It was good. It’s a cheaper version of Javiers, but at least as good.

I’m not as good as BigWhale with noting down hands, let’s just say I got 2-3 outered at Aria I think 6 times for stacks yesterday. Whatever, new day today.

I have made it safely home now, in much better condition that the signage from the airport above (no light bulbs on the first A + still haven't updated the name).

Flights home were uneventful; managed to sleep a lot on the flight from Vegas to London (probably 5-6 hours of sleep). And the flight from London to Malta went by super fast as well. Have been working a half day today to ease back into things (didn't have to wake up super early), and now I just need to buckle down with work & gym and some poker in between for a couple of months. But I will surely get the itch to go back to Las Vegas again soon!

Let's do some final thoughts:

Horseshoe

As always, a chill stay without being too fancy. Room is big and clean, gym is pretty good (love the selection of machines & the opening hours), and I actually think the Video Poker selection and paytables are reasonable for a Caesars property. There are some machines that aren't completely horrible, and they have a very good selection of different games.

New York New York

First time staying here. I like the overall casino floor, and it's not so huge that you get completely lost. Had a Premier King Two Queen room, which was huge (that's what she said). However, some very visible scratches on some of the funiture, and the shower/bath tub sometimes didn't have very hot water (seemed to be a capacity issue, as other times it was good). Furthermore, the switch between bath and shower stopped working after two days. So I only had water for the bath, and practically nothing coming out of the shower. Probably just unlucky with the room, and should probably have complained. But it was certainly not perfect.

Video Poker selection was ok-ish but obviously not very good pay tables. That said, I did like that some of the machines looked very new and inviting, no sticky buttons and very nice screens with good sound as well.

Video Poker in general

I didn't play as much as I had planned, mostly because I was running pretty terrible. That said, I was very disappointed to see that Aria had removed some of their offerings, and seems to only cater to people who either wants to play carnival games (like UX or DSTP), or want to play for very high stakes. I guess it's to be expected though, as Aria is probably catering more to high rollers. At least there was a lot of machines for my taste over at Mandalay Bay, although that's obviously a trek unless you are staying in that area.

Selection at Horseshoe was as expected, and I quite like some of their machines (like the progressive DDB machines near poker room). Didn't check out the other properties too much, although I swung by Paris one morning (seemed to be about the same).

Poker

On paper my results doesn't look great. $16 profit on Cash Games after almost 45 hours, that's so pathetic that the hourly didn't even reach $1! But if we put things into perspective I was down almost $1000 with two days to go, and in that regard I am very happy that I managed to turn it around for a tiny profit.

I did get slaughtered in the one $2/$5 shot that I took, but such is life. It's not because the game was very tough, I just made one terrible call that I shouldn't have made + got somewhat coolered in the other big pot. But apart from that I also think I was trying a bit too hard in some hands, and ended up costing myself a bit too much in some spots. Might be a mental thing, since I quickly saw some of the other players limp a fair bit and thought I could run over them a bit. Instead I easily got stuck a hundred or two, and probably lost a bit of confidence. I definitely remember feeling a bit 'stressed' in the game, and stupidly enough I recognized it but didn't take a break to reset mentally etc.

But like someone wrote in the thread, now I know how it feels to lose quite big in that game and it won't be as scary next time. I am not saying the game was scary, and I felt totally chill when I sat down, but I am obviously aware it's a bigger game and probably need to get even more comfortable with it.

And in general I am quite happy with a lot of my play. I still need to be better at adjusting, both in regards to sizing and when I can be aggressive versus when I should restrain myself a bit. But I think I had a lot of good thought processes while playing at times, although there is still work that needs to be done.

I also need to get a better mental game; and be ok with losing some pots. I can probably end up looking/sounded very frustrated if some things doesn't go my way - never in a rude way to others, but I am still too visibly upset at times, even if it doesn't affect my play (I don't think I have any tilt issues at all really).

And although lol sample size (45 hours is nothing), I actually think that I was never all-in for my stack and getting called when I had the best hand. So I never got any kind of full double up, although I at times took out some shorter stacks. But never a full double in a huge pot. Granted, I should have had it in some spots (opponents making terribly tight laydowns), but still might be an indication that I didn't run insanely well. That said, I don't think I ran insanly bad either. Probably somewhere in the middle, and regardless my only focus should be my own actions and how to improve those.

Vegas

Very lively as always, and lots of people around most days. Especially Bellagio is always crowded AF. I must say that since I got sick and didn't feel too great some days in the middle, it was a bit exhausting at times. So some of the days when I was not running terribly well in poker and was pretty weak in my body, it was a bit harder to take it all in and feel grateful for being in Vegas. But I somewhat recognize that feeling from other trips as well, although I also remember many times looking around and feeling blessed to be able to go to Las Vegas so often and just being in the moment. Although it's much more 'routine' by now to be in Vegas, I still have moments every trip where I just smile to myself and think how awesome this is.

What else? Let me see...

- I loved having the view to The Sphere at Horseshoe. Definitely have to actually visit inside The Sphere one of these days.
- I never made it to Fontainebleau, was a bit too tired/sick most days and didn't quite have the energy. Will do it next time.
- Although no success in $, I had a lot of fun playing the daily tournament at South Point. Lots of value if you can get chips early.
- Despite trying to, I didn't end up playing poker at Resorts World this trip either. Too bad that such a nice room struggle with traffic.
- Game quality in general was good most places, some grinders here and there obviously, but the $1/$3 games mostly play like they always have.

All in all it was a fun trip, and it felt really long this time around! Normally the days just fly by and I feel like there is never enough time, but this one actually felt like it was the right amount of days.

Hopefully MuckPls can get some rungood his remaining days, but for me this is the end in this thread. But as said above, will be back before you know it. So stay tuned for hopefully more TRs in 2024 and beyond!

nice recap, i remember each time i moved up stakes it was always a very nerve racking and stressful situation first couple orbits but after that seal was broken with full session then it felt like normal

i think the key is not to let others know you're used to playing smaller because then they'll adjust to the fact that you'll likely be playing nittier than usual at least to begin with

possible you could make that known and then play looser as an exploit but i don't think that would trick too many people, and those that it would trick, well you're getting their money anyway

the top regs are better so you need to figure out who those people are and adjust your strat and ranges accordingly, but the general fields are typically equally skilled and the whales are perhaps even worse than the whales at the level below

Nice recap; thanks for doing the thread. I love vicariously experiencing theses trips. Rick your points are well taken but isn’t the bellagio $2/$5 still $500 max, which is the same as the Wynn/aria $1/$3?

Correct, Bellagio 2/5 is 500 cap. Over my 2 weeks of play I can confirm that Aria 1/3 especially late at night plays MUCH higher that Bellagio 2/5.

nice job BigWhale and thanks for the recap.
no need to beat yourself about one or two bad sessions. remember that you can't see other people's cards so we are just doing our best. losing boat over boat is a bad beat (maybe avoidable but not usually).
and I know I made some remarks about going up in stakes, but hypocritically I may do the same on my trip in a couple weeks.

I'm glad you were able to bounce back out of the red at the end. we take our disposable money anyway so a loss isn't a big deal but anything we can come back with is gravy! glad you had a good experience

Absolutely amazing weather outside today, super warm and sunny:




Changed venues to Bellagio to reduce variance a bit, will see how that goes. 3 full days left, gonna try and REALLY grind it out.

Keep getting absolutely destroyed at poker.

Couple of hands:

Call a raise from bb with 22 5-ways. Flop is K27r. Original raised cbets I just call HU. Turn 4 he continues I call. River 7 so we boat up, he jams for last 120 and I lose vs 47o

Open 8d9d from mid, two callers. Flop is J99. Cbet, get raised which I call. Turn is a brick I continue, he calls. River is an A, he open jams and I lose to AA.

Open AA to 25 bb calls, flop is 456r. Cbet and he calls. Turn 7 c-c. River 8 so straight on the board he overbets pot and I snap fold face up.

Take $500 to blackjack instead and 45 minutes later:




Swings are real.

Some pretty gross runouts going against you there. Glad to see the blackjack treated you better. Maybe the start of a turnaround in the poker room!

Yeah and it’s been like this for days. I don’t like to complain so usually don’t share too many hands but yesterday at Aria:

KK vs K8o on 842x allin river 8

KK vs 99 4-bet pot allin on 982r flop vs 99

K3o in bb allin on K37 flop vs K9 river 9

JJ on Jd3d2d vs AdTx, turn x river diamond

It happens, but very very frustrating

Wow, it's as if you are playing on the Pokerrrr2 app! Thank goodness for blackjack

Hey! Nothing wrong with DSTP, although it's -EV, but pretty much all vp is. The multipliers do keep you awake though, because of the possibility of a big jackpot. I got a 10x multiplier on the deal once, and time stood still as I got dealt 4 to a royal playing 5 handed. $4k per hand times 5 hands times the 10x multiplier. 200 grand hinging on one card!

Getting to Mandalay is actually easier from Horseshoe. You can ride the monorail to MGM. Then it's a bit of a walk to Excalibur, but it's not too bad. From there, there is a tram to Mandalay.

Whale, if you want to play somewhere in between 1/3 and 2/5, the Wynn 1/3 is what you want, based on my recent experience. Half the table buys in for the $500 max, and they aren't shy about putting it in the middle. Even on a new table with $500 stacks, people are anxious to build a stack and you might be in there with 1000 -1500 in the pot.

LOL, that's the theme song of your trip.

Here we go again:




Gonna try my best to turn the day because of my flight out Saturday. Will see how that works in practice and if I actually manage not to lose.

All I had to do was complain a bit and managed to pack it in with gutshot + flush draw vs a set of kings and hit a flush on turn and straight flush on river for 1k pot:

Straight flushes are cool!

Nice recap, Whale!

That sounds really familiar. Was that Thursday afternoon? Then that was me dealing.

Sorry.

It was at noon according to Poker Tracker, somewhere around that time.

Took the $510 profit after 5 hours at Aria and went to check out this fairly new place and HOLY **** their food is amazing. Especially the spicy watermelon hit the spot! Highly recommend.









Also cash games so far:

Yeah, noon is when I started, on a string of tables near the front podium.

nice

hitting a 2-card straight flush feels SO good (from my limited experience), especially if there is a high-hand bonus.

There was a wait list at Aria so had to go with the second best option. 500 at blackjack into:




Flight leaves in 36 hours, let’s make it ****ing count!!

go go go go!

Heater continues. Got into a game at Aria but it was absolutely terrible with a bunch of OMCs. Left after a while up $75. Took $500 to blackjack again and: