 Vegas June 2021 |
| Planning: November instead of June |
| Last Updated: 2020-11-03 14:57:44 |
| NOVEMBER 3 UPDATE: I've cancelled the trip. When I poked my head into the Aria poker room in late October there just weren't enough people playing. Part of making it a good game is how many weaker players are usually there plus tournaments need to be big enough to make prizes worth the expense of going to play. Neither appears to be true as tournaments I saw had only 35-37 people, cash tables all had at least one or two empty chairs and surely it was all local grinders. Even ignoring the safety side of it unfortunately there's no reason for me to think it will be the usual good game.
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| MID-OCTOBER UPDATE: Just under 5 weeks until departure I now consider this trip a 50-50 prospect at best. With the COVID surge happening and ongoing predictions that it's going to get much worse I have a hard time imagining myself sitting at a poker table with a bunch of strangers sharing chips and cards. I may not have a choice, if it does get as bad as many are saying there may be lockdowns anyway. But ... if things turn around I do badly want to go ...
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| Since there was no WSOP in June, and it doesn't look like there's any chance of a "fall" WSOP either (the idea had been floated by the WSOP folks...) this is now the November 2020 poker trip BLOG.
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| I have long had a reservation for NYNY for the week leading up to Thanksgiving. I've booked Wednesday through Wednesday, planning to drive home the day before Thanksgiving to be home in time for the holiday.
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| Possible I may shorten the trip, more likely at the beginning than the end, depending on weather and what's going on with poker in Vegas. For example I'd definitely delay a day if there was any significant storm predicted in the mountains on the day I'm supposed to head out.
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| As I'm writing this initial entry Aria has restarted a daily tournament at 11am. Before COVID they were doing 1pm on weekdays and 11am on weekends with a higher buyin on weekends plus a 7pm every day with the same buyin every day.
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| Now it's same time, same buyin every day and only one per day. We're going to be out there in October so I'll see what kind of crowds they're attracting.
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| That's also been a good time to go out in the past because of an annual WSOP circuit event at Planet Hollywood that I'm assuming is not happening this year. PH is only just opening on October 8th and only opening for weekends. Surely they're not going to do a poker event. Spillover from the circuit event seemed to help tournament size at Aria.
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| I had mentioned to folks that without tournaments I was planning to spend a week doing nothing but cash games, and if the tournaments are tiny I may go back to that plan. But for now I'm hoping the tournaments will have enough to be worth playing in and maybe spend some time at cash tables after dinner on nights the tournament doesn't go well.
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| If they start up the 7pm again between now and then it'll likely be the usual "all tournaments" trip. And I'd then be a little more likely to consider shortening the trip if I can pack in two tournaments a day.
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| So that's where it stands as I write this up a day over 8 weeks from departure. |
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