Nicely done.

Cheers for the feedback guys. We just landed back in cold London.

Sorry for the typos in the last post, I literally had to post without proof reading before the plane left the gate and I lost wifi.

Now 5 hours in the airport and then onto Dublin.

Final update will be from there

Hey 2+2,

So we're finally in Dublin after nearly 24 long hours of traveling. Sad to of left Vegas but looking forward to getting back into my own bed in Malta.

C ya Vegas





Unfortunately no Birthday upgrade on the flight but overall a fairly decent flight. The plane was probably only half full which meant no one in front of me reclining their seat and a spare seat between me and Dan for extra arm room. I managed to get about a hours sleep on the plane and finished off some movies I'd been wanting to see.

We land in London with around 6 hours to kill. Sat in a airport you realise how many fun players there are in the world and as Mickey Peterson tweeted the other week "Whenever I'm worried if poker will get too tough I just observe how people exit airplanes and all my fear instantly disappears" - so true! My bag was randomly selected for a swabbing and while I was waiting in the queue for the bag check the guy infront of me was getting his bag checked, at first I thought the reason he was getting his laptop bag checked was because he'd not taken his laptop out, which was true, but after removing the laptop the airport security pulled out a huge tub of mayonnaise and two massive weird looking fresh fish! The guy getting his bag checked just kept saying "fish from Brazil, fish from Brazil". So many life donks.

We grab a cheeky Nandos because I've not had enough burgers this trip.



And chill in the airport for 5 hours. Grind finally taking its toll for some of us



After a little nap we head to the gate and board our plane to Dublin. Now we're back at the hotel we can finally count the cash and report on the sessions:

Tom

Sessions:

$17
-$56
$508
$197
$77
-$379
$56
-$445
-$300
-$27
-$45
$340
$410
$140
$215
$905
-$299
-$15
$37
-$217

Total poker profit: $1,119

Total hours played: 46

Hourly rate: $24

Total spent for the trip: $1,039

Meaning after shows, clubbing, taxis, buffets, CUT, drinks, Earl, Birthday casino degen etc I'm coming home with $80 more than I took. Poker is a strange game, at one point I would of snap taken to break even for poker for the trip then after going on a heater I'm a little disappointed with the last few sessions and how it ended. This is my fifth Vegas trip in a row where I am coming back with more money than I took though so I can't really complain. I think I played ok this trip and didn't run great and also could tell the players seemed better at $1/$3. This trip has certainly given me motivation to get better and improve at poker and crush even harder on my next trip. I'm getting on a serious grind when I get back to Malta! I also have a new appreciation of what it means to be a live grinder, to play your A game while losing money must be so difficult to deal with.

Dan "Swongs"

Sessions:

$29
$654
-$17
-$635
-$1000
-$750
$400
$980
$430
-$175
$485
-$750
$110
-$95
-$120
$115
$340
$1900
$2190

Total Poker profit: $4,090

Total hours played: 59

Hourly rate: $69

After an amazing last couple of sessions Dan is coming back with $3.3k more than he took. Solid effort!

Vegas is interesting place. While I'm there I honestly go between hating it and never wanting to come back and within 10 minutes totally loving the place and never wanting to leave. The flips In emotions while in Vegas are crazy. At the moment I'm in a "love Vegas mood" and already can't wait to head back to Sin City for more adventures. I have a group of friends going in June for the WSOP which I am certainly not ruling out.

Thanks again to everyone who read the TR and commented on the thread. I really enjoyed writing it, you really don't know at the start of the trip which direction the TR will head in, what characters you'll meet, hands you'll get and what adventures could be had, I guess that's the pure beauty of a Vegas holiday, really anything is possible. Hopefully I'll look back at this in a few years so I can remember what an amazing trip it was.

The EPT is in Dublin at the moment but we thought it might be a little too degen to head over there to play more poker so we're just chilling in the hotel watching Rounders.



But "all we're really thinking about is Vegas and the f**king Mirage"

Signing off now! Until next time, GL,

Tom

great fkn tr man!

Super entertaining TR. I live reading these from guys who know how to have fun.

Well done, thank you very much for all the effort you put into it! It must've been at least 6-8 hours of your trip to write this.

Great thread; impressive that you wrote it while in Vegas.
I'll forgive your assumption I was American earlier when I referred to escalators... haha.

Great TR Hutchy. Very enjoyable reading. I suggest you go back with your friends in June. What sort of poker player doesn't want to be there for the WSOP? A W.E.A.K one, thats who

Great job turning it around and leaving with a profit! Thanks for sharing!

Very nice. Thank you.

Great reading Hutchy. I have to agree with Brookie73 and that you need to get yourself back to Vegas for the WSOP with your friends. Sack off your holiday the Ibiza and get to Vegas with us.
PS Well done on your poker profits.

Great trip report! Thanks for the effort.

good TR hutchy, thanks for the pics

Well done! Thanks for the report. Sorry we didn't meet. I played a lot of PLO at Aria Friday night through Monday night (ended up staying an extra night). Played at Venetian Friday and was all conference stuff the early part of the trip. I can't see your photos at work, so will check at home to see if I recognize you. I played 1/3 only a few times waiting for PLO. You did a lot better than I, though, as I was up only $850 for my trip, but I'll take it.

Awesome TR, and nice end result as well! Hopefully see you around the tables in Malta soon.

Regarding the statement above - might have something to do with you basing 90% of your play at Aria? It generally have a reputation for being more 'reggy' than other casinos, although I'm sure you (who have been there twice recently) can be a better judge of that.

Did you consider changing locations more often, or did you go for poker rate at Aria and of such are 'obligated' to play there a bit?

What? Thought a lot of play was at PH and other locations.

Great trip report!

Glad you guys had fun!!

Solid TR. What a fun trip.

Hey 2+2,

Thanks for all the nice feedback regarding the TR. I really enjoyed writing it so I'm glad it seems like you guys enjoyed reading it as well.

Just to let you know I arrived back safely in Malta at 1am on Thursday nearly 48 hours after we'd set off from Vegas, with just this:



And this:



To look forward too!

Let's just say Thursday and Friday sucked big time being back in the office. But I brought a little bit of Vegas back with me to keep the dream alive:



(Time to wash your chips Vegas Casino's)..

So in total I played around 50% of the trip in the Aria. I didn't have to play there for the poker rate so playing in the reggy Aria game was down to two reasons really:

1) The ease of getting up and just going downstairs to play. I've had a few friends who want to go to Vegas and stay in a villa away from the strip. To me this isn't Vegas tbh, I love being able to get up at whatever time my jet lagged brain decides and just being able to go down and play Poker.

2) The games were tougher than 1/2 PH for sure but still not unbeatable. Like Dan I do want to get better as well and to get better you have to play tougher players. Even though I didn't play any 2/5 this trip I do see 1/3 as a good stepping stone into 2/5, it'll make the jump seem less big.

I played in Malta again this weekend and even though I didn't play 2/5 in the Aria I did watch it a fair bit when Dan was playing and did play a little 2/5 on my last trip and I'm almost certain the €1/€2 games in Malta are tougher or around the same level as 2/5 in Vegas.

How the sessions broke down for me:

46 hours in total

Aria (24 Hours): $926
Bellagio (1 Hour): -$56
Planet Hollywood (10 Hours): $787
Venetian (8 Hours): -$678
Caesars Palace (3 Hours): $140

@BigWhale, if you see me around the Malta games make sure you say hi. I really have the Poker bug at the moment after Vegas so very good chance I'll be playing most weekends.

Yeah, it was a shame we didn't meet this time. Me and Dan did keep an eye out for you but neither of us played PLO so we most likely weren't on the same tables. Congrats on the profit though, sounds like you had a good trip as well

Like my last TR I'm closing off with my post Vegas weight for the fitness railers. I've just had my post Vegas weigh in with the trainer and the buffets really got me this time! I'm too embarrassed to even post the picture but it's alot worse than the last trip's added weight I knew it would be bad but really didn't think it'd be that bad haha. But I'm back on the fitness wagon again now and hopefully it's just water weight which falls back off quickly. I'll let you know how it goes in my next TR which hopefully won't be that long away...

Anyways, thanks again for reading and taking part. It's been a real pleasure!

If you don't gain weight in Vegas, you are doing something wrong. Good thing is you know you can correct it! And from what I've read, you will