It was Saturday between something like 1pm and 4pm.
I think it was just luck. The 4 players who knew each other were likely staying in the hotel and just tried a bit of poker together.
Ti does tend to get a few terrible players though as a result of their daily tournaments.

Looks like TI has changed the promotions recently.

Day 5 (Sunday):

I woke up to find out that I could watch the Tottenham game, and that was rather fortunate - since I had the please of watching them dismantle one of our "rivals" 4-1:





Then it was time to check out of Bellagio.

Overall, I was disappointed.

Location is very good, and it has Noodles which is a plus.
But the linens were dirty and it was more expensive than other hotels of the same quality of room, e.g. Aria.

...speaking of which, it was time to take the secret route to our second hotel.

After being burned at Bellagio (and possibly on MGM's black list due to our complaints), I decided not to bother with the $20 trick at the front desk and just asked for a quiet, non-connecting room.

Pics:



The room was very clean and I was happy enough with the view.
We never heard a noise from neighbouring rooms so that was great.
And in comparison to Bellagio it was $40 cheaper per night and came with $50 to spend each day.

After lunch at Noodles, I wandered down the strip and found myself sitting down playing $1/$2 at Bally's.

I sat down with $200 and cashed out four hours later with $254.
A small but welcome profit which brought my loss for the trip to below $100.
Nothing very eventful, other than finding out that I could play the freeroll on Wednesday if I put in another 8 hours by then.


After that I went back to Aria to have dinner with wifey at the Chinese restaurant there, Blossom.
We both like this place - more expensive than Noodles, but better quality and a really relaxing atmosphere.
(Plus the $50 resort credit helped.)




I decided to play at Aria that evening until I realised the list was too long.
So I walked to Monte Carlo to see if I could get a seat there instead.

[It's really convenient that you can walk between Bellagio, Aria and Monte Carlo indoors (particularly in winter).]


I was sat down at the second table of $1/$2 with $200, which suddenly became very short-handed after people decided to swap to the tournament.

There were just four of us when I started playing, including an older guy to my right who I almost immediately got into a hand against:

I had 68 on the button and the old guy raised to $6.
I called and the blinds folded.

The flop came 7910 and the old guy bet $10.
this could be a good start!

I called the $10 and the turn was a safe 4

The old guy bet $15 and I raised to $40.
He then re-raised all-in, which was about $100 more.

Hmm...
An old guy going all-in is a bit concerning, but it was still quick call with second-nuts, particularly at a short-handed table.


Unfortunately he flipped over 8J, which gave him the better straight, plus the diamonds (not that he needed it).

I had two outs for the chop... but it didn't happen and I was quickly down $150 in my second hand!



As if to rub salt in the wounds, the table immediately broke as one of the other players left and the old guy said he didn't want to play 3-handed (fair enough).

I was transferred to the other table where I topped up for another $100.


Soon after joining this table, I found myself stacking-off on the turn against two other players with just an overpair on a very wet board.
I'd love to say I played the hand well and knew where I was at, but to be honest I was just getting frustrated and hoping something would happen...

The river brought in one of the two possible flushes but remarkably my hand was good.
One player showed TT (vs. my JJ), and the other said he had the second flush draw and a straight draw.

Added to this good fortune was a later hand where I flopped a set and managed to get it in on the turn against a player with top pair, good kicker.

After my all-in bet, he said "you must have a set... I call"

My luck had certainly changed.
I won a couple of smaller hands on top and by the end of my short two hour session I had gone from -$150 to +$277.



This also took me into a profit for the trip (+$194).

Day 6 (Monday):

Budget breakfast:




$30 daily charge to use the fridge?
...no thanks:




Today we went to Premium Outlets North.



Some great prices, particularly with Black Friday week and some email discounts we got in advance.
E.g. Ralph Lauren was cheap price + 40% off for Black Friday week + 30% off for some UK email voucher we had; Calvin Klein had coats reduced from $325 to $70.

Which meant the prices were about 25% of those at home and we easily covered the $50 in taxis to get there and back.

We also got a really good and cheap lunch at Chipotle:




After getting back to Aria, I completed the day of cheap meals:



(Stupidly enough I hadn't realised in the past that the pizza slices at Five-50 actually cost $5.50. )

In the evening I played just over 5hours at Bally's to get closer to the 12 hours for the freeroll on Wednesday.

In for $200 and out for $305 to go +$299 for trip.
Can't remember any big hands.

Welcome to Vegas. You can buy a small fridge at Walmart for about 50 bucks.

Uber/Lyft?

Thank you for confirming my impression of Brit "frugality".

Really enjoying the TR, good stuff.

Haha, maybe I am a bit cheap. On the other hand I'm too lazy to work out how to user Uber. Would I need different accounts for different countries or do I just need to do it once?




Day 7 (Tuesday) part 1:

Some pics from the end of the corridor in Aria:








We walked down to TI for another of our regular restaurants - Pho.
A good thing about this place is that you can order off either the Vietnamese or American menu. My wife went Vietnamese but I was in the mood for some pasta:



In hindsight, this was a mistake. The meatballs were quite poor and I'm not sure I'd have it again even if it was free.
The food's been pretty good overall for the trip though, so no big deal.

My wife went to Venetian but I popped over to Fashion Show Mall to pick up some new shoes:



Then I headed back to TI to see if I could get in a game there.
Only two other players were ready to play and I gave up waiting so went to Mirage instead.



The new room doesn't look too much smaller than the old one and the same old (very old) dealers were there as before.
Maybe the same players too - it certainly lived up to its reputation for being where the old men play.

Generally I quite like that sort of game because I feel comfortable and start to play a more aggressive game.

But today was not a success.

I didn't get many cards and I got owned in two big pots by an old regular.
One hand I went for a bluff after I missed my draws on the river and unfortunately he missed his (dominated) draws but managed to pick up two pair in the process.
In hindsight something he said should have made me know he'd hit.
The other one I went for value with AJ on an ace-high board when he had AK.

After a painful 3.5 hour session, I cashed out -$164 to put me back to +$135 for the trip.

Day 7 (Tuesday), part 2:
My wife came to rescue me from Mirage, and we walked to Caesar’s to do some shopping.

Pic from outside Mirage:


Pic of the free show in Caesar’s:

Any illusion is a bit ruined by the Nike sign in the background, haha!

And from the shopping we went for our 3rd(?) trip to Noodles at Bellagio.
The portion of my beef and asparagus dish was huge:



To cap off the evening, I crossed over the strip to get the couple of hours I needed at Bally’s.
I bought in for $200, which is now becoming my standard (my first trip I started at $120…).

My first table seemed pretty bad and I felt out-matched to be honest.
I was down to $30 and through a series of lucky-ish pots I got back to just less than my starting point (~$170).

Then I had the following hand:

Limp on the button with J5.

5 players to the flop of J52

It’s checked to me and I bet $10.

One of the mid-position limpers calls but the others fold.

Turn is 4.

Other player bets $20 and I raise to $50.

He goes all-in and I can’t find a fold here with top 2. (Should I be able to?)


Sadly for me he shows 36 for the straight and I don’t get lucky on the river.


...that’s twice this trip that an opponent has hit a lucky turn with 36o to stack me.

I rebought for another $200, but I still felt a bit of a loser at this table so I asked for a table change and quickly got moved.


My new table looked better, although the two players to my left were a bit annoying.
They were both foreign and were consistently talking during hands (in their own language), even when one or more of them was still in the hand.
None of the dealers ever said anything.

I was tempted to say something, but:
(a) I am a bit of a coward.
(b) They didn’t seem very good so I'm not sure I wanted them to leave.

A key hand for me happened when I had pocket aces and played a big pot against one other opponent.
The river brought in all obvious draws (straight + flush) and my opponent (who had been check-calling every street) quickly moved all-in for $70 into a pot of $200.

Everything said I should fold here.

...but on the other hand I was frustrated and looking at already being over $500 down for the day if I folded.

So I called, purely through frustration.
He said “good call”, and showed top pair which he had turned into a bluff.



“Good call?”… no, not at all.

He just bluffed the wrong person at the wrong time and I guess that’s what $1/$2 is all about – bluffing is overrated!

Pic of my stack just after the aces hand:


Soon afterwards, I had got more than enough hours for the freeroll and decided to call it a night at -$20 for the session.

As I was leaving, I glanced at my starting table and I was reassured to see that two of the better players (including a kid who looked about 14) had stacks above $1k – so I think it was a good decision to move.


Overall, not a great day.
But it could have been a lot worse if I had the ability to fold!

Sorry for the lack of updates - I have written up the next one but imgur is not allowing me to upload anything...

I'm having problems with imgur as well. You can upload via email by emailing your images to upload@imgur.com, then they autoreply with an email including the links to the images. It's pretty sweet.

lol @ you going shoe shopping while your wife pokerz

Haha, good point.

I shall try this, thanks.
The format is different, I'll try a test:

..edit: it seems you need to add 'jpg at the end.

Day 8 (Wednesday):

Breakfast on my last full day in Vegas:



While scoffing down the banana bread, I discovered a cool program which I ended up watching for about 2 hours while waiting for wifey to get ready:



For Americans, presumably this is an easy one to guess?

Lunch was the buffet at Aria, for which I had two free tickets courtesy of the MyVegas game:



It was pretty good, even if the pictures don’t look that appetising.
I definitely preferred it to Bellagio.
Fresher, better options and also a much nicer atmosphere – the windows were big and bright, looking over the pool area (rather than the dark cavern at Bellagio).
Still not sure I’d pay full price but I would do a 2-for-1.

From here there was time for a quick session at Bellagio before the Bally’s freeroll.

They opened a new $1/$3 table as soon as I arrived and I bought in for $200.
The players looked pretty good – a couple of Belgians in their twenties, a young Spaniard and a few Americans in their early thirties.

The first hand I remember was one where I c-bet the flop and turn against one of the Belgians when I had a small pocket pair.

I was about to give up on the river (or make an ill-advised 3rd barrel at the pot) but instead fluked a set which worked rather better against his TPTK.
Then I had a nice pot against his friend who decided to triple-barrel bluff against me when I had AK on a board which had two aces on the flop… 
Slow-play FTW!

Other than these two pots I don’t remember any hands and I cashed out +$112 after a couple of hours.

I crossed over to Bally’s to take my seat at the weekly freeroll.
There were 59 players and the top 20 get $300.
I was hoping we’d all just chop for $100 each but apparently that never happens.

The blinds went pretty fast and soon I was down to 8 BBs after about 30 minutes without really getting involved.
(Average was about 12 BBs, with 45 players left.)

I looked down at AJ UTG and decided to go with it.

I found a caller in late position with QQ and that was me out of the tournament.

In hindsight I’m not sure I should have gone with that hand in that format but I’m not really sure?
At best it's on the margins, and at worst it's an easy fold?

Anyway, not worth worrying about and it was time to meet up and grab some dinner.

We decided to try Sage at Aria (to use the $50 resort credit).

I started with a Sazerac cocktail and whatever free thing they gave us:



Then for the mains I had the Wagyu Short Rib and she had Rabbit:


 
Food was pretty good, particularly if you don’t want big portions.
(I’m English so American portions are normally a bit of a mission for me!)

Mains were $40-$45, so I think that was about right for the venue which was very smart (but almost empty!).


After dinner I wanted to play at Aria but the list was 20 people long and they didn’t have any tables to open.
So I did my usual trick of trying Monte Carlo but there was no luck their either.

Next stop was MGM, which had about 10 tables of $1/$2 running.
I bought in for $200 but my first table looked really bad so I asked for a change.

My second table didn’t seem much better but I wasn’t keen to move again so I settled in for the night.

A middle-aged LAG in seat 5 went on a heater and rolled his stack up from $200 or $300 to $1500. Pic below shows him on about $1200 I think:



He was pretty entertaining.
He played almost every hand and would do things like betting $86 on the river before showing 86o the nut straight.

Sadly for me I literally could not find a hand.

Getting frustrated and down about $80, I made a terrible bluff on the river in one of the few hands I was simply too bored to fold.

The bluff really shouldn’t have worked – he showed no sign of weakness, didn’t like folding and my bet didn’t tell a credible story at all.

But for some lucky reason it did, which recovered some of the damage.

After 3 hours I cashed out -$30 for the night – and for my last hand of the trip.

This final result left me at +$187 for the trip in poker (plus a whopping +$5 in slots).
By my records I played 35.5 hours, so that means just over $5 per hour.



I'll settle for that, particularly after the start.
My wife also finished slightly up.

Alaskan Bush Peeps

Off topic - A conversation I heard on the radio about how bad English food seems to us prompts me to ask: Considering you've been to Vegas and ate well many times, does English food seem bad to you now?

Correct on the TV show.

English food?
To be honest, I don't know what it is.

There are some meals I could think of:
Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast vegetables and gravy - love it
Fish and chips - not a big fan of the traditional deep fried version

But in general, we eat all sorts, particularly in London.
I'd say that the most popular styles are Italian or Indian rather than "English".

I'm sure if you go to an average pub here you will get some bad meals though!


Last day of the trip:


Just time to have an argument with the front desk about the bill (definitely on the blacklist now!) and use my wife's poker comps at Aria Café:





Pretty good; I like this place - it isn't fancy but the quality is good and it has loads of natural light which I like.

Then it's time for the airport:




Flight meal:



(Premium Economy on the way back so they give metal cutlery.)


I started off with this movie:



Then watched one I hadn't heard of before about US political debates (it was pretty good):




Another good trip - I can't wait to go back.

I'll do another one or two posts wrapping up, including a whole load of statistics for the different rooms across the last 3 trips.

Thanks for reading!

Great stuff! Thanks

Looking back at the goals:
Having things left on the list is never a bad thing for Vegas though... will try to tick these ones off next time.

Coming up later... some stats from the last 3 trips and final thoughts on favourite rooms to play at.

In the meantime, here's a graph of the 3 trips combined:

Final picture from me for this trip:



Above is the combined stats across the 3 trips I have taken over the last 18 months.

I know most people prefer hours rather than sessions but I'm afraid I don't have those stats for the first trips.

The stats clearly show that $1/$1 is unbeatable and $1/$3 is easier than $1/$2.

I know it's a tiny sample size but I am surprised to see I have run better in $1/$3 than $1/$2.

One thing I have noticed is that my best tables (beyond just the results) have been:
(a) At one of the smaller rooms (e.g. TI, Mandalay, Monte Carlo)
(b) In the afternoon

It makes me think that these are the sort of sessions that casual tourists put in (e.g. while wife is shopping) before going out for dinner and shows in the evenings.
I used to try and play evenings to get the drunk players, but I'm gradually becoming convinced this isn't necessarily the best tactic.

The other thing I've learned is how much comps my wife makes by just playing in the main rooms (Bellagio, Aria, Venetian)!
She consistently makes enough to pay for a couple of meals whereas I like to hop around different rooms for the experience.

Thanks again for all the views - I look forward to enjoying your TRs until I make my next trip.

Next time combine 4 & 5. The Orleans has a lot of low stakes LHE.

6, don't worry about, you didn't miss much.

8, learning to drive just for this is silly (and dangerous for the rest of us ).
http://www.viator.com/Las-Vegas-attr...84-a12?pref=02

I think the drunken Vegas poker player is a 2p2 myth. I've hardly seen any of them. On balance I'm the drunkest player at the table by far. There have been a lot more drunks at Casino Arizona than anywhere I've played in Vegas.

What is the app you are using to track and report the profit/loss per session, cumulative result, etc? I am going in a few days and would like to do something similar.

excellent TR!

In my opinion, on your next trip you've got to get number 8 completed as you're missing some pretty spectacular scenery. Does your wife drive?

Thanks for those Red Rock suggestions (and all your comments in the thread, they really do help).

I had a look at those sorts of things before I went and even started a thread:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/10...-fire-1565027/

However, I hadn't noticed the mountain bike one before, so that sounds like a good option for next time.

No "app", just making a few notes on the phone then stats via Excel when I got home. I use Excel all the time at work, so it take a couple of minutes at most.

Yeah, it's probably my biggest regret (from all the trips).
If I drove, I'd do the grand canyon for a couple of days and then Red Rock / Valley of Fire / Valley of Death in later trips.

In fact, I'd like to do a road trip across US via other casino resorts like Foxwoods/Mohegan Sun, Atlantic City etc. Someone did a nice trip report along those lines.

My wife doesn't drive - she claims women aren't meant for driving.
It's still a vague plan of mine to learn, but I'm 32 and work long hours at the moment, so it doesn't look very likely.
Plus in London, it's not all that useful (or economical).

Just booked my next trip for the end of July.

This time I'll likely be staying at Mirage and Flamingo (Go Executive) as my wife's staying at home.

Is there any point trying to go hiking in July or is it just too hot?

Only just saw this TR DW,good read! You seem to like your grub, i can get behind that mate.

Hope you enjoy your next trip! See if you can find some decent Squid/Calamari in Vegas and let me know if you do, i can never find it.

Sent by Real Ale on a Sunday, hence hard to read.

Looking forward to the trip report!