Hello LVL - long time listener, first time caller......

TL/DR version - 8 days in Vegas - poker and ****- woohoo!!!!

I've spent a fair amount of time over the last decade or so mooching around people's trip reports and living vicariously through them - I thought it only right that I give a little back and also memorialise what I hope will be somewhere between a break from the norm, a chance to play cards and cut loose in a way that only Vegas allows.

First a bit of the back story.....

Personal - From the UK, I'm early 40's happily married (she thinks this trip is a 'great idea' so either I'm really lucky or delusional about the happy part) with a fab little boy who has just turned 1. Currently on gardening leave before I start a new job at the end of May and needing a break after 3 years of hell in my current role. I won't dwell on it here, but I've been at odds with with our CEO's decision making for over a year and it's a fight I've now accepted I can't win - time for a change and new leadership for my department and a new challenge for me.

Poker - I was a mid 2000s entrant to the game and played live for the first time on my first Vegas trip in 2006 (including in Hooters where memorably I tripled up on hand one with KQ on an AQQ flop). By 2010 I was playing MTTs online every few weeks for a laugh and started taking things seriously later that year after I got divorced. One weekend I won two sizeable field MTTs for about 3 months wages and I took a package to leave my job. I ground out low-mid stakes MTTs for 18 months then flipped to cash as a mass-table low-stakes (25-200nl) grinder for another couple of years before I could see the writing on the wall and my profit in game trending towards my rakeback income and rakeback reducing at the same time. Thankfully my professional qualifications got me a short term contract gig back in my industry and I never looked back. I now play probably 6 times a year online and maybe 4 live. The live games almost always drunk and when the opportunity arises - because it's a hobby now, I try to play aggressively and exploitatively and not care about the results really - my last 2 casino visits were +£1100 and -£900 at 1/2.

Vegas - This will be my 4th Vegas trip. Did 2006 with the boys and nearly died after 10 days of total degeneracy - who knew Vegas was so hard.... Got engaged there in 2018 and introduced my wife to vegas on that trip - she loved it so much we did a week there in 2019 at the end of our honeymoon roadtrip and were booked to go again in 2020 when covid struck. So far I've stayed in MGM Grand, Aria and Venetian and played in those rooms plus Hooters, Harrah's, Mirage and Caesars.

Plans for this trip

I'm using up what comps/discounts I have remaining from various means to justify it to myself. Arrive around 7pm on Monday 2 May and then

3 nights Planet Hollywood (Mon-Thu)
2 nights Wynn (Thu-Sat)
3 nights Park MGM (Sat-Tues)

Between the Covid flight voucher and the above, the total cost of the trip right now stands at just under $500.

Things that will happen

Lots of poker - plus visits to rooms I've not played including Bellagio, Wynncore and Resorts World for definite - Cash mainly but possibly a daily or two in there for variety
Lots of beer - will try to stay off the hard liquor at the table
Lots of last minute debate about where I'm going to eat - I'm a trip advisor/yelp/fine and casual dining thread whore and I need to get it right - except when I just get a donut and go to bed
Exercise - I love my treadmill and don't like cheating on it, but for a solo trip I think this will be essential
Shopping - I'll be picking up some stuff for me and I'm sure the wife will have her eye on some stuff if (when?) I win anything.....
Video poker - the vice that can't be beat - it just needs to be controlled - although by my count I'm overdue a first royal by a fair bit!

Things that won't happen

Strip clubs - not my bag and definitely not solo
Weed - tempted to try real stuff, but it never did much for me back in the day - alcohol is my drug of choice
Martingaling sports bets whilst getting blackout drunk - I will have this written on both palms and if I do it then I will have it tattooed on my face

Things that might happen

Trip downtown - I love one night per trip downtown (although my wife doesn't really remember either time we've been) - maybe even 1/2 at the GN.....
Running it up - will start at 1/3 and move to 2/5 once I feel comfortable and am not getting destroyed. Would love to shot-take 5/10 (or more) by trip's end if i can get to the place where it's all house money.
Brother might join in - My bro lives in California and I don't get to see him often. He's trying to find a way to make a few days work (but he's a dad of 3 so not easy) which would be awesome as we've not been drinking together like that since 2010.

What's next?

Am I right in saying you can just post pics now? I remember some god awful thing that stopped me doing it when I used to post here sporadically a decade ago...... I need to figure this out and get bankroll/shoe pics on the go....

Figure out the long list of food options for me - especially with the solo thoughts in mind. Any ideas welcome - I'm not going properly fine dining on my own, but steakhouse at the bar is definitely on (maybe Bavette's or Delmonico's.....)

Start counting the hours - 493 right now until I leave.

I'm in. Nice write-up. Safe travels. Looking forward to reading more. Hope your brother is able to make it work.

Re: posting photos, 2p2 is hosting them now. From a PC, just copy the image to the clipboard, ctrl-V into the reply, wait a little bit for it to upload, et volia!

Not sure about mobile. Too cheap to get the upgraded version of tapatalk to post photos.

In for it all. GL!

Looking forward to reading about your trip!

in

Thanks guys - appreciate the early support! Need to make sure there’s no risk of disappointment so this is and attempt to post some random chip pron from my phone.

I also learned that I need a PCR test the day before I leave which is a right pain in the ass as I’m at a stag do (bachelor party) 300 miles away on the Saturday before I fly. Anyway - it’s booked now and I need to run that gauntlet successfully!

Still working on the food options list so that will be here for (constructive!) critique in the coming days.

And yes - I’m a terrible chip handler/stacker….

Big sweat on the stag do trip getting covid. Maybe just wear a mask / wash hands more often.

Was the biggest fear I had pre vegas for my March trip coming from the UK. That said if you do the online monitored LFT tests you could easily ‘get creative’ with how you apply to solution to the testing cassette.. the zoom call never can see below your screen.


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Good luck!

Yeah, that stag do + Covid test combo is a bit worrying.

I'm just back from 8 days in the States for work (Masters golf) and I didn't go anywhere crowded in public for the week before I took the test (10am Saturday, flying at 8am Sunday).

FWIW, unless Nevada has some specific requirement, you should only need an LFT test for travelling to the States if fully vaccinated.

Your first person was very well written so fingers crossed you make it

Thanks guys! I’m going to investigate the LFT option for sure - Far less chance of a positive.

As for the stag do, there’s not much i can do - i imagine if I get the damn thing then it likely won’t show up for a couple of days? Either way I will have the hand sanitiser and lots of medicinal alcohol on hand!!!!!

440 hours and counting…..

After further investigation of the testing options, I'm not too pleased that I've gone gung ho into booking my PCR test. This is particularly complicated as I did actually have Covid in the first week of March (assuming my home test was right) so I could still test positive on a PCR as a result. At the time I had no plans and so didn't think to get the confirmation of a PCR at that point so now can't officially get the 'I've recovered' letter from my doc - stupid.....

Net result is I'll go with my PCR test as booked on Sun 1 May and then IF it fails I've got the option of a rapid test at the airport for another £35 on the Monday (assuming I've not got any symptoms - if I feel like I have a new infection then I'm not an @$%hole so won't be going). All that means is that I'll need to leave home at about 3.30 am instead of 5 am to get to Heathrow for my flight - glass half full says that's 1.5 hours less until my trip!

As for food options, I've got my long list sorted. Much as it pains me I've decided not to go off strip just for food UNLESS my bro comes along - I'm not prepared to justify the time or cost of uber-ring for a solo meal which could last 40 mins. That means no return visits to a couple of faves in Arawan and EDO and no first opportunity to visit Kabuto (I drool over some of the pics/reviews, but my wife isn't into Sushi so haven't gone before). I've also locked in a return to carson kitchen if I go downtown so missed other downtown venues for now. The rest is split into 4 sections - Sit downs, Buffets, Food Court, Fast food go-tos

Sit-downs

Sushi Roku (get a sushi fix anyway)
Bavettes (spend my Park resort credit)
Javiers
True Food Kitchen (need a detox meal/day and this has worked before)
El Segundo Sol
Mon Ami Gabi

Buffets

Wicked Spoon
Wynn

Food Court

Blood Bros BBQ (looks good, but assuming I'm in resorts world I could get sidetracked)
Hattie Bs (been to Nashville twice and it's been my first meal there both times)
Eataly

Fast Food go-to's

Shake Shack
Chick-fil-A (hardly worth mentioning, but so much better than what we have in the UK)
Tacos El Gordo (another one that I've just not been able to squeeze in before, but no excuses this time - especially being at the north end for 2 nights)
Dirt Dog
Eggslut
Secret Pizza (willing to try - used to love 550 but moneyline doesn't look as good to me)

Obviously not making it round all of those, but it gives me a selection of places to default to depending on where I am and what I fancy without having to think too hard! If anyone's got any better ideas based on what I've got above (or wants to warn me off!) then go for it. Before anyone says, I expect to get flamed for not having Bacchanal as an option, but I've done it and for me it just wasn't as good as Wynn and Wicked Spoon just has something different.

I'm going to be in Vegas at the same time as you (also a Brit travelling solo) and have off-strip meal plans that you'd be welcome to join - lmk if you're interested and I'll PM you my current plans.

Tacos el gordo the queues were crazy so we went to the one next door which was great too


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Which one is that? Did I read that someone took their old spot and is also doing tacos? Maybe I'll do a side by side comparision.


Done - always up for a bit of likeminded company.

Next question - where's the best place to get information on the dailies (and other tourney series that rooms might be running)? I've tried bravo and poker atlas and consolidating the info was hit and miss at best - inconsistent in format and missing key info at times (like buy-ins for some events....)

Apologies if there's a thread with some of this or even a link - I had a look and didn't see anything.

Thanks in advance!!!

This was posted in another thread. Hope it helps.

Amazing - thanks both!

Posting to subscribe in hopefully epic bread.

Great OP write-up!

Don't most CET poker rooms (Rio, CP, Bally's, Harrah's (Still open?)) have dailies that aren't listed on that site? Maybe I'm missing something...

Rio is closed for good, same with Harrahs.

CP certainly listed on Bravo, but this is much more complete info. There's a $400 ultimate stack at venetian on the Tues/Weds which looks interesting at this point too.

In prep, I've managed to get in a whopping 279 hands this afternoon (mid afternoon UK time) at NL10 Fastforward. Given it's about 9 months since my last foray into the online NLH cash streets I didn't want to blast off to much, Won approx 80bb in 25 mins so based on that I'll be playing 10/20 by day 4 of the trip.

Interestingly Party now seems to give you a 'report card' on your play which is total lulz for anyone who's ever thought about the game. Apparently I played 32/27/17 which meant I'm too aggressive pre flop and also too much of a station for flatting 50% of 3bs in position - lol sample size obvs.....



My absolute favourite was this gem though. Must try harder......

How did you get the trip so cheap?
Who did you book it with?

I’ll be in Vegas next week too, and I’m considering the $400 tournament at the Venetian as well

I just got back from ParkMGM - there is a Crack Shack near the Eataly entrance outside - different types of chicken sandwiches/fried chicken. I thought it was pretty good.