Okay Rockefeller

Quitz pokerz, only blackjacks.

it's your fault

Some random thoughts on what was brought up in this thread....

1. Potatoes in chocolate milk? What in the hell?!?!?

2. I really enjoy chocolate milk too but sometimes gives me bubble guts. Does that happen to anyone else? Maybe I'm lactose intolerant?

3. OP, do you ever feel like having a card protector could give your competition one extra way of picking up a tell?

The only time I drink chocolate milk is when I have a hangover, so definitely not a problem for me

OP, Sorry the trip didn't end as planned, but I'm glad you had a good time. Well done at blackjack. Thanks for keeping us updated!

I don't get this

I understand that there is potential for tells and leaks but no, not how I use it.

the funniest experience of my trip was Wednesday.
a little background: last year before that trip, my sister told me her boyfriend's mom worked for Palace Station and could get me a free room. sweet; I conservatively requested just the last night of the trip. when I checked in I asked if they could page her so I could talk, and 10 minutes later she came down and we met, I thanked her, etc.
This year when I mentioned my plans, my sister's now fiancé asked when I would be there, said his mom had moved to Texas Station and for sure, I could stay there the whole time. okay great, it's a little out of the way and probably not as nice as PS but I had to take the offer.
so anyway, before going I asked him for her phone number and on Wednesday morning I texted her, politely thanking her for helping to get me a comfortable room and I was enjoying my stay. Later that day I hadn't gotten a response yet so I went to the desk. "Excuse me, I would like to speak with (Ms So-and-so), do you if she is available and can be reached?"
the desk woman's eyes got very wide. "Why yes, hold on a moment." then she turned to another desk woman and interrupted her conversation "this gentleman asked for (Ms So-and-so)" and that lady's eyes got wide. "Certainly, let me check." she picked up a phone, she asked for the executive office, a minute later handed me the phone. "Hello, this is her secretary." Hi this is Langdon I'm, uh, family? [I wish I had a better story; "The Sausage King of Chicago?"] I just wanted to speak with her if I could, is she available? "Sure Langdon, unfortunately she is not available, she's in a meeting. I'd be happy to leave a message for her."
what the hell do I say? Thanks for hooking this freeloader up?
"Great, just let her know Langdon called, and says thanks..."

anyway it was pretty amusingly awkward. When I got back I googled her and discovered she's like VP of Station Casino and now the General Manager of Texas Station.
I feel like my sister is the girl from the movie Crazy Rich Asians.
looking forward to the wedding


(which, sadly, is not in LV)

CONCLUSIONS

I had a great trip. I didn't win a lot but I didn't lose a lot either and was able to play and have fun from start to finish.

I ended up playing something at 11 different casinos around the valley: GoldNug, El Cortez, Golden Gate, GVR, Mirage, Flamingo, Aria, PH, Orleans, Texas Station and South Point. I did not get to Sahara or Red Rock.

Texas Station was an okay hotel, great staff and service, the casino is good for locals and it has a great cheap buffet. But I wouldn't stay there again if I had to pay for the room or fees. I want a real fitness center, a better pool (it was closed but looked underwhelming), and better location obviously. Also, how about HBO or related channels? I hate the TVs (like the Station hotels) where you have to go through a main menu every time you turn it on and you have to pay $9.99 to watch any movie. What hotels have more normal room TV?

My rental car from Fox was way cheap and worked without a hitch. I paid $82 total for a nice Kia Optima for 4 days. I drove a ton around the valley but only paid like $17 for gas. I did hit a screw and got a flat but I resolved that pretty easily on my own. Oh and wow, people drive really fast.

I played in a poker tournament each of four days and I got to a chop in the first one. Going back to last year that made two straight tournament wins in Vegas, but followed by a bunch of quick outs. There comes a point (probably level 4) in a tourney where you have to be at 2-3x chips at least or you will be in shove/fold mode already and/or get eaten alive by the aggressive big stacks, and I caught a few bad breaks (and a couple mistakes) that got me chasing instead.

Evenings are obviously the best time for cash games, and that was my plan going in. But I fell off the plan and it cost me. My arrival flight delayed for over 90 minutes which kept me out of playing my first night. Instead, I got to Golden Nugget a little before their morning tourney and decided to hop in a 1/2 NL game that was just starting for a little but busted much too soon. Then the next day I wanted some low-level PLO and started a 1/1 interest list at Flamingo, then moved my car from Mirage, wandered around and entered a 1/2(/5) PLO game at Aria in the early afternoon, which was probably deeper than I should have been. I still nearly caught a huge hand that would have made the session profitable (flopped set of aces with nut flush draw) but I couldn't get the final spade or board to pair to hit a boat and lost to a straight.
Being down $400 in cash games isn't bankruptcy but I lost confidence and a lot of desire to try again and decided to stick with tourneys and other stuff the rest of the trip. I'm not terrible but to really play cash games you need a deeper budget than I had. And early-in-the-day-games suck.

Pleasant Surprise
I was quite impressed with Green Valley Ranch. Their poker room is spacious with a lot of action and a lot of different games and levels. During my short visit on a Monday afternoon they had NL 1/2 and 5/10, LHE 2/4, and a PLO table. A bar is close by and the cocktail servers made rounds constantly without a wait. All the staff were great. They had a high hand promo that paid off every 90 minutes. Their Monday night tournament offered plenty of free pizza from Pizza Rock and had a good turnout with a pretty good structure. It's in Henderson far away from the Strip but it's a good spot.

Disappointment
MGM. Everything bellied up for me at their properties. The worst tourney I played in was at Mirage and worst table service was at Aria. The two non-poker promotions I pursued at their properties, Krispy Kremes were out at Excal and the Television City studio study at MGM was a fruitless disappointment accompanied by about an hour extra walking. In general I hate "luxury" (seems like a synonym for overpriced) and I have no interest in most of their overvalued attractions and dining.

Blackjack
DaNit suggested taking advantage of available match play promos, which I used for blackjack. I finally learned that even low-rollers aren't required to bust. A nice starting stack can maintain for a long time, and I found BJ to be a lot more social, enjoyable and safer than poker. Even after promos, I ended up playing BJ 7 times (well, one was Casino War which is basically the same thing) for about 11 hours, and my only losing session was less than what I gained the next session. My hourly wasn't great, but I still finished the trip $100+ at BJ and had fun. I also mastered quit while you are ahead. I'm not planning a full blackjack trip anytime soon but it was a good poker money supplement and use of downtime.
It was good to explore new casinos and tables and rules, but after returning I realized that if I'm gonna play a lot of blackjack, it is likely beneficial to stick with one (or a few) places if I want to collect more useful comps. Is this true for a low-roller like me?
a few blackjack questions.
1) potentially rhetorical: if you find yourself with a bad dealer do you move to a different table, just suck it up for the eventual change, or just lower the bet to the minimum until the change and then pick it back up?
2) how do they track you? I saw them enter my starting chips with my card but not later add-ons. do they track just how many chips you start with, chips + time at the table, rebuy chips? I've heard "average bet hourly" but how do they track that?
3) is there really a structural or strategic advantage to playing with a smaller shoe size? is it just a better ability to count or track the cards? for low mins I saw 2-deck, 4-, 6- and 8-deck. is there really a difference?

I loved going to the Golden Knights game. The ticket cost more than my flight but I'm glad I went.

I didn't spend much on food. The breakfast buffets at Texas and Palace Stations were great and kept me full for most of the day. I did get some good authentic Asian food in Chinatown and Bruxies was interesting. Afternoon happy hour at Steak n' Shake (SP) has shakes for under $3 which I get every visit.

The trickiest part of a Vegas vacation is dealing with mornings. No matter when I get to bed I can't sleep past 8:00. So...? Tournaments are probably the best thing to do, though turnout is not guaranteed and structures aren't always great. Orleans seems consistently good, South Point is good but shark-infested... anyone else have experience with morning/midday tourneys on Strip that are worth planning for? Mornings seem like a great time for blackjack, as well as the time to go hiking, and I don't know what else.

So yeah, I played responsibly this trip. I stuck to a daily losing limit and didn't bet more than I could afford. It's a crappy time for sports and I didn't do any sports betting or waste any money on VP or slots. Like last year it was nice to finish on a winning note. I took care of my poker itch but mostly ran bad so while I still love Vegas, I don't feel enthused about playing heavily again for another year.

My next trip will probably be Summer 2021 during WSOP, or late spring when pools are open and playoff games are happening. I hope to stay at Palace Station, Red Rock, South Point, and/or downtown. Interestingly, my wife had two friends tell her they would help watch our kids so she could go with me next time. I don't know what she would do all day but I would really enjoy her company.

Congrats, you made it to the end of this long report! thanks for following along and for your comments and I welcome further responses.

Great trip report. Great closing thoughts.
Never been to a lot of those spots. I'm curious to try something different my next trip.
You are an inspiration. Low ballers rule!

Thanks for the TR!

As far as the blackjack goes -- it is roughly as easy to count regardless of shoe-size, but the smaller shoes are better for two different reasons -- first and foremost, smaller shoe is better off the top, assuming all other rules the same (smaller house edge). Second, and related to the first, due to the way the swongs work, you'll end up in the profitable spots more frequently in smaller shoes (since they shuffle away the bad/get to the good faster, essentially).

Also, as a novice counter, if I screw it up somewhere along the way, it's a lot faster to hop out and back in at the shuffle on 2-deck compared to 8.

All of that said -- counting compared to poker is not great at small stakes. The variance is extremely high, so for most bankroll sizes, you can make around 3x as much at poker with the same risk of ruin. You're almost certainly best off just playing the matchplays as DaNit originally suggested.

As far as bad dealers -- I played about 50 hours of blackjack last year, and can only remember two dealers as particularly bad for any reason -- I'd probably take that as a reason to pack up and move to the next casino, or next table, or whatever, especially in Vegas. There's just so many places to play blackjack, why would you want to spend time with a dealer you dislike for any reason?

As far as rating -- they're trying to determine your average bet-size, and they use your chip-in/chip-out as a proxy for that (as well as a way to eventually identify counters). Usually the pit critter is wandering around keeping some moderate track on how much you're actually betting using their computer. The computer has an imputed hands per hour based upon number of spots in action at that table -- so it just multiplies it out, and if you're using multiple sizes then the pit boss inputs them both and it comes up with some sort of weighted average.

Here's a blackjack calculator, where you can put in the rules and it customizes a printable basic strategy card for you

Lots of great general math-related blackjack info on that site also

thanks for the TR; glad you had fun and it was enjoyable to follow along

Trip Report 4/24
I'm glad I got in a full and normal trip right before covid hit. I probably won't be able to come back this year, although I'll try to sneak back in the late fall when the Golden Knights are playing again with a crowd.
while the poker scene in Vegas is way buttoned up, here in the Northern Plains it is going like crazy. There are 3-5 tourneys in North Dakota every weekend. The small ones get 50+ players with prize pools of $8000 and the big ones get 200+ players. Right now the "Montana State Poker Championship" is going on in Billings, they are probably getting 200+ entries and a $70,000 prize pool. I've always felt the competition in these ND games are tougher than those in Vegas.
I've played a couple tourneys this year, plus some cash games (where I generally didn't last long). Anyway, I'm playing the "secondary" tourney going on tomorrow in a podunk town in North Dakota. I'll probably get the add-on for the max $300, which will be the most I've bought in for a tourney. Most of the sharks are spending the weekend in Montana so the field should be more manageable. I'm excited and wanted to share with my 2+2 LVL pals and couldn't find a better place so figured I'd piggyback my old TR with this single-day report and that would offend the fewest folks.

How did it go?

it went. I'll write some tonight. thanks for noticing

I was looking forward to playing poker this (last) weekend and this tourney fit the bill. Roughrider Poker Tour puts on a few tournaments every weekend at random locations that draw a crowd that typically doubles the local populations. This one was in a small town in the middle of nowhere North Dakota. Turnout was decent; there were like 40 entries and 30 add-ons. My previous post commented on a more manageable field but apparently there are plenty of good players to go around and only psychos drive to Mercer ND to play poker.
Structure was 20K starting stack, you could do one re-entry OR one add-on (30K more). Here area a few hands of significance
- 300/500, 8 handed, 21K stack.
hijack (very strong player) raises to 1200, call, I'm on the button with 88, I raise to 3000, both call.
flop JJ2. check, cutoff (60+ year old woman) bets 5K, I call, hj folds.
turn another 2. She moves all in. ??
I fold.

- 300/500, 7 handed, down to about 7K stack.
hijack raises to 1500. I'm button again with AhQs, I call, two others call.
flop AKJccx. middle position bets 2500, hijack calls. ??
I've got a good hand, top pair top kicker, but if I lose all my chips I can only rebuy for 20K instead of add-on for 30K. I figure one of them has AJ or AK. I fold.
One guy rivered a flush, the other did have AJ so I had third-best hand.

- New player entered on my left for full 50K (55+ male, experienced, very loose player). The first hand he played (his third overall, now on the button): he called MP's raise, J58 flop, MP shoved for about 20K (with QQ), button says "ahh what the hell" and calls with 6-7. Turns a 4 for the straight. (He continued to be the luckiest player I've ever seen, he ran up to about 150K in an hour; ended up 3rd)

- 300/600, 8 handed, 25K stack (after add-on)
Positions are a little fuzzy, but I think it goes: I limp in early position with K9hh, middle position min-raise 1200, SB (very strong player) raises to 2700, I call, MP also calls
flop 345hhx. SB bests 2700, I call, MP folds.
turn 6x, check check.
river 7x. I missed my flush but there's a straight on the board. SB bets 10K. ??
I call. He has 88 for a better straight. wtf

That was basically the nail in my coffin heading into the break. In the next level 400/800/800, several limpers, in cutoff I shove 6000 with JJ, two callers, I bust as JJ<99.

So yeah, unsuccessful event for me. I couldn't catch a break or win a big hand in the 1.5 hours I was out there. Just gotta get lucky at some point. I did this "trip report" to require accountability and because I was pumped to play this event which cost me the state-max-$300.
By the way, Roughrider Poker Tour put on the "Montana State Poker Championship" in Billings the same weekend, $111,720 prize pool, first place got about $28,000. and that's in freaking Montana. lots of poker enthusiasm in the Northern Plains.
I'm getting a puppy next week so I probably won't get to escape to Vegas anytime soon for a real trip and I'm kinda out of poker money anyway.

Sorry you didn't run better, but thanks for sharing. Interesting about the poker out there for sure.

Have fun with your puppy -- rest up before it gets home!

Skip the puppy go to Vegas! You’ve got people reading this. Sucks that no only did you not cash but you only got in 1.5 hours of poker. We’re here to commiserate with ya.

I’m not surprised that they have decent poker tournaments and such in Montana. It’s one of the big poker states in my mind, for a long time it was one of the only legal places to play it. A little surprised about ND.