning $1/$3 Aria schedule. Since her results keep overshadowing mine, I’ll give a bit more detail on this particular session.

When she sat down (with $200 as usual), her table was fairly deep-stacked. Only one opponent had a similar stack to hers, with the rest all being $600+ and two sitting on about $1500 each. Given it was a Sunday morning, it’s likely that several of them had been playing overnight.
Her first thoughts were to look for another table, but instead she stayed for a bit to see how it went. In comparison to her session at the Wynn, the players were playing a bit more reasonably, with more normal sized opens.

A couple of brief hand histories (figures approx.):

Hand #1:

Heroine is in late position with $220 and main villain is the short stack in the blinds with $150 (all others cover).
Heroine calls $15 pre-flop with A2

4 players to the flop, which brings A24 ($60).
Checks around.

Turn comes A24K ($60).
MP bets $30 and Heroine raises to $75.
MP goes all in and Heroine calls for $135 total (all others fold).

River A24K7 ($330).
Villain had K3 for pair plus straight draw.


Hand #2:

Heroine (late position) has $750 and villain (early position) has $350.
Villain opens to $12, heroine calls with 66 and 2 others call.

Flop: 266 ($50).
Villain bets $35, heroine calls and other fold.

Turn: 26610 ($120).
Villain bets $60 and heroine calls.

River: 26610J ($240).
Villain goes all in for $255.
Heroine calls and shows the quads. Villain shows QQ.

Flop quads, and have someone bet every street for you. Must be nice!!!

After a session of only about 2 hours, my wife cashes out for a profit of +$866. Solid hourly rate there...

-> I’m very happy to keep getting overshadowed by my wife – I only wished she had the habit of taking some chip pics to put into this report!


Although boring in comparison, around midday I went to MGM again, buying in for my regular $200.
I had a friendly but unfortunately rather good player to my left and started my session quite quickly down $100.
I added on another $100 but found myself down again and after an hour or so was in for $400 total.
However, after a session of about 5 hours (long by my standards), I cashed out exactly break-even. Good result given the start, but weak in comparison to my wife’s recent run!


As if to underline the point above, my wife shortly afterwards finished her afternoon session at Bellagio. She reported a mediocre profit of "just +$160", meaning that since Friday morning she has won 6/6 sessions for a total of +$2567 - all this at $1/$3 and buying in for $200.


Updated graph for my wife:



My wife was done for the day, but I still had a late-night session at Caesars, which I'll report when I get the chance.

As ever, thanks for reading and I appreciate the comments.

DAY 7 (Sunday) – part 2

Our flight to New York was early on Tuesday morning. So although we had another full day to go, this was the last night I could stay out late.
Therefore, I decided to let myself off the leash and ended up playing a session at Caesar’s from 10pm until the early hours.

It was also by far my most drunken session of the trip. As evidence of this, I abandoned my normal 10 or 20-high chip stacks and tried using a single tower.
At about $350 high, this fell over, scattering chips over the table and the floor, but fortunately mostly avoiding other people’s stacks. Yes, I was that drunk guy at your table.

From this point on I settled for a more stable 3-tower approach (and even tidied up the edges), as seen in the picture below:



You can also see from the pic above that sitting opposite was a dreadlocked player with a nice stack of greens. More difficult to see is the purple & black $100 chips sitting on top. He had well above $1000 for the duration I was there, and appeared to be playing a classic TAG strategy. He barely said a word and spent most of the time on his phone.

The only hand I remember was one against him.
There was an open to $10 UTG and one or two calls before he bumped it up to $36 in late position (something he had done a couple of times before).

I had AKo in the SB. If I had been sober, I would have hated being out of position against the one good player and probably have done something nitty like calling and then checking flop.
But I did “the right thing” and raised, to about $90.

All others folded and he tank-called.

The flop came 442r and I bet a stack of $100.

He tanked for about 2 minutes, staring me down. I alternated between smiling at him and grimacing and he eventually folded with a sigh.

At the time I had about $400 so probably would have had to go with it on that flop if he hadn't folded.
To be honest these are exactly the kind of hands I feel least comfortable with, so was pleased to have some "Dutch courage" at the time.

After a few ups and downs I cashed out at 4am +$354, to leave me up $388 for the trip so far.

Wow, I didn’t realize you do requests! Thanks!

I hope I do as well as your wife next trip.

Good read. Congrats to you and your wife on a profitable trip!

So do I!!! She paid for our trip.

Thanks!

DAY 8 (Monday) - part 1

The next day I was really in a bad state. Waking up about midday, I then started getting “cold sweats”. The last time I had those symptoms after a night of drinking, I passed out onto a stone floor (not fun).
It took all my efforts to have a shower, print out my Aria comps and use those comps to get some nourishment from Five50 pizza:




From there, I stumbled to CVS and wolfed down two waters and two cereal bars, gradually starting to feel a bit better.
CVS is half the way to MGM, so I went there for what turned out to be my final poker session of the trip.

To be honest, it was a bit of an anti-climax. I only lasted about an hour before giving in to my hangover (my head wasn’t really in it at all).
I cashed out +$47 without any memorable hands. The only bit I do remember is that there was someone who ran really hot and got from $200 to $1000 in 20 minutes. But he never tipped a single hand! In fact, in one pot, the person he beat tipped the dealer for him.


Final results for me were:
* +$435 for the trip from poker (which means an hourly of approx. $10)
* +$35 from a tiny bit of video poker early on

I’m very happy with that, particularly given that the last trip saw me lose $1500.

I have also just put the results together across the 5 trips and I see that I am now marginally up in total:



That's an oustanding +$162 across 5 trips to Vegas, meaning an hourly of about $1 I guess.


I'll do another post soon to wrap up my wife's final day of poker.

DAY 8 - part 2

My wife played her final morning session at Aria, this time cashing out for a typical result of +$392.

Her text read "I am a pro now"...

She also played a short session in the afternoon at Caesar's $1/$2 - this is a step down from her usual $1/$3 stakes.
And she capped off the trip with another profit, this time +$88.


Final results:

Her: +$2751 (hourly of approx. $65)




This meant that she had effectively paid for our holiday, which is awesome.

She even had enough comps to treat her husband to a nice meal at Aria Cafe:




In fact, since coming back from Vegas, she has played 3 times in London at £1/£2. Each time she finished up (so this is now 11 wins in a row), and it includes her best session yet of +£896 (~$1150).



Crazy stuff! Despite being much more experienced at poker, I have stopped trying to teach her - for obvious reasons.


Final random pic from the trip, saying goodbye to Vdara robot:


https://www.ktnv.com/news/vdara-hote...fetch-and-jett


Thanks to all those who had the patience to read this thread.
I'll might do some tables on which casinos I've done well/badly in, but otherwise that's the report done.

Happy Christmas!

Great report

Thank you, sir.
I enjoyed yours too. If I have the good fortune to be back in June I'll see you for a beer!

Great report! Thanks!

Enjoyed the report. Wifey on a roll!

Recommendations on poker venues/games in London ?

Will be there on business for a week in early February. Is there still Stars venue ?

Thanks.

Thanks for the comments.


Honestly, I don't play that often in London because I don't find the games as fun as Vegas. Having said that, the main venues are:

Hippodrome and The Empire at Leicester Square (next to each other, Central London)
The Vic at Edgware Road (Central-ish)
Aspers at Stratford (East London)

There are also a couple of smaller ones like the Genting Cromwell Mint and Golden Horseshoe, but there may only be games in the evening.

You should probably just see which is nearest your hotel.
Hippodrome is probably the nicest. But if you're looking for £2/£5 then you probably need to go to the Vic.