Introduction

As the title suggests we’ll be playing anything but Texas Hold’em with the exception of the H round in the HORSE tournament!

I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since I was last in Las Vegas in 2019. Little things like life and family and work and of course the whole Covid nonsense got in the way.

Despite playing poker since I was 18 (now 46) I fall in and out of love with the game and can sometimes go long periods without playing which is what happened over the last few years.

I started playing again about two months ago after I finished a work contract and found myself with some time on my hands.

My favorite game is Pot Limit Omaha so I was pleasantly surprised when I ventured back into the casinos here in Medellin to find a regular 5 card PLO game which is what I have been playing with some success for the last couple of months.
And to put the icing on the cake, double board bomb pots are now a thing it seems and are included in the game once an orbit and on every dealer change. Well thats right up my alley.

For this trip we’ll be playing some non-Hold’em bracelet events sprinkled in with some PLO or mixed game cash action. And they’ll surely be some sports bets here and there as well.

Our home away from home for 11 nights will be the Flamingo which was the cheapest option I could find close to where I wanted to be.

We’ll be flying Medellin - Miami - Las Vegas with American Airlines.

I think that’s set the scene. Let’s get started.



Shoes and roll pics when I arrive.


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Best of luck. Safe travels
Sub’d

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Safe travels, welcome to USA#n! I'm in!

In. Anyone who insists on more than two cards is by definition a good guy, gl!

Good luck, have fun!!

Good luck OP!

Hopefully Vegas isn't overwhelmed during your visit and your tablemates behave.

For PLO it's Aria 5-5 with Rock, especially during the day. I stayed at Flamingo my last trip and walked the easy route to get some steps in and maybe grab a Subway to snack on. I would head up to Resorts World at night to try and catch some crazy who just wanted to move chips around.

I've got a poker buddy who on his last trip never left the Aria property for 6 days! That's not me, but he got all the PLO he wanted including missing out on 3-4 massive pots where Players just 'played poker' with crumbs. Thankfully his flight was canceled and he had a 'trip saver' session that night when 2 more of those spots came up and he was last to act.

I've never played at Wynn due to no call-in and long lists but between them and Venetian (in their brand new 2nd story room) there's plenty of PLO to the North as well.

Or you can try to tolerate the WSOP cash games with the inconsistent Dealers and 2-4 new Players per down/hour.

Not sure the 5-card status, but Bravo and Poker Atlas are your friends .. prob Orleans, WSOP .. I see a list for 5-card at Resorts World.

As I finish this up both Aria and Wynn have 5-5 Rock going .. GL

Thanks for the heads-up. Aria has been my base on previous trips for the PLO as you mention. I looked on Bravo last night and it said they had 11 PLO 5-5 with rock tables going. Not sure if it was accurate, seems like a lot.


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Day One - Monday June 3rd

Travel day and a long one at that.
Departed Medellin at 00:15 local time for the ~3 hour flight to Miami. Then had a 4+ hour wait for my 08:50 connection to Las Vegas.




Arrived in Vegas at 11:00 local and was checked into the Flamingo around noon.

Both flights were on time and completely full so not even an uncontested armrest. Tried to get some sleep but couldn’t manage it.

Had to pay a $40 fee for early check-in at the Flamingo otherwise wouldn’t have got a room until 4pm.

Room seems okay, low floor but doesn’t bother me and still have a bit of a view of the high roller and the sphere.














Had a quick look around the grounds. Didn’t see any real flamingos. Did they remove them? I’m sure they used to have some.




No plans to play poker today. Better to rest up and be fresh for tomorrow.

I did want to go over to the Horshoe/Paris and get verified for the fast track though so I could buy in online using bravo.




On my way over there came across this spot which Negreanu recommended on one of his vlogs so opted for a shawarma for lunch. Pretty solid but the garlic sauce was very strong. My breath reeked afterwards. Need to take some mints or breath freshener if I eat there again.






Got my bearings of the new (for me) venue and got verified for fast track.




Also checked out the cash section while I was there. They had a 20-40 mix running which was interesting and when I enquired what the mix was I was shown this.




I stood firm though on my decision not to play today. No good playing tired, but info stored for another day.

From there I heading over to the forum shops at Caesar’s and treated myself to a sexy new MacBook Air as my current one had recently died. It lived a good life though as I bought it when I was here in 2017.




Back at the Flamingo I caught the last hour of the pool and did a few lengths. The water was surprisingly cold considering it was 100 degrees out.




After the pool I messed about with the new laptop for a bit trying to stay up as long as I could but the tiredness finally overcame me around 9pm and I called it a night.






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TS,

Looking forward to the rest of this one. I'm also in my 40's, started playing when I was 18, and prefer PLO and Mixed games to NLHE these days as well. Love playing PLO at the Wynn and some other spots. Best of luck and thanks for doing this!

Pardo

Best breakfast spot in or near the Flamingo anyone please?


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GL op. Vegas native here and also favor PLO to all other variations. Outside of the WSOP, I always prefer to play PLO @ Aria.

Hash House A Go Go in the Linq Promenade? Not gourmet food but pretty good and a lot of it.

all Vegas pools seem cooler than they should to me. guessing they spend a lot of $$ refrigerating them but seems overkill

I'm interested in your living in Medellin - are you from that part of the world or are yo a gringo who moved down there? if the latter...what caused the move and how is it?

I’m English but have lived in Medellin for nearly 9 years now and would highly recommend it.

Great climate, very friendly people, cheap cost of living and beautiful women


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Sounds awesome…particularly for me going through a divorce! Realistically no chance of living there but I’d love to get there for a vacation. Long way from Sydney though

Day Two - Tuesday June 4th

Wow bed super comfy and I slept right through until 8am.

Grabbed a quick breakfast at Johnny Rockets in the small food court here at the Flamingo and got in a little pool time when it opened at 9am

Relaxed and refreshed I was feeling good for the first tournament of the trip.



I felt I played well but no big scooped pots or many situations to take advantage of. Had the starting stack of 25k up to 35k at one point but was down to 18k when I busted shortly before the dinner break.

With the blinds at 600 - 1,200 a big stack opened for 4,000 and I look down at AQQ2 so 3 bet to 10,000. He sets me in and I’m happy to make the call, especially when I see he has AK73. Door card K doesn’t bode well and he ends up making a wheel with a 245 runout. Goodnight Irene.

After checking the games and wait lists I headed over to Bellagio to try the 40-80 Mix as I see no-one waiting.





The game was so-so but no real weak spots. I played until the game broke around midnight and racked up with a loss of $600. The only real hand of note I remember was losing both ways with a 6-6 in badacey in a big multiway pot.

Let’s hope for better luck tomorrow.


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Subbing! I don't play mixed games, but I'm a huge PLO fan and I love the double-board bomb pots -- players are so bad at them!

Best of luck -- run good.

BTW, the flamingos should be back on the way to the pool -- still no sighting?

Nice pics so far. Been enjoying them. Good luck the rest of the way.

Day Three - Wednesday June 5th

Usual bit of sun and fresh air at the pool first thing in the morning. It’s important for me to get this in as I know I’m going to be sat on my ass in air conditioned casinos all day.



There was long lines to get in both the go pool and family pool this morning. I dread to think what it will be like at the weekend.

So looking around at today’s tournaments I went with the $500 PLO8 at the MGM with a plan B of late reging the $1500 PLO at the WSOP if it didn’t work out.



This was my stack at the first break. Absolutely ran over the table for the first two hours and had the 25k starting stack up to 80k.

Unfortunately soon after the break came a crazy hand which was limped 7 ways pre flop and by the time it got round to me after the flop of Ks-8s-2x there was already 3 people all in. I’m holding KKxx for top set and can’t fold. I stick it in against the flush and low draws needing the board to pair or come high with no flush to have a 250k stack.
Obviously I’m not that lucky. The flush came, no low, and I’m back to a starting stack watching the villain rake in the 200k+ pot.

I wasn’t able to run it up again so was onto plan B but it was a nice little tournament, 140 runners with a good structure so worth bearing in mind for the future.

At the WSOP I late reg’d the PLO at the start of level 7 which was 400-800 so still had 31 bigs which was fine.



Again had a good couple of hours and was happy to go to dinner with a 80k stack from 25k starting.



My dinner tonight. Roast beef and cheddar sandwich. At least was a bit healthier than the hot dog and pizza slice I ate yesterday.
Must try to have a proper meal tomorrow.

After the dinner break I didn’t win a hand. My downfall was started by some guy with a hat that read dickhead, which says it all really, who I actually knocked out earlier but he re-entered and got the same table.
At 600-1200 I open for 3000 and he makes it 9000. I think he has a grudge against me as he was a bit upset when I knocked him out earlier. I’m sure I have the best hand with QQ99 so pot it which will set him all in. He doesn’t hesitate to call with ……… AK85 ??? WTF I’m repping better than I have and he snap calls with that garbage that would be absolutely dead if I had aces or kings. Needless to say he hit and I didn’t and I didn’t win a hand after that.

So very frustrating in the tournaments today after having decent chips in both and not amounting to anything.

So a little steaming I went to see what cash action there was and immediately got seated in a 5-5-10 Big O which played bigger as there was a compulsory $25 button straddle.



Tournaments for show. Cash games for dough. I played well and racked up a +$1,800 winner when the game broke so the day wasn’t a complete loss.


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Yet ANOTHER report with details of all the losses and then "yeah I won $1800" and zilch.

FFS

Tony,

I like that 40-80 Mix game at Bellagio as well during the series but I agree it's not a good game per se. It's fun, but a lot of solid players and at least most who know what they are doing. I'm a pretty big dog in the lot of the games, especially the draw ones.

G

Yea sorry but it’s easier to remember the hands you lose than those you win but will try harder for the rest of the trip especially if it’s big o with 5 cards to remember. Will have to start taking notes!


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Yea I wasn’t a fan of the draw games. You have to play for the draw half first and foremost. I used those rounds to take bathroom breaks.


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