Thanks for all the nice comments guys!

I originally came to Tbilisi with super low exceptions but they were totally smashed by how great the place, people and food are. It's a really cool up-coming city and I feel pretty lucky to have moved here when I did. I've had quite a few friends come and visit (including Dan, Pete and The Beluga) and all of them have said that Tbilisi is pretty much the same standards-wise as any other European city, though hard to compare to London or Vegas as they're quite unique places. The real Georgia is outside of the capital and it feels a bit like going in a time machine with people still living off the land etc. This is also where I've seen some of the most beautiful places, landscapes and mountains I have ever seen before though and if you ever visit Georgia please hit me up and I'll let you know where to visit outside of Tbilisi.

English speaking is a little bit of a struggle sometimes. The older generation speak mainly Georgian and Russian but I seem to get by and have managed to survive the last two years with my limited Georgian and phone for help. The younger generation here speak very good English and I have no issues communicating with them or people from work.

In terms of safety, Georgia is often ranked as one of the safest countries and Tbilisi as one of the safest cities. Like anywhere there are places you feel more at risk but I walk around here freely and haven't had one issue in the last two years and don't have one ex-pat friend who has either. Georgia was at war with Russia only back in 2008 and Russia took some land from Georgia (actually fairly close to Tbilisi). The tension of that is still on-going and bubbling under the surface somewhat and it'll be in the news every few months that the Putin has moved the border line a few meters over night but touch wood it doesn't feel like it will blow up anytime soon. Georgia and the US have very close links and I think it puts Russia off doing anything. I had a roadtrip into Turkey from Georgia and got fairly close to the Syrian border but you would really need to go out of your way to be super close or to be in any real danger imo.

When I was Poker vlogging I created a short video of some of the highlights I had in the first few months after moving to Georgia if you're interested (Skip to 4:22):

Excellent trip report guys, well done! Good to see the heater day has come!!

Great TR, thanks for sharing.

The final day’s update is going to be very underwhelming after this lull since the last post! Here are some random pictures from the trip to make it appear better:

Kung hei fat choy, or happy new year (of the Pig)


Expunging 50s


Hallowed hallways


Granola and yoghurt with... French onion soup. Not the trip's finest decision.


Aquarium at the Golden Nugget


Tom's orange juice at CUT... give me strength.




I do remember waking up on the final day with a strong sense of satisfaction at having recouped a large chunk of the spew from the 6 days prior.

We decided to meet Jon and Pete for breakfast in Jardin at the Wynn/Encore. It was a sunny morning and we asked for a table outside on the patio and it was a cracking way to start the day – I think Jardin patio brunch definitely has the potential to be a fixture in future Vegas trips. The steak and eggs certainly does, which Dan loved and I can confirm was very good based on sight and tasting a little bit. I had sausage, poached eggs, and the cripsiest hash brown I’ve ever experienced – all in all, very good stuff. I don’t think we had a bad breakfast all week.

Dan suggested we CCR one final time, and to spice things up we added a rule that the loser (winner?) must also pay their heads-up opponent $20 on top of covering the bill. A couple of years ago, Dan and I went to Vietnam together for a couple of weeks and when we got a bit bored of the evening card game of Rummy, we added various degenerate rules and upgraded its name to Saigon Rummy. Thus, we were entering into a round of Saigon CCR! Fittingly, Dan emerged victorious (as the loser?) and found himself with a $170 chaser with his steak and eggs. Conversely, Pete got paid $20 to come to brunch – a very pleasing scenario for that man.

We said goodbye to Jon and Pete, as they both had an earlier flight home than Dan and I who were on the 9pm bird to Heathrow. That meant we had an afternoon to kill, and that our earlier satisfaction at climbing slightly out of the hole yesterday could still be short-lived. As a means of putting-off any last risk of ruin, we went over to the Fashion Show Mall and I bought a few things including some jeans which I couldn’t be bothered to try on before buying (spoiler: they don’t fit very well and are therefore basically useless). Eventually we worked our way down to the Aria for one last session.

Nothing was open when we arrived, so we hopped on to lists for NLH and PLO and were quickly invited to take seats in a new must-move 1/2/5 PLO game. Not exactly a low-variance, lock-up-the-pseudo-trip-win move, but maybe we can get officially, unequivocally out of the hole for poker rather than just feeling, incorrectly, like we were!

I punted a stack fairly early on trying to win a big one. I had 69TJ on 478 and after a guy leads for 25 and gets one call, I pot it for 100. Original raiser re-pots, next guy calls for his last 100 or so, and I make this face: and get it in for about a $900 pot sweat. I thought that even worst-case scenario where I’m up against 56 and a set, I must still have reasonable-ish equity in the higher straights. Alas, the board bricks out and I pluck another 300 from my wallet.

One disadvantage of having surplus dollars before flying home is that exchanging them back to pounds is usually a fairly brutal affair, so I resolved to get rid of a few more inconvenient dollars by having a massage. In truth, it was a poor massage by Vegas table massage standards, she basically rubbed the same spot on my back for 50 minutes. She immediately scarped loo-wards after I handed over $100: maybe the need to drop the kids off was playing on her mind.

Neither Dan or I played any other major hands that I remember, although Dan and I were separated after I was moved over to the main game. I quit around 6pm, booking a $225 loss and Dan was similar, I believe.

And that was all she wrote! We grabbed a cab to the airport and we both slept soundly through the flight home: waking up on the plane after immediately falling asleep at take-off to see only 2 hours left on the flight time was definitely worth a few hundred dollars so I’ll pretend my final day losses were actually paying for that convenience.

It was a fantastic trip all told, despite struggling most of the week on the poker and gambling front. Usually I leave Vegas with a resounding desire to never visit ever again, but this time feels different: I could see some excuse being made for some frivolous trip back to that enchanting, disillusioning desert at some point in the next couple of years. If it happens, you’ll hear all about it!

For now, it’s home time.



Thanks for all the comments and all the love – like Tom says, it makes investing the vacation time in writing them all the more worthwhile.

My overall stands for the trip are (approximately – very approximately, would not stand up to audit):

Poker: -$432
Craps: +$1,040
Blackjack: -$65
Casino War: -$5
Pai Gow: +$25
Slots: -$180 (*wince*, what a leak)
Sports: -$50
CCR (losses, excluding wins): -$240

Total: +$93!
Becomes +$278 when adding the $185 return on the JonBoy 5% tournament swap.

Massages: -$200

Overall Vegas cashflow:
In for: $3,200
Out for: $1,680 and some ill-fitting clothes
Net: -$1,520. Acceptable!

Cliffnotes:
If looking to stay in a premium hotel, overlook the Bellagio. It’s fine but not convinced it’d be as good as Cosmopolitan or Wynn/Encore.
A trip to Atomic Liquors & Kitchen is well worth it.
CUT is unbeatable for high-end steak.
Jardin is a great brunch spot.
Five50 is better than Secret Pizza, by a long way.
Tiny sample size poker room verdicts… Bellagio: nitty games but nice; Aria: best action; Wynn: most enjoyable place to play; Planet Hollywood: a bit grim but occasionally great games.

Can you please define scarped loowards?
So massages are $2 per minute these days?

Enjoyed the TR.

Yes, there’s a typo on my part there - “scarped” should be “scarpered” and loo-wards means towards the loos (English vernacular for restrooms).

$2 per minute, exactly!


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Look on the bright side. Assuming you kept the receipt, the non-fitting jeans give you an excuse for another trip to return them.

Excellent trip report, gents. I really enjoyed it.


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What I want to know is if “drop the kids off” has anything to do with real children.

drop the kids off at the pool = taking a crap


re massages as a non US guy, the tipping thing puzzles me. Are we expected to tip over and above the $2 per minute?

"
Dear Mr. H

Thank you for your EU Compensation Application. We have now reviewed your claim in relation to the following flight:

In accordance with regulation EU261/2004, and in full and final acceptance of your claims in this matter, we will settle your claim for the sum of £257.598 (equivalent to €300 at exchange rate of 0.858).

We want to make sure you receive the payment that’s due to you as soon as possible. To arrange this, please click on the link below to create a profile, enter your bank details and redeem your payment invitation.

"

We'll take it!

That reads like a first offer to me fwiw. But free money is free money.

Dynamite TR! Looks like you guys had a blast.