Vegas Trip Report

Just back from Vegas - stayed on the strip for the first time, MGM, instead of the Nugget. There is certainly a much better variety of games available and at this time of the year you can walk to most of the casinos or take the monorail. We took taxis a couple of times but the traffic is so heavy on the strip it seems to take an age to get anywhere so the monorail probably best in the summer.

The plan had been to play the Ceasars $300 on Saturday and the Bellagio $500 tourneys as all the others appear to have horrific juice. So we went along to Ceasars but the field was to small so we took a taxi downtown to show Eric the lawyer (a vegas virgin) Binions and the Nugget. A lot of changes at the Nugget with the Sportsbook moved and the buffet now upstairs. We played a small tourney in Binions no results and had dinner at he excellent Hugos cellar in the Four Queens.

Sunday the plan was to ~~go to church and then~~ play the $500 at the Bellagio, but only 2 tables were playing at the start time so we went to the Wynn to see what was going on there. There was a second chance $200 so Jim Jacket and me entered. I went out at the 100/200 level when a very laggy player raised to 700 UTG and was called, I made it 2500 with JJ and he pushed for about 7000 total, dont think I had any choice but to call but comments welcome. Jim Jacket went on to finish 8th and get the Scottish money back.

Monday we had breakfast and somehow I managed to start drinking at 10.30 am (I blame ScotlandStu). We had by now worked out that the days of cheap drink had gone and standard play is to shove a 20 into the slot machine at the bar and cash out after a bit of play. We planned to play a $100 event in the Imperial Palace that had a $500 bounty on Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandieri. However plans change in Vegas and when I got up from a 1-2nl game for a smoke and realised I was so pished that I couldn't remember what table I was playing it was time for bed. The nl games in the MGM were pretty soft although you have to adjust to the huge preflop overbetting.

Tuesday was a bit of a wipeout as I was so hungover but we went to the show at the Luxor.

Went along to the Wynn to play the $1k nl tourney on Wednesday with Jim as I hadn't played any of the tourneys I had planned. Didn't have a great table with laggy players on my left and tight ones on my right. A couple of hands:

At 50/100 there are 3 limpers to my BB - I make it 500 with AQ with a stack of nearly 10k. The first limper 16k (very laggy played almost every second hand) called. The flop comes AQ8. I couldn't see him limping with 88 given his style, so concluded I was ahead and bet about 800. He made it 3500 and I pushed. He instacalled and I thought fml and muttered "you can't have 88" - he had A8.... So an early double up. I later took out a small stack with set over set and was up to 25k. I tried to play a bit but the very laggy player to my immediate left (apparently top cash player) was calling all my raises so I had to quieten down as I was getting pwned. I did have one interesting hand against him at 100/200 level. He limped utg and a tight short stack made it 600 2nd utg. I called with 67suited in the bb. The flop came 79T chk chk chk. The turn came a 2 and I bet 1k, utg calls tighty folds. River is an ace I bet 1k again he makes it 4k - I couldnt see how he would limp and call a tight players raise with an ace, so I called.

Tourney was pretty unevenful after that. We went to the Italian in the Encore for dinner - the $20 vouchers covering the cost of 2 bottles of beer....... I had a horror run of cards after the dinner break and was in pushbot mode for hours. I went out 20th (18 paid) pushing 9bbs with 56 suited on the button and getting called by TT. Jim was still in but shortstacked so we were looking like going out 20th and 19th, but he fought well eventually finishing 10th, once again getting the scottish money back.

Didn't do much on Thursday but went for dinner at the excellent Ruth Chris steakhouse where a bottle of red wine was a bargain a $180....

Up early to catch the 8.45 flight to Newark on Frday and back to a cold wet Glasgow with work on Monday fml...