Forgot to post jjanga pics. I love this AYCE sushi restaurant. I make sure to stop by every trip.

Crab claws look yummy! Where is that sushi restaurant?

It’s off of decatur

Ok I'll do a quick summary recap

12/8 (Friday) - I left the flight reservations to the wife this time. In order to save $60, she booked a flight with layover in Chicago. Already a beat. Otherwise it was pretty smooth flight. We land around 9:30PM and try to uber to Paris. Us and about 200 cowboys/girls. We wait a bit for an uber and finally check in. Room's decent but we're not here for that. Go down to eat at Yong Kang Street Dumpling and Noodle house. They obv have dumplings and noodles but they also have dim sum. Food was all great. Highly recommend, but again, we're not here for that.

Our friends wanna walk around but one of them wants to watch me play baccarat. We walk into the high limit room and there's a guy playing alone and looks like he wants some company. Stay even-ish for about 30 minutes then my wife and her friend shows up. Obviously, I start losing. They finally get the hint and walk away. Then, I win it all back plus 700. The guy I was playing with was literally jumping table to table playing every hand possible like the casino was closing any minute. I let him know the casino is 24/7, but we all know he's not here for that. Anyways, I just get up because I can see it turning bad. I cash out and head over to Bellagio.

I walk through Paris, Bally's, then into Bellagio. The whole walk, I smell marijuana and it reminds me that weed is legal now in LV. I make a mental note to stop by a shop. I get to the poker room and get a seat in a 2/5 game right away. It's a pretty fun table and very weak/passive. I just bet aggressively and keep winning. There was a point where this European dude put up $15 to guess what country he's from. We had 15 guesses. One other guy at the table and I guess all the obscure countries (estonia, czech, etc.). Come to find out it's Portugal. WTF RIGHT? We book a small win of about $500. Now it's about 2am and I go straight into the Baccarat room because we're not here to sleep. Win another $300 at Baccarat while just pounding back coronas. Then I walk over to Caesars for another Bac session. This one was a little ugly and I punt back about $500. I get up because well I'm not here to lose either. It's about 7am now and I think we can rest a little bit. More to follow.

Can you give us a cliffs on Baccarat? Is there any skill involved, how much house advantage is there, where is the player's edge, if any, and why is it fun for you?

Summary Continued...

12/9 (Saturday) - I fall asleep and wife goes to eat and use the gym or something. I wake up around 11am and she tells me we're going to go eat lunch with our friends. I say ok and get ready. We drive to chinatown and try to eat at Monta. The waitlist looks longer than the Aria waitlist during WSOP. We passed by Jinya and it was pretty empty so we eat there instead. Got the "sprouted up" ramen. It's pork and chicken broth based. It was okay. I really wanted to try Monta ramen.

We decide to go check out the outlets since it's a pretty nice day outside too. I walk around looking for a sweatsuit. I found one at Nike that I liked and it was about $200. I'm such a nit when it comes to spending money on myself. I gotta work on that. Everyone tells me to buy it because I won. I say no.

Friends drop me off at the Encore suite entrance after the outlets. I walk through the lobby wearing shorts and a tshirt. I can feel their judging stares but I think they're trying to assess if I'm just a bum or extremely rich. I get to the poker room and it's a beautiful room. I think everyone that plays poker should visit the poker room at Wynn/Encore. Action's pretty good but I only have about 2 hours to play. We book a small win of about $150. I get an uber to head to Luxor for Blue Man Group. The show starts and I begin to hope no one has a seizure during this show. The visuals were really good but there were a lot of fillers during the show. Overall 6/10.

We are hungry now and head to jjanga. We literally do not say a word to each other while we eat for the next 30 minutes because we ordered so much. The waitress gave us the check even without us asking so we figured we have overstayed our welcome. Highly recommend jjanga. I always visit at least once a trip. I get back to the room and fall asleep for about 3 hours. I wake up around 130AM and walk over to the Bellagio for another 2/5 session. It was a pretty fun game. I met Moopsville (he has a TR here - check it out). Most people left after the "fun" players went broke and the morning nit crew started showing up. I rack up about a $700 winner.

It's literally a flip of a coin. People try to track trends, etc. but there's no real truth to that or otherwise the casino won't willingly give you tracking paper for you to use. Baccarat is just betting on "Player" and "Banker", they're just sides to bet on, it doesn't mean player vs casino. Each side gets 2 cards and the point is to get to 9 being the highest. (10s and face cards are 0). Banker has a slight edge so if you win with a banker bet, casino takes 5% commission. I play it because it's a game I can just sit there and drink and not bet unless I "feel" like it's a good bet. Plus it's fun squeezing the cards like it changes something lol

12/10 (Sunday) - I wake up around 1pm and we eat at Yong Kang again. After eating, I decide to play one more time before I have to pack and leave for the airport. I look at baccarat and no one is there so I decide to play hold em bonus or something. I stay around even then I hit AK suited for some 25 to 1 bonus. Throw the dealer $10 then I go to baccarat. Now there's a chinese lady all dressed up playing with a friend watching. I start betting and guess right almost every hand. She gets up and I don't want to play alone so I also get up. As I'm about to cash out, the lady's friend tells me I'm a good player and we should play again. Then I run into the lady and she asks me for my number so we can play together again. I just smile and say I'm leaving right now (probably a beat, possibly variance). I go up to the room, pack, get raked by wife for about $500, and we head home. Now I'm back at work and trying to plan the next trip. I ended up about $2.5k and everything was paid for with degening so it was a great trip overall. Until next time!

Fun trip report! I want to start playing more baccarat. Watched a friend playing HL bacc at Harrahs NOLA a few months back, he had a run of 10 player wins in a row. Then the gentleman to his right started betting a black chip on the tie. It hit repeatedly in a row and he had a STACK of chips before the run ended. It made it a lot of fun. It actually is one of the better games in the casino to play. I am mostly a slot player ( SUCKER) and have decided I’m going to play more baccarat and BJ when I go to Vegas. Can’t do any worse than my last 6 trips! Thanks for sharing your trip!

Nice report, thanks!

If it's "literally" a coin flip, how does the Banker have a slight edge? And does that mean that if you bet Player and win, you get 100% return instead of 95%? And if the "slight" edge is <5%, shouldn't you bet Player every time?

Tie happens 11% of the time and banker has enough of an edge on the other times that the 5% commission makes it almost exactly equal but banker still has a slight edge. Banker is always the correct play.

It is very close either way, banker edge is miniscule, you cant win over the long run regardless.

Kind of like playing the don’t side on craps with odds. Marginally one way f the better bets you can make, still gonna lose in the long run