The Fergusons do Vegas - A mix game, VP and eating TR
01-29-2018
, 11:01 PM
Vegas TR Jan 2018
Hey 2+2
Gonna try out this TR thing because of all the great enjoyment I’ve had from other poster’s TRs over the years. Special thanks to Leon, TheCanoe, VPV, and Slim for their hilarity.
This TR will be primarily 20/40 Mix games at Bellagio, VP and dining (Kabuto, Twist, Ping Pang Pong, Scarpetta, Ferraro’s) this trip.
Here we go!
Obligatory shoe pic
Bankroll
Day 1
Couldn’t sleep all night because of the excitement (despite 30+ trips) Fly into Vegas early Thursday morning and win bag roulette, first off the carousel. Looks like this will be a good trip.
As Leon would say, Never. Gets. Old.
First win of trip is the early Diamond check in and get a room at 11 AM. Staying at Paris because it's free, not because I love Paris. Love that FoundersCard!
Also, although I’m not French, I do speak it and Paris is the most hilariously offensive hotel toward French people ever. They just put “Le” in front of English words bahaha. I love Le Diamond Check-in and Le Convention Center. It is literally just trolling French people all the time.
Step 1 is for wifey to donk up some carnival games at Paris. Despite my urging to go across the street to Cosmo, we must play $1 Spin Poker in the Paris Champagne Slot lounge. Donk off $200 and we get a tea and a Bailey's coffee. GG Caesar's Entertainment.
Step 2 (Should have been step 1) is to get in some VP over at Cosmo. Goal for trip is to get wife to Sterling and me back to Gold to make sure we get 5 comped weekend nights per year in addition to usual Sun-Thurs offers. Head straight to the high limit room at Cosmo and hop on our favorite 25 cent 100 Play, 9/7/5 Double Bonus. Play a couple of hours and no huge hits to report so it’s time to go for a walk and grab some lunch.
Obligatory greyhound pic
For the first time in a million trips we actually walk down Harmon and check out the Hard Rock Casino. As Canadians, the weather is great for walking in Jan-Feb in Vegas, the only time of year the temperature is the same inside casinos and outside in the day. Hard Rock is actually a pretty nice hotel with cool rock memorabilia, though does seem like it would get a bit smoky at night. Also it just happens to be porn central in there this weekend. Saw Madison Ivy walking by but no pic with her and the wife
We head across the street to Ferraro’s for lunch. It’s a quite nice looking Italian restaurant and they have a pretty sick lunch special at $13.95 for soup/salad and a main course. Plus you can add a glass of wine for $6. Overall this was very good value for the price. Not the most amazing Italian food of my life, but solid.
Short rib rigatoni - Pasta cooked very nicely al dente
Tomato bucatini with olive oil and garlic - Again nicely cooked pasta
Checking Bravo I see that the 20/40 Mix is running at Bellagio and no list. Better head over there and play some banana games. Let’s see how many bananas I can hit.
On the way we make a few sports bets. Parlay on the Knights and Oilers to win (Oilers got spanked by Sabres 5-0 the night before and should get revenge on the arch rival Flames at home) and take the over on the Oilers-Flames.
On arrival to the Bellagio, there is conveniently a seat open immediately on David Levi’s left and it’s the two seat. Lots of space for wifey to sweat. She actually knows all the games pretty decently, so enjoys the live action. Extra win is the other solid players in the game are in the five and six seats. LFG! This pic is after I'm down a bit from initial $800 buy in.
The first game in today’s 10 game mix is Archie. If you haven’t played, it’s a split pot 5 card triple draw game with half the pot going to the best high hand (pair of 6s or better as qualifier) and half the pot going to the best 8 or better low hand. So obv wheels are optimal and ideal to scoop. The game creates some interesting dynamics as you might have something like a pair of Aces and draw three, going for a high hand, then get 4 cards to a wheel or other strong low draw and change to going for a low hand. Based on the number of cards others are drawing, you can also get an idea to if they’re going low or high. Since the pots often play multiway and there are qualifiers for both high and low, high hands can still have a lot of value and scoop occasionally.
On one of the first few hands I pick up KKxxx in the BB. A couple of limpers to SB who calls and I get a free draw with the KK. Jack, Jack, Jack. Easy game, lol. Lead for $20, three callers. I pat and get called 3 ways on turn and then get raised by a flush on the river. Everyone is going high and I scoop a nice little $480 pot.
The very next hand I pick up 7788x in SB, and the kill is on so it’s $30/60 with me posting the $30 in the SB. The game basically plays as a $30/60 most of the time because of the kill (Any scoop over $300 – meaning almost all non-split pot games) It is raised by seat 5, calls in seat 6 and DL on my right. I see the BB gearing up for a call (he compulsively telegraphs his action), so I call already having $30 in the pot and getting 10/1 on my boat draw. Drawing one on the first draw I pick up a lovely 7. A slew of bet/calls over the next three seats and I end up chopping up two other high hands on the river with seat 5.
Over the course of the next two hours I play through the super razzdeucey, super stud hi-low regular, badeucey, badacey, 2-7 TD and Badugi.
Here’s a nice SSHLR hand by David with the almost steel wheel. Pot is looking a bit light cause I’m not donking it up in this one.
Not too many memorable hands but I chip up a bit more in 2-7 and Badugi as they are by far my best games. Don’t want to give away too many details, but the AF in this game is way too low live (eg. limping buttons/open limping regularly by others in EP) and there is no snowing. These games are very profitable live, though still come with a significant amount of variance as you only play 7 hands of each game every 3 hours in a 10-game mix.
After two hours, we're up a bit, have had a few greyhounds (Bellagio uses the red grapefruit juice) so it’s time for dinner at Scarpetta.
Scarpetta is kind of a staple for wifey and I, solely because of the spaghetti course. An absolutely outstanding rendition of a simple pasta, this has crazy umami flavor and intensity. We get this at least once a trip, sometimes just as an appetizer then go somewhere else for our main course. It is also an absolute ***** for wine pairing, as concentrated tomato can often be. Everyone will say Chianti or another Sangiovese based wine, but having tried many Chianti’s, Brunellos, as well as Barbera, Nebbiolo and Dolcetto, the perfect pairing for this course continues to elude us. Knowing that Champagne works with almost everything, we brought along a 2002 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill. This was a great showing of Winston and definitely worked at least as well as any red wine we’ve tried.
The stromboli bread is also mind blowing with cheese and salami cooked into it and served warm. There are also three other very good breads in the basket. Other pastas here are also very good (especially the short rib agnolotti), but their mains are less good IMO.
Bread basket with eggplant and tomato caponata, butter and olive oil. Great value for an included bread course. Not Guy Savoy or Robuchon bread cart, but pretty frickin great.
2002 Winston Churchill
Yellowtail crudo. This was lolbad. The cut on this crudo would make a sushi master seppuku for sure. Got it cause of the champagne, would not get again.
Ah, most delicious spaghetti. Wifey even makes this at home from Scarpetta cook book and this is the nut pasta dish of North America IMO. Some tajarins in Piedmont might top it, but that's a much longer trip.
Having finished dinner, it was time to go to the sportsbook, light up a Hoyo Epicure #2 and watch the shootout of Oilers-Flames, already 3-3 so over is good regardless. Oilers bink the shootout 2-1 and now we just need the Knights to beat the Islanders for the parlay.
Off to the VP where I play a little 5 cent 50 play (this is wifey's favorite, 50/100 play 5 cent) and get one little bink for the night. Gah, why not on 25 cent.
I finish up my cigar with some Remy XO in the high limit room, while watching the Knights lose for only the 5th time in 25 games at home this year. Fack!
Having been awake since 5 AM and no sleep the night before, it’s an early night for us and we hit the sack by midnight. Tomorrow we’re going to eat all the fishes at Kabuto (tons of sushi pics incoming) and hop back in the 20/40 Mix.
If you enjoyed, I'll post day 2 in a bit.
TF
Hey 2+2
Gonna try out this TR thing because of all the great enjoyment I’ve had from other poster’s TRs over the years. Special thanks to Leon, TheCanoe, VPV, and Slim for their hilarity.
This TR will be primarily 20/40 Mix games at Bellagio, VP and dining (Kabuto, Twist, Ping Pang Pong, Scarpetta, Ferraro’s) this trip.
Here we go!
Obligatory shoe pic
Bankroll
Day 1
Couldn’t sleep all night because of the excitement (despite 30+ trips) Fly into Vegas early Thursday morning and win bag roulette, first off the carousel. Looks like this will be a good trip.
As Leon would say, Never. Gets. Old.
First win of trip is the early Diamond check in and get a room at 11 AM. Staying at Paris because it's free, not because I love Paris. Love that FoundersCard!
Also, although I’m not French, I do speak it and Paris is the most hilariously offensive hotel toward French people ever. They just put “Le” in front of English words bahaha. I love Le Diamond Check-in and Le Convention Center. It is literally just trolling French people all the time.
Step 1 is for wifey to donk up some carnival games at Paris. Despite my urging to go across the street to Cosmo, we must play $1 Spin Poker in the Paris Champagne Slot lounge. Donk off $200 and we get a tea and a Bailey's coffee. GG Caesar's Entertainment.
Step 2 (Should have been step 1) is to get in some VP over at Cosmo. Goal for trip is to get wife to Sterling and me back to Gold to make sure we get 5 comped weekend nights per year in addition to usual Sun-Thurs offers. Head straight to the high limit room at Cosmo and hop on our favorite 25 cent 100 Play, 9/7/5 Double Bonus. Play a couple of hours and no huge hits to report so it’s time to go for a walk and grab some lunch.
Obligatory greyhound pic
For the first time in a million trips we actually walk down Harmon and check out the Hard Rock Casino. As Canadians, the weather is great for walking in Jan-Feb in Vegas, the only time of year the temperature is the same inside casinos and outside in the day. Hard Rock is actually a pretty nice hotel with cool rock memorabilia, though does seem like it would get a bit smoky at night. Also it just happens to be porn central in there this weekend. Saw Madison Ivy walking by but no pic with her and the wife
We head across the street to Ferraro’s for lunch. It’s a quite nice looking Italian restaurant and they have a pretty sick lunch special at $13.95 for soup/salad and a main course. Plus you can add a glass of wine for $6. Overall this was very good value for the price. Not the most amazing Italian food of my life, but solid.
Short rib rigatoni - Pasta cooked very nicely al dente
Tomato bucatini with olive oil and garlic - Again nicely cooked pasta
Checking Bravo I see that the 20/40 Mix is running at Bellagio and no list. Better head over there and play some banana games. Let’s see how many bananas I can hit.
On the way we make a few sports bets. Parlay on the Knights and Oilers to win (Oilers got spanked by Sabres 5-0 the night before and should get revenge on the arch rival Flames at home) and take the over on the Oilers-Flames.
On arrival to the Bellagio, there is conveniently a seat open immediately on David Levi’s left and it’s the two seat. Lots of space for wifey to sweat. She actually knows all the games pretty decently, so enjoys the live action. Extra win is the other solid players in the game are in the five and six seats. LFG! This pic is after I'm down a bit from initial $800 buy in.
The first game in today’s 10 game mix is Archie. If you haven’t played, it’s a split pot 5 card triple draw game with half the pot going to the best high hand (pair of 6s or better as qualifier) and half the pot going to the best 8 or better low hand. So obv wheels are optimal and ideal to scoop. The game creates some interesting dynamics as you might have something like a pair of Aces and draw three, going for a high hand, then get 4 cards to a wheel or other strong low draw and change to going for a low hand. Based on the number of cards others are drawing, you can also get an idea to if they’re going low or high. Since the pots often play multiway and there are qualifiers for both high and low, high hands can still have a lot of value and scoop occasionally.
On one of the first few hands I pick up KKxxx in the BB. A couple of limpers to SB who calls and I get a free draw with the KK. Jack, Jack, Jack. Easy game, lol. Lead for $20, three callers. I pat and get called 3 ways on turn and then get raised by a flush on the river. Everyone is going high and I scoop a nice little $480 pot.
The very next hand I pick up 7788x in SB, and the kill is on so it’s $30/60 with me posting the $30 in the SB. The game basically plays as a $30/60 most of the time because of the kill (Any scoop over $300 – meaning almost all non-split pot games) It is raised by seat 5, calls in seat 6 and DL on my right. I see the BB gearing up for a call (he compulsively telegraphs his action), so I call already having $30 in the pot and getting 10/1 on my boat draw. Drawing one on the first draw I pick up a lovely 7. A slew of bet/calls over the next three seats and I end up chopping up two other high hands on the river with seat 5.
Over the course of the next two hours I play through the super razzdeucey, super stud hi-low regular, badeucey, badacey, 2-7 TD and Badugi.
Here’s a nice SSHLR hand by David with the almost steel wheel. Pot is looking a bit light cause I’m not donking it up in this one.
Not too many memorable hands but I chip up a bit more in 2-7 and Badugi as they are by far my best games. Don’t want to give away too many details, but the AF in this game is way too low live (eg. limping buttons/open limping regularly by others in EP) and there is no snowing. These games are very profitable live, though still come with a significant amount of variance as you only play 7 hands of each game every 3 hours in a 10-game mix.
After two hours, we're up a bit, have had a few greyhounds (Bellagio uses the red grapefruit juice) so it’s time for dinner at Scarpetta.
Scarpetta is kind of a staple for wifey and I, solely because of the spaghetti course. An absolutely outstanding rendition of a simple pasta, this has crazy umami flavor and intensity. We get this at least once a trip, sometimes just as an appetizer then go somewhere else for our main course. It is also an absolute ***** for wine pairing, as concentrated tomato can often be. Everyone will say Chianti or another Sangiovese based wine, but having tried many Chianti’s, Brunellos, as well as Barbera, Nebbiolo and Dolcetto, the perfect pairing for this course continues to elude us. Knowing that Champagne works with almost everything, we brought along a 2002 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill. This was a great showing of Winston and definitely worked at least as well as any red wine we’ve tried.
The stromboli bread is also mind blowing with cheese and salami cooked into it and served warm. There are also three other very good breads in the basket. Other pastas here are also very good (especially the short rib agnolotti), but their mains are less good IMO.
Bread basket with eggplant and tomato caponata, butter and olive oil. Great value for an included bread course. Not Guy Savoy or Robuchon bread cart, but pretty frickin great.
2002 Winston Churchill
Yellowtail crudo. This was lolbad. The cut on this crudo would make a sushi master seppuku for sure. Got it cause of the champagne, would not get again.
Ah, most delicious spaghetti. Wifey even makes this at home from Scarpetta cook book and this is the nut pasta dish of North America IMO. Some tajarins in Piedmont might top it, but that's a much longer trip.
Having finished dinner, it was time to go to the sportsbook, light up a Hoyo Epicure #2 and watch the shootout of Oilers-Flames, already 3-3 so over is good regardless. Oilers bink the shootout 2-1 and now we just need the Knights to beat the Islanders for the parlay.
Off to the VP where I play a little 5 cent 50 play (this is wifey's favorite, 50/100 play 5 cent) and get one little bink for the night. Gah, why not on 25 cent.
I finish up my cigar with some Remy XO in the high limit room, while watching the Knights lose for only the 5th time in 25 games at home this year. Fack!
Having been awake since 5 AM and no sleep the night before, it’s an early night for us and we hit the sack by midnight. Tomorrow we’re going to eat all the fishes at Kabuto (tons of sushi pics incoming) and hop back in the 20/40 Mix.
If you enjoyed, I'll post day 2 in a bit.
TF
01-30-2018
, 11:11 AM
Moree 
01-30-2018
, 08:50 PM
Day 2
Woke up full of energy at 7 AM and ready to get our eat on. Used the 2 for 1 Wicked Spoon buffet comp for breakfast because the Eggslut line was wrapped around the corner and I was starving. With Sterling status you get this once per month, with Gold it’s daily. It was my first time ever going to it and it is a decent buffet, better if you’re really hungry though.
The highlights were the eggs benedict (I think a sous vide egg), fried chicken and angry mac and cheese. The lowlights were the BBQ pork, gai lan and anything sushi related.
With full bellies we headed down to the high limit room and hit…
During this time wifey at least got her Sterling status (only 4000 pts) so that’s good for a comped weekend night in the next year. Now time to grind my Gold status upgrade out. Played another hour of unspectacular VP and then saw the list was starting for 20/40 Mix on Bravo. One important thing about playing Mixed Games is that if you don’t start the game in the early hours (9-11 AM), you won’t get a seat until very late at night. During the day, nobody leaves and the list stays somewhat long. The other bonus of starting the game is that you can help pick the games in the mix. If you really want/don’t want a certain game, this is kind of the speak forever or hold your peace moment. Time to head over to the Bellagio.
Hop on the 20/40 list and it will still be a good half hour til it opens. Hop in a 1/3 NL game since it’s the only seat open in the room. I am immediately reminded why I don’t play NL anymore. Guy on my right is probably the biggest douche I’ve ever met at the table. Swearing, obnoxious, insulting the dealer and other players and not tipping the waitress for drinks. Just a total gunt. Fortunately he’s also drunk and on tilt. Only good thing that happens is when I get two black tens in the BB, a few limpers to me including this douchecanoe. I pop it to $15 and 3 players including him call. Flop 945dd. He checks, I bet $30, folds to him and he shoves for $110 total. I snap. He shows the black 32 and board runs out clean. GG ****head. He leaves and I get called shortly after for the 20/40 that is opening.
The AM mix players are definitely a little softer than the evening. The super sweet Morris is always in Seat 1, I think he’s about 93 years old and doesn’t GAF about money, and he falls asleep at the table often. That said, everyone loves him and basically takes care of him at the table. Sometimes the dealer will jokingly ask what he wants for breakfast when it’s his turn to act.
Seat 2 was the best player in the mix. Very solid, normally play 80/160 or higher but nothing bigger is running yet today. Seat 3 is a middle-aged guy who’s coming from the 20/40 O8 game, Seat 4 is older tight solid reg. Seat 5 is a mega fish who has some serious counting problems with the number of draws in any draw game. He also VPIPs 95%, no joke. Seat 6 is me and Seat 7 is another solid reg.
We are playing the same mix as day before and I start off by getting 274 double suited in super razzdeucey. Super razzdeucey is just badeucey played as a super stud game, meaning dealt 4 down cards and 1 up card, trying to make the best badugi and best 2-7 hand. Let me know if you want more/less info on how to play these games in the future, not sure who has any idea or who even cares tbh.
With the 4c up and mega fish the bring-in on my right, I complete with everyone having paint as upcards except seat 2 who calls with a 10 and mega fish who calls with a jack. I proceed to catch a 2 on 4th and Q on 5th, opponents are also catching all cards higher than 9. Unfortunately have to fold 6th when I double pair with another queen and only have a 3-card queen badugi. This is why they are called banana games. Mega fish still calls down with a jack badugi and double paired I think. He gets scooped obv.
We’re playing Archie again next and I pick up a pair of aces in the BB and I’m also the kill, this is called the “econo-kill” since I already have $20 of the kill paid by my BB anyway. Seat 4 opens OTB and fish calls in SB. I call and draw 3. Ace, jack, jack. Easy game. It was pretty unreal how well I drew in the 21 hands of Archie I played over the weekend. Made 3 boats and probably played 6 hands total.
SB checks, I check, button bets. SB calls and I have a nice check raise spot since button had only drawn 1. BTN and SB call again. I pat and both others still drawing. I bet and am called on 2nd draw and lucky for me, seat 4 raises the river when he hits. SB folds, I 3-bet and get called by an ace high flush and no low. Nice little $800 scoop.
The next interesting hand comes in 2-7 TD as I am dealt A2357 all diamonds OTB with the kill on. This is a pretty awesome hand in a bunch of these games, unfortunately A-5 TD isn’t in the mix today, but would be amazing in Archie or 2-7 TD. Folds around to seat 5 who limps (limping CO in 2-7 is pretty amazing). I raise, blinds fold and seat 5 calls making the pot $150. He draws 2, I draw one and pair with the 2s. Check, bet, call. Draw is 1, 1, and I pick up a lovely 4s for the wheel. Check, bet, and I get check raised. Happy days. Sad news is he only has $35 left behind because he’s been buying in $200 at a time. I 3-bet for his last $35 and he calls. He breaks and draws 1 (I assume drawing dead) and my wheel is good.
Over the next few hours we play through the entire mix and I realize that in about 3 hours, if you take no bathroom breaks, you will play 7 hands of each of these games. Just for some simple math, if you played 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, you could get in about 105 hands per week of each of these games. That is a tiny amount and explains why it would take forever to master these games without a lot of independent study. This is probably also the reason why I’m not a huge dog in these games despite living in Canada and playing them once every few months, other than Badugi/2-7 online and during the series.
Around 2:30 we are hungry so hop over to Noodles and catch the last of the dim sum carts. We forgot pics, but there will be some Ping Pang Pong dim sum pics on day 3. I have ordered this food at the table many times at Bellagio over the years but never actually gone in the restaurant. We grab a few of the remaining items of the final cart, they are for the most part decent to slightly above average. We also order some gai lan (Chinese green vegetable) with garlic sauce and get the ultimate gweilo treatment as we get a plate of all stems lol. And not baby gai lan either, this is more like adult bamboo thick gai lan. There’s not a leaf in sight. We see two other orders of this go out and it’s all nice leafy greens, meanwhile we’re breaking ours apart like panda bears. I think they actively removed the leaves just for us. Thanks Noodles.
They have more leaves than us.
Noodles
Despite only being gone less than 30 minutes, the entire mix game has turned over. Morris is still in seat 1, Cindy Violette is in 2, 3-5 are gone and seat 7 is another new player I don’t know. I hop back into the O8 orbit and basically just miss a bunch of flops and have to fold flop or turn every time. Cindy also makes the nuts most hands. We then play badugi and again get dealt a couple of nice 3 cards, but brick hard every time. After bricking off $600 in those two orbits I decide to call it a session at the mix. Clearly I had eaten some runbad gailan!
Also, if anyone wants to talk badugi strat, let me know as Cindy played an interesting hand and I wonder if any badugi experts want to weigh in.
Time for a drink so we head over to the Paris Diamond lounge which is packed. Have never tried this lounge and since we were staying there, why not. Grabbed a Vegas bomb shot and the Paris special martini at the server’s suggestion. Both were super sweet and now wifey and I have gut bomb. We go get changed and now it’s time for dinner at Kabuto.
Ouch
Kabuto is an off-strip sushi restaurant that opened in 2012 (I think) and is in the same strip mall as Raku and a bunch of other great restaurants. Originally Gen-san was the sushi master and now it is Nobu-san. Gen went to Yui Edomae, which I find to be a bit more expensive and have had a few less than stellar experiences with. Yui is always less busy than Kabuto and I wonder if the fish turnover is slower which explains the quality difference.
At this point if awesome sushi pics are not your thing, you can skip ahead to the end of the meal.
This was definitely the most pieces of nigiri we’ve ever done in a single session at Kabuto and it was awesome. So many great pieces. I would say the worst piece was like 7/10 and many were 9/10. I reserve a 10/10 fish score for some of the Japanese Michelin places like Masuda and Tokami in Tokyo. As an FYI, I would strongly recommend just doing the $48 nigiri and then adding on as much as you want after, rather than doing the $80 or $120 omakase courses. These have more cooked courses and sashimi, but for me those cooked courses are just not as good as the nigiri. Can’t wait to go back in a few weeks.
2003 Krug. This is drinking surprisingly early for a Krug. Age your 96s and 02s longer but you can drink this earlier. Still super intense, tons of biscuit/brioche, Krug insane body as always. Great pairing with fish but does better with the stronger flavors like salmon roe, kohada, mackerels and clam. Actually doesn't go that well with tunas, I'd stick with a cold Asahi or Sake for those.
Aperitif pineapple sake
Nigiri list - We're coming for you!
Ankimo - Monkfish liver with okra and cucumber
Ma-tai - Red snapper. Great start.
Akami - Lean tuna.
This is either chikamekintoki (long finned bull eye) or Ma-hata kobujime (sevenband grouper). It could be mixed up with the next pic but I think it's bull eye with a small amount of roasted kelp on top. Both great regardless.
I think grouper but see above pic.
Aoyagi - Orange clam. One of the weaker ones tonight. Big fan of clam usually.
Masunosuke - King salmon. Outstanding
Kohada - Shad. Intense and very good. Great pairing with champagne.
Ikura - Salmon Roe. Best pairing with champagne.
Gyoku - Egg. This was a weak and overcooked egg. Best I've had was Tokami in Tokyo. Gyoku means the end of your set course and you can now go as crazy as you want a la carte. Boo yah!
Time for the tuna progression.
Chu toro - Medium fatty tuna. Very good, but pales next to.
Kama****a-toro. Marbled fatty tuna. My favorite tuna of the night flavor wise.
Jabara-toro. Bellows belly. My favorite tuna, texture wise.
O-toro (premium fatty tuna) on left and Aburi-toro (seared fatty tuna) on right. Both excellent but preferred previous two.
Ika - Squid. Good, but I much prefer squid in Japan where it tastes better and costs $1 instead of $6 a piece. Could skip this one.
Akamutsu - Red seaperch. Don't miss this, unbelievably good.
Kuromutsu (black sea perch) with shiso leaf. Awesome, had to have a 2nd.
Kasugo-tai (spring baby snapper) and Kinme-tai (golden snapper) were also both great.
Anago - Sea eel. Kabuto always does a very good anago.
Kan-sawara. Winter butterfish. Excellent as well.
Hotate - Scallop. Good, but scallop is never really my favorite.
We then did a few more pieces including a great Sayori (halfbeak) and repeated a few but no more pics. Everything was awesome! Finished up with a hand roll and dessert.
Tuna hand roll
Cheesecake. In North America I hate cheesecake as it's way too heavy, but Japan stlye is super gelatinous, closer to jello consistency and I love it.
The damage. This is an absolute steal. At Masa this would be $600+ easy and less good. Kabuto is a real treasure.
After Kabuto we go smash some VP at Cosmo and hit…
We rack up a lot of points, but once again, no real amazing hits to show for it. One bonus was a promo they were running called unlock and reveal in which you get bronze, silver or gold scratch and win cards that award free play. We picked up 7 bronze cards and one silver for a total of about $320 in free play (silver was $250) and also got another $150 in free play for each getting 2500 points in 24 hours. We ended up donking through that $500 pretty quickly.
Down a few K at the VP, wifey is ready for bed so I walk her back to Paris, then head back over to Bellagio for a bit more mix.
The mix lineup tonight is DL, Marcel and a couple of others. I pop down in the 7 seat and we are off to the O8 streets. I am a bit drunk at this point after the bottle of Krug for dinner and drinks with VP, so here comes my donkey hand of the week. Also, recall is not great at this point, but I’m pretty sure this is how it went down.
We’re playing 4 handed O8 and I’m in BB with As3s9h9c. Marcel limps button, DL makes it $40 in SB (only has $45 more behind, which I’m too drunk to realize at the time). I call in BB, BTN calls. Pot $120. Flop is KdJd2s. Woohoo, backdoor draws. DL leads $20, I call (lol), Marcel folds.
Turn is a pretty awesome 5s, DL bets his last $25, I call and river an 8s for the nut nut. DL shows AdJh2h9d is not happy and rebuys then moves to my left because I’m obv an O8 fish bahaha. I actually really like DL and everyone in the mix, but he was correct in pointing out I had F all on the flop.
Just for fun I ran this through Propokertools and if I could be certain I wasn’t getting raised on the flop, I actually had 17% equity against his hand, so calling $20 to win $160 wasn’t bad at all lol.
We played a few more games and up from an initial buy in of $800, I cashed out with a small profit.
I almost forgot that I played about 2 orbits of 2/5 NL at Bellagio, bunch of backpacks and grinders so I was on suicide watch. Then played a bit of 1/3 NL at PHo. Great game, got set over setted with 77<JJ on J97dd flop. GG me. I hate holdem.
Off to bed and day 3 will see the wifey putting in a serious VP grind sesh, some Super Bowl betting, a fancy dinner at Twist and the quest to find Leon’s VP machine at the Wynn.
There weren’t so many poker/VP pics today because we ended up down about 3K without any significant hits. More tomorrow.
TF
Woke up full of energy at 7 AM and ready to get our eat on. Used the 2 for 1 Wicked Spoon buffet comp for breakfast because the Eggslut line was wrapped around the corner and I was starving. With Sterling status you get this once per month, with Gold it’s daily. It was my first time ever going to it and it is a decent buffet, better if you’re really hungry though.
The highlights were the eggs benedict (I think a sous vide egg), fried chicken and angry mac and cheese. The lowlights were the BBQ pork, gai lan and anything sushi related.
With full bellies we headed down to the high limit room and hit…
Spoiler:
During this time wifey at least got her Sterling status (only 4000 pts) so that’s good for a comped weekend night in the next year. Now time to grind my Gold status upgrade out. Played another hour of unspectacular VP and then saw the list was starting for 20/40 Mix on Bravo. One important thing about playing Mixed Games is that if you don’t start the game in the early hours (9-11 AM), you won’t get a seat until very late at night. During the day, nobody leaves and the list stays somewhat long. The other bonus of starting the game is that you can help pick the games in the mix. If you really want/don’t want a certain game, this is kind of the speak forever or hold your peace moment. Time to head over to the Bellagio.
Hop on the 20/40 list and it will still be a good half hour til it opens. Hop in a 1/3 NL game since it’s the only seat open in the room. I am immediately reminded why I don’t play NL anymore. Guy on my right is probably the biggest douche I’ve ever met at the table. Swearing, obnoxious, insulting the dealer and other players and not tipping the waitress for drinks. Just a total gunt. Fortunately he’s also drunk and on tilt. Only good thing that happens is when I get two black tens in the BB, a few limpers to me including this douchecanoe. I pop it to $15 and 3 players including him call. Flop 945dd. He checks, I bet $30, folds to him and he shoves for $110 total. I snap. He shows the black 32 and board runs out clean. GG ****head. He leaves and I get called shortly after for the 20/40 that is opening.
The AM mix players are definitely a little softer than the evening. The super sweet Morris is always in Seat 1, I think he’s about 93 years old and doesn’t GAF about money, and he falls asleep at the table often. That said, everyone loves him and basically takes care of him at the table. Sometimes the dealer will jokingly ask what he wants for breakfast when it’s his turn to act.
Seat 2 was the best player in the mix. Very solid, normally play 80/160 or higher but nothing bigger is running yet today. Seat 3 is a middle-aged guy who’s coming from the 20/40 O8 game, Seat 4 is older tight solid reg. Seat 5 is a mega fish who has some serious counting problems with the number of draws in any draw game. He also VPIPs 95%, no joke. Seat 6 is me and Seat 7 is another solid reg.
We are playing the same mix as day before and I start off by getting 274 double suited in super razzdeucey. Super razzdeucey is just badeucey played as a super stud game, meaning dealt 4 down cards and 1 up card, trying to make the best badugi and best 2-7 hand. Let me know if you want more/less info on how to play these games in the future, not sure who has any idea or who even cares tbh.
With the 4c up and mega fish the bring-in on my right, I complete with everyone having paint as upcards except seat 2 who calls with a 10 and mega fish who calls with a jack. I proceed to catch a 2 on 4th and Q on 5th, opponents are also catching all cards higher than 9. Unfortunately have to fold 6th when I double pair with another queen and only have a 3-card queen badugi. This is why they are called banana games. Mega fish still calls down with a jack badugi and double paired I think. He gets scooped obv.
We’re playing Archie again next and I pick up a pair of aces in the BB and I’m also the kill, this is called the “econo-kill” since I already have $20 of the kill paid by my BB anyway. Seat 4 opens OTB and fish calls in SB. I call and draw 3. Ace, jack, jack. Easy game. It was pretty unreal how well I drew in the 21 hands of Archie I played over the weekend. Made 3 boats and probably played 6 hands total.
SB checks, I check, button bets. SB calls and I have a nice check raise spot since button had only drawn 1. BTN and SB call again. I pat and both others still drawing. I bet and am called on 2nd draw and lucky for me, seat 4 raises the river when he hits. SB folds, I 3-bet and get called by an ace high flush and no low. Nice little $800 scoop.
The next interesting hand comes in 2-7 TD as I am dealt A2357 all diamonds OTB with the kill on. This is a pretty awesome hand in a bunch of these games, unfortunately A-5 TD isn’t in the mix today, but would be amazing in Archie or 2-7 TD. Folds around to seat 5 who limps (limping CO in 2-7 is pretty amazing). I raise, blinds fold and seat 5 calls making the pot $150. He draws 2, I draw one and pair with the 2s. Check, bet, call. Draw is 1, 1, and I pick up a lovely 4s for the wheel. Check, bet, and I get check raised. Happy days. Sad news is he only has $35 left behind because he’s been buying in $200 at a time. I 3-bet for his last $35 and he calls. He breaks and draws 1 (I assume drawing dead) and my wheel is good.
Over the next few hours we play through the entire mix and I realize that in about 3 hours, if you take no bathroom breaks, you will play 7 hands of each of these games. Just for some simple math, if you played 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, you could get in about 105 hands per week of each of these games. That is a tiny amount and explains why it would take forever to master these games without a lot of independent study. This is probably also the reason why I’m not a huge dog in these games despite living in Canada and playing them once every few months, other than Badugi/2-7 online and during the series.
Around 2:30 we are hungry so hop over to Noodles and catch the last of the dim sum carts. We forgot pics, but there will be some Ping Pang Pong dim sum pics on day 3. I have ordered this food at the table many times at Bellagio over the years but never actually gone in the restaurant. We grab a few of the remaining items of the final cart, they are for the most part decent to slightly above average. We also order some gai lan (Chinese green vegetable) with garlic sauce and get the ultimate gweilo treatment as we get a plate of all stems lol. And not baby gai lan either, this is more like adult bamboo thick gai lan. There’s not a leaf in sight. We see two other orders of this go out and it’s all nice leafy greens, meanwhile we’re breaking ours apart like panda bears. I think they actively removed the leaves just for us. Thanks Noodles.
They have more leaves than us.
Noodles
Despite only being gone less than 30 minutes, the entire mix game has turned over. Morris is still in seat 1, Cindy Violette is in 2, 3-5 are gone and seat 7 is another new player I don’t know. I hop back into the O8 orbit and basically just miss a bunch of flops and have to fold flop or turn every time. Cindy also makes the nuts most hands. We then play badugi and again get dealt a couple of nice 3 cards, but brick hard every time. After bricking off $600 in those two orbits I decide to call it a session at the mix. Clearly I had eaten some runbad gailan!
Also, if anyone wants to talk badugi strat, let me know as Cindy played an interesting hand and I wonder if any badugi experts want to weigh in.
Time for a drink so we head over to the Paris Diamond lounge which is packed. Have never tried this lounge and since we were staying there, why not. Grabbed a Vegas bomb shot and the Paris special martini at the server’s suggestion. Both were super sweet and now wifey and I have gut bomb. We go get changed and now it’s time for dinner at Kabuto.
Ouch
Kabuto is an off-strip sushi restaurant that opened in 2012 (I think) and is in the same strip mall as Raku and a bunch of other great restaurants. Originally Gen-san was the sushi master and now it is Nobu-san. Gen went to Yui Edomae, which I find to be a bit more expensive and have had a few less than stellar experiences with. Yui is always less busy than Kabuto and I wonder if the fish turnover is slower which explains the quality difference.
At this point if awesome sushi pics are not your thing, you can skip ahead to the end of the meal.
This was definitely the most pieces of nigiri we’ve ever done in a single session at Kabuto and it was awesome. So many great pieces. I would say the worst piece was like 7/10 and many were 9/10. I reserve a 10/10 fish score for some of the Japanese Michelin places like Masuda and Tokami in Tokyo. As an FYI, I would strongly recommend just doing the $48 nigiri and then adding on as much as you want after, rather than doing the $80 or $120 omakase courses. These have more cooked courses and sashimi, but for me those cooked courses are just not as good as the nigiri. Can’t wait to go back in a few weeks.
2003 Krug. This is drinking surprisingly early for a Krug. Age your 96s and 02s longer but you can drink this earlier. Still super intense, tons of biscuit/brioche, Krug insane body as always. Great pairing with fish but does better with the stronger flavors like salmon roe, kohada, mackerels and clam. Actually doesn't go that well with tunas, I'd stick with a cold Asahi or Sake for those.
Aperitif pineapple sake
Nigiri list - We're coming for you!
Ankimo - Monkfish liver with okra and cucumber
Ma-tai - Red snapper. Great start.
Akami - Lean tuna.
This is either chikamekintoki (long finned bull eye) or Ma-hata kobujime (sevenband grouper). It could be mixed up with the next pic but I think it's bull eye with a small amount of roasted kelp on top. Both great regardless.
I think grouper but see above pic.
Aoyagi - Orange clam. One of the weaker ones tonight. Big fan of clam usually.
Masunosuke - King salmon. Outstanding
Kohada - Shad. Intense and very good. Great pairing with champagne.
Ikura - Salmon Roe. Best pairing with champagne.
Gyoku - Egg. This was a weak and overcooked egg. Best I've had was Tokami in Tokyo. Gyoku means the end of your set course and you can now go as crazy as you want a la carte. Boo yah!
Time for the tuna progression.
Chu toro - Medium fatty tuna. Very good, but pales next to.
Kama****a-toro. Marbled fatty tuna. My favorite tuna of the night flavor wise.
Jabara-toro. Bellows belly. My favorite tuna, texture wise.
O-toro (premium fatty tuna) on left and Aburi-toro (seared fatty tuna) on right. Both excellent but preferred previous two.
Ika - Squid. Good, but I much prefer squid in Japan where it tastes better and costs $1 instead of $6 a piece. Could skip this one.
Akamutsu - Red seaperch. Don't miss this, unbelievably good.
Kuromutsu (black sea perch) with shiso leaf. Awesome, had to have a 2nd.
Kasugo-tai (spring baby snapper) and Kinme-tai (golden snapper) were also both great.
Anago - Sea eel. Kabuto always does a very good anago.
Kan-sawara. Winter butterfish. Excellent as well.
Hotate - Scallop. Good, but scallop is never really my favorite.
We then did a few more pieces including a great Sayori (halfbeak) and repeated a few but no more pics. Everything was awesome! Finished up with a hand roll and dessert.
Tuna hand roll
Cheesecake. In North America I hate cheesecake as it's way too heavy, but Japan stlye is super gelatinous, closer to jello consistency and I love it.
The damage. This is an absolute steal. At Masa this would be $600+ easy and less good. Kabuto is a real treasure.
After Kabuto we go smash some VP at Cosmo and hit…
Spoiler:
We rack up a lot of points, but once again, no real amazing hits to show for it. One bonus was a promo they were running called unlock and reveal in which you get bronze, silver or gold scratch and win cards that award free play. We picked up 7 bronze cards and one silver for a total of about $320 in free play (silver was $250) and also got another $150 in free play for each getting 2500 points in 24 hours. We ended up donking through that $500 pretty quickly.
Down a few K at the VP, wifey is ready for bed so I walk her back to Paris, then head back over to Bellagio for a bit more mix.
The mix lineup tonight is DL, Marcel and a couple of others. I pop down in the 7 seat and we are off to the O8 streets. I am a bit drunk at this point after the bottle of Krug for dinner and drinks with VP, so here comes my donkey hand of the week. Also, recall is not great at this point, but I’m pretty sure this is how it went down.
We’re playing 4 handed O8 and I’m in BB with As3s9h9c. Marcel limps button, DL makes it $40 in SB (only has $45 more behind, which I’m too drunk to realize at the time). I call in BB, BTN calls. Pot $120. Flop is KdJd2s. Woohoo, backdoor draws. DL leads $20, I call (lol), Marcel folds.
Turn is a pretty awesome 5s, DL bets his last $25, I call and river an 8s for the nut nut. DL shows AdJh2h9d is not happy and rebuys then moves to my left because I’m obv an O8 fish bahaha. I actually really like DL and everyone in the mix, but he was correct in pointing out I had F all on the flop.
Just for fun I ran this through Propokertools and if I could be certain I wasn’t getting raised on the flop, I actually had 17% equity against his hand, so calling $20 to win $160 wasn’t bad at all lol.
We played a few more games and up from an initial buy in of $800, I cashed out with a small profit.
I almost forgot that I played about 2 orbits of 2/5 NL at Bellagio, bunch of backpacks and grinders so I was on suicide watch. Then played a bit of 1/3 NL at PHo. Great game, got set over setted with 77<JJ on J97dd flop. GG me. I hate holdem.
Off to bed and day 3 will see the wifey putting in a serious VP grind sesh, some Super Bowl betting, a fancy dinner at Twist and the quest to find Leon’s VP machine at the Wynn.
There weren’t so many poker/VP pics today because we ended up down about 3K without any significant hits. More tomorrow.
TF