Brother had idea to celebrate his daughter's 9th birtday in Vegas, good enough excuse for me. Brother-in-law is semi-high roller so we all get comped rooms at MGM. Brother-in-law's huge family all go on trip, but they only play $5 slots. Too rich for me. I've been playing mostly poker ever since I started a couple of years ago.
Spent some time at the MGM pool at friend's comped cabana. That was nice with fridge and TV. But not sure I'll go back with kids as this is not right atmosphere to continue to expose them.
I played three sessions at MGM, all in 1/2NL and one 3/6 limit at Circus Circus. Played mostly at night as days were devoted to entertainining kids and wife. Kind of the agreed upon trade off for the trip.
1st session at MGM, mostly tight players, a couple of players willing to gamble. Then, worst player ever sits down in seat 4. Never played a hand of poker before as he had no idea of when/how to bet, but still managed to play his first 20 hands, every single hand saw a flop, many to the river, most with 3rd best pair. Needless to say, he dropped his 1st buyin within 2 hands and re-bought for $300, only to get lucky and more than double up. Seat 1, only decent player at the table, at least the only one I think was playing better than me, and I were chomping at the bits to catch a decent hand to grab our share of the fish's stack. I think that we both took our share by end of his session. Ended up +$500.
2nd session, nothing memorable except for young drunk lady pulling up a chair next to seat 4, wanted to talk to the guy and he was obviously irritated. He called the floor, but floor allowed her to sit a couple of feet behind, weird. She pulls up again and this time, was asked to leave. Rather than walking 15 feet around the rail, she decides to climb over it. Needless to say, she didn't quite make it over and fell on her ass. Kinda funny and sad sight. Seat 4 was furious. He had about $600 before the scene and went broke soon after, blamed it on the bad karma. Ended up +$300.
Tooks kids to Circus Circus for the amusement park. Brother and I break away to play an hour at the 3/6 limit table. At 3 pm, only one table going. A bit sad room/environment. I actually had to wait for a seat. Dropped $100 in the hour playing pretty agressively.
3rd session at MGM proved to be one of favorite ever, I think it was because of the fellow player at the table. Started around 9 pm, dropped about $100 so I pulled out some chips from pocket. Saw pocket QQ in BB, raised by agressive young guy. I re-raised. He had me easily cover and pushed. I called and he showed AJ. Ace hits turn and I'm onto second buyin. New player joins to my right, taking seat 6, I'm in seat 7. We play some hands and then I see pocket 55. May have called a standard raise to $7 and flop 55x. Didn't want to chase anyone away, so I checked both flop and turn. River, however brought a third card for a flush. Seat 6 bets about $30. I went all-in and he called. Almost doubled up. Table played pretty tight so I pushed the action a lot. I thought about changing tables, but my brother was at the other table and told me that his table was pretty tight also. Started to talk to seat 6 and got along with him pretty well. This was our last night, so I didn't want to leave, but it was getting late, maybe 4 am, and I decide to change table, sat to my brother's left. He's more loose and agressive than me. Unfortunately, table was tight and I had no interest in playing my brother. We do enough battle at home. I did flat one of the players at the table and looked for more action. Former tablemate, Sean, seat 6 said to come to his new table as action was good. I asked for the move but floor wouldn't let me go at first as it would make two remaining running tables unbalanced. Finally, I went over and sat to Sean's left again. After pulling the quads on him earlier, I didn't play any more big hands against him. I think that's one of my problems, I get to know someone and lose the killer instinct. Anyway, action was there as my left hand neighbor (called himself Yazdan) was drunk but clearly still on his game, agressive. He had about $1k and I chipped up to about $600. I played to his agression and took about $500 from him, giving back a couple hundred also. Then one of the MGM floor lady joins our game. It's about 7 am now. She wins a couple of small pots, playing rather tight. I get something like 810o, called a standard $7 raise from Yasdan to see flop, 79J, bingo. I'm in EP and check. Yasdan fires $30 and floor lady calls, I call. Turn is blank, I check again, Yasdan continues his agression, bets $50, lady raises to $150. I said, "I'm all-in Yasdan" and he is a bit disgusted (he hates folding to agression). I knew that my play was against the lady. She calls and was a bit upset, must have hit a set or something. That session turned out to be my longest ever, maybe 11 hours through the night. It was really nice to play next to someone you really get along with, poker wise. Brother finally had a good night also as he had dropped about $1500 the previous two nights, winning about $800 the third night to make some of it back.
He had never played at a casino poker room before but plays a lot of home games, against family and his friends. I gave him some advise before the 3rd night. He is ultra agressive and every time I looked over, he had a small stack, maybe $100 or so. I told him that it wasn't his game to play short and he needed to put more out and go ahead and make timely bluffs. I think the advice helped him play his style.
Can't wait to get another reason to go back to Vegas. Two trips, two nice profits.
Also saw David Copperfield. His stage was a bit underwhelming. He's still good entertainer, but he's old and looks like Herman Munster. I think it's because he wears something under his jacket and shoulder pads look bulky.
All other trips to casinos elsewhere have been losers, including recent visit to a casino near San Diego, Barona, on Indian reservation. I really liked that casino also, but action was kind of weird. They spread most limit games, only a couple of 1/3NL. Play was mostly soft, but they run some full promotions during the Sunday football games. When I was there, Packers were visiting Chargers. Their promotion was called "Rack Attack"? Every time a team scores, they would draw tables and put $100 into the pot. If Chargers score, they call out 6 tables. If Packers score, 3 tables. Needless to say, we all enjoyed the high scoring game.
But, again, can't wait for the next trip to Vegas to try the other poker rooms. Hope you enjoyed the report as I enjoy and look forward to reading all reports on AVP.