Just got back from a trip Downtown, really enjoyed the vibe there and also had a good win in the cashgame at Golden Nugget. Will post report after a few hours sleep.

/O

Extremely few of them in Malta/Europe however


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Some of you, including Leon, might stone me for this but.. I do think that VP is pretty boring, so no addiction. Sure it’s fun to kill time while on a waiting list, but other than that I cannot really see myself play it regularly. I will stick to my main game which is blackjack


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And then there were two... trip drawing to a close and we have tons of stuff to do still. Family arrived last night after taking a detour all the way to Mexicali. Fun stuff. Hopping into a game at the V soon, then just football and chill for the afternoon. We are going to Fremont street and Golden Nugget tonight which will be a blast for sure.

Tomorrow red rock canyon is booked with a guided tour, really excited about that one as well although no camera so phone pics will have to do.

Will update later with pics as the day goes, have been pretty lazy the past day or two so nothing new to post on that part.

Oh almost forgot! Was down at Julian Serrano last night with family, thx for the recommendations - place was pretty awesome. We stopped by at PH where we got one of the most annoying dealers in history. Talks between hands, takes ages etc. Left after maybe 20 minutes, in for $120 and out for $300. Pays for food!




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Just stay away from the multi-line games with multipliers, like Super Times Pay. When you're playing 5 lines and see 4 to a royal get dealt, and on the last card it does the thing where it gives you a random multiplier before it shows the last card, it's the longest 5 seconds on earth. Then when the multiplier comes up 10, which counts for every line, it's the longest 2 seconds on earth before it shows the last card.

I don't like gambling, but even I felt a stirring in my loins.

While K etc. is going Downtown today, I was there last night by myself. Would have liked to join them for another visit, but tonight is the only tournament that I had 100% guaranteed myself I would play on this trip - $105 8-game at The Orleans at 7pm!

Certainly not a mixed-game expert in any way, but have played a few 8-game tourneys before and always enjoy them a lot. Should I bust early I might join them down at Fremont however.

As said in my previous post, I really enjoyed being downtown last night. Seemed like a nice vibe, and it was fun to walk around a bit and see these old casinos that are a part of Vegas history. Some quick pictures:



Binion's might be the place that made poker famous, but couldn't even find their poker room last night (not that I looked very hard), nor did I find the wall of champions with pictures of each Main Event winner etc. I assume this one still exists?

Did however stumble across this one:



Quite a few people around, even on a Tuesday. I have been getting a lot of Queens this trip, but never seen this many:



After strolling around for 30 minutes or so I went into the Golden Nugget, through "The Trooper" entrance next to Starbucks and the outdoor patio in front of it. Quickly located the poker room and they had open seats in a $1-$2 game. I bought in for $300 in this no max game. Would have been baller to sit down with a huge amount, but in reality most of the players had similar stacks. The exception were one younger guy who had around $2k on the table when I arrived. He was not overly aggressive however, and eventually left the game up a ton (he started with $400 he said).

I quickly started winning a few hands and were early up $80 or so just through some small pots. Then two brothers with Persian origin joined the table, and that's where the fun started. They both were clearly somewhat new to poker, and while one of them left early after doubling up through the big stack, the other one remained and proceeded to play around 80% of hands dealt.

He either limped in or went for a big raise, and on the flop he would frequently bet big or 4-bet jam over someone else's raise. The problem however was that 90% of the time he had nothing, and as soon as people started calling him down this became apparent. He also had somewhat of a tell in that he was betting big when wanting to get folds. I don't remember the details anymore, but there was 1 or 2 hands with smaller sizing where he actually did show up with something.

So yeah, he ran through several buy-ins after doing stupid sh*t like 4-betting all-in with 22 on Q-9-8 against a local nit that came over the top on the flop etc. Personally I went pretty card dead, and even though I wanted to play with this guy I just couldn't bring myself to do it with garbage.

QQ however is another story. I picked up this hand after one tight local had limped in pre, and I made it $10 to go. The maniac called, BB called, and the limper called. 9-6-3 with two diamonds, checked to me, and I bet $20 (half pot). Should however size up a bit here though in retrospect. Maniac calls and limper calls. Turn is an A, which I don't like a ton as it could have hit both players. Limper checks, I check, and maniac bets $45. The limper thankfully folds, and I call.

The river is a 4d, completing the flush. I check, and he quickly slides a random huge stack of reds out. I knew already by calling the turn that this would be a sucky spot OOP against a guy who likely would fire the river, but with the amount of garbage this guy has shown up with... it's hard to fold. Granted I lose to Ax floats, and a rivered flush, but I actually do not think he would just bet a random Ace like that. He really wasn't aware of his image at all, and thus I don't see him going for thin value. I make the sigh-call, and he shows T9 off-suit for just one pair. I was now sitting on $580 or so.

After blowing through 4 buy-ins of $300 he unfortunately left, claiming this was "the worst poker game he has every played in" So his fun demeanor and spirit from when he sat down was clearly not there after losing.

I lost one pot after trying to bluff two nits of their hands with 75ss on K-Q-J-T-3 board. I raised pre and should have most A's in my range, but got tank-called by 99 (no idea how he called flop) for bottom end of straight. That probably did good for my image though, as I got it all back from same player when I had QQ on a low board.

Eventually after playing for 3 hours and 15 minutes I cashed out +$312 USD, which I was very happy with. Took a taxi back to Harrahs and just went to bed.

Today, as mentioned above, I'm gonna play the 8-game at Orleans tonight. But I also want to squeeze in another tourney before that one. On that note I will check out PokerAtlas and decide.

/Ole

And to further elaborate on that, just dropped $900 at the V, so not all sunshine and happiness.


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Currently enjoying a comped breakfast for two at Bouchon Venetian:



Really chill place with great food but would not be my first choice if I would have paid for it from own pocket. Nothing wrong with it, but we are standing out a bit in hoodies / jeans etc




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Sitting at a great 1/2 game at Harrahs, two young kids in the game who have never played before. “I call.. and raise!” - No sir, that’s not how it works!

In for $300, currently at:



Long and painful road to recovery.


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One guy just asked when the blinds go up. I love this country!


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It is my favorite breakfast in Vegas but I see your point about hoodies and jeans.

Just realized I haven't updated the stats for a little while so will do that below.

Bit first let's quickly recap a profitable trip to Ceasars for their $125 tournament at 10am. 24 entrants in total, 12k starting stack and 20 minute blinds. My table consisted of mostly older tight players, although I had one player to my right who seemed like a very solid tournament player. He also had a lot of chips when I got there, as I late regged a bit.

Some very quicks hands of note, at 100-200 there is a raise to 400 from above mentioned player, one call, button calls, and I call with 88. Then a player in SB makes it 1000, and we all obviously call this small bet. 9-8-3 flop. Check from 3-better, check from raiser, I check, and the button bets 3000. The small blind then check-raises all-in. I obviously snap-call, the button folds, and we are good against 77 (wp..).

Also hit a set at 200-400 blinds, when it's folded to SB (a new player) who limps in. I look down at TT in BB and raise it up to 1500. He calls. J-T-4 with two diamonds, and I c-bet 2000 after he checks. He moves all-in, I call and hold against A9dd who does not hit turn or river.

With 12 players left I got into a fun spot versus the competent player. He had gotten coolered a bit by a Swede earlier, leaving him with around 23-24k. I make it 2300 from UTG (6-handed) with A7ss, and he is the only caller. A-4-6 with one spade. I bet 2500 after he checks, and he thinks and calls. Turn is 5s. Pretty favorable card for me, adding straight-and flushdraw to my TP. He checks, I bet 5700, and he raises to 14k. He doesn't have much behind, so I put him all-in even though I realize I am likely behind. But with all those outs I can't really do anything else. He shoves 55 for a turned set, but 8 on the river gives me the straight + eliminating the most dangerous opponent.

After that we were soon at the 10-handed FT, which went by super fast. No less than 3 players got knocked out on the 3rd hand, and for the most part eliminations just kept on coming. I was a bit card-dead at the start of the final table but eliminated the shorted stack with 6 players left when I rejammed AQo and held up against ATs. Another player also quickly busted, and we were down to 4.

With 4 left I was no longer the chipleader, after a Vegas local in his late 50s (or so) had been running well and winning a fair bit of pots. After a few hands of 4-handed he asked if we wanted to do a chop. I was a bit unwilling, but agreed to have a look at chip count numbers. After a few minutes it transpired I would get $679 USD for agreeing to the deal, which I accepted as that was 2nd place money. At this time I had around 20 bb, but blinds were soon about to rise and a bad run of cards could have landed me on the bubble.

So yeah, the deal was made and I'm happy about the score. Could certainly have played on and aimed for the $1100 on top, but $550 or so profit is nice as well.

Now just chilling a bit at the hotel, might go to the pool and relax a bit, and then it's off to The Orleans for the 8-game tourney tonight. Really looking forward to that, although I have no ambitions of going deep. Will just be fun to play, and hopefully I can avoid any huge mistakes.

Results-tracker:

Cash:

Hours played: 30.5
Amount won: +$1102 USD
Hourly rate: $36.1

Tournaments:

Amount won: + $279 (4 played)

/O

Down at the Flamingo with K and the newest addition to the Scandi gang, D. Let's GII:



/ J

Meanwhile at VP:



Life.

/ J

This one basically marks the end of this trip report for me when it comes to gambling:



Busted a tourney, jumped into a cash game and got it in TPTK vs a set and we are now looking at dinner options:



Tomorrow we are going to chill by the pool and then head out to the desert for a 4 hour organized trip.

Might jump into $100 tourney tomorrow evening and then that’s it. Flight leaves 3pm on Friday with mixed feelings.


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People there get dressed up for breakfast?

Yeeks, hate playing with first timers. They always get clobbered with the deck, guaranteed.

That soup of the day sign is epic

Tx guys for the updates!

Some late night tourneying @ Harrah's. FT inbound:



Contrary to some belief, this is not a Screwdriver:


ITM or not, let's make the most out of the hours we have left here in the US.

/ J

Depends on definition of “dressed up”. I would say it’s mostly khakis (or khaki shorts) and collared shirts or better.

If its not a screw driver; what is it? Looks good; hell, all alcohol looks good.

Love Bouchon, but you've gotta go on a Saturday/Sunday so you can get the Chicken and Waffles.

After the 'win' yesterday at Ceasars, the rest of the day did not fare that well. I talked to my brother on the phone after the tourney and he said I should just relax before going to The Orleans, not play anything else in between.

Instead I did the opposite, went to Flamingo (where the other guys was in a cheap donkament) and promptly dropped $192 USD. And I could have avoided a lot of it, made some too light calldowns and my range preflop was also too wide.

One random example is me raising AQo to $6 from MP, without realizing UTG had already limped in. Not that it matters a lot for the hand, but it's still an example of not concentrating properly. I get 3 callers and we see the flop K-9-3. Checks to me and I make it $11. On this type of board I think a small bet can get the job done. Instead I get two callers and we see A on the turn. Seems decent, so I bet $20. First caller folds, only for the second one (the utg-limper) to check-raise to $45.

It is always a sucky spot when someone see you betting an Ace, and they still raise you. That indicates they can beat it. However, for only $25 more I can't go anywhere. I call and river blanks with an 6. He bets $40, and I guess I have no choice but to call down here? Getting great odds, even though I know I'm beat a lot of the time. But I can always hope he is doing it with AJ or something, I guess. I call and he has K9 for two pair on flop. Great limping hand from UTG of course, but I obviously do want him in there with K9, since I'm always gonna have better Kings in my range etc.

Feeling a bit frustrated I took a taxi over to The Orleans, and slightly late regged the $105 8-game tournament. Impressive turnout for this one; 58 players, with 8 places paid.

Unfortunately I was nowhere near that. I started well enough, or at least hovered around starting stack or a bit more:



However, I bricked out in a Stud/8 hand, where I stared with (7d-Kd)-5d, then was dealt 2h-3h-Jd. I had taken over the betting lead on 5th and 6th and was left with one opponent. Unfortunately I only paired (3s) on 7th, leaving me with no low and only a pair of threes. That lost to my older opponent's two pair.. Very unlucky to not get half here, and could easily have scooped it as well.

Then I lost A6ss to an even shorter stack KQo in NLH, and was in trouble. The rest went in Stud Hi with (Ad-Jc)-6d, where I completed and committed myself. Not a very good hand but upcards below looked favorable. I got one caller who only had K high and a flushdraw, but he got there on the 7th with a flush. Busted around 30th place or so.

Feeling a bit dejected I went back to Harrahs and pretty much straight to bed. But today is a new day - the last one in Vegas for now, and I'm ready to grind cash games the whole day Gonna avoid big mistakes, and try to be more patient, and hopefully find a good game or two along the way.

/O

Going to Red Rock with S and family in 4 hours, super excited about that one.

Yesterday was my low point of the trip. This trip has been nothing when it comes to resting and it starts to take a toll on me. I’m not 20 anymore and being up playing 16+ hours can suck at times. So yeah yesterday was a blur, was feeling like I would pass out from exhaustion several times and finally gave in. Slept from 19:00 until 7 or so, damn I haven’t slept this good/long since before my first kid was born!

Anywho, enough of that! Currently sitting at a game in Harrahs where the average age is 70+ excluding me:



This will most likely be the last session of the trip. After the hike we will chill for a while and then close the night with Carnevino.

Will update with lots of pictures from Red Rock, hopefully with rattlesnakes if we are lucky.


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That'd be a Greyhound. Appearance was quite misleading tho.

Busted 9th with 3 places paid. Obviously nut flush vs villain hitting Aces full on the river. Meh.

Might squeeze in a turbo or similar later of today after Red Rock or tomorrow before leaving to the airport.


The earl's golden bar sandwich. Recommended ✓

/ J

Pretty certain that is always on the menu now.