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Solo Poker Debauchery
This report is long overdue (and very long); however, I couldn’t help but reminisce as I am currently planning another trip in April. This was my first trip to Vegas and I was stoked.
A little history on myself: I am a former poker degen that used online poker as a primary means of supporting myself thru college. I stopped playing several years ago for multiple reasons (new wife, new kids, new job…etc), but primarily because I developed a nasty craps habit that swallowed my bankroll (appx $20k total losses).
On to the trip. I arrived at McCarran on time via Continental, grabbed a shuttle bus ticket, and caught a ride to MGM (around 9pm local time). After a quick check-in, I dropped my bags, called the wife to let her know I didn’t die, and got in a 2-5 game at MGM.
At this point I must mention that this is a solo trip. My wife believed I was out of town on business for 3 days, so I had no responsibilities. I understand this is probably –EV for life, but I needed to relax after a very stressful year at work. For those who have not done it, I can’t recommend going solo highly enough. The ability to come and go as you please, play for as long as you please, and generally to wtf you want is absolutely invaluable.
Back to the game: I sit and buy for $400 and generally sit back to try and get a feel for the table. Game was fairly somber and serious, so I begin to lag it up in order to try and get the table gambling. The biggest hand came when I picked up QQ in my straddle (re-popped to $50 as was standard) and flopped a set. No one believed me (as was typical for this game) and I scooped about a $750 pot.
After several hours of arguing with a trust fund baby (tfb) trying to convince him that just because I am from Louisiana, does not mean I am from N’Awlins, we begin butting heads. I am two from his right and consistently call his raises (he opened about 50% of his hands when limped to). He finally figured out that I was floating just about every one of his c-bets only to bet him out when he checked on the turn. Unfortunately for him, the hand he decided to trap with, I had the better of it and ended up stacking him (don’t remember specifics).
This put tfb on monkey tilt, and he proceeded to pound bull & vodka’s to the point of oblivion. The floor proceeded to ask him to leave when he actually fell out of his chair. This was one of the highlights of the trip. Strangely enough, I saw him in the game the next morning, stone cold sober, playing like an uber nit. He claimed it was because he was only making his football bets, not really playing poker. Whatever.
I end the night +400 after being as high as +800. A wild game with 3 English men proved to be more than any of us could handle, so I went to bed around 4am.
Up by 9am (ugh, biological central time), I decided to take a stroll go Grand Lux for breakfast. After an amazing eggs benedict and average spicy mary (yes, they are better in cajun country), I decided to play the 2-5 at Venetian. I bought in for $600 and never could get going. I tend to play a very Lag/domineering type style, but this was a table of generally solid players who took advantage of me at every opportunity. So while the table was –ev for poker, it was probably the most social/hilarious sober poker game I have ever played in. I got to listen to a 20 something philipino chick talk about dp (double penetration as I was kindly informed) with a 50 something bdsm chick from new york. As you can imagine, the morning poker croud was absolutely mortified at the conversation. I end up dropping my full buy-in after 5 or six hours chasing an oesfd in a 3 way pot.
I stroll back to MGM (my typical was to catch the monorail upstrip, and punish myself when I busted by walking back to MGM), and get a couple hours of email in and call the wifey. Finally satisfied all is well, I reload the roll and go downstairs for a game.
Sat at the 2-5, bough in $500 and proceeded to gamble. We ended up with as wild a game as you could ask for at 2-5. I think at one point there was close to $20k on the table. I got my stack to $1,200 (mostly on catching junk two pairs after raising in lp with trash). This was around 1am. At this point, most of the table was either wasted or tilted. I watched a $1,200 pot get won with K-high after getting all the $ in on the river. The funny thing was, both players thought it was hilarious (locals??).
Anyway, the following was almost my read of the century: New guy has sat and taken several beatings in the last 2-3 hours from those playing trash. He has begun to loosen up when he and I get in a hand. I don’t remember specifics, but I know the board was draw heavy but never got there. I made 4th pair on the turn. On the river, he led for $150 into a $200 pot. I was very confused by his bet, and just sat in silence. Finally I look at him and see the veins in his neck going nuts. The best hand on the board would have been top set, so I did not think he could be that nervous with a monster, so I decided he was bluffing. I called only to have him show me 3rd pair!!! He was indeed bluffing, but with the best hand. Handsight being what it is, I should have raised/pushed if I felt my read was that strong.
Being the nice guy that I am, I told the guy why I called after the game. I saw him playing the next day with a turtle neck on!
Anyhow, I ended the night (ok, morning around 9am) going busto in a $1,200 pot after a brand new player comes in. I call his raise with A4 as I have basically been ignoring my cards all night and playing position. Flop comes A4X rainbow. He bets, I raise, he calls. Turn is a blank, he checks, I bet, he shoves. I get a sick feeling and call (getting 4:1) but knowing I’m probably smoked. Sure enough he turns over AA and I go to bed.
I wake up Thursday shortly after noon, disgusted that I have twice built up nice stacks, only to bleed them back as I get tired. Note to self: quit when you’re ahead. I do a little work, then head back to the 2-5 with my last $600 of poker roll. I’m in for the whole $600 when I go on a little heater catching monsters with junk when I raise and have $1050 when the following hand takes place:
I’m in MP and get dealt JJ. Several limpers, and I pop it to $30 (as expected since I don’t believe I limped a single hand pre this session). 4 callers, then UTG re-pops to $130 (note: he had busto’d the previous hand when flush came on river after AI on turn). I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone tried to play back at me, but for some reason thought I was good. He had another $350ish behind, so in my drunken state (did I mention a redbird to the waitress when I sat down got me 5 min drink service on Heinekins) I decided to push. He calls, shows AA, and I obv suck out the J on the flop. So now I’m back to $1,600 (starting roll for the trip), and feeling great.
I call the masseuse over, tell her 40 minutes, and rack up when she’s done. I must say, this was an amazing massage that completely relaxed me. In fact, I was relaxed to the point that I slowed my game down and managed to lose a grand total of $80 when I flopped trips with a trash kicker. Left the game with $1,500.
Treated myself to dinner at Craftsteak (ate at the bar, nice food, soso bartender) then decided to cap my poker off with the Bellagio. Floor was as described (gruff, inattentive…and so on), but it’s hard to be a poker fan and not play at Bellagio at least once. Got into the $2-5 and bought for $500. Game was meh, action was fairly tight. The highlight of this night was that I got to play with probably the most beautiful person I have ever seen. This chick was a foreign raven haired beauty, wearing a chic black dress that was open from her neck to her belly button. She seemed to enjoy laying back so that her dress covered nothing and the entire room could see the black lingerie underneath. Unfortunately, one dumb guy decided to bust her and she got up and left, After the entire table berated him (even the mute dealer), the guy apologized and offered to go after her. We laughed as we say the Latvian brute that accompanied her.
The only memorable hand of the evening happened to be when I called an EP raise with 97o, saw a flop 5 handed, and flopped the nut str8. Was bet into on all streets by an off duty dealer who never, EVER, folded or stopped betting unless he met extreme resistance. As I was licking my chops as the river was dealt, I saw a dreaded card that put a 4 card straight on the board. As I called his ½ pot bet on the river, I knew he was going to show me the back door str8. Sure enough, he had the Q, no pair. I ended up leaving -200 around 3am. Got up at 5am for a 7:30 flight. Made it home with uneventful travel.
Cliffs notes: MGM room is nice, dealers are good, mgmt was competent and friendly. Venetian is luxurious, mgmt was above and beyond, game was tougher (11 am game, competition to be expected. Bellagio seemed worn, game was meh, floor was, well, a Bellagio floor.
MGM did knock about $50 off my already low $79/night room, so that was an added bonus.
Bad: No hookers bold enough to approach mildly attractive single white male!
Next up: Upcoming trip plan with decision tree for wild solo adventure #2!!!
I sure hope you let your wife run off for a few days so she can get a break from responsibilities too.
nice trip report...I do about 3 of these solo poker trips to Vegas a year, they DEFINITELY keep me sane. As Alaska suggested, my wife does a trip a year with her girlfriends without me or the son which keeps her good for us the rest of the year
I should submit trip reports for those, I forget to do that
Nice report, I'm up to 2 'working' trips a year in Vegas.
I could not agree with you more on the solo trip. Tomorrow, I am headed to Vegas for yet another solo weekend, which I do about 3-4 times a year. What I do is tell the wife I have depositions somewhere, and it has the added bonus of not having to answer the phone once during the day because I am "in a deposition." Then, I take a dinner break at about 6:30 Vegas time, call my wife, which is 7:30 her time, say good night because she goes to bed at 8 or so, and get back out there. Since I don't chase woman or, um, use local services, I don't have to worry that not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. As for bankroll, I bring about $2,000, which my wife doesn't know about because i have a nice side poker account, which I opened years ago when I knew we would get married. I have a feeling this weekend is going to suck, as I am due for a bad trip since I won the last three times out there, and one of those times I won nearly $9,000 on two of the luckiest suck outs you will ever see.
I advise all you fellas, leave the wife at home, go without your boys, and hit Vegas for a 3 day poker bender. You'll be a happier man for it.
Great trip, I love the part about not telling Wife.
Went for a week solo in January (did tell future wife). Wouldn't be going back in 09' except I won a $100 satallite to the Main Event while at a WV Casino a couple weeks ago. Damn, honey, got to go back.
I make sure the wife has her time away as well...when she wants it. She is still having attachment issues with our kids; however, she did finally take a long weekend a few weeks ago to go visit some girlfriends (or so she said
).
Anyway, vinny must have my gameplan down pat as my itinerary was (and is) similar. Last trip I brought about $1,500, and this one will be about $2k. All money's wife doesn't know about and won't miss. Don't worry Alaska: I support her shopping habits to the hilt.
Next trip is April 21-24 staying at MGM. Plan on doing similar itinerary as last time, broadening out on eating and trying to get in 2 nice meals. Thanks for reading.
LOL at having to lie to your wife about going to Vegas and the amount of money you take. Not sure which of you is at fault, but I'd stop lying or get out.
Good trip report, though. Like the poker action.
@cajun guy
terrible bad beat right there dude!!
other than that, great trip report!!
I shouldn't have said I had a feeling it would be a bad trip above. It was. Well, it would have been worse had I not cashed a real sweet UConn/Nova parlay on Saturday, especially since I took Villanova on the money line. I lost a total of just under a grand. Here's the summary for posterity:
Arrived Thursday night at 10:00. Did something smart. I went to my room, relaxed, and went to bed.
Got up early on Friday to play the noon Omaha High-Low at Orleans at noon for $60 total. I haven't played Omaha for a few years so I just wanted to play a cheap one. While waiting, I won about $125 at the 4-8 table. I did OK in the tourney, about 30th out of 60. I went back to 4-8 and lost $250 over a few hours to what I call jokesters. I was kind of pissed. Left, went back to my hotel, cleaned up, drove out to Red Rock. Great room. I played 4-8 for a while, went up over $100, and hit the 2-5NL table with $500. I bled slowly, like everyone here would understand. I would get A-K suited or pocket 7s and raise, but then see an atrocious flop and have to fold to solid players. I was down to about $220 before I got into a hand where I turned the nut straight with two hearts on the board. (I had 9-10, board was K-J-7-8) Guy bet $60 and I had to push (obviously) for my last $130. He tanked for about a minute and called. He hit his nut flush on the river, but I wasn't upset because I would have called too. He had about $400 in front of him and had A-Q suited, for both the nut flush draw and Broadway draw. Good play on his part. I bought another $200, didn't really do much, and picked up at about 1:30 a.m. with $140. Then I really screwed up. I was still steaming about the clowns at Orleans so I decided while I was on I-215 to stop back there. Big mistake. I wound up at a 4-8 table where I was the only non-Asian player. They were raising and re-raising like crazy. One hand I had pocket As in a capped pot where there were 6 players, meaing there was about $120 in before the flop. I flopped a set on a rainbow board of A-9-6, as beautiful as it gets. The betting and raising started right back up. The turn was a 4, betting and raising, river was an 8, no flush possibilities. You can guess what happened. I lost to someone with 5-7, a guy who had nothing in the pot before a few raises and who had nothing on the flop. It was sick. One interesting thing about this game was in a later hand the guy next to me bet and while the guy next to him was about to much he said something real quick in what I think was Vietnamese and the guy pulled his cards back and raised. I was so pissed I re-raised the guy. He, as you might expected, folded. And I started on him, saying what happened to that hand, which was worth a $16 raise a second ago but now isn't worth $8 into an $80 pot? Of course, his friend (who I know told him to raise) had all the answers for him. They knew they were caught. I told the dealer to enforce English-only during the hand, and of course he didn't. I wound upon on full blown tilt and lost $600 at a 4-8 table. WHo the hell does that? Luckily, I ran out of case and on my way to the ATM for more money I wised up and just kept walking for the door.
Saturday I had an inkling to play a few hours of 1-2 at Binion's when I walked in 10 minutes before the 2:00 p.m. $70 (with $40 rebuy/add-on) and signed up. There were 140 players total. With about 40 people left, I got real lucky when I was short-stacked in the big-blind with 10-8 hearts and pushed against one limper, who as you might have guessed turned over A-A. I went running 10-10 to win the pot, doubled again on the next deal with a flopped two pair A-10 (vs. A-J) and was in good shape. Was down to final 18 (14 got paid) when the short stack pushed all-in. I was on the button with only the blinds behind me and had Kd-Qd. I sat there for a second and almost said all-in to go heads up with a guy I had way covered. Instead, stupidly, I just called. The small blind (a huge stack) called and we were off to the flop. Flop came A-10-something, I don't recall the suits it may have been a rainbow. I know it wasn't 2 diamonds. Anyway, the small blind pushed all-in right away. I tanked for a minute and thought that this guy seemed real good and knows what he is doing. Normally, I'd expect check down so close to the money but this guy must have hit the flop real good to bet like that. I folded. Sure enough, he turned up A-10 and I thought I got lucky but not going all-in before the flop. You can guess what spiked on the turn. That's right, a jack. Had I pushed like I should have, and knew I should have before the flop, I would have been sitting real pretty with 17 left. Instead, I lost a lot of chips and went down 14th when my JJ went down to A-K when a King spiked on the flop. Nevertheless, I liked the tournament a lot and recommend it to anyone. It was very well-run and the players were good. I don't mind losing to a good player. What I can't stand is losing to bozos. As you saw above, you see what it does to me.
Saturday night: I guy I know said I should go see the Hard Rock poker room. He said it was a cool place, nice looking dealers (hey I can look) and I would like it there a lot. My friend hasn't been this wrong since, well, two weeks ago when he said The Watchmen was a great movie. Anyway, there were no seats in the 1-2NL game and the lady at the desk told me the $60 tourney had started but I could still sign up. I did. I wish I hadn't. The players were clowns and drunks and I cleaned one guy with a cheap flush. I watched him play and everyitme he raised he showed an Ace. He raised one hand and I knew he had an Ace, so I called with 4c-2c. The flop came with an Ac-9c-5d. He checked, thinking he was cool because it was so damn obvious he was going to check-raise me if I bet. I checked and the Qc hit on the turn. I bet the minimum and he said "all-in" right away. I of course called and sent him home. About 2 1/2 hours later, we were down to 5 players when I went out because I couldn't stand it anymore and I called an all-in with A-6 with 2 others already in for more than I had. I bsuted 5th and was happy to get out of there after playing for over 4 hours. During the tournament, I have to tell you that it was the worst run room I have ever been in. The dealers let people talked on their cell phone. One guy even said when it was his turn to "hold on" to the dealer while he finished his call. The players were drunk, cursing, berating people, and the dealers did nothing about it. One guy asked for the floor for a ruling on exposed cards during a hand and the dealer (the dealer's name was Kevin, a real jerkoff) insulted the player while he was calling the floor. The floor managers were total idiots, and just about all of the women dealers had no clue about what they were doing. Sure, they knew the basic rules, but it was clear they did not understand poker nuance and that they were hired simply because they looked good. Hard Rock's poker room is the worst I have ever been to and I wouldn't recommed it to anyone.
After that, I needed a real poker room so I went to the Venetian where I lost about $400 at the 2-5NL but believe it or not I was happy to do it because I lost to good players with good hands in a room where they understand poker and took it seriously.
All in all, I took some hits but am still way up for the year thanks to some good recent local sessions and my last several good Vegas sessions. I would recommend htting Vegas by yourself for poker, even if you have to lie to the wife to do it. Yeah, I do feel bad in a way that I am lying to my wife but I need small stakes poker in my life to keep sane and she just doesn't get it. If she caught me, at least she'll know I wasn't with another woman but was playing poker.
@vinnyboombots
For those of you who want to stay married, I would not follow that advice. If you don't really want to stay married, then go for it.
Upon reflection, Buffarino's advice is better than mine. Nevertheless, I will take the risk again sometime.
@vinnyboombots
Oh Boy!
I'm all for a Vegas trip but I would NEVER recommend deceiving your wife so you could go. What if you were killed walking across the strip? How do you think your wife would feel for the rest of her life wondering what the hell you were doing in Las Vegas when you were supposed to be in Delaware on a business trip? Her imagination would be running wild! As the estranged wife of a deceitful husband I think you should rethink your approach. Just my two cents.
Vinny, your marriage could easily end if you get caught. You might want to keep that in mind. Because no matter if you're a choirboy when you are in Vegas, her mind will run wild if she catches you. And nothing you say will matter at that point because you will already be a proven liar in her eyes (you lied about the trip - what else are you lying about?).
Just something to think about.
@AlaskaGal
Oh Boy!
I'm all for a Vegas trip but I would NEVER recommend deceiving your wife so you could go. What if you were killed walking across the strip? How do you think your wife would feel for the rest of her life wondering what the hell you were doing in Las Vegas when you were supposed to be in Delaware on a business trip? Her imagination would be running wild! As the estranged wife of a deceitful husband I think you should rethink your approach. Just my two cents.[/quote]
Better than killed would be maimed and hospitalized. Then he'd have to answer to her.
You know what I did because of you guys last night? I threw the idea out to my wife of me going to Vegas by myself to play poker for 3 days. You know what she said? "I don't know if I would be too happy about that." I said we would talk about it later and it ended at that. My next planned trip out there is for the WSOP. June 12th for the $1,500 limit and then the $1,500 HORSE on the 14th. We'll see if she warms up to the idea.
I will keep you updated.
First time I went to Vegas by myself, I just told my wife that I'm going. She was pissed off and complained but had to accept the fact that I was going whether she liked it or not. Nowadays, all i have to say is that I'm due for a trip to Vegas and she accepts it as part of my life. I appreciate my wife more because of her acceptance and her trust. The nice thing about that is that I never have to deceive my wife. Honesty is the key to happiness in a marriage.
But, speaking about deception, a little story and the "ouch" that can occur. During the tsunami that hit off of Indonesia/Thailand, there was a list of Italians that were in Phuket at the time. One of the names was of a woman that had told her husband that she was going for Christmas to London with her friends. She had actually gone to Phuket with her male friend for some extracurricular activities. One thing that confused me was what she was going to tell her husband when she returned to Italy with a tan...LOL. Guys are gullible....she would probably tell him that she and her friends went to a tanning salon in London.
I vote for marrying women who don't mind a solo trip to Vegas once a year - the lying is just too much stress for me.
s.i.