Christmas/New Year’s Trip Report 2010/11
Casinos visited: Bellagio, Bally’s, Aria, Wynn, Mirage, Caesars, Monte Carlo
Dates: Dec.26-Jan.1

DISCLAIMER: MEGA LONG READ (you were warned)

Only my second Vegas poker trip, traveling with my wife for a 6 night stay that included much eating, shopping and playing poker. Didn’t run into any AVPers as I would have hoped, but had a great trip.
For some background info, I started playing poker kind of seriously last year on a March poker trip, and played pretty much only cash games. I left up $1200 after five days in Vegas, and felt pretty good about myself. This time went even better, and now I keep wondering how all the daily grinders aren’t crushing these games. I know the answer. Variance. I have had some pretty serious rungood in my two trips so far.
The funny thing is that between this trip and the last one, I’ve been playing 1-2 NL in Edmonton/Calgary in Canada, where the competition is much tougher than in Vegas. There are many more daily grinders that think on level 2 in Calgary, whereas Vegas is uber level 1/level 0 thinking. The most important thing I identified this trip is that you must play to the level of your opposition. Most tables have 1-3 above average players. I will bluff against these opponents. The rest, I will rarely bluff and mostly just take them to value town.
The other important thing in my play is that I take game selection and table image pretty seriously. I will make sure that I have identified a couple of fish in the first few hands, or I will table change. Also, I want action fish, who have just blown off $2500 in pit games and are playing poker to “stop the bleeding”. Talking to players at the table will give you this info very quickly. I also drink openly at the table, and advertise that I am drinking, but play very TAG. I find this will get you paid off with made hands, as despite the fact I have never bluffed, people somehow think that a young guy wearing a hoodie must be a maniac. I usually just nurse a couple of beers and pretend I am hammered. It’s pretty fun.
A bit more background is that my wife and I are both 26 years old. I am a medical resident (1.5 years left until full fledged physician) and she also works in the health field. We go to Vegas as much for food/wine as for gambling, and she loves to shop as well. One of our main hobbies is wine collecting, so there will be some food/wine commentary in this report as well. Sorry if this stuff doesn’t interest you, but for me, I like hearing about the restaurants and other things people do on their trips.
Finally, you’ll notice that wifey and I are playing at the same table very often during the trip. This is not by request, but simply coincidence. We are happy to play separately, and she actually likes it because I can’t critique her game as much this way. It just seemed there were always two seat open this trip. Also, we do not softplay one another, which is evidenced by the fact that I felted her once on the trip. The people who softplay piss us both off.

Sunday Dec. 26 (Little poker content)
Get on the Westjet flight for Vegas at 0815, arriving just before 10 AM Vegas time. Trip is going great, luggage is out immediately and we’re on the shuttle bus to Paris (4 comped nights using TR card). At Paris by 1030 and first cooler of the trip occurs. The check-in line is wrapped around 4 times and extending into the casino floor in Paris, looking like it will take several hours to get checked in. So, we check our bags with the Bell desk and decide to walk back intermittently throughout the day and wait for a shorter line. As it turns out, we check back four times, and at 1600 there is finally a line of only about 50-75 people, which takes half an hour to check in. We get a manager type, Herbie, who is very nice but has no interest in the $20 trick. He explains to us that upgrades start at $50/night and hand the $20 back. Boo!
We’re both starving by now, as we’ve been awake for 7 hours and haven’t eaten breakfast, so we hit up the Burger Brasserie. I have the Italian beef burger and she has the Chicken burger with Brie. Great burgers and with a couple of beers (my first discovery of Blue Moon, which isn’t available in Canada) and the tab is $40 including tip.
Day one is basically spent shopping as the wife is super excited to get all the post Christmas sales. We hit the miracle mile and forum shops, and have a dinner reso for Rosemary’s (about a $30 cab ride from the strip). This place is one of the true gems in Vegas, with great food, service of the highest level and 50% off wine on Sunday nights. Drink a couple of great bottles, do the 5 course tasting menu, $400 with tip. Awesome start to the trip.
After dinner, we are both pretty tired, but I have a serious need to get my poker on. Get in the cab at Rosemary’s and awesome cabbie takes us to TI at 100 mph. Seriously. This guy was racing every car on the freeway. We are now both awake.
Once in TI, we get players cards and use our free slot play. Make a net $22 and it’s the first win of the trip.
From there we walk back toward Paris and I stay at Bellagio to play my first poker session of the trip. The wife continues home to Paris, and I sit down at $1/2 after about a 20 minute wait. Every table in the B is going at 11 PM on Sunday night, with lots of big games. My impression of the B poker room is that it is overly cramped, the drink service is awful, and management sucks. Pretty favorable opinion. Management does a very poor job of starting new games, and you must be within five feet of the podium to hear your name called. Otherwise, you’re off the list. Plus, there’s nowhere to sit while waiting.
I get sat at a tight-passive table with lots of pre-flop limping and folding to small raises. Average of 1-2 PF raises per orbit which usually take down the pot, and most raises are $7-10. I’m used to PF raises of $12-25 back home, so this is uber nitty. I decide it is time to get drunk, but no luck. I ask the dealer to call a server 3 times, as do others at the table. After an hour and ten minutes, and having two different cocktail servers explain that we are “not in her section”, I get pissed off and say “I’m going to a casino where I can actually get a drink” and leave. I leave up +20 at the B with one hand of note during the session. I get pocket jacks in MP, raise to $12 or $15 dollars, and CO shoves for $40 total. (Because of the $200 max buy at the B, you rarely make many difficult decisions at $1/2) Everyone folds and I call. She has 44 and it’s looking good until the 4 on the river gives her the pot. This would be the only time I lose with pocket jacks the entire trip. I win the rest of my hands by building pots with small raises in late position, then taking them down with a c-bet. I realized pretty quickly that if someone plays back at you in this game, you were in trouble. Also, I saw Zero! 4 bets pre-flop during my entire trip. Zero. Not even with Aces or Kings. Plus I saw AA limped PF multiple times. I guess what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
After leaving the Bellagio on “Bellagio tilt”, I hit up PHo for a mini session at about 1 AM. Decent little room, better cocktail service and I start playing some hands. Unfortunately, I am again at a pretty passive table, although there are a couple of players (Asian lady and one other guy) who will call PF raises without premium holdings. I get AA in MP and raise to $12 pre flop (standard raise here) and asian lady (button) and other guy (SB) call. Flop K-10-4, I make a $30 c-bet and asian lady calls. SB mucks. Turn is another 10. I check for pot control and asian lady looks like she likes the 10. River bricks out, I make a blocker/value bet of about $30 and she calls with J10 off suit. Crappy. I get QQ a few hands later and end up folding on a flop that has an ace and king after raising PF and getting called in a couple spots. I grind my way back to even after my pocket JJ hold up twice, and am pretty tired after a 24 hour day. Back to Paris and “must sleep immediately”.

Day 2: Monday Dec. 27
Up at about 8 AM because I’m so excited to play, and wifey is still pretty sleepy. I walk to the Venetian to play, knowing that the smell is intolerable, and will probably kill me. However, the room is poker Nirvana, so I must play there at least once this trip. When I arrive, I am excited to find that the smell is much less than the last two trips and the room is everything you could want in a poker room. It is the exact opposite of the B, with immediate seating, opening of new games, great cocktail service, nice management, etc. And now with no smell of “Grandma’s house” (this is what we call the smell in the V), it is the best poker room, no exception. Arriving at 10 AM, they are opening a new $1/2 game (their 6th table already this morning) and I sit with a couple of rocks, a couple of grinders and a bunch of fish. I am pretty card dead during this session, and the table is once again very nitty. So, after one hour of playing very few hands, and with all players sober and somewhat paying attention to my TAG image, I build two pots in late position to take down with c-bets. First one I have 67s OTB and raise to $10. Three callers and flop comes AKJ rainbow. Perfect. Checks around to me and I c-bet for $20, taking it down. Phew! I guess this is my style of play, meaning I will play pretty nitty and get paid with the nuts most of the time, but will occasionally raise from the CO or button and c-bet to take it down at passive tables. One more orbit around and I do the same thing with K6 sooted, scoring another ~$45 pot. Interestingly, one local young grinder only plays the nuts in two hands while I am there, showing the nut flush one hand and a boat on another, doubling up both times. I take this into consideration and realize how profitable level 1 thinking is in Vegas.
Wifey comes to visit at about 1130 and we go to Bouchon and grab the express menu lunch. I have the turkey sandwich and fruit bowl, she has the cobb salad. $40 with tip. Always enjoy Bouchon.
We then make our way downtown to the premium outlets and shop it up until about 1630, getting lots of great stuff at 60-80% off. 3 Kenneth Cole T-shirts and one pair dress shoes for $90. Great stuff.
We have a reso for Lotus of Siam (We go three times every trip) and get there for dinner at 1700. They don’t open until 1730, so we wait and then enjoy a great meal, complete with bottle of 2001 Josef Leitz Spatlese and 2004 Sine Qua Non Raven Series. Delicious food as always, and we still have two more visits left. For those who don’t know Lotus, it is awesome Thai food that it very well priced and is about a 10 dollar cab from the Wynn. If you want to know what to eat, just ask. We have been there 9 times in the last 3 trips.
We’re back from Lotus and hit up Aria for some $1/3. Big fans of the Aria room and management. Plus it has great drink service. We get pretty smashed and the wife loses her buy-in when she flops a small flush and runs into the loose donk Asian with the nut flush. Pretty standard cooler. I play a little while longer and the table is hugely profitable with the only decent player being the one to my immediate right who is up $400. Everyone else is pretty terrible and I am wicked card dead. One hand of note is when I have Q10o (the Ho-chunk nuts) and call for $10 from OTB. 4 others in the hand and pot is $50. Flop KJ9 with 2 to a flush. Checks around to me and I raise $20 as a “please call me so I can start building a pot” bet, but alas no takers. Darn! Wife is reading card player at another table and I keep ordering her drinks. She’s hammered and has virtually no gambling money, so I am buying her in. She likes playing poker and played well this trip, but she beats herself up way too much after getting coolered. I tell her there is nothing she can do when flopping a small flush and running into the nuts, but she still kicks herself a bit. I simply say rebuy.
We leave Aria with me up ~$50 and head to Monte Carlo. At this point she is pretty drunk and I stake her. We both buy into the game for $150. She is seat 4, I’m seat 3. I am drinking and really playing up the image of a LAG, and the trip starts to become profitable from this point on. This table is awesome. Seats 5 and 6 are Asian rocks, two older guys with about $500-600 behind. They are so nitty that I consider both their buttons to be my button. Therefore I have the button three times per orbit. Awesome! Seat 7 is a super loose passive tourist who calls every raise PF and folds to c-bets. Plus he’s always in EP against me. I punish him mercilessly with PF raises and c-bets every flop, winning 5-7 consecutive hands without showing down a single time. Seat 8 is “British grandpa” who is angry at life and his wife, and wants to teach the young punk (me) a lesson by calling me all the time. I end up beating him with a full house versus his flush and chopping a pot when we both have the wheel on a 35K44 board. After seeing these two hands, he figures I only show the goods and stops playing me. Seat 9 is another young guy who is pretty tight passive and raises once in my 1.5 hours at the table. I fold to his raise and he show down a big hand. Seat 1 and 2 are friends on a bachelor party, with seat 1 having ~$100 behind and seat 2 has $700. They are obviously soft playing against one another and I get involved in a squeeze play with the two of them early on. I have nothing so I muck to a flop raise/re-raise by them, and they then check it down. I am pissed but don’t say anything as that may give away my drunken idiot image. I quietly decide to just felt one and the other will leave. I then got lucky enough to execute this far fetched plan when I’m dealt pocket 10s OTB. Seat 1 and wifey both have about $100 behind and I have them covered. Limped to me and I raise to $10. Called by wifey in the SB and seat 1. Flop A106 rainbow. Wifey raises to $20, seat 1 calls and I flat the $20. Turn is Q and wifey raises $30 into pot of $90. Seat 1 shoves for his last $70, I re-shove and wife calls her last $40. Wife shows AQ for two pair, I have the set and seat 1 mucks. Good news/bad news as I have felted wife but also dbag in seat 1. Stack is about $350, and after a few more orbits, I cash out +200 so that we can go play the $0.50/1 game at MGM.
Unfortnately, that game has been cancelled, so we both sit in the tightest/grinder filled game in town at the MGM. Hilarious thing is that last year I went to the MGM because everyone says it’s an action filled drunk game, but I have yet to see this. Two of the players at my table were there last year when I played. And this is 1 AM. WTF! One is this blonde lady with all this jewelry on and plays TAG. I wanted to call her out on being there every day, but after three orbits where every pot was HU on the flop, my wife said “table change” and we transferred to a game of looser, drunker tourists. But, we both went uber card dead for about an hour and a half and went home down about $95 between the two of us.
Why did I leave the Monte Carlo game? Worst decision I made all trip. But, I don’t like forcing wifey to railbird and she didn’t want to rebuy. This being said, she is happy to railbird and always encourages me to play, never asking to leave. She is the best wife, TBC would be jealous. Case in point, she watched the entire time when I won the Wynn tourney on New Year’s Eve (later in the report).

Day 3: Tuesday Dec. 28
No more shopping for the trip, now it’s just poker and eating.
Woke up and took the rest of our bottle of Sine Qua Non from the night before and put it into our water glasses and took it to Burger Brasserie for breakfast. What a way to wake up. Had the Kobe burger and wife had the chicken again. Kobe was disappointing, especially at $18.99. But the Sine Qua Non was great, even out of water glasses.
Still a bit tired (only about 8 hours sleep thus far), I went to Aria to play the noon tourney. In the 2nd or 3rd level I get dealt pocket jacks in the CO and call a raise by the HJ. Two more callers and we take the flop four ways. Flop J95 all diamonds. Uh-oh. I have a feeling that I’ll be shipping it here pretty soon. EP guy checks, MP raises, HJ shoves, I re-shove, knowing I am beat but have outs, and both EP and MP call. 4 way all-in, and I have everyone covered. EP shows 10-7 diamonds for flush, HJ shows 99 for middle set, and MP shows 88 with one diamond (WTF). Turn is brick and river is a beautiful 5. I felt three players in one hand. Boo-ya! Now I am huge chip leader at the table, but then go on a 2 hour run of card dead. Every time I have a marginal hand, I whiff the flop or get my c-bet called by the guy on my left. Eventually I am down to 10 BBs in level 7 and shove my pocket 55s into AK. Ace on the flop and I’m done. Promising start, shitty finish. This is why I don’t play tourneys.
Back to the hotel where I have a nap for a couple hours and we go to Pamplemousse for dinner. Strange experience, which I can talk about if you’re interested. But the food was good and with a four course prix-fixe for $38/person. Interesting experience, probably won’t go back.
After dinner we go back to Paris and drop off our left overs in the fridge. I head out to Bellagio for another session, but again get sat at the uber nit table and go on “Bellagio tilt”. I make some stupid mistakes and donk off $75 in an hour. After getting one drink in an hour this time, wifey arrives and I decide it’s time to go. One other thing that angers me about Bellagio is that when I asked to be put on the transfer list, they say okay, but don't write down my name or anything. About 30 more players get seats at 1/2 games without any floor person mentioning my request to move.
We re-focus and go over to Caesar’s. Finally get some good action and as usual, Caesars has a better group of players than most casinos because there is no walk by traffic. I like the room though, and no smoke. Wifey and I buy in for $150 and $200, respectively. I’m seat 6, she’s seat 8, and good local asian guy (GLAG) is between us. Nice guy, and seemed pretty competent with about $600 behind. Seat 3 is another Canadian who is uber calling station donk. This guy is calling and hitting everything. Gutterballs, two pairs, flushes. In short order he is up to $1000 from his $300 buy in. First notable hand is during first orbit when I pick up 55 in HJ and limp for $3. GLAG is in CO and raises to $12. Two callers before me and I call as well. 4 players to flop, which is J85 with two spades. Checks to me, and I decide to check, leaving the opportunity for GLAG to raise and prevent me from donk betting against a player who will recognize it. He raises to $30 and both EP players fold. I smooth call and still have ~$120 behind. Turn is an offsuit 3 and I again check. He checks as well. River is an A of spades, and I shove for my remaining $120. He says “I guess you have the flush, but I have to pay you off” This makes me a bit worried about a bigger set, and after calling I show my set, which is good. Great, an early double up. A few hands later my wife is in a hand and raises PF from EP. Calling station donk calls her and flop comes AK5 all diamonds. I am nervous. She fires the cbet and he re-raises. Wifey shoves and calling station reluctantly calls. She shows AK for top two and he has a set of 5s. Board bricks out and wifey is felted. I felt this was a pretty standard cooler, and I would have played it the same way, but wifey was pretty upset and went home. She knew it was a good table, but was on tilt, so I let her go. One more hand of note was when I got KK in LP and raised PF. Calling station guy called me down on the flop and turn but folded on the river, when I rivered a set of Ks.
I played a while longer and eventually moved tables to one full of young guys, thinking the action might be a bit better. Unfortunately, we were 7 handed shortly after I arrived, and the guys weren’t LAGs like I hoped. I ended up flopping two nut flushes on back to back hands, and made about $70, then left Caesars up ~$280. Walked home to Paris around 0230 and had a quick shower, then down to Bally’s for a couple more hours before going to bed. My thoughts about Bally’s are: Good drink service, as poker area is immediately adjacent to the bar, but much too smoky because of the proximity to pit games. Can’t stand playing there for longer than an hour or two at a time. The action was interesting at Bally’s, to say the least. One guy in the number 2 seat was probably playing for the first time ever and it was hilarious. He looked totally hammered, but apparently hadn’t been drinking for about 3 hours. He would call the standard $7 PF raise every hand, and when he had a hand would raise $5 on every street. For example, in one hand, it was limped to me in LP with J10 hearts. I called and he raised to $6 from the BB. Everyone calls and we see a flop 6 or 7 handed. Flop is 785 with two diamonds. He raises $5 from the BB into a pot of ~$42 and everyone folds (?) to me and I make the call with the ~10:1 odds. Turn is a offsuit 6, and he bets $5 again. I call. River is a 9, making me the nut 7 card straight. He bets $5 again and has ~$100 behind to my $200. I contemplate what to do, and decide to push $75 into the now $62 pot. I felt the overbet raise would look more bluff like to a beginner, but unfortunately he folded. After this guy made this similar play on several more hands, the dealer mentioned that he felt like he was in an episode of the twilight zone. Plus, this guy would take 30 or 40 seconds to act every time the action was on him because he had no idea what was going on. It was like hew was on peyote or some other hallucinogen. After about another half hour of this weirdness, I left up $65 and called it a night.

Day 4, Wednesday Dec. 29:
Wake up on day 4 around 1200 and head over to Lotus of Siam for lunch. Get some Nam Kao Tod, Tom Yum, Ginger Sea Bass and a bottle of 2009 Hexamer Riseling. Delicious.
I head over to Mirage for my first and only session there, as the room has always looked nice. I play for about 2.5 hours and get few/no hands of note. I ended up down $3, but get 3 drinks, so I consider it a push. Funniest part of this game is that a very good looking and classy older Asian woman sits in seat 2 and starts destroying the table. She mentions that she lives in a big house in Vancouver, and is very well dressed, so I know she is loaded. For those not in the know, a shitty house in Vancouver is about $6-700,000. She buys in for $300 and starts calling down every bluff on the table. Once she calls down a $100 river bet with a pair of deuces, another hand she calls down a missed flush draw with Ace high. Despite these great calls, she seems to know almost nothing about the game/bet sizing/etc. It was hilarious, and I was just happy not to be the one trying to bluff her. After a few hours, it’s dinner time again and we are going to Spago.
At Spago we have a great truffle flatbread to start, followed by the sea bass and charcroute platter, finishing it off with the apple fritters. Everything is great, with the truffle flatbread being the best. A half bottle of 2001 Dr. Thanisch Riesling and a glass of Kracher Scheurube and we are happy as clams.
After dinner, we drop $20 on video poker, and walk by the Caesars poker room. We see a bunch of similar faces to the previous visit, and decide on one more shot at the Bellagio. I have had two days worth of Bellagio tilt, and am determined to beat these nits once and for all. Plus, it’s great for the wifey, as we can buy in $200 and be playing deep, as opposed to short stacks at the Wynn or Caesars.
We buy in at the B and again are sat at the same table, I am seat 2, wifey is seat 6. After asking three times, we get some cocktail service and proceed to start drinking all the vodka-red bull in the casino. Rounding out the table are terrible husband and wife in seats 3 and 4, both of whom have less than $100 behind. Seat 5 is a young army guy from Japan, seat 7 is a young American guy who lives in Egypt and his girlfriend is sitting behind him. Seat 8 is the rich girl whose fiancé is playing $25-50 NL a few tables over. She obviously is a level 2/3 thinker, and should probably be playing higher stakes, where making moves will actually be respected. She is playing ~$500 deep. Seat 9 is a young nerdy guy who has thick coke bottle glasses and has just moved to Vegas to be a low stakes no-limit grinder. Seat 1 is asian rock guy who plays very few hands in three hours.
About 45 minutes in, I am dealt QQ in the BB. Seat 3 ($100 behind) raises to $10 from UTG. This is her first raise since I’ve been at the table, so I am definitely a bit worried about being in a race already. Seat 8 (smart fiancé) calls as does seat 9 and I re-pop to $30 from the BB. Seat 3 folds, phew, and seat 8 calls. I am pretty sure I’m ahead of her range here. Seat 9 folds. We’re head up to the flop with an $80 pot. I started the hand with $215 and she has me well covered. Flop is Q105 with two to a flush. I c-bet $35 with top set and she flat calls. Turn is an offsuit 7 and I decide to just jam for my last $165 now, thinking that she will interpret it as a bluff/drawing hand because we have a mutual respect for each other’s game already. I knew it was an overbet of the pot, but figured if she was drawing, a lot of rivers will get no action as well. She tanks for two minutes and reluctantly calls. I’m sure she is on a combo straight/flush draw, and when the river is a 5, I’m psyched. I flip over my boat and she looks sick. She basically read me for a drawing hand, and showed AQ offsuit, for a hand that was crushed every step of the way. I was pretty surprised when I saw that she made the call drawing dead. At this point I’m feeling great, as I feel that I read her well enough to realize the overbet would confuse her rather than scare her off. I’m up to $430 and she is now around $300.
The very next hand, I’m dealt 89 diamonds OTB. Limps around to me, I limp along and we see the flop 6 or 7 ways. Flop is A99. Snap. I am still stacking my chips from the last pot and thus look pretty uninterested in the hand. It checks to seat 8 and she raises $15. I flat call. Turn is an 8. She checks, I bet out $30 and she comes over the top for $100 total. I decide that I am in commitment territory and shove all in. She calls and show 79 off. River is a 5 and I felt her. Sweet. Up to about $700 now. A few hands later, wifey nearly doubles up when she flops the nut flush with A2 of clubs and seat 9 shoves into her. Oops. We run kind of card dead until around 3 AM and cash out up about $400. We head back to Paris, and I head down to Bally’s for a 2 hour session before heading to bed. Make another $100 at Bally’s, playing at a table with some pretty horrible players, as well as one good but obnoxious guy sitting in seat 7. He is literally calling out people’s hands correctly, and winning big, but is an asshole to boot. That poker player, Steve something, who won a WPT event or something, and then has basically gone broke living in Vegas, came over and chatted with him for a while. They both seemed kind of d-baggy. It was the same Steve guy that TBC talks about in his blog sometimes. I found it kind of funny to see what these people are really like.

Day 5+6, Thursday Dec. 30/Friday Dec. 31

Moving day. We wake up and pack our bags, which takes a while, as we have purchased a bunch of clothes and stuff already this trip. We have 11 bags that need to get over to the Encore.
I booked the poker room rate at Wynn/Encore for the 30th and 31st, for $119 and $199/night, respectively. Pretty awesome to get the poker room rate on New Years Eve in Vegas. Especially considering that the IP was like $250 on NYE. They have 50 rooms set aside for this, and if you book far enough in advance, you can get them. Bellagio, Aria and the other big rooms don’t do this for the nights near New Years.
Good news is we get to Encore in short order and are checked in quickly. For an extra $25/night we get an upgrade to the panoramic view room on the 52nd floor, and we’re stoked. Great for New Year’s.
We head to Bouchon for an Expresse lunch around 1330, again very good, but service is a bit disappointing. But, I love the coffee there. Three cups of that and I’m good to go.
Now stuffed, we head down to the Venetian and I hit up the poker while the wife heads over to Fashion Show Mall. This turns out to be one of the most fun tables of the trip. I am in seat 2, with tight older Asian in seat 1, good LAG firefighter in seat 4, nitty but nice Indian guy in seat 5, rotating card dead guys in seat 6 (they keep sitting but never play a hand), good TAG from UK in seat 7, drunk Harvard water polo guy in seat 8, and a couple of donks filling out the table. I am only really concerned with seats 4 and 7 at this table, with the rest being pretty easily readable.
Very first hand I sit down and am dealt AA in the BB. A few limpers to me and I raise to $15. Two callers. Flop is A610 with two clubs. Checks to me and I start trying to build a pot with a smallish $20 c-bet. Unfortunately, I have no takers and take down the small pot with my monster.
About one orbit later, I have $200 behind and am dealt Q10 sooted in LP and call a $10 raise along with about 6 others. Flop is J9K with two to a flush. (not my flush) Yahtzee! Checks all the way around to me and I bet $30 into the $70 pot. (As you can tell, I don’t slow play my monsters, have to build the pot sometime if you want it to get all in by the river). Everyone folds to asian nit ($130 behind) in seat 1 who throws in a $100, horribly pot committing himself and making me jump for joy. I re-shove for his last $20 and he calls with J9 for two pair. Board bricks out and I am up to about $400. I play a few more orbits and get bluffed off the best hand once against seat 4. I also make two good laydowns against seat 7, who shows me his winning hand both times. Once I have AJ with the jack of clubs on an A1046 board with three clubs and he shoves over the top of my firing on all streets. I fold and he shows a Q high flush. Another time I have two pair and he has a made flush that hand as well. I’m feeling pretty good at this point, but am now back around $300.
By this time, the table is getting pretty energetic, with me, seat 4 and seat 8 all egging the whole table on to straddle, blind raise, etc. A new, higher stakes player sits in seat 3, and seat 6 leaves, so I move over there to get to the left of the two best players at the table. Now I only have seat 7 on my left. The funniest part is that seat 6 had been super card dead all day (about 3 hours), so I announce that I am moving because it has to start getting the cards at some point. About three hands in, I am in the SB and seat 8 has straddled for $4. He has $100 behind, I have about $300. There are 4 or 5 limpers and I look at AA. I raise to $25 and straddler guy shoves for $100. The best part, he hasn’t even looked at his cards. He had made this move with 28 off suit already a couple of times and shown it down. It folds around to me and I call. AA holds up and he flips 26 os. Now up around $400 and two hands later I am dealt AA again. Hilarious. This hand we have a straddle and blind raise to $10, so I re-pop to $40. Again, drunk guy has rebought and shoves for $100. Everyone folds, I call and AA holds up. At this point I am having a ton of fun, get dealt pocket aces once more about one orbit later and it wins another decent pot. I want to stay but we have dinner plans and I have to leave around 1745 so we can go to Lotus for our last taste of delicious Thai food this trip.
This time at Lotus we drink a beautiful 2001 Hexamer Eiswein, along with a bowl of Pho to share, and our two favorite mains, the Panang crispy duck and the ginger sea bass. Everything is outstanding, we have our last chat with Bank (GM at lotus) and get a picture taken with the chef (Saipin Chutima) who is a super nice lady. Hopefully it goes up on their wall. We’ll see next trip.
After lotus, it is time to play at the Wynn and get my poker room hours in. I sit down and realize quickly that this is a much more action filled game than I’ve seen all trip. I buy in for $200 and am brutally short stacked. Everyone else has $500. Plus, most of the players seem pretty competent. Table change please. I quickly lose about $90 calling down a value bet by a player with AQ to my AJ on an A-high, unpaired board. I move tables, but am very sedated from dinner, so decide to have a nap and come back later. (This is also one of my key strategies, napping). I sleep from 2230 and set the alarm for 0030 and have a quick shower then head downstairs. Now it is action central and I get sat at table 9 for 5 hours of insanity. Here’s the table breakdown. Seat 1 is hot Russian girl, affectionately referred to as “my woman” by her husband in seat 5. Seat 2 is super donk, complete with cape and leotards. He is a middle eastern guy who will play every hand, and make insane overbets (eg. $65 into $15 pot, $300 into $50 pot) on a routine basis. I love him. He buys in for $500 at a time and is rebuying roughly once an hour. Seat 3 and 9 are Cheech and Chong, two latino guys who are wicked drunk and have bought in for $100 each. Seat 4 is Lebanese tight regular guy, who is trying to grind it out and wait for hands. Seat 5 is Russian husband who is decent, but also crazy. Money is definitely no object and his bankroll is swinging wildly. Plus, his wife in seat 1 gets felted every 20-30 hands and he rebuys her for $200 more. We are all quite pleased with this set up. Seat 6 is young guy from Morocco, who also plays bigger stakes. He likes to bluff, but is pretty creative and makes big bets with and without hands. Seat 8 is a regular, I think his name is Dane, and he wears a hat with a bunch of shit on it (like fortune cookie papers), and has dice, good luck charms and all sorts of other things on his fly fishing looking jacket that he wears. He even has a pin that says “blessed mind” on his hat. He is really nice, and is obviously just looking to exploit the hell out of this table. I am in seat 7 and have no need to do anything but wait for a big hand and get paid off. There are few people at this table who care about money.
First big hand comes about an hour in when I get AK off suit in the CO ($205 behind). A few EP players limp and Russian guy ($700 behind) raises to $15. I don’t 3 bet here for some reason, and only flat call. Super donk in seat 2 ($300 behind) also calls. Pot is around $55 after a few limpers fold. Flop is AJA. Bingo. Super donk makes a $50 donk bet, which tells me he may have the other ace and be outkicked. Russian guy flat calls, which concerns me a bit, as he has been pretty aggressive thus far. I think for about 20 seconds and decide to just jam my remaining $190 into the now $155 pot. Seat 2 insta calls, which excites me, and Russian guy then also calls (uh-oh). We turn them face up and seat 2 had A5 (expected), while Russian has pocket jacks for the boat. Board bricks out and I’m down $200. I rebuy immediately, knowing that: a)this was a pretty standard cooler, and b)this table was insanely profitable.
I rebuy for $150 and double up almost immediately when I have A8 diamonds and turn a 9 high straight with nut flush re-draw. Russian guy pays me off with two pair. Despite the immense potential at this table, I am pretty card dead. I felt the latino guy in seat 3 when I have AK on an AJAJ10 board and he calls my river value bet with J10. I am now around $500. I make about another $200 with A2 when I turn trip deuces on a scary board. Seat 6 re-raises my small river bet and I call the extra $75, winning against his one pair.
I eat breakfast at the table around 0530 and get some post-prandial sedation, so I decide to leave, up about $400 profit after the $270 loss already that day. All in all, I’m happy with my comeback.
Upstairs to bed and wake up for the noon tournament at the Wynn. It counts as 3 hours of play, so wifey and I both play, completing our room rate requirements. Also, the action level of the cash games at the Wynn was a bit crazy for my wife, so with the tourney she wouldn’t be playing with scared money. The tourney was pretty full of tourists, and had 41 runners. Wifey chipped up nicely early on, while I hovered around the starting stack until doubling up to around 18000 chips when I rivered a flush with QJ spades and she shoved with a pair of kings. After this I was moved tables and immediately bluffed off half my stack against a guy in seat 2. Shortly thereafter, I get stuck in a strange spot PF with QQ and only call with two others in the pot. An ace on the flop, c-bet by old rock and I’m done with the hand. He shows A6 of diamonds.
Now I’m down to about 5000 with 300/600/25 blinds/antes. Luckily I pick up AA OTB and open shove against the chip leader in the SB. He calls with pocket 10s and AA holds up. Back in the running. People start tightening up big time as we get down to 20 players, and I begin ruthless blind/ante theft. I raise nearly every unopened pot from the CO/HJ or button, taking down 95% of them uncontested. This really builds my stack up, and I am grinding back toward the chip average. I get KK in the SB and short stack OTB shoves into me with A10. KK holds up and I’m around 16-18000. Chip average is around 20000. I have some more run good and get AA again which takes down a good pot with a PF raise and c-bet. We get to the final table and I am about 5th in chips with 45000. I continue to run like god, getting aces 2 more times, as well as AK and pocket 10s at the final table. I do fold pocket 7s, pocket 9s and pocket 6s to preflop raises/re-raises by tight players and all three times I would have been behind to overpairs. I am feeling very good, although tourney only pays top 4. At 6 to go, I start getting talk of paying the bubble going, and talk of a chop at 4 players. We agree to a 3 way chop for $1150 a piece, and it’s been a good day. I’ve played about 12-13 hours in the past 18, so I’m ready for a poker break.
We have no NYE dinner plans, so hit up the Wynn buffet (I am not a buffet person), but it hits the spot after all the poker, and head upstairs to change. We head out to Surrender for a night of clubbing, where we watch the fireworks and drink/dance all night. Funnily, while standing in line for the club to open at 9, we want some drinks. I go up to the bar to play some double bonus poker, thinking I will get free drinks out of it. Whoops, bartender says $16 for a red bull and vodka. I say no thanks, hit three spins of video poker and get 2 kings on the first hand, 3 kings on the 2nd hand and 4 kings on the third hand. Awesome. I cash out up about $60 for 20 seconds of play. Wifey likes this.
After the club we are too tired at 2 AM to play more poker, so we do some mindless slot playing of Monopoly and Wheel of Fortune. I play about 5 more hands of video poker, get quad Jacks and cash out another +71 on VP.
We call it a night and plan to head off to Palm Springs for a week with the family.

All in all, a great trip, with lots of great food, great wine, profitable gambling and good purchases. Can’t wait to get back. Comments on the TR are welcome, and I should have planned/laid it out better. If anyone has any comments about poker in Palm Springs, I’d love to hear them.
Net results for gambling:
Cash games: +1205
Tourneys: +635 (after tip and mine + wife’s buy ins from my roll)
Video Poker: +115 in about 5 minutes total play time
Slots: +2
Net: +1957

Overall, not too shabby of a trip.

Cheers,

TF