Thread saving pic right off the bat. Katie Nolan FT-absolute-MFW.


Sup LVL,

Back again for the annual pilgrimage to the desert and semi-live TR. Check last year's TR here.


PRIMERS
Land on Sunday the 29th. GTFO late Thursday the 3rd. Staying at PH for the duration.

This will be my 5th trip out to Branson with booze. The 'Trip Checklist' is pretty short, as you'll see below. Been out to the Desert enough times where all of the touristy stuff is out of the way. Time to focus on a few key elements.

I used to be a quasi-serious live grinder here in MN, but the game has passed me by since getting involved heavily in the staking side of the game as well as other, non-poker business ventures.

Limited Hold Em is still my bread & butter (I like Omaha-8 too, but am terrible at it), but the pokerz will be a secondary objective on the trip. That being said, don't be shocked if this TR turns into a 120-hr bender at the low limit tables. #Standard.

Consuming copious amounts of high quality food & beverage WILL be the #1 Objective of the trip. There will be food porn, oh yes, there will be food pornage.

Joining me on this sojourn will be SimonG – who is one of my staking associates & was on the TR last year – as well as college friend 'Mudslide' who will also be celebrating his 30th B-day during the stay.

Note: Mudslide is also in love with a local “adult entertainer” here in Minnesota, let's call her 'Agatha'. Agatha will be out in Vegas during this time. It could get weird... But very entertaining. For me.



BADMINTON
There will also be a Badminton Challenge going down between me and SimonG. It was planned as part of last year's trip, but eventually food & drink won the day over athletic endeavors... That's why we're cementing it Monday of this year's version.

Details of the Challenge
-SimonG is spotting me 7 points at even money.
-There will be a brief warmup game, then the official game will begin.
-Rally scoring. First to 21 wins.
-Video clips of the match will be posted

The Combatants
-SimonG: 40ish. 240Lbs-ish. Infrequent gym user, but regular badminton player.
-Raizin_Azian: Late 20s. 210Lbs. Frequent gym user, but plays badminton about once a decade.

Outside action has already been booked, but are open to more. PM myself or SimonG if you want to get some TR degen down.




TRIP CHECKLIST
[ ] Fun (Yayyyyyy)
[ ] Badminton Challenge
[ ] Food Pornage (See checklist below)
[ ] Limited Hold Em Chip Porn
[ ] Degenaments (Dice, Pai Gow, UTH, 3CP)
[ ] Las Vegas 51s Game?
[ ] Penn & Teller show for Mudslide's B-Day
[ ] Find Mudslide's Agatha




FOOD PORN CHECKLIST
[ ] Holsteins
[ ] Picasso
[ ] Secret Pizza
[ ] Strip House LV
[ ] Memphis Championship BBQ
[ ] Fogo
[ ] Lawrys
[ ] Delmonicos
[ ] Lagasse's Stadium (During US World Cup Tuesday)
[ ] In-N-Out Burger
[ ] Capriottis
[ ] Milos
[ ] Society Café
[ ] Earl of Sandwich
[ ] Triple George Grill
[ ] Kabuto or Yellowtail
[ ] Napoleons
[ ] Hofbrauhaus
[ ] Mint Bistro
[ ] Mundos
[ ] Palm
[ ] Tacos el Gordo (ldo)
[ ] Other
[ ] Other
[ ] Other

It's a loose list of old favorites & new places to try. Definitely won't hit all of them, but want to have options so we're not at the Cheesecake Factory every night.



PRE-FLIGHT PICS

Patio Ruby Greyhound (Fresh squeezed FTMFW, btw)



Obligatory shoe pic. My boat shoes have seen better days, but whatevs.



Ribs. Because why the hell not.



Some local 8/16 Limited Hold Em Chip Pornage. (I was in for 3k... It's not impressive...)




SimonG's already out there now and I'm sure will chime in at some point to talk about him winning enough to buy Ellis Island. The actual island, not the casino.

Should be a helluva lot of fun. Looking forward to getting out there Sunday.

If you're out in Vegas, hit us up. Would love to grab a beer or twelve with some 2p2 peeps.


RA

moar azn pics

Also you better live up to your name when it comes to LHE. I don't want to see any more i-haz-boo-boo-mommy hands posted in SSLHE.

iirc I have Simon's side in the badminton game? idk

mostly subscribing for the food pics tbh

Awesome. I love me a TR with lots of pics.

Snakebite: Half Stella Cidre/Half Guinness. #Elite

46 hours til Vegas...

Subbed fellow MN grinder... Try that Stella Cidre with a shot of Goldschlager or Fireball for a real treat.

Have fun!

Just to set the bar nice and low, I have already sucked at remembering to take pics as I go, so a quick catch up.

Scored a very nice room













I usually eat pretty well and swerve food courts etc. However, only had one decent meal, tried Tender @ Luxor on a MyVegas comp, soup sampler and game tasting trio. No pics, was happy to have tried it on a comp, but would order steak next time.

Already played badminton a couple of times, it is hot, to say the least, no air con - shirt couldn't have been more soaked if I'd gone swimming.

Played very little poker, one session at V, not much to report, lots of nut-nut hands on the turn and getting scooped on the end. -$88, so nothing to moan about.

Pit games - still no need for me to find the cashier cage yet Won't give up just yet.

Shows - got a couple of show tickets again on a myvegas comp. Saw Love on Thursday and have Zumanity to see next weekend. Love is a good show, seen it before so didn't mind seeing it again for free. Zumanity, never seen it, prolly never would have if it wasn't free... so nothing to lose.

Rented a mustang, will get a pic with RA in it at some point. Weather has been great for roof down, although meant to be getting extra hot this week, will see how fierce that is topless.

OK, that's me caught up, will try harder this time around to keep things updated with pics.

That is indeed a nice room. I'm usually pretty good at determining hotels but I can't tell which one that is? That's like an apartment, very nice.

Sweeet room. Where/what type of room is that? Doesnt look like PH?

It's Vdara, I think it's a panoramic, end of corridor with 270 degree views. Got a great price in January.

Pool this morning, thought I'd better make it look like I'd seen sunlight this trip. Then rather than wait 4 hours for a cash game, I took in the Brazil game in aria and lunch in Serrano. Pics at some point, upload speed very slow

Very tasty, reasonably healthy. Should keep me going until tonight, steak almost certainly for dinner.

Oops wasn't a double order of croquetas!

The very hand where I have no red left, I stop playing the bonus and get served up a royal. Meh.

Quitter.

To be a champion, you've gotta fuel like a champion.

22 hours til Vegas...

Pre-flight. "The Champ (Chump) is Here"

Killing time. Grabbing some brunch with friends. Then G'ingTFO.

9-hours til Vegas.

Oh Vdara, how I miss you so...

Looking forward to more food porn and degenements! GL!

I want to know more about this badminton thing. It's going to be hotter than fawk in Vegas this week. So if the challenge is outdoors, my money is on the local yokel.

Badminton is indoors (feathers dont fly too straight outside) For the same reason, they don't have air con in the building either. So yes, hotter than a hot thing from Hottville. The bet will boil (cwidt?) down to one of two things imo. If RA has decent skillz, far more current than confessed to, then 7 points is a very big spot for 2 players anything like each other. If RA is relying on his fitness (or my lack of) to compensate for lack of technique, then it is my contention that will not work out well for him. Although correctly billed as 240 lbs, it is a reasonably athletic 240 that is used to playing 9 sets of badminton in a session (club matches are typically 3 doubles matches against 3 pairs that often each go to 3 sets.)

Now that's doubles, singles is a different beast and much tougher on fitness, but then also very unforgiving on poor technique. You can only make superior fitness count if you have the technical skillz to force your opponent to move a lot, while being moved a helluva lot in return.

Back to Vegas.

Saturday was a "quiet" day for me, spent large chunks of it trying to keep cell phone battery alive. Steak never happened, I ended up sat in FLO8 in Venetian for about 6 hours, where for 5hrs 45 mins I swung viciously between +/- $50 Then in 15 minutes, won 3 racks. After seeing previous food porn, I tried the Chicken Royale from Grand Luxe whilst playing. It looked great, was prolly standing too long before being delivered and ultimately was pretty bland ~ no probs there, it was as described on the menu, just normally I prefer very spicy and lots of flavour, so wouldn't normally order it.

Saw the remainder of the night out in a pool hall where I played 9-ball for a couple of hours with a fellow Brit, 10-8 to me in the end, quite a few games were break and clear, which was not bad, given half the rails were dead and the table had "borrow" in one corner. TJ's, I believe it was called. We had played the Cue Club the night before, and although it's not too great a place, the tables were in much better condition, true roll and true bounce.

Today will be mostly pokerz, some (swimming) pool time and some food porn of some description, phone suitably charged.

Landed and running hot already. $20 trick ftwm

Will post more after I get some booze in me & the Internet stops being so buggy.

RA

First sustenance meal with Mudslide. Pin-up pizza & a bucket of Coors Light. I am what I am.

Walked by the Bellagio pokerz room. Saw a 7-way limped flop at the 20/40 limited hold them. Most excite.

RA

3CP is not ideal (-250)

An Asian. Back in his natural habitat.

Hopefully the Greyhound brings some run goot. Let's effin' go!

Been up 26 straight hours. Made a minor (Minor) comeback and will post a bunch of pics (or GettingTFO) tomorrow.

Right now I want this Earl of Sandwich to be in my belly like it's my job. (Not elite, but cheap & better drunk food than the Golden Arches)

RA

As an avid 8/16 LHE player, I can only hope that the in for $3k was a typo or some sort of hyperbole. That can't possibly be correct.

Anyways, good luck and enjoy!