Quick trip, not enough poker.
My wife and I are starting up a casino party rental company in my hometown. I recently bought us a new digital camera so I convenced her that we shoulc go out to Vegas to collect pictures for the web site and brochures. Any excuse to go to Vegas is good for me.
We arrived around 7:45pm on Saturday October 23. Picked up the rental car. I always book a full size and slip the attendant a $10 bill for an upgrade. This time we got a Dodge Challenger. I wish I would have spent a little more time driving this car, very smooth. We finally checked in at the Golden Nuggett at about 10pm. Since we had already worked a full day at our store we decided not to go to the Venetian that night for poker. (bad decision) We sat in on a $1/2 game at the GN. Very loose table. I got up about $100 very quickly. I then got in a hand with A 10, I turned aces up and my opponent hit broadway. Unfortunately I donated about $200 to him for his straight. The next hand I had 10 10 in the hole with three callers. Mr. straight proceeded to flop a set of 9's. I rebuy for $200 and get into a hand with K Q. I bet pretty big with a K on the flop. The lady in the small blind came with me. J on the turn and she check raised me all in. Yes she had K J. Okay now was time to play black jack. Unfortunately black jack was not too much better. I was stuck about $800 for the first night. My wife ended up making about $250 to offset my losses.
Sunday was supposed to be a pool day at the Tank, however the weather was not so good. We played a little more black jack with bad results. I decided it was time to go take pictures for the new company. After about an hour of picture taking downtown I took a nap. I think that this is the first time in 20 years coming to Vegas that I had time to sleep during the day. Feeling refreshed we decided to visit a few casinos down town and posted a few small victories in black jack and craps. I am finally feeling a little better about gambling now.
My wife now was interested in going over to the Venetian for some poker. I prefer the cash games but we arrived at 7:30 and she suggested that we enter the $120 tourney. I reluctantly agreed. There were a total of 79 players. We both made it to the first break with about the same starting stack that we began with. By the time of the next break we were down to about 3 tables and both of us were surviving. A little later I looked up at the clock and noticed that we were down to 21 players. Then our table was busted and I was seated next to my wife. We kept playing and soon were down to 11 players. The short stack at our table went all in with 5 5 and was called by A Q. Ace on the flop and I started to get excited about making the final table when a 5 hit on the river. Uugh. We kept playing and finally knocked out #11. When we got to the final table the tournament director stated that the placements started at 9, but we could put up money, $20, to pay 10th place. Since we had an initial investment of $240, $120 each, and it would cost us another $40 to win a minimum of $480 ($200 for 10th, $280 for 9th) we were glad to kick in two $20 bills. It took about 30 minutes to knock out 10 place. We kept playing and soon we were down to 6 players. I think the payouts was about $400 for 6th and %500 for 5th. Finally one of the players started talking deals. With about $6500 in total prize pool left he suggested that we all take $1100 each and quit. The chip leader was not happy with this deal and wanted to keep playing. I then stepped up and suggested that we all take $1000 each and give the rest to the chip leader. Luckily he went for it. So for a $280 investment we received $2000 minus the tip out. We were back in the black for the trip. Since it was after midnight already we decided not to stay and play the cash games. We went back to the GN and played a few hands of black jack and profited about $250. Good day for us.
Monday we checked out and went to take more pictures. Stopped by the Hard Rock to donate a few hundred at their black jack tables. Same thing at TI. My wife and I are on a terrible run at black jack for the last two years. I can't wait until this is over. We caught the red eye out of McCarren back to reality. Hope to be back next summer during the WSOP.
I enjoyed reading this! I bet you and your Wife really enjoyed the tourney! Good stuff.
Nice trip report and congrats on the win at the Venetian. I played that tourney in Sept. and there were over 100. I finished about 25th and have to say that the competition was very good there so you both did very well to make it down to the final 6. Now for a word of advice: BLACK JACK IS THE DEVIL'S GAME! I've read more books and studied more on that damn game than you can imagine and while I don't claim to be an expert, I sure know basic strategy. The 1/2% house advantage if you play correctly with decent rules=BS. All that said I still love to play it, but know in advance that it's going to be painful.
@Beaureguarde
You're lucky. Everytime I've reserved what I thought would be a hot car, it came with the weakest, most anemic engine offered. I rented a Mustang convertible one time, and it literally had 0-60 time of 40 seconds. And who knew a Dodge Magnum could be fitted with a 1 liter engine? Pathetic.
@Beaureguarde
It could be over today if you just quit playing, dude. Duh.
Nice run at the V, though.
Yea, Zippy, the Challenger was just a smooth car. Not a lot of excelleration from a stand still, but while I was on I-15 I was unaware that I was hitting 85 so easy. It would have been a great car to drive down to Laughlin and back.
As for black jack, both of us are amatuer card counters. Problem being is that we only play 2 deck games, so most of those are $25 minimums. With a 1-4 betting spread you can do good or bad very quickly. What we have been experiencing is that the count would be very high so we would have $100 on the betting circle and would receive 12-15 with the dealer showing a 10 value. Having to hit this hand we would enevitably get a high card and bust. What's more depressing is that the other players at the table would flip over their hand and say "BLACK JACK"! However when the count was extremely low and I only had a $25 chip out there the dealer would have a 6 showing and I would look down at A 10. Oh well, that is why it is called gambling and not withdrawing.