Hey all, it has been a year since my last report from LV, so I thought I would give a new chapter to my career as a poker tourist. Went to LV with my wife and another couple for UFC 94. We were planning on going down with another couple, but they pulled out at the last minute worried about the economy and choosing prudence over rampant capitalism and excess. Some people are much smarter than me.

We decided to stay at the Venetian this trip as we wanted to try to be located nearer the center strip. Did not get in a cab for the first two days we were in town. That is not a bad thing! Normally stay at the MB or theHOTEL at MB, so the Venetian's opulent styling was a welcome addition to the more modern flair at theHOTEL. We had reservations in the Veneszia tower of the V. As we were next in line to check in on Thursday am, with virtually no lines, a concierge invited us to use the invited guest line to check in. I am not certain if this was just luck or happenstance, as I have never gambled at the V prior to this trip, but at IG check in we were upgraded to the concierge level and given the first night free.

Concierge is a separate elevator access level that has a lounge that does complimentary breakfast and cocktails with light appetizers from 5-8:00 in the evening. It normally runs $100 a night in addition to your base room rate. For a free service, it was great, but would really not have been worth an extra hundred. We only went to one of the evening deals, and had two cocktails. I ended up tipping the bartender $20.00 so it was not much of a "free" evening. Apps turned out to be cheese and meat trays. Breakfast the next day was coffee, juice, fruit and pastries. When I am in LV, I normally need something with a little more grease in the morning to keep me going. Severe alcohol poisoning is not best served by pineapple slices, so we did not go to any further breakfasts there. If I had paid for it, might have talked myself into using it more...

Regardless, rooms at the V are great. Big, comfy beds and quiet. Only bummer about the Veneszia tower is you have to take two elevators to get to your room. If you are still reading this, I will get to some poker eventually, bear with me.

Things get a little interesting after a great dinner at Nobu in the Hardrock. Pleased to see that the HR has added go-go dancers to there casino floor, so as you are playing BJ under there horrible house advantage rules, you can at least look at some eye candy. The poker room is right on the way to Nobu and had two tables going when I walked past on Thursday at 8:00. Looked cool hip and modern in there, not sure about how that changes the way people play. The crowd looked like unless you had an Affliction shirt on and a relatively modest selection of early 2000’s hip hop on your iPod, you would be terribly out of place. Young hip and too cool for school...

Get back to the V, and the wife a now drunk enough that I know she is on her way to the room for bed shortly, so we take a quick stroll the casino to check out the action. As I am walking past the craps area, I see Phil Ivey playing at a table with another gentleman standing to his right. Not sure if he was playing too, but Phil had about serious money in front of him. Looked like about 2’ of yellow chips in his rack with a few other colors I have never seen before. Could not see what he was betting per shoot though. My wife at that minute decided to debate me if it is Phil or not, so we actually stop. I watch him throw a couple of times, and he is definitely trying to throw the dice with a lot of consistency each time. Never saw them tumble in the air on any throw and looked to be landing in the same spot each time. The table limit sign only said "reserved" so I have no guess at what level he was playing. Just as we start to walk away a very nice man in a suit walks up. He mentions that he works at the V, and the player is very superstitious. We had every right to stand anywhere we choose in the casino, but it does affect other people’s enjoyment of their game. I really appreciated how he handled scooting us along, and did not feel bad about the whole encounter. Thanks to the V staff for being nice!

Now to the poker....

Get wife to the room and back down to the poker room. First things first, it is huge. I would guess 10 times the size of the MB room. Don't even have to break stride as I walk to the brush and ask about $1/$2. Get escorted to the table right away. As we are walking through the room, I go through my checklist. 1. Be smart. 2. Don't stack off in marginal situations. 3. Know pot size and players in pot at all time (biggest difference from live to online poker in my opinion). 4. Play tight early to get the lay of the land, and then loosen up if the table warrants it. I have a few more reminders I want to give myself, but I am now seated. Floor go lets the table know that I am playing $300 behind. Get seated in the cut-off and make note of how lucky that is...

Cards get dealt around and I watch 3-4 limpers come in before I look down at my first two cards of the night. What's that? How you like me know? Did I just see 10/10? Hmmmm.... Limp middle pair and hope to flop a set? Raise it up and isolate or take the limpers down right now? What to do? I decide the raise is the best play for no good reason, as I have no chips to actually play with. I make it $20.00 to go, more curious to see what the limpers do, how tight the table is, maybe portray a loose, drunk image. Folds around to last guy who calls. Flop is 7 8 10 rainbow. Perfect! Glad I raised because I am pretty certain that I got rid of anyone playing 9 J. I am hoping for the other guy to have woken up with an over pair that he tried to play tricky. Let's hope he has an under set, or even 7 8. These are all the thoughts that go through my head, as I am spending my winnings in my head. Check, I bet $25 in to the pot of $50, and he min raises me to $50. Perfect, I am now in a great position to possibly double up. I now finally have chips to use, so the dealer gets the pot right after I smooth call the donkey. Turn is a blank, and I bet $100. He raises me all in and, has me covered. (At this point the thought that a complete idiot would have more chips than me and the initial buy could have been a warning sign to me, but my head was spinning as I could not stop looking at all those tens.) I call almost instantaneously. Every single person at the table turns to the donkey and asks him if he has 9 J, which he flips over, of course. I ship him my first buy in, and reflect on how badly I played the hand, and come to the conclusion that I played pretty bad. I take a few minutes over the next couple of hands to look at the table, almost no one is drinking, and most look pretty much looked like they got dressed at their own house to come play at the V. Uh oh, this could be trouble…

There is a clear tourist who is sitting 3 to my left. I get the sense from the two guys to my immediate left, that he is not well liked at the table. Kind of a jerky table captain type of guy that has rivered a few winners. Good way to get a table to hate you. I however, can see myself becoming very popular. People are so nice telling me about the cooler I took, as they mumble to the people next to them how they can not believe that I did not put the guy on 9 J. Anyway the next hand I get in on is my blind still in the first orbit. Couple limpers, raise to 10 couple more callers, and I am in the BB with 8s 9s. I call and everyone else completes. Around fifty in the pot. Flop comes 8d 9d 2H. Nice! Top two, but got a little flushy / straighty thing happening, so I need to be really careful. Just got another rack of chips, and I don't want to lose them. After the first hand, I joked a bit that I might have to give my wife a call to bring more money down before she falls asleep. I really did not want to have to do that! Wife tends to hear a lot more about the wins than the losses, so getting a reload is only going to cost me in marital equity.

I bet $40 to see if I can price out the draws. Everyone folds to the table captain / tourist guy. I am completely convinced he is hunting diamonds, and I am going to play accordingly. He calls, which further confirms my draw suspicions. turn is the 4h, great card for me. I decide that I should bet $50 this time, as more of a value bet / not wanting to get pot committed if a diamond hits the river. He of course calls. Cool, but be careful. Remember top two is not a hand to go broke with. Slow and Steady can win the race. I still have $200 left of my second buy in, but I would like to get this pot with its dead money and the other idiots bad call money in the pot. River is the Kh. Perfect, no straight, no flush (You are going to soon learn that there is always a possible flush on a monochrome board, but at this point, I am not thinking that logically. I knew the donkey had a diamond draw, he did not get there, and I am going to be winner winner chicken dinner). I put in a $75 value bet. Which he hems and haws about before re-raising me all in for my last $125. I go through all the mental math, and conclude that even though I am certain I am now beat, I am getting 5:1 to call. I finally give him credit for either a stone bluff on his possible diamond flush draw or an OES draw or a really badly oddly played A/K type hand. I make a fairly crying call as he flips over Th Jh. Open ended straight and backdoor flush draw for a chance to stack, I guess I see what he was doing. Not really happy about the hand at all, and sheepishly request a rebuy...

I shut down to straight ABC poker for the next hour or so, and chip up a bit. I have around $450 behind when I wake up and see AA. I am near the button, but don't remember what seat exactly. Idiot tourist from last hand has been splashing and loosing over the last hour, and has spread most of my money to the rest of the table. He maybe has $150 behind at this point after getting hurt bad in a big pot fifteen minutes ago. He limps, guy to his left calls. folds to me, and I raise to $25. Folds back to idiot tourist who takes fifteen seconds before he raises all in. Without thinking I grab my chips and push them in the middle with extraordinary swiftness. I am channeling my Phil Helmuth insta call, and am so damn proud of myself that I can not understand why the dealer is asking the guy to the left of idiot tourist what he wants to do. Oh yeah, other guy in the hand, and I just acted out of turn. Other guy folds almost immediately, and only had $60 or so behind, but I made a huge mistake on the hand by acting out of turn. So far this session has not gone my way. How many martinis did I end up drinking at dinner? Yikes, I guess I did get a third one near the end...

Anyway my AA holds up against IT's KK, and I am back up to around $600. It is Pyrrhic victory however as IT berates me for ten minutes about my mistake on the hand. At least he is rebuying to stay in the game. My image as complete donkey and idiot has been well established, and I am even pleasantly surprised to have the honor of the guy sitting to my right move to my left after a player leaves. A couple has sat down at the table, and she is not that experienced, I would guess, as she asks why they guy moved. I answer immediately that I am the worst player the guy has seen and he wants to get position on me so he can take my money. He is a pretty quiet guy with a somewhat middle eastern / Mediterranean look about him. I turn and ask him if that is correct, and he smiles slyly and says yes. Table got a good laugh about that.

There is now a seat open to my right and a really nice guy from Mexico City sits down. At the V, cash plays so one of the things I have had to adjust to is playing with green on the table. It is a little difficult to see how much people have, but a quick question of the dealer or player always gets you the information you need to know. Anyway, and interesting hand results from all of that, please bear with me...

New guy from Mexico City sits down with his rack from another table. He has about $60-$70 in the first row of his rack, and (2) hundred dollar bills under the rack that are barely peaking out. He gets cards before he can get the money out the rack so a hand ensues. I had not great cards, and was not paying great attention to the action at this point, but here is how I remember it going down...

Idiot Tourist makes it $10 to go from early position. Couple of callers maybe (4) get to NGFMC, who verbally says all in. He has his hands off the table adjusting his chair I think, so the dealer grabs the chips out of the rack and puts in them in the table. Folds back to IT, who quickly says call. everyone else folds and IT flips over Qs Ts, NGFMC turns over KK, and they hold up. dealer cuts out the $60 - $70 of the all-in chips and has not said anything. NGFMC says this too, and points at $200 that was also sitting in front of him. It became more exposed when the dealer pulled the chips out of the rack, but was visible from the moment the guy sat down. Dealer calls out the $260, and IT goes nuts. He can not actually make a sound for the first few times his mouth opens. I am waiting with growing anticipation to see how this unfolds. IT has turned completely red, and finally gets out the word that I was waiting for, "FLOOR!” Within seconds a nice guy comes over and asks what is happening. IT immediately starts blubbering, and the floor asks him politely to let the dealer explain what had happened, and then he would ask for further information from the players. Dealer gives a good accounting of the action. IT's main defensive point was; no one but an idiot would call in AI bet for $260+/- with a Qs 10s. He also challenged NGFMC playing out of rack, and then made a few more points about playing from Maine to Morocco and never having seen such a debacle as this situation. NGFMC then shows the rack, takes the bills and slides them under to show how they were displayed and says this is what I was playing. When he put the bills under the rack, they were far further out than when he was in the hand, but still displayed either way. I felt that if I was asked by the floor, I would point this out, but not say anything about the action unless called upon. A few other players spoke up with points that generally started with, "At X casino, this is how a situation like this would be handled..." Floor immediately cut them off, which I respected. He quickly explains that cash plays at the Venetian, so each player is responsible to know the size of opponent’s stacks. He than explains at the V players can play out of racks if it does not affect the speed of play, so IT owed the full $260, which was more than his stack. IT jumped up and gave a few, "Well I never's", and a few more "@!!@( decision!"(s) and stormed out of the room never to be seen by me again.

I played with NGFMC for a few more hours and really don't think he was running any angles or doing anything outside the rules. I thought the next day that my dislike of IT probably clouded my judgment, good thing the floor was a very unbiased judge.

Anyway, I was able to get my stack back up to $900 over the next couple of hours, so I was back to even Steven for a pretty poorly played session of poker. I was just glad to walk away with what I came in with. I cashed out for $927 at 4:30 am. I gave the guy in the cage the additional $27, which I got a feeling was a pretty rare occurrence, as he was really appreciative.

I was not able to play anymore poker this trip, but did go see Love at the Mirage. If you like anything about the Beatles, please go see the show. It is visually and audibly stunning. We also went to UFC 94 and saw BJ Penn get a serious beat down put on him. I think GSP is going to have to move up to 185 to fight Anderson Silva to find anybody that can compete with him. We had floor seats which were great for celebrity sighting and meeting but sucked to watch the fight. Almost any seat in the Lower Level sections would be better to see in the Octagon. We had dinner at Mesa Grille in Caesar’s, and it was great. Best cocktails I have had with a dinner. After the fight we ate at Wolfgang Puck's Cut Steakhouse in the Palazzo. Second best and second most expensive steak I have ever had. Go to Craftsteak in the MGM for the first and first. Anyway, steak after UFC fights is a perfect way to end another great Vegas trip...

Final note would be that the town was packed this weekend, but EVERYONE was saying that it had been dead for the last few months. Everything was much less expensive. Every shop at the Forum and Canal Shops had sale signs in the windows. I gave my wife $200 for walking around money for tips, drinks, cabs, the like, before I could give her any more for shopping etc. She never asked for more and came home with a few bags from the mall. Cab from airport to V was $12.90. Got a town car from MGM to V after the fight for $30.00. On Friday night the casino was packed but still had a few $15.00 BJ tables. I have never seen a $15.00 table on the strip after 8:00 before. All the BJ rules were decent at $15-25, (3:2, HoS17, DAS, Split Aces). I had a great BJ trip as well. My stiffs were not busting, etc. I still lost a bunch of the hands, but at least I still had a chance. Best shoe of the trip was on Saturday Afternoon. Sat down on a new shuffle and the first four or five hands at a full table does not have a face or ace show up. Guy on first base sees 8 threes on a dealt pair of threes hand. Dealer has a six, bust and the guy gets a nice monster to boot and 3-4 splits and double downs. After that the dealer gave me nothing but BJ's and Twenties for the next twenty minutes. I ran my $200 buy in up to $2600 and walked away from the table up over a $2000 after playing for a few hours. Last few trips to Vegas have been far worse for me at the table, so I am very happy to leave with a bit more this time. I will be curious to see if my play is appreciated by the V in the future.

Thanks for reading, and sorry about the length!

ktmoneyman