Figured I’d start the TR as I have some time on my hand before my trip. Where to start…

Haven’t really played any poker at all (online or live) since my last trip in April. Was very busy with work, personal life and travelling with family. Really miss poker and especially cash games at Aria so expect some absolutely CRAZY long sessions.

We will have an entire crew of people this time, probably the most people I’ve been to Vegas with so will be a ton of fun!

PLO friend: flying in Tuesday next week and staying for 3 months, he doesn’t do TRs however. Will update if anything exciting happens, like when he won 15k at 1-2 PLO.

Me: flying out early on the 4th of October, connecting in Amsterdam and after a short layover landing in Vegas at 2 pm.

BigWhale: no idea how he’s flying as he’s lazy and haven’t booked tickets yet but he and his brother arrive on the 8th and stay until the 17th

Sicariu: some of you probably remember my Swedish friend from the very first trip report. He’s landing on the 14th and will stay with me until the 20th. Will he post? Who knows. If he finds the magic of 40% THC vapes then probably not.

Two more friends will be joining at the same time as me, they are not active on 2+2, but will be grinding most of the lower stakes tourneys in town for a month.

I will be staying with PLO friend for the first 1.5 weeks. First 3 nights at Park MGM, then Linq for 3 nights to bridge comps and then back to Park MGM for the remainder of the trip. Last 6 nights PLO friend is moving out and Sicariu is joining me.

If everything works out I’ll also go to Arizona for 3 days for a wildlife/photo tour and of course will have a TON of meetings and work in town.

Threadsaver pic:

A couple of months ago Sicariu was staying at my place in Malta and we went to the local casinos. I changed €300 at blackjack and got absolutely smoked, losing probably 10 out of 11 hands. Tilted I changed €200 at roulette and played zero neighbours for €100 and 0 straight up for €. It landed on 0 for €3500 and everyone went crazy:

Sent from my SM-A025V using Tapatalk

What are those, metric chip colors?

…IN! Can’t wait.

Vegas, f**k yeah!

Now I just have to actually book flights, as I still haven't done so. I was toying with the idea of traveling with my brother from Norway, but it looks like it will be a bit more expensive & too cumbersome compared to my usual route via London.

The dates are actually 9th-18th October for me (and brother), and I will be staying at MGM Grand (in a Grand Two Queen room) for the entire trip. Not an amazing room, but more than good enough and it was reasonably cheap. And in general I like the vibe at MGM + the pool is amazing if we get some decent weather.

Still almost a month to go though, so I will rather come back with more thoughts when we get closer to arrival date.

LFG!

Woa, 5 years since Vegas last time.. Defo feels like going there for the 1st time now!

I'll be flying out of the (Better) Nordic country, as opposed to Whale's brother , via LHR and then straight to LAS from there.

Will get back here with gambolin' & poker plans later on but, I'll for sure take it easier on the cannabinoid side of things - There's too much to experience in Vegas to be (Way too) zoned out.

After Vegas it's straight to California for me for some shenaningans, and also a bit of family related stuff.

In the meantime - Throwback to the the notorious vape which made me hear colors and taste sounds:

Always in for a MuckPls & friends TR! Safe travels all!

Bit of a backstory for new readers or people who forgot. We wake up one beautiful morning in Vegas a couple of years ago and head over to Wynn for the daily tourney. Like in a movie sicarriu has the brilliant idea to hit the vape pen a couple of times walking through the Wynn, before breakfast. I ended up winning the tourney while he sat at the sportsbook for 10 hours or so totally zoned out of his mind and unable to speak, walk or anything in between.

Wynn has a new tournament series starting in October.

I played a daily there this past Thursday, we got 90 entries! The Aria dailies are nice in terms of payout. Mincash was over 600 on a 240 entry price.

FYI In case someone wants to take a shot at CET Diamond.

After how they treated me I will never ever play at a CET property again. They are absolutely ridiculous.

I just came home from stone bubbling a €125 EUR tourney here in Malta, fun stuff. Guess that is what happens when you have no respect for ICM.

Right now the tought of more tournaments make me puke, but will certainly fire some while in Vegas

Interesting, thanks. Certainly have no ambition to go for Diamond, but 14th-18th looks like the dates to put in some volume at Ceasars properties then.

Brief reminder or link to prior if possible.

This sounds like it will be fun.

Previous trip where I played a TON of VP and even more blackjack. I was playing $100-400 a hand for hours being stuck several thousand then I finally won some back and ended up in decent profit. But obviously the profit doesn’t matter, what matters is that I wagered a ton on Vp with my card in, and also know 100% that I was tracked correctly at high limit blackjack. Get home, get these offers:



No comp and TEN DOLLAR free play

To add to that, we are staying at Linq for quite cheap weekday, not comped, just in order to bridge the comps at Park MGM, otherwise I would never stay there.

Ouch. Really sucks and I completely understand your response. Never seen an offer like this from any of our trips. And DW, while a degen, is not playing closer to your level though she goes for volume of play not size of bet. Still never seen such an offer.

Though, I went a few months without much play, though DW did collect my FP offers local (as I was OOT taking care of my elderly mother). So what did the local CET prop do, cancelled all my offers, FP, gifts, etc. And I am 7*, well at least everywhere except my local CET. So I don't play local CET at all though I do play at others, including LV props. I figure my "revenge" is just watching them slowly die in their brand new facility. Traffic is bad enough the small poker room was dark by 9PM last Friday (heard it was actually dark at 7:30PM).

Subbing! I am so envious. This is the longest I've gone w/o a Vegas trip in years. Still don't know when/if I'm going to make it again this year

Will be the same for me, going all-in this trip and wont be back for two full years. Bit sad but focus will be on other things, so all good. Gonna be back for EDC 2026 next time!

They seldom send a comp via email. You checked room rates via their normal reservation system?

How many tier credits did you earn on that trip?

Always see/get ours via the app.

Same or worse offers in the app. Barely any TC as I was mostly playing blackjack and you earn very little with that.

in and subbed. having a truly horror life year and couldn't make Vegas in June or any other vacation. Already have 10 days booked for next June but that's a long way away and I need to live vicariously through as many TRs as possible

have fun and go hard!

Looking forward to this trip report - thanks in advance for sharing!


Question, do you know if Paul, who is some sort of manager on the floor, Irish dude, at Dragonara, still works there?
I saw that your chips was from Dragonara...

I am thinking of going back to Malta in the end of October and that guy gave me a massive hangover - twice, so I would like to revisit if he still works at Dragonara.

AFAIK he's not working there since some time.

Always enjoy your TRs, Muck. Surprised that you plan that far in advance...seems like an eternity.

Just booked a trip for 18-24 OCT, so we'll overlap briefly.

Nice, come say hi if you are at Aria!

Nothing really planned for 2026, I only know that next year I will be travelling a lot with family - we are going to Asia amongst other things and I won’t have time or money for another trip. We also want to experience EDC with my wife so the next trip will be during May 2026. But that’s way too far away to plan, it’s just a thought.