16 - 17 March 2012

Me and my friend arrived at Las Vegas Mc Carran airport, totally fucked because of the 21 hours of traveling. Got a crazy mexican cab and went to the backentrance of Circus Circus. We stayed three days(fri-mon), 140$ pp at the Westtower, really cheap while it was St Patricks Day the next day.

We went to sleep at 7pm and slept till 5 am because of the jetlag. Around 5.30am we walked through the CC casino and for me; that was the last time walking down to the casinofloor and the mainentrance. Oh my god what a smell, it was so nasty I almost fainted. After the quick walk we went outside and walked to The Venetian. I saw some scary people and a junk pooping on the street, I wasn’t feeling that comfortable with 3k in my pocket. We bought an USA phone at Wallgreens for $50 and played some slots at the Venetian together with my friend and we were up $11, then we grabbed a taxi to CC and we went a sleep again. We were awake at around 8pm and I went to see the Bellagio Pokerroom and played some poker there. So we took a cab to the B.

The pokerroom at the B really dazzled me, I never seen a room with so much style and atmosphere. I registered for a 1/2 nolimit game and set down to play my first hands of my trip. This first session was the sickest session I ever had in my life, I ran really hot, hitting sets, fullhouses and flushes. I bought in for 200$ and after 1,5hours I was up 300$. So I was sitting there playing a 1/2$ game with 500$ in front of me. It was quite an easy table, couple of players playing really tight, an asian bluffer and some old rich people playing loose. Then this handcame up, I am the cutoff and have A9hh and raise to 10$. SB calls and asiandude BB calls too. Flop brings 4x 6h 7h. Both check and I Cbet 22$, SB folds and asian calls. Turn 2h so I have the nuts, BB checks I bet 55$ and asiandude calls again, river was a blank Jx and asian checks again, now I was in the tank for like 2 minutes and was hollywooding a bit, I knew he was tilt because he lost a big pot the hand before and could call an overbet from me so I overbet allin for around 330 in a 150$ pot, the dude thinks for a minute and called with 44 LOL. So I won a 1k+ pot my first session and was up big. Tipped the dealer called May 5$ and we call it a day.

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18 march

Because I am here to play poker and liked the B so much I went to the B again.
I always play with sunglasses because I find this relaxing and I play better when people can’t see my eyes. I also brought some dutch candy with me to give to people I met. I registered for a 1/2$ game again, the pitboss(jessy?) already saw me coming and called me; Hey Walter how are you doing. Wow what a service, how does she remember my name so fast?. So here I was again grinding 1$/2$ in the morning around 9 am, talking to the always kind dealers and other players telling I am from Amsterdam, The Netherlands and gave many people some dutch candy called a “Haagsch Hopje”. It’s a dutch coffee candy which is really nice. Every dealer loved those and I made some ‘ friends’ really quick. God bless good karma ☺. I was playing and was up and down. I ordered free gin & tonics and plain thee’s with sugar from the waitress. So I was playing around 12 hours straight and making 1$/h because I registered the Mlife playersclub card. So I used the card to get some food. After that I went to CC backentrance again(no CC casino/mainentrance for me) to get some sleep.

19 march

The hotelrooms of CC Westtower were really nice but I was happy we moved to Planet Hollywood because it’s at the center of the strip. We stayed at PH for 125$pp for 4 nights with a 15$ Starbucks breakfast. We booked a Hollywood Hip room but my friend did the 20$ trick and it worked out, we got in a resort room which was bigger and was really nice. The jetlag was quite over and at 12pm I headed Caesars to play the 130$ Caesars HU tournament. Jees, what a dramatic, quite, no atmosphere room, it was so depressing. I would never play cashgame or tournaments ever again. Anyways, I played the 130HU event and was out the first round. From the start I wasn’t hitting anything for 30 minutes and if you don’t you are bleeding chips due the blindlevels. Doubled A9 vs TT allin and a half hour later I went allin on a A46hhh board with KhTx and was insta called with 59hh, lol. I didn’t improve and I was out. Because I registered Golden Reward card for the first time they gave me a free $10 so I went to a restaurant and eat a quick pizzaslice which was kinda nice. Then accidentaly walked through the highlimit room and saw an asian man playing a 500$ pull slot machine with 40k in it and I went to play $200 blackjack and lost it in around 10 minutes which was dissapointing but I couldn’t care less because I was up around 900 the last night ☺. After that I went to the B to, guess what, play poker again, making more friends with dealers(Minga(he is so epic),Sue and much more) and players by talking about The Netherlands, Amsterdam and my famous dutch candy. Sometimes I was wearing a orange Holland scarf so I guess some people recognize me. So there I was again, a 22yo dutch Vegas virgin sitting in there grinding 1$/2$ again but couldn’t get anything going. Ended breakeven. I walked from B to PH and wanted to sleep but then I saw heaven at the Pleasure Pit, oh my god. 25$ a bet was to high for me so I just watched a couple of minutes then I went over to the Planet Hollywood poker(room!?). I was there put on a list by an angry asian guy who is calling everyone boss which irritates me. After 10 minutes I was playing a 1$/2$ game with young and old people and no one saying something to eachother so I tried to break the table and was acting like I was drunk which helped really good. I was flirting with the waitress saying she looks really nice and I was ordering gin & tonics. Then waitress stood at the table and I still had my gin & tonic but I waved her and she came by and I said you still look nice darling, she laughed and the whole table laughed, I was limping every hand trashtalking about everything so I called a 12$ raise with K2hh acting like I was a drunkmotherfucker, headsup flop brought 22T, I donkbet and a young guy instamoves allin, I insta call with K2 and he has AT, lol. Good to act drunk I guess, I was up 150$ or so. A couple of hands after that a woman from australia flopped quad queens, this means she gets $50 for a high hand bonus. So I was still acting and I said to the dealer if you give me quads I give you $50 tip because I don’t care about money, the dealer was like wtf and 2 minutes later I got 44 headsup and flop was 44T, so I was still acting drunk and asked dealer, what are the specific rules to get the 50$ if you have quads, dealer told me it was all good now because the pot raked $1, so I was still in the hand with another player called Jim or something, I donkbetted 10$ and he was like wtf is this dude serious, Jim tanks 3 minutes and saying to himself well that guy should have quads here otherwise you don’t say that and was laughing really hard, and he folded TT faceup, the whole table was laughing hahahhahahah so I showed my quads 44 and everyone was laughing even harder including myself. Jim gave me a highfive and said I am a cool guy then pitboss came over and handsover 50$ I immediately give 50$ tip to dealer and everyone at the table saying like wtf are you serious, you are so fucking cool and saying dude you have style, blablalba, everyone shaking my hand and dealer getting nuts laughing and saying he has never seen this shit before LOL. Well yeah, I guess I breaked the table that night. After that played couple of hands and went to sleep.

20 march

I went to the Bellagio again to play some poker, this trip I really played there I think 9/10 days for around 10/12 hours a day straight. I like the service so much, for me, it’s the best pokerroom in Vegas.Registered around 12pm for a 1/2$ and asked for a Colorado Beefburger with cheese and bacon which was free for me because I played there for many hours. The bold black haired chiprunner with an accent called Masseu/Massoe(anyone knows?) fixed this for me. He is running all day to serve the players, I had a feeling he really cares about me and I liked him so I tipped him $5. This day I was running really bad at poker getting 3way allin with 88 on 3c4c8h holding 88 other had 56cc(100$ sidepot) and JJ which was around 600$ sidepot turn x river Jx so I said fuck and went down to PH to get a 2 hour nap/cooldown. After that I went to PH to play poker there and after a couple of minutes I really was “in the zone” there. My reads were spot on which was really nice. I was up about 200$ and then a new asian player mid 30s was joining the game sitting right next to my right. The first hand he played he lost because he was bluffing and he got called by toppair. So the next hand I was the button and the asian raised from the cuttoff, I was holding 99 and just called(which may be bad) to see a flop ATQ. He bets the flop and I call. Turn: T, he bets and I call again only holding 99. River 6 and now the guy is betting $50 so I look at the asianguys face and I see him shaking a little bit with his head so I went into the tank for about 3 minutes and called the 50$, he showing K9 for a bluff, I flipover my 99 and everyone at the table goes nuts saying wow how can you call there are three overcards, which was really nice. I think it’s not that “big” but still it was a nice call.

21 march

Guess what , a new day which means doing some sightseeing because I am a Vegas virgin…. Errrrrrr, no. Went to the Bellagio to play cashgames again, this time I wanted to have a beef carpaccio from the Bellagio Todd English Olives restaurant as breakfast. So I was talking to the kind chiprunner if this was possible and he told me its possible but it was kinda expensive. Normally a beef carpaccio costs 19$ in the Todd English Olives Bellagio restaurant but because it’s a long walk from the restaurant to the pokerroom he said I had to tip $5 to the walker, I said no problem and 20 minutes later I was eating the best carpaccio I have ever had, tipping the the chiprunner $6 for a total of $30. But I don’t care because it was delicious, dont look at my stack btw, LOL. This day nothing really special happened except I saw Doyle Brunson driving by in his electrical cart, a 40yo loose russian dude with a nice 21yo chick and a crazy young asian female in her 20s grabbing a pile of 50k and grabbed 2 100s to play in our 1/2 $ game going blind allin everyhand and paying everyones blinds because she wanted to. I also played the 125$ Aria tournament this day but it was really boring and finally got AA preflop allin against 77 for a 20k pot in the early stage with a 7 on the turn, oh well that’s poker right. I was kinda tilted so I Put in 50$ in a $1 machine and lost it all in 3 minutes. After that played the hangerover slotmachine for 50c a spin and went from 100$ to 195$ so I made 95$ on a 50c spin which was really funny.

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22 march

Touristday! Some other friends were in town too so we all went together to do some sightseeing. At first we went to the famous Las Vegas sign board, cabdriver took some pictures of us. After that we went to the Rio where the WSOP is held but it wasn’t that spectacular. So we walked to the Gold Coast planning to do some bowling. This 70 bowlinglane was so sick. I have never seen that before in my life. We made a $5 bet winner takes all to the winner. I didn’t know one of my friends hobby was pretty good in bowling because it was his hobby, LOL. If I had known this I wouldn’t make a bet but oh well, who cares about $5 ☺ I ended last place because I wasn’t able to score 1 point in 6 games in a row,they were all gutterballs hahahha.I guess I’ll stick to poker.
After that we went downtown to see the Fremont Street show. We were too early so we went to the Golden Nugget to play some nostalgic poker there. After that we went to Binions and made a picture of the $1million dollars and eat at the oldskool Binions steakhouse which was old but the food was great. Then we played some $5-$10 blackjack with some referee/coach dealergirls. One Mexican girl was really nice. I was up 50$ then we cashed out to see the Fremont Street show with the Bon Jovi song which was a cool experience. All the lights, sound and people watching made it fun. After that we went to the Golden Gate casino and played some $5 blackjack over there and we met dealer Alicia, she was so hot and I asked her if she wanted to make a picture from me and her but it was not allowed by the pitboss which was too bad. After that we got another dealer who had big **** but was really boring so I was tilt and went allin for $50 and I lost, then I saw Alicia dancing and said goodbye to her. We hailed a cabbie(which is not allowed in LV but ok) to send us back to the strip again. It was a weird african dude who was driving crazy as hell and we all shitted our pants, he was driving way too fast, changing lanes many times and doing that with just one hand because he was talking with another african dude on the cellphone with the other hand. Scariest cabride I’ve ever had, LOL.

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23 march

After a good night of sleep at PH we check-out and check-in at the Bellagio for 5 nights. We got a room right next to the pokerroom which was really nice. We had a nice poolside view, the room was gorgeous and the beds are (almost) heaven. We went to play some Pai Gow poker, it was my first time so I had to learn it but in the end it was a funny game to play because of the many pushes. So there are we; playing with four friends, then a mid 40s in an electric cart drives by and stops at our table joining our Pai Gow poker game. We say welcome, he says hi and he’s throwing a 25k $ chip on the table, we are like WTF?. So he was betting 500$ a hand beside our 10$ bet a hand. He won 1K$ and then he left the table and went somewhere else with his cart and we were like WTF is this for real? Only in Vegas… LOL. After that we went to Monte Carlo and play some Carribean Stud, I guess almost the only Carribean Stud table in Vegas. Anyways, it’s a fun game to play. So at this time we are playing $10 a hand with three other belgium players(brothers) and one of them betting $100 a hand. So we played there around 3 hours then the $100 better gets quads for a highhandjackpot getting him 5500$ LOL. We were all happy to see him winning that big so we shared the enjoyment. Table was down for around 1 hour because of the administration, after everything was done he tipped the dealer $100 and we got 0$ which was really lame because I would tip everyone playing at the table if I would have hit that big but whatever. We played a couple of more hours then we went to bed.

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24 march

Another grinding day. Ofcourse I went to play at the Bellagio around 12pm, I was up and down and had some alcohol. I asked for a table change then got in a quiet 1/2 $ game. So I was thinking to do the same thing I did at PH and tried to break the table. So I was acting like I was drink, I said I don’t care about money and that I rather have some 20 5$ red chips instead of $100 bill which I think is a piece of shit. I also told I play 25$/50$ on Pokerstars which was not true and showed them my video I shot in the expensive Bellagio suite. I told them I paid 2000$ for this every day which was a lie. Housekeeping saw me and my friend looking at that room and she asked if we wanted to see the view because the room was empty, ofcourse we said yes. So we shot a video and made some pictures and we tipped the lady some dollars. So at this moment, everyone at my table was thinking I really was a drunk highroller or something like that which was funny. I was trashtalking the whole time about weed, Amsterdam, money, chicks, stripclubs, poker, people and much more I can’t even remember, LOL. In the end I was around 200$ up plus I broke the silence at the table again which was nice. I also had a nice massage from a chick which costs me $25 but it was worth it. Gave some dutch candy to some people and ofcourse tipped the dealers good. I think in the two weeks I have been playing in the Bellagio I paid 300$-400$ on tips which is pretty sick but I couldn’t care less because I had a great time playing there and love the service if you compare it with my hometown(paid drinks and 13$ rake a pot, wtf?).

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRPvTkvlNFM

25 march

Played some at B, and couple hours later we went to see some other casinos instead of Bellagio/Aria and Monte Carlo. We went to Tropicana which was restyled and was really nice. We played some $10 blacjack there and the deck was running hot. It was my first “ positive gambling feeling” I cant explain the feeling. Anways, I don’t play blackjack that much so still had to learn some things…..I doubledowned my hand and won but I was too fast taking my bet thinking I already was paid, so I grabbed my bet and only got paid once, the dealer didn’t notice but my friend did and said to me don’t ever do that again. LOL, you could say expensive learnmoney but lucky enough it was only 10 bucks. After that, the deck was running cold so I went semitilted and betted for $50 and had 12 vs a dealers 10, in the end dealer busted and I was up $75. Then we went to Hooters to see girls and play $3 blackjack just for fun but the table was full. We took a cab to Ballys to look for some cheapass Pai Gow poker but we couldn’t find it. We went to Paris, the waitresses their suits are really nice by the way, but they didn’t have any cheap Pai Gow tables as well. So we went to Bills Gamblin Hall and they had cheap Pai Gow poker there. Dealer was really bad, saw a pushing bet as a loss and after a few hands we left and went to see the Bellagio fountains with my favourite singer Frank Sinatara, I really loved the waterspectacle.

26-28 march

The last days I only played poker and was running bad. I was down around -750$ for the trip. Still not bad though. On the second last day a friend told me he was going to play the $125 Bellagio tourney at 2PM. I was thinking about that and because I was down -750$ I guess it was better to take the chance of a big hit or otherwise a slow loose. I mean; you can play hours for $125 so you don’t loose that much. Around 45 players registered and there were really some bad players in this tournament. There was an i
Indian player who looked rich and had like 100k in just 3 or 4 hours of playing. He was making big bluffs, stupid calls, but was really lucky. He busted 8th place. In the end 6 players were left, including me and my friend and 5 places getting paid. I only had 5 big blinds because I got a runner runner against me. So I was talking; why not give the bubble $30 from each player? Everyone insisted and I was really happy because I already played for 6 hours and could go out 6th place getting nothing. So we did that and a couple hands later I saw an ace on the BTN and shoved. SB instacalled me with AJ. Too bad I had A4 but the turn was a miracle 4 for me. Thank you karma, I guess it all had to do with tipping the dealers. After a couple of hands I got AcAx and shoved, player calls with K9cc and flop gave 257ccc. I was quiet but in my head I was like; Oh my god not this again please(I always run bad in endgames) turn was a blank and the river was a miracle club again. Pfew. After that some other players went out because of some tilted moves and plays and in the end we were playing threeway. Me, my friend and a local old guy who was playing okay. Me and my friend had already fixed a deal. We would split the winnings if we both cashed and I was okay with that. I insisted a threewaydeal based on chipcounts, my friend and the local agreed so in the end my friend and me got $1000 and we both tipped tournamentboss $25. After that we went to eat something at Monte Carlo. I can’t remember what the place is called but the food was good but the Ice Tea was gross. Because it was my last day I went to play some couple of hours more at the Bellagio and was kinda breakeven. Because the bold, blackhaired, fast and kind chiprunner had a day off and I really liked the special service he gave me, I asked the pitboss Jessy if I could tip him, she gave me an enveloppe so I tipped Masseu/Massoe(?, anyone knows his exact name?) $10. Then I gave every dealer which I like and know me a tip and said thank you and see you next year.

28 march

We went up early around 6.30 am and took a cab to get on the plane with United from Vegas to Houston and from Houston to Amsterdam. It was a pleasant flight. I’m still screwed up because of the jetlag but Las Vegas was worth it. I’m sure I will be there next year! I have seen amazing things, great people, great poker, nice food and great service. Thank you Vegas and see you next year!