It’s different but even the shoe pic, looks like you have the same type of shoes from a year ago on the same mat.

I always say if you have read one of my trip reports you have read them all Although there is "one" new pair of shoes in that pic. Tonights dinner pics will definitely look familiar as well. I know what I really like at this point in my life so I stick with it

After the pool I played for a few hours and finally caught a few good openers. I was able to lose with stuff like JJ, KK and AK It was a rollercoaster session up and down until I had to leave for dinner pretty much where I started with an $8 profit. 4 of those stupid pale green $2 chips that CP uses. I prefer ones.

Then it was off to the Yardbird for one of my must have Vegas dinners. I love fried chicken and practically never have it home and when I do its crap like KFC or Popeyes. This much better And I just love that skillet cornbread.





I am stuffed! I got in a game shortly after dinner but only played about 45 minutes winning $33. I wanted to come up to the room to take out my contacts and switch to glasses. Gonna clean up a little and head back down soon. Then again I am feeling tired so I may take it easy. May just watch baseball. I will play it by ear.

It appears that you felt like chicken tonight! Great pics YET AGAIN!

GL if you play bud! Mets have their home debut of MAD MAX Scherzer tomorrow.. probably worth exploring for a wager imo.

KFC and Popeyes crap? I always figured chicken was chicken so I never ate it in a restaurant. Maybe I'll try it just for sh*ts and grins.

Cheesecake and cornbread look awesome. As someone who's cancelled Yardbird twice, I'm also intrigued as to what elevates the chicken!!!

GL at the tables - hope the action improves a bit to coincide with a hot streak!

KFC is tasty as can be while you are eating but I always feel crappy afterwards even into the next day. Yardbird chicken is even tastier and very juicy and perfectly done. Plus there is the whole "nice" restaurant experience if that means anything to you. Plus the service was excellent. I will gladly admit it is vastly overpriced, especially the sides and drinks.

If you are just jonesing for fried chicken Hattie B's at Cosmo is very good and a much better value but that comes with the food court type of experience.

Nice TR! keep plugging away, the run good will hopefully come soon. Rumor has it that Resorts World is full of fish since it is a relatively new room.

After a couple nights of very good sleep I slept like crap last night and was up way too early. But that's okay because I need to get my body on that early schedule again as my flight out Thursday is at 6:15 am.

Went down and checked out the Link prominade since I hadn't wandered down it yet this trip. It was still dark so my crappy little cameras pictures were all bad.



I just wandered around that area going through the Link and Flamingo getting in my steps. Then I headed back to the room as last nights chicken was telling me it wanted to exit. Even though Vegas seems back with the mobs of people here the 24 hour nature of it hasn't come back yet. Sure the casinos are going but that's it. No place to eat or even grab a snack. Most breakfast places don't open until 6:30 or 7:00 or even later. Early risers who want breakfast in the 5-6:00 timeframe are mostly SOL. The only place I know that is open at those hours is The Henry at Cosmo so that is where I went next.

One of my favorite things about the Henry is jug of water they give you. I am a big water drinker and constantly trying to wave someone down for more water is a pita.



Since I have already consumed all of my "must have" breakfast dishes I decided to actually eat a healthy meal this trip and got the oatmeal. Especially since I have another splurge dinner planned tonight. The oatmeal was great and way better than the stuff I make for myself at home. I only eat twice a day in Vegas, breakfast and dinner.



Looks like somebody had a pizza picnic last night on the one little stretch of actual grass on the Vegas strip between Bellagio and Cosmo.



If you have a place on the backside of the Jockey Club you just gotta hate the Cosmo right?



Just gonna chill until the pool opens in a little while. Love laying out there and reading. Sunday I finished the book I started on the flight, The Billion Dollar Poker Heist which the true (?) story of Molly's Game. Not that Molly's Game isn't true too there are just a few disputes and viewpoints. It was a fun and easy read. I like pokery or Vegasy books when I come out here. The one I started yesterday is just some low grade thriller type.

Had my first baseball loser last night. 4 bets and a parlay had one rainout (push) and 1 winner and 2 losers so from my 85 bets I get back 64 for a $21 loser. But I think I am off baseball until I get home again and can update my spreadsheets and do more detailed analysis. I had okay notes to go off for the weekend series but am pretty much shooting in the dark for this weekday series. Lots more baseball games to come and I don't really get serious until around mid May.

Trying to figure out if I will fill my late morning/afternoon with cash games or a donkament? They have a 10am at CP for 100 buyin and 50 add-on at the break and yesterday they had 61 players so that might be good. Besides tournaments owe me at this point

Not sure if you've seen this but I use it a lot for tournament schedules when I am there

https://poker-schedule.com/table-view/

What's your usual process for betting baseball? And what kind of notes did you bring with you?

I have spreadsheets that I input info into and it spits out what "I" think the line should. Most heavily weighted for me is simply team record versus team record. But I also factor in home/away, pitcher handedness, team record with said starting pitchers. I mostly bet runlines and mostly +1.5 runlines almost never laying -1.5. I would say my action is 75% runline and 25% moneyline depending on how off the lines seem.

But take this with a grain of salt as I tried to discuss these methods last year the brainstrusts in the sports betting forum and they told me I was nuts and had no way of winning looking at this stuff. All I know is that I am running between 5-10% roi per year. Well over 10% so far this season but then again it's only 2 weeks old. Was 7.8% last year.

Back in the early days of 2+2 we had a great group in the sports betting forum and I was a regular poster writing up games frequently. Its why I picked the handle of mrbaseball. But when all of the online places like pinnacle stopped allowing US bets I just stopped. Since it has been legal again it is my main hobby. But I aint going anywhere near the lunatic fringe that inhabits the sports betting forum ever again.

Feel like the sports betting forum has gotten better or at least more quiet. If I had a proven sports betting system that returned 5%+ why not bet more than like $20 a game?

I decided to play CP 10am $100 with $50 addon. I doubled up early and was chip leader at my table at the break. It starts out like poker but the blinds keep doubling and it soon becomes a shove fest. 56 players I think? I started getting blinded away and had trouble finding spots to make any moves. When we were down to 2 table with blinds/ante 4000/2000/4000 I had to make a move . I shoved was called and was out. At least I played for a few hours as opposed to the early exits earlier in the week.

I wanted to go watch a little business news since the market went nuts today and I wanted to check some of my options positions. So I chilled in the room watching CNBC until I needed to get ready for dinner.

Tonight was fancy eating night where I put on long pants and a shirt with buttons and everything. I headed to my favorite Vegas steak joint Delmonico's. Had the bone in ribeye, fries and a couple of beers and it was a magnicient meal. I also really love the service and atmosphere there. Last trip I did Gallaghers at NYNY for about the same price. And it was good but the service and atmosphere come nowhere close to Delmonico's.



As I was leaving the Venetian I couldn't help but notice a police presence ahead of me on the moving ramp.



Went back to the room and put on my Vegas uniform (tshirt and shorts) and played cash for close to 2 hours. Lost $42. I seem to be treading water in cash and down 3 tournament buyins. Tourneys are always dicey but I wish I could gain some ground in cash. Tonights game was really crappy and I am tired from getting up so early and my back is starting to bother me from all the time in poker chairs. Tomorrow I am gonna try to lean into my early rising pattern and look for early morning games that have been going all night. I have had sucess with this in the past. Anyway I am really tired and going to bed.

It's April 2 weeks in. Will be ramping it up week by week as more data appears. Current season data is much more valuable than last season data and there just isn't much current season data yet. By June I will be doing 100 a pop. Not really comfortable going much higher as there definitely is variance.

Do you use projections for early season stuff to get a better idea? ZiPS/PECOTA/etc? I'm sure those would be more helpful than the small sample size we have so far for the early season. Sorry, don't want to derail too much but I'm interested in your process. Glad it's been working for you

I don't want to turn this into a baseball betting spread but the answer is NO. Baseball is unpredictable and unprojectable especially day to day. I just look for lines that are out of whack with longer term results. It's a percentage grind and not a prediction of who will win or lose.

I did the greyhound thing once a couple years ago. It didn't work

My early morning plan didn't quite work out. CP had 3 games going with a list so I went to Bellagio and got right in a game. But the game sucked and broke after a round. Paid blinds one and never played a hand. So I went to Aria. No seats and a small list so I said screw and went and got breakfast at The Henry.

Got the pancakes because I really like pancakes and haven't had them in forever. They were really good but once again way too much food so I only ate 2 of the 3. I was so excited to eat them I almost forgot to take a picture and as you can see I already dug in



I am kind of Vegased out at this point and really tired of restaurant food. Looking forward to getting home tomorrow and start living a bit healthier . Anything else I eat today will be snackish rather than another full blown meal.

Heres that stage they are building in the Bellagio lake for the NFL draft next week. This seems like a stupid idea to me but what do I know? I'm sure someone will make money on it.



Lighting was bad so the picture sucks

It's 4/20 today. Does that mean the strip will smell even more like weed? Anyhoo I am gonna take it easy today and get all packed up and ready for my early morning flight tomorrow. Likely play a little more this afternoon to see if I can get the run good to make an appearance but I will be getting to bed mighty early

Hmm. I wonder if the fountains will run for each first round pick.

I played one last session at CP looking for the elusive run good. I didn't find it I played for about 5 hours and other than a minor rush could never really get anything going. Whenever I had good openers or hit a flop nobody wanted to play. I was up, I was down and when I got back to around even (-21) I decided to call it. I was getting hungry and although I said I probably eat another full meal I was hungry enough to do so.

I decided just to go to the food court and use my comps since I hadn't used any this trip and its my last chance unless I come back in the fall. I got the bacon blue burger, fries and a vanilla shake. I have been jonesing for a milkshake for a couple of days now.



The burger was tasty but very messy, fries okay and the shake was ruined by that damn paper straw. The paper straw was heinous! Otherwise the shake was fine but that straw kinda ruined the experience.

I had a great time this trip even though the poker was less than stellar. I pretty much broke even in cash peaking at my very first session which is always disappointing and I dumped 3 tourney buyins so I lose there. But I love tourneys more than cash it just didn't work out this trip.

Just gonna pack and chill as I have to leave very early tomorrow morning. I will leave you with some random pics I never posted.

The view from my room was spectacular! Not really I was in the Forum Tower which I assume is the crappiest one since it was cheapest. The last time I stayed at CP was in 1979 so its a little different now.



The once mediocre but lively Planet Hollywood poker room looks like this now.



The once mighty Mirage poker room looks like this. Mirage used to be my LV mecca back in the day.



Robots!





I'll give some more detailed comments once I get home.

What did they do with the original Mirage poker room space next to the book? That was my favorite room back in the day. Damn shame what happened.

Non-smoking slot area

I haven't posted many, but I'm guilty of this as well.


I always enjoy your big breakfasts and early morning pics to go along with poker/baseball. I've only been to Yardbird once for breakfast, but the chicken and waffles were really good. Considering the portions at Yardbird, I don't even think it's overpriced. Your Hattie B's recommendation is a good casual alternative on the strip.



Thanks for sharing. I hope it was an easy flight home.

The slot area in your pic which looks like the poker room after they moved it appears to be that, they do the same thing with the old one as well. How many slot machines do people need.

That's quite a few decades! Would be interesting to hear what's the biggest differences is between 'old' Vegas and current time Vegas. What's better, what's worse, and what was your favorite decade?

Also, did you always play poker when visiting? Obviously the Vegas poker landscape was very different in the 80s I assume, with lots of 7 Card Stud games, and Limit Hold'em, and never any NLH. Also much less poker rooms I think, and most of the action was Downtown at Binion's until Mirage opened in the late 80s etc. At least from what I have read.