Had a great week in Vegas, and to be honest, it was definitely needed. The weather in Winnipeg has more or less forced me to be a hermit while I'm here, and spending a week in Vegas allowed me to get a bit of that balance back into my life - some great food, a bit of live poker, and the social interaction with like-minded people. As I said earlier, hunting out new casinos certainly wasn't going to be a priority on this trip, but I did want to get a few new ones in. This won't be a comprehensive TR as the last Vegas trip was, but just a synopsis of the 7 rooms I visited on my trip.
Hooter's - Las Vegas, NV, United States
Yes, Hooter's has a poker room. It was somewhat of a hike to find the casino (southeast of MGM), but I close enough that I should've gotten to it on my first trip. There are a few tables hidden at the back of the casino, and there was one table running on the weeknight I showed up to it. I was able to hop right into the only 1/2 game running, and I was able to get some shorthanded action in with an interesting group of characters. The lineup included a Texan, a Californian, an Alaskan, a Brazilian, and myself. The Alaskan, who said he now resides in Oregon, claimed to be Chael Sonnen's university wresting coach at Oregon. He'd certainly had a few to drink, but was able to regale me with some interesting MMA stories about Chael and some other fighters anyway. Was a very friendly, soft lineup. Didn't have any real noteworthy hands, and played for about two hours before moving on.
The Quad - Las Vegas, NV, United States
I hiked from Hooter's to The Quad, which was under construction during my first trip to Sin City. I wasn't really expecting much, as it's predecessor Imperial Palace had a reputation for being a bit of a dump, but it wasn't that bad at all. Certainly seemed like a less interesting cast of characters in this game though, outside of a Danish kid on my direct left. He was very active, and absolutely more competent than the majority of 1/2 players, but his constant talking about 2p2 and strategy rubbed me the wrong way. I've ranted about this before I think, but holy hell people, please stop talking about 2p2 and strat at the tables. It often comes across as arrogant and can make rec players uncomfortable. Plus it makes me want to slap you. Anytime you talk at the tables, you should be doing your best to talk about anything but poker.
Palace Station - Las Vegas, NV, United States
The Station casinos are a staple of the Las Vegas poker scene, however you won't see much of them if you don't venture off-strip. Every Station poker room usually has the same group of locals that show up day in and day out, and small limit games are commonly found in most of them. Red Rock and GVR are the exceptions as the two biggest station casinos. True to form, Palace Station had a 2/4 limit half kill game running when I was there, filled with locals that all seemed to know eachother. I only played about 25 minutes, but 25 minutes of limit poker was better than standing in line for the Oyster bar. Pretty awesome of my friends to hold my spot in line while I grinded out a few limit poker hands and knocked out yet another casino. Oh, and the Oyster Bar was delicious.
Suncoast Station - Las Vegas, NV, United States
This particular station is on the west side of the city, in the suburb of Summerlin. Summerlin seems to be a richer part of Vegas, but Suncoast felt like a carbon copy of Palace the day before. At least when it came to the poker room. Same small limit game, same group of locals. This group of fine folks was definitely older than the last though - pretty sure I was the youngest player at the table by a good 40 years. Booked a small profit and hopped over to nearby Red Rock.
Red Rock - Las Vegas, NV, Canada
Red Rock is definitely the biggest of the Station casinos, at least when it comes to the poker room. You'll still see a lot of locals, but you'll see all of the 1/2, 2/5 and even some 5/10 and higher no limit games run here. From what I understand, the 5/10 that often runs here is a local's game that is just absurdly soft. I played a bit of a longer session here too, and was able to rack up a healthy profit.
Green Valley Ranch - Henderson, NV, United States
I'm not really sure if Henderson should be considered a suburb of Vegas, or a separate entity. Either way, it certainly doesn't have a very Vegas feel to it - it seems to have more of a relaxed, small town vibe. GVR is the main poker room in the area, and in terms of size appears to be the second biggest Station poker room after Red Rock. I don't remember much else about the game, outside it being generally friendly and soft.
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Las Vegas, NV, United States
If the locals-filled games at the Station casinos had the fun, friendly atmosphere that low limit poker should have, Hard Rock had a couple of characters that displayed the opposite behavior. One guy in particular seemed to be quite bitter about poker in general, with constant sarcastic 'nice hand, nice hand' comments and criticism about everyone's play. It's people like these that absolutely ruin the live poker experience, and it's too bad because Hard Rock has a great game with lots of other recreational tourists filtering through. They also have a pretty great promotion where the top 5 made hands every day receive $100. With only 1 table running, if you're a regular playing every day, it should be pretty easy to get in that top 5 all the time. This was my last room at the trip, and I was able to cap it off with dinner at Musashi before catching my flight out at 6am.
My Vegas recap wouldn't be complete without a brag about how incredible I ran at CCR all week. We went out for every meal and played CCR for the check every time, and the only time I lost was a flip for a couple of smoothies that cost me $10. For our last meal at Musashi and a group of 10 of us eating, 4 of us played CCR for the meal and the rest bought out. We decided that to add a bit more gamble to it, the buyout money would go to the runner-up and the last card pulled would pay the entire $300 check. Naturally, I was the runner up and collected the buyout money of roughly $200. I might be the only person in history to show a profit by eating in Vegas for a week.
I leave for Amsterdam on March 4, and it can't come soon enough.