Feelin Hot, Hot, Hot
Well, our flight was about 20 minutes late leaving Calgary thanks to some people who apparently don't know how to keep track of time. I hope they bought watches while in Vegas.
We landed Sunday night and got a cab to Bally's where I had a South Tower Classic room booked. When checking in they said the room wasn't ready and that it would be a couple of hours until it was. They said they were offering people in that situation a room at PHo for the night so they could have their room ready for them the next day. I knew I would be drinking, so no way did I want to go switching hotels early in the day. So I said I'd just wait.
He disappeared for a couple of minutes and came back to inform me that they had a room for me in the North tower if I wanted it. Bingo, I'll take it.
We get to our room, and I'm pretty impressed. I really liked it. Dad and I left our stuff in the room and headed to O'Sheas at around 11pm. The 1-5 Spread table was full, and there were a few people on the waiting list so we said screw it and played some Let It Ride. Played that for about 90 minutes and I was down 100 and Dad was up a few bucks.
After that we decided to head to IP for some 2-4. We were standing around the only 2-4 table going for a few minutes before we were even asked if we wanted to play. We each got seats within a minute of each other. Both of us bought in for 100 and proceeded to play for a few hours. It was a pretty quiet table, mainly for the fact there were 3-4 deaf guys playing at it. The drink service was terrible for the most part. We played there until about 4am, when I busted out after this hand:
I'm in LP with QsQh. It gets raised in MP, I 3-bet. Folds to the SB who calls. BB folds, MP calls, 3 handed to the flop. Flop comes Ah9h5s. It's checked to me, I bet out. Both call. Turn comes 8h. Checked to me again. SB bets, MP folds, I raise, SB re-raises, I cap. River comes 10h. We end up capping the river and SB flips over Kh9c. Time for bed.
Get up Monday and we go to the Tequila Bar & Grill in Bally's. We get lunch there, both of us ordered burgers, and they were disgusting. I couldn't take more than a few bites of mine. We play some Let It Ride and drop some more cash before deciding to head to O'Sheas a bit earlier to make sure we get a table. We got there around 3pm or so and got a seat right away. The 1-5 spread game takes a lot of getting used to, but it was immensely fun for me. We played with 2 older couples (to me anyways), one from TX, and one from AZ. I kept ending up in pots against the lady from AZ, and I just kept flopping set after set against her. It was hilarious. After playing there until 2am when I cashed out 30$ down and amazingly drunk from Bacardi & Cokes. The bar service at O'Sheas was amazing except for the rare occasional lapse during shift change.
Tuesday I get up and ask dad what he wants to do. He wanted to go to a buffet, but my stomach wasn't into that. So we headed to the Flamingo and he hit up their buffet, and he really enjoyed it while I walked around and took some pics of the garden. I went back to watch him eat for a minute. Then I said I'd meet him at O'Sheas. So I headed over there and waited for enough people to start up a 1-5 game. About 1pm the table got going. Bought in for my usual 60 and cashed out 90 around 4am. There was a guy at the table that I honestly really did not like. All while he was there he would bark at players about making stupid calls, tell them how terrible they were, and generally bitch at anyone and about anything he could. Even when he wasn't playing he was doing it. His main thing to do was to play his blinds, then disappear for 40 minutes to go do some sports betting or something I guess.
Notable hand against him:
I'm on the button with AQc. A few limp to me for a buck, I raise to 5$. SB folds, he calls in the BB. Everyone else folds. Just me and him. I feel he's got a mid to big pocket pair as his standard play preflop with monster hands was to re-raise. Flop comes Jc Kd Th. bingo. He checks to me, I bet. he calls. Turn comes Kc. This was a bit of a scare card for me, but I decided I was going to show him I'm not letting him push me around as he had been doing with everyone else, especially with the draw I just turned. He bet out, I raised, he re-raised, I re-raised again and he called. He's got 20$ left at this point I believe. River comes blank, and he gets all his money in. I flip over the flopped straight and him QQ. He yells something at me and storms off utterly livid, while I just sat there and stacked his money.
We played the rest of the night and had a lot of fun. Left around 2am and headed to sbarro down in the Bally's mall area to get some pizza. It wasn't that great, but not that bad.
Wednesday I wake up and I definitely don't feel right. I'm pretty familiar with hangovers and this wasn't one. Turns out I was suffering from heat exhaustion. EMT from Bally's came up and checked me out, got me in better working order. So it was mostly a day in bed to recover. Got up around 4pm or so and headed to O'Sheas again where I drank bottle after bottle of water to stay hydrated. We didn't stay as late this night as I wanted to make sure dad caught the Bellagio water show. We left around 11pm and walked over to the Bellagio, walked around there for 20 minutes or so and then headed back to the room for our earliest night yet as I still wasn't feeling 100%.
I guess for having been in bed most of Wednesday, I couldn't sleep most of the night, so I decided that I just couldn't take the heat any more and wanted to see both dad and I go home with a few bucks in our pocket. So when dad woke up thursday morning around 10am, I said we're going to change our flights to leave that day. We got that all settled, and since Bally's wasn't going to refund my money for the last night, we just used it to keep our bags in until we decided to leave. We checked out around 5:30pm and headed down to O'Sheas so dad could pick up a few souvenirs. Then we walked back to Bally's and got a cab to the airport, got checked in and were on our way back to Calgary @ 9:20pm. I have to say, after that heat, it's much nicer to be back home where it's nice and cool, compared to vegas of course.
Got to play a bit with Cardiac, james1958 and TerrysPokerTour for a bit as well. We had some good times and good chats. Definitely made the trip more enjoyable.
All trip I had asked dad what he wanted to see. He's not much of a sightseer or shopper, and honestly, I'm not either. Quite frankly, it was WAY too hot for either of us to go walking anywhere. The walk to O'Sheas from Bally's was enough to make me feel light headed before I even started drinking.
After all was said and done, it was a fun trip. But I would totally advise against going in the summer months unless you're already accustomed to that heat. When/if I go again, it'll be during any season other than summer. I would give it a 3.8 out of 5 with the only minuses being the heat and having to deal with heat exhaustion.
Hey newf,
Thanks for the TR; I live in Calgary too, where do you play?
Hey Newf Just got back this morning tried to do a trip- report but unable to find where, how. Can u help please
@TerrysPokerTour
Trip reports are a bit tricky. There's a "Submit Trip Report" link on the left side of the main page. After you submit your trip report it gets reviewed by a moderator and then they post it in the forum. One other tip - it's best to write the report in another program and then copy and paste it into the AVP form. Otherwise it's really easy to accidentally close or back out of the page and lose all your work. Not that anybody here has ever done that.
And thanks for the report Newf. I enjoyed reading it.
i just got home a little while ago, nice to meet you and your dad.
have to agree about no more summer trips. i think ill make may my vegas month from now on.
@turdferguson
no problem.
i don't play actually. lol.
playing in vegas was the first poker i've played since i was there in 2004 pretty much. i gave it up after that.
I avoid late June through early August. However, I've made several trips around the last week of August and Labor Day and have found that the temps start to drop enough by late August that it is not bad. Highs around 95-100 instead of 110 make a big difference. Good pool weather. I still avoid too much walking around in the sun in the afternoons though, plus drink lots of water. Lows in the morning often around 70 instead of over 80. There are often really good room deals to be had around the end of August. Planning on making another trip this year at that time since Flamingo made me an offer I can't refuse.