haha that blue line is nice to see! jelly of your Vegas trip

Blue line upswing at the end is hopefully a sign of things to come as my SD winnings have been a good bit lower than they should be for a while now.

Only 6 more sleeps to Vegas

Vegas time has finally arrived (almost). I'm heading out tomorrow morning and I'll try to post some pics when I'm over there. As I've said previously, it'll probably mostly be food etc. Gotta admit I'm not looking forward to the 11 hour flight, and that's after a 1 hour 30 mins flight down to London. We really need to get working on some sort of teleporting technology.

Forgot to post this the other day. Think it may be my favourite hand of the year, even though I just realised I hadn't shoved the river as I first thought. It's against a reg I don't really like.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) - Party-Poker Converter Tool from http://poker-tools.flopturnriver.com/Hand-Converter.php

UTG ($26.92)
Hero (MP) ($57.84)
BB ($23.05)
Button ($31.93)
SB ($30.56)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 9, 9
1 fold, Hero raises $0.75, 1 fold, SB raises $2.15, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.75) 9, 5, 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($4.75) 7 (2 players)
SB bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

River: ($9.75) A (2 players)
SB bets $5.50, Hero raises $17, SB raises to $25.81 (All-In), Hero calls $8.81

Total pot: $61.37



Sick flop, sick river and the pleasure of knowing the villain was probably pretty shocked when the chips were heading their way at showdown. In saying that, I actually think they may be a bot so maybe not.

Wow, which accounts were that? Would you pm me their SNs? I play on party myself and that is quite sick... Also I'd appreciate if you can tell me how you spotted them.

Have fun in Vegas and gl at the tables!

Post trip report

Glgl

Boom

As I've posted previously I'll not be playing any poker and I've done things like shooting guns etc on previous visits so this will be a fairly standard TR.

Nothing much to report about yesterday. We queued A LOT. We queued for an hour at check-in for our flight to London.... next to the Celtic team ffs! Brendan Rodgers is pretty short btw. We queued for our bus to transfer terminals at Heathrow, we queued again at check-in and there was a bit of a delay due to a tyre change(!) on the plane. We then queued at immigration and finally at the hotel check-in. After all that we dumped our bags went out for a little wander and ended up in a bar watch some American football. We weren't all that hungry but we decided to share a platter. The bar apparently has an Irish themed menu so the platter contained all those traditional Irish favourites, mozzarella sticks, buffalo wings, pickled veg and a giant pretzel...
I was on the Samuel Adams Octoberfest and it was a decent pint. We had a little walk after that but ended up in bed by 9pm. By this time we were pretty knackered as we'd been up over 24 hours. Currently writing this at 6 am as my body is up and raring to go. No real set in stone plans for the day other than heading down to Mandalay Bay as its one of only 2 strip casinos I haven't visited before.

Btw when I say I won't be playing poker I'll probably dabble in a bit of video poker and also some blackjack

Does anyone know how to post pics direct from an I phone to the forum? I'm sure I read a post recently explaining how to do it but I can't find it now.

Looking forward to the TR, I don't know how to post photo's off a phone sorry

You should just be able to Safari to Imgur, upload the image, and embed it in the post as you would on a PC?

imgupr doesnt work anymore

use tapatalk mate

glgl

Works fine for me. #AndroidMasterRace.

Thanks for the suggestion guys. Can't get into my account to download any apps though. Looks like I may have to wait till I get home for the TR. I'll take some notes to remind me what the hell I've been up to as I have a terrible memory.

I forgot to mention earlier our room was upgraded for free. It wasn't a big difference but it did mean we had a partial view of the strip looking over to the Cosmopolitan and Bellagio. It also meant we were at the end of a corridor so there was no noise from people passing the room



We decided to head down to the Mandalay bay as we hadn't checked it out on previous visits, or so I thought. I realised some of it looked pretty familiar and that we must've been there before. Doh! After that we headed back up the stip, stopping first in Luxor, which for some reason reminds me of Bladerunner when I'm inside it



Stopped in at the Aria and I had a look in a watch shop that stocked an Omega watch I really love. Took it out and tried it on but I can't justify spending $7k on a watch and thankfully my credit card limit isn't that high, just in case I got any silly ideas as I'm quite impulsive when it comes to buying things at times.



I did buy a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarers though. Had always wanted a pair but whenever I tried them on they didn't look great. Just realised though that they come in different sizes so I found a pair I really liked. I'm sure they'll get a lot of use over the coming months in Scotland...

After that we headed to the TAG sports bar in the Linq as I'd heard it had a good selection of craft beers.. It happened to be happy hour but the barman told me they'd sold out of the beers the sell at a discount on happy hour and also didn't have a been menu when I asked for one. Was about to leave when I looked up at one of the screens and it showed Celtic were getting beat 5 nil by Barcelona so I bought some beer and stayed till the end of the game

After that we headed to Cabo Wabo, where we had seating out on the Strip. They were doing a 1/2 price happy hour special which meant we got this platter below for only $13



After that we headed back to the room for a rest. We headed back out at night but didn't stay out too long as we were pretty knackered. It was gonna take a couple of days to get used to the time difference.

I forgot to add that I also tried on a more reasonably priced watch that I've also liked for a while.



Thought it looked good on me so I'll probably end up buying it, mainly for work. I think I can get it cheaper over here though than the amount I was quoted in Vegas.

looking good man! I can't remember if I read that you weren't intending on playing any poker? Are you with your gf of mates?

No poker. Played some on my first visit to Vegas (this is my third) and I got bored really quickly. Got speaking to a guy at the table who was good company and told me he was in a band (Karnivool) but other than that it was just too slow for me. Over with my g/f but trying to talk one of my mates into going over for a guys only holiday next time. Either that or we take our partners with us but have days where we can go our seperate ways.

Following day

Headed out to Hash House a Go Go for breakfast. It's famed for it's large portions so we decided to share a fried chicken and bacon waffles breakfast between us. It was pretty damn huge.



Feeling rather bloated we headed downtown where I wanted to visit the mob museum. It's in an old court building and I'd recommend it. There's actually too much to see and we ended up kinda rushing through the last part. Coming from a country where we never see guns in real life, other than in airports, I always feel kinda fascinated by them when I see them in real life. They've also got the actual wall where the St Valentines Day massacre took place with the bullet holes highlighted. It was taken apart brick by brick and then rebuilt in the museum.









After this we headed over to El Cortez. There's no real reason to go there as it's like something from a different age but I'd heard they do a good Root Beer Float so...



I'd been planning to go to Main Street Station casino as they have their own brewery and they had a Cherry Stout that was pretty damn tasty the last time I'd visited so we headed round there. Also, liked this sign we passed on the way



Thankfully they had the Cherry stout in so I settled down for some and for no good reason at all I also ordered some oxtail chilli cheese fries





Being rather stuffed we headed back to the room where I was unable to do much more than rest my bloated belly on the bed.




After a couple of hours rest, shower etc we headed out for the night. Neither of us were hungry enough for dinner so we just stopped off at Pin Up Pizza for a slice of pizza each and then headed to the area next to the Linq. This is new since the last time I was in Vegas and I like it. It's got a good feel to it with bars etc facing out onto the street. I think it's the fact that it's more like a street (which it is in a sense) rather than a bar that's enclosed in a casino. Went to a bar called the Tilted Kilt which has a good selection of beers and a fair number of screens showing different sports. After that we headed back to Paris for a couple of drinks and I played a little video poker

Onto Thursday, a day of disasters...Okay, minor first world problems.

Started off heading to Grand Lux in the Venetian for breakfast. We've stayed in the Venetian previously so we know that a breakfast is large enough to be shared between two but I wanted the brioche French Toast and gf wanted the pancakes so we ended up with two seperate breakfasts and came out stuffed yet again. Had a little wander round the mall in the Venetian as there's a rare book shop I wanted to visit. Some pics below from parts of the mall, it's pretty incredible to see for the first time.









We then took a walk along to Circus Circus. There's really no reason to head there and we know that as we've been once before but for some reason we decided to see it again. The first time we visited I wanted to see it because it had been in an old James Bond Movie and also Hunter S Thompson had been on a fairground ride when he was out of his face on mescaline etc. Unforuntately the ride wasn't there any longer so that was a photo opportunity gone. Knowing all that though we still went back again. Some of the pics below are from the Adventure Dome which is out the back of the casino, containing all the latest video games such as Donkey Kong!! There are also various fairground games etc and a couple of rollercoasters. I've also taken pictures of the people waiting for the circus acts to start. I'd imagine it must be kinda sould destroying working there









I forgot to mention on the way there a group of black guys were stopping people by thrusting a cd into their chest. We just kept walking and they ignored us, although they also tried it on the way back. They've obviously got some kinda scam going and they'd surrounded someone who's stopped at one point and I think they were trying to confuse him about how much money he'd given them and how much he was due back. Also seen them a couple of other times further down the strip the following day. After that we stopped off at the Wynn for a bit before heading over to the Fashion Show Mall and Forum Shops for some shopping then back to the room for a rest.

At night we were heading downtown to a place called Carsons Kitchen for dinner. There's a thread on 2+2 about places to eat in Vegas and everyone raves about CK so I was really looking forward to it. Things got off to a bad start when the bus driver suddenly announced that she couldn't get the bus in gear. We appeared to be in a pretty dodgy area at the time and I had visions of the old cult classic movie The Warriors going through my head as I contemplated us having to walk the rest of the way. Thankfully she finally managed to get it going. So we headed round to Carsons Kitchen and.......the place was closed as there was a private function, fml. I was gutted. Decided to head round the corner to a cocktail bar that seems to be quite highly rated but when we managed to get it (it's got a kinda hidden door) there wasn't anyone else there. Didn't want to sit in an empty bar so we headed round to the Griffin which is a kinda local dive bar and they wouldn't let me in as I had no ID, ffs!!!

I should point out that downtown was mobbed and there were loads of people with red tops on. Must've been fans of some sports team or something but I was a bit pissed off by this point so I never really paid attention to who they were, but they were drunk, and many of them were very drunk. I've never actually seen so many drunk people on any of my visits to the U.S. Normally I'm fine with that but given how the night was going I wasn't in the mood so we jumped in a cab and headed back to the Strip. Had a quick bite in our hotel and then headed to the piano bar that's there, Napoloens, and.....it was closed for a private function. Wtf? Started to think the night was jinxed at this point but we headed round to a bar next to the Linq called AmeriCan that has beers from every state in America. Had a few drinks there and then called it a night.

... amazing...

Onto Friday....

We were thinking of going to a Cirque De Soleil show and after weighing up the artistic element of the shows, the costumes involved, the athleticism of the performers, the message behind the show and various other things I decided we'd go to the one that was 18+ only So we headed down to NYNY to buy some tickets for Zumanity. One thing I noticed on the way down is the contrasts you sometimes see in Vegas. The pics below are both taken from the same point on the strip but just opposite sides of the road





When we were buying the tickets for the show the girl who was selling them was telling us to turn up early as you get to (and then she turned to my g/f) 'meet and flirt with the performers' before the show. My flirting days must be behind me We headed up to Coney Island which is the arcade within the casino and had a little walk around there. There's a drum simulator there which I couldn't resist (Who can resist a shot on the drums?) so I stuck on Enter Sandman by Metallica and made an unholy racket. G/f filmed it but it's not great viewing as she was laughing so hard at the time. Some NYNY pics below







After that we headed to the Cosmopolitan for the Wicked Spoon buffet. It seems to be quite highly rated so we endured the 45 minute wait and I've gotta say it was worth it. The only problem I find with a buffet like this is that there's so much choice you end up taking a large selection of different things rather then going for 2 or 3 things you really like (like the meat from the carvery!!!). I should mention it was only $27 each.

I'm gonna do my best to list everything I had to eat:
Eggs Benedict
Some sort of bread roll
Crispy bacon
Cheese
Some cold meats
Fried chicken
Some perfectly cooked beef
Marrow jelly
Spicy Mac & Cheese
Hash potatoes with cheese
Noodles
Some sushi (the wasabi was way hotter than what I've had at home)
Fortune cookies
Chicken (forget the name of it)
Chocolate covered strawberry
Min Choc Chip ice cream
Cookie
Oreo chocolate crispy
Small chocolate cone thing
2 lollypops


G/f had something similar but only got through about half of it.











After that lot it was back to the room for a little rest.



Headed back out to do some shopping in Forum Shops (again) and then over to the Bellagio and to a lounge, Hyde, that looks out onto the fountains. G/f ordered a champagne cocktail and I had a very nice bluberry Julep. The serving staff looked pretty damn hot tottering around in their heels and tiny mini skirts but as I didn't want a slap and a drink poured over me I'm afraid there aren't any pictures of them.





Headed back to the room to get changed and then went out for the night. Pinup Pizza again for a slice of pizza, as we were still pretty stuffed from the buffet, and then onto the Chandelier Bar in the Cosmopolitan. It's basically a cocktail bar over 3 floors that's inside a giant chandelier. After that we went for a bit of a wander and stopped in at another couple of bars and then called it a night.

Really enjoying the daily reports mate. Huge effort at the buffet

Cheers. Really overdone the food most days. Weighed myself before I left and then when I got back to see the difference and was surprised I'd only put on 3 pounds. All the walking must've kept a lot of it off.

Played a few hands yesterday and I'm still always surprised by the mindless agression of the Russian players.

1) Thought this player was banned as I'd seen him at the tables everyday and then he disappeared for a few weeks. But he's back

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Party-Poker Converter Tool from http://flopturnriver.com/

Hero (MP) ($26.61)
Button ($32.96)
SB ($25.10)
BB ($25.32)
UTG ($24)
CO ($54.07)

Preflop: Hero is MP with A, Q
1 fold, Hero raises $0.75, CO raises $2.60, 3 folds, Hero calls $1.85

Flop: ($5.55) 5, 3, A (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $2, Hero calls $2

Turn: ($9.55) J (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $3.50, Hero calls $3.50

River: ($16.55) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $7.86, Hero calls $7.86

Total pot: $32.27


Hero had A, Q (two pair, Aces and fives).
CO had 9, 9 (two pair, nines and fives).
Outcome: Hero won $30.66


2) Villain has 55% WWSF. I did think about raising the river as I was sure I was ahead given his sizing but I didn't think I'd get called by anything worse.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Party-Poker Converter Tool from http://flopturnriver.com/

Hero (BB) ($44.09)
Button ($33.08)
MP ($47.49)
UTG ($25)
SB ($32.60)
CO ($29.88)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, K
UTG raises $0.75, 4 folds, Hero calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.60) A, 5, K (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1.20, Hero calls $1.20

Turn: ($4) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $3, Hero calls $3

River: ($10) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $5, Hero calls $5

Total pot: $20


Hero had Q, K (two pair, Kings and Queens).
UTG had 2, 2 (one pair, twos).
Outcome: Hero won $19



3) Same villain as the hand above

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Party-Poker Converter Tool from http://poker-tools.flopturnriver.com/Hand-Converter.php

Hero (UTG) ($55.92)
SB ($31.63)
MP ($26.09)
CO ($24.65)
BB ($34.40)
Button ($25.81)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, Q
Hero raises $0.75, MP calls $0.75, 4 folds

Flop: ($1.85) A, J, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.25, MP raises $3.50, Hero calls $2.25

Turn: ($8.85) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $6, Hero calls $6

River: ($20.85) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

Total pot: $20.85


Hero had A, Q (two pair, Aces and Queens).
MP had 10, 10 (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: MP won $19.81