I headed out to Vegas last Saturday June 4th with my 27 year old son. After an uneventful flight and a quick check in at Harrahs we headed to TI to play the 10 pm $50 nightly. The tourney allows rebuys for the first hour and we saw two or three runners rebuy three times in the short time and a whole bunch of loose, new player, play. My son busted out about 90 minutes in while I bubbled out in what turned into an online turbo pretty quickly, but we had a good time with a couple really good dealers, a friendly staff, and some interesting table mates.
Woke up early the next morning still on East coast time and did the Mirage breakfast buffet which was excellent and then the Express bus ride downtown to play the noon Gold Nugget Grand Series tourney, Other than the room being absolutely frigid it was a really well run and enjoyable day. My son busted out about five hours in being mostly card dead according to him and I followed about seven hours in busting out on an all in push with a mid pocket pair and about 12 blinds to the table big stack catching the nut flush on the river. Our table had some very good players and a couple of really tight new to tourney players but was a talkative, good natured group except for one very well seasoned , know everything, know everyone, had a worse bad beat story than you type of player. We were both very impressed with everything about this tourney and will surely visit again. Sunday night it was back to TI with no luck but another nice time.
Monday it was Caesars for the noon deepstack which I found out after seated that you could reenter which helped the entries swell to around 350. I played pretty solid for the first few hours, taking advantage of some very tight play and was the table chip leader most the day. After our table broke my son went out shortly after about six hours in. I hung around being card dead for the next four or five rounds and busted out 51 missing the money at 47 with my 8’s against KK. Another very good job of running the tourney by Caesars and a fun time although as of now no cashes for my son or I but I did have to remind him I had outlasted him in every tourney thus far.
Tuesday we tried out the Mirage daily at 11 based on a recommendation from a player at the Caesars tourney and it turned out to be a great venture for my son and I. We played the 11 and 7 tourneys two days and my son cashed in 3 of 4 and I cashed in 2 of 4. My son’s got a 4th, 3rd, and a 2nd, while I got a 4th and a chop for 1st although I was the chip leader so tell my son I won it . The tourneys had between 35 and 50 runners in each. We really liked the Mirage room and the format. 5000 in chips and 20 minute blinds let you play a little poker instead of a push fest right away. I have to say there were many new players and or players that have not been in a brick & mortar tourney so we used that to our advantage. One note on that would be one of my few critiques of the Mirage room. I am easy going at the poker table and like the fun interaction and can overlook a lot of the strict rules but it seemed in these tourneys if the rules were a little more strictly enforced it would have made it better for everyone involved. Let me say 99% of the dealers were very good and very friendly, but a few let some basic rules lapse which turned into a couple of issues later in the tourneys. As I said lots of new players here, the bet over the line thing became a minor controversy a couple of times and could have been worse if not for the easy going nature of most players involved. We had a new to tourneys player that never pushed her bet over the line, the dealer would pull it in for her and I did not think too much of it until she raised without proclaiming raise and pushed 600 in chips up to behind the line. The dealer this time does nothing and someone else acts. The dealer gets testy that the payer acted out of turn and the players says she bet. This time the dealer said her chips were not over the line so it was not a bet. The entire tourney her chips were not over the line. Simply enforcing the rule nicely early on would have saved the issue later. My only other issue with the tourneys at the Mirage was that the room managers seemed very busy and many times over the four tourneys we played blind levels were not raised, or raised by one dealer and not the rest, because the supervisor was busy, and the blinds were not raised until players actually complained a few times. It makes it better for everyone if someone is controlling the tourney first and then doing other business. With the critiques let me say that the supervisors and all but one of the dealers were very personable and did try to keep the tourneys running smoothly and I look forward to my next Vegas trip with the Mirage tourneys high on my list.
Overall it was a great six days in Vegas. My son and I both turned a profit in the poker rooms. We left a little of that money at the Let It Ride tables, had some great food and a great vacation.