Not bringing the dog or the moccasins




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Subbed. Sucks about the NFL bets. Looking fwd to your upcoming adventure!!

Here for TR part 2.

currently at the Budweiser beer park watching the NFL games.

Last night the flight arrived a few minutes late but generally without issue. Mike got in shortly after and we ubered to harrahs and got checked in. The room is definitely dated but hey I can't complain about free stuff. After getting settled we checked out the diamond lounge and got a few gin and sodas to loosen up while watching the second half of the Seahawks lions game. We managed to place second half bets and I added another VIP to the rip up party as the second half over did not come through.

Then we got dinner at delmonicos and boy a huge thanks to gobbo for the recommendation, as it was the best steak we both have ever had. "Not even ****ing close" mike says. Service was great, everything was excellent.

Afterwards we placed some more bets for the Sunday NFL games and some parlays, played roulette, blackjack, and poker too. Got to bed at around 2a miraculously about even.

Roulette -500
Poker -500
Blackjack +1300
Dinner -300

Today's sports bets are in the pics below - let's gooo!







We both got the Japanese wagyu, with potatoes and spinach as sides. Started with the wilted spinach salad and marrow toast. Everything A+ would recommend!



View from the room, not too bad



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The beer park is a nice place, between the weather and the location and the football I'm upset I haven't been here earlier!


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Nice start so far. Looking forward to reading more. Good luck.

Going to play the Venetian 7p deepstack tourney tonight, last one of the event. Really need packers to cover and over to come through here in this packers/Giants game. Last play of first half ruined my big parlay, sigh, but **** that's sports betting for you dam what a thrill

Second half was pickem went packers
Second half o/u was 24 went over
Standing full game bet (second run of parlay) is full game o/u 44.5


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All 3 bets came through 1 of which was a parlay so that's a handy +950 in afternoon sports betting. Takes a dent out of those bad bj shoes and few other bad sports bets.

Got a couple of hours before the tourney so some degeneracy until then thanks for reading and showing support!


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Degeneracy has gone well for the casinos and bad for me, down 2,000 at bj so far today. Heading north to Venetian and to cash the parlay win at caesars, hopefully can make up some ground on the way


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Well it didn't get much better last night, after that I went back and got the remaining half of the supply and used it to get a 3,000 massage at the bj tables. Sucks to lose it all but it is what it is. After that we went over to Venetian and played the last tournament it was a 200$ turbo 7k guaranteed. I played pretty well, chipping up in some coin flips but busting in 11th when jthh couldn't improve vs the buttons qq (bb vs button). Out of 40 runners I'm not upset. Mike made the final table but busted in 7th when his a7 lost to at on a turned t.

After that we got some burgers at the burger joint in the Venetian which was delicious, then got some pedia lite and hit the sack.

Today we are hitting the links, we do 2 man scramble and try to play 18 holes without a bogey, which is tougher than it sounds for two 12 handicappers.

Thanks for reading



Looks like I played some roulette too, they don't like pictures at the table.



Won 7 bucks vs mr hellmuth, it is a fun game I'll say



Burgers were delicious




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The morning started with some breakfast burritos which were pretty tasty. Our tee time was at 8:40a and we were up and ready to go at 7:45a, both feeling really good thanks to the pedia lite chug to end the night before. We played the Arroyo Golf Club at Red Rock, and it was a beautiful course. The weather made the course even more challenging, the wind gusts were probably 25+ mph (nicknamed Hurricane Arroyo). But, between the Fireball and blue moons, we managed to shoot a 77 which is usually awful, but we were happy. We bogeyed the very first hole which was disappointing and the white unicorn of a bogey-less round escaped again.

After golf we headed over to Umiya and had excellent all you can eat sushi and sake for a very reasonable price (i think all said and done was less than 80$), we had probably 10 special rolls which, if ordered individually, would probably top 200$. Thanks again gobbo!

After that we headed back to the room and grabbed a quick nap prior to the national championship game. We ended up watching it in the Harrah's sportsbook and were both stunned as not only did Bama not cover the 6pt spread, but they lost the game outright!

An old friend Sam joined us during the Bama game, and afterwards we headed over to the Aria for some vodka watermelons and poker. The game was good and the table was a lot of fun except for this one guy in the 2 seat who was probably the biggest scumbag I have ever seen. At least 3 different times this guy tried blatant angles, the biggest one being after clearly announcing he was going to raise out of turn, then trying to back out of it so much that the floor had to be called. And the sad thing was this guy has no moral compass as he was not sorry at all.

We played 1/3 pretty much all night and ended both up a little bit which was nice. After probably 6 hours, at ~4am the vodka watermelons finally got the best of Mike and we had to leave when he threw up in the trash can right there in the poker room. A hilarious end to a fun night!

After that we stumbled back to the room, Mike fell asleep, but its ~5a now and my flight is at 9:30a so I can't go to sleep otherwise I wouldn't be able to wake up, so I went to Hash House and had the sage fried chicken, which is excellent as always.

After that I caught an uber to the airport, checked in fine but my 9:30a flight got delayed til 11:30a which stunk, but I was able to get about an hours worth of much needed sleep. Funny enough my delays pushed my departure time right to when Mike's was, so we were able to meet up briefly and say our goodbyes.

Now I'm back at the house and running on fumes, sorry if this was a ramble, I'm really tired and about to hit the hay. Pictures to come.

Thanks for reading and until next time.

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Thanks for the trip report and pictures! Sounds like a fun time.

Yes thanks seems like my kinda of trip.

Well, the gods have smiled down on us via another Vegas trip, this time over Memorial Day. The lady has a trip out of the country so I hit up Mike in the one-off chance he could swing (pun intended) a Vegas / golf combo trip, and luckily he was free as his wife was also out of pocket that weekend.

So we are all booked for Friday May 26th AM - Tuesday May 30th AM, with Mike arriving Saturday PM. Until Mike arrives I plan to play either a Venetian Deepstack or Planet Hollywood Goliath donkament, then Sunday and Monday will be golf, NBA betting, and poker, with I'm sure some degeneracy sprinkled in. Hopefully less though than previous trips, as we both have tighter budgets than before.

We are both flying Southwest so we'll have our own clubs, and the hunt for the white unicorn (playing best ball, shooting an entire bogey-free round) will be in full effect. Friday and Saturday nights are at the Cosmopolitan, and Sunday / Monday are at the Linq.

Can't wait!

Alright. Finally it's (very close to) time! Work has been a ***** this entire month, which has made this trip seem like the light at the end of the tunnel. I guess it's more like just a pit stop in this tunnel of life, but I digress. I'm all checked in and packed, and just finished up some stuff around the house (mowing the lawn [which was more like a jungle, I procrastinated bigtime], dropping the dog off at the vet, laundry, yada yada yada).

My flight leaves at 6a tomorrow morning and I arrive around 8a Vegas time. I've got Spotify music loaded up, some Mike & Mike (sports talk), and I rented "The Hurt Locker" on my tablet. Once I arrive, I am going to jump into the Venetian Deepstack 600$ tourney at 11a after dropping off my stuff at the concierge. A slight schedule change, the first 2 nights are at Cosmo but the last 2 nights are at Venetian - I actually had an offer there with some free comp bets and dining credits, which is a huge improvement over paying 59$ to stay at the Linq.

My plan to keep these offers coming at the Venetian is to do only my "higher stakes" gambling (50-200$/hand) at the Venetian, and keep my regular pit game gambling (10-25$/hand) at other casinos, to try and keep my rating high. If this is not a good idea, let me know.

Here is what is currently on the to do list (I doubt we'll get to all of these):

• Momofuku in Cosmo
• Holsteins in Cosmo
• Lagasse Stadium in Palazzo - this was a very recent find for me, there was a thread talking about sportsbooks and someone mentioned Venetian sportsbook and I thought "I've been there, nothing special" but upon a 2nd read I now see that Lagasse Stadium is something completely different. Anyways I'm super pumped about this one. I know not much sports is on this weekend but I don't mind betting on golf and baseball (better than nothing!).
• Burger Bar in Venetian
• AYCE sushi - either Jjanga or Goyemon. Help needed on choosing which one!
• Venetian Deepstack poker tournament as mentioned above
• Golf - got tee times at Arroyo at Red Rock, and TPC Las Vegas. Real pumped about these, both Mike and I are flying Southwest so we are bringing our own sticks. Although, my driver doesn't fit in my luggage. My 3 wood will have to suffice off the tee.
• Bobby's Burger Palace
• Aria poker - my favorite poker room, and the watermelon vodka drink is the best free drink I have found in Vegas
• Luxor poker - they have some great promotion going on and also I look forward to playing here one last time before they close, as this is where I played my first live poker in Vegas some 7 years ago*
• O'Sheas for some beer pong
• Yard House or Budweiser Beer Park (I love good draft beer)
• Low chance, but maybe the spa or the pool. Arthurbach's threads were a pretty good hype for me.
• Any other good ideas from here

I guess that's all for now. I'll load up a few pics from my phone here in a second. Regarding semi-live, I will strive for that again this trip, but if things get too intense then instead of low quality updates I'll hold off and do a post-trip TR.

Wish me luck and thanks for reading!

*short story but my first live poker experience in Vegas at Luxor involved me and my brother sitting at the same table and my brother proceeding to run the entire table (including me) over. I think he won like 600$ in a few hours and I was down at least 200$. I vividly remember making a 3b/call vs him with 88 because he was playing like every stinkin' hand (he can't have it every time!). I lost to AK, of course. Big brothers suck (just kidding).

roll



kicks



funny Dilbert from this week



dog (mine is the big one)






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Subbed - good luck!

Gonna do a post trip TR, taking notes on the voice recorder. Sorry to delay!


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Good Luck, Post lots of pics, please.

Friday - Day 1

I wake up at 4:15a in New Orleans and within 15 minutes am in an Uber headed to the airport, super psyched to be heading to Vegas. I slept surprisingly well, thanks largely to a view beers and falling asleep with Seinfeld on the sleep timer. The flight departs at 5:55a with no issues and the ~3.5 hour flight passes quickly thanks to Mike and Mike on podcast and watching The Hurt Locker.

I arrive in Vegas around 8a, had an early decision but chose the high road as i had a poker tournament to play in!



I catch an Uber to the Venetian to drop off my golf clubs at the concierge and register for the noon 600$ deepstack tournament (an early good luck sign - I am the first entrant!). Although I'm not staying at Venetian tonight, I didn't want to lug my golf bag to the Cosmo then have to lug it back to the Venetian, and I wasn't playing any golf until Sunday anyways. Then I walked over to Cosmo and dropped off my bag there and checked in. The room wasn't ready but i got a room key which would be activated when it was and they would text me. At this time its around 10a so i bop around the strip soaking up the Vegas atmosphere, take some photos, grab a 6$ lifewater (gotta stay hydrated, yes i got ripped off!) and head back to the Venetian to take a look at the days MLB games and find some lunch. I decide to stay away from pit games until after the tourney because playing blackjack or craps does a helluva job at making a poker tourney seem boring, and i knew i would need patience if i was to make a deep run!










After getting the inside scoop from my brother i take my first bet of the trip. He's a big Astros fan and last trip I was here I placed a bet for him at 12/1 for the Astros to win the World Series this year. Now they are 9/2 and the Astros are in first place, so yeah i think he's on to something.



Then i head down and settle on Yardbird for lunch, in the V. I order a brisket sandwich which is delicious and not too heavy, as its almost noon and I want to be alert for the poker tournament.



20k starting stack, 40 minute levels, starting blinds 50/100 - great structure. Here we go!



And there we go... sadly i never get anything going and bust about 3-4 hours in after bleeding my stack away with bad passive play the entire afternoon. Multiple spots came up where in retrospect I should have taken charge of the hand and 3 bet preflop and led flop, which would have prevented my terrible post flop out of position play.





After busting, I head back to Cosmo to check in as my room is ready. I walk through the Bellagio which is pretty crowded at this point with people checking in, and then make it to my room on the 30th floor with a strip view - dang what a gorgeous room and view!



After soaking it up for a bit I head down to Aria to play some poker, but before I get seated (after burning 100$ on video poker and slots without any success) my friend Sam is getting off work (its about 5p now) and we decide to meet up at Todd's English Pub for some dinner and beers. I got the salmon burger and we split some wings, got happy hour pricing which was nice although still i wouldn't call it cheap.



The burger was good but nothing special. It was good to catch up with Sam and then we headed to Aria to get our grind on.



After playing for about an hour and getting a watermelon vodka, the long day started to get to me and we decided to head back to the Cosmo for some blackjack before I retired, down about 350 from poker on too-splashy play. Didn't have much success at Cosmo BJ either (-60) and crashed hard at about 10p, having been up since 2a Vegas time. This was fine tho, as I have a big day on tap for Saturday, including more sports bets, a trip to the Luxor, some much needed good luck(!), and Mike arriving.

Until tomorrow, Vegas!



Day 1 totals:
-600 poker tournament
-200 sports bets (darn Astros!)
-100 video poker & slots
-350 poker cashgame
-60 blackjack
-1,310 Total

Unfortunate day. On the plus side, you've put together a great start to the TR. subb'd and GL.


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Saturday - Day 2

I wake up at 7a and bounce out of bed feeling like a million dollars. I'm in Vegas! With a lot on the to-do list but having ultimate flexibility, I decide first to start with some blackjack at home base (the Cosmo).



I played for almost 2 hours ($50 min) and met some interesting characters. One kid, his first time in Vegas, had been up all night clubbing and was up about $800 off a $100 buy-in. He kept stashing chips in his pocket and talking about how his flight was tomorrow. Eventually I connected the dots that his flight was actually today but he hadn't slept so the previous day hadn't ended yet for him. Anyway (sadly), in the end most of his winnings came back out of his pocket and into the well.

At about 9a I said enough is enough and decided to lock up my first win of the trip (+480)! Time to hit some high hands at the Luxor and play poker there one last time before it closes forever.





The walk down is enjoyable (not too hot yet) and I arrive to see a couple games running and a list for 1-2 that goes off the TV screen. It goes exactly 44 deep I find out as I get on the list, but it's about 9:30a and I'm told more games will be starting at 10a, which is also when the promotion starts.



30 minutes is just the right amount of time for some blackjack, and I eventually belly up to the $25 min, 6-deck shoe table after almost sitting down at double deck tables twice.



Well, that was the 1 shoe to write home about. I probably won 10 hands in a row at one point and in general could not lose. 15 vs a 10 showing? I hit a 6. 18 vs an A showing? Dealer bust. The only thing I remember besides crushing the house here at Luxor is to pay attention when playing blackjack. Two separate times the dealer tried to take my money when I had won the hand. That's a swing of $50 each time. Although that is kind of a pet peeve of mine, I didn't let it get to me as I finished +860 and decided to head back to the poker room as it was about 10a now.

Well, I am now #11 in line but there will be no more new tables. I think for a second and determine that the folks playing here probably wouldn't be giving up their seats anytime soon even if I pulled the fire alarm, and I decide a better idea is to head up to the Wynn to scratch my poker itch.

A quick Uber later and after a quick phone call with the bro I place some sports bets and jump into a 2-5 game.





Let me be the 100th person to say it - the Wynn poker room is really ****ing nice. Tons of space, well lit, nice people... This is a model poker room for sure.

I sit to the right of a nice gentleman from Knoxville named John who only has a bet/raise button. I'm talking raising on a board of A83 K with K9 because the flop checked through so clearly nobody had an ace. He also 3 bet pre-flop with a very high frequency, so when I have QK on the button and raise to 15, when he pops it up to 45, I feel pretty good making the call. We see a beautiful board of KT3, and he leads out 50, which I call. Turn is a 2 and he leads out 100 and starts telling me that he has a big hand. In a vacuum I would rarely fold this, especially to a villain as active as this, but we had a good rapport and it felt sincere so I folded and he showed me AA. Thank you sir!

It's about 1:30p now and I haven't eaten yet today, only drinking hearty juices like carrot and tomato. I am down off my 800 buyin sitting on about 350, but up off my low and thinking things are turning around. I order a salad, start drinking some tea, and am feeling pretty good about the situation. **** I'm in Vegas playing poker in the nicest room I've ever stepped foot in, what's not to love!



I play for another hour and sadly things do not turn around and I cash out -720. I head on over to the Venetian, pick up my golf clubs from the bell hop, and check into my room.



Although not nearly as nice as the Cosmo, I can't complain about free stuff and hey this is still pretty darn good. It's about 3p now and Mike gets in around 7p, so I decide to go get a massage at the spa. Sadly, they are booked until 6p so I pass and decide to play some pit games.

Boy oh boy did I take a beating in the ensuing couple of hours. I mix it up between blackjack and roulette a couple times, but never get anything going. When the dust settles I am down -2400 and have had enough. I decide to head over to the sports book and watch some baseball until Mike arrives.



Mike gets in on time without issue and after finally meeting up in the maze that is the Venetian, we drop his bags off and head to Holsteins back in the Cosmo for some burgers and brews. It's one of my favorite burger joints in Vegas because of the atmosphere and I love their beer selection. I settled on Ommegang's Three Philosophers, a burger (forgot which one), and sweet potato fries. Mike ordered vegetable sticks instead of fries with his burger, I guess he doesn't realize this is a vacation yet.





After dinner it's around 10p and since we have an early tee time on Sunday I check out of the Cosmo and we catch a cab back to the Venetian. Dang I'm gonna miss that view. We place a few baseball bets for Sunday and decide to retire so we are 100% for the early round of golf.



On deck for Sunday - a once in a life-time round of golf, a letdown at Lagasse stadium, and amping up the sports betting.

Thanks for reading!

Day 2 totals:
-2450 sports bets (I didn't cash any winning tickets yet)
-720 poker
-560 blackjack
-500 roulette
-4,230 Total

Great pics, sad to see the day 2 results. hope it gets better.

Lagasse was a huge letdown for us too. Interesting to hear your take.

Nice tr.