Heading out to Vegas for most of next week as the title mentions. I have some poker and trip-related goals that I'd like to accomplish and thought a small trip report blog will help hold myself accountable.

About me: Just turned 30 earlier this month. My remote job allows me to travel a decent bit. I love scoring a hotel deal and heading out to Vegas for a few days; this will indeed be the 20th time I've done so. I have been playing PLO cash games and tracking my results for about 25 months now. I've been playing poker for 10 years but the past 2 have been my most profitable and most fun.

Goals for this Vegas trip:
- 40 hours at 5/5 PLO w/ Rock at Aria & Wynn
- Fire in the $200K GTD @ Wynn at least once
- I have enough comps to go to The Buffet @ Wynn for both breakfast and dinner without paying a dime. My goal is to have both the breakfast and dinner buffet while I'm out there although probably not on the same day
- Visit the new Venetian poker room and play a session at least once

I've been on a serious heater for the past two months grinding here in Houston. Hoping it continues out there. Will update Sunday; enjoy the weekend, all!

Subbed! Hope the heater continues!

Happy birthday, have a good trip. Looking forward to the TR.

Awesome. Can't wait to read about it.

I'll be there the same time. Plan on playing some Wynn/Venetian tournies.

Interested to hear what the PLO games are like outside of the WSOP.

Good luck!


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have a good trip! hope the heater continues

Good luck!!

good luck - are you staying at the Wynn?

Thanks! I'm staying at Paris. A buddy of mine from Cali plays more pit games than I do and gets weekday room deals that I do not. Paris was the cheapest Strip option north of Tropicana Rd for this week. Perhaps it's worth noting that room/Airbnb splitting is how I've been able to head out there 3-5 times a year for the past 6 years. I couldn't afford to do 20 trips solo.

About to head to the airport. HOU > San Diego > LV. My connecting flight in SD looks like it's delayed currently; I should land in Vegas around 8:30 PM PT. No checked bag, so heading to The Strip should be fairly efficient.

The question: do I play a session tonight? The main reason this is up in the air is because I typically have losing sessions when I play my first night in, and I chalk that up to being fatigued and unable to focus 100% after a travel day. I may just get some dinner tonight and rest up for my goals. If I accomplish them all, a lot of poker will be played!

I reckon I'll be open about my expenditures too; why not?

Flight: $255 RT
Hotel split: $235
Total: -$490

Expected additions: $25-$30 cab ride from Harry Reid to Paris incoming, as well as whatever 1/2 of the resort fees are. My buddy mentioned he thought he qualified for free/no resort fees, but the emails are saying resort fees are due at check-in, so I guess we'll see.

Regarding my flight, I am taking Southwest. I saw a survey last month that had Southwest as low as Frontier and Spirit when it came to customer satisfaction which I found baffling. I love Southwest and rarely have issues. Would love to hear what others' experiences are as it seems like I'm an outlier.

I've never had an issue with Southwest. I like them. People probably complain because they don't know the process and get surprised when they're stuck in a middle seat in the back, plus the lack of direct flights, although they're much better about that recently, especially from Dallas. I've also never had an issue with Spirit or Frontier. As long as you know why the rates are so cheap and are prepared for all the nickel and diming they're fine for me. Just be sure to use a fake phone number, lol, unless you like spam.

All fights are direct. Just maybe not to somewhere you want to be.

Agree with mark, SWA is a nice alternative the the big carriers, if you can work out a not-too-bad routing.

I guess they're getting rid of their boarding process and going to assigned seats.

Where you playing now? Exclusively at TCH Spring? Haven’t seen you at Legends in some time.

Waddup, Bull? Hope all is well. Would love to hear your take on the Legends cheating videos, etc.

I've been playing at Spades off of 45 in Webster. I'm seeing a girl who lives nearby. They have an ROE game that is fantastic and gets going each day at this point. In August I got 60 hours in at Spades, 10 at Spring, and 5 hours playing the two PLO tournies at the Champions Summer Series (busto). That's a pretty good scope of what my volume has been like for this summer.

Southwest is my go-to. They have direct flights to my most common destinations. Free bags and open seating are a nice perk.

Very, very flexible with cancellations and late changes.

The big competitor here is Alaska and they're worse in almost every respect.

Unfortunately, it sounds like Southwest is under siege from hedge fund types who want to take control and "optimize" the brand.

I'm not sure how much longer the good vibes will last with SWA. If they change for the worse then I may give Spirit a try.

Seems like the consensus on Southwest is this: levelheaded people appreciate the bang for your buck, and sad to hear they are remodeling their business soon.

Two smooth flights yesterday; always grateful for air travel with no issues. Got a cab from Reid to Paris as anticipated. Walked around Paris which was absolutely filled to the brim with college students. USC played LSU yesterday at Allegiant; the casino floor was a sea of purple and a tiny bit of crimson. I didn't know if it was because I'm getting older or something else, but it felt almost perverse seeing these 21-23 year olds en masse in Vegas. Can't explain why in words. Maybe I was worried about the money they were spending? Was I witnessing the result of this generation of Americans' exposure to legalized gambling? Not sure, but it was interesting to ponder.

Picked up Bobby's Burgers inside Paris before heading up to the room. It's In-N-Out Burger with Bobby Flay's name on it, put plainly. Not a bad burger. Meandered around a bit more with my buddy and sweat some blackjack for about a half hour. Buddy, I guess we'll call him, made about $750 playing by the book last night, $25 bets. This drunk kid from LSU who was also in the shoe got upset with Buddy at one point, but I only know that by his body language. He was completely ****ed up and belligerent; you couldn't understand a word he was saying. Had his friends abandoned him for the night? Had he drunkenly walked away from the group? Only he could've known. Headed up to crash after the blackjack heater and a couple of drinks. Waitresses in the pit were on point, I have to say. As a frequent pit game spectator (never played anything at a casino besides poker and a few roulette spins), it's always nice to be included by the drink girl when she's taking orders even though it's clear I'm just watching. I get a drink; she gets a tip.

Up and at 'em! Did some stretching and breathing in the hotel room, and just got a 4 mile run in the Paris gym. Some caffeine and a hearty breakfast separate me from 5/5 PLO at The Wynn. I'll most likely play there more than Aria; it's my favorite poker room in the city.

Booked a dinner buffet at Wynn for tomorrow night, so that will be one goal to check off. Expenditure update and hopefully some interesting hands/characters at the table later!

thanks for posting. will be out there next month and curious to hear how the PLO experience is at different locations.

Okay, I'm behind here and on my last full day of the trip. Without exaggeration, of my 20 trips to Vegas, I have ran into more characters than any other trip I can recall. I wrote several things down but didn't post in an effort to keep my focus on the table.

Day 1: To kick off my trip, I had a 9 hour 5/5 PLO session at The Wynn where my last post left off after breakfast at Front Yard over at Ellis Island. Worth noting I think this is one of the better value breakfast spots closer to The Strip. The action was quite solid and there were plenty of alums still around from the weekend of college football. I sat in seat 1 the entire time at the same table. The first notable character to make the report was a guy who sat in seat 2 for the last 6 hours of my 9 hour session. He was an older guy doing a lot of limp/calling pre and chasing a good bit. He played a hand against a reg... older guy limps from early position, reg in seat 8 3bets pre, seat 2 calls. The board was 6228K and checks all the way down. Seat 8 tables AAKT. Seat 2 grabs his four cards in his hand, and I forget the other 3 cards, but he 100% with no uncertainty had a duece is his hand for flopped trips. He quickly tosses his cards in the muck before I can debate whether or not to inform him. A few hands later, he is texting on his phone. He was reviewing an extremely lengthy text that he had sent awhile ago. It started out verbatum,

"Donna, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your great work. I didn't value office culture until recently and I know I was never the best at contributing to it."

I didn't read the rest. Seat 4, a very old guy with a ZZ Top beard, was playing a good bit of hands, but silent. In a double board bomb pot, He bet $300 3 ways on the river of the following boards:

A244J
6T5Q7

Other player folds. I had QQ53 and put in a river call. He had TT4X and I scooped. For the next 20 minutes, he sat without saying a word, doing what the kids call "rawdogging" these days - that is, not looking at his phone, vaping, drinking, or anything. Just sitting there. He finally pulled out a few thousand in $100 bills and rebought for $700-$1000, I forget.

I ended up $1425 after 9 hours there and had some dinner at Beer Park, a new addition to Paris. Food with a view, to be sure.



Headed to Aria where there wasn't a 5/5 seat available yet, so sat down at $1/$2 while waiting. I again sat in the 1 seat and spent all 12 hours in the 1 seat that day. There was another ZZ Top looking guy in a cowboy hat and he brought his own mix of chips and nuts to the game. He was crushing these things in between hands and they were dwindling down by the time I was wrapping up.



Seat 2 was leaning over and conversing with his wife who was playing at the next table. "Who's better - you or your wife?" I finally asked. He thought for a moment and made a thinking face, then pointed to her. "Yeah, that's what I figured," I joked. Seat 7 and 8 were from Denver and the situation in Aurora, they mentioned, was preventing them from flying home. Seat 8's stack never went over $100 in the three hours I was there, but he did manage to flop quad nines twice within 45 minutes.

With about 20 minutes of my session to go, a fully tattooed white guy in his 40s with a trimmed beard, fauxhawk, a good bit of jewelry, and sparkly shirt sits down with his girlfriend behind him. He is being so innapropriate, and interestingly, he is getting frustrated and upset at actions on the table of all kinds. If someone checks, he'd let them know they should have bet. Someone bets? "Why aren't you checking? What the ****?" Finally, he turns to his girlfriend who looks like Wal-Mart Mia Wallace from Pulp Non-Fiction, and he says... "There are a lot of weird looking people here." This is one of my favorite things I've ever heard anyone say at the poker table and this is the 5th or 6th time I've retold this story via text.

I got up after 3 hours there, so 12 hours in for day 1, up $1915. We'll take it! Day 2 recap soon... currently at Aria on Day 3 here grinding away!

I took this at 3 AM on Tuesday morning walking back to Paris from Aria. I thought about how much I was up for the day, added my session to my tracker, then checked my total since starting to track back in July '22. It then occurred to me that each day at least once for the past 25 months, I had thought about the total amount that I was up live. This obsessive thought, I considered, wasn't great, and my energy would be better spent thinking about previous sessions or literally anything else in my life.



Saw something I hadn't seen before: felt changing at table games during early morning hours. The addition was the Raiders name in time for football season.

nice day on the cash streets!

I know you have a pic of faux hawk and friend. Don't hold out on us!

I must've missed the situation in Aurora. Hope they got home.

Nice gains in cashland!