4 Scots in Vegas - TR 17th to 24th Aug
08-31-2013
, 08:47 PM
09-01-2013
, 04:44 PM
Day 5 - Bit of Poker and a good Steak
We find that its a weird phenomenon of Vegas that we always manage to avoid hangovers. Don't know if its the air conditioning in the hotel rooms - but we always seem to wake up pretty fresh. The same was the case this morning as I woke up around 10am and after a quick breakfast I decided to go play in the 12pm Caesars tournament which was $120 I think.
Normally, we come to Vegas during the WSOP in June and I take on an event or play at the Venetian. However, as a general rule I don't play too much poker while there as I'd prefer to just have fun with friends. I did feel like I should make an effort to play a little however so registered for the tournament and we started with 25 runners.
With a $10k starting stack and 20 minute levels I was on 9,200 when the blinds reached 100/200 and I had my first real hand of interest.
A weak passive English guy who was limp / folding a lot, called from mid position and I raised it to 600 on the button with 6
5
.
My plan does not quite work however as the SB calls and then the BB tosses in a $1k chip to also call. However, the dealer announces "raise". The BB was a woman in her 30's who had just been moved to our table. She immediately said "No! I don't want to raise it is just a call!". The floor is called and she is held to her raise. The early limper folds and it is back to me.
I internally laugh at the weird things that happen in live poker and don't really see any other option but to 4 bet since the BB has essentially told everyone she doesn't have a strong hand. So I bump it up to 2.2k and the SB folds. The BB clearly tilted calls then checks in the dark to me. For the record she had just short of $10k at the start of the hand.
Flop comes - 10
5 2
I move all in and am snap called. She turns over 9 4 and I hold for a double up. All the old guys at the table are shaking their heads and looking at me like I'm crazy...
Anyway, I lasted about another 90 mins before going out in 12th position when I flopped trips and a guy floating me hit an inside straight. I decide to meet the guys at the pool in Monte Carlo and find that they have had a much more productive time;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4U_4RosIGY
After the pool we headed over to Mandalay Bay to eat at Strip Steak. I had heard a lot of good things about it and it didn't disappoint. They hooked us up with some Truffle, Herb, and Spiced fries cooked in duck fat as an appetizer;
For main I went for the Wagyu Filet, Ally and Fraser got the Wagyu Rib Cap (below) and Malcy went for the Wagyu Burger.
Anyway, we liked the restaurant a lot. We try to go to a different steak place each year and this was our favorite so far, for sure.
After dinner we headed to the Quad to play some blackjack (-$120) before heading into this bar / club place that sits between the Quad and Harrahs. Place was pretty terrible and Malcy's hopes of hooking up with some girls did not look great. We stayed for about an hour and then I decided to go play some 1/2 cash at Planet Hollywood.
For the most part this was a really dull session and eventually I lost my $200 starting stack with QQ against KK on a raggy board. I won't bore you with the details but its fair to say I played the hand pretty ****.
So overall more of a low key day after the casino crawl carnage. Tomorrow sees us finally get some female action (yes there are pics, no they are not naked) and we go to Burgr for some food.
Thanks again for all the comments.
We find that its a weird phenomenon of Vegas that we always manage to avoid hangovers. Don't know if its the air conditioning in the hotel rooms - but we always seem to wake up pretty fresh. The same was the case this morning as I woke up around 10am and after a quick breakfast I decided to go play in the 12pm Caesars tournament which was $120 I think.
Normally, we come to Vegas during the WSOP in June and I take on an event or play at the Venetian. However, as a general rule I don't play too much poker while there as I'd prefer to just have fun with friends. I did feel like I should make an effort to play a little however so registered for the tournament and we started with 25 runners.
With a $10k starting stack and 20 minute levels I was on 9,200 when the blinds reached 100/200 and I had my first real hand of interest.
A weak passive English guy who was limp / folding a lot, called from mid position and I raised it to 600 on the button with 6
5.My plan does not quite work however as the SB calls and then the BB tosses in a $1k chip to also call. However, the dealer announces "raise". The BB was a woman in her 30's who had just been moved to our table. She immediately said "No! I don't want to raise it is just a call!". The floor is called and she is held to her raise. The early limper folds and it is back to me.
I internally laugh at the weird things that happen in live poker and don't really see any other option but to 4 bet since the BB has essentially told everyone she doesn't have a strong hand. So I bump it up to 2.2k and the SB folds. The BB clearly tilted calls then checks in the dark to me. For the record she had just short of $10k at the start of the hand.
Flop comes - 10
5 2I move all in and am snap called. She turns over 9
4 and I hold for a double up. All the old guys at the table are shaking their heads and looking at me like I'm crazy...Anyway, I lasted about another 90 mins before going out in 12th position when I flopped trips and a guy floating me hit an inside straight. I decide to meet the guys at the pool in Monte Carlo and find that they have had a much more productive time;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4U_4RosIGY
After the pool we headed over to Mandalay Bay to eat at Strip Steak. I had heard a lot of good things about it and it didn't disappoint. They hooked us up with some Truffle, Herb, and Spiced fries cooked in duck fat as an appetizer;
For main I went for the Wagyu Filet, Ally and Fraser got the Wagyu Rib Cap (below) and Malcy went for the Wagyu Burger.
Anyway, we liked the restaurant a lot. We try to go to a different steak place each year and this was our favorite so far, for sure.
After dinner we headed to the Quad to play some blackjack (-$120) before heading into this bar / club place that sits between the Quad and Harrahs. Place was pretty terrible and Malcy's hopes of hooking up with some girls did not look great. We stayed for about an hour and then I decided to go play some 1/2 cash at Planet Hollywood.
For the most part this was a really dull session and eventually I lost my $200 starting stack with QQ against KK on a raggy board. I won't bore you with the details but its fair to say I played the hand pretty ****.
So overall more of a low key day after the casino crawl carnage. Tomorrow sees us finally get some female action (yes there are pics, no they are not naked) and we go to Burgr for some food.
Thanks again for all the comments.
09-02-2013
, 07:33 AM
Day 6 – Burgr & Birds
We decide to go for a workout this morning and use the Monte Carlo gym. I was surprised that it was free to use and they didn’t even check if we had keycards to stay at the hotel. It is a pretty good gym and well equipped so will definitely remember for future use.
The five days of alcohol abuse left us all fairly lethargic and after a half-hearted work out we felt like a trip to the discount shopping mall downtown was in order. I swear that shopping precinct is the hottest place on earth. Malcy, bought a couple of shirts but then we had to abort before Fraser fainted and decided to head to the Golden Nugget to play a bit of blackjack.
Like the Tropicana this was the first time I had been to The Golden Nugget since it had been renovated and was quite impressed at how nice it looked. We hung out there for a couple of hours with a bit of 3-card poker (-$100) and a bit of blackjack (+$80) and had a few white Russians to warm up for the night ahead. We cab back to the strip and stock up on supplies;
The plan for the evening was to eat at Gordon Ramsey’s BURGR and then head to a club. We head over to Planet Hollywood and get seated within 20 minutes. I decided to buck the trend and go for the beef hotdog which was amazing;
After dinner we are approached by a promoter for Koi in Planet Hollywood. Basically the deal is $30 entry before midnight and then its an open bar for the rest of the night. Sounds good to us. So we get wristbands and decide to go and smash some drinks in the room before we head out.
We get to Koi at around 11.30pm in pretty high spirits but are a bit disappointed by the massive sausage fest in terms of the people there. We resort to hitting the bar hard and getting our $30 worth but after an hour the crowd had improved a great deal and we started doing a bit of mingling. The first target was a group of girls from Puerto Rico.
At this stage I will point out that Fraser and Ally were purely there from a wingman point of view. Fraser in particular is a good wingman due to him being a pretty good dancer which always acts as a solid ice breaker before letting Malcy and I move in. However, things did not go well with team Puerto Rico. No matter how slowly I spoke they could not understand our accent and unfortunately Fraser dropped the girl he was dancing with. Whoops.
Moving on we ended up speaking to a bunch of Irish girls. I ended up kissing one before her ex-boyfriend showed up and some sort of domestic argument broke out and I left them too it. So essentially no luck with Team Ireland either but at least they understood us.
By now Ally and Fraser were struggling and decided to head to Earl of Sandwich and left Malcy and I to have one last swing – the target was Team Canada;
We do have pics of the girls but after speaking to Malcy I don't think its a great idea to post them on public forum. Sorry folks! Kinda have to respect their privacy. They were both good looking though and Malcy did well with the one he picked - unfortunately the one I picked was married.
I manned up though, switched to wingman mode and chatted to her like a perfect gent while Malcy got re-introduced to the twerking dance moves we had witnessed earlier in the week at Rehab.
We left the club and walked the girls to the taxi queue where I said my goodbyes and gave Malcy the room key for Cosmo where he headed with his girl of choice. I went to meet Fraser and Ally at Earl of Sandwich but it seemed that Fraser had entered “trapdoor mode”. Trapdoor mode for Fraser means he loses all ability to speak, use a mobile phone, etc…and as I walked up to their table he just ran off. Ally and I then spent the next ten minutes texting and calling him to remind him that a) He was staying in the Monte Carlo with us and b) We had his room key for the Cosmo.
Meanwhile all was going well with Malcy who came back to the Cosmo with one half of Team Canada. However, when he got to the room he found Fraser repeatedly trying to walk through the closed door while shouting “Rab let me!!”. The way Malcy described it was like seeing a bumble bee trying to repeatedly fly through a closed window. Fortunately, this didn't put the girl off and they put Fraser to sleep on the couch before heading to the separate room for the night.
So that is it for another day in Vegas…more tomorrow.
We decide to go for a workout this morning and use the Monte Carlo gym. I was surprised that it was free to use and they didn’t even check if we had keycards to stay at the hotel. It is a pretty good gym and well equipped so will definitely remember for future use.
The five days of alcohol abuse left us all fairly lethargic and after a half-hearted work out we felt like a trip to the discount shopping mall downtown was in order. I swear that shopping precinct is the hottest place on earth. Malcy, bought a couple of shirts but then we had to abort before Fraser fainted and decided to head to the Golden Nugget to play a bit of blackjack.
Like the Tropicana this was the first time I had been to The Golden Nugget since it had been renovated and was quite impressed at how nice it looked. We hung out there for a couple of hours with a bit of 3-card poker (-$100) and a bit of blackjack (+$80) and had a few white Russians to warm up for the night ahead. We cab back to the strip and stock up on supplies;
The plan for the evening was to eat at Gordon Ramsey’s BURGR and then head to a club. We head over to Planet Hollywood and get seated within 20 minutes. I decided to buck the trend and go for the beef hotdog which was amazing;
After dinner we are approached by a promoter for Koi in Planet Hollywood. Basically the deal is $30 entry before midnight and then its an open bar for the rest of the night. Sounds good to us. So we get wristbands and decide to go and smash some drinks in the room before we head out.
We get to Koi at around 11.30pm in pretty high spirits but are a bit disappointed by the massive sausage fest in terms of the people there. We resort to hitting the bar hard and getting our $30 worth but after an hour the crowd had improved a great deal and we started doing a bit of mingling. The first target was a group of girls from Puerto Rico.
At this stage I will point out that Fraser and Ally were purely there from a wingman point of view. Fraser in particular is a good wingman due to him being a pretty good dancer which always acts as a solid ice breaker before letting Malcy and I move in. However, things did not go well with team Puerto Rico. No matter how slowly I spoke they could not understand our accent and unfortunately Fraser dropped the girl he was dancing with. Whoops.
Moving on we ended up speaking to a bunch of Irish girls. I ended up kissing one before her ex-boyfriend showed up and some sort of domestic argument broke out and I left them too it. So essentially no luck with Team Ireland either but at least they understood us.
By now Ally and Fraser were struggling and decided to head to Earl of Sandwich and left Malcy and I to have one last swing – the target was Team Canada;
We do have pics of the girls but after speaking to Malcy I don't think its a great idea to post them on public forum. Sorry folks! Kinda have to respect their privacy. They were both good looking though and Malcy did well with the one he picked - unfortunately the one I picked was married.
I manned up though, switched to wingman mode and chatted to her like a perfect gent while Malcy got re-introduced to the twerking dance moves we had witnessed earlier in the week at Rehab.
We left the club and walked the girls to the taxi queue where I said my goodbyes and gave Malcy the room key for Cosmo where he headed with his girl of choice. I went to meet Fraser and Ally at Earl of Sandwich but it seemed that Fraser had entered “trapdoor mode”. Trapdoor mode for Fraser means he loses all ability to speak, use a mobile phone, etc…and as I walked up to their table he just ran off. Ally and I then spent the next ten minutes texting and calling him to remind him that a) He was staying in the Monte Carlo with us and b) We had his room key for the Cosmo.
Meanwhile all was going well with Malcy who came back to the Cosmo with one half of Team Canada. However, when he got to the room he found Fraser repeatedly trying to walk through the closed door while shouting “Rab let me!!”. The way Malcy described it was like seeing a bumble bee trying to repeatedly fly through a closed window. Fortunately, this didn't put the girl off and they put Fraser to sleep on the couch before heading to the separate room for the night.
So that is it for another day in Vegas…more tomorrow.
09-02-2013
, 04:21 PM
09-03-2013
, 05:12 PM
Day 7 &8 – Last day and Journey Home
Our last full day in Vegas. Can’t believe how fast it has gone. Both Fraser and Malcy show up at the Monte Carlo mid-morning. Malcy seems a little lighter. We decide to check out a new place for breakfast and then just go to Diablos. Over our fajitas we decide to take on the “Gordo Challenge”. The Gordo is a supersize cocktail that you can buy at the Monte Carlo pool that costs $55 but is guaranteed to get you pretty messed up. There is over a pint of tequila that goes into it + various other shots etc…Anyway, it seems like an appropriate way to spend out last day. We did wonder why nobody else seemed to be drinking them and the bartender wished us luck when he handed them over…
Here are the lads looking fresh at the start of the Gordo. No idea why they call them Gordo’s btw…
The pool was really busy and there was a DJ on being a Friday so most people were getting into the spirit of things. Most people were just floating in circles around the river rapids, on the rubber rings. However, as the Gordo’s went down things deteriorated quickly.
50% of Gordo left
40% of Gordo left
30% of Gordo left
20% of Gordo left
10% of Gordo left
0% of Gordo left
So it was fair to say the Gordo (plus a bonus ¼ Gordo) killed my vibe pretty hard and I KO’d on the balcony of Cosmo. Our last memory of the Monte Carlo pool was having a competition to see who could throw the inflatable rings the furthest. This didn't prove popular with staff or patrons and we made a fast exit when one ring I threw hit a bodybuilder in the face.
With me wiped out at the Cosmo the lads to their credit persevered. Fraser got the kilt on and they went to Bank at the Bellagio with Team Canada from the previous night.
Token Scottish Kilt Photo...
Malcy ended up with one of the Canadian girls again and Fraser decided to put his run good skills to test at 1/2 at the Mirage. He made $500 profit largely from two luck box scenarios...
1) Friend from home texts him to raise blind. He makes it $12 to go. Gets four callers and the flop comes 6 7 8
. He looks after the flop and he has 9 10. He runs so good he was probably annoyed he didn't have a backdoor flush draw.
2) After a three calls and a raise he wakes up with aces on the button. He three bets and the first limper goes all in. Fraser calls and his opponent has queens. Queen on the turn...Fraser is concerned he is about to experience what other players call "bad beats" but the ace on the river keeps things correct in his universe.
Fraser fondly recalls one session that he played in Vegas where he got about $700 in the hole but then someone hit a royal flush on the table giving everyone a $750 bonus. The game is easy!
Anyway, as Fraser is making coin and Malcy is losing even more weight I am still sound asleep on the last night in Vegas - poor show but I'd hit my limit!
The next morning we decided to go to a random casino for some blackjack. To The Orleans we went and quickly lost -$200 before heading to the airport to start the long slog home.
Only when we hit the airport do the hangovers kick in and by the time we are on the plane Malcy is in a bad way...
So that was it for another year! Tomorrow's post will be a bit of a recap + our plans for trip in June 2014.
Thanks again for reading!
Our last full day in Vegas. Can’t believe how fast it has gone. Both Fraser and Malcy show up at the Monte Carlo mid-morning. Malcy seems a little lighter. We decide to check out a new place for breakfast and then just go to Diablos. Over our fajitas we decide to take on the “Gordo Challenge”. The Gordo is a supersize cocktail that you can buy at the Monte Carlo pool that costs $55 but is guaranteed to get you pretty messed up. There is over a pint of tequila that goes into it + various other shots etc…Anyway, it seems like an appropriate way to spend out last day. We did wonder why nobody else seemed to be drinking them and the bartender wished us luck when he handed them over…
Here are the lads looking fresh at the start of the Gordo. No idea why they call them Gordo’s btw…
The pool was really busy and there was a DJ on being a Friday so most people were getting into the spirit of things. Most people were just floating in circles around the river rapids, on the rubber rings. However, as the Gordo’s went down things deteriorated quickly.
50% of Gordo left
40% of Gordo left
30% of Gordo left
20% of Gordo left
10% of Gordo left
0% of Gordo left
So it was fair to say the Gordo (plus a bonus ¼ Gordo) killed my vibe pretty hard and I KO’d on the balcony of Cosmo. Our last memory of the Monte Carlo pool was having a competition to see who could throw the inflatable rings the furthest. This didn't prove popular with staff or patrons and we made a fast exit when one ring I threw hit a bodybuilder in the face.
With me wiped out at the Cosmo the lads to their credit persevered. Fraser got the kilt on and they went to Bank at the Bellagio with Team Canada from the previous night.
Token Scottish Kilt Photo...
Malcy ended up with one of the Canadian girls again and Fraser decided to put his run good skills to test at 1/2 at the Mirage. He made $500 profit largely from two luck box scenarios...
1) Friend from home texts him to raise blind. He makes it $12 to go. Gets four callers and the flop comes 6
7 8 . He looks after the flop and he has 9 10. He runs so good he was probably annoyed he didn't have a backdoor flush draw.2) After a three calls and a raise he wakes up with aces on the button. He three bets and the first limper goes all in. Fraser calls and his opponent has queens. Queen on the turn...Fraser is concerned he is about to experience what other players call "bad beats" but the ace on the river keeps things correct in his universe.
Fraser fondly recalls one session that he played in Vegas where he got about $700 in the hole but then someone hit a royal flush on the table giving everyone a $750 bonus. The game is easy!
Anyway, as Fraser is making coin and Malcy is losing even more weight I am still sound asleep on the last night in Vegas - poor show but I'd hit my limit!
The next morning we decided to go to a random casino for some blackjack. To The Orleans we went and quickly lost -$200 before heading to the airport to start the long slog home.
Only when we hit the airport do the hangovers kick in and by the time we are on the plane Malcy is in a bad way...
So that was it for another year! Tomorrow's post will be a bit of a recap + our plans for trip in June 2014.
Thanks again for reading!
09-04-2013
, 08:31 AM
09-04-2013
, 11:58 AM
Round up
So another year done in Vegas and a great time was had by all. The most fun we had was on the strip crawl which we will certainly do again...
Maybe not this. I think we would die - but maybe a downtown / north strip crawl could be fun. We still have to #findtina !
From a gambling perspective the trip was pretty bad. The limited poker I played did not go well and was certainly down for Blackjack on the trip. That said it was nothing more than I had budgeted for and as long as you assume you are going to spend 100% of your budget, coming home with any cash is a bonus!
Next year we are planning to come back in June around the WSOP again. I will be playing an event and plan to do a report on that so keep an eye on this thread in the future!
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone on this forum as it really is an amazing resource. I think I've learnt everything from the $20 trick to how to go about getting table service at clubs on this forum and a million things in between. So I'm glad I have been able to give a little something back and hope you have all enjoyed it.
Cheers!
So another year done in Vegas and a great time was had by all. The most fun we had was on the strip crawl which we will certainly do again...
From a gambling perspective the trip was pretty bad. The limited poker I played did not go well and was certainly down for Blackjack on the trip. That said it was nothing more than I had budgeted for and as long as you assume you are going to spend 100% of your budget, coming home with any cash is a bonus!
Next year we are planning to come back in June around the WSOP again. I will be playing an event and plan to do a report on that so keep an eye on this thread in the future!
Finally, I'd like to thank everyone on this forum as it really is an amazing resource. I think I've learnt everything from the $20 trick to how to go about getting table service at clubs on this forum and a million things in between. So I'm glad I have been able to give a little something back and hope you have all enjoyed it.
Cheers!
09-04-2013
, 11:35 PM