Hey 2+2

I am super pumped to be jetting off to Vegas again for 7 nights from 22-29 November.

As some of you may have read last year I turned 40 and my wife surprised me with a trip which I did a TR about here https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...72/?highlight=

This year I am going with friends and leaving the wife and kids at home. All the friends are poker players so this trip will heavily focus at the tables.

Appreciate this thread has started a little early but the excitement has already kicked in.

Again I have not booked any of this but I have 7 nights at the Cromwell and direct flights from London to Vegas. Will be missing the Grand Prix but I am sure there will still be a bit of a hangover from that weekend.

Plans for the trip are:

Poker - 1/3 to 2/5 and maybe the odd MTT if I decide I hate myself enough
Gym every day. Had a bit of a health scare this year but have turned a corner where I am alot healthier and I want to keep on top of this.
Eat well. Going to try and not eat so much crap when I am there. Yes its a holiday but I want to try some better places!
Pinball Hall of Fame
Sphere
Pictures of hookers
Not lose my ear buds
Run like God

Pokerwise for me this year back in the UK has been a good one. I am not ashamed to admit I have bum hunted alot and found some juicy private cash games with absolute whales for the stakes (£500NL). Confidence at the tables is high and I feel I have put in more study than I have over the years of playing. I know I am setting myself up to fail with that comment but we will see.

Shoe and roll pics will follow closer to the time (still not got any dollars yet).

Let the greyhounds flow!!

Sounds like it's booked enough! I'm in!

I'm in!

Where to eat in Las Vegas this Thanksgiving:

https://vegas.eater.com/maps/dine-on...las-vegas-2023

fwiw, Thanksgiving celebrates the naivety of Native Americans when faced with a bunch of religious zealots from the UK landig uninvited on their shore.

But, you're always welcome in Las Vegas, once those F1 Euro-trash moochers move along.

Hey, you'll be there for Thanksgiving!

Lucky you! Turkey is healthy.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

Posting to subscribe in epic bread. GL OP! Safe Travels!

So a funny story yesterday to do with the trip.

The guy organising the trip messaged me over the weekend about sorting out a lounge at the airport. I have a lounge pass and gave him the number so he could book all 13 of us in. One less hassle at the airport. However he replies once its booked and I notice that the date its booked for is the 21st November and not the 22nd! Panic stations hit as I thought he has messed up the booking. I question him and say you know you have the date wrong? Amazed I get the reply of 'It has always been the 21st'!!

Queue scroll through whatsapp chats and despite him saying it was the 22nd and me even asking about flights on the 22nd he has somehow booked it all for the 21st! Granted it is only a day but it now means I need to re arrange all my days off. Plus side is VEGAS A DAY EARLIER!!!!

Checking on the flight times I believe I land around 6:30pm Vegas time on the Tuesday so the plan will probably dump my bag in my room and hit the tables.

Thanks Gzesh for the link to eats. I may try something like a different countries food each day.

12 more sleeps to go!!

Vegas!!!! Extra Day!!! LFG!!!

24 hours to go and the excitement is real.

I have decided to throw in a couple of tournaments this trip. Usually cash is king for me thanks to the nature of just being able to arrive and leave as I please. However as this is a different type of trip and the only plans are to go to the Sphere, take in a hockey game and experience the NFL then I am going to throw in a couple of tournaments.

The plan tournament wise is to play some of the Venetian Deepstack events with:

Event 4 $400 Epic Stack (1 day)
Event 8 $500 Epic Bounty (1 day)
Event 10 $1,100 MSPT (2 day and a strong maybe)

Starting roll will be $5k and this will only be for gambling. I have an entertainment and food budget and this will be completely separate.

Bags are all packed, family still seem chilled for me to go (feels like a trap).

Shoes and roll pictures to follow later.

It's not really the NFL. It's the Raiders.

If you don't have anything planned for Friday evening, you might try the Orleans 5 pm tourney. They usually get close to 200 entries and it's a good structure. You'll be up late if you run deep.

I get the synergy of tree fiddy with Grants,

But come ON! EVERYBODY knows $50’s are bad luck!!

The trick is figuring out how to cleverly pawn them off onto your toughest opponents!

In!

Yeah, nice job with both the composition and material on the bankroll shot.

Let's have a little update shall we.

Had a really smooth trip to the airport and met up with the other 12 in our group. It's a great mix of young and older guys and girls.

As I have had a great year in poker and work I upgraded my seat into business class. Flight was 30 minutes delayed from London but it's no big deal. We should be landing in Vegas around 7:30pm local time. Plan of action for me is to have a sleep, dump my bags at the hotel and get right onto the tables.

As you can see I have plenty of leg room and the food is great!

First night in the bag

Flight landed around 8pm Vegas time and was the smoothest through the airport I have ever had. No queue at security and my bags were the first out on the carousel.



4 of us shared a taxi to the Cromwell and we were given our room keys. 7th floor out the lift, turned right and I was hit in the face with the stink of weed! The room itself is not great either but it will do as a base for the week. Personally I would have not picked this hotel but it is what it is. To top this off it's 1:25am as I am writing this and I can already hear th TV in the adjacent room.


We decided to shower, change and set out on the strip looking for a drink. I however wanted to play cash so we all went to the horseshoe. The wait list for 1/3 was long but it moved quickly and within 30 mins I was sat down with 3 stacks of high society and a dream.

It only took 5 hands until we got into a big pot.
UTG (a middle eastern guy) limps.
CO limps
We look down at AA on the button and make it 20 knowing full well we are getting a caller here regardless. It seems once Mr middle eastern guy puts a chip in the pot preflop he is going to the flop regardless of the bet.
He does indeed call and the CO moves out the way

Flop J34
UTG leads out for 15
There is no way he leads out here without a J so I am charging him for a turn.
Raise to 45
UTG calls

Turn 8
Now UTG checks and with what I thought was 100 behind I go ahead and chuck that amount in.
He angrily slams his 100 stack in for a call and I then notice 5 white $1 chips which he was hiding.

River 7
Checks again and I bet the last 5 he calls and I roll over the aces to be good for the pot.

Nice we are over 150 up right away. After then we got a greyhound in and just hung around on that stack for a good hour or two. I would lose small pots with plenty of pocket pairs where we were getting 3-4 to the pot because of the 200 high hand bonus every 30 mins and missing the board completely. Example raising 66 on the button. Blinds would call and we see flops like KQT and the blinds proceed to bet into each other.

Then the small ones we won were steals from the button after I got sick of seeing all the limpers.



We finish 146 up so am in profit for the trip so far.

Next as top the $400 epicstack event at the Venetian. Although at time of writing this I am pretty tired and not sure if a tournament is for me.

We will see

Day 1
+$146

Good start. Glad you had a nice trip over and got through customs quickly.

Thanks. Was a good start.

We had a bit of a lazy morning so far. Although I have managed a 40 min work out in the gym first thing in the morning.

Spent a few hours in bed after making calls back to family home and have had to order a few things to get delivered to the hotel. Fingers crossed they come in time!

Anyway brunch was at Denny's. Pancakes with fruit, sausage and hashbrowns. Not sure I will need to eat now as America portions are just so much bigger than back at home.



Late reg the $400 epicstack at the Venetian in level 4. Current on level 5 and pretty much just above starting. No real hands to note but will keep the thread updated.

60 players left out of 72 with late reg open another 2 hours.

Let’s spin it up!!

Break time.

Level 9 next 1000/2000/2000

We have 129k

Average 92k

53 left



Fun hand at the 600/1200/1200 level

77 in the sb and we have 60k

Active player in the CO raises to 2500
I call SB
Bb call

Flop K66
All check

Turn 4
Checks to active player who bets 3k
We call
BB folds

River 7 bink!
Check as active player has been bombing each river when played. He bets 15k so we just shove.

He snaps 76 for us 1 outering him.

WAY ahead preflop, best hand won imo

No shame in hitting one outers. Only shame in missing them.

We are out unfortunately

Bit of a strange one to say the least. During the break I got a text saying one of my friends back at home took his life today. It massively hit me as he always seemed like he had his life together. I even confided in him when I was going through a rough patch and was always one willing to help others. Honestly I never saw that coming

Anyway I was sat at the table just zoning out reflecting on all the good times we had and trying to understand what was so bad to do something like that. It got to me bad and I just blasted off all my chips and have come back to my room to chill for a bit.

Not sure what to do now today. Don't fancy staying in but also don't want to go gamble. The group are all playing still so I might find out what they are doing this evening.

Apologies this is a bit of a downbeat post I am only into night two of the break away so there will be plenty of positives to come I am sure.

Sorry for your loss.