The Fergusons do Vegas - A mix game, VP and eating TR
07-18-2018
, 03:51 PM
Day 4: More Monster
Time to get this TR finished up.
I wake up around 9 AM and am feeling a bit under the weather. Don’t really want a monster breakfast so I grab a green juice from the place in Cosmo and chill at the pool to relax before the day 2 restart.
My day 2 table draw is looking like a dream compared to day 1. I don’t know any of the players at my table, unlike the end of day 1 when there were 3 bracelet winners. I am the biggest or second biggest stack and some people are already talking about making the money in table chatter, so I know there will be much room to punish. I’m not here for the min cash!
The first hand of the day, it folds to the SB who opens and gets reshipped on by the BB for about 20 bigs. SB calls with A10 and BB has jacks. SB gets the beauty runout of KKK6K and it’s gg for the jacks. Nothing like flopping a boat and losing.
Play is quite passive at the table for the 1st 20-30 minutes, so I start to open about 100% when it’s folded to me in LP. There is very little resistance and I chip up to about 160k by the first break of the day. BTW for many HH’s today, I won’t recall exact betting amounts because I VPIP’d about 90% so there wasn’t much time between hands
The most notable hand from the first two levels was opening 57hh UTG1 at 600/1200/200 (yes, I know, fold pre etc, this isn’t the strat forum) and BB (Argentinean guy) calls. Flop is 346cc, bink. I c-bet half pot and he calls. Turn is a 4h and I bet about ½ pot again. This time V raises 3x my bet and I just flat. River is a 6s and he leads for about 60% pot. I tank and ultimately fold. He doesn’t show, but maybe my fold is bad there, still not sure.
Two observations from the first two levels of the day. First, is it mandatory that guys who wear 3-bet clothing don’t ever 3-bet in a million years? Nice 50ish year old guy barely played a pot all day, let alone 3-bet. Second, eating at the table with your hands is gross at the best of times, but max gross is eating a giant syrup covered waffle with your bare hands. Syrupy cards, chips and a lot of syrup cock and balls in your mouth when you do that. Guys who eat with their hands at the table should prolly not ever make fun of gay people, cause eating and playing with chips means you are definitely putting all the peens in their mouths on the reg.
Back to poker.
During the first few levels I was seeing some players fold hands like 88-99 to 3 bets/squeezes so I made it a point to really jack up the aggression. First good spot comes when I’m on the button and HJ opens to 4K at 800/1600, CO flats, and I 3-bet the J2hh to 20k, and everyone folds. Easy game.
We’re getting semi close to the bubble by level 4 (1k/2k/300) and sitting on about 250k when a new player sits down on my right (seat 3) with a big stack. He’s a nice older guy who obviously knows and is friends with seat 2 as well. I could put their names here, but I’ll leave it out. They’re from the same home game in Tampa and seat 3 immediately says to seat 2 that he has nitro pills in his front left pocket to use if he gets one of his “spells” at the table. All I could think of was the Dumb and Dumber scene Regardless he was a nice dude, but unfortunately overweight, riding a scooter and a cardiac cripple, so I clarified in fairly short order that he would not want resuscitation if he coded at the table. I think he had a short run of Afib one hand and folded a pretty huge hand because he was gonna pass out.
Anyway he’s also sitting on about 250k, and in his first hand at the table it folds to his SB and he opens to 4500. I look down at the 83o and am thinking about folding, but then decide better of it and 3-bet to 16k because I obv need to be 100% balanced. I’m thinking of Fedor’s RIO videos and the Aussie Millions hand where Fedor limp/shoved 82o got there with a 4-flush vs. pocket eights lol. New guy folds and I’m feeling like:
I tell my buddy Scott Davies this and he sends me this gif.
I tell him “I run sims bro” and this is now an ongoing joke. He told me he’d give me free coaching; “don’t 3-bet 83… unless you don’t like his face” Then you gotta 3-bet for sure. So now 83 off is the “I don’t like your face” hand.
Another spot comes up about 30 minutes later. I’m on the button (seat 4) and seat 2 opens to 5k, seat 3 calls and I look down at Q10dd. Seems like a good squeeze spot so I make it 21.5k. Unfortunately the BB jams for less (about 14k) but the other two fold, so I’m in a great spot vs. 88 with a big overlay. The eights hold and now people can see my squeezing range. But it’s clearly good as seat 2 says he folded nines and seat 3 AQ. If that’s true, then I need to be even more aggressive. I’m only getting looked up by TT/AK+
After 4 levels we’re around 250k heading to bubble time. I don’t remember much about the bubble other than VPIPing 100% and running the stack up before dinner break.
After coming back from dinner things went less good and I knew that as a big stack I might often get in flipping situations as the 5 shorties at the table would be re-shoving on me a lot. I lost a couple of flips with AJ<44 and 66<AQ which dropped my stack about to about 270k. The unfortunate part was that I had AA three times during these two levels and opened for a min raise each time, but never even got a call once, let alone a re-shove. The only other time I had aces in the tournament was earlier in the day where I lost about a 50k pot at 1k/2k to a flopped set of 6s on KJ6. It was a very small loss with aces, and if the other guy was more aggressive I would have given him the full double I think.
I also combined some play bad/overaggression with this to drop another 100k and by the last break of the night we had 160k coming back to 3k/6k. During the break I ate a rungood banana because that’s what the wifey's horse Don Corleone eats before he crushes big shows. BTW, I hate bananas and it's the first one I've willingly eaten in about 10 years.
It then becomes short stack ninja time and we start moving tables a few times, going to several tables of wizards and being card dead. The final table I am moved to is one of the ones where every hand takes 3-5 minutes in the last level of the night. On top of this, the guy on my left is a dirty basement kid with the worst breath ever and will turn and breathe his vomitorium on me every minute or two. But thanks to all the tanking, people at other tables are being eliminated left and right and I’m laddering rapidly
Where have all the chippies gone?
I bleed down to about 80k then get AQ in vs. A6 at 4k/8k and hold. We bleed down once again and it folds to us in the SB with T8cc. We jam our 120k and get snapped by AJcc. We don’t get there and bust in 265th with 3 hands left in the night. Since I’m Canadian, it was better to cash there than making another couple of pay jumps as there is no withholding if the win is <5k over your buy-in.
All told, a super fun day, great tables, got to play the big stack and punish for hours, then played the short stack for about 2 hours. Happy I hopped in for the annual tournament, it was a blast. Losing the big stack was a combo of losing a couple of flips and a moderate punt of about 100-120k chips. Once on the short stack I think I played fine.
Also, rungood bananas are for the horse, not for me.
We then headed to 8 ounce Korean BBQ to join the Scrabblers for a late night meal. It was very good, great place for groups. Didn’t make any detailed notes, but I would go back.
The next day would be my birthday, so kind of nice to not have to wake up for the Monster day 3.
Time to get this TR finished up.
I wake up around 9 AM and am feeling a bit under the weather. Don’t really want a monster breakfast so I grab a green juice from the place in Cosmo and chill at the pool to relax before the day 2 restart.
My day 2 table draw is looking like a dream compared to day 1. I don’t know any of the players at my table, unlike the end of day 1 when there were 3 bracelet winners. I am the biggest or second biggest stack and some people are already talking about making the money in table chatter, so I know there will be much room to punish. I’m not here for the min cash!
The first hand of the day, it folds to the SB who opens and gets reshipped on by the BB for about 20 bigs. SB calls with A10 and BB has jacks. SB gets the beauty runout of KKK6K and it’s gg for the jacks. Nothing like flopping a boat and losing.
Play is quite passive at the table for the 1st 20-30 minutes, so I start to open about 100% when it’s folded to me in LP. There is very little resistance and I chip up to about 160k by the first break of the day. BTW for many HH’s today, I won’t recall exact betting amounts because I VPIP’d about 90% so there wasn’t much time between hands
The most notable hand from the first two levels was opening 57hh UTG1 at 600/1200/200 (yes, I know, fold pre etc, this isn’t the strat forum) and BB (Argentinean guy) calls. Flop is 346cc, bink. I c-bet half pot and he calls. Turn is a 4h and I bet about ½ pot again. This time V raises 3x my bet and I just flat. River is a 6s and he leads for about 60% pot. I tank and ultimately fold. He doesn’t show, but maybe my fold is bad there, still not sure.
Two observations from the first two levels of the day. First, is it mandatory that guys who wear 3-bet clothing don’t ever 3-bet in a million years? Nice 50ish year old guy barely played a pot all day, let alone 3-bet. Second, eating at the table with your hands is gross at the best of times, but max gross is eating a giant syrup covered waffle with your bare hands. Syrupy cards, chips and a lot of syrup cock and balls in your mouth when you do that. Guys who eat with their hands at the table should prolly not ever make fun of gay people, cause eating and playing with chips means you are definitely putting all the peens in their mouths on the reg.
Back to poker.
During the first few levels I was seeing some players fold hands like 88-99 to 3 bets/squeezes so I made it a point to really jack up the aggression. First good spot comes when I’m on the button and HJ opens to 4K at 800/1600, CO flats, and I 3-bet the J2hh to 20k, and everyone folds. Easy game.
We’re getting semi close to the bubble by level 4 (1k/2k/300) and sitting on about 250k when a new player sits down on my right (seat 3) with a big stack. He’s a nice older guy who obviously knows and is friends with seat 2 as well. I could put their names here, but I’ll leave it out. They’re from the same home game in Tampa and seat 3 immediately says to seat 2 that he has nitro pills in his front left pocket to use if he gets one of his “spells” at the table. All I could think of was the Dumb and Dumber scene Regardless he was a nice dude, but unfortunately overweight, riding a scooter and a cardiac cripple, so I clarified in fairly short order that he would not want resuscitation if he coded at the table. I think he had a short run of Afib one hand and folded a pretty huge hand because he was gonna pass out.
Anyway he’s also sitting on about 250k, and in his first hand at the table it folds to his SB and he opens to 4500. I look down at the 83o and am thinking about folding, but then decide better of it and 3-bet to 16k because I obv need to be 100% balanced. I’m thinking of Fedor’s RIO videos and the Aussie Millions hand where Fedor limp/shoved 82o got there with a 4-flush vs. pocket eights lol. New guy folds and I’m feeling like:
I tell my buddy Scott Davies this and he sends me this gif.
I tell him “I run sims bro” and this is now an ongoing joke. He told me he’d give me free coaching; “don’t 3-bet 83… unless you don’t like his face” Then you gotta 3-bet for sure. So now 83 off is the “I don’t like your face” hand.
Another spot comes up about 30 minutes later. I’m on the button (seat 4) and seat 2 opens to 5k, seat 3 calls and I look down at Q10dd. Seems like a good squeeze spot so I make it 21.5k. Unfortunately the BB jams for less (about 14k) but the other two fold, so I’m in a great spot vs. 88 with a big overlay. The eights hold and now people can see my squeezing range. But it’s clearly good as seat 2 says he folded nines and seat 3 AQ. If that’s true, then I need to be even more aggressive. I’m only getting looked up by TT/AK+
After 4 levels we’re around 250k heading to bubble time. I don’t remember much about the bubble other than VPIPing 100% and running the stack up before dinner break.
After coming back from dinner things went less good and I knew that as a big stack I might often get in flipping situations as the 5 shorties at the table would be re-shoving on me a lot. I lost a couple of flips with AJ<44 and 66<AQ which dropped my stack about to about 270k. The unfortunate part was that I had AA three times during these two levels and opened for a min raise each time, but never even got a call once, let alone a re-shove. The only other time I had aces in the tournament was earlier in the day where I lost about a 50k pot at 1k/2k to a flopped set of 6s on KJ6. It was a very small loss with aces, and if the other guy was more aggressive I would have given him the full double I think.
I also combined some play bad/overaggression with this to drop another 100k and by the last break of the night we had 160k coming back to 3k/6k. During the break I ate a rungood banana because that’s what the wifey's horse Don Corleone eats before he crushes big shows. BTW, I hate bananas and it's the first one I've willingly eaten in about 10 years.
It then becomes short stack ninja time and we start moving tables a few times, going to several tables of wizards and being card dead. The final table I am moved to is one of the ones where every hand takes 3-5 minutes in the last level of the night. On top of this, the guy on my left is a dirty basement kid with the worst breath ever and will turn and breathe his vomitorium on me every minute or two. But thanks to all the tanking, people at other tables are being eliminated left and right and I’m laddering rapidly
Where have all the chippies gone?
I bleed down to about 80k then get AQ in vs. A6 at 4k/8k and hold. We bleed down once again and it folds to us in the SB with T8cc. We jam our 120k and get snapped by AJcc. We don’t get there and bust in 265th with 3 hands left in the night. Since I’m Canadian, it was better to cash there than making another couple of pay jumps as there is no withholding if the win is <5k over your buy-in.
All told, a super fun day, great tables, got to play the big stack and punish for hours, then played the short stack for about 2 hours. Happy I hopped in for the annual tournament, it was a blast. Losing the big stack was a combo of losing a couple of flips and a moderate punt of about 100-120k chips. Once on the short stack I think I played fine.
Also, rungood bananas are for the horse, not for me.
We then headed to 8 ounce Korean BBQ to join the Scrabblers for a late night meal. It was very good, great place for groups. Didn’t make any detailed notes, but I would go back.
The next day would be my birthday, so kind of nice to not have to wake up for the Monster day 3.
02-23-2019
, 12:01 AM
Sushi porn has already been taken at Hiroyoshi for lunch today. Chip porn might be tough, got friends in town so less Poker this trip. Here’s a quick update so far
Hellmuth is at the Knights game. Jets up 2-1 after the first.
Round 1 at Hiroyoshi for lunch today
Already made some awesome custom sports betting shirts too. Kind of an inside joke but love these.
Gonna hit lamaii after the game.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hellmuth is at the Knights game. Jets up 2-1 after the first.
Round 1 at Hiroyoshi for lunch today
Already made some awesome custom sports betting shirts too. Kind of an inside joke but love these.
Gonna hit lamaii after the game.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
03-05-2019
, 06:23 PM
Day 1
Time for another trip. This one will be mostly food pics, and a little bit of gambling as we had other friends in town, so wanted to hang out with them and not just be straight degens. It was also a bit of a crazy trip as I had worked the three previous night shifts, been awake all day for other commitments and then went to the airport immediately post night shift for an 830 AM flight. I slept 17 hours out of 120 by the end of the trip. Burning it at both ends!
Bankroll - My wife says it looks more impressive in this light
Flying out of -40 celsius Calgary and we see this, looks kind of like home with all this snow. Apparently the day before we arrived there was a half inch of snow and they declared a snow day in Vegas. They closed schools and everything.
Not sure that I'm a big enough whale to require this stretch limo, but hey, I'll take it. Platinum status benefits of Cosmo.
We got in at about 10 AM and go to the Autograph Lounge for check-in. They ask if we're Marriott gold or platinum and we say Cosmo platinum. They then escort us out of the fancy lounge to the usual invited guest line. Apparently Cosmo status doesn't matter for the Autograph Lounge. This seems to be total BS to me, since I'm pretty sure you are more value to the casino as a gambling degen than someone who stays at lots of Marriotts on business trips. Regardless, we took two teas and two waters on the way out
We still get checked in at 10 AM on a Friday and get a standard terrace room.
Our first stop is to go make some sports betting shirts and hit Hiroyoshi for some sushi lunch. I've been doing lots of sports betting the last few months, basically a tiny bit above breakeven. But we have a running joke that any time something is a lock, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale in American Psycho) comes out in gif form. It'll usually be one of the scenes of him pounding a chick and flexing with a caption like "UNC -3, Pound It!"
We also use the "Hodl Bear" gif from the crypto world when it's late in the game and we need a hold!
I do this betting all thanks to a friend who lives in Vegas, so wifey and I went to Customistic and made us each a custom American Psycho/Hodl Bear shirt. Wifey has Wofford, I have Morehead State (cause who doesn't like More Head) and we got "The U" for big papi.
Wofford and the Hodl Bear!
After dropping off the shirts, we hit Hiroyoshi to get some sushi. This place is great value and one of the only good places open for lunch sushi (I think just Fri-Sat though). The prices are insanely great for what you get. About 2.5 for 1 compared to Kabuto, though Kabuto is definitely a step up. It's also a bit of a ways off strip, so if you uber, you gotta eat lots to make up for it. Fortunately we were already in the neigborhood cause of the shirt making.
Arugala potato salad is great for $4.
Unfortunately, no bar seats so had to sit at a table.
Flight 1 of sushi - L->R - Zuke, Kodai, Masu, Sayori, Shima aji, Chu-toro, Kinmedai. All good, though a bit overzealous on the wasabi in this flight. Both snappers and the shima aji were my favorites this day.
Flight 2 of sushi - Re-ordered the Kodai, Kinmedai, Masu, Chu-toro and added some Hirame (top left). Better wasabi use in this flight.
Black cod was great as usual. This is such a better value than anywhere else so we got two
Tamago
For $140 after tip, a great lunch and awesome fish. They also have like $12 lunch specials if you're on more of a budget. Definitely worth checking out.
After lunch we go pick up our shirts and then it's time to get in some sports bets and a quick nap before going to the Knights vs. Jets game. Given our number of Vegas trips and love for sports, it's shocking we haven't been to a Knights game yet. That said, tix are about $300 each for good seats, so that might be part of it.
About half of the bets
It's the Sword in the Stone motif today.
Philly boy is at the game! When they ask him to talk, all he says is "Go Knights"
I was a little disappointed, was hoping he'd complain about all the idiots from Northern Europe who were playing in the game.
This game is called 50/50 in Canada. In Vegas they're taking a 1% vig, cause it's Vegas lol. Or maybe they're giving you an extra percent and only taking 49%, but I prefer thinking of it as Vegas rigging a 50/50 game.
Overall, the game was great and they put on an amazing show at the stadium. Easily the best pre-game and atmosphere of any non-NBA game I've ever watched.
After the game we head to meet up with friends flying in from out of town, then go to check out Bank Atcharawan's new Thai restaurant, Lamaii. We've known Bank since his sommelier days at Lotus back in 2005-06, then followed him to Chada and now to Lamaii. The decor is beautiful, wine prices awesome and food is great. The wine list isn't as extensive as Chada or Lotus, but really solid and prices can't be beat.
That said, we were celebrating him opening a new place, so we brought a few bottles.
2015 Egon Muller Scharzhofberger Spatlese, 2005 Prum Graacher Himmelreich Auslese GK and a 2009 Domaine de Gallety La Ligure for after dinner (no reds with spicy food).
The Egon Muller was out of this world good, amazing intensity, super complex with lime, peach, tropical fruit, minerality and perfect acid and balance. Also very long, this stuff is just so damn good, easily in the running for the world's best riesling. Would love to try their TBA someday, but 5K a half bottle is pretty steep.
If you want an endorsement of how great this wine is, Bank's arm is all you need to see.
The 05 GK was very good and paired well with the food with it's higher sweetness level.
The 09 La Ligure is a 585 bottle production from Alain Gallety in Cotes du Vivarais, a not very well known region of the southern rhone. We brought it for Bank because he loves Rhone reds. It was very good, but just was too young, despite being 10 years old and predominately Grenache. Still very primary, I think the 2012 is drinking better already.
Tom Kha Kai
Salt and pepper chicken wing - The last one in super close up. These have great heat and flavor, awesome pairing with auslese.
Pad thai - One of the weaker dishes of the night, but still good
Prawns - These are awesome, you must order these!
An ancient beef curry recipe that is turmeric based. Atypical for thai food, and very good. It's not one you see often, so I'd definitely try it if you go.
Duck Panang - Old reliable. Love duck panang almost everywhere, and especially when Bank makes it.
Dessert - Normally not a huge fan of dessert, but stupidly I'd forgotten that Bank has a stand alone dessert restaurant called Patio. So obviously, this was the star of the show and probably the best course of the night. Coconut based and with perfect sweetness and balance, next time I will be getting multiple desserts.
Overall, an amazing meal and came in at about $102 without wine (which was free byo cause it was for Bank anyway). I'd highly recommend the duck panang, prawns and dessert, with all the other dishes being good to very good.
We managed to spend the entire first day in Vegas without yet gambling, except for a few sports bets. At this point we hit the VP for a little sesh.
Rungood greyhound. RIP Gavin Smith.
We only played a little bit, with no real hits of significance, then went to play some roulette using Passenger 57 rules, "Always bet on Black".
Threw down $100 on black and binked it, easy game, we're up for the trip.
Then took friends over to Aria and played a few hands of $1/3 NLHE, my friend won $80 off me and immediately racked up and went to bed. This is how she racked her chips, lol.
And with that, it was bedtime for day 1.
Time for another trip. This one will be mostly food pics, and a little bit of gambling as we had other friends in town, so wanted to hang out with them and not just be straight degens. It was also a bit of a crazy trip as I had worked the three previous night shifts, been awake all day for other commitments and then went to the airport immediately post night shift for an 830 AM flight. I slept 17 hours out of 120 by the end of the trip. Burning it at both ends!
Bankroll - My wife says it looks more impressive in this light
Flying out of -40 celsius Calgary and we see this, looks kind of like home with all this snow. Apparently the day before we arrived there was a half inch of snow and they declared a snow day in Vegas. They closed schools and everything.
Not sure that I'm a big enough whale to require this stretch limo, but hey, I'll take it. Platinum status benefits of Cosmo.
We got in at about 10 AM and go to the Autograph Lounge for check-in. They ask if we're Marriott gold or platinum and we say Cosmo platinum. They then escort us out of the fancy lounge to the usual invited guest line. Apparently Cosmo status doesn't matter for the Autograph Lounge. This seems to be total BS to me, since I'm pretty sure you are more value to the casino as a gambling degen than someone who stays at lots of Marriotts on business trips. Regardless, we took two teas and two waters on the way out
We still get checked in at 10 AM on a Friday and get a standard terrace room.
Our first stop is to go make some sports betting shirts and hit Hiroyoshi for some sushi lunch. I've been doing lots of sports betting the last few months, basically a tiny bit above breakeven. But we have a running joke that any time something is a lock, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale in American Psycho) comes out in gif form. It'll usually be one of the scenes of him pounding a chick and flexing with a caption like "UNC -3, Pound It!"
We also use the "Hodl Bear" gif from the crypto world when it's late in the game and we need a hold!
I do this betting all thanks to a friend who lives in Vegas, so wifey and I went to Customistic and made us each a custom American Psycho/Hodl Bear shirt. Wifey has Wofford, I have Morehead State (cause who doesn't like More Head) and we got "The U" for big papi.
Wofford and the Hodl Bear!
After dropping off the shirts, we hit Hiroyoshi to get some sushi. This place is great value and one of the only good places open for lunch sushi (I think just Fri-Sat though). The prices are insanely great for what you get. About 2.5 for 1 compared to Kabuto, though Kabuto is definitely a step up. It's also a bit of a ways off strip, so if you uber, you gotta eat lots to make up for it. Fortunately we were already in the neigborhood cause of the shirt making.
Arugala potato salad is great for $4.
Unfortunately, no bar seats so had to sit at a table.
Flight 1 of sushi - L->R - Zuke, Kodai, Masu, Sayori, Shima aji, Chu-toro, Kinmedai. All good, though a bit overzealous on the wasabi in this flight. Both snappers and the shima aji were my favorites this day.
Flight 2 of sushi - Re-ordered the Kodai, Kinmedai, Masu, Chu-toro and added some Hirame (top left). Better wasabi use in this flight.
Black cod was great as usual. This is such a better value than anywhere else so we got two
Tamago
For $140 after tip, a great lunch and awesome fish. They also have like $12 lunch specials if you're on more of a budget. Definitely worth checking out.
After lunch we go pick up our shirts and then it's time to get in some sports bets and a quick nap before going to the Knights vs. Jets game. Given our number of Vegas trips and love for sports, it's shocking we haven't been to a Knights game yet. That said, tix are about $300 each for good seats, so that might be part of it.
About half of the bets
It's the Sword in the Stone motif today.
Philly boy is at the game! When they ask him to talk, all he says is "Go Knights"
I was a little disappointed, was hoping he'd complain about all the idiots from Northern Europe who were playing in the game.
This game is called 50/50 in Canada. In Vegas they're taking a 1% vig, cause it's Vegas lol. Or maybe they're giving you an extra percent and only taking 49%, but I prefer thinking of it as Vegas rigging a 50/50 game.
Overall, the game was great and they put on an amazing show at the stadium. Easily the best pre-game and atmosphere of any non-NBA game I've ever watched.
After the game we head to meet up with friends flying in from out of town, then go to check out Bank Atcharawan's new Thai restaurant, Lamaii. We've known Bank since his sommelier days at Lotus back in 2005-06, then followed him to Chada and now to Lamaii. The decor is beautiful, wine prices awesome and food is great. The wine list isn't as extensive as Chada or Lotus, but really solid and prices can't be beat.
That said, we were celebrating him opening a new place, so we brought a few bottles.
2015 Egon Muller Scharzhofberger Spatlese, 2005 Prum Graacher Himmelreich Auslese GK and a 2009 Domaine de Gallety La Ligure for after dinner (no reds with spicy food).
The Egon Muller was out of this world good, amazing intensity, super complex with lime, peach, tropical fruit, minerality and perfect acid and balance. Also very long, this stuff is just so damn good, easily in the running for the world's best riesling. Would love to try their TBA someday, but 5K a half bottle is pretty steep.
If you want an endorsement of how great this wine is, Bank's arm is all you need to see.
The 05 GK was very good and paired well with the food with it's higher sweetness level.
The 09 La Ligure is a 585 bottle production from Alain Gallety in Cotes du Vivarais, a not very well known region of the southern rhone. We brought it for Bank because he loves Rhone reds. It was very good, but just was too young, despite being 10 years old and predominately Grenache. Still very primary, I think the 2012 is drinking better already.
Tom Kha Kai
Salt and pepper chicken wing - The last one in super close up. These have great heat and flavor, awesome pairing with auslese.
Pad thai - One of the weaker dishes of the night, but still good
Prawns - These are awesome, you must order these!
An ancient beef curry recipe that is turmeric based. Atypical for thai food, and very good. It's not one you see often, so I'd definitely try it if you go.
Duck Panang - Old reliable. Love duck panang almost everywhere, and especially when Bank makes it.
Dessert - Normally not a huge fan of dessert, but stupidly I'd forgotten that Bank has a stand alone dessert restaurant called Patio. So obviously, this was the star of the show and probably the best course of the night. Coconut based and with perfect sweetness and balance, next time I will be getting multiple desserts.
Overall, an amazing meal and came in at about $102 without wine (which was free byo cause it was for Bank anyway). I'd highly recommend the duck panang, prawns and dessert, with all the other dishes being good to very good.
We managed to spend the entire first day in Vegas without yet gambling, except for a few sports bets. At this point we hit the VP for a little sesh.
Rungood greyhound. RIP Gavin Smith.
We only played a little bit, with no real hits of significance, then went to play some roulette using Passenger 57 rules, "Always bet on Black".
Threw down $100 on black and binked it, easy game, we're up for the trip.
Then took friends over to Aria and played a few hands of $1/3 NLHE, my friend won $80 off me and immediately racked up and went to bed. This is how she racked her chips, lol.
And with that, it was bedtime for day 1.
03-06-2019
, 10:27 PM
Day 2
After going to bed at 6 AM, I got a reasonable 4 hours of sleep in before waking up at 10 to make a bunch of sports bets before Saturday tip offs. Damn 11 AM starts on the west coast.
We then hit a short session of VP while waiting for friends to get up. Wifey is running bad so she puts on Stan Bush "You got the touch" to improve the VP mojo.
As if on cue, it happens.
Our friends are craving a burger, and so we hit up Shakeshack in front of Park MGM, rather than trekking down to Burger Bar at Mandalay or over to another casino burger place. I actually really wanted to compare Shakeshack to In-n-Out since I know I'll be going to LA in a few days. There's a YouTube series called the Burger Show and on episode 3 they make the Shakeshack and In-n-Out burgers and it's a very interesting comparison. They are entirely different animals, particularly in terms of the meat used to create the burger. Here's a link if you want to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4qSDOHeWjk
Having now returned from LA, I prefer the Shakeshack burger myself, but like In-n-Out if you remove the cold tasteless tomato (dilutes the good burger flavor) and get it animal style.
After lunch we check out rapey hands Batali's Eataly. Wifey actually needs to pick up some truffle/mushroom sauce for her most amazing short rib pasta dish, so it's convenient. Overall the idea of having a grocery store on the strip seems laughable and destined for failure, but it was packed. Unlike other Eataly locations, this one is def more dining oriented and less groceries, but still, who is buying groceries on vacation to Vegas? Other than a couple of home cooking food psychos like us.
For dinner we're going to Partage, as I was quite impressed last time. I also had a few wines shipped to the Cosmo, a 2006 Schrader to try and a couple of Horsepower's for an upcoming Cayuse/Christophe Baron tasting back home. The Schrader was to decide if I'd continue buying my allocation this year or if I'd pass. Wanted to try a GIII with some age on it, so went with an 06.
Before dinner though, we need to gamble! Haven't been gambling at all this trip so far. We start in the high limit on 20 lines of 25 cent bonus poker and get pretty destroyed. Down about 1K quick.
I then get news that James Harden will be out with a neck injury in the game against GSW (Team Gunshot Wound is the best), so I bet GS -9 for $440. A couple of minutes later the line gets taken down across the city and re-posted at -12. It ends up -14 by tipoff, I'm a genius, but I should have bet the house!
We then decide to go have a face off in the other high limit lounge where they have 5 table top full pay $5 single line machines. We go head to head with $250 each and see who wins after 10 spins. It is clearly wifey who binks a few decent hits, though no hand pays.
Feed the beast!
The best part about playing in here is you get amazing nearly 1 to 1 drink service, it's like ICU level care for drunk degenerates! We're betting the full 5 credits and playing at semi normal speed, but I notice the other people are playing only 1 credit or better yet, single credit Keno for like $1.50 a spin, but still getting the same great drink service. That is smart, so I highly recommend this if you want top shelf booze and service. Don't be a fish like us and bet the full $25 a hand, lol. But we want that 20K royal!
While in the high limit lounge, we meet two other degenerate doctors. The first guy, Mike from Indiana, we met earlier in the high limit lounge and he was playing 48 hand, 50 cent JoB. He had already hit 5 royals that day! 5! WTF? We hadn't hit ****.
When we met him, he was super nice and cheerful and when we walked, wifey said "I think he's a doctor". I said "me too, I think he's an anesthetist". We didn't bet on it, but when we ran into him again later in the day, sure enough, another degen anesthetist Spidey senses are working well.
We then meet a super fun blackjack playing surgeon who is ordering Pappy van Winkle 23 for $195 an ounce. Considering its rarity and that it goes for about $2500+ per bottle if you can find it, this didn't actually seem that absurd to me. My lovely wife asks him if she can just smell it, and he not only obliges to the smell test, but after she describes it perfectly, he gives her the first sip. Sick life.
After losing another 1K in this high limit room, we go get changed for dinner, then head over to grind some 5 cent 50 line while we wait.
Obv make a couple of 5 cent royals in the 10 minutes before dinner.
Off to Partage! This is a new-ish French restaurant opened in the old Chada Street space just off strip.
2004 Pol Roger Winston Churchill, the house champagne This particular bottle was in a more advanced spot than the last few I've had, already taking on some of the oxidative character that you get in old Churchills. (Eg. 20-25+ year old bottles) That said, it was a great spot for me as the acid and fruit were still very bright despite the oxidative character. As usual, champagne was the perfect pairing for the majority of courses.
The other wine was the 2006 Schrader GIII, which is an excellent napa cab. It's among the top tier of the cult cabs along with Harlan, Colgin, etc. Even at 13 years old this was a baby, but outstanding blue/red fruit, intense, nice herb character and a very long finish. This is right on the border of the smash you over the head napa wines that I profoundly dislike with gobs of fruit and too much alcohol. But this is still just restrained enough and in balance to be an excellent wine. I would recommend, but at the $300 US price it now goes for, would look at some lower priced options. They've also jacked their price since Constellation bought them a few years ago. I have the 2014/15 vintage allocations, but won't be buying anymore.
We decided on the 5 course tasting menu and added on a few extra dishes. You can also do tasting courses only, which I think are very good, and the first time I went was just 7 individual items and sitting at the bar.
Ham and goat cheese ravioli amuse bouche - Good, ravioli dough a bit on thick side and flavor could have been more intense.
Foie gras mousse. Outstanding, this was pretty much a perfect course, amazing texture, no grittiness at all, just a perfect mousse. Also great contrast with the crunch of the bruleed top. The only criticism some could have is that it borders on overly sweet. I loved it and a fabulous pairing with champagne.
French onion soup - Excellent version of this, although it's not a particularly sophisticated dish at baseline. But great depth of flavor and not horrendously cheesy as it often is.
Salmon trilogy - Gravelax & horseradish dome, Salmon belly marinated with miso & honey, Avocado & yogurt pie, Salmon croquette topped with citrus cream . Highlights were the salmon belly and gravelax. The croquette and avocado pie were relatively short on flavor and seasoning could have been better.
Seafood in creamy broth - Mussel, clam, deep fried octopus. Some great components, but overall just a good dish.
John Dory with fall vegetables. John Dory is a fish I have never really understood. Super expensive, very dense and does not have a great butteriness or texture IMO. If you like super high density fish, you'll love it, but not didn't blow me away. Also of note, we said that one of our friends has anaphylaxis to pumpkin seeds, and they put a bunch of pumpkin seeds right on the plate. Jesus, that's awful service. We almost went full epi pen party time and it was only wifey who noted that the plate was covered in pumpkin seeds.
Skirt steak - Again a good but not great course. The meat was cooked perfectly, but overall it was bit lacking in flavor.
Dessert - Yuzu citrus custard cream & marmelade, Orange zest opaline tuile, blood orange gel & semi candied citrus segments. Again good, not spectacular.
Macarons - So full by this point I didn't want anything more, but I had a bite of each and they were meh.
My overall review of Partage is that the food is very good to excellent, but service was at times disastrous for the product they are putting out. Our primary server was very good, but there were multiple times during the meal that we had side plates put down for a course that weren't needed, then picked up because it was an error. They also tried to clear our plates very aggressively, trying to pick up my friend's plate multiple times during a single course! Aiyaaaa, it was embarassing the lack of communication between the server and bussers. At a place with this level of food quality, the service needs to be improved significantly. Also the allergy thing was a near disaster/hospital visit, so basically GG Partage. They offered us coffee/desserts multiple times on the house after the main course f-up, but we were super full and didn't want any. They could have at least comped a course or something. Pretty bad.
Wines were both great though.
On day 3 I'd finally play some poker and do a little more VPing, along with some tasty pastas at Scarpetta. Stay tuned.
After going to bed at 6 AM, I got a reasonable 4 hours of sleep in before waking up at 10 to make a bunch of sports bets before Saturday tip offs. Damn 11 AM starts on the west coast.
We then hit a short session of VP while waiting for friends to get up. Wifey is running bad so she puts on Stan Bush "You got the touch" to improve the VP mojo.
As if on cue, it happens.
Spoiler:
Our friends are craving a burger, and so we hit up Shakeshack in front of Park MGM, rather than trekking down to Burger Bar at Mandalay or over to another casino burger place. I actually really wanted to compare Shakeshack to In-n-Out since I know I'll be going to LA in a few days. There's a YouTube series called the Burger Show and on episode 3 they make the Shakeshack and In-n-Out burgers and it's a very interesting comparison. They are entirely different animals, particularly in terms of the meat used to create the burger. Here's a link if you want to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4qSDOHeWjk
Having now returned from LA, I prefer the Shakeshack burger myself, but like In-n-Out if you remove the cold tasteless tomato (dilutes the good burger flavor) and get it animal style.
After lunch we check out rapey hands Batali's Eataly. Wifey actually needs to pick up some truffle/mushroom sauce for her most amazing short rib pasta dish, so it's convenient. Overall the idea of having a grocery store on the strip seems laughable and destined for failure, but it was packed. Unlike other Eataly locations, this one is def more dining oriented and less groceries, but still, who is buying groceries on vacation to Vegas? Other than a couple of home cooking food psychos like us.
For dinner we're going to Partage, as I was quite impressed last time. I also had a few wines shipped to the Cosmo, a 2006 Schrader to try and a couple of Horsepower's for an upcoming Cayuse/Christophe Baron tasting back home. The Schrader was to decide if I'd continue buying my allocation this year or if I'd pass. Wanted to try a GIII with some age on it, so went with an 06.
Before dinner though, we need to gamble! Haven't been gambling at all this trip so far. We start in the high limit on 20 lines of 25 cent bonus poker and get pretty destroyed. Down about 1K quick.
I then get news that James Harden will be out with a neck injury in the game against GSW (Team Gunshot Wound is the best), so I bet GS -9 for $440. A couple of minutes later the line gets taken down across the city and re-posted at -12. It ends up -14 by tipoff, I'm a genius, but I should have bet the house!
We then decide to go have a face off in the other high limit lounge where they have 5 table top full pay $5 single line machines. We go head to head with $250 each and see who wins after 10 spins. It is clearly wifey who binks a few decent hits, though no hand pays.
Feed the beast!
The best part about playing in here is you get amazing nearly 1 to 1 drink service, it's like ICU level care for drunk degenerates! We're betting the full 5 credits and playing at semi normal speed, but I notice the other people are playing only 1 credit or better yet, single credit Keno for like $1.50 a spin, but still getting the same great drink service. That is smart, so I highly recommend this if you want top shelf booze and service. Don't be a fish like us and bet the full $25 a hand, lol. But we want that 20K royal!
While in the high limit lounge, we meet two other degenerate doctors. The first guy, Mike from Indiana, we met earlier in the high limit lounge and he was playing 48 hand, 50 cent JoB. He had already hit 5 royals that day! 5! WTF? We hadn't hit ****.
When we met him, he was super nice and cheerful and when we walked, wifey said "I think he's a doctor". I said "me too, I think he's an anesthetist". We didn't bet on it, but when we ran into him again later in the day, sure enough, another degen anesthetist
Spidey senses are working well.We then meet a super fun blackjack playing surgeon who is ordering Pappy van Winkle 23 for $195 an ounce. Considering its rarity and that it goes for about $2500+ per bottle if you can find it, this didn't actually seem that absurd to me. My lovely wife asks him if she can just smell it, and he not only obliges to the smell test, but after she describes it perfectly, he gives her the first sip. Sick life.
After losing another 1K in this high limit room, we go get changed for dinner, then head over to grind some 5 cent 50 line while we wait.
Obv make a couple of 5 cent royals in the 10 minutes before dinner.
Off to Partage! This is a new-ish French restaurant opened in the old Chada Street space just off strip.
2004 Pol Roger Winston Churchill, the house champagne
This particular bottle was in a more advanced spot than the last few I've had, already taking on some of the oxidative character that you get in old Churchills. (Eg. 20-25+ year old bottles) That said, it was a great spot for me as the acid and fruit were still very bright despite the oxidative character. As usual, champagne was the perfect pairing for the majority of courses.The other wine was the 2006 Schrader GIII, which is an excellent napa cab. It's among the top tier of the cult cabs along with Harlan, Colgin, etc. Even at 13 years old this was a baby, but outstanding blue/red fruit, intense, nice herb character and a very long finish. This is right on the border of the smash you over the head napa wines that I profoundly dislike with gobs of fruit and too much alcohol. But this is still just restrained enough and in balance to be an excellent wine. I would recommend, but at the $300 US price it now goes for, would look at some lower priced options. They've also jacked their price since Constellation bought them a few years ago. I have the 2014/15 vintage allocations, but won't be buying anymore.
We decided on the 5 course tasting menu and added on a few extra dishes. You can also do tasting courses only, which I think are very good, and the first time I went was just 7 individual items and sitting at the bar.
Ham and goat cheese ravioli amuse bouche - Good, ravioli dough a bit on thick side and flavor could have been more intense.
Foie gras mousse. Outstanding, this was pretty much a perfect course, amazing texture, no grittiness at all, just a perfect mousse. Also great contrast with the crunch of the bruleed top. The only criticism some could have is that it borders on overly sweet. I loved it and a fabulous pairing with champagne.
French onion soup - Excellent version of this, although it's not a particularly sophisticated dish at baseline. But great depth of flavor and not horrendously cheesy as it often is.
Salmon trilogy - Gravelax & horseradish dome, Salmon belly marinated with miso & honey, Avocado & yogurt pie, Salmon croquette topped with citrus cream . Highlights were the salmon belly and gravelax. The croquette and avocado pie were relatively short on flavor and seasoning could have been better.
Seafood in creamy broth - Mussel, clam, deep fried octopus. Some great components, but overall just a good dish.
John Dory with fall vegetables. John Dory is a fish I have never really understood. Super expensive, very dense and does not have a great butteriness or texture IMO. If you like super high density fish, you'll love it, but not didn't blow me away. Also of note, we said that one of our friends has anaphylaxis to pumpkin seeds, and they put a bunch of pumpkin seeds right on the plate. Jesus, that's awful service. We almost went full epi pen party time and it was only wifey who noted that the plate was covered in pumpkin seeds.
Skirt steak - Again a good but not great course. The meat was cooked perfectly, but overall it was bit lacking in flavor.
Dessert - Yuzu citrus custard cream & marmelade, Orange zest opaline tuile, blood orange gel & semi candied citrus segments. Again good, not spectacular.
Macarons - So full by this point I didn't want anything more, but I had a bite of each and they were meh.
My overall review of Partage is that the food is very good to excellent, but service was at times disastrous for the product they are putting out. Our primary server was very good, but there were multiple times during the meal that we had side plates put down for a course that weren't needed, then picked up because it was an error. They also tried to clear our plates very aggressively, trying to pick up my friend's plate multiple times during a single course! Aiyaaaa, it was embarassing the lack of communication between the server and bussers. At a place with this level of food quality, the service needs to be improved significantly. Also the allergy thing was a near disaster/hospital visit, so basically GG Partage. They offered us coffee/desserts multiple times on the house after the main course f-up, but we were super full and didn't want any. They could have at least comped a course or something. Pretty bad.
Wines were both great though.
On day 3 I'd finally play some poker and do a little more VPing, along with some tasty pastas at Scarpetta. Stay tuned.
03-06-2019
, 10:54 PM
