Vegas Report:
We stayed at the MGM, which is one of the nicest casinos I've stayed at in Vegas. Usually, this group I go with always goes with the CHEAPEST place, which was really wearing on my nerves. Fuck, we're going on VACATION, it's okay to splurge a bit. MGM was offering incredible deals, so we compromised and paid a few bucks more a night and stayed at a nice place.
Unfortunately, I didn't take my own advice and stick to just playing Poker, which I'm decent enough at, and I can actually make money playing it. Anything in the casino, like Blackjack and Let it Ride has an edge of anywhere from 2% to 30%. Poker you're just playing against 9 other schmoes, and the casino just takes anywhere from $1 to $5 a pot. So, you're basically playing other gamblers NOT the casino, a huge difference. I knew that I'd have to play some table games being sociable with the group and all, but I played way too many table games.
The first day a bunch of us went to The Stratosphere to go on some of the rides on top of the Tower. Only 4 of us managed to actually go up the Tower and ride them. Everyone else, either stayed back at the MGM or stayed at the bottom of the Strat. The rides were pretty intense. I wimped out on the swings, the twirly action, 1,000 feet over the ground would have fucked me up too much, but I went on the Coaster ride and the Big Shot. http://www.stratospherehotel.com/thrills/
I played my first session of Poker Monday night, and killed, I won $310 in a short 3 hour session. So after 2 days, I was up. The next day we were supposed to go see a Neil Diamond impersonator, but the dude got sick, so we meandered around and ended up playing Blackjack and Craps. Bad idea, I lost most of what I had made the night before. Later that night we saw Howie Mandel. Dude was actually very funny. I was surprised, I thought he would be lame.
Wednesday was a horror story. My wifey and I split off the main group and went to the Bellagio. I wanted to play poker there as it is generally considered THE PLACE for Poker. It's where the Big Boys play. I needed to see how I would do at the toughest room in the World. I sat down at one of the middle stakes tables, the 2/5 No-Limit, $200-$500 buy-in. I didn't feel that great that day, not sure why, but I wasn't the feeling great. My game reflected it. I got killed early when I pushed with pocket Queens after the flop to a douche that flopped trip 4s. He stayed in with King/4 on a $25 raise pre-flop. For you novices, that guy made a BAD play and got lucky, and had me push in on him. I got up and asked the Poker Host about mixed games. He said all they had was $30/$60 Omaha, THIRTY & SIXTY DOLLARS PER ROUND. Min. buy-in $600, with no Max. Over my head, but I really wanted to play, AND I saw Freddy Deeb sitting at the table and I really wanted to play with a bona-fide professional player. It's a specialty game and I'm good at it, so I went for it. More bad luck, I had some great hands, but got really unlucky, couldn't get any big winners and I really didn't have the cash to ride out the bad cards. I got up from the table down a bunch, and left the room. I played in the big room and I failed. Next year...
Thursday was a much, much better day. We played in a $75 tournament at O'Sheas, I finished in 4th for $250, and my wife actually won the thing for $600. (Yeah, I taught her everything she knows, of course.) Later that night we played in a small $45 tourney at Luxor and I finished 3rd for another $180. I also won some back in a cash game at Imperial Palace. I found I did better in smaller, lower limit poker rooms, the big rooms seemed to intimidate me too much and threw me off my game. I felt more comfortable and in control of my game in the smaller places. I need to get over it.
Summing up, if I would have stuck to poker I would have made a small amount of money on the trip. I played Blackjack and some Craps with our friends throughout the week and lost a little bit overall on those games. I also played some of the dumbass games like Let it Ride and 3 Card Poker, never a good idea. I lost most of my money playing these ridiculously bad percentage games.
Oh, one last thing, I got propositioned by a hooker when I was on my way back to the MGM one night. She was a tall, beautiful black woman and she offered to suck my dick for $300. I told her I had a wife I had to get back to and she said $500 for both of us... Hmmmm, I said No and ran off...
Vegas is still the greatest party city in the World. My friend's stag is there next January, so I can't wait for that....
We stayed at the MGM, which is one of the nicest casinos I've stayed at in Vegas. Usually, this group I go with always goes with the CHEAPEST place, which was really wearing on my nerves. Fuck, we're going on VACATION, it's okay to splurge a bit. MGM was offering incredible deals, so we compromised and paid a few bucks more a night and stayed at a nice place.
Unfortunately, I didn't take my own advice and stick to just playing Poker, which I'm decent enough at, and I can actually make money playing it. Anything in the casino, like Blackjack and Let it Ride has an edge of anywhere from 2% to 30%. Poker you're just playing against 9 other schmoes, and the casino just takes anywhere from $1 to $5 a pot. So, you're basically playing other gamblers NOT the casino, a huge difference. I knew that I'd have to play some table games being sociable with the group and all, but I played way too many table games.
The first day a bunch of us went to The Stratosphere to go on some of the rides on top of the Tower. Only 4 of us managed to actually go up the Tower and ride them. Everyone else, either stayed back at the MGM or stayed at the bottom of the Strat. The rides were pretty intense. I wimped out on the swings, the twirly action, 1,000 feet over the ground would have fucked me up too much, but I went on the Coaster ride and the Big Shot. http://www.stratospherehotel.com/thrills/
I played my first session of Poker Monday night, and killed, I won $310 in a short 3 hour session. So after 2 days, I was up. The next day we were supposed to go see a Neil Diamond impersonator, but the dude got sick, so we meandered around and ended up playing Blackjack and Craps. Bad idea, I lost most of what I had made the night before. Later that night we saw Howie Mandel. Dude was actually very funny. I was surprised, I thought he would be lame.
Wednesday was a horror story. My wifey and I split off the main group and went to the Bellagio. I wanted to play poker there as it is generally considered THE PLACE for Poker. It's where the Big Boys play. I needed to see how I would do at the toughest room in the World. I sat down at one of the middle stakes tables, the 2/5 No-Limit, $200-$500 buy-in. I didn't feel that great that day, not sure why, but I wasn't the feeling great. My game reflected it. I got killed early when I pushed with pocket Queens after the flop to a douche that flopped trip 4s. He stayed in with King/4 on a $25 raise pre-flop. For you novices, that guy made a BAD play and got lucky, and had me push in on him. I got up and asked the Poker Host about mixed games. He said all they had was $30/$60 Omaha, THIRTY & SIXTY DOLLARS PER ROUND. Min. buy-in $600, with no Max. Over my head, but I really wanted to play, AND I saw Freddy Deeb sitting at the table and I really wanted to play with a bona-fide professional player. It's a specialty game and I'm good at it, so I went for it. More bad luck, I had some great hands, but got really unlucky, couldn't get any big winners and I really didn't have the cash to ride out the bad cards. I got up from the table down a bunch, and left the room. I played in the big room and I failed. Next year...
Thursday was a much, much better day. We played in a $75 tournament at O'Sheas, I finished in 4th for $250, and my wife actually won the thing for $600. (Yeah, I taught her everything she knows, of course.) Later that night we played in a small $45 tourney at Luxor and I finished 3rd for another $180. I also won some back in a cash game at Imperial Palace. I found I did better in smaller, lower limit poker rooms, the big rooms seemed to intimidate me too much and threw me off my game. I felt more comfortable and in control of my game in the smaller places. I need to get over it.
Summing up, if I would have stuck to poker I would have made a small amount of money on the trip. I played Blackjack and some Craps with our friends throughout the week and lost a little bit overall on those games. I also played some of the dumbass games like Let it Ride and 3 Card Poker, never a good idea. I lost most of my money playing these ridiculously bad percentage games.
Oh, one last thing, I got propositioned by a hooker when I was on my way back to the MGM one night. She was a tall, beautiful black woman and she offered to suck my dick for $300. I told her I had a wife I had to get back to and she said $500 for both of us... Hmmmm, I said No and ran off...
Vegas is still the greatest party city in the World. My friend's stag is there next January, so I can't wait for that....
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
repo_man:
She looked very feminine, but, man, you never know.... 
knots:
It was a dude.. His name is Dantes