Vegas trip report -- long

[2Tone]

So my crew and I hit Vegas this past weekend. Four of us – me, a buddy of mine who is fairly big time, at least compared to me (has competed in a WPT event, regularly plays 8/16 and up in NYC/AC), and two friends who don’t play poker

We came in from different locations, me arriving from Seattle around noon. I touched down and immediately went to the Excalibur room to play the 2/6 spread game, which remains my favorite room in Vegas. Played for a couple of hours – during the day the game was a mix of dumb tourists and solid older regulars. Won $20, with no real memorable hands to speak up. The room itself is very large, with maybe 20 tables, and was pretty full even on a Thursday afternoon. The also spread a 1/3 game and a couple of NL tables. The 1/3 is ridiculous with 8 callers to a hand. Cocktail service is good, dealers competent. I never got to spin the wheel, which is their gimmick for a quads or better or if you get Aces cracked. Prizes vary from $20 to $300 bucks.

Next up I went over to the Mandalay Bay, which has a beautiful room. Lowest they spread is 4/8 with a half kill. I bought in for $200 and had a good run, making $75 or so in a hour of play, almost all of it when my A/7 went from top pair to top two pair to a full house, and I was called the whole way. Sunk $60 of into an entry for the NL evening tourney.

The Mandalay Bay 6 p.m. tourney is a 30 person freeze out – the rake is pretty high, with $8 going the house and another $2 to the dealers, but the structure isn’t bad, with a decent amount of time before blinds get too crazy, especially compared to the crap shoots at the Luxor. Took a big hit early, clawed my way back, and was feeling good sitting at the final table with the top five paying. But the other guy hit his flush draw (in retrospect I shouldn’t have let him draw so cheap) and I was out in eight place. We got drunk and hit Club RA, which was full-on wild. Awesome DJs, hot crowd, good time.

Didn’t get much play in on Friday. Lost money on table games (dumb, dumb, dumb) but it was just a drop in the bucket compared to what we dropped at Spearmint Rhino.

Had some money to make on Saturday, so settled in for a lengthy session at the Excalibur, with the Jets game on a huge screen behind me. Had a relatively tough table, and I should have asked for a change, but was having fun. Played for something like four hours, and cashed out up about $50. Meanwhile, my buddy tore up the NL game at the Palms, making over $600.

Saturday night we hit downtown. I hadn’t been to downtown in years, since before I was a poker player, and walking into Binions felt like hallowed ground. No bad beats, no high hand, just table and tables of poker, and a wall of fame of previous WSOP winners. I wanted to sit with my buddy for at least a little while, so I bought into the NL game. Blinds were 1/2 , minimum buy in was $100, no maximum. A no max buy in NL game is no place for low-rollers like me. Several players were sitting behind well over $1000, and on the fourth hand a guy lost at least $700 when his two pair lost to a set. After about 20 minutes, I find AJ hearts from mid position, and make it $20 to go. For some reason this fails to intimidate these guys, and I get three callers. Flop is a K of spades, Jack of diamonds, and another spade. I bet another $30, (leaving me with about $40), two callers. Turn is blank, and I’m all in, hoping they are on a draw. I’m right about one of them, wrong about the other. His King sends me scurrying back to the 2/4 game, head bowed in shame. My buddy ran his $100 up to $300, but had that all taken away shortly after. 2/4 game was OK, but I’d only slept about 8 hours the whole trip, so I wasn’t at my sharpest. I broke even, taking home a Binion chip as a cool souvenir. Home early Sunday A.M., already looking forward to my next one.