Snap Calls and Craps Rolls - TR 11th - 18th Feb 2019
02-15-2019
, 12:52 PM
Yes outstanding TR!!
"It was quite funny because the woman who had called off with QT was screaming "Ten, Ten, Ten" as the turn and river card were being dealt. I confirmed to the dealer that he can give her what she wanted
. "
It would be hilarious if a Ten came, but it would take 10 minutes to explain....
"It was quite funny because the woman who had called off with QT was screaming "Ten, Ten, Ten" as the turn and river card were being dealt. I confirmed to the dealer that he can give her what she wanted
. "It would be hilarious if a Ten came, but it would take 10 minutes to explain....
02-15-2019
, 03:48 PM
The morning after the Roulette debacle, I wanted to watch the Arsenal match but bizarrely neither the Bellagio or Cosmo sportsbook could get the game on their channels. Maybe they did me a favour though, as Arsenal went down limply 0-1.
After breakfast with Dan, Tom and Jon in the Aria Cafe we met the other guys Duncan, Tom, Dan, and Chris who were following us into the Cafe for breakfast of their own and Duncan couldn’t resist a pre-breakfast dice throw. With things going badly for me the day before, I stayed on the rail much to Dan’s surprise.
“Joe, I’m fully expecting your wallet to emerge from your pocket in the ten to fifteen seconds,” he commented.
I caved and fished out $100. It was a short and not particularly sweet session, overall in for 200 and out for 160, a $40 loss which could have been worse, I suppose.
During this time Dan and Tom had gone to the poker room but with no 1/3 seats available Tom headed off to PH and Dan sat in the 2/5. By the time I wandered over to the poker room post-craps, Dan stood up and let me know that this game was well worth taking a shot in if I fancied it. I’ve never played 2/5 except for a daft episode when I was about 19, so was slightly apprehensive but after surveying the table a bit I decided to take the free seat to Dan’s immediate left; I’ll have position on the fish, at least.
The game was mostly running around an older Canadian chap who had about $3.5k in front of him. People have a tendency to exaggerate when describing this kind of thing but he was literally playing 95% of hands preflop and doing some certainly creative things postflop.
It was an excellent recommendation from Dan to dip a toe here: a lot of limping pre was going unpunished and raises were rarely if ever getting 3bet pre. The Canadian guy would bet just about any piece of the board he connected to and yet manage to underrep a lot of his stronger hands and it was clearly just a case of waiting to make a few hands against him and collect the monies.
He particularly enjoyed getting his bluffs through. He’d shown one bluff early on in a small pot, and soon afterwards I had KT on KQQhh facing a bet from our man. I decided at this point that I was going to call him down all streets and I called the flop $30. When he bet the 9x turn though I lost my courage as I was still finding my feet in the game and made the fold. He grinned and turned over 78 no flush draw. Got me, sir!
Dan and I were having some friendly chat and some fun with this guy and generally trying to keep things enjoyable for him, and the dynamic was fuelled by Dan releasing all three barrels on him in one hand with 45 on 36xxx, shoving the river to get the fold from Canadian man. Dan shows the bluff, and we all laugh.
“I don’t like it when you English kids laugh at me together!” He smiled, all in good humour.
I can’t remember quite how the next hand played out, but I found myself facing a river bet of $60 from Canada. The board had run out xxxAA and I had no showdown value, so decided that I can bluffraise this river bet with a high degree of credibility because... well I can’t remember, but people don’t bluffraise rivers, right? I make it $160 and the old fella folds quickly. I show him the bluff and he laughs ruefully, and we’ve got a very fun dynamic with this guy.
I win a few more small/medium sized pots, and then find myself with AKss facing an open from our Canadian friend and a call from a middle aged guy who looked like George Clooney. Ruggedly handsome and friendly he might have been, but he wasn’t any great shakes at poker. I 3bet to 75 and get calls from both, and take it down after cbetting a Q8xss flop.
Dan points out someone across the room that he recognised from a previous trip. “Very good but weird guy... intense and very angle-shooty.”
I remembered from Dan and Tom’s previous Vegas trip that Dan encountered a character they dubbed “The Terminator”...
“Did you ever find out who that guy, The Terminator, was?” I asked Dan.
“Yeah - it’s that guy!” he laughed, nodding towards the slightly more casually-dressed in 2019 Terminator.
Things were going well in the game, I was sat with around 750-800...and then The Terminator strides by and sits in seat 9.
In one of his first hands he raises in a very angle-shooty way - mumbling “raise” but sliding out only the chips for a call and then pausing for a good 15-20 seconds before announcing the raise amount.
He’s definitely quite odd, very intense, and could probably do with an afternoon sitting in the sun by looking at his pastiness and sunken eyes. He also doesn’t seem to tip the dealers, and I’d probably recommend the authorities take a quick look at his hard-drive.
A short while later I look down at my very first AA of the trip! A lovely time to pick those up when I’m shot-taking 2/5 with 800 in front. I open to 20 and get a few calls, old Canadian guy and The Terminator included. Flop is K42r and I cbet 45. Terminator hmms and calls and Canadian guy folds...knowing his angle-shooty ways, I’m made slightly nervous by the Terminator’s posturing. Turn comes a 4 and I bet 125. Terminator calls again. I can’t actually remember what the river was, but at this point I was definitely fearful of getting raised if I bet the river and I’d be forced to fold. If I go for 200 for value for example and he shoves on me (he has around 700 at this point) it would really, really suck. I check.
“Call,” says the Terminator. I’m confused and very concerned about getting angled.
“What?” I ask.
“He checks,” the dealer says.
“Call,” The Terminator repeats. I was worried that if I now turn over my hand that he could have it mucked in some way.
“So can I show?” I ask the dealer. He nods, I turn over my AA with a bit of trepidation still and thankfully Terminator nods and mucks. This was a nice pot and I’m now sitting with around $1k: are things looking up?!
During all of this, Dan is running his stack up nicely as well and we’ve managed to avoid any confrontations except for a funny blind on blind chop-refusal spot.
“Playing this then, are we?” Dan asked me with a laugh as it folded to his small blind and my big.
“Yep,” I confirmed. George Clooney laughed from the button.
“I folded so you guys could chop!”
“Well we haven’t flown across the Atlantic to chop up blinds, have we?” Dan informed him.
Dan turned a straight and took my third pair to valuetown.
The seats that open up are being taken by regs but our Canadian friend is still going strong, albeit with only around $2-2.5k in front by now.
Dan makes a bit of a mistake when he bets the river instead of checking back and faces a raise of 125 more with QQ on a board that ran out with three hearts. He calls and gets shown the nut flush and immediately laments his play. Later on, the Terminator offers his thoughts to Dan on the hand and seems to agree with his criticism.
Another reg had joined the table but there was still plenty of action: this hand being a highlight, which went to 125 multiway preflop. There was a bet and a call on the flop, the turn checked through and on the river seat 3 piles it all in. Seat 2 tanks and tanks and then folds, where seat 3 turns over 78hh for a stone bluff!
As the afternoon wore on, I went a little card dead and think I had subconsciously locked up the win. Seats were being filled by regs, the rest of our crew were on their way to the Golden Nugget to have drinks and play the tournament which promised to be a lot of fun, and then eventually our Canadian man racked up to go to dinner. Dan and I called it an afternoon at around 4.15, me cashing out $1200 and change and Dan ending with a similar amount.
Suffice to say, this was a very much needed and welcome turn of fortunes and I had a lot of fun in the game and enjoyed battling the Terminator. We hadn’t seen the last of him yet, though.
“Hey Daniel!” calls the Terminator to Dan as he walked by us after we finished cashing out. “How did you end up?”
“Not bad, won about 800,” Dan said.
“It should have been $125 more,” grinned the Terminator as he strode off into the distance.
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After breakfast with Dan, Tom and Jon in the Aria Cafe we met the other guys Duncan, Tom, Dan, and Chris who were following us into the Cafe for breakfast of their own and Duncan couldn’t resist a pre-breakfast dice throw. With things going badly for me the day before, I stayed on the rail much to Dan’s surprise.
“Joe, I’m fully expecting your wallet to emerge from your pocket in the ten to fifteen seconds,” he commented.
I caved and fished out $100. It was a short and not particularly sweet session, overall in for 200 and out for 160, a $40 loss which could have been worse, I suppose.
During this time Dan and Tom had gone to the poker room but with no 1/3 seats available Tom headed off to PH and Dan sat in the 2/5. By the time I wandered over to the poker room post-craps, Dan stood up and let me know that this game was well worth taking a shot in if I fancied it. I’ve never played 2/5 except for a daft episode when I was about 19, so was slightly apprehensive but after surveying the table a bit I decided to take the free seat to Dan’s immediate left; I’ll have position on the fish, at least.
The game was mostly running around an older Canadian chap who had about $3.5k in front of him. People have a tendency to exaggerate when describing this kind of thing but he was literally playing 95% of hands preflop and doing some certainly creative things postflop.
It was an excellent recommendation from Dan to dip a toe here: a lot of limping pre was going unpunished and raises were rarely if ever getting 3bet pre. The Canadian guy would bet just about any piece of the board he connected to and yet manage to underrep a lot of his stronger hands and it was clearly just a case of waiting to make a few hands against him and collect the monies.
He particularly enjoyed getting his bluffs through. He’d shown one bluff early on in a small pot, and soon afterwards I had KT on KQQhh facing a bet from our man. I decided at this point that I was going to call him down all streets and I called the flop $30. When he bet the 9x turn though I lost my courage as I was still finding my feet in the game and made the fold. He grinned and turned over 78 no flush draw. Got me, sir!
Dan and I were having some friendly chat and some fun with this guy and generally trying to keep things enjoyable for him, and the dynamic was fuelled by Dan releasing all three barrels on him in one hand with 45 on 36xxx, shoving the river to get the fold from Canadian man. Dan shows the bluff, and we all laugh.
“I don’t like it when you English kids laugh at me together!” He smiled, all in good humour.
I can’t remember quite how the next hand played out, but I found myself facing a river bet of $60 from Canada. The board had run out xxxAA and I had no showdown value, so decided that I can bluffraise this river bet with a high degree of credibility because... well I can’t remember, but people don’t bluffraise rivers, right? I make it $160 and the old fella folds quickly. I show him the bluff and he laughs ruefully, and we’ve got a very fun dynamic with this guy.
I win a few more small/medium sized pots, and then find myself with AKss facing an open from our Canadian friend and a call from a middle aged guy who looked like George Clooney. Ruggedly handsome and friendly he might have been, but he wasn’t any great shakes at poker. I 3bet to 75 and get calls from both, and take it down after cbetting a Q8xss flop.
Dan points out someone across the room that he recognised from a previous trip. “Very good but weird guy... intense and very angle-shooty.”
I remembered from Dan and Tom’s previous Vegas trip that Dan encountered a character they dubbed “The Terminator”...
“Did you ever find out who that guy, The Terminator, was?” I asked Dan.
“Yeah - it’s that guy!” he laughed, nodding towards the slightly more casually-dressed in 2019 Terminator.
Things were going well in the game, I was sat with around 750-800...and then The Terminator strides by and sits in seat 9.
In one of his first hands he raises in a very angle-shooty way - mumbling “raise” but sliding out only the chips for a call and then pausing for a good 15-20 seconds before announcing the raise amount.
He’s definitely quite odd, very intense, and could probably do with an afternoon sitting in the sun by looking at his pastiness and sunken eyes. He also doesn’t seem to tip the dealers, and I’d probably recommend the authorities take a quick look at his hard-drive.
A short while later I look down at my very first AA of the trip! A lovely time to pick those up when I’m shot-taking 2/5 with 800 in front. I open to 20 and get a few calls, old Canadian guy and The Terminator included. Flop is K42r and I cbet 45. Terminator hmms and calls and Canadian guy folds...knowing his angle-shooty ways, I’m made slightly nervous by the Terminator’s posturing. Turn comes a 4 and I bet 125. Terminator calls again. I can’t actually remember what the river was, but at this point I was definitely fearful of getting raised if I bet the river and I’d be forced to fold. If I go for 200 for value for example and he shoves on me (he has around 700 at this point) it would really, really suck. I check.
“Call,” says the Terminator. I’m confused and very concerned about getting angled.
“What?” I ask.
“He checks,” the dealer says.
“Call,” The Terminator repeats. I was worried that if I now turn over my hand that he could have it mucked in some way.
“So can I show?” I ask the dealer. He nods, I turn over my AA with a bit of trepidation still and thankfully Terminator nods and mucks. This was a nice pot and I’m now sitting with around $1k: are things looking up?!
During all of this, Dan is running his stack up nicely as well and we’ve managed to avoid any confrontations except for a funny blind on blind chop-refusal spot.
“Playing this then, are we?” Dan asked me with a laugh as it folded to his small blind and my big.
“Yep,” I confirmed. George Clooney laughed from the button.
“I folded so you guys could chop!”
“Well we haven’t flown across the Atlantic to chop up blinds, have we?” Dan informed him.
Dan turned a straight and took my third pair to valuetown.
The seats that open up are being taken by regs but our Canadian friend is still going strong, albeit with only around $2-2.5k in front by now.
Dan makes a bit of a mistake when he bets the river instead of checking back and faces a raise of 125 more with QQ on a board that ran out with three hearts. He calls and gets shown the nut flush and immediately laments his play. Later on, the Terminator offers his thoughts to Dan on the hand and seems to agree with his criticism.
Another reg had joined the table but there was still plenty of action: this hand being a highlight, which went to 125 multiway preflop. There was a bet and a call on the flop, the turn checked through and on the river seat 3 piles it all in. Seat 2 tanks and tanks and then folds, where seat 3 turns over 78hh for a stone bluff!
As the afternoon wore on, I went a little card dead and think I had subconsciously locked up the win. Seats were being filled by regs, the rest of our crew were on their way to the Golden Nugget to have drinks and play the tournament which promised to be a lot of fun, and then eventually our Canadian man racked up to go to dinner. Dan and I called it an afternoon at around 4.15, me cashing out $1200 and change and Dan ending with a similar amount.
Suffice to say, this was a very much needed and welcome turn of fortunes and I had a lot of fun in the game and enjoyed battling the Terminator. We hadn’t seen the last of him yet, though.
“Hey Daniel!” calls the Terminator to Dan as he walked by us after we finished cashing out. “How did you end up?”
“Not bad, won about 800,” Dan said.
“It should have been $125 more,” grinned the Terminator as he strode off into the distance.
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02-15-2019
, 05:59 PM
PUSH THE BUTTON!
Whenever I've wanted to make a bet like that (thankfully not often) I just drop the chips on the number. I only exchange for the Necco wafers if I'm going to be there awhile.
And the 4 also, right? I guess you press if you win?
I'm headed to town this weekend. If I hear a lot of loud "bloke" and "mate" being shouted, I'll know who it is.
Quote:
I had $30 left in a green and red chip from craps and told Tom and Dan I was going to drop it on a number at roulette. I headed to the nearest wheel and slid my passport to the dealer along with $30 and a declaration of “11, please!”
She basically ignored me, then span the ball, then ordered no more bets without having processed or acknowledged my hole-escape attempt. I don’t have to finish this story in order for you to know where the ball lands. Other guys at the table protested on my behalf that my bet should stand but I just grimaced ruefully in the knowledge that this is exactly how things are going so far.
She basically ignored me, then span the ball, then ordered no more bets without having processed or acknowledged my hole-escape attempt. I don’t have to finish this story in order for you to know where the ball lands. Other guys at the table protested on my behalf that my bet should stand but I just grimaced ruefully in the knowledge that this is exactly how things are going so far.
Quote:
Yep, we saw about the WSOP circuit event, think a few of us might head over there and have a look.
02-15-2019
, 07:27 PM
After the great Aria session, Dan and I cabbed to the Golden Nugget to late-reg the 3pm tournament. There were about 30 runners, 10 of which were us so it was a lot of fun and generally speaking I think the locals seemed to enjoy our active presence!
The waitress was in fantastic form, coming around probably 3 times every half an hour, making sure we were suitably refreshed to overlook the absurd $17 rake on this $50 donkament.
There were plenty of rebuys flying around but I managed to get by on just the one bullet, eventually busting in around 16th. Duncan, Dan, Jon, and Pete had already busted and had formed a Craps Committee to rally troops for dice. We set off to a $10 table.
If you’ve read all the updates so far, you’ll know we’ve been struggling to find any heat anywhere in any form. On this night however, the tide finally, mercifully, turned for us!
Dan kicked things off with a nice roll to build ourselves a bit of wiggle room to play with, and led into Duncan’s roll. Our resident Scottish sunrunner got his dice arm into fine fettle, putting together a long-overdue string of 6s, 8s, 10s, and making a few points along the way. He hit the All Small for a 30/1 scoop, and only needed the 12 to Make Em All for 150/1; Duncs has failed to back himself in the feature bet so at this point he loaded up on the 6-6 prop bet with every roll and we made sure to take good care of the crew with bets for them so that they wouldn’t be missing out if we hit it.
Pete, stood between me and Duncan, was having a great time running up his initial $40 buyin, but he was also steaming drunk. He proceeded to commit two sins in this session, the first of which described by Duncan’s first observation as we pitched up at this craps table:
“Oh, somebody has insta-farted,” he said with such built-in scorn that I found it hilarious. A dreadful pong enveloped our end of the table and recurred every 5-6 minutes; we were blaming the old boy on my left but owe him an apology as Pete later owned up to the deed.
As if Pete’s colonic trauma wasn’t souring enough, he committed the cardinal craps sin when Duncan was probably approaching about his 16th roll.
“I might start betting on the seven now, he can’t roll forever,” Pete slurred, as Duncs, Dan and I exchanged looks of shock and dread.
Duncan survived the next roll, but the following one was the all-too-obvious seven. Nonetheless, it was a fantastic roll and the dice moved around to me. I also managed to put together a respectable roll of a couple of points and handful of numbers before sevening out.
It’s been a long time since we had a full row!
We played one more round of the table, and ended up all cashing out big winners before heading off to Mike Hammer. I was in for 200 and out for 725, with Dan and Duncs cashing out around 1k and 800. This was exactly the type of craps session we’d dreamed about in the months leading up to the trip so it was fantastic to make it happen. A note of condolence to other Tom in the group, who appears to have been incinerating money all week at craps and missed out on this heater due to running deep in the Nugget donkament!
I was highly sceptical about just how entertaining and funny Mike Hammer would be, but $45 for “VIP” entry which included a drink and a good table seemed reasonable value to take a punt at. Fair play to Duncan here, who had been hyping him up all day: Mike was very good, genuinely hilarious and while the magic is probably nothing revolutionary, his interaction with the crowd was very impressive as he remembered and recalled all sorts of details about people he’d picked on throughout the night to make later jokes. I’d definitely recommend the Mike Hammer show at the 4 Queens.
After the show it was my turn to come up with the goods after hyping up a recommendation. I’d been wanting to try out Atomic Liquor/Atomic Kitchen since Neeme made a visit in one of his vlogs, so I suggested Atomic Kitchen for dinner after the show and everyone was in.
As we walked further and further away from Fremont Street there were definite notes of scepticism and uncertainty from the crew, and in fairness I could see their point! The neighbourhood seemed to be getting shadier and shadier and the places we were passing weren’t exactly screaming out vibes as a hotbed for quality restaurants.
Once we arrived at Atomic though, the mood changed and it’s clearly a very nice place. The waitress took care of our impromptu need for a table of 10 and set us up with server Juan who was excellent all night and highly professional, as well as clearly passionate about their food and beer.
Shout out to the Modern Times Orderville which was absolutely delicious.
We had a load of food, a couple of cocktails and beers each, and a generally great dinner that I think was a unanimous hit. Duncan declared it the best meal he’s had in Vegas! The bill only ran us to around $50 per head which was excellent value.
After dinner we headed to Binions for some craps but couldn’t really get anything going despite playing for a couple of hours. I ended up -175, but it remained a +1k day even so which was so very welcome!
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The waitress was in fantastic form, coming around probably 3 times every half an hour, making sure we were suitably refreshed to overlook the absurd $17 rake on this $50 donkament.
There were plenty of rebuys flying around but I managed to get by on just the one bullet, eventually busting in around 16th. Duncan, Dan, Jon, and Pete had already busted and had formed a Craps Committee to rally troops for dice. We set off to a $10 table.
If you’ve read all the updates so far, you’ll know we’ve been struggling to find any heat anywhere in any form. On this night however, the tide finally, mercifully, turned for us!
Dan kicked things off with a nice roll to build ourselves a bit of wiggle room to play with, and led into Duncan’s roll. Our resident Scottish sunrunner got his dice arm into fine fettle, putting together a long-overdue string of 6s, 8s, 10s, and making a few points along the way. He hit the All Small for a 30/1 scoop, and only needed the 12 to Make Em All for 150/1; Duncs has failed to back himself in the feature bet so at this point he loaded up on the 6-6 prop bet with every roll and we made sure to take good care of the crew with bets for them so that they wouldn’t be missing out if we hit it.
Pete, stood between me and Duncan, was having a great time running up his initial $40 buyin, but he was also steaming drunk. He proceeded to commit two sins in this session, the first of which described by Duncan’s first observation as we pitched up at this craps table:
“Oh, somebody has insta-farted,” he said with such built-in scorn that I found it hilarious. A dreadful pong enveloped our end of the table and recurred every 5-6 minutes; we were blaming the old boy on my left but owe him an apology as Pete later owned up to the deed.
As if Pete’s colonic trauma wasn’t souring enough, he committed the cardinal craps sin when Duncan was probably approaching about his 16th roll.
“I might start betting on the seven now, he can’t roll forever,” Pete slurred, as Duncs, Dan and I exchanged looks of shock and dread.
Duncan survived the next roll, but the following one was the all-too-obvious seven. Nonetheless, it was a fantastic roll and the dice moved around to me. I also managed to put together a respectable roll of a couple of points and handful of numbers before sevening out.
It’s been a long time since we had a full row!
We played one more round of the table, and ended up all cashing out big winners before heading off to Mike Hammer. I was in for 200 and out for 725, with Dan and Duncs cashing out around 1k and 800. This was exactly the type of craps session we’d dreamed about in the months leading up to the trip so it was fantastic to make it happen. A note of condolence to other Tom in the group, who appears to have been incinerating money all week at craps and missed out on this heater due to running deep in the Nugget donkament!
I was highly sceptical about just how entertaining and funny Mike Hammer would be, but $45 for “VIP” entry which included a drink and a good table seemed reasonable value to take a punt at. Fair play to Duncan here, who had been hyping him up all day: Mike was very good, genuinely hilarious and while the magic is probably nothing revolutionary, his interaction with the crowd was very impressive as he remembered and recalled all sorts of details about people he’d picked on throughout the night to make later jokes. I’d definitely recommend the Mike Hammer show at the 4 Queens.
After the show it was my turn to come up with the goods after hyping up a recommendation. I’d been wanting to try out Atomic Liquor/Atomic Kitchen since Neeme made a visit in one of his vlogs, so I suggested Atomic Kitchen for dinner after the show and everyone was in.
As we walked further and further away from Fremont Street there were definite notes of scepticism and uncertainty from the crew, and in fairness I could see their point! The neighbourhood seemed to be getting shadier and shadier and the places we were passing weren’t exactly screaming out vibes as a hotbed for quality restaurants.
Once we arrived at Atomic though, the mood changed and it’s clearly a very nice place. The waitress took care of our impromptu need for a table of 10 and set us up with server Juan who was excellent all night and highly professional, as well as clearly passionate about their food and beer.
Shout out to the Modern Times Orderville which was absolutely delicious.
We had a load of food, a couple of cocktails and beers each, and a generally great dinner that I think was a unanimous hit. Duncan declared it the best meal he’s had in Vegas! The bill only ran us to around $50 per head which was excellent value.
After dinner we headed to Binions for some craps but couldn’t really get anything going despite playing for a couple of hours. I ended up -175, but it remained a +1k day even so which was so very welcome!
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02-15-2019
, 07:56 PM
For me, honestly the most tilting thing about Vegas is just how absurdly expensive every day items are. I’d like to call attention to figure 1 below: 10 bucks for a coffee and a single average length/girth banana... 10 dollars! 8 pounds!! Come on, that’s just.. well, bananas.
It’s not the expense that grates as such, but the dismal value exchange and unapologetic extortion.
Heading to the B poker room to meet Dan, Tom and Jon for some pre-CUT poker!
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It’s not the expense that grates as such, but the dismal value exchange and unapologetic extortion.
Heading to the B poker room to meet Dan, Tom and Jon for some pre-CUT poker!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
02-15-2019
, 11:06 PM
Quote:
For me, honestly the most tilting thing about Vegas is just how absurdly expensive every day items are. I’d like to call attention to figure 1 below: 10 bucks for a coffee and a single average length/girth banana... 10 dollars! 8 pounds!! Come on, that’s just.. well, bananas.
It’s not the expense that grates as such, but the dismal value exchange and unapologetic extortion.
Heading to the B poker room to meet Dan, Tom and Jon for some pre-CUT poker!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It’s not the expense that grates as such, but the dismal value exchange and unapologetic extortion.
Heading to the B poker room to meet Dan, Tom and Jon for some pre-CUT poker!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That’s the B. That being said you’re probably paying $5 for a double latte at any small town Starbucks in America. I stick to black coffee you get for free in little styrofoam cups at the Jiffy Lube.
02-16-2019
, 10:54 AM
02-16-2019
, 02:55 PM
Hey TwoPlusTwo,
So I woke up in Vegas, no better place to turn 30 imo. Opened some cards from friends and family which my Mum had given me when I met her in London. A few of us had decided to start the day with breakfast in Bouchon. I meet up with Joey, Dan and Jon in the Bellagio lobby and we head down the strip to the Venetian. For those that have followed previous TRs, the Venetian is where I have stayed on the majority of my previous Vegas trips. It brought back some good memories being in that place again.
We head over to Bouchon and get a seat fairly quickly. I've been here a few times on previous trips and always really like the atmosphere and food. I order the cheese & ham toastie (can't remember the posh French name it was called in the menu). Was very good though.
I'll let Joey let you know about his terrible order strategy.
After breakfast the others went shopping and I decided to get the grind on and hopefully have some Birthday run good. First stop was the Venetian but the waiting list was pretty long so I decided to pass and head back to PH. I arrive back at PH and first go back to the room to get my phone charger and headphones. Open the room door to be greeted by this:
At first I thought PH had totally outdone themselves but then I opened the card and the balloons and cake were sent from my family (and cat) back home in the UK. Really thoughtful gift and a great surprise. My brother who had organised the cake had been speaking to Martin about when it would be dropped off in the room. My brother had apparently told Martin "Be in the room at 10am which is when Tom's Birthday gift would be dropped off". I think Martin was a little worried that it might be Magic Mike coming to the room rather than a cake! Was stuffed after Bouchon so cake will be saved for another time. I didn't really like the look of the PH poker game so decided to head over to Bellagio to get my 1/3 grind on.
Unfortunately I can confirm after spending two Birthdays in Vegas now that the Birthday run good is a total myth. I was already down a small amount when a not great player in EP makes it $10, a guy who had been tilting hard makes the call in MP, I call AQo in the CO and now a older guy from the SB makes it $35 to go. Not a spot I love really, older guys will 99% have the goods here but when both the fish and tilting guy call and I'm getting pretty great odds in position I decide to make the call and see what the flop brings. The flop comes Q84r. Old guy bets out $55, leaving about $150 left in his stack. Fish folds and tilting guy calls leaving about $110 in his stack. In retrospect I guess I should just flat here and call off on turns but I decide just to jam it in. When the old boys fairly quickly calls I don't think I'm in great shape and the tilting guy calls the all in as well, though I think I'm most likely ahead of him. I'm given a little bit of hope when the old guy asks if anyone has a Queen which made it sound like a Queen was good and he had Jacks or something. The turn pairs the 4 and the River brings the King which I don't like very much. I'd already turned my hand over on the flop when it had got all in. Old guy slowly turns over his pocket Kings one card at a time. Tilting guy instant mucks. I had just gotten out of the hole the day previous so $300 down fairly quickly wasn't exactly how I wanted to start the day... I'm not even joking when I say it takes the old guy about 15-20 minutes to slowly stack the mountain of my chips he'd just won. It really got under my skin that for the next five hands or so I would look up and he was still stacking my chips realllllly slowly. He finally stacks all the chips, plays about 2 more hands and starts racking them up and leaves, frustrating. Rest of the session was a little bit up and down as well. Double a 50bb guy up with KK v TT on Qd Td 5c. Value own myself with KT v T6 on Kc 7d 9c 8d Ks. Miss a big flush draw with AQss on Ks xs x. But then win a nice one with AK v AJ on A73A5. Overall I decided to call it a session a few hours before we were due to go for dinner, minus $349 which is basically my tourney win from the previous day. Back in the hole but sill high in spirits!
I head back to the room and start getting ready for dinner at CUT. CUT is the only thing this trip we had organised beforehand as I had booked the table a few weeks in advance. I've been to CUT on every trip I've ever done to Vegas and I'm totally in love with the place. This is also actually be the first time on the whole trip that the full complete group will be together in one place. Me and Martin head down to CUT at the Venetian and join a few of the others at our table. The others arrive and we all place our orders.
Full squad!
Me and Martin go for the tasting of New York which isn't actually on the menu but is something you can ask for. The tasting is $200 and you get three pieces of meat, one of these is a 2oz Japanese Wagyu. According to the menu the same 6oz Japanese Wagyu is $450 so our 2oz bit is worth $150 so seems like "good" value. This steak is totally unreal though and is like something you've never tried before. Food and service was amazing as always. The staff really treated me well and I was given a card, complementary cocktail and a cake.
Tom in high focus mode cutting his steak, he was really going for it:
Crumbled at my speech, really something I hate doing. The guys refused to let me pay for my part of the meal which I thought was a very very nice gesture as it will probably be the highest bill for a dinner most of us will ever see.
(Not including tip)
They also got me a double Belvedere vodka shot which went down the hatch in one go. Food was amazing, service great and couldn't of asked for better company. Overall probably the best dinner I have ever had. We had around $30 left from the bill after paying so decided to stick it all on number 15 on the roulette in Palazzo (15th is my Bday), alas no Birthday miracle and it didn't even get close. We head out of CUT and down the strip towards the LINQ to play some beer pong in the pub. Somehow I've managed to spend the last 30 years never playing beer pong and I think I've found my calling in life I teamed up with Chris and we dispatched of Martin and Duncan fairly quickly. We had agreed that the losers also have to drink a shot as well so things got pretty messy pretty quickly.
Tom's new method to put people off:
After Beer pong a few of us made our way to the Craps table for some rolls. I joined the table mid-heater and managed to win about $50 pretty quickly. The guy on the heater rolled a 7 and next up was Lewis. He didn't last long though and I wasn't really feeling it so cashed out with a $15 profit. It was around 3am at this point so we all headed back to PH to try and get a private cash game if possible. Unfortunately they didn't have enough dealers to give us a table so I left the guys and headed to sleep. Despite losing at poker I had a great day and hands down best Birthday yet.
So I woke up in Vegas, no better place to turn 30 imo. Opened some cards from friends and family which my Mum had given me when I met her in London. A few of us had decided to start the day with breakfast in Bouchon. I meet up with Joey, Dan and Jon in the Bellagio lobby and we head down the strip to the Venetian. For those that have followed previous TRs, the Venetian is where I have stayed on the majority of my previous Vegas trips. It brought back some good memories being in that place again.
We head over to Bouchon and get a seat fairly quickly. I've been here a few times on previous trips and always really like the atmosphere and food. I order the cheese & ham toastie (can't remember the posh French name it was called in the menu). Was very good though.
I'll let Joey let you know about his terrible order strategy.
After breakfast the others went shopping and I decided to get the grind on and hopefully have some Birthday run good. First stop was the Venetian but the waiting list was pretty long so I decided to pass and head back to PH. I arrive back at PH and first go back to the room to get my phone charger and headphones. Open the room door to be greeted by this:
At first I thought PH had totally outdone themselves but then I opened the card and the balloons and cake were sent from my family (and cat) back home in the UK. Really thoughtful gift and a great surprise. My brother who had organised the cake had been speaking to Martin about when it would be dropped off in the room. My brother had apparently told Martin "Be in the room at 10am which is when Tom's Birthday gift would be dropped off". I think Martin was a little worried that it might be Magic Mike coming to the room rather than a cake! Was stuffed after Bouchon so cake will be saved for another time. I didn't really like the look of the PH poker game so decided to head over to Bellagio to get my 1/3 grind on.
Unfortunately I can confirm after spending two Birthdays in Vegas now that the Birthday run good is a total myth. I was already down a small amount when a not great player in EP makes it $10, a guy who had been tilting hard makes the call in MP, I call AQo in the CO and now a older guy from the SB makes it $35 to go. Not a spot I love really, older guys will 99% have the goods here but when both the fish and tilting guy call and I'm getting pretty great odds in position I decide to make the call and see what the flop brings. The flop comes Q84r. Old guy bets out $55, leaving about $150 left in his stack. Fish folds and tilting guy calls leaving about $110 in his stack. In retrospect I guess I should just flat here and call off on turns but I decide just to jam it in. When the old boys fairly quickly calls I don't think I'm in great shape and the tilting guy calls the all in as well, though I think I'm most likely ahead of him. I'm given a little bit of hope when the old guy asks if anyone has a Queen which made it sound like a Queen was good and he had Jacks or something. The turn pairs the 4 and the River brings the King which I don't like very much. I'd already turned my hand over on the flop when it had got all in. Old guy slowly turns over his pocket Kings one card at a time. Tilting guy instant mucks. I had just gotten out of the hole the day previous so $300 down fairly quickly wasn't exactly how I wanted to start the day... I'm not even joking when I say it takes the old guy about 15-20 minutes to slowly stack the mountain of my chips he'd just won. It really got under my skin that for the next five hands or so I would look up and he was still stacking my chips realllllly slowly. He finally stacks all the chips, plays about 2 more hands and starts racking them up and leaves, frustrating. Rest of the session was a little bit up and down as well. Double a 50bb guy up with KK v TT on Qd Td 5c. Value own myself with KT v T6 on Kc 7d 9c 8d Ks. Miss a big flush draw with AQss on Ks xs x. But then win a nice one with AK v AJ on A73A5. Overall I decided to call it a session a few hours before we were due to go for dinner, minus $349 which is basically my tourney win from the previous day. Back in the hole but sill high in spirits!
I head back to the room and start getting ready for dinner at CUT. CUT is the only thing this trip we had organised beforehand as I had booked the table a few weeks in advance. I've been to CUT on every trip I've ever done to Vegas and I'm totally in love with the place. This is also actually be the first time on the whole trip that the full complete group will be together in one place. Me and Martin head down to CUT at the Venetian and join a few of the others at our table. The others arrive and we all place our orders.
Full squad!
Me and Martin go for the tasting of New York which isn't actually on the menu but is something you can ask for. The tasting is $200 and you get three pieces of meat, one of these is a 2oz Japanese Wagyu. According to the menu the same 6oz Japanese Wagyu is $450 so our 2oz bit is worth $150 so seems like "good" value. This steak is totally unreal though and is like something you've never tried before. Food and service was amazing as always. The staff really treated me well and I was given a card, complementary cocktail and a cake.
Tom in high focus mode cutting his steak, he was really going for it:
Crumbled at my speech, really something I hate doing. The guys refused to let me pay for my part of the meal which I thought was a very very nice gesture as it will probably be the highest bill for a dinner most of us will ever see.
(Not including tip)
They also got me a double Belvedere vodka shot which went down the hatch in one go. Food was amazing, service great and couldn't of asked for better company. Overall probably the best dinner I have ever had. We had around $30 left from the bill after paying so decided to stick it all on number 15 on the roulette in Palazzo (15th is my Bday), alas no Birthday miracle and it didn't even get close. We head out of CUT and down the strip towards the LINQ to play some beer pong in the pub. Somehow I've managed to spend the last 30 years never playing beer pong and I think I've found my calling in life
I teamed up with Chris and we dispatched of Martin and Duncan fairly quickly. We had agreed that the losers also have to drink a shot as well so things got pretty messy pretty quickly.Tom's new method to put people off:
After Beer pong a few of us made our way to the Craps table for some rolls. I joined the table mid-heater and managed to win about $50 pretty quickly. The guy on the heater rolled a 7 and next up was Lewis. He didn't last long though and I wasn't really feeling it so cashed out with a $15 profit. It was around 3am at this point so we all headed back to PH to try and get a private cash game if possible. Unfortunately they didn't have enough dealers to give us a table so I left the guys and headed to sleep. Despite losing at poker I had a great day and hands down best Birthday yet.
02-16-2019
, 05:34 PM
Quote:
For me, honestly the most tilting thing about Vegas is just how absurdly expensive every day items are. I’d like to call attention to figure 1 below: 10 bucks for a coffee and a single average length/girth banana... 10 dollars! 8 pounds!! Come on, that’s just.. well, bananas.
It’s not the expense that grates as such, but the dismal value exchange and unapologetic extortion.
It’s not the expense that grates as such, but the dismal value exchange and unapologetic extortion.
02-17-2019
, 04:52 PM
After my last post, a few of us went down to the Bellagio poker room for some Friday afternoon action before CUT.
Dan jumped into 2/5 and, despite a table change, said that both games were awful (except for an intermission of a Russian guy sitting in to drop 1k from his 5/10 stack and then promptly head back to 5/10...Dan saw none of his donation!)
I played 1/3 and got nothing going. I have around $220 in front when I find the AA and open to $15. There’s a call, and then a pretty annoying, loud, and bad guy from the blinds makes it 45 with around 100 behind. I raise to 100 and he sticks it in.
“I have aces,” he says.
“Er, yeah so do I,” I reply and turn them over. The board runs out an unpleasant QJxxx with runner-runner clubs for 4 clubs on board which I have none of. Villain squeezes his cards and then bursts out of his seat dancing around, massaging a guy, and celebrating like there’s no tomorrow. He’s got KKc...
I pump in my remaining $80 at any opportunity looking for a spin and eventually bust it with A7 < AQ aipf.
That was an annoying session! Not really what the doctor ordered before CUT tonight. I mosey over to a craps table and buy in for 200. We get a little bit going via a good roll from a clearly loaded and really quite attractive 40 year old blonde lady and I finish up recouping $100 of the poker loss.
Dan and I head back to the room to change and head over to the Venetian to meet up with everyone before CUT. We have time for a beer before our 8pm booking so we settle down at the centre bar. Dan calls the bar lady’s $10 for the beer, and Jon and I decide to raise and feed a note into the bar top machine to get ours comped...
Yeah, we all know how this goes! I slide a 100 in and keep things slow and low stakes but after a while I want to get back to even so I can say I got the beer for free. I attempt to martingale at Blackjack to win the 20 credits I need to get level and it goes...badly. In a city of expensive drinks, this was the most expensive yet. -$100 Beer!
We head over to CUT.
They’ve set us up a big table in the next room along which was perfect and on the way to it I notice the fridges with the different cuts and breeds of beef in them:
Whilst I’m taking these photos I’m in a very awkward position for the staff, stood between doors either side of me where they’re coming and going from the kitchen, restaurant, and bar. Every single one of the 7 or 8 who passed me only did so after stopping dead in their tracks whilst I took the photo and then profusely apologising to me!
The service was impeccable throughout - an incredibly well-rehearsed, slick, yet artificial show - but impeccable nonetheless. I had the American Wagyu fillet and shared sides of peewee potatoes (these are what every other place that serves up fried potatoes should be aspiring to) and sautéed spinach. I got a mashed potato to myself because CUT mashed potato. Unbelievably good.
I ordered the steak medium-plus, which I didn’t know existed until our server suggested it when I said I didn’t quite want medium-rare but also not as well done as full medium. It came out absolutely perfect:
It was a meal where everything about the whole experience was without fault - even down to the music playing, when a Future Islands song came on (my current favourite band), and I find it really hard to imagine how a steakhouse could be any better: CUT is surely a top ten worldwide of its kind.
You do pay for it though: after covering tax, tip, and Tommy, I don’t think anyone got out for much less than $250-300 per man. Nonetheless, I don’t begrudge the expense one bit.
After dinner we all went over to the Linq and O’Sheas for drinks, beer pong, and degening.
Dan, Jon and I settled into a blackjack game with dealer Ken who had a face like a smacked-arse to start with. We soon softened him up with a few tips and some chat though and by the end he was a new man, laughing and fist-bumping and generally giving us a good time as our $100 buyins lasted at least an hour and a few drinks. There was no love lost between Ken and Jon though, as Jon’s tipping strategy was more erratic and higher variance than Dan and I who just stuck out a dollar for him on each hand. Ken Boy made sure to let Jon know how dissatisfied he was with the situation and was quite funny with it.
We were desperately trying to nail the side bet that allows you to spin the wheel of cash on a screen as part of each blackjack table, if you get blackjack. Jon eventually got there, for a $50 win. Ken said the prize is $50 or $55 every time despite the range of prizes up to $10,000.
I ended up busting my money in sad fashion after Ken got relieved, going all in for about $50 and getting blackjack, only to tie with the dealer’s blackjack. I kept the bet on and can’t remember how it busted but it was a good time overall nonetheless. We enjoyed a laugh at the guy on the next blackjack table along, who was indulging in a massage whilst he played for maximum degenerate status. Dan and Jon booked wins which was good for those guys, especially Dan who is only just cutting his teeth in the table games.
Afterwards we met up with the others who were in O’Shea’s, and Dan and I split a $100 War hand... the gin and tonics had clearly kicked in at this point. The dealer gave us our card face down and peeled herself a 2! Ideal. We beat that, and let our $200 ride in a moment of joy and see ourselves up against an 8. We have a chance! But can’t get there, and lose our money.
A few of us get together for a craps session in the Linq just outside O’Shea’s. Try as we might, we can’t get anything going and I lose about $350. The night rather peters out after this and despite trying to get a home game running at the PH, they can’t accommodate us and we call it a night around 4am.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Dan jumped into 2/5 and, despite a table change, said that both games were awful (except for an intermission of a Russian guy sitting in to drop 1k from his 5/10 stack and then promptly head back to 5/10...Dan saw none of his donation!)
I played 1/3 and got nothing going. I have around $220 in front when I find the AA and open to $15. There’s a call, and then a pretty annoying, loud, and bad guy from the blinds makes it 45 with around 100 behind. I raise to 100 and he sticks it in.
“I have aces,” he says.
“Er, yeah so do I,” I reply and turn them over. The board runs out an unpleasant QJxxx with runner-runner clubs for 4 clubs on board which I have none of. Villain squeezes his cards and then bursts out of his seat dancing around, massaging a guy, and celebrating like there’s no tomorrow. He’s got KKc...
I pump in my remaining $80 at any opportunity looking for a spin and eventually bust it with A7 < AQ aipf.
That was an annoying session! Not really what the doctor ordered before CUT tonight. I mosey over to a craps table and buy in for 200. We get a little bit going via a good roll from a clearly loaded and really quite attractive 40 year old blonde lady and I finish up recouping $100 of the poker loss.
Dan and I head back to the room to change and head over to the Venetian to meet up with everyone before CUT. We have time for a beer before our 8pm booking so we settle down at the centre bar. Dan calls the bar lady’s $10 for the beer, and Jon and I decide to raise and feed a note into the bar top machine to get ours comped...
Yeah, we all know how this goes! I slide a 100 in and keep things slow and low stakes but after a while I want to get back to even so I can say I got the beer for free. I attempt to martingale at Blackjack to win the 20 credits I need to get level and it goes...badly. In a city of expensive drinks, this was the most expensive yet. -$100 Beer!
We head over to CUT.
They’ve set us up a big table in the next room along which was perfect and on the way to it I notice the fridges with the different cuts and breeds of beef in them:
Whilst I’m taking these photos I’m in a very awkward position for the staff, stood between doors either side of me where they’re coming and going from the kitchen, restaurant, and bar. Every single one of the 7 or 8 who passed me only did so after stopping dead in their tracks whilst I took the photo and then profusely apologising to me!
The service was impeccable throughout - an incredibly well-rehearsed, slick, yet artificial show - but impeccable nonetheless. I had the American Wagyu fillet and shared sides of peewee potatoes (these are what every other place that serves up fried potatoes should be aspiring to) and sautéed spinach. I got a mashed potato to myself because CUT mashed potato. Unbelievably good.
I ordered the steak medium-plus, which I didn’t know existed until our server suggested it when I said I didn’t quite want medium-rare but also not as well done as full medium. It came out absolutely perfect:
It was a meal where everything about the whole experience was without fault - even down to the music playing, when a Future Islands song came on (my current favourite band), and I find it really hard to imagine how a steakhouse could be any better: CUT is surely a top ten worldwide of its kind.
You do pay for it though: after covering tax, tip, and Tommy, I don’t think anyone got out for much less than $250-300 per man. Nonetheless, I don’t begrudge the expense one bit.
After dinner we all went over to the Linq and O’Sheas for drinks, beer pong, and degening.
Dan, Jon and I settled into a blackjack game with dealer Ken who had a face like a smacked-arse to start with. We soon softened him up with a few tips and some chat though and by the end he was a new man, laughing and fist-bumping and generally giving us a good time as our $100 buyins lasted at least an hour and a few drinks. There was no love lost between Ken and Jon though, as Jon’s tipping strategy was more erratic and higher variance than Dan and I who just stuck out a dollar for him on each hand. Ken Boy made sure to let Jon know how dissatisfied he was with the situation and was quite funny with it.
We were desperately trying to nail the side bet that allows you to spin the wheel of cash on a screen as part of each blackjack table, if you get blackjack. Jon eventually got there, for a $50 win. Ken said the prize is $50 or $55 every time despite the range of prizes up to $10,000.
I ended up busting my money in sad fashion after Ken got relieved, going all in for about $50 and getting blackjack, only to tie with the dealer’s blackjack. I kept the bet on and can’t remember how it busted but it was a good time overall nonetheless. We enjoyed a laugh at the guy on the next blackjack table along, who was indulging in a massage whilst he played for maximum degenerate status. Dan and Jon booked wins which was good for those guys, especially Dan who is only just cutting his teeth in the table games.
Afterwards we met up with the others who were in O’Shea’s, and Dan and I split a $100 War hand... the gin and tonics had clearly kicked in at this point. The dealer gave us our card face down and peeled herself a 2! Ideal. We beat that, and let our $200 ride in a moment of joy and see ourselves up against an 8. We have a chance! But can’t get there, and lose our money.
A few of us get together for a craps session in the Linq just outside O’Shea’s. Try as we might, we can’t get anything going and I lose about $350. The night rather peters out after this and despite trying to get a home game running at the PH, they can’t accommodate us and we call it a night around 4am.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
02-17-2019
, 06:47 PM
Hey TwoPlusTwo,
I went to bed very very tired and then I woke up after only a few hours of sleep, I've really struggled with jet-lag this trip. I think it's because Tbilisi is literally on the opposite side of the world to Vegas and exactly 12 hours time difference that it has got me so hard. I chilled in the morning in the room and wrote my last TR. Today Duncan, Chris, Tom and Dan are flying back to the UK / Spain and Lewis is flying out to Boston. Jon and Pete are checking out of PH and moving to the Wynn for a few nights as Jon has a room comped there.
Dan, Joey and Jon had met for breakfast at the Wynn and then jumped in a Poker game there. I was heading across the PH Casino floor to the Poker room in PH when I got the below Whatsapp:
I was already a bit annoyed that I had missed the Canadian whale from the Aria game and as I am stuck for Poker for the trip decided to get to the Wynn ASAP and hopefully get some losses back. "Wynn Poker room please sir!"
The traffic was bad and I was already down $18 on taxi fares before I had even arrived at the game! Dan and Jon were already on the table with the whale who was sat with over $1k and as I arrived Joey moved over to that table as well to take the last seat. I played on another table for a short while before a seat opened up and I moved over to the same table as the other three. I'm not a big fan of bumhunting and I have abused regs for doing something similar in previous TRs but I'm down for the trip and only two days left so needs must imo. Time to finish with a profit!
If I'm honest I felt like there was a little bit of false advertising from the others. The whale in question had a lot of chips and was clearly not great but wasn't going as crazy as I thought he would be. I played with him for maybe a hour or so and we didn't really get into any hands. The fun player cashed out his racks of chips and the game pretty much died after that. Dan, Joe, Jon, Pete and Lewis went to a find a pool table and I decided to grind a little longer and try and recoup that $18 taxi fee back. There was a lady sat to my direct left who had a dog on her knees during the game and the only interesting hand I had during the session was with her. $1/$3 blinds, Folded to me on the BTN and I raise to $10 with 6
4, she and a old lady in the BB make the call. Flop comes K
J 8, I bet $16 when it's checked to me, the lady with the dog calls and the BB folds. Turn 5, I bet $40 and she makes the very quick call. River 5. Thinking my 6 high is probably not going to win many showdowns I start collecting my chips for a bet. The lady says "Be careful, he'll bite you" pointing down at her dog. I slide out $115 into the middle and luckily she tank folds and I'm not bitten!
The Wynn game wasn't great and I decided to call it a session after a hour or so, plus $38. I walk down the strip back to PH and sit down in a 1/2 there when I arrive. The game here was a lot better and quite splashing, though a lot of the players were only sat with $50 stacks. One frustrating hand was when I saw a multi-way raised flop with 8
6 IP, the flop comes A73, a drunk woman just leads out from the SB, the original raiser folds and so does everyone else apart from me. Turn is 2
and now she goes all in for about $40 into the pot of $60. I make the call. River is another brick and she says "You got it", I respond with "Pretty sure I don't" and she turns over K J and starts celebrating like crazy, WP WP 
.
Jon, Pete, Dan and Joey arrived from the pool hall and we all decide to head to Five50 pizza at Aria. I cashed out my $20 profit for the PH session. I really can't seem to be able to get anything going this trip when it comes to Poker. On every other Vegas trip I have had a $800-$1k+ winning session and it just doesn't seem to be happening this time with most sessions breaking even or losing. We head over to the Aria and get a table at Five50, Five50 Pizza is great and we order 3 Gotham Pizzas for the table and I get myself a Elvis shake which arrived with some fairly rank bacon in it.
After being stuffed with pizza the guys decided to have a beer at the bar in Five50 and me and Martin decided to head back to PH. It was Saturday night and I really wanted to take advantage of the no doubt splashing drunk games you can only find at PH at the weekends. I head back to the room first though to let the pizza settle for a bit. I even set a one hour alarm on my phone in case I fall aleep, didn't seem to help though as the next thing I really remember is waking up at 5am, sigh!
Looks like Vegas got to Chris as well. Apparently he was KO'd asleep within 30 seconds of getting on his flight back to the UK.
Tomorrow is everyone else's last day in Vegas, time for a last minute heater! Wish us luck!
I went to bed very very tired and then I woke up after only a few hours of sleep, I've really struggled with jet-lag this trip. I think it's because Tbilisi is literally on the opposite side of the world to Vegas and exactly 12 hours time difference that it has got me so hard. I chilled in the morning in the room and wrote my last TR. Today Duncan, Chris, Tom and Dan are flying back to the UK / Spain and Lewis is flying out to Boston. Jon and Pete are checking out of PH and moving to the Wynn for a few nights as Jon has a room comped there.
Dan, Joey and Jon had met for breakfast at the Wynn and then jumped in a Poker game there. I was heading across the PH Casino floor to the Poker room in PH when I got the below Whatsapp:
I was already a bit annoyed that I had missed the Canadian whale from the Aria game and as I am stuck for Poker for the trip decided to get to the Wynn ASAP and hopefully get some losses back. "Wynn Poker room please sir!"
The traffic was bad and I was already down $18 on taxi fares before I had even arrived at the game! Dan and Jon were already on the table with the whale who was sat with over $1k and as I arrived Joey moved over to that table as well to take the last seat. I played on another table for a short while before a seat opened up and I moved over to the same table as the other three. I'm not a big fan of bumhunting and I have abused regs for doing something similar in previous TRs but I'm down for the trip and only two days left so needs must imo. Time to finish with a profit!
If I'm honest I felt like there was a little bit of false advertising from the others. The whale in question had a lot of chips and was clearly not great but wasn't going as crazy as I thought he would be. I played with him for maybe a hour or so and we didn't really get into any hands. The fun player cashed out his racks of chips and the game pretty much died after that. Dan, Joe, Jon, Pete and Lewis went to a find a pool table and I decided to grind a little longer and try and recoup that $18 taxi fee back. There was a lady sat to my direct left who had a dog on her knees during the game and the only interesting hand I had during the session was with her. $1/$3 blinds, Folded to me on the BTN and I raise to $10 with 6
4, she and a old lady in the BB make the call. Flop comes K J 8, I bet $16 when it's checked to me, the lady with the dog calls and the BB folds. Turn 5, I bet $40 and she makes the very quick call. River 5. Thinking my 6 high is probably not going to win many showdowns I start collecting my chips for a bet. The lady says "Be careful, he'll bite you" pointing down at her dog. I slide out $115 into the middle and luckily she tank folds and I'm not bitten! The Wynn game wasn't great and I decided to call it a session after a hour or so, plus $38. I walk down the strip back to PH and sit down in a 1/2 there when I arrive. The game here was a lot better and quite splashing, though a lot of the players were only sat with $50 stacks. One frustrating hand was when I saw a multi-way raised flop with 8
6 IP, the flop comes A73, a drunk woman just leads out from the SB, the original raiser folds and so does everyone else apart from me. Turn is 2 and now she goes all in for about $40 into the pot of $60. I make the call. River is another brick and she says "You got it", I respond with "Pretty sure I don't" and she turns over K J and starts celebrating like crazy, WP WP .Jon, Pete, Dan and Joey arrived from the pool hall and we all decide to head to Five50 pizza at Aria. I cashed out my $20 profit for the PH session. I really can't seem to be able to get anything going this trip when it comes to Poker. On every other Vegas trip I have had a $800-$1k+ winning session and it just doesn't seem to be happening this time with most sessions breaking even or losing. We head over to the Aria and get a table at Five50, Five50 Pizza is great and we order 3 Gotham Pizzas for the table and I get myself a Elvis shake which arrived with some fairly rank bacon in it.
After being stuffed with pizza the guys decided to have a beer at the bar in Five50 and me and Martin decided to head back to PH. It was Saturday night and I really wanted to take advantage of the no doubt splashing drunk games you can only find at PH at the weekends. I head back to the room first though to let the pizza settle for a bit. I even set a one hour alarm on my phone in case I fall aleep, didn't seem to help though as the next thing I really remember is waking up at 5am, sigh!
Looks like Vegas got to Chris as well. Apparently he was KO'd asleep within 30 seconds of getting on his flight back to the UK.
Tomorrow is everyone else's last day in Vegas, time for a last minute heater! Wish us luck!