Gimmee your chip 0 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 This will be a long read and I will break it down into 2 posts. True storyCondensed version:Spearmint RhinoVenetianArodBig game with Doyle, Ivey and the boysMore Arod playing over my limitsHitting quads at the 5 10 No limit tableMore quadsLong version:Although I do not post on this site, I do on occasion read through the general poker forum and wanted to share my recent Vegas trip. I was inspired after reading the last few trip reports to head back out and enjoy some down time during the holiday season. I headed out on December 26th with a 2 friends of mine to include one who has never been to Vegas (he is no spring chicken so it was hard for me to believe it). Anyway the 2 play in out local home games, 1 guy is pretty good and the other guy is known as Special Eddie as well as Eddie 9 lives, LAG and at times not even sure if he knows what the hell he is doing. Because Special Ed has never been to Vegas we decide to take advantage of the semi-off week rates at the Venetian (also he has some dough and will be footing more then his share of the room). We wind up with a small suite, all the rooms there are suites by the way, and with a 42in LCD in the bedroom, 32in LCD in the living room and a 17in LCD in the bathroom (you can watch some sports center while showering). Not sure why we need al that because we will either be out playing poker, drinking or passed out - but what the hell - if you can swing it I would recommend it every time.So we start off the trip by waiting for our other buddy to fly in whom could not get on our flight at the airport bar in Vegas. Waiting at the bar is a much better deal then waiting for your luggage at the baggage claim by the way. So by the time our friend gets in we are already halfway wasted and head promptly for the hotel. From there we decide to bypass poker the first night and head out for some drinking and then over to the Rhino, but not first before I cover some ground rules with these guys as they have never been the Rhino. Rule 1 - leave your credit and ATM cards in the room safe, Rule 2 - Bring only as much cash as you plan on spending because those girls will take every last dollar you have, Rule 3 - Stay to of the private champagne room as you will spend your entire roll right there. So we head out of the Venetian and walk across to Treasure Island and grab some more drinks at Kahunavile, by the time we leave there I am pretty wasted after about 5 shots of tequila. We pass by the craps table and they decide they want to roll some dice, so I venture across to the roulette wheel where some super hot girl wearing a red jacket is standing. I get frisky and try and make some quick Rhino cash and play $100 on red (because of her jacket) and proceed to lose that and additional $150 in 2 spins. Me < Roulette - I had enough and we catch a cab and finally arrive at the Spearmint Rhino. We have a great time there and I think I was able to experience girls from 6 out of the 7 continents (could not find anyone from Antarctica, although I tried). My one friend winds up in the private room and we do not see him again for about 2 hours which left him approx $500 poorer. By the time I go busto there I am totally wasted and we all decide to head back to the Venetian. I use the little judgment I have at that point and decide not to head down and lose anymore money, Special Eddie was not as fortunate.Day 2 - We decide to head down to the MGM and try out the poker room over there; I have played there a few times before and always had success at the $1 - $2 NL game there. Unfortunately today did not have the same results. Did have a few interesting hands including flopping quads out of the small blind while holding 4 8 off suit, I bet the flop and had 4 callers, bet the turn and had 3 callers and then bet the river and had someone move all-in on me – LOL. Picked up a nice $350 pot but it only helped keep me around even for the day. After about 8 hours of grinding at the MGM and not making any money we had had enough and headed for some steaks at Smith and Wollensky’s. Had a great meal there so we decided to head out for another night of drinking, went to many non-descript locations and got pretty hammered again. All in all day 2 was subpar but at least we all got wasted.Day 3 – We decide to play in the $150 tourney at the Venetian that started at noon, you get like $7500 in starting chips with 30 or 40 minute blinds so it is a nice format. There was like 140 people playing with a decent payout of around $7K for first. Midway through the 50-100 round I run my QQ into KK and get blown out. I decide to stick around and play at the Venetian because the card room is so fckn awesome there. I sit at a 1-2 NL table and I am like completely card dead for 2 hours and wind up losing like $100. I change tables and move over to the $2 - $5 game and bought in for $500, although I have not played any live games at this amount before based on bankroll size and all. Table is very friendly and everyone is having a good time, couple of younger guys who are pretty good, some older ladies who are also pretty good, some super aggressive guy and a few cute younger girls – a real good mix at the table. After about 3 hours I am down like $400 on this table with my cards still cold as ice, the seat to my immediate right is open and this is where my trip gets very interesting, as I am a huge NY Yankee fan and I am wearing my Yankee Hoodie. This dude who looks a lot like Alex Rodriquez (A-Rod) starts walking towards our table carrying 2 racks of $5 chips. He walks right up and I say hey whats up A-Rod and he says just playing some cards and promptly sits down in the open seat on my right. Most of the table has no clue who he is so I am not saying anything too loudly as I want to give the guy a chance to play some cards and not get hounded. The cute girl to his right is a dealer at Ceasers so the 3 of us start talking about poker and stuff, mix some Yankee stuff in and I am having a great time despite being down like $600 for the day. I tell him I’m glad he resigned and he says he is as well. I ask if he still plays in any of the underground games in NYC and he says he can’t since the media ran a deal in the paper on him a while back and he says he wants to stay low key. A-Rod is playing a weak tight game basically from a lack of experience but is a friendly guy who seems to be having fun. Dude is wearing like the smallest wedding band ever made on his finger, but has a nice Rolex on and other then that he is rather non-descript except if you knew who he was. After about 40 minutes or so someone who recognizes him walks up and gets an autograph from him, he is very pleasant and signs, maybe one other person asks for the rest of the time we are playing. But the first autograph opened it up and the table finally acknowledged who he was. A-rod limps in with Queens one hand and gets stacked for almost the entire $1K he has in front of him to the kid who is playing pretty good. Kid flops the nut straight on a board of 8 10 J holding Q 9 and A-rod cant get away from his over pair. He tells the kid nice hand and then asks the dealer to his right and me if he should have played it differently. We tell him yeah and he says thanks and gets another 2 purple chips out of his pocket and buys back in for another $1K. One of the ladies at the table says losing $1K must really hurt (sarcastically and everyone Arod and the rest of the table laughs). The other lady at the table is Tina Bergstrom from PokerNews.com and she finally figures out that this guy is a ballplayer. She says baseball players don’t like her and goes on about a story she did on Jose Canseco and what an ass he is and how he has been harassing her since she wrote a story about him playing in a woman’s only tourney (Jose got busted out first). I tell her Jose is an ass and no one likes him so don’t worry about Arod. I finally start getting some cards and begin to climb out of the hole a bit. Arod asks if there are any bigger games around and I tell him the Bellagio occasionally spreads a $1K - $2K game based on interest, Arod says he does not want to play that high right now. After about 2 hours Arods wife shows up and they head off to dinner, his wife appeared about 6 or 7 months pregnant so I figured he may be back after she goes to sleep that evening. Him and his wife head out I tell him good luck and congrats on the new baby and to win it all in 2008, he says thanks and off he goes. My luck finally begins to change and I climb out of the hole and now have about $1400 in front of me and I am ahead for the day. Tina then says that they are starting a big game in the back room, the back room is just to the right of the cashier and only about 30 feet away so I take a walk back there and see Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Min Li and David Benyamine and about 3 other guys who I recognize but cant place their names. They are playing a $3K - $6K mixed game with a cap. I am like wow, I should have Arod stake me because these are the same games that we play in our home game. We play Omaha H/L, Razz, pineapple, stud, razz and any other game that you could think of, we even mix in the jokers. Its now about 9pm so I cash out and head over to noodles and finally get some food. Head over to Bills Gambling Hall for some craps and Pai-gow before coming back to the Venitian around midnight for some more poker. I will continue story in next post. Link to post Share on other sites
Vtlaxer09 4 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 bobby's game in bellagio? Link to post Share on other sites
Stealth Beagle 0 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Cool report, and I am looking forward to part two. Meanwhile, I'm also really excited because I'm staying at the Venetian in a couple of weeks and I couldn't think of anything more appealing than taking A-Rod's money. GO SOX! Link to post Share on other sites
Royal_Tour 0 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 You must have been like 20 feet from me at one point.i saw Arod the past few days and i watched some of that 4000/8000 stud game yesterday Link to post Share on other sites
terradawg 0 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 lol at "i should have had arod stake me in the big game because we play those games at home." that certainly qualifies you for the big game. i bet doyle is thankful arod didn't stake you... Link to post Share on other sites
Gimmee your chip 0 Posted December 31, 2007 Author Share Posted December 31, 2007 lol at "i should have had arod stake me in the big game because we play those games at home." that certainly qualifies you for the big game. i bet doyle is thankful arod didn't stake you...Was wondering if anyone would catch that. I play whiffle ball also, maybe Doyle could stake me to play on the Yankees ? Link to post Share on other sites
terradawg 0 Posted December 31, 2007 Share Posted December 31, 2007 Was wondering if anyone would catch that. I play whiffle ball also, maybe Doyle could stake me to play on the Yankees ?arod was only being nice so you wouldn't take his job. Link to post Share on other sites
Robert Melendez 0 Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 I was in Vegas as well. Mostly played at Harrah's. Link to post Share on other sites
Teck_72 0 Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 Cool story dude, can't wait to hear the rest Link to post Share on other sites
mhoward29 0 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 What was the cover at the Rhino? Drink prices? Average time to go in the back room? I ask cuz it looks like a really nice club, I have never been to a really nice one before. Just stars is the best we have around here....Although I rarely go to clubs, the questions are more for curiousity really. Link to post Share on other sites
Figger 0 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Airline tickets to Vegas... $200.00Three night stay at the Venetian... $400.00Buy-in at the $2/5 NL table... $500.00Asking A-Rod to stake you in the $3,000/6,000 mixed game with a bunch of Pros... PricelessNice read, can't wait for Part II Link to post Share on other sites
ajs510 122 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Great read, looking forward to the next part. Link to post Share on other sites
FARGOpokerND 22 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Great read, looking forward to the next part.already done...part 2:http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-foru...p;#entry2342359 Link to post Share on other sites
ajs510 122 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 already done...part 2:http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-foru...p;#entry2342359 See, this is why we keep you around. Well, that and the jailbait making out in your sig. Link to post Share on other sites
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