Another middle-aged white guy (MAWG) is heading to Vegas! I’ve got some use-or-lose vacation and a screaming deal at the Venetian, so I’m heading to Vegas for some low-key entertainment and a lot of low-stakes and mid-stakes poker.

This is my second trip report. My first one was from my WSOP trip earlier this year: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/10...a-8-a-1342816/.
I did pretty good at updating that one the first week but lost momentum the second week when my buddy came to town, we played a few tournaments and I ran out of time (it takes a while to write that much text). But I hope to manage at least a short update every day this time since its less than a week.

If you like my writing, I have a blog in House of Blogs: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/22...dream-1380341/
Cliffs: furloughed federal employee spends most of his time at the poker tables in Black Hawk, CO; improving at 30/60 LHE and currently on a massive heater at that game.

So I’ll be trading in these:

(it’s been friggin’ cold in CO!)

For these:

And these:


You can probably identify me at the table cause I’ll be wearing one of these:



The cool orange-faced watch is my quad-9s watch, I had a small jackpot payout at Mandalay Bay several years ago and bought this And yes, I know they read different times, it needs a battery, which it now has.

Don’t expect much craziness in this trip report (I seriously doubt I’ll be making an appearance in Katana’s thread, especially not in this state:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=715

My poker plans for this trip include:

Venetian
2/5 NLHE-this will likely be my main game
15/30 and 30/60 LO/8-I love to play limit Omaha HiLo, and my friends that were there last week said that the 30/60 game ran a couple of times

Bellagio
I have only ever played once at the Bellagio but it seems to be the home of mid-stakes LHE and multiple 5/10 NLHE.
20/40 LHE-I play 30/60 LHE in Colorado, and there are usually 3 games at this stakes running, so it must be beatable. 40/80 has only 1 table, beatability not so clear
5/10 NLHE-I’ve never played this big, although I have lots of 2/5 hours under my belt. Bravo indicates multiple tables are often running, that’s the game I’m looking for.

Time is getting short, I still have to pack for this trip. Anybody who want to go out for steaks or greyhounds can PM me!

I’ll drink a greyhound in honor of all the desk jockeys who are reading this at work, wishing they were playing cards and drinking greyhounds!

Good luck out there!

Are you targeting any restaurants this trip?

I'm excited to read about your limit game sessions along with everything else.

If you like Stud at all, Bellagio's 20-40 game is real beatable.

thanks!

Re restaurants: I'm afraid Sinicide TR will make me look so bad...
Holstein's for sure, Sinicide made me think Cut looks like a good investment, definitely Hash House at the Quad (I have a thing for awesome fried chicken), Nobu if I have some run good, then probably use Yelp and LVL to guide me to some good eats. Anybody have a good BBQ suggestion for the strip?

Thanks for the tip on Stud, I haven't played much since BF but I was reasonably good at that game, although Stud HiLo is my preferred Stud game (same reason PL O/8 >> PLO, you get someone that plays high only and you end up freerolling).

T-3 hours until departure...

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Once more unto the breach..,

This is really just a test of Photobucket on my iPhone, hope it works.

Easy taxi ride, told the driver Swenson to Tropicana to Koval, no freeway diversions attempted

Called into poker room as soon as I got to my room, if I can take a hand in the next 20 minutes then it'll be just one hr after I landed

Good luck! Hope you run well so you can eat well! Haha.

I think the level of competition in the 30 at Blackhawk and the 40 at Bellagio are reasonably comparable fwiw.

Thanks! I seem to be in full spewage mode, gonna be Dennys for me! JK, I should invest some of these BFs in steak and fewer at bad bluffs...

Thanks for the tip, gonna play some limit at the B later.

Got my Kindle will try to update during my next session.

I hope you run good for shoes sake

The Pikolinos are awesome, super comfy, the New Balance have seen better days, they just got back from a run through the snow and mud...

Tuesday afternoon quick update

I haven't had much time to update this TR, but here's a quick update:
Lunch today was Tacos el Gordo , here's some pix


The adobada (spicy pork)

Two tacos, a mula, and a vampiro

Here's an example of how things are going at the poker table:
I'm killing 20 minutes or so at 2/5 nlhe at the Venetian while I wait for my friend to pick me up for lunch. Folds to cutoff, who limps, button (agro guy, chaser) raises to 20, SB (caught bluffing twice in the last 15 minutes) calls, Hero calls with As8s, limped calls. Pot $80.
Flop KsJhTs. Checked to button, bets 50, SB calls, Hero calls, cutoff folds.
Turn Qc, SB bets 200, Hero shoves 430 total, button shoves, SB calls, and of course I'm freerolling. But alas the river is a blank, and my chance for an easy triple up is gone. I rack up and go to lunch...
Playing 20/40 limit HE at Bellagio now

Did you just complain about turning a small profit? Poker gods are watching.

Huh? We all had Broadway's, wasn't that obvious? I guess the 3 of us did chop that guys $20, so I made $5.

Anyway, not complaining, just observing that a lot of my big draws have missed.

this afternoon at Bellagio was better, update in progress.

missed draws usually mean losing, which you didn't do...i think that's what he was referring to.... saving bad beat stories for real bad beats

It's your trip report though; we're just mere observers...

GL at the tables; run good!

I arrive at the Venetian and check in no problem, there is no line. I don't even try the $20 trick since 1) I've never stayed here before so I want to know what a standard room is like, and 2) I have no status since I don't play table games. Might have worked this week too, since its very slow here.

30th floor, huge room, decent view, including the new Ferris wheel construction:



I took my first hand and had my first greyhound 1 hour after landing:


It was pretty much all downhill from there. I buy into 2/5 NLHE for 500 while I wait for a 15/30 O8 seat. Table is so-so, nothing interesting until this hand. OMC limps early position, agro guy raises to 20, Hero calls with 66, OMC calls.
Flop is 6s5s3s. OMC sinks $25, agro guy flats, Hero raises to $100 with $280 behind. OMC shrugs and folds, agro guy calls. Turn is red 8, agro guy cks, Hero shoves, villain calls. River is 2s, I know I'm toast. Villain tables KsQs for a flopped flush. FML.

I rebuy another $500 and run that up to almost $700 before my 15/30 O8 seat opens. Table is reasonably good, except for the one old guy who plays 80% of his hands. My stack seems to oscillate wildly, I got from the +$300 to -$100 and back a few times. Game is good enough that, plus I want to grind, so I have the Miso salmon from Grand Luxe at the table (very good but really food porn worthy). A couple of Makers Marks later, I rack up at 330 AM, down around $100 and exhausted. I'll post a couple of interesting hands later, want to write the rest of the Tuesday update.

Not trying to claim bad beat here, just the excitement of the triple-up freeroll, followed by the slight disappointment of a chop.

Thanks for the run good, I had some on Tuesday and will try to post again later, after I workout (Venetian has very nice gym, Canyon Ranch)

I wish you the best OP. Just seemed strange for a chop to be "this will tell you how I have been doing" which is also usually equiv to "how I have I been doing? I'll tell you how I've been doing..." Usually negative.

TYTY, didn't intend to come as pissy/whiny, been running good since then, working on a new update while playing 20/40 @ Bellagio, some solid food porn coming (not as good as Sinicide, sorry)

Day 3-Turnaround Tuesday

I'll write about Monday when I get a chance, Tuesday was a way better day.
Doesn't start too good, I only get 5ish hours of sleep for the second night in a row, can't sleep past 8 and I feel like crap. I know I gotta exercise to get rid of this funk, so I drag my ads to Canyon Ranch and ride the exercise bike for 30 minutes and already feel better. Twenty minutes of weights and I'm good to go. This was my first Canyon Ranch workout, and I was impressed, tons of equipment and a rock climbing wall, I may pay the $25 upcharge for the spa before I leave.

I already gave a Tuesday lunch update in post #10. After lunch I go with my friend to Bellagio to have another shot at the 20/40 LHE game. On Monday I played this game for about 3.5 hrs and won $91. Not sure if it was because it was Monday afternoon, but the game was actually very tough. 4 or 5 local regs who were solid, there was almost no open limping, this was gonna be a tough game to beat. I don't think I made any mistakes because I played so few hands.
Tuesday afternoon was like being back at the 30/60 must-move at the Ameristar on a Friday night. Lots of open limping, just generally soft, calling down any pair ("I put you on AK!"). Not too many noteworthy hands, just running pretty good against the fish and avoiding the good regs. Here's a picture of my greyhound shortly before I left:



The greyhound at Bellagio was much better than Venetian, seems like the grapefruit juice is better. Stacks are $120, cashed out +~$800.

And my friend won $500 playing 4/8 LHE-wow!

Next up: Kabuto!

40 plays about the same with a tad more aggression. Definitely play before you leave.
And good choice for sushi. Can't be beat in the states.

My friend told me she wanted to take me to a great Japanese restaurant, but she didn't know the name. I had no inkling I was headed for the famous Kabuto! We went to the one on Spring Mountain, she said there's another location that's huge (place is tiny, seats maybe 20?) but there's only one location listed on the website, not certain what she's talking about. Anyway, most (all?) of their fish is flown in from Japan daily, and the quality was outstanding.

We got a small bottle of sake, I'm not a connoisseur but this was very smooth



We had a huge lunch (see post #10) and weren't very hungry, so we split the Yoroi ($80). Starts with some mango sake aperitif:

The fish description is partly visible as well.

Next up was the sashimi course:

Top left is the bluefin tuna, then yellowtail and mackerel, I believe.

After that was the grilled course:

Left is fish neck, center is wagyu beef with caviar, right is another grilled white fish with some delicious sauce.

Next course is sushi:

Medium fatty tuna is top left (I never knew there was more than one variety of toro), the one in the bottom middle is opal eye (never had that before), the little dish instruction right is spicy fatty tuna. The roe were very good, not too salty like most roe.

Fish miso soup, another fish neck


For dessert I choose the green tea ice cream, with green tea:


Finis



I understand the 2+2 love for this place, it is truly a dining experience!