DJPeteski comes to town.
The wife, sis-in-law, her husband and myself landed on 1 Feb around 10:30 am. We work our way over to Bally’s check in and get something to eat. Around 1pm I find my way to the poker room. Turns out I was a couple of hours too late. At 11:30 the Harrah’s bad beat hits paying each non-tourney player close to $900. That would have been a nice start to the trip, oh well.
Overall I was very impressed with the quality of the dealers in Vegas. When all remaining players are all in, they deal the damned cards. They don’t try to create drama for the TV cameras that are not there.
Bally’s poker room is great despite some of the complaints. Yes it can be a bit smokey, yes it is loud. But since it is right in the middle of the casino many see it as just another table game. This room was like playing wiffle ball, and I made some nice profits here. Great management, great dealers, I had a great time. My biggest complaint is the cocktail waitress were nothing to look at.
One of the cool things to do when there was no action was to make like I had OCD and stack the chips by type with all of the little stripes pointing the same way. This room had 3 different kinds of $5 chips: florescent orange ones, red ones and some promotional ones. I got rid of the promotional ones when ever I could as they messed up my stacks.
This was a great deal because I had to play close to where I was staying. I blew out my knee shortly before my trip, tearing 3 of the 4 major ligaments. This was my “home room” from that Friday until Monday the 4th.
During that time the rest of my crew wanted to walk up to the Winn. We rented a wheel chair and we were off. The wife and her sister loved the shops at the Venetian so I wandered down to the poker room. Great looking room, great looking waitresses. Long story short, there were some really strong players here. There were two fish who I was looking to catch a hand against but it never happened. The player to my right was a very strong player who could read the depths of my soul. After the fish got busted and left, I ran as fast as I could from the table. No need to play against strong people when I had the people at Bally’s waiting for me. Though down about $60 it was positive EV to leave, that was my “fold” of the trip.
I wake up real early Sunday am and go down to the poker room for a few minutes of poker. The rest of my party is leaving today and I want to have breakfast with them. I was up like $300 in 45 mins, when I get the call from my wife. I had to go. Fine, nice short last session at Bally’s, this is a great place to play.
After I put them in a cap for the airport I limp on up to IP. I fell in love with the room and had my best session ever. I have never held a full rack of red chips but was able to cash out more than that. Typically I buy in for $100 at a time so you can do the math for my profit.
I tire after a few hours, walk back to Bally’s and take a cab to the Tropicana. This is where hell starts, and I will finish this in my next installment.
I check into the Tropicana and ask for a room close to the elevators, and with the elevators close to the poker room. Turns out she puts me in a room the furthest from the elevator in the wing that is furthest from the poker room. Since I am mostly on crutches I could take stairs that avoids some of the walk, but still that was a horrible deal. The poker room sucked a$$ and I then made my way to the MGM.
There were some really strong players at the MGM, but the fish kept sitting down. I really do like this room, and would probably be a favorite of mine if I was into “serious” poker. But I am on vacation, and I want to have fun, the IP bug has hit me and I want back into that carnival like atmosphere. I crutch it back over to my room and have a horrible nights sleep. Far too much walking, my knee swells up something awful.
The next morning I try and take a shower and find that there is no hot water and the water pressure is so weak that it will not keep the shower engaged. I call the front desk, tell them I want a refund and I get it. Next I call IP and ask for the $50/night deal I saw on the internet. Instead they tell me I can have a room for $40 since I am a rewards member. Can I have early check in? Yes, we will get you a room, close to the elevator, by 9. I pack up, cab it over there, and they deliver. IP will be my hotel when I am without my wife.
I played NL almost all day and had some real trouble getting a profit. Around 7pm I was up like $10, and then lost about $100 when I realized that I had been beaten after the flop. About 7:58 I decide to jump into the 8pm tourney to get a change of scenery. Around the third level I make a great bluff but gets called by some guy and am down to about 1000 chips and figure I am done. A couple of hands later I double up then bust a short stack. Still below average, but healthy when we go to the final table.
There I bust 3 people and am suddenly the chip leader. A couple of others are gone and there are three of us, all in the money. One was good, the other an internet player that was very easy to read. I did a lot of blind stealing that kept building my stack and making them weaker. I got it all in with AQ vs 66 with the better player, but I did not improve. Now I was the short stack, back to blind stealing. I then busted the remaining two players for first. It paid $450, plus I had 7 $10 bounties. I thought that was pretty good, 7/18 bounties were mine, nearly 40%. I watched the second place guy stiff the dealers, so I put in an extra big tip after giving the brush an eye roll. She told me it happens more often than not. What the hell, I was on vacation, having a great time and winning.
I went over to the craps table and won back the tip. Yahoo!
Despite it only being like 11pm I had to get to bed. The bad nights sleep the night before had killed me.
My final day in part 3.
I wake up around 6am and wander on down to the poker room at the IP. The only game going was a 2/4 limit game. After a bit I jumped in and it was the best decision I made all weekend. I terrorized the table. Blind betting, straddling, jedi mind tricks, etc. From 7:30 till 11 I played and cashed out up over 500. At one time I had about 450 in 1 dollar chips on the table. They were falling all over the place. I had to cash them in for reds. Frank (IP Poker) is the brush and when I cashed out he asked me how much I bought in for. His mouth hit the floor when I told him $100.
Later that afternoon I wandered over to TI. Nice looking room, nice hotel. I snagged a couple of $1 chips for use as card protectors. I love their chips. It was a slow day, no AVPs were there (cept for TI Perry). I was very disappointed that I did not make it for the headhunters, but there was just no way for me to crutch it over on time.
While there I made a nice bluff at the pot and the guy makes a good call/read or a horrible one depending how you look at it. Tough luck on him though, I river 3 of a kind to beat his pair. Ship it.
I played some more at IP, and there was nothing real notable there. All I can say is that I will be back. If I go back with my wife I will stay at the Mirage or TI. By myself, IP.
Crazily, I found the poker rooms with the higher rake more profitable then the ones with the lower rake.
I begged the airline ticket agent to tell me that I could not leave Vegas for another week. When she said my flight was not full and would leave on time I told her: “I hate you”. She was a good sport and chuckled.
I really cannot wait until I get back.
You had me going with the "hell" reference at the end of part 1, but you just kept winning. Nice job, sir. Did yopu book your next trip yet?
@LukeSLTS
I had a couple of losing sessions but I played great all week. The only time I was out classed was at the Venetian. The other times it was by idiots chasing draws they had no odds to chase. Tropicana was my biggest losing session, down 200, but I made most of that up at the MGM.
I really like the MGM style poker tables, it is so much easier to stack your chips.
Yeah I tend to agree with you about chip stacking at MGM, though many players hate those rails around the edge of table for one reason or another.
nice report>
Quick questions - you mentioned wheelchair rental - I too have toasted my leg and have put off a trip to Vegas due to the walking.
Where did you get the chair? Was it scooter style, motorized or old school push type? How much$, per hour or per day?
Thanks.
Good read and a nice cash of $500 at $2/4
Great report (all 3 parts). IP is really starting to get some love on this site. Seems MGM is as well. Nice to hear it.
@Uncle Buck
For reference you can get a scooter or standard wheel chair at just about any bell desk. $40/day for the scooter, $20/day for the chair. They have them at the Bell Captain's desk.
I rented the chair in the morning around breakfast and returned it the next day around dinner time. They bell hops where fine with it.
It was kinda cute seeing my 5'2" wife pushing my 6' 230lb ass around.