Vegas June 2021

Days 1 & 2 - Drive, eat, poker FINALLY

Last Updated: 2021-06-12 14:31:07

After the last year of life in general I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to do a real BLOG post for the first time in a year and a half. Wouldn't it be awesome if my first one in so long had a happy ending???

Guess you'll have to read it to find out...

And I'll apologize in advance if this gets a little long, but there was a whole year of Vegas poker trips I/we didn't get to take and my brain needs to make up for it.

Pretty easy drive out, we did hit a little construction here and there and saw more getting started but all in all we still managed to make it to Vegas in a good amount of time with our usual stops in Avon (Starbucks, to eat enough to hold us over until...), Grand Junction, Salina (gas, gas) and finally Washington UT (In-N-Out!!! Yeah they're in CO now but not terribly convenient yet).

With the range on Joann's car I do think I could manage a "one stop strategy" gassing only at a new Love's Travel Station just west of Green River, UT for the whole drive. However, it would really be cutting it close in both directions, and the gas there is the most expensive we see the entire trip. Salina, by contrast, is usually the cheapest we see the entire trip except maybe the Sam's club we fill up at in Vegas.

That Sam's is so cheap compared to everything around it that if that was the only gas station you ever went to you'd think the gas supply chain was hit by a ransomware attack and the owners actually refused to pay. Lines routinely 4-8 cars deep at every pump every day without fail.

We thought we were going to have to kill time, but we decided to check in online for the first time ever and our digital room key was made available to us an hour early so straight to Aria we went.

A while ago they implemented a system at all MGM resorts (at least the Vegas ones) where you have to hold your room key up to a reader in the elevators, and you can only go to your floor. Why you still have to push a floor button since it KNOWS you're only allowed to go to your own floor I will never understand.

With the digital key on your phone, works the same way. Tap a button on the app, hold your phone up to the key reader, wait for a green light, hit your floor. Tap the button on the app again when you get to your suite to unlock the door.

Oh ... did I mention we decided to splurge on a suite for this trip? Lemme tell you it's pretty, well, sweet.

Bedroom, living room, full bath with a jet tub and two sinks, powder room, fridge with an ice maker, 3 TVs (one so you can watch while you soak in your jet tub). And we love our high floors, we got on 51 out of 54 (it's really 44 floors, there are no floor numbers in the 40's, but I covered that HERE ) and the view is as awesome as always! We're in a "Corner Suite", which as the name implies is the last room at the end of the hallway on the corner of the building so we have close to a 270 degree view out our windows.

So far we have only one gripe at Aria. On a happy note, VALET PARKING IS BACK!!! The hotel has valet in front (south valet) and back (north valet). Just about everyone uses south valet, but since we discovered north valet (which is considerably more convenient for getting to and from the Rio for the WSOP) we LOVE our north valet. Never any lines, much nicer to get in and out of the hotel, and you can call ahead and have your car made ready!

They closed off north valet and are only allowing their ultra high rollers and high end suite (because there are lots of levels of suites...) guests use north valet now. We were very disappointed.

Dinner at Smith and Wollensky, and usually we eat early but this time we made a reservation for 7pm and by the time we were about half way through our fantastic steaks we really started hitting the wall. We had been up at 3:30am, out the door by 4:30, hour time difference so 9PM is really 10 for us...it was a long day. Straight to bed once we got back to our room.

On our last couple of trips out here (non poker...) I've gotten in the habit of driving to a Starbucks behind New York, New York instead of paying double in the hotel. Even with a tip for the valet I'm saving a bunch of money running out to get my Starbucks instead of having it here. And what else do I have to do with my mornings aside from writing this :-)

And from the time they make my tea 'til it cools enough for me to drink it is about 40 minutes. I order one through the app in the room, give it about 5 minutes, head down to the Starbucks, order a second one a couple lights before I get there and the timing works out perfect that I can drink two straight through starting as soon as I get back to the room.

OK I'll pick up the pace a bit. For our first full day we did our usual morning hour at the pool; ran out to the aforementioned Sam's club (4th in line, shortest line, others 6+ deep); stopped at a Lee's Liquor that had been holding a couple of bottles of E. H. Taylor Small Batch Bourbon for me for two weeks (and grabbed half a case of Sazerac Rye while we were at it); stopped at Wells Fargo for some money; stopped at the liquor store down the strip I've gotten very lucky at with some other hard to find bottles (no luck this time, however); had "dunch" at Javier's around 2 (we're covering all the usual haunts quick!); watched some U.S. Poker Open streaming while we waited until it was time to head over to Orleans for...

POKER!

Quick note on Javier's. I learned something on this trip. A bikini top is not considered a "top" for purposes of dining there. If you try to enter the restaurant wearing just that you will be asked to leave and put on a full top before being served.

I went up to the room while Joann ordered drinks. But enough about Javier's.

My last time playing poker in our home game in my basement was March 6, 2020. The last time I played poker in Vegas was November 25, 2019. It's been a long-ass time since I held cards and chips in my hands.

But ... finally ... FINALLY ... time for some live poker!

Registered late second round, and it's a good thing I didn't wait much longer. I had looked at formats for some of their bigger buyin tournaments at their summer poker series and thought they looked great! Not so much for their nighttime tournaments it turns out. 15K chips isn't bad, but the format was very fast. That starting stack was just 30 bigs by the 4th level if I recall correctly.

I hand over my entry fee, get a seat assignment and of course it's the damn 1-seat. I hate the 1-seat. But I'm gonna play poker so I'll get over it.

Joann messages me not long after I sit down "I think Hans is at the table behind you." I look over my left shoulder and sure enough there is Hans literally 5 feet away from me! Out of like 175 entries so far we get seated so close together. Can't make it up!

A little over an hour in nothing much interesting has happened, I think I played and won 2-3 pots that weren't huge, and I look down at pocket rockets. Blinds 300/500/500, middle position player makes it 1600 to go, I'm in the cutoff (one before the button) and pop it up to 3500. Probably should have gone a little higher but I wanted action now knowing a short format. Folds around to the original raiser who calls.

Flop T-6-9 with two spades, he checks, I make it 4500, he shoves, I snap call. He rolls over J-8 of diamonds, aces hold up against the draw, I double to about 35k.

About 15 minutes later tho I lose 10K on a 3rd nut flush against the nut flush. Lost the minimum because of the A-2-A-4-A board, neither of us wanted to bet the possible boat on the river and that definitely saved me some chips. It was J-T of spades, which I had raised preflop, against a K-6 of spades that called my raise after limping in.

Dust off another 5K with A-J after flopping second pair and had to give up after getting check-raised on the turn that could have completed a straight draw.

19,800 at the first break.

Blinds 400/800/800 and I'm down closer to 15K, I get all in with AQ vs KT suited and get an ace high flop. Back up to 33k with some dead money in the pot (it had gone raise, call, I shove, fold from original raiser, call).

3 hours into the tournament there are 97 remaining from a total of 215 entries paying 27 places. Just 70 from the money! :-)

Oh and by the way, even after a year and a quarter I can still perfectly ruffle 22 chips. Just sayin'...

Get a short stack all in with my A-J vs her A-6, suckout queen hits a straight on the river. I was NOT the only victim that night...

9k lost there.

Table breaks up.

Card dead, back down around 20k, table breaks again.

Get away with an all-in or two, only at 23,500 at the next break with blinds 1000/2000/2000 next round. Not good.

But ... in a big blind, second to act makes it 6K, folds to small blind who calls, I look down at 10-10 and go all-in, original raiser goes over the top all in, small blind folds. He shows A-Q. Flop a 10, 40K!!

54 remaining paying 27.

Win another 15k with A-K on an ace high flop, I did try checking the flop to induce action but no luck. She had made it 6K, I had reraised to 15 preflop. Was really hoping she had A-Q or something but apparently not.

45 remain, 27 get paid, 60% chance of getting in the money and I'm comfortable.

I think it was 1500/3000/3000 when a guy makes it 8k to go and I look down at AK. I make it 22K, he shoves, I snap call, he has 10-10. Another ace on the flop, and he had a decent sized stack.

Two hands later I get in a raise with AA and one caller, same woman I couldn't induce with my AK, still can't get her post-flop.

All of a sudden I'm at 144k and looking at a 75k average stack. I should be among the chip leaders tho probably not THE chip leader.

But then I go fairly card dead. Down to 130k just because of blinds and antes. 9 from the money. I start the countdown to Joann. And because we're 9 from the money Hans appears at my table, they just broke his table. He lasted all of one hand. He is short, looks down at 99, runs into QQ and an A-J. QQ holds up to score a double elimination. 7 from the money.

Blinds go up, I can't get in a hand, I fall to an average stack 2 from the money with blinds coming soon. We lose one more and we're hand-for-hand.

Took exactly one hand. Dunno if I ever had a hand-for-hand take only one hand before.

First tournament in Vegas since November 2019 and I'm in the money!!!

Raise out with AJ, get a big stack caller, try a c-bet when I miss and get check-raised and have to give up. That dropped me to 70k, then blinds took me down around 50-55k.

I get all in with AK vs TT, finally lose a flip and I'm out 22nd out of 215 for a little closer to triple my buyin than double.

What a start!!! 1 for 1 after a year and a half!

Felt like I played good, only had a couple hands I questioned if I made the right decision but I looked at some charts this morning and decided I was right both times.

Oh and Javier's? I might have told that story a little out of order ... hehe ...

Walking into the hotel carrying a bag full of liquor, I went up to the room while Joann got us a table and ordered drinks. I find her, while we were waiting for the drinks and starting to munch on some nachos and salsa a group of four 20-something women and one guy sat at a table behind us, one wearing a bikini top and another wearing something the size you'd expect in a SI swimsuit edition.

Manager hustles over and explains they cannot be served dressed that way. "But this is a TOP" one of them protests.

If you wanna be served here you gotta be wearing more than that. They leave and eventually come back wearing sufficient clothing.

OK that's finally all I got for today.

After my great success I'm taking two days off before playing again so there won't be a BLOG tomorrow morning and probably not Sunday either unless a good story magically appears while we're doing "not a whole lot" for a couple of days. Dinner with my cousin Heather and her boyfriend Glenn at an Italian place Joann wants to try (Lago at Bellagio) Sunday and the two of us are going to try the Irish Pub again tonight just the two of us.

I will be back at it at Orleans Monday night, and then Tuesday and Thursday I have PLO8 and 3-Stud Mix respectively there as well. Both 2-day, if I don't make day 2 in PLO8 there is a night 8/b on Wednesday. Aside from that it will be all Aria once I'm done with those, aside from our second-to-last day when we're going to the mob museum and distillery with Heather and Glenn.

Thanks for getting to the end of my brain dump, I'll try and keep it a little shorter next time!