Vegas Recap

Last weekend was the Vegas trip with Alex and PetDander. Due to exorbitant hotel prices due to a large SEMA convention and the National Bull Riding Championships, we stayed over at the Imperial Palace, which is a pretty shabby place. The word on the street is that Harrah's, IP's new owner, will tear it down at some point and rebuild a nice new hotel and casino in its place.

Anyway, the room we were given was in the dungeon. There was no straight path to our room. In order to get to it, we needed to take an elevator or escalator up a floor then walk a ways to another set of internal elevators, which then had to be taken down a floor. It was an awkward path. Lucky for us on this trip, none of us needed to invoke our drunk card.

All of us were itching to play some live poker, so off to the Bellagio we went. Man, let me tell you how much the Bellagio poker room sucks nowadays. It is extremely cramped; it seemed like that added quite a few more tables since the last time I was there. The cocktail waitresses weren't able to move around at all. This led to slow service that then led to grumpy players. And, grumpy players that are losing money aren't all that much to play with. The Bellagio game was really soft. PetDander and I played some 8/16 there and Alex hit the 4/8. The highlight for me was hitting quad Jacks against a guy's boat (sixes full). We all cashed in our chips shortly after the Marquis showed up. I take that back... Alex got pounded on this first session, so there was no cashing in for him. But, don't worry, there's a happy ending for him.

Next, we ate at an extremely overpriced (due to portion size and not actual prices) restaurant in the Bellagio before we headed off to Mandalay Bay. The plan for Mandalay Bay was to meet up and drink a bit with an ex- from years ago. We all met up at the Island Lounge smack in the middle of the hotel. The meeting wasn't awkward at all, and the drinks were flowing. She even gave me a couple of poker books that her company had gotten for free.

Now, that was a bit awkward. Carrying around poker books in plain view while walking around a casino is tantamount to wearing an "I am a Tool" T-Shirt. We also managed to hit up the Raffles Cafe to eat our real dinner since we were all pretty hungry. After the meal, we all said our good-byes to her, and we were off to start our drunken low-limit poker session.

The Mandalay poker room is a nice small room. We played in a low-limit 4/8 game with 1/2 mini-blinds. It was a ton of fun. Playing like a fish every now and then at the lowest limits can be a lot of fun, and it doesn't cost you too much in terms of long-run expectation. After splashing around for many hours, PetDander and I dropped a little bit, and Alex escaped breakeven. We finally crashed in our hotel room at 9 in the morning.

That's the end of my happy poker stories. The next one is sad. On Saturday, we met up with old friends, Jimmy Schlong and Dr. Madav, on the strip while walking to the Wynn. They happened to be in Vegas that same weekend, and so we planned on meeting up briefly with them. So there we were on our way to the Wynn... off to play some 15/30. We got there and were seated relatively quickly. And within 4 hours, I dropped a good number of bets. A good 25% of the loss was due to my donkish play after being outflopped and outdrawn constantly. I really should have had more control of my emotions, but it was too late, and the tilt monster showed its face. PetDander played well, but still took a small beating. Alex won a bit in his 4/8 game.

There was no more poker for me the rest of the trip. I took my beating and then played a few pit games before calling it a night. PetDander and Alex played in the 6/12 at the Mirage though. I was not there to witness Alex's run, but he ended up a substantial winner.

While not a profitable weekend, it was fun. All I need now is for EBAY to move so I can wipe out the weekend's expenses. There will be a next time. Time to head back to bed for a quick nap before work.