Session was meh…. Cashed out for 276 with literally no hands of note. Loss of 24 is fine, but feel like it’s 2 hours I’ll never get back!

Maybe vegas is catching up to me!?!?

Sitting at the bar playing video poker now - let’s see how long my head and patience last!!!

I’m sitting here smiling so hard. With essentially one day to go, I’ve run so good with everything. At a human level I had a great day with Bloobird and 36 hours with my brother in a way we’ve not had for a decade or more.

In poker, I’m 1/1 in tournaments and (ignoring the punt at limit - oops), I’m winning at a smidge over 30bb per hour in a mix of 1/2, 1/3 and 2/5 NL. Clearly unsustainable and as I can see my own leaks I must have run pretty good.

To top it off tonight I played 2 hours VP for break even - including a second dealt premium quads where I hit the kicker, a non premium quads and a straight flush. I got no love from the bar staff despite my play tho which is annoying but just look at these….







To top off how crazy I’m doing, I joked with the wife about playing megabucks before I come home. She liked putting 30 bucks in one every so often on our previous trips so I said I’d do it for her. I spotted one next to the elevators in Park and said I’ll do that one. I nearly bust the 30 after about 10 spins and my last pull netted this.



I’m even up on slots - I feel like it’s almost impossible and certainly not how I’ve previously fared in vegas.

One day to go and I need to go shopping and play some last poker for the trip. Shouldn’t be too late a night as I’m at the airport at 830ish on Tuesday. Either way I’ll be smiling all the way until about July!

have a great last day, hope you continue to run as well as you have been!

Fantastic! Have a wonderful last day in Vegas

Back to the room for what's one last sleep before a reasonable jaunt to the airport around 830am.

Last day hasn't been too much to write about really. Started with a smoothie and a Danish from the Aria Patisserie. However, no-one wants to hear about me going shopping although pretty annoyed that they had no basic Ipads in either forum shops or fashion show apple stores. This would seem to be a thing to ensure that you can be upsold - sorry Apple, but I'm not interested....

After walking all the length of the strip and back, I slid into 1/3 at Aria for a last session. In for 300 and out for 423 - two hands that mattered in the last 30 mins of a 4 hour slot on what can only be described as a table of bad locals and even worse tourists - great for me! Unfortunately I wouldn't pick up much and getting folds wasn't really happening as third pair was calling bets in a lot of spots.

I was just starting to think about leaving when I pick up 85dd on the button in a straddled pot. EP opens to 13 (???), 2 calls, I call and the straddle calls and we go 5 ways to 10 6 4 dd. Check to the cutoff who bets 25, I call and everyone else folds. Turn Ad and she bets 65 - I don't see much point in raising at this point if she still wants to fire this card. River is an offsuit deuce, she checks and I put her in for her last 140. She snaps and shows AQ with Qd which I really didn't understand based on the action, but happy to scoop and move to 580.

I should have racked up, but I didn't want to be the hit and run guy so stayed 2 more orbits. In the meantime I get 89dd in the cutoff in a straddled pot and raise to 20. SB and straddle call - both total stations pre with the SB playing face up post and the Straddle remaining super passive/stationy. Board is 863hh and I bet 35 and get called by straddle. Turn is deuce bringing spade draw to go with the heart draw and I go for 85 and he calls. River is Ac, check/check and he has K8 off. A bit annoyed with the result, but I don't think I can find a way to play differently - especially against this guy - and there's no way of getting folds on the river.

Straight after that I go get some pizza as too tired for sit down meal, lose a quick hundred to VP and then pop into CVS for a few supplies before coming back to pack the bag.

There will be more to say when I gather my thoughts, but for now I've had a blast and comfortably going home in the black. Nothing beats walking down the strip smiling about life - it's like being a kid at xmas for me.

Pics coming from my phone shortly.....

Awesome TR bro-very fun read! Glad you had a great trip and are leaving up a nice amount. Am going to Vegas for the Colossus in June and can’t wait. Planning to try some of the food locations you posted about.

Thanks so much for letting us ride along! I miss Vegas

Great trip dude!!!

Nice TR, it was fun. hope you have a recap summary post

Man I need to get to the Mirage before it’s gone. I think it’s a beautiful property. First casino I ever went to as a kid. Second was The Castle back when it was a theme. Thought it was so cool as a kid. They had jesters walking around performing, a falconer with a real hawk, magicians, amazing stuff l.

Remember seeing guys at the Mirage playing green chip BJ in a pit that looked like a tropical paradise. My dad had already taught me 5 card stud, BJ, craps and 4-5-6 and I wasn’t even 10 yet. I was like, “pops why don’t play you BJ here?” PapaNit was like, “ no too rich for my blood”. Later that day we drove south into the Mojave Desert to Whiskey Pete’s where my dad played blue chip BJ. That night in the middle of the desert DaNit was born.

Awesome trip report Lug.

Great writeup Lug, glad you ran good and didn't let those 50s kill your vibe!

Well done / thanks

It's almost like it's funner to win! great TR

Nice write up. Congrats on the win and thanks for sharing.

Enjoyed your trip report and photos. Congrats on the win.

Thanks everyone for the messages and I'm glad that a few of you were able to enjoy the trip in some small way through the pics and updates.

It's almost exactly a week since I switched out of Vegas mode - my last 'day' consisted of getting up going to the airport and failing to sleep on either plane home! Time for some retrospective thoughts about a few things

Vegas

Always changing yet somehow still feels the same for me as it did the first time 16 years ago.

• Prices are definitely up for some things - drinks in particular felt about 20% higher than 2019 on average. This is just an observation, not scientific nor a complaint - after all there are ways around avoiding drinking in bars
• it was very busy - appreciate I was there on a fight weekend/Cinco de Mayo, but even Mon/Tue/Weds was busy
• Availability of some things not quite back yet - others have said this, but lack of late food options and some food options in general is obvious. Does feel like things are getting back towards before, but not sure it will ever be quite the same on this front.

Specific activities/venues

• Area 15 is a great addition - really enjoyed the couple of things I did and will be back. Still thinking about Omega Mart 12 days after the fact......
• Golden Nugget was jumping at 4 on a Tuesday and the 3/6 limit game was a hoot - not sure if it's beatable if you don't count the drinks, but the cocktail service was really good too - will be back
• Park MGM better than expected - really feel like it's a great option for the solo traveller or for those who aren't willing to pay for the premium property. Overall ambience isn't far off from some of the 'better' places, room is fine and it's connected to Aria by walkway anyway.

Solo Travelling

Never done a trip that even resembles this so it was a first on a few levels for me - things I learned are

• Book some meals - I struggled with late bookings/walk-ups for one. Although I was happy enough with food choices, there was room for one or two more good meals
• Plan a couple more offstrip visits as a changeup - I had hoped to do the Atomic Testing Museum and the Pinball Hall of Fame and even though I had 7 full days I missed out - there was time, just a lack of focus on non-poker/obvious stuff
• Don't drink so much - I had two nights where I was 20 drinks deep and flying solo - not really necessary and contributed to missing out on food/other activities

Poker

Quick thoughts on the rooms I visited

• Caesars - 1/3 game was pretty tame but it was mid-evening on a Monday night so probably timing. Players were super bad though and it was limptastic in the extreme - even for live 1/3.
• Golden Nugget - loved this (as above) but probably would have preferred a seat in the 1/2 game if it had been possible. Clearly I suck at limit but even so this was the best drinks service and full of character and characters!
• Ballys - Probably overall the most competent set of players I played with on the trip (not saying too much!) and the conversation was varied and friendly. That could have been just my table, but I got a similar vibe from the 2 next to me as well. Room is pretty scabby, but hoping they redo it well as i feel like it has real potential with it's position on the strip
• Aria - both visits here were similar to previous trips - lovely room, some nitreg locals, some totally clueless people and a pretty average 1/3 game. I've never done a late night session here as I know I can get that elsewhere, but Aria serves up 24/7 solid opportunities
• MGM - two sessions that couldn't have been more different - first was a riot and the second was really quiet. Really feel that timing is key here - but both times I had at least one person sit down and announce that it was their first time playing 'table poker' so that can't be all bad!!!
• Wynn - Tournament only, but what a fine place. Can't complain at the view going in and out of the beach club either. Must get into the cash game here next time!
• Bellagio - My sole visit to the 2/5 streets on a sunday afternoon. Room was ok, but I found it really smoky. Drink service was really good, but I wasn't drinking at this point. Players were bad, but a different kind of bad - not OMC's, but like middle aged (45-65) guys who didn't really care about the cash clicking buttons. Will try again at a different timeslot.
• Resorts World - Looks a great place, but I don't understand how it was closed at 8am on a Saturday morning - can't be a good sign......

Overall

As in some of my posts, I feel super luck to have a) got the chance to go, b) had my wife's blessing to do it, c) met up with my bro and d) run good whilst there. When writing the intro post to this a month or so back, I'd have bet that I'd be feeling great about my trip right now, but probably not having ticked off all of the above.

Sure I could have done better in a few spots on the table (QQ hand or a spot in the Wynn tourney where I bet/fold the river after getting jammed on in a pot that would have given me 20% of the chips in play with 30 left), but I've played live twice in 3 years before this trip and rarely online either so I'm not beating myself up.

The overall score (rounded) was a poker profit of $3800 offset by other gambling losses of $400 and a total spend of about $1850 on hotels, food, drink, activities, shopping etc.

Some decent food, R&R, time to myself combined with coming home a winner means I get the chance to dream about doing it all again. I highly doubt I'll get to do it annually (at least not in current family/work situation), but I can see another solo effort this side of 2025 being a go-er. Meanwhile I start the new job next Wednesday (after the away leg of the stag do I mentioned at the beginning!) and I'll go back to lurking here and posting occasionally.

Until next time!!!!

awesome job, appreciate the recap!
I'm dreaming of my next trip and trying to rationalize another one before then

20 beers deep. Superb form. Good man.

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing.

Rationalize another with the wife?

wife is going out of town for about 6 weeks, that's the rationalization for the scheduled LV trip

Nice!

Win, win.