Travelled to Vegas week of Sept 1st for our 25 anniversary staying at the Venetian for a week. Have been getting to Vegas about once a year (need to move this up to twice a year) due to work and other travel commitments. We live in Northern Ontario, so have to drive 4 hours to Toronto to fly to Vegas, so even though it’s only 4 hour flight to Vegas it’s a long travel day for us. I love Venetian’s location and poker room, but the rooms are starting to need an update and I hate their resort fee. Very glad that the new poker room opened during our stay, it’s very big and spacious. It’s funny because it almost looks deserted at times due to its size.

Played poker every night except the first night as we got in very late. Mostly played at the Venetian as I really like the comfort of their room and the quality of players. Did found a lot of locals playing here this trip though and personally I like to stick to the tourists as their easier to take money off of. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep great records as I’ve done previously, so I’ll only be able to give some overviews. Overall after buy-ins I was only up about $500, which is lower than previous trips, but still happy that I got my buy-ins back and profited for my entertainment.

Only played at Venetian, Mirage, and Aria this trip and found all good. I usually only buy in for about $100-$150, so I need to make money quickly in order to have more room to play, but I like the challenge of it and seem to be successful enough at it. One area I’ve changed is that if I don’t like my table or I’m running bad I now don’t feel compelled to stay there and play through it like I used to. There are way too many tables in Vegas not to change it up. I had this issue one night at the Venetian as I sat down with $120 and within hour down to $50 and not getting any traction, which is doubly hard with short stack. I realized that at least 8 of the players were locals and knew each other, so I picked up my money and walked over to Mirage. Played for about 3 hours and cashed out $350 that’s all it took was a change in scenery and players I found. Only issue with Mirage is that the room is dingy, smoky and one of the dealers I think is actually dead, but doesn’t know it. Really he is older than mud and had to be told constantly where the play was, to make change, the deal the cards etc. It was the most painful dealing experience I’ve ever witnessed.

I usually play pretty standard poker will get aggressive when I build my stack up, but usually pretty conservative until then and take opportunities to bluff when I can due to initial tight image, which is funny because most of my friends are constantly bugging me for my loose play. Lost buy-in once at Venetian with trips over trips, but that’s inevitable sometimes. Only hand that bothered me most was the Aria tournament I played. Played the 7 pm $125 tournament that I had heard many people liked, so I decided to give it a try even though I rarely do tournaments in Vegas anymore. Found the structure good, had 69 players with 7 spots paying. Start was hyper aggressive and I thought I wouldn’t survive the first level, all the European players were battling constantly and amassing huge stacks. Slowly, but surely my conservative play was paying off as I was scoring when need be and surviving level after level as the other aggressors dropped off like flies. Finally made it to 11 with 10 going to final table, bubble was taking a painfully long time and my stack was starting to dwindle with $3000 blinds and $600 (?) ante. The stack I had (about 20-25 big blinds) was getting eaten up fast as my cards dried up. Was able to bluff a few pots due to no one wanting to battle on the bubble, but knew I had to make a move (or maybe not?) By the time this hand came up I was down to just over 10 big blinds and knew I’d be in trouble if I made the final table with so few chips, so I was looking for a spot to steal or double up. The only other woman left besides me was actually a really tight player, which I noted, but closer to the bubble started loosening up (probably to steal blinds) and had gone all in 3 times in a row and was not contested. She was first to act and went all in again with everyone folding to me in the big blind, I held Ah7h, which I know is not premium but I already had money invested and just thought she might be stealing again (previously she had shown cards like J10 when she pushed), which was a great set up for this hand as I called and she turned over AA. Needless to say I was the bubble, but despite playing for 6 hours for nothing (still needed to get to 7th just for a double up of buy in) I think I would play this tournament again. Side note is that I have bubbled a few times in previous tournaments I’ve played, so now I have to wonder why I blow up at the end?

Other than poker we found some great shopping at Ross’s, love Fat Burger, Grand Luxe and tried a couple of new restaurants such as El Gordito Tacos and PH Chang that we’ll return to.

Anyways overall had a great week playing and can’t wait until we go back. We’ve decided though that our anniversary is now in October as it is just too darn hot in September. We’ve done the Labour day weekend trip twice now and way too packed (too many children????) and with temperatures consistently over 100 degrees even us cold winter dwellers need relief. Our friends who frequent Vegas several times a year call it their cottage, which I think is fitting as I’m not interested in sitting by the lake when there’s so much to do in Vegas.