Warning: very little poker in this report.

Got invited to play in a $150,000 freeroll at Caesar’s with 3 free nights. I live in Wyoming and the weather this time of year is unpredictable. The airport is about 2.5 hours from my house and when I went to bed the night before all roads were clear/dry. It snowed all night and even though I left early, I was only able to go about 40mph. After about an hour I realized that I wasn’t going to make it in time and decided to turn around (all my rooms were comped and the airfare was only $108, so it was no big deal). Just as I was beginning to turn around, the roads cleared and I ended up making it to the airport just in time.

I love the vibe at the Flamingo and they always upgrade me to the Go Suite so I stayed there. Arrived Friday around noon and registered for the Sat/Sun CP freeroll. Structure was absurd, but it was free. My group started at 4:00PM.

Now the interesting part:
Saturday early afternoon, I am passing the time at the Flamingo and try out a game called Mississippi Stud. It is a cross between Let It Ride and Hold Em. You start out with a bet and get two cards. There are three additional bets available. If you like your first two, you can bet 1-3x your original bet and then dealer turns one community card and you repeat until 3 cards are shown. So it is HE with a flop only (5 card).

I bet $10 and get QJd. I bet $10 more and next card is 10d. Bet $10 and next card is Ad. Now I’m getting excited and yell to the pit boss to come over because I’m fixing to hit the royal. He does. I bet $30 on the last bet and the DEALER TURNS OVER THE KING OF DIAMONDS!!! Pays 500-1, so I pocket $30,000! The bad news is they took out $7,500 for taxes, but I put the rest in the cage after tipping the dealer $600 and giving the other two players at the table $200 each. One of the guys takes pictures with his cell phone and emails them to my wife, who I immediately called.

I go to CP to play the tourney and tell everybody about my big win and that I’m running hot so be careful. Since this was a super-turbo most hands were either folded or all in. Third hand I get 77 and raise. LP pushes and I call. He turns over JJ but the flop has not one, but two 7s in it. The table is stunned. For the next hour, every time I bet everyone folds – it is pretty funny. I ended up in 47th place and won $250.

Monday morning I have to check out of the Flamingo and will check out the Venetian for the first time over the next few days. I’m playing LIR and it is like 5 minutes to late checkout and so I put my last $150 in chips $25 across and $75 on the 3-card bonus. Look down to see trip jacks. Dealer turns over a 10 and then A JACK! Pays $6,000. $10K is apparently the limit for withholding, so I basically feel like I got my tax money back.

The Venetian is a super nice hotel, but I found it a little stuffy for my tastes. The dealers were irritable for the most part and I wound up walking back to Harrah’s most of the time to play Mississippi Stud some more. I doubt they were too happy about my play for the comped room, but I’m not planning on going back anyways.

I played in Noon tournament both days but only last about 2 hours each day.

Last two days were at the MGM Grand. I basically was in a haze the whole time there and just kinda wandered around. Played 2-5NL and craps to pass the time.

I’m at the airport now typing this report. It is going to be hard to come back down to reality after this amazing run. Ended up winning over $26,000 (not counting the $7,500 in taxes) and handed out at least $1,500 in tips to help the locals. And I almost didn’t come.

Vegas commentary

Vegas is very slow right now, especially during the week. There are pretty decent crowds, but they seem to be mostly wandering around. The cutbacks at the casinos iare very noticeable and gambling aside, I did not enjoy this trip because of it. They have also really tightened up the comps. I used to get meals/shows/whatever I wanted and now they don’t give you anything but a room. The stores and restaurants were completely dead. I walked down the hall from the Venetian to the Palazzo to check it out and I saw at least 6 restaurants COMPLETELY empty at 8pm on Tuesday night. Unless you wanted to play slots or BJ, you had to wait until noon for the pits to open. I found this very annoying because I was up every day by 8 and had to wait. I think this is a bad idea as that is how they make their money and dealers don’t cost much. The are making the problems worse and losing business.

City Center is too big and completely ruins the view of the Strip. It could bankrupt MGM if things stay this slow.