Hello all and welcome,

Despite many Vegas trips, never done one of these before, but always thought it would be fun so going to give it a shot.

A little about myself...35 year old commodities broker from Colorado, been playing poker since college and Moneymaker. Played for a living a few years after college but got a real job after Black Friday, have been a winning live rec since.

Main games these days are 30/60 or 50/100 limit holdem and 300-1500 tourneys. Those options are dictated by my location, so might find some variety on this trip. Havent played much nl cash last few years but used to regularly. A couple trips a year to play bigger tournies, my best poker achievement was last vegas trip in July when I finished top 50 in the Wsop main.

Staying at Encore, looking forward to those super comfortable beds. I will not be playing the Five Diamond as I want to spend the vacation time on a non poker focused trip. Only tournament I'm playing for sure is the 1k wynn 500k guaranteed. Other than that, cash games, hanging with friends, eating, light partying, and some mild sports/pit degeneracy.

Other than that, I dont really know where this will go. Fly out tomorrow morning, wish me luck!

In for the ride.

GL Mountains from a fellow Coloradan.

Off to a good start, good luck and take lots of pics!

Following along; huge fan of Colorado and just a cpl years older than you.

Nice roll - hope you bink a tourney

With 22/23 grand we def need to hit the blackjack table - lets go!

Painless trip, one of the more beautiful flights from Denver to Las Vegas. It was cloudier than usual over the Rockies, but got a couple nice shots.

Now on the way to Encore to get settled in, will probably start by firing day 1 of the wynn 1k donkament.

Subbed, good start!

Checked in to hotel, now seated in tourney. Fellow 2p2er quantph forgot to bring his money to the casino so now I have a 1% freeroll in his eight game tourney.
Hopefully nothing else to report until a bag at the end of the night.

1st bullet down, got called for 50 bb aipf when I had kk and they had 88. Drawing dead to a straight on the turn...reentered, which will be last one for today

Busted bullet #2 after dinner break, tt<aq 23bb to cripple me

What that was supposed to say was...busted bullet #2 tt<aq for 23 bb to cripple me. Now sitting at 2/5 nl to get a couple drinks. No 5/10 (only 5/10/20) so getting back into the nl streets gingerly

Well...this report went off the rails a bit, night ended pretty quiet. Will try to do better with pics. Busted bullet #2 after dinner, got crippled on a flip 1010<aq.
Went for a couple beers then sat at 2/5 wynn while I waited for my buddy to finish tourney day 1.

Wynn only had 2/5 of 5/10/20, I hadn't played more than a few hrs of nl cash in the last 6 months so decided to get my feet wet at 2/5. Was card dead most of short 2 hr session, tried to run a failed bluff at the end and cashed out -650.

After my friend bagged we headed over to Jinya Ramen on spring mountain. Vegas tip, for good asian cuisine go off strip, you will pay half the price for good quality. The below is not my actual plate but is what I had.

Plan for today is to watch my oregon ducks take on Michigan in college basketball, give the wynn 1k another shot, and see what happens from there.

Gambling result day 1: -2850

11.5 hour absence is definitely not "off the rails" by LVL trip report standards.

Just have the fun while you're having the fun, take pics while you can, and save posting about it for the next morning/afternoon when you're regretting or hopefully high fixing yourself over the fun you had yesterday.

Or wait, maybe you just meant the poker went off the rails, in which case, go Ducks and get back to work OP!

I was mostly referring to me not being able to successfully post a hand history...although poker hasn't been great so far either.

Ducks won in an overtime thriller, just relaxed in the room and watched as it started 9 am Pacific . Then went down and entered the tourney, punted off way too many bbs with top top in a 3bet pot.

Was pretty unhappy with my bustout and wasn't feeling the tourney grind, so took a walk down the strip to Bellagio and grind my comfort zone (40/80 lhe, in for 3k)

Curious on your thoughts on the evolution of live limit holdem.

subbed, hoping you run better!

agree w limit HE curiosity. I didn't even know it was still a thing. (Only NL and PLO in me hood.)

Ok, we have a winning session in the books...+1860 in 9 hrs.

Grabbed a bite to eat at the wynn cafe and now heading to bed.

I will post some thoughts on limit later. One player did put 5 turn bets in on A673 with 32o tonight, so I guess the game's not dead .

Day 2 +760
Total trip -2090

Day 3 began by watching the 1st half of the morning games at the encore sports book. Once it was confirmed that the Broncos would get crushed by the Chiefs, fired my one pick of the day and headed to bellagio. I'm not a big sports bettor, got lucky and was right in this case.

I was planning on playing 40/80 again but it hadn't started yet. Sat at 5/10 nl for an hr and lost 50 (won some small pots and peeled a 3bet with jj but got out flopped. Then moved to 20/40 limit, game wasn't great but my friend "I" from colorado was in the game. We started drinking and decided to move spots for the dinner break of the wynn 1k, where I had a couple friends deep. That included my best poker friend from college, who I had 10% of. I lost 700 in the 20/40, the game was pretty tight and my lag adjustment didnt pay off.

Went to SW at the Wynn for dinner, we had oysters, ribeye, creames spinach and 4 of the Kobe ny strip. The Kobe was $260 but melted I your mouth, was pretty amazing. Plus, "I" had 5% of me in the main event this summer and paid for dinner as a thank you, so it tasted even better thanks to him for the kind gesture.

Ended the night by continuing to drink and play 2/5 while I sweated my friend. He was in for 7 bullets (over 2 days), ended up final tabling so ended up well. He likes his privacy so cant disclose more info, hopefully he stays hot in the five diamond main. Won 200 myself in 2/5 had a good time getting the straddle going but didnt play any big pots of note.

Day 3 results:
Poker -550
Sports +180

Total trip -2460

Pics from day 3

Last day ended up being quiey, just hung around the wynn since I didnt have time for a committed session. Played 2 hrs 2/5 and won 330, a good result considering I bluffed off 500 and ran qq into kk straddle vs button (I slow played pre so pot was small) .

Went to lunch and Mint Indian Bistro off the strip, was a solid buffet. Headed back to wynn to pick up bags, played 2 hrs of 1/2 plo and won 60. That was only my 3rd live casino plo session ever (and one time I was hammered). The lineup seem pretty soft though with a couple bad players and the rest just passively nut peddling.

I did lose 200 in video poker, 100 at wynn waiting for a seat and 100 at the airport. Flight back was uneventful, now back in Colorado on my lunch break.

Overall, my trip was good but wasn't very memorable. I was more conservative in my gambling than I had planned and except for the Kobe steak didnt have any experiences that really stand out. Had some good food, caught up with some friends and relaxed, no regrets.

Will update on the info about limit holdem later tonight after work, thanks for reading

Nice TR!

Thnx for sharing

agreed, tx bro

Day 4 results

Poker +390
Vp -200

Total trip -2270
Tourney -3300 (3x1100)
Cash game +1050 (24 hrs, 7 sessions, avg buyin 1440, 44/hr)

Some limit holdem info

Cons
Game selection-you can count one hand the number of cities with games higher than 20/40 running on a given night. As far as I can tell, there is not much new blood entering the game either.
Game complexity-still a skill game, but there is less room for creativity

Pros
Speed-30 second river tank is as bad as it gets
Sustained action-avg pot size has smaller deviation, more hands go to showdown. The blind structure also rewards nits less than 2 blind no ante nl.
Ecosystem sustainability-higher short term variance plus inability to get stacked means that losing players lose slower and stay in action longer. Avg table is friendlier as a result as well.

I find myself enjoying limit more these days, mostly because of the game speed. This trip I found some good games in both varieties, the 40 game I played on saturday was very good though. End of the night I was the only professional caliber player in the game, it's tough to find that at equivalent nl (5/10) vegas stakes. The problem is that it was the only game at that stake in the whole town during one of the busiest poker weekends outside of the seriers.

Oh, and you get to build huge chip stacks

Happy to answer any further questions