Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I have broken this TR down into several posts for ease of reading. Friday, May 29: The arrival debacleDSC00452.jpgAfter an uneventful flight, I walk off the plane and am immediately bombarded by the sound of slot machines eating up retirement savings and trust funds. Yes, I have certainly arrived. I collect my bags and spend a dull half an hour in a winding line for a taxi. I finally reach the front of the line and hail a cab. I have been warned about Las Vegas taxi drivers, but I am optimistic: I am staying in a mansion in the suburbs far from the strip, so I plan to pretend to be a local.This plan works for exactly 5 minutes when my cab driver asks which exit he should take to get off the freeway. No worries: my story evolves: I only recently moved to Vegas (1 month ago) and do not have a car. We finally guess at an exit and meander aimlessly through the ever alarming twisting maze of random turns. I can't help but think my cover has been blown.Half an hour later, our cab sits idling in the parking lot of a random hotel while I urge my driver to call dispatch for directions. He tries and conveniently fails to get a hold of anyone. He finally convinces me to use my cell phone to call my friend. This is the first in an expensive series of roaming calls and texts to Mark (NoSup4U) who is at a loud bar and can hardly hear me. A stop at a local gas station for directions leads him to "discover" that we are waaaay too far south (I remember looking through the window of the cab, seeing the gas attendant talking to my driver. She is gesturing her arm wildly back the way we came and I can see her mouthing the words 'WAAAAAY back, waaaay back', with extra emphasis on the first word. From this point on, I convince my driver to turn off the meter. It reads $38.Half an hour later, I am pulling up to the "pool house" where I am staying for the week. In the end, a 5-10 minute and <$20 cab ride took ~1.5 hours and cost $40.Vegas: 1Merby: 0DSC00505.jpgOur "baller" pool house. At least our house didn't have any cockroaches, although some blinds which were actually able to close in my bedroom would have been nice...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Saturday, May 30: Run-goodI begin the day with a delicious breakfast with Mark (NoSup4U), his wife Shannon, Trevor (Tremomey), Luke (KHSPoker), Rod (RDog), our documentary film crew. This meal, like many others this week, came courtesy of Trevor, who was kind enough to lose at credit card roulette (CCR). In fact, I might have to say that Checky and Tremomey have to go heads-up in CCR in some fancy dinner to decide once-and-for-all who is the all-time worst CCRer in the history of this new sport.After breakfast, we head to the Rio and I finally get to experience the WSOP in person. What an experience! Big name pros, even more skilled, but lesser known online pros, hopeful amateurs, and finally, awestruck spectators like me crowd the halls. I pass Doyle Brunson in the hall and we exchange waves. Today is the first day of the sold-out $1000 NLHE event. In our group, Trevor, Mark, Rod, Jesse (PocketDeuces), and Bob (Lobster) are all playing. Luke, Shannon, and I are on the rail. I also see Antonion Esfandiari and Barry Greenstein playing, but I am surprised to discover that I am far more interested in sweating my friends than I am sweating some guys who I saw play poker once or twice (or a hundred times...) on TV.The thrill of watching my friends play in the WSOP quickly gets muted by my own degeneracy and Luke and I soon find a 2/5 wait list which appears lonely without our names. After it is quickly apparent that our degeneracy needs to be sated long before the 2/5 wait list will release us, we wander into the Rio in the hopes of scoring a better wait at their in-casino poker room. This turns out to be an excellent decision as we are soon both seated at some 1/3 NLHE tables. I find myself at a table with 7 brain-dead calling stations and one drunk donator. This game is so good, I somehow manage to get 8 streets of value against some of these opponents when I flop middle set and they obligingly pass me their stacks. Four enjoyable hours later, my stomach asserts its need for strict attention and I leave the poker game, $1000 richer from the experience.Vegas: 1Merby: 1At this point, I lost Luke, but run into Mark, Shannon and Trevor. Mark and Trevor are on dinner break, Mark has a healthy stack, and Trevor is... expecting to join us at Hofbrauhaus this evening. Nevertheless, he still has the proverbial chip and a chair, so it is only Shannon and I who soon take our leave and head off across the strip for Matt (acid_knight)'s birthday celebration.DSC00450.jpgTrevor (turquoise shirt) and Jesse (standing) laughing about the soft opposition in this tournament.DSC00442.jpgBob (Lobster) in the white shirt, partially obscured by the orange shirt guy in the foreground.DSC00447.jpgA former FCP featured member is sitting here in the white and grey striped shirt.DSC00485.jpgMark (NoSup4U) winning a pot, proving that he can officially win pots while his friends are railing him. This is the face of a man who just ended the tournament life of one of his opponents.Hofbrauhouse:The Hofbrauhaus was itself an event. It was like living in the movie"Beer Fest" (so I hear -- I have not yet seen that film). All I know is that there was a non-stop party going on, music playing (some guy was playing music with a 30' horn balanced on his mouth), there were congo lines, great food, and BEER! The beer came in a glass that even a Canadian can be proud to lift. I don't know your guys weird Imperial system, but it must have been like 40 gallons each. I obviously had already had a beer back at the Rio with Mark, Shannon, and Tre, so I limited myself to a mere two of these massive beers, and was soon happily in a drunken stupor. There were some 20 or 30 FCPers who made it out to the Hofbrauhaus, and in no time names blurred with faces (possibly with aid from the aforementionned beer). Nevertheless, at the end of the night, when a group of FCPers said "let's go play beer pong!" I said, "YES!"For those of you who have not played beer pong before, I will not bore you with the details on how to play (as I didn't know them anyway). The bottom line is it involved drinking more beer and demonstrating my embarrassingly poor hand-to-eye coordination as I sent ping pong balls everywhere but where they were supposed to go. I am grateful to my teammate Brad (OMGFluffdog) for pulling more than his fair share of the effort on our team.Despite his best efforts and previous history with the IP, Zach (Zach6668) somehow managed to not get thrown out of the casino which had already given him an apparent lifetime ban. With our minds suitably numbed with the warm fog of beer, it was time to assert our degeneracy again. Three hands of blackjack and I was called for poker. Those 3 hands represent the surprisingly only (non-poker and non-prop bet) gambling I did all week. I finished up $15 in blackjack and was able to prove that indeed some people were able to "break vegas"... however small their take was.I sit down at the 1/2 NLHE poker table and decide to enact my clever plan: I will pretend to be a drunk tourist and take advantage of my opponents when they try to take advantage of me. About half an hour later, it occurs to me that I am in fact, a drunk tourist. With this insight, I take the only logical course of action: I order another beer and continue raising like a maniac.If I thought that my afternoon table represented the softest opponents in Vegas, I was soon happy to be proven wrong. For some unknown reason, I decide to tell the person next to me that my name is Andy. This proves difficult as there are still FCPers in the poker room who know my real name. Nonetheless, I press on with the pointless charade and remain Andy for the night. Soon Brad and I are the only two FCPers remaining in the casino. Tre left a couple of hours earlier to get some sleep, and about an hour ago, I passed Zach walking to the cashier with an pleasingly two-fisted grip on some black chips. One unfortunate cooler (my top 2 pair versus Brad's TP + OESFD all in on the flop) and it is time to call it a night...er day. I cash out $2100 which is +$1500 on the session. This completes my first day of poker in vegas; a summary of my poker for the day:- one session each of NLHE 1/3 and NLHE 1/2- total time: ~10 hours- Profit: +$2,500Merby: 2Vegas: 1DSC00455.jpgHofbrauhouse: Left to right: Kurt (Suited_up), Kurt's girlfriend, dt1313, vbnautilus (dark green hat), Matt (acid_knight) mostly-obscured by vb's hat, Matt's GF (looking straight forward and almost completely obscured), Shannon (Mark's wife) reading the menu, Zach (Cwik) in the green striped shirt, ***foggy haze of beer***, Zach (zach6668) sitting with the forward-facing ball cap, Justin (Fluffdog) in the shades, Doug (Rocketpoiker) and his girlfriend Allison, Luke (KHSPoker) with the headphones around his neck, Josh (Gilbertology) sitting in the foreground, Sandwedge standing up.DSC00457.jpgMatt (acid_knight) bracing for his birthday flogging.DSC00467.jpgBeer pong: Left to right. Kurt (Suited_up), Ray (Troyomac), and Zach (Cwik) celebrating a successful shot.DSC00468.jpgBeer pong: Left-to-right: Seth (Cardcore), Zach (zach6668) possibly celebrating not getting kicked out of the IP yet..., and Josh (Gilbertology) ordering his opponents to drink the beer he just hit with the ping pong ball.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sunday, May 31: FCP Golf and tourney dayBrad and I make it back to the pool house by 7 am. I have to get up by 8 am to catch a ride to the Rio with my roommate, Bob (Lobster). As my head hits the pillow, I swear Bob is already calling me awake. A quick shower and I'm off. My stomach tells me that I was a little slow switching from beer to water last night and I am better off not disturbing it with the likes of an unwanted breakfast. We somehow manage to make it to the Rio on time, and I make a quick detour to buy a hat and a much-needed jug of water. I return to the parking lot to greet some FCPers whom I did not meet last night. I get to meet Sandwedge and Scott (Nutzblaster). Thanks Scott for organizing this event - I had a blast.I also finally get to meet Balloon Guy. His quirky sense of humour made me look forward to meeting him. My biggest regret of the day was that in operating on less than one hour of sleep, I was unable to string together more than half-a-sentence at a time. It's hard to exchange in witty banter when I keep nodding off mid-sentence. He confides that it feels strange that ever since he was the featured member, everyone knows his first name. I oblige him by calling him Mr. Guy, but in no time we are on a first name basis. Balloon and I exchange some pleasantries now, later at lunch, and even later during the evening poker tournament. Nevertheless, my brain is only capable of the lowest form of humour and I am left throwing a couple choice puns in against his barrage of clever witticisms. I assure him that I will be back next year, and we will have a proper discussion about the cleverly superior socialist system up in Canada.Anyway, I digress... We make it to the golf course and I order up a couple more bottles of water which will hopefully last me until the snack station at hole 5(?). Balloon hands out the requisite cigars -- probably not a good idea for a non-smoker like me -- but I cannot refuse the sweet taste of... *cough*. My cigar smoking is an abysmal 'F' by any grading standard. Balloon would not be proud. My foursome involve Zach (Cwik), Dustin (Navybuttons) and James (MinhLyFan). Zach is another FCPer I have been looking forward to meeting. Aside from confronting the daily trials and insanities of HU pokerz like I do, he also makes that special effort to post above and beyond a normal level of humour... That and his avatar looks so sad... I wanted to see if he and I would indeed make some sort of manically-depressed, silly duo that our two avatars promised could happen. Turns out he is a great guy with an easy-going sense of humour and is one sick bastard with the prop bets. I swear he was using the first 10 holes to lull me into a sense of confidence about his driving and putting abilities. I don't regret paying off that one "closest to the hole" putting prop bet as he sank that putt from 40+ feet out... It's a pity it wasn't on the "longest putt" hole.Dustin and James represented the necessary skill in our golf team, while Zach and I added the necessary extra handicaps. I think their challenge was to try to find a way to incorporate Zach and my drives in a way that made our prop bet valid, while not throwing away any chance at winning that bet. Sadly, we weren't able to overcome our prop bets with our rival foursome behind us (Trevor, Luke, GoStags, and dt1313). Another free lunch, thanks to my continued run-good at CCR (thanks Trussdude) and we leave the golf course. We head back to the somewhat baller "pool house". I choose not to take a nap before the tournament, because I know if I lay down, I won't be getting up for the next 12 hours.We head to the Hard Rock casino, which turns out to hold the Guiness world record for the coldest poker room in the middle of a desert (and the second coldest card room in the world, second only to a little known card room in Norway). There are 14 or so of us (at this point, on 1 hour of sleep, an exact guesstimate is not possible). I find out that having Bob on my immediate left in the tournament causes a headache which has nothing to do with last night's beer. I correct this problem by sitting on his immediate left in all future sessions (we sit at the same table in a couple of future 2/5 NLHE games throughout the week).I play the classic weak/tight poker that my brain is capable of and am busted out in 7th or so, when I decide to overshove [Q9] offsuit into a limper because f**k it, I want to either double up or head home. With that bust-out, I (incorrectly) resign myself to not playing any WSOP event this year. I stick around for the next hour trying desperately to stay awake -- generaly succeeding, aside from a few lapses, including one in mid-conversation with Sandwedge (actually, I am so asleep at this point, I could easily be talking to someone else and am simply remembering it incorrectly). I wake back up and he is still talking, kindly overlooking my social faux-pas. It is at this point where I admit defeat and I take my leave of everyone.I get back to the pool house, and I am out before my head hits the pillow.DSC00472.jpgWaiting in the Rio parking lot for the bus to arrive. Bob (Lobster) is the far right, Balloon Guy is in the blue(ish) shirt, Scott (Nutzblaster) is in the white(ish) shirt.DSC00474.jpgDustin (Navybuttons) and Zach (Cwik) watch while James (MinhLyFan) takes a practice swing.n1323494105_462116_5969029.jpgLeft to right: James, Zach and me, trying to follow the path of Dustin's drive. He just *crushed* this shot; Balloon would be proud.DSC00478.jpgLunch after golf

Link to post
Share on other sites

Monday, June 1: Satellites and more run-goodI awake 12 hours later, only to discover that Bob is up, working away at his computer. I slept so deep, that I am sure the twenty foot horn that the guy was playing at Hofbrauhaus could not have awaken me.I head back to the Rio today for some more live cash games, some more live railing of FCPers playing in today's event, and... to try my hand at the single table satellites. The cash games aren't that great today as my 2/5 NLHE table has a couple very competent opponents, so I quit the game, down $100 or so. The satellites on the other hand... Gold! My braindead opponents from Saturday have moved from the cash games into the satellite room. My first $125 satellite has me busting 6th when my AA got out-flopped by the chip leader who was going to push 100% of his hands into me on any flop. My second satellite was a $330 which awards $1500 in lamers and $100 cash to the top two finishers. Three of my opponents have a $100 last longer (LL), which I later learn is par for these satellites (Bob's satellite had a 5-way $100 LL bet). Only the player who proposed the LL was in any way competent. The remaining 8 opponents played either a very exploitable weak/tight game, or an equally exploitable calling station game. About an hour later, we are 3 handed with me holding 2/3 of the chips. My opponents get some life with two quick double-ups. The first had my opponent's [AQ] somehow out-run my [63-offsuit] and later, I couldn't fade the 99<AT coin flip. This brings our chip stacks back to even. One of my opponents proposes a chop and I laugh and say a curt, "no". Twenty minutes later, I once again have over half of the chips through simple chipping up and I finally win a coin flip AT > 99 to win the satellite.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tuesday, June 2: WSOP event #7: $1500 NLHEWith Monday's win, I am playing in the WSOP today, rather than the $330 Venetian deep stack. After an admittedly restless night's sleep, I catch a ride to the Rio with Jesse, Rod, and Casey (Bubbleboy). Next thing I know, I am sitting in the high limit section amongst a sea of poker tables -- most are tournament tables, although there is a high stakes mixed game going on next to me with some recognizable players.When the cards finally fly, there are 2 empty seats at my table. I understand that this usually means pros who saunter in at their own time (even though I doubt it for a $1500). The good news is that both seats are on my right and I will have position on whoever occupies them. Eventually, they are filled by Devid Levi and Chau Giang, both decked out in Tilt gear and chatting about sponsorship things. My table has some tight players, some weak players (myself included here), and four players who quickly start giving everyone else headaches.I am just happy to be here, but I play some of the weakest, most exploitable poker of the trip yet. In one hand at level 2 (50/100), I have ~5000 chips (4500 starting stack) and am on the button with [99]. An aggressive player UTG raises it to 300 and gets 2 MP callers. I overcall and the BB, who has demonstrated textbook nit play raises it to 900 with 1300 behind. Everyone takes the hint and it folds to me. I refuse to take the hint and double up his [AA] on an 8-high flop. This pot drops me back to ~2800 chips.A little later, I prove that Mark isn't the only person who can lose [KJ] like a trooper. Once again, an aggressive opponent pops it up to 300 UTG+1 and gets one caller to me. I decide to take the worst of my three options by calling here. The BB (another aggressive player) also calls and we take a Kxx flop 4-way. It checks around to me and once again, I choose the weak-tight option of checking my trap TPWK behind. My excuse is that I know that the BB will bet ATC on the turn if the flop gets checked around, but that still doesn't make it the correct choice. A blank turn card has the BB firing out a weak 1/3-pot sized bet and it folds to me. Once again, I choose to call the 450 bet, leaving myself ~1900 chips for the river. The river brings a deceptively beautiful K and the BB fires out 1500 into the ~2100 chip pot. My call has him rolling over [KQ] and I am crippled. I'm out next hand when my [Qx] cannot outrun [99].With my busting out of that tournament, I play some cash games. It is a tough table, but I book a small win anyway. Matt (acid_knight) has us go to some restaurant so that he can win a food prop bet against Tre. Despite Matt's confidence, I decide to back Tre and am once again paying off a prop. In Tre's defence, he came closer than anyone (other than perhaps Kobayashi) at winning the bet. This meal is once again courtesy of Tre, who's runbad in CCR remains epic.DSC00486.jpgThe crowd waiting to get to their tables to start WSOP event #7DSC00491.jpgTrevor (Tremomey) is bracing for the food prop bet...DSC00492.jpgThe prop bet...? Eat everything in this photo.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Wednesday June 3 - Run-badI catch a ride to the Bellagio with Jesse and Casey. Apparently, the games are good here and I want to take part. After having the world's best salmon sandwich at the Snack Bar, I find out it will be a ~4 hour wait to get a seat at either 1/2 NLHE or 2/5 NLHE. Jesse suggests I put my name on the list for 5/10 NLHE (he and Casey already have seats at this point), but my Vegas bankroll is too small to take that gamble. Instead, I wander through the casino. As I'm railing a private high limit craps game, TJ Cloutier saunters up beside me and tries to place a bet. He is told that the game is private and wanters to the next table over. After I grow weary of watching people throw more money away than most people make in a month, I admit defeat and wander onto the strip in search of the Venetian.One wrong turn allows me to watch to watch the Bellagio fountains dance to some famous tenor lamenting in Italian -- he is probably lamenting about the flagrant waste of water in a desert ecosystem -- that or some lost love... The music is surprisingly stirring and the fountains are actually quite mesmerizing. For anyone who hasn't at least seen one Bellagio fountain performance, I recommend checking it out.Eventually I am given the correct directions and decide to walk there (it's not too hot out today). On the way, I am offered private meetings with many "beautiful women". I lose count after the 100th or so time someone flicks a card at me, offering me untold sexual encounters. This is definitely the point of my story where it deviates from a Seth (Cardcore's) epic trip report as I choose to simply walk past all these people and do not allow myself to end up in some epic situation where I am running for my life from two gun-weilding drug lords for mistreating the prostitute in the back of some hotel.I book my first real losing session on Wednesday at the Venetian. My table actually isn't that tough, I just can't make hands hold up (like flopping a 5-high flush and getting an opponent 5-bet all in with a GSSD+NFD, only to bink the flush on the river... perhaps he thought I was 4-bet bluffing?). I can also account for $300 worth of bad calls I made: two calls of river raises and one bad river bet followed by calling a raise. Tack on the tilt-spew $500 in my last hand and I book a $1000 loss when I should have booked a $200 loss. I am annoyed at myself, but I suppose everyone must have at least one losing session in Vegas. This was mine.Thursday June 4 - MehOn Thursday, I return to the Bellagio; this time early enough to actually get a seat. The games are really good, but I am only able to book a small win. After our session, we go back to the Rio to rail Rod (RDog) who is deep in the $1500 NLHE 6 max, Mark (markysals) who is final tabling the NLHE $1500 (the same event I donked out of two days ago), and Jesse (day 1 in another event - I forget which one...) We have a dinner break where it seems anyone and everyone finds a way to meet up with us. I finally get to meet Hoos (Hossieralum) who is chatting with Justin (Fluffdog). I am also happy to see Doug (Rocketpoker) and Alison join us. After dinner, we continue to rail markysals for a while, but soon our degeneracy reasserts itself and we return to the Bellagio for more poker.This second session ends up being a small loss which leaves me almost exactly even on the day. My session in which I book a small loss is actually a fun (albeit frustrating) session where Josh (Gilbertology), Bob (Lobster) and I are all at the table together. I am happy that I have position on both Bob and Josh as both prove to be capable at the table. I feel sorry for the two players on Josh's right as they are being abused by all three of us.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Wrap-upI finally leave on Friday, although not before going through another debacle trying to get checked in through NWA. In the end, this costs me $65 more, delays me an extra 2 hours, and has me swear off Northwest airlines for all future trips.The bottom line:Poker: +$1200Blackjack: +$15I make enough money playing poker to make this a free trip. I got to rail a lot of FCPers and I actually got to play in a WSOP event myself.I had so much fun that I plan to return for a month next year. I got to meet so many awesome people during the visit.

Link to post
Share on other sites

You are right, that's long as shit!I'll read it later since I have to leave sometime in the next few hours, and I'll never finish by then.I did look at the pics. Why does everyone have to shoot me from the freaking side. Love handle city!Next year I'll be svelte.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Wrap-upI finally leave on Friday, although not before going through another debacle trying to get checked in through NWA. In the end, this costs me $65 more, delays me an extra 2 hours, and has me swear off Northwest airlines for all future trips.The bottom line:Poker: +$1200Blackjack: +$15I make enough money playing poker to make this a free trip. I got to rail a lot of FCPers and I actually got to play in a WSOP event myself.I had so much fun that I plan to return for a month next year. I got to meet so many awesome people during the visit.
nice report and yes, Northwest Airlines is awful.
Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice novel. To fill in one of the foggy hazes of beer at the Hofbrauhaus, between Kurt's girlfriend and Mark's wife is:dt1313, me, Acid Knight, Acid Knight's fiancee. was good to meet you briefly, sounds like you had an excellent trip.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Nice novel. To fill in one of the foggy hazes of beer at the Hofbrauhaus, between Kurt's girlfriend and Mark's wife is:dt1313, me, Acid Knight, Acid Knight's fiancee. was good to meet you briefly, sounds like you had an excellent trip.
Thanks vb, I will fix it. I'm actually surprised I was able to get so many names down...
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hard to believe I actually read all of that....Glad to hear you had fun. I'll probably see you down there next year.Though, in that long ass novel, not one sexploit? I think that was the main reason I kept reading. Should bought a prostitute and told us about the experience.

Link to post
Share on other sites

good read Merby, hope to meet you next year, kiddo :club:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...