July 28. Two more updates I think.


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And 4x the variance!

Fremont Street Experience


After taking a couple of days off, I more than made up with it by putting in a nearly 24-hour session at Caesars. I lost $460.

I decided it was time to change things up and decided to play elsewhere for a couple of days.

So I headed back to the south end of the strip and put in three sessions at MGM. Won two, lost one.

I like MGM. I don't like the Starbucks there because it is more expensive than the others I have been to in Vegas, notably the one at Bally's. But they have a decent food court and a nice restaurant to eat breakfast in.

Wednesday night, I decided to start the night back at the Bally's Starbucks. After hemming and hawing for about an hour, I decided to take an Uber to Golden Nugget. I've never played there, but I have heard the games can be wild and exciting.

They didn't disappoint. I was on my fourth buyin before eventually turning things around. One hand of note that I lost was flopping top set with 99 on a 9 7 3 board where my opponent flopped the nut flush.

Opponent had raised preflop and bet $15 on the flop. I made it $45 and he shipped for about $220 effective. I think I could have just called down and saved some money if I didn't fill up, but I also wanted to charge him if he had an overpair like AA with with the Ad. He had Ad Jd and I never filled up. This player had earlier bet $100 on the river and called a $400 shove from a passive player with AK on a KQ9xx rainbow board. Naturally, he was shown the nut straight.

One of the players at the table was a surly older gentleman. He was being railed by his friend. After losing the 99 hand, they kept insisting that I had 17 outs to fill up and I tried to explain how I didn't, but ... they were convinced I had no idea what I was talking about. In their minds, 7 outs on the turn and 10 on the river means 17, which, I guess, makes sense on some level, but it isn't right.

I chipped up my next buyin as the table was extremely fishy between this guy and a couple of sisters who had sat down and never stopped drinking.

I wound up cashing out up $641 in 7.5 hours.

Went back to Caesars for another small profitable session the next night.

Ended the week up $912 in 60 hours.

Next: Wrapping it up with two big nights

Until we meet again

The problem with writing about something that happened in late July/early August when it is late September is that the memories sometimes have faded.

I wish I could tell you what happened to make this night so profitable, but I started off the home stretch at Caesars with a nice $1,330 win in 7 hours on Friday night.

I do remember flopping quad 3s against an aggro European where I probably left a decent amount of value on the table. I called down in position on flop and turn when a raise on one of the streets was warranted and then got paid on a big pot-sized river bet. We were about $700 effective IIRC and I only got about half of it.

I had a couple of more small wins before playing an awful session at MGM where I lost $480.

I more than made up for that the next night, though.

I actually thought about taking the night off. It was a Tuesday. I woke up later than normal and it was midnight before I even thought about going to the casino. Finally, around 2 a.m., I made it to MGM.

I won a big pot with AK against a straight draw and flush draw, then against the same villain I hit the nut flush against his lower flush.

I cashed out up $1,142 in a little over 5 hours.

Three more nice wins at Caesars before I went back to MGM and lost $363 on the final night before I returned home.

Total for the last 10 days: $2,543 in 64 hours.

By the middle of the trip I didn't want to ever leave. But I had some things to attend to back in the Philadelphia area.

But I had already decided I was going to do whatever I could to move to Las Vegas. I don't plan to be a full-time poker player (though it may work out to be that). I plan to get a part-time job (hopefully as a dealer) and play part-time.

After 50+ winters in Philadelphia, I am looking forward to not having to deal with a blizzard this year.



For some reason I didn't get the chip porn from the MGM session. I wasn't feeling well that day and almost didn't even play.

I always enjoyed the views from 215 on the way home from the strip in the early morning.

The mountains looked awesome and I regret that I am not more of an adventurous, outdoors person who could partake in them.



A look around the strip on one of the final nights in Vegas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmBgtYRtack

I will be back in Vegas by Oct. 1 or so. I plan to make the drive out this week and become a resident.

The summer was just too much damn fun.

* nervous laugh *

"So *ha ha*, if we ever run out of chips I guess we can *ha ha* move this game over to my room and play for our clothes *ha ha*, amirite?"

*nervous laugh, adjusts collar *

Gwhatareyouladiesdrinking?G

So I'm guessing you didn't mean "nuns".

Go anyway.

I'm nearly your age and 75 pounds overweight. On my last trip to Vegas I said **** it and took two hikes - one on Mt. Charleston and one at Red Rock Canyon.

Each hike took a couple of hours. It was August when I went but with a hat, sunblock and a bunch of water I did not die. Elevation changes were tough for me because I'm out of shape. I took a lot of breaks and although fitter hikers passed me a lot on the way up, I got where I was going.

The stress was absolutely worth it - I can't tell you how greatly the sights and sounds of those amazing parks relaxed my mind before poker sessions. And the exercise jump-started my body to the extent that I ended up moving more and losing two pounds on the rest of my Vegas trip.