Hey TwoPlusTwo,

So just over a year ago my last Vegas TR ended like this:

For those that didn't read this TR, I had ended up in Vegas alone as my friend, Martin, had missed his flight due to Hurricane Ophelia. While I was there on my own I was thinking how amazing a Vegas vacation would be with a big group of friends. So after formulating a plan for an epic 30th Birthday surrounded by friends in my favourite city I waited a few months and sent out the mass message and surprisingly got some pretty instant snap calls!




In total we have 12 people who have booked and 1 person who has committed but hasn't actually pulled the trigger yet. We'll be in Planet Hollywood Vegas from 11th - 18th Feb 2019 for a week I've been hugely hyped about for the last 6 months already.. I'm also really looking forward to this TR, my friend Joe who is attending and is a veteran Vegas trip reporter (his amazing Vegas TRs from the past, found here ) will also guest posting here for a combined TR with posts from us both. Joey tends to do more live TR reporting on previous TRs and I prefer the long daily post I think it should be a really good mix.

The beauty of a big group is that we don't need to really plan too much as different parts of the group can go off and do different things as they want. But rough plan is Poker, CUT, Craps, Clubs, Drinks, Degening, Earl of Sandwich (you get the picture)

Next post will be introducing the players who are attending.

Two Month Countdown Starts Now!

In

Subbed gogogo

If Ouwkes is in, I’m in too . Sounds like this is going to be good.

In again and no more remarks on your music tastes, promise.
And, least I forget, happy birthday!

I live in southern California and can't even get 12 friends to commit to a 4 hour drive or 1 hour flight!

Gogogo

Are any of your friends also on 2+2 and therefore able to contribute to the live TR?

I distinctly remember your previous report due to the San Fran detour and the helicopter ride. It was fun to follow along and I'm really looking forward to this one. Good luck! I'll be out there the following week so maybe I'll piggyback off the momentum of your TR.

I don't even have 12 friends. Good luck and have fun!

Subbing. Run good and have fun!

Hey TwoPlusTwo,

Thanks for all the comments so far. Good to see people are excited about the TR and good to see some posters from old TRs back on the journey!

As promised, this post will be introducing the characters who will be attending the event.

Hutch's 12:

Tom Hutch (Your Host)

This will be my 8th visit to Sin City. I work in the online gaming industry (as you'll discover most people attending do). Originally I'm from England but I've not lived there for almost 8 years now. I worked 3 years in Gibraltar (at the bottom of Spain) which is where I met most of the people attending. Then I worked 3 years in Malta before 2 years ago moving to Tbilisi, Georgia which is where I currently located. Recently I really felt that Poker had passed me by a little, and I had fallen behind the curve. I don't play to make money but more for the competition and it wasn't a nice feeling not playing at the level I was before. I decided to get a Poker coach ( shout out to Glanza_Mike ) and sign up to a few training sites and really take the game a bit more serious leading up to Vegas and it seems to have helped. I play mainly $1/$2 in Vegas but this trip I plan to dip my toes into $2/$5 again.



(Me left and Martin right)

Joey CHO (Your joint host)

As I said in my first post Joey will be joint posting on this TR under the name of 'Joist'. Joey is also a veteran Vegas visitor and this must be his 7th or 8th visit also. I met Joey working in Gibraltar when he was working in the online poker team in the same online gaming company. Joey's Vegas restaurant recommendations are top notch and without him recommending CUT and the Wynn Jazz Buffet I doubt I would have ever left Earl of Sandwich I'm really looking forward to what he recommends next trip. Joey is great for the game and it doesn't matter if it's roulette, slots, blackjack, craps, poker or a Casino game he doesn't know the rules of he will be playing. He has the nickname of CHO "Chief Holiday Officer" in our Whatsapp group as he's seemingly on vacation every other week. You'll know which one he's is in the pictures as he has a habit of somehow having his eyes closed on every picture ever taken of him.



(Joey at the final table of the Unibet Open a few weeks ago. God knows how he can play without looking at his cards.)

Dan

I also met Dan in Gibraltar when we were working for the same gaming company. We've been to Vegas once before together (TR found here). On my last visit to Vegas with Dan he was exactly breakeven playing Poker with about 15 hours before our flight, jumped into the Aria $5/$10 game and ended up over $4k for the trip! Out of everyone going I have probably played the most Poker with Dan as we used to play cash games twice a week while we were both in Gib. Dan's last experience of Vegas was busting the 2017 Main Event on level 2 so he Vegas Poker revenge in mind. Dan mainly plays PLO cash at $2/$5 or higher so expect some epic swong stories!



(Pete left and Dan right when they came to visit me in Georgia earlier this year)

Martin

Me and Martin went to school together so I have known Martin for over 14 years. He's one of only two people coming on this trip who doesn't work in online gaming. Martin has featured in most of my previous trip reports and I think this will be our 5th time in Vegas together. Unfortunately like I said in my OP, due to a hurricane cancelling the flights of his last Vegas trip he has now gone over two years without visiting the strip is itching to to get back in the action and take his first bite of a Holiday Turkey. As well as some Poker, Martin is a big fan of the electronic Craps so sure he'll be dreaming (or having nightmares) of the "Push the button" voice by the end of the week.



(Martin at the Grand Canyon)

Lewis & Pete

I met Lewis and Pete in Gibraltar as well and actually lived with Pete for a year in the same apartment. Both Lewis and Pete are Vegas virgins so it should be very interesting to see how they handle the city. I do love going to Vegas with Vegas virgin as you can relive some of the magic through their eyes. Both Lewis and Pete aren't massive poker players or gamblers in general but what they lack in degening they hugely make up for in partying and having a good time. I'm sure there will be a lot of drunk stories worth sharing. When Pete visited me in Tbilisi this year we got into an unfinished karaoke battle which will need to be settled in Vegas. Anyone got any recommendations of places?



(Pete left and Lewis right)

Eirik

I met Eirik when I moved to Malta as he was sat in front of me at the office. Originally from Norway he'll be the only non-British guy attending. Like every Norwegian the oil money will be flowing in the clubs and poker table Eirik even managed to get me into the elusive Norwegian’s only homegame in Malta. Unfortunately Eirik messaged me a few days ago saying that his vacation request at work had been declined despite already paying for the hotel and flights He's still fairly hopeful he can convince work to get the time off and attend though.



(Eirik far right arriving in style)

Duncan

The oldest of the group at 33 Duncan is the wise grandpa. Duncan is also a Vegas reg and was there on my first ever Vegas trip (Joey's TR found here). Duncan's soft Scottish accent seems to be like kryptonite to Americans and like a Jedi mind trick he somehow seems to get whatever he wants just by asking for it as long as the Scottish accent is put on extra strong. Duncs called up Planet Hollywood and using his Scottish accent and honed charms managed to get four out of the five nights fully comped... However, the comping could also be down to his "Go big or go home" Craps session on his last visit. (He went home). He’s a big fan of the dice and "nuddy bars", Duncan is a great addition to the team.



(Standard Monday night in Glasgow)

Craig

The only bracelet winner of the group, albeit a Poker in the pub bracelet. I met Craig playing high stakes £5 poker SNGs in my local pub in the UK back in 2007 and we became good mates. Craig has been to Vegas multiple times but won his first trip to Vegas for free as he final tabled the Poker in the Pub national finals. The Poker in the Pub final table was held on the WSOP final table which Craig went onto win and got a fairly balla picture out of it. Craig hasn't actually clicked the call button and booked yet but said he'll be coming.



(2011 picture quality)

Chris

I met Chris in Gibraltar and lived with him and Duncan when I moved to Spain, our villa was aptly named Ballagrande. Back in the Poker boom days Chris was a bit of an online crusher and out of everyone going on the trip he has for sure played the highest stakes poker. He hasn't played seriously for 10+ years though and is great fun to have sat down at any poker table. I won't reveal the name but Chris's TwoPlusTwo account from back in the day is legendary with some classic posts, with comments from Durrrr among other big time pros. One of Chris's many many claims to fame is appearing in the background shot of one of the episodes of 2 Months 2 Million. I really can't wait to see the Chris legendary foot tap dance move going viral in Vegas after the first club night.



(Stacking chips and falling asleep at the table one of Chris's special skills)

Tom & Dan

Just to add some confusion into the mix we have another Tom and Dan coming as well (will have to think of nicknames). I met Tom and Dan through Chris but really got to know them more when we all went to Ibiza's for Duncan's 30th birthday a few decades ago. One of my favorite moments from Gib cash games was when Tom, Dan and Chris were all playing and they decided to spice the game up a little. They did this by taking Sambuca shots everytime the Ace of spades was the middle card on the flop, it wasn't 10 minutes that went past before this turned into Sambuca shots anytime any Ace was the middle card on the flop. And this very quickly escalated into a round of Sambuca shots if any Ace came anywhere on the flop! Safe the say it was a messy night.



(Chris left, Dan middle and Tom right in Ibiza for Duncan's Birthday)

Jon

An unknown element for me. He's one of Dan's friends from UK but I have never met him. Based on the Whatsapp group he seems like a nice guy and is up for a good time. Seems to be the only one in the group actually looking forward to the 13 way credit card roulette at CUT with the approx $2.5k+ hit if you lose.



So I think that's everyone introduced. We're all flying on the same morning, from the same airport, all arriving at around the same time but somehow have managed to book three different flights / airlines. I will be flying from Tbilisi to London the week before Vegas for a work conference and then me and Martin will be flying from London Gatwick with Virgin Atlantic. Dan, Jon and Joey are flying from Gatwick with British Airways. Pete, Lewis and Eirik are flying from Gatwick with Norwegian airways. Duncan, Chris, Tom 2 and Dan 2 said that a full week in Vegas is a little too much so will be having a few days exploring San Diego / LA before joining us in Sin City from the US.

There is another member of the group, Harry, who we all call The Beluga due to his whale / degen status within the group. Unfortunately The Beluga is unable to attend Vegas because he just started a new job and can’t get the days off (we hope for the river one outer that he actually still makes it though). Anyway, the reason I bring up the Beluga is that him, me, Dan and Joey are all meeting in Leeds just after Christmas for two days of drinking, nice food and poker. Let's call it a Vegas warm up! The next planned post will be reporting on this.

7 weeks to go!



(And 12 when Craig books)

Subbed, and thanks for the shout out, been a pleasure working with you. I'm sure you'll crush those Vegas games.

haha nice intros, subbed, looking forward to it.

Some serious potential here.

Hutchy, I'll be there about the same time as you and your crew...10-16 FEB. Non-baller MAWG, will be playing $1-$2, $1-$3, and some $120-150 tournaments. I'll say "hey" if I see you or others at the table.

Nice, come over and say hi for sure

Happy New Year TwoPlusTwo!

So as promised in my last post, after Christmas a few of the Vegas crew and Harry the Beluga met up in Leeds (UK) for a couple of nights of nice food, CCR, drinking and poker - or, as I like to call it, "The Vegas Warm Up!" As this is a Las Vegas thread I'm not sure everyone will be interested so I'll keep the post relatively brief.

I arrived in Leeds on the Friday around 3pm and headed straight to Beluga's apartment as he'd been living there over a year and I'd never had chance to visit before. During the quick tour of his penthouse pad we find a large red foam dice laying around on a table. Always one for a gamble, he picks up the dice and says "let's roll, and whoever gets the lowest number pays for the first round of drinks tonight." I snap call and roll the dice across the floor and of course, without fail, the dice lands on one! (I always run terrible at prop bets!). The Beluga rolls the dice just for the 1 in 6 chance we chop but he obvs rolls a six, GG. Not long after this we're doing a double or nothing roll. I pay on low, he pays on high... It’s a 3 and I’m down two drinks. Not long after that we head out to meet Dan, Joe and the late addition to the team, Pete at mine and Dan's hotel. As we're heading out of the apartment Harry the Beluga picks the dice off the counter; "this may come in use later" he says as he puts it in his pocket.

We meet the others at the hotel and head to a local bar call Roxy. It was a really cool bar with beer pong, table tennis, pool, shuffleboard games. The Beluga pulls out the dice from his pocket for the first round of drinks and each person is assigned a number (Me 1, Joe 2, Pete 3, Dan 4, Beluga 5 and 6 being a reroll). He rolls the big red dice across the busy bar floor and rolls a 5, justice! Drinks on the Beluga, though as I'm already two drinks down from the apartment roll I take the cost of two of them off his round. We finish our drinks off fairly quickly as we're waiting for a pool table to open up and go for another roll for the next round. This time it lands on the 4 so Dan heads to the bar. Soon after this the pool table opens and we head over there and start racking up. We decide to roll the dice to decide how much money each person has to put into the pot and a 5 is rolled so everyone puts £5 on the line for a game of Killer. I'm a fairly terrible pool player and against Beluga, Dan and Joey I'd put my EV in a £25 pot at less than £0.50 haha.

Killer is a game where each person has three lives and we take turns to simply pot a ball, losing a life if you miss. It was pretty obvious that with only 3 lives me and Pete were fairly outmatched and soon it was only Dan, Joe and Beluga left in. Dan goes on to win and Beluga rolls another 5 to lose another round of drinks. As it was pretty clear at this point that me and Pete were burning money playing against these pool sharks I negotiated that us two should get an extra life each which seemed to even things out a little. But alas, the Beluga went on to win this game and I lost the dice roll for drinks again! At this point our 1 hour time slot was running short but we start another game. I was playing a lot better on this final go and Beluga and Pete were out pretty quickly. It was down to me, Joe and Dan with all fairly even lives when the pool assistant came over and told us our time was up and we had to stop. To decide who won the £10 pot from Beluga and Pete we roll the dice (Joe is 1 and 2, Me 3 and 4 and Dan 5 and 6). We roll a 4 and like a miracle I somehow break even playing pool with the hustlers! The pool table for an hour was £12 so we roll the dice again and the dice decides Dan is the one paying for this and unluckily for him on the next roll his number comes out again so he’s also paying for the next round of drinks as well! As I said in my last post the Beluga is unable to attend Vegas this time because he just started a new job and doesn't have the vacation days. However, we almost convinced him at this stage of the night that if he rolled a 5 on the dice that he would have to snap book Vegas and figure out later a way of getting the time off work. I could see the temptation in his eyes as they glazed over with thoughts of craps and the ****ing Mirage but unfortunately he folded the 1 in 6 Vegas roll.

After this final round of drinks we head out of Roxy to a nice steak restaurant that Joey had lined up for us. Sorry I didn't take any pictures until this point but the steak, sides and wine were all great. After a fairly heated debate about UK politics and Brexit it came time to pay the bill. It was decided that Credit Card Roulette would be the way to decide who pays: I know it's an equal EV game but I have run terrible in the past in CCR and just decided the pain of paying for a £300 dinner isn't worth the £50 I would save if I won, so after some mega peer pressure I decide to bow out of this one. I pay my part of the bill with some added "Nit Tax" on top and as the only one not taking part I'm assigned as the credit card picker. I take everyone's card and shuffle behind my back. We decide that the top card is safe which happens to be Joey, I shuffle again and Pete is safe this time, it's left to Dan and Beluga and the CCR gods select Beluga as the chosen one this time. Admittedly, he does seem to run very bad at CCR lifetime. After dinner we head to the next bar.



Photographer Pete proposing to 5 girls

In the new bar the gambling gods instantly punish me for being a CCR nit as the dice of doom rolls a 1 for my round and then straight after another 1 pops up to decide who pays the £18 for the hour of Shuffleboard. As we're waiting for the Shuffleboard the Beluga who is still pretty tilted from losing the dinner CCR pull out his mobile phone, opens an online casino site, instantly deposits the max he's allowed due to self-imposed deposit limits everywhere (£50) and goes all in on one hand of Blackjack. He gets dealt a 12 vs the dealer’s 10, hits, gets a 6 and sticks on 18 and the dealer busts. Positive start… next round he goes all in again and bets two £50 hands. One hand he gets 11 and the other hand gets a backjack! Dealer gets a 5. He hits on the 11 and is given a King for 21. Dealer busts and just like that he's up £175 which was basically the cost of his dinner CCR. The Beluga has had a Belugaette (girlfriend) for the last 11 months which has really reduced his gambling but that has come with some wisdom, such as the amazing line: "gambling when you have girlfriend is no good, you have to tell her you've lost a tenner when really you've dropped a bag and half." (1.5k)

Shuffleboard opens up and we take it in turns playing against each other for £5 per game.



Shuffleboard with the Dice of Doom

The stakes increased fairly quickly and before anyone knew it the average bet per game was £20. At one point two girls came over wondering how to play and after a little coaching session from Pete and Joey the guys were betting £20 on the girls against each other rather than playing themselves! Beluga won about £70 playing shuffleboard so it was justice when he lost another roll to pay for the next round.

After an hour of shuffleboard we head of the casino for some poker. Back in my student days I played a lot of poker in Leeds but never before in this the new casino which opened up in the city centre a few years ago. After a drunk Joey detour around the city we eventually arrived at the casino which was very very nice (on the level of a Vegas casino I would say). The poker area was totally rammed due to a tourney series which was running. Luckily, me, Dan and Joey all managed to get a seat next to each other starting up the £1/£2 cash game. Beluga and Pete who weren't very keen on playing poker anyway took this opportunity to go for some more drinks in a karaoke bar nearby.



Good luck Joey!

Slightly disappointingly the poker wasn't as exciting as I had hoped and no major hands to report on. Joey's raising arm was well and truly oiled though and at one point he must have raised 6 hands in a row and seemed to be playing well. After an hour or so he was getting quite a lot of pressure to join Beluga and Pete in the karaoke bar so he left for a sing-song about a £100 winner. Me and Dan played for another hour. Dan played a great hand against a guy where he made super thin value bet with 2nd pair on the river which literally melted his opponent’s brain. The villain in the hand was still talking about it 30 mins later haha. A bit later we were both getting quite tired when the following hand happened:

Fish UTG+2 opens to £10, Asian guy who was SUPER loose and was already down 5 or so buy ins ships it in for £85 on the BTN. Dan looks down at AK from the blinds and reships for about £300. Original fish raiser covers Dan and calls fairly quickly. Someone on the table says "someone must have Aces" to which Dan responds "Well I at least have one of them" and the Fish responds "I have two" ... Gulp, board runs out rags and fish did indeed manage to wake up with Aces and Dan is felted. Rather than Dan rebuying we decide to call it a night and I cash out my £24 profit from the session (at least one of the many dice rounds of the night was paid for). Me and Dan head back to the hotel and call it a night around 2am. The next day we were meant to be going on a little drive and walk with the Beluga fairly early in the morning but as he was steaming drunk when he left us for the karaoke bar and no doubt was still out partying and drinking I thought there was little chance of that happening.

Amazingly we wake up to a message saying that him and his Mrs will be ready in an hour and we should head round to their place. Joey had decided the day before that he wasn't coming and Pete was hungover pretty bad and had to get a train mid-afternoon anyway so also decided to bow out.



(To clear up the spoon part. At 6am in the morning I felt something metal in my bed which turned out to be a teaspoon which Pete had planted there the day before.)

Anyway, we meet up and go for a nice walk around Fountains Abbey which is one of my favourite places in Yorkshire. After that we head for a pub lunch.



The Belugas, Me and Dan





Has to be Fish & Chips

We get back to Leeds around 5pm and after a little chill in the hotel room me and Dan meet up with Joey to watch the football (soccer) in a pub. We watch the game, have some more drinks (equal rounds this time). After the football we have a few games of Jenga in another close-by pub and get pizza for dinner. After the nit abuse from the previous night I decide to go in for this CCR this time, I actually had a really good feeling about it. Joey was the first to be saved so it was between me and Dan which I obviously go on to lose! For those who have been keeping count, out of the possible nine rolls Joey has been in over the weekend he's yet to lose one! Total sunrunner!



I pay the £35 bill and we head out to the other casino in Leeds for some more cash games. It isn't long until we're all sat down at the same table again.



Here we go!

Even though it was only a £1/£1 game, this session was a bit more entertaining. There was one older drunk guy who was splashing around and at one stage was raising almost every hand and being very aggressive. He'd already had a few trips to the ATM when he raised CO to £6. Joey calls BTN and I decide to peel one from the BB with the mighty K5. Flop comes out KJ5. Checked to the drunk guy who cbets £10, Joey flats and I make it £32 to go. It doesn't take the drunk guy long to put me all in for around £170 total. Joey makes the fold. I call fairly quickly (though Joey did say after that it was a nitroll haha). The drunk guy turns over AKo and we hold, phew.

About an hour and a few drunk-guy rebuys later Joey raises UTG, I flat with 22 UTG+2 and it's folded round to the drunk guy in the BB who just ships all in for about £85 total. Looking for a bit of a gamble Joey decides to make the call with 56 lol. Drunk guy turns over JJ and board runs out T5342, nice run Joey is having this weekend! Drunk guy wasn't happy about that but fairly quickly heads to the ATM for another rebuy. Joey played for abit longer before deciding to call it a night and leaving me and Dan again.



Me and Dan battling (I lost)

About an hour later me and Dan are getting pretty tired and as the BB is coming round we decide to play one more orbit rather than leaving straight away. At this point Dan is about £300 in profit so has got all losses back from the first night and more. Literally two hands after deciding we're staying one more orbit, the drunk guy who had built a bit of a stack back up at this point raises from MP. Dan 3bets from the BB and drunk guy just 4bet ships for the lot (about £300 total). Dan snaps with his KK. Board runs out QQxxx and drunk guy fairly quickly turns over AA Pretty unlucky for Danny, getting coolered against Aces in back to back sessions just as we were leaving. We play a few more hands and decide to call it a night once the orbit is up. All said and done, I finished £165 up and Dan finished about £30 up after the KK v AA 15 minutes before.

We meet Joey the next morning for possibly the best pancake breakfast I have ever had.



We decide to CCR for the bill. Joey wins his 10th CCR over the two days with no issues, instantly saved when his card is the first to be removed for no sweat. So it's down to me and Dan again. Legit thought if I lose this then I'm retiring from the CCR business but thankfully Dan takes the hit and I get some free pancakes.

Dice & CCR Stats:

• Tom – 2 drinks, 2 rounds, 1 hour of shuffleboard, dinner, my own dinner plus nit tax
• Beluga – 3 rounds, expensive dinner
• Dan – 2 rounds, 1 hour of pool, breakfast
• Pete – Nothing
• Joey – Nothing

There was talk during the night of having a "Dice decides" day in Vegas with a skydive as one of the numbers lol. Think something like that would be fun.

Me and Danny say our goodbyes to Joey, next time we'll see him will most likely be at Gatwick Airport on the way to Vegas! I take the train to Manchester airport to catch the plane back to Tbilisi and the office Been a class two days though and got me even more excited for Vegas. 40 days to go!

Some guy at the airport thought it would be a good idea to bring a leaky pint of milk on to his flight....



Next post from me most likely when in London the week before Vegas! My plan for January is to hit the gym pretty hard and get back to some poker study leading up to Vegas.

P.S. I said I would keep this brief but totally didn't, apologies!

Looks like a fun trip in store! Sub'd for the sweat. But you're going to need to explain those pancakes.

Yeah mate those look like some type of sloppy English muffin/southern American biscuit.

Love this pic,



Man maybe if I live a somewhat good life I can be reincarnated as part of a crazy crew of British degens like this pack here.

subbed

Pancakes look like Chipped Beef on Toast aka ****e on a Shingle..

Lately I feel like numerous reports have been started way too early before the trip even happens. You know, something like “Epic Vegas TR Dec 2023”, but damn man, you have have delivered with the early start. Loved the write up on everyone and the pre-Vegas trip. Really looking forward to the rest.

Lots of abuse on the salted caramel pancakes! Dunno, they were delicious... Will try and find better in Vegas. Also, not sure anyone from a country which calls pancakes "flapjacks" can judge either

Pancakes A+ in my book.

Thanks for the catchup – looking forward to the main event.