Every year for the last 14 or so years, I meet with my brother, some high school friends and my dad for a long weekend in Vegas. Since we are spread around the country, this always makes a perfect get-together.
I flew in on an early flight Thursday, January 28 from Columbus, Ohio. Didn't have nonstops like in previous years, except through Southwest. And they wanted to charge well over $100 more than Continental. But oooooh, my bags would have flown for free. I went with Continental, but that meant that I had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. Eastern time. Ouch.
This year, we decided to stay at Caesar's Palace. We had stayed there several times in the past, and always enjoyed it. In fact, one year I visited the tops-optional pool and sat across from what appeared to be a 20-year-old model, wearing only a thong. I sat across the pool from her with my sunglasses for three hours reading a book, and never turned a page. But I digress...
Caesar's did a good job of putting all four of us on the same floor (three rooms-don't ask). Nice rooms, nice hotel. It was great to be back. I like the Mirage, but Caesar's has that certain "something."
Thursday night, got properly lubricated in advance. The best way to do that is to play video poker at a casino bar. You get much faster drink service that way, and you can generally play off of $20 for a long time.
We ended up playing poker at the Mirage. Only my brother and I had energy to stay up, and we ended up at the same poker table. I was playing tight, trying to get a read on the table. Unfortunately, I had been awake for 24 hours straight, and my brother kept ordering us Patron shots. End result-I didn't do a heck of a lot. No spectacular hands, no good play. I left to go to bed for 3 hours. But my brother stayed. The guy that had been sitting next to me at the table said that he was in town on business and had an expense account. He took my brother to breakfast. I'm not sure why. I don't think that there was any quid pro quo, but you never know.
Friday, we all entered the noon tournament at Caesar's. 85-89 entrants, and the buy-in was $85. This is a good tournament. With the initial chips and the blind structure, you have time to make good reads/decisions, rather than some of the shove-fest tournaments you can get in. Played well at times, lucky at others. Made it to the final table. The discussion began about chopping the pot, and everyone was for it. I was short-stacked ($23,000.00 versus the big-stack with $230,000), and so I was all for it. However, a Russian 20-year old next to me refused. He probably had about $50,000.00 in chips, which put him somewhere in the middle. I watched him get lucky a few times earlier, and was convinced that he was more lucky than good. So...we ended up playing until the table got down to 8 players. At that point, Russian boy said that he would allow a chop only if he took $1,000.00 out of it. Again, I was short-stacked and so I was up for anything. Big stack was good with it, as was everyone else. So, I walked out with roughly $550.00. Not bad.
Then, I started drinking with my friend/brother/dad. Wandered around again, and my brother and I ended up playing at the Imperial Palace. Rowdy drunks at other table got kicked out, and their table shut down. Thankfully, we were mostly calm drunks at our table. Again, too drunk/tired to do anything meaningful. A guy to my left was getting lucky with crazy/stupid calls, and they reinforced his high opinion of his poker skills. My brother pointed to him and said that he was going to take him down. I was card-dead, and I kept nodding off. Rather than fall out of my chair (after roughly 27 hours awake), I went to bed. My brother told me later that he took down that guy to my left, and in high fashion. Rather than neatly placing bets, my brother slammed his bets onto the table, with chips flying everywhere. Not once, but twice. So much for calm drunks.
The next day, I played at Caesar's at a 1-3 cash table. A couple of locals were there, and they were really nice guys. I played tight for awhile, to establish a table rep and to get reads on players. Plus, I was fairly card-dead for hours. Then, a guy sat down with his dark sunglasses, and proclaimed (with his play) that he was God's gift to poker. He was pissing everyone off, making stupid raises/calls, and sucking out incredible wins. I told the local guy next to me that he and his friend should take him out, but they both ended up getting busted at various points. My opportunity finally came roughly 20 minutes later. I was dealt JQ rainbow. DB in glasses raised to $15, and I called. The flop was JQx, with two diamonds. I bet $15, and DB in glasses raised. I pushed all-in. He had a pair of queens and four cards to a flush draw. Turn was another queen, and I was golden. Walked away with over $500.00. Locals congratulated me for taking him down.
All in all, played great while sober and horrible while tired/drunk. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that. With regards to rooms, I'll say this. Drink service at Caesar's was mostly good, but sucked at one point when we couldn't get a waitress for 1.5 hours, even after the dealer called for one twice. Plus,the room itself is not visible to those walking by, and so it generally only attracts serious players. That is both good and bad. Nothing bad to say about Mirage-they did a great job with drink service and room management. The room was very visible from anyone walking the casino, and attracted all kinds of players. The Imperial Palace had good drink service and good management (Richard, who ran the room, is a beast. Not a guy you would want to mess with. I saw him face down several drunks/idiots.) The IP did seem to attract more weak players. All in all, from Thursday through Sunday, I got about 14 hours total in sleep. I probably played at least twice that in poker, if not more. A great time was had by all.