Innnnnn

That's the one. We'll give it a go in two years. Cheers. Day 2 in a bit.

VPC Went Vegas Day 2: Groundhog Day.

With all the Vegas vlogs these days it hardly feels like it’s been two years since I last woke up in this city. There is something oddly familiar about the walk to Earl of Sandwich this morning to prepare ourselves for Aria’s 11 PM tournament. Sure, we did the exact same thing last two trips but somehow it feels a bit more business as usual than expected. I’m not less excited to be here, don’t get me wrong. As I walk past the gorgeous Bellagio I can easily see myself making these Vegas trips for the foreseeable future. Next year it will a decade since our first trip. Will I be making these trips in 2028? Can’t see why not to be honest. Sure, it will most likely be a single trip by then but no chance that is going to stop me.

Only Hugo & Hoebol showed their faces at the 10 o’clock rendezvous in front of the Flamingo poker room. Iebus was planning on joining us having chopped this tourney two years ago but he’s in no state to go anywhere just yet. I don’t feel too bad. I managed to sleep the usual three hours and the Ibuprofen I took right away seems to be doing his job headache wise.


Bozzie not doing to great

After an Italian sandwich and some chips we register the $ 240,- tourney shortly after the cards are in the air. There are only like 45 runners on the screen but that will increase although we can’t expect too many players since the Wynn is running a Special Weekend with a $ 600,- main event. I contemplated playing that event but figured they will bag & tag by the time we are already due at Hakassan. Despite having paid a fortune for VIP tickets they allow themselves to deny you entry it you show after midnight. Ridicule.



As mentioned in the preview poker hasn’t really been smooth sailings the last couple of months. I’m currently on a live tourney bricking streak that goes into 20+ tournaments. Confidence should be on the low side but it really isn’t. I’ve been working hard on my game the past couple of months – for someone who plays little poker, that is - it just hasn’t found a way to pay me back just yet. I think I’m making the right decisions and my in game thought process is probably better than ever. It will pay off eventually and no reason why that couldn’t be today.



First three 30 minute levels go very well. We make hands, we get value and we play well. Up to about 35k from 20k on first break. The next three levels go less smooth. An almost comical run of terrible cards combined with running into the tops of ranges has us back to the starting stack. It took Hugo about one level to bust when his aces got cracked but he re-entered the tourney as Hugo is not one to give up easily. Hoebol busted somewhere around level six and went over to the Bellagio.

Around four o’clock we get to an open shoving stack but I can’t find any profitable spots to punt our stack. After a table change causes me to pay the just increased blinds and all the antes back to back I’m suddenly looking at five bigs. I ship my best hand for hours (A2h) but can’t bink – or hold – against KQ & KJ and it’s bedtime again. Since no-one replied to my hotel pre-party message I don’t bother dragging some 12-packs of Bud across the Strip and just return to 12008 right away after grabbing another slice at Secret Pizza.

Baars entering the hotel room around 20:00 hours wakes me up. Baars is in the best mood I have ever seen him in Vegas or anywhere else for that matter. Sure, the fact that they made it to the AVN Expo about 30 minutes before it closed was upsetting but that was well compensated by the great spot he had when the cum buckets paraded on the red carpet. I have about 60 (!) pictures of porn stars on my phone. If I had to guess they were all competing for the Bud Ugly award.

Baars is ecstatic about the pair of shoes he just bought at the Armani store in The Forum Shops. He forgot to pack his ‘Hakassan shoes’ – I’m reminded that is due to Iebus’s impatience – but these new boots have him over the moon. Also he has about $ 400,- of overall profit in his pocket. We’re not in Vegas for 24 hours just yet but indeed that is impressive for a money burning machine like Baars. He lays flat-out on the bed and – please keep this in mind for Day 3 – expresses his happiness about not having made any capital blunders just yet. What surprises me is that a guy who drinks about 200+ nights a year can still get so excited about going on the piss tonight.

I had my alarm set for 21:00 hours so I try to squeeze in another powernap but Baars keeps bouncing around the room like a toddler when suddenly he looks at me and says: “$400,- profit. WTF. The boys might even think I haven’t gambled yet!” and storms out of the room. Some people can’t handle gambling loses. Baars doesn’t seem to be able to handle gambling winnings.



Meanwhile Hugo is chip leading the final table of the Aria tourney. It looks like there is little interest in a hotel room pre-party but when I make my way to the Flamingo poker room I see Iebus and Bozzie buying crappy beers for set party which is moved to another room. I buy two humongous cans of Heineken and grab my bottle of local strong liquor at my hotel room.

This one of those ‘must drink’ occasions. I’m basically just awake but we can’t enter Hakassan sober when expensive Vodka-Redbulls are on the menu. The atmosphere at the pre-party starts funeral like but after about half a can and serval shots I’m actually starting to get in the mood for this nonsense. Eventually everyone but Baars shows up at the pre-party. Hugo made a 6-way deal pocketing just shy of 3k at Aria and high-fives are exchanged everywhere.

One decent group photo is a must so before we get a taxi to Hakassan we get that out of the way. We get into the club rather quickly and assemble on the second floor bar area. Baars and I get one Corona out the way before we start knocking back ~ $ 30,- Vodka-Redbulls. Hakassan is crowded as balls tonight. By the time Tiesto starts spitting his tunes we try to get near the dance floor but it’s undoable.



Now, things get blurry fast. All I ate today was an Earl sandwich and a slice of pizza. That’s a problem when – like me – you only have one drinking gear; Full Throttle Ahead. Next thing I remember is I’m lying on the floor and two bouncers pick me up. One of them says “Maybe it’s time to go home!”. Usually I would argue that point fiercely with all sorts of valid points but seeing how I hardly remember ending up on the floor I give the bouncers the ol’ ‘Yeah, you’re probably right’ nudge and have them throw me out.

Funny thing is I remember every step from my ‘walk of shame’ with the bouncers who accompany me on all floors all the way to the casino floor. That’s where the night ends for me. Honest to god I don’t remember a thing after that. No clue as to how made my way back to Flamingo. Reading back the WhatsApp group chat will shed a bit of light on that tomorrow.

The night is far from over for the VPC Crew. In fact, it will be one to remember a lifetime for most.














To be continued...

great update; sounds like quite the night! did the chop the aria tourney when down to 6; i assume that is why the picture was taken?

Awesome TR. Blackout drunk is the best kind of drunk!

Re: bounced out of club: Now you've discovered why you might not be making these trips in 2028 (or at least these kind of trips).

Enjoy it while you're still young enough to have these kinds of times! Sounds as if you guys take full advantage of your time.

P.S. how you do pronounce Iebus?

Was wondering same.

Also, I notice the 15K Ante..is the Aria doing the 'big blind single ante' now?

As with all your previous ones, another A+ trip report..

Awesome pics from a fun night... too bad you got kicked out and missed part of it.

Two posters above me asking about the Aria results. Did you guys miss this part?

Dam y'all are animals! Love the TR


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

These threads of you made me book another Vegas trip. I love the story's, the humor and the quotes. Now i click on F5 every 2,5 hour like a little kid to see if there is an update

I read all of the years in a couple of days and it cracks me up. Keep it up!

Thanks man. Reactions like these make me put in the work.

Picture of Hugo was indeed taken after the deal and indeed Aria does the BB straddle for all players. They removed the 25 chips all togheter. So it 200/300 blinds at one point. Works well unless you pay them back to back...

Iebus is pronounced as Ie like Eagels and bus like well.. bus.

Cheers. Day 3 on Monday.

Could your friend collect the winnings immediately or did he had to fill in some forms cause of the new tax rules? I want to play some tournaments in Vegas, but for example at the Venetian it says:

Residents of foreign countries without a U.S. tax treaty will be subject
to withholding. Pursuant to new IRS regulations, W-2G or 1042s forms will be issued for all tournament winnings of
$5,000 or more (net of buy-in amount).

I don't exactly know what it means to be honest.

Have you guys ever considered swapping action when a bunch of you join the same tourney? Lower variance and makes railing each other more interesting. Wait that didn’t sound right.

**** that, if I'm in a daily tourney with a friend, we have last longers and a beer per level rule. Don't think I've ever won one of those last longers.

I like the last longer and beer per round rules more.

In my local room, after playing good number of tournaments, I can pretty much recognize top 10-15% of the players.

I usually pick two of them and swap 10% each. In a few cases I ran really deep and paid them off and in some they ran deep and I got the share.

As usually you cash 1 in 8 tournaments, this way there is a good chance you can get some money in the other 7 that you don’t win.

Nice TR, there is nothing like enjoying Vegas with long time friends.

If you make more that $5000 in the tourney, they will withhold 30% at payout, depending on which country you're from. So if you're from a country without a tax treaty like I am, and 1st paid 6K, I'd chop in order to stay under the threshhold.

Or I might just donk off my chips, that works too.

It is a good idea to chop so the final amount minus the buy-in falls below the 5K threshold.

In some cases there might be one/two players that cross that amount. They have to pay taxes, in that case, if I am from a country that doesn’t have a tax treaty, I would make a deal with them and say, since you are getting ready to pay taxes, please consider part of my chop as yours and I will pay you some money towards your taxes.

You can decide on the amount that you want to add to his amount (to make it below 5K) and the amount you are willing to pay him.

In one of the tournaments I played we chopped 100K 20 ways. Top 2 CL’s got additional amount from short stacks which put them in taxed area. I got 5K, so the amount minus buy-in fell below 5K, but, what I didn’t realize was that I was paid Day 1 chip leader bonus that made the final amount more than 5K.

So, I took 4.5K instead of 5 and gave the CL 500 more and he was happy to give me back $450 outside.

So, the loser has to buy the winner a beer for each level the winner goes deeper? I like it!

Kind of...Usually we buy our own beer and the last longer is $100+ of the buy-in.

The boys did swap action but I usually don’t partake since I’m not looking to reduce variance on a few Vegas dailies. I do sell action to like 10 times a local tournament but mostly to motivate me to keep showing up.

VPC Went Vegas Day 3: War Stories.

I wake up at 10:30 hours. Since I don’t have a clue as to how late I went to bed I can’t really figure out whether this is good or bad. It feels like I’ve put in some hours though. I also feel right away the night was rough. My left hip feels broken as does my right tail bone. I turn around and see Baars his bed is empty. And unslept. Oh, boy.

Baars not being home at this hour can mean one of two things:

1. Our boy is broke.
2. Our boy is FEKKING broke.

I prepare myself for what is about to come while I stumble across the hallway in my boxers willing to pay a $ 100,- for a bottle of water. About 10 minutes later the hotel room door opens and in comes Baars. Exactly as expected. Baars walks in like an abused dog. Shoulders dropped, head bent way down and dragging his feet like a tired hobo. It ain’t pretty.



Me: ‘And?’
Baars: ‘Boy, did I f*ck things up again’
Me: ‘How much?’
Baars: ‘xK’
Me: *throws up a little*

I listen to Baars sorrows for a while before I hit the shower and make my way down for breakfast. I actually don’t feel too bad until the elevator doors open and Vegas hits me like a freight train. I need to sit down and compose myself in one of the chairs in the corridor that are meant of printing airplane boarding passes. FFS. As I walk through the corridor it all feels like an outer body experience. It’s like I’m walking under water on a matrass.

I need some fresh air but that is a big ask on the Las Vegas Strip where perfume or sewer seem to be the only scents at hand at all times. I manage to stumble towards Subway in Casino Royale and need all my strength to keep this turkey sandwich in my stomach. I’m not starving which suggest I ate last night but nothing comes to mind. While staring into nothingness at Subway for a while I get the bright idea to read back the group chat on WhatsApp. I never felt more close to the movie Hangover in my life.

It all starts with Oppie asking where everyone is around five in the morning. Hoebol replies a minute later with the exact same question. Iebus replies he’s outside the club but has no idea how he got there and he wants everyone to come out. Hugo says he can’t do that as he has just received a new Barcardi cocktail. From out of nowhere I shim in with some random letters. The question mark suggests I want to know something but I can’t make anything of it.

Three people confirm they are on their way to the strip club when around 05:30 in the morning I answer ‘poker room’ to Hoebol when he asks where I am. God’s honest truth I don’t know what poker room. I suspect it to be Flamingo’s as a handful of 1 $ Flamingo chips fell from my pocket this morning while trying to get dressed. Someone replies they want to join me in the poker roombut keep stumbling over the entertainment industry ladies that won’t let him leave. At six in the morning I ask where everyone is one last time before the conversations starts up again at 07:15 but in order to protect the not so innocent we can’t go in to much detail. Yet.

Back in Flamingo Bozzie is playing poker. Bozzie left the club somewhere around five went straight back to Flamingo. Most the others didn’t return till way after sun up so we can’t expect anyone else very soon. I join Bozzie at the poker table and tell him the Baars story when a text from one of the boys roll’s in; I’m f*cked. Hmm. Not good.



We’re done with Flamingo and make our way over to Venetian as they have some great promo’s going on. Every half hour there are two $ 100,- splash pots and there is also a high-hand bonus. The plan was to play Omaha Hi/Lo in the Orleans but Iebus is passed-out. Around five we make our way back to Flamingo and go to the room on the ‘I’m f*cked’ message sender. To sum up a long story: he was right. I hate it when the boys ask me to not put a story in these trip reports but this one didn’t even had to ask…

A while later five of us are in a hotel room. When X tells his story the five of us completely piss ourselves. I have to hold on to the curtains while someone crawls over the floor, one falls out of the bed when another falls in it. Absolute scenes. I can’t give away too much but let’s just say that it’s not a good sign if the bank calls you to see if everything is alright... I tell X the story is even worse as Baars told me this morning he had lent X a few c-notes last night. X is completely convinced he didn’t even see Baars last night. Good stuff.

All of last night’s war stories are shared. Essentially the boys all went to the same – as the credit card statement will show – ‘restaurant’ without knowing the rest was there. They randomly bumped into each other at the bar, ATM, private or VIP section of set restaurant. Listening to all the stories I can’t help but think those Vodka-Redbulls saved me from a much heftier restaurant bill later on. One of the guys literally was the last man standing in the restaurant. Even the waitresses had left by the time he was ready to depart not knowing how to be able to pay the taxi driver.

We gather in the Flamingo’s food court later to make our way to Orleans. Bozzie, Iebus & I are playing the HORSE tournament. I sort of know the rules to the ORSE part of the game but I don’t have any strategic knowledge at all. Playing all these games is a ton of fun though. I roller-coaster between 10 and 20k for a while when a Razz hand hurts me pretty bad. We cap pre with A23 but I catch JJJ on forth till sixth street. Really?



I survive the Stud levels one more time but can’t get away from Top Top in Holdem when we are down to five bigs. Bozzie busts a bit later and we spend an hour watching Iebus play between one and three big blinds. The man just won’t bust. Bozzie and I take a taxi back to Flamingo. In the taxi we do the math of the VPC butchers bill from last night. Collectively the group blew just south of 1,5 WSOP Main Event buy-ins. Holy. Sh*t. Back in Flamingo I track down Hugo for some sleeping pills and rush to my room.



Back in the room Baars is still in bed staring at the ceiling contemplating his sins. He has only been down for a quick bite to eat and retracted back to the safety of his bed ASAP. On the night stand are few crispy C-notes. Apparently X’s memory cleared up later on the day… Only in Vegas.

Great stuff once again!! With the Baars story I had to scroll back to the top of the post to see what day it was. 3 is not the day you want to see then

And we kinda know what went down that night with the others hehe

Great read again checkko! Lovin it.