Just flew in and am getting settled in the room right now.



I am slumming it a bit this trip and staying at Bally's. It's perfectly fine and has a great location but I usually come in spring or fall and choose more resort type places for the pool. But since its supposed to be in the 50s all week there will be no pool action.

The view is mediocre but then again I didn't come here to look out the window!



Plan to eat a lot of fattening tasty food and play plenty of poker both cash and tourneys. I am planning to play a couple of the better afternoon tourneys do a few donkaments and fill in with cash. It seems like there are a few likely more interesting trip reports this week but I will try and keep up If you see an old guy wearing one of these white hats it is probably me.



That bowl of oatmeal I ate 10+ hours ago has worn off so I need to eat stat! Then I will try to find a poker game and try not to look stupid due to rust.

I find looking stupid can be very profitable as long as you don’t actually play stupid.

Subbed. Looking forward to your report.

So if you have ever followed any of my past trip reports you know I have a tradition. The tradition is first meal at the Cheesecake Factory in Caesars Forum. I love the huge portions of comfort food and especially the cheesecake. But for some reason I only go to CF in Vegas. I have one 3 miles from my house that I have never been in? Anyway it started for me about 10 years ago and I have been doing it ever since. I had my usual Spicy Cashew Chicken. This stuff is awesome and is in contention for my death row meal



Having not eaten since early morning I was famished and I demolished this stuff! I made sure to make room for cheesecake though! I like to always try a new one but you can't really go wrong with any of them. This was a new menu item since last called Very Cherry Ghirardelli Chocolate Cheesecake. It did not disappoint! Very cherry tasting with huge chunks of dark chocolate and cherries in it.



Meal accomplished and hunger sated to the point of bloating I hit Caesars poker room for some 1/2 action. This was an absolutely horrible game. The biggest stack was about 150 and played from 5 to 8 handed but mostly 6 handed. I did hit a couple of hands though and cashed out after and hour +$47 as the table broke. I headed to the Bellagio but the list for 1/3 and 2/5 were both long. It was cold and windy and drizzling so I decided to stay close to home base and headed back to Bally's.

I have stayed at Bally's before but the last time woulda been early or mid 90's. I decided to wander around a little to learn the property a little. To my delight they have a chair massage kiosk down on the shop level and I blew my meager poker winning on a chair massage. It was wonderful as a very uncomfortable 4 hours on a plane has my back aching.

Then I figured I would try Bally's poker. Other than a donkament or two I had never played cash there. The game was soft but I was pretty card dead but aggression at this table worked well. I was up a bit when I donked off half my stack with KK against Q4 who flopped 2 pair. But I clawed back a bit and left after 1.5 hours up $4.

Tired I went up to the room to just relax a bit. I am still on CST time and was up early so pretty exhausted right now. Not sure what tomorrow will bring pretty much gonna play it by ear. I do plan to play the 1pm $140 at the Aria on Tuesday and the 1pm $400 deep stack at the Venetian on Wednesday. In any event I am sure will rise early and take a nice long strip hike before breakfast. I want a minimum of 10 miles walking per day to help offset all of the bad food I will be inhaling this week.

Go Sox! Subb'd for the sweat.

Got up very early as expected since I am an early riser anyway and in a timezone 2 hours earlier than usual. Anyway rolled out of bed at around 4:30am and ventured out for my morning hike. It was cold and crisp at about 35 degrees. I stayed inside mostly starting out wandering through Bally's and the Paris. Bally's had one full table in the poker room. Of course I passed by the hardest working man in Vegas. This gut has been at it for over 20 years without a break!



I then made my way over to Planet Hollywood and took a spin through the casino and miracle mile shops. PH had 2 games going. On the way out I plugged 20 bucks into a slot machine (Alfred Hitchcock) one of those newer big machines that vibrates your chair when you hit a bonus section. I was just doing 75 cent spins but hit 2 bonuses during the first 15 spins which netted me a $35 winner. I took the money and ran. Free breakfast

One more food tradition I have is always getting Eggs Benedict for the first breakfast in town. I had wanted to try the Short Rib Eggs Benedict at The Henry in Cosmo. This is a solid breakfast dining place. They were really good but they didn't have an Eggs Benedict vibe but because of the short rib more of a steak and eggs taste to them. They are served on hash browns rather than a muffin.



From there I wandered over to Aria and they only had 1 1/3 and 1 2/5 going. This Maestros place has always intrigued me due to its design. Anybody ever eat there?



Anyway I then made my way back to the room getting in just over 6 miles according to my fitbit. A good start for the day in terms of miles. Now I am gonna clean up and waste some time in the Bally's 9am donkament. More of a poker based gambling game than actual poker. I usually do okay in these since no one seems to understand position or fold equity.



I made my way over to the Cosmo and wandered around in there for a while.

So I jumped into the $60 9am Bally's donkament. The very second hand of the thing (100/100) I raise to 300 in the cutoff with KdJd and button raises to 600. Blind calls and I call. Flop K33. Blind checks, I check and button bets 600. Blind folds and I call. Turn K, I have a full house and bet 1000 which button calls. River was some card and I bet 2000 and button called with 88. Good start!

I win some and lose some but am up to around 20K when I am in small blind (100/200) with AQ off. Everybody limps in and button raises to 1200. I call the others all fold. Flop is nice TJK for the straight. I check he bets 3000 and I call. Turn is insignificant and I shove. He snaps with JJ for a set. But K rivers filling him up and I am down to about 4500. I claw back and stack a short stack and get back to about 12K. Then I get ThJh in small blind (200/400) and everybody limps so I raise to 1400 hoping to just take it down. Only under the gun calls. Flop is A high but 2 hearts. I bet 2100 and he calls. I figure I am representing at least a good ace right? Flop is a brick and I shove sticking with my story of a monster while having outs. But he snaps with A3 and I miss the river. I can't believe he made that call with A no kicker but that's what you get in donkaments. I lasted an hour and saw no reason to re enter.

Then I just wandered around the Paris and Bally's for a while taking some small video poker shots where I broke even (actually won $2). Now just chilling in the room and will go out soon to find a crappy afternoon cash game before dinner. I miss the nice weather of spring and fall where I can spend a couple of hours a day lounging at the pool.

Nice work. Six miles to start the day? Well done. Great job on the food pics. While I'm not a fan of CF, I like hearing how it's your tradition along with your first breakfast.

Good luck on the pokers today, and looking forward to moar pics.

I want that Benedict in my life

Your post has a time of 9:30 am. You started walking at 4:30 am Vegas time. You are telling me that sometimes between 5 am and 8 am Bally's had a full table and PH had two tables on a Monday morning? or was this Sunday morning, and these were the Saturday night games?

the current TR activity in lvl (more than usual) matches the current busyness of the strip imo so could easily be this Monday

pretty sure i played for a Paris buffet @ Bally’s last summer from 2:30am-6:30am or w/e on a Sun/Mon and game was going strong when i left.

Actually got out of bed at 4:30 the walk started around 5:15 but yeah Monday morning those games were going. When I went back to Bally's at 9am for the tourney there were no games going.

Hey did you guys know its the year of the Pig?

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/q****6A.jpg[/IMG]

In the afternoon I headed over to the Venetian. With an ulterior motive. More food based than poker based. On the way I swung through Falmingo and the poker room was packed. I saw PokerKraut dealing and told him I watched his vlogs. Then I went and looked at Harrahs and it was packed too. I finally got to Venetian where I played a dismal 3ish hours of 1/3. I was totally and completely card dead. My table was both passive and aggressive but I had no cards. My best hand was QQ. Best player raised to 30 and I called. So did 3 others so a big pot! Flop was J high and Mr. Aggressive goes all in for about 150 and good played initial raiser snaps. I woulda snapped if initial raiser folded. I knew he could at least beat AJ which means he could beat QQ. I thought for a while because the odds were so good but I just knew he had the goods and I folded. Turns out he had KK and Mr. Aggressive had air. In those 3 hours I folded almost everything and dragged maybe 3 small pots. It was time for dinner and I cashed out -$74.

Did I mention dinner? Since I am playing afternoon tourneys the next 2 days it is hard to plan on a special meal because the optimistic part of me thinks I will be going deep and grabbing a quick bite late. In reality I will probably be free by 3pm Anyway I wanted to grab a quality hunk of meat and my favorite place to do that is this place.



It was awesome. I had the bone in ribeye and steak fries. The steak was absolutely perfect and the fries at Delmonico are the best I have ever had. I have had the baked potato and fingerling potatoes in the past but the fries are just too good to bypass.



I walked around a little to walk off the meal and wandered back to Bally's. I played 1/2 for a couple of hours and continued my card dead streak. I folded almost everything but did make 2 decent hands that got folded too when I value bet the river. I also had a couple small wins and blind steals but in the whole 2 hours I never showed down a hand and ended up winning $54.

Really tired and about to turn in even though its early Vegas time. I crushed my 10 mile goal putting in 14.6 today but Vegas is the easiest place in the world to rack up walking miles. Tomorrow I am playing the $140 1pm at Aria and no idea what else other than another nice morning hike and a special breakfast.

Shoes and hats hooked me, subbed

Absolutely!

Take a walk over to Bellagio. The Conservatory has quite an elaborate display of the pig.

Enjoying this. I too stay on my home time zone in Vegas and I think it’s wise. We play better when well rested.

How much did you raise preflop?

I think it was 12. I was opening for10 unless there was a limper where I added $2 per. I lead the flop and turn but should have folded when he bet the river. I thought for a while and just couldn't put him on anything since there was no straight or flush possibilities. A slow played set was the only thing that made sense to me but didn't even consider a garbage 2 pair.

I forgot to mention this hand from the Venetian yesterday which was hard to figure. I wasn't involved. Solid player raises pre to 30. Newish player (Asian tourist) who hasn't played much shoves 300. Old guy who doesn't speak English and plays every hand calls with his 250 stack. Solid raiser shakes his head and mucks. 5 cards come out and they show their hands. Initial shover wins with Th2h because a 2 rivered. Old calling station had KQ off and missed. But these are the hands people would risk their stacks with and I had nothing at all to play. You definitely had to have best on the river in this game.

Damn that steak looks good. You have now given me inspiration to hit my favorite steak house here in Dallas.

I’ve always felt playing against donks is a razors edge. If you catch them at the right time and your hand holds you can make a lot of money, but when you don’t, you can get crushed. Th worst part is when they win and they think they played it great.

Poasting to subscribe in epic bread.

GL !

Just got back from my morning hike getting in a little over 6 miles again. I had a couple of destinations in mind. First stop was an early morning cruise through the conservatory at Bellagio. This is the time to go because its not packed with gawking dbags. They as mentioned above are taking the year of the pig to heart.





As far as early morning poker action was concerned Bally's was empty, Bellagio had 1 each of 1/3, 2/5 and 5/10 with seats available at all. Caesars had one short handed 1/2 going and Mirage was empty. Then I went to my main destination. The Venetian again for food again. I was surprised that at 6:30 Venetian poker room had no games going at all. By my real destination was the Grand Lux for another one of my must have Las Vegas meals. Huevos Rancheros! I love these and the way they do them at Grand Lux.



As always they were awesome. After breakfast V poker room still empty. Swung through Harrahs and no action there either. Then I took a stroll down the promenade.



I went into the Flamingo and they had one game going and it was about 7:30 by this time. When I got back to Bally's they had a game going too. Now I need to clean up and decide what to do until the 1pm at the Aria starts. I miss pool season! I think I will pass on the morning donkament and play some cash just not sure where yet. I will try to grab a quick snack right before the tourney because I have final tabled in a couple those Aria tourneys before and all you get are a couple of 10 minute breaks and they can go pretty late. Last time I thought I would starve to death That's one of the reasons I wanted to do my fancy steak on a day I wasn't playing a tourney

Never been there, but the place everyone talks about for breakfast at Venetian is Bouchon.

Bouchon is great if you like the French cafe atmosphere and food. I always try to eat there at least once.

Great meeting you today MrBaseball, thanks for coming over and saying hi! Good luck and all the best for the rest of the trip. Will be following

I went down to Bally's poker room and they one game going but were starting another. Problem was nobody but me and 2 other guys showed up despite a list full of people. So I wandered over to Planet Hollywood and they also had one game going and were just starting another. The game that was going were the Snap Calls and Craps Rolls guys in the FUN trip report I recognized hutchy from his picture and said hi. They left soon after which filled up our new game. It was a pretty uneventful game and I left when it was getting time to go over to the Aria. I won $62 and the only hand of note was when I flopped a set of tens. Everything else was a small winner or loser.

I never eat lunch in Vegas usually just breakfast and dinner. But since I had high hopes for going deep I grabbed a slice at Five 50 just before the tourney started. It was good.



As I wandered around Aria a bit I noticed they too are into the spirit of the year of the pig.



The tournament didn't go great I did make it to the first break but severely damaged. I was around average shortly before the break and I raised a couple of limper from the big blind with 99. One of the limpers shoved and I thought he had about 6K so I called. But in reality he had about 12K. My 99 disn't improve but his AJ hit a J so I was down to 2100 from about 14K. I shoved with A5 and got called by 2 big stacks and ended up chopping with one of them. Then the break hit. About 3rd hand back I shoved with A9 off and got called. Earlier I had called this players short stack shove with AQo against their KJo but they hit the straight. This time their AK dominated my A9 and I WAS OUT!

I immediately jumped into a 1/3 game which went well. Despite bombing in the Tourney I got to walk out of the Aria with more money than I walked in with. I didn't play real long but one big hand came up where I stacked a guy. I was BB with AKo. Button raised to 12, sb called and I raised to 30 and both called. Flop was A35 rainbow. I bet 40 initial raiser mucked and sb shoved about 200. I couldn't see him having a straight but maybe a small set? I thought about and called. He had AQ and I held. Other than that not much happened it was a real boring game with 4 people constantly glued to their phones and really not much action. So I was tired and decided to take the money and run. It's not much in the way of chip porn but its all I got I ended up winning $207



My back is killing me from sitting at a poker table all day long. I am gonna take a shower, grab one of those chair massages, and get some dinner as the pizza slice is wearing off. Then I'll probably try to get one more session in at Bally's.