Trip Report

[smitty417 0]

So the Smith boys do Vegas. Me, my dad, and uncle go to Vegas for a guy’s trip, my uncle is a lawyer and is having some kind of convention so his company pays for a suite at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay..... Sweeeeeeeeeeet. My dad has plane ticket already so im on a free roll. My dad takes the couch after he says my uncle snore and me too load, that’s cool with my because of the great beds they have. On to the action....Saturday: Get into the room about 3pm, put our stuff away and got to the Venetian for some food. We choose a Mexican place, the name escapes me now but it good expically with a few beers. They decide to go bad toward Mandalay Bay and I decide to check out the poker room. Wow this is a nice room, nice chairs and plenty of room between tables. I get seated in a 1-2nl game that is by the escalator so the view is great with all the chicks coming down from the club. I buy in for the max $300 and run my stack up to about $550 before too many red bull and vodkas kick in and I donk it all off. I decide to walk back to the hotel (bad decision) 1. Because im pissed that I donked off my money and 2. im too cheap to take a cab. The strip at 4am on Sunday morning is a scary place to be walking alone, however I make it back unharmed although I did get harassed a few times.Sunday- Wake and want to watch the Masters so we start at ESPN zone but they want a crazy $10 per person per hour, so we eat some wings (average at best) and have a beer and move on. We settle on California pizza at Mirage, which was good and had lots of TVs to watch the Masters. I go to MGM after lunch to check out the juicy action I have heard about and end up +175 after about 3 or 4 hours (no big hands that I can recall). Eat dinner at the Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay; we all opted for the Black Angus burger instead of the Kobe because were all stuck. Pretty good for a $20 burger. After dinner I go back to The Venetian and break even.Monday- My dad wants to go and check out the Red Rock so we catch a bus at the Fashion Mall and head out, get there look around, eat lunch and leave. We get back in time for me to play at The Wynn 2pm tourney which is $120 + one rebuy/addon for $100. Pretty good tourney with 4,000 starting stack and 30 min levels (rebuy/addon get 4k also) triple up before end of rebuy period and decide to save $100 as I am the chip leader at my table. 33 players 27 rebuys $2100 fir 1st and I bust after about 3 hours and being card dead as hell. Dinnertime rolls around and we go to Baltistas (sp?) Hole in the Wall, which is behind Bill's casino. Wow this place is cool, old Vegas fill kind of dingy but great food and all the wine you can drink with your dinner! After lots of food and wine I go to MGM to make some easy money----- yea right. I'm telling ya most of the players are terrible but of course I can't catch any card and you can for get bluffing, people calling with 2nd and 3rd pair it was just sick. I fold for 2hours and finally pick up KK UTG and raise to $12 get 5 callers and the flop brings A 10 4 so I check and some guy bet I fold had he shows A 10. I finish the evening buy flopping a flush in an 8 was limped pot only to get shown the nut flush... bye byw 3 hundo.Tuesday- So im pissed cause i've had no cards to speak of and am stuck for the trip. Go to Caesars to eat lunch at Bobby Flays place the Mesa grill actually pretty good food but very expensive. Tuesday is Downtown day and we catch The Duce and do the old Vegas thing. I loose $100 at The Golden Nugget playing 1-2 nl when I try to run a bluff on this guy when I have AK on the button and he has J 10 on a 10 high flop... you would think I knew better. I win $59 showing my uncle how to play craps and $15 playing video poker and having drinks before dinner. We eat at the steak house at Binion's and get a waiter the had been there for like 38 years of something crazy like that, he shares so cool stories about the Binions and the food and view are great. I snag a cab to the Belliago to checkout the $5k event and see how my fellow Alabamian Shannon Shorr is doing, the tourney is on dinner break so I go to the poker room and see Doyle, Phil Ivey and Jennifer playing in Bobby's room along with a few I did not know. My dad and uncle catch the Duce back, which takes them like 2hrs after the bus stops ever block for like 8 mins. LOL they were pissed. So for the last horra I head back to the Venetian to kick some ass. Buyin for the max $300 and to work it up to $550 again, my table breaks and I move over to the next table where the hand of the the trip happens. UTG raises to $16 I look down at 99 and say WTF and call along with 4 others. The flop come a beautiful 9 2 4 with two spades, SB goes allin for $59 BB calls org. raiser moves and I move over the top of him afew others fold and the BB thinks for like 3 mins before call with 92 SB has J8 of spades for a spade draw and the org. raiser had QQ. The turn brings a 7 and river a 10 so I rake in the $680 side pot and the SB get the $350 main pot when she make a runner runner straight, im pissed and happy at the same time. The rest of the evening/morning is uneventful and I cash out +$877 for the session. Also talk to Bret "Gank" Jungblut for about 30 min after he chops the $330 deep stack event for $7K. He sits behind a guy that is his buddy who is sitting beside me at my table. He seemed to be a nice guy and we had a good conversation, I ask if he was playing any of the Belliago events and he said that he was back and could play in any tourney he wanted to but had not been getting up until 4 or 5pm every day so the 6pm start for the deep stack events was better for him. As a side note he said out of like 7 deep stacks events he had chopped 3 and had a 12th in one and was felling good about his NL game but would rather play Omaha. He did say that the fields at the Belliago events were so strong that he felt out "classed". One funny thing he was cracking on his buddy about how bad/weak he was playing and said he needed to give him a few lessons. In summary ate too much, drank too much, stayed in a great room and pulled in my drive way Wed. night with $108 dollars more than I left (after all expenses along with a few gifts for the wife and kids) all in all it was a good trip.P.S. - I did not proof read this so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors, Flame away

[zander24 0]

good report, mbn to all of a sudden be unstuck after 1 session after 4 or so losing ones

[therescav 0]

Many a spelling/grammar error but a good read

[gatortom64 1]

Looks like it was typed on the plane ride back while still drunk/hungover. I approve!!! Nice trip. Looking forward to my next one!!

[Turbo Dog 1]

I decide to walk back to the hotel (bad decision)

That's quite a hike

[fatman 1]

Looks like it was typed on the plane ride back while still drunk/hungover. I approve!!! Nice trip. Looking forward to my next one!!

[trussdude 0]

It sounds like you did a lot of walking.

[Dratj 0]

just read the summary only, paid for the trip, nice.

[mhoward29 0]

Bad choice on not getting the Kobe burger at the Burger Bar. It is the best burger I have ever had.Good trip.