Excellent Las Vegas Trip Continues

After writing my last post on Wednesday morning, May 11, it was time to check out of my hotel room at Harrah's and check into my comped room at Gold Coast. I am really surprised that Gold Coast treats me so well. My local casino, Par-A-Dice, is also a Boyd's property, but the poker room doesn't track time played. I guess my lame slot play got me the room. The check in process took only 90 seconds. Jennifer at the Gold Coast desk is fantastic!

After checking in, my Uber driver (AC) eventually dropped me off at MGM, where I planned to continue chasing my promo (fill a card with good hands, win $100), but was horrified to find that in my haste to check out of Harrah's -- screwed up when I thought I lost one of my contact lenses -- I left my M life card and my promo card with five of the six hands completed in my room at Gold Coast. Sheesh. I decided that I didn't want to play there and hit the last hand I needed without my card, so I took the opportunity to check out Excalibur, where I had been wanting to play for my past several trips. However, Excalibur had only one cash table going and four people on the waiting list. Not good. So I went to check out the game going on at Luxor. One table, three people. Meh. The next place to head, naturally, was Mandalay Bay, although I didn't really want to play there. The day was sucking big time when my phone buzzed. The caller: Mr Subliminal. The message: "Am coming into Aria. What r ur plans for the rest of the day?"

I got off the tram at Excalibur and began the walk to Aria. I had played a tournament or two there and played cash games once or twice, but it wasn't a place I felt comfortable playing, for whatever reason. However, playing with an old friend instead of wandering looking for a good game? Easy decision.

I got into a $1/3 table but immediately knew it was the wrong table for me. I did win a couple of hands, but the betting was extremely aggressive and I wasn't getting good enough cards or flops. I asked for a table change, which was a long time coming. I was about to just leave when my table change came -- and placed me directly to the right of Mr Subliminal! He had already told me in the past and that day that he doesn't like to play at a table with friends, but once I was moved there everything seemed okay.

I am not sure where Mr Subliminal got his stake to play and the comps to be able to spring for dinner for both of us. As best I can figure, his underground lair is somewhere between Bellagio and Aria, and he therefore has some squatter rights under Nevada law. I think it entitles him to some free play and free food at those casinos. Either that or the panhandling business has been very good.

I chipped up and felted a player with a full house. However, when I started losing some chips, I was tempted to leave, mostly because I had suffered such terrible run-bad through the past couple of months. Mr Subliminal persuaded me to stay, and we had a great evening playing poker and chatting. Best yet ...

Mr Subliminal's comps provided an excellent dinner from Lemongrass -- a tasty entre of black-pepper shrimp. With food on my belly, a great evening of fun and poker and a stack o' chips, I left Aria to head back to the center of the strip. The last I saw of Mr Subliminal, he was attempting to negotiate a darning of the many holes in his shirt. Best of luck, sir!

I went to my old home of Bally's and got into a really wild game, doubling up from a poor start. Unfortunately, in trying to steal the mountain of chips from another player, I got four flushed and lost half my chips, and then had my dreaded pocket Kings cracked by 10-5 os. Meh - it was time for bed.

Thursday, May 12 saw me sleeping in as the long hours of poker were starting to wear me down. I started out by taking a shuttle to the Orleans so that I could catch AC and her father at lunch. Her father is a primo blackjack tournament specialist and recently hit a huge score. He told me that he could teach me how to play tournament blackjack. That sounds much better than playing a Dealer's Angels machine, u see. I then went back to MGM and had lunch at Tap, the sports bar next to the poker room. Rob's comps have provided a couple of meals there for me, but I was surprised to find that I actually had almost $100 in comps myself. Score!

I went back to the table and completed my bonus card for $100 and immediately started working on my second. I had another solid session at MGM.

This session was dominated by a guy who got drunk at the table and took great offense when slowrolled. I am pretty sure the slowroll was unintentional, but the table jerk didn't want to let it go. When the arguing increased, I yelled out "Floor!" The guy finally calmed down, but was a dick the rest of the night. Things were tense at the table, so I once again took matters into my own hands, singing out another few lines of the Beach Boys' song Wendy again, u see. It did seem to calm things down a bit.

One funny thing -- a guy at the table who resembled Les Gold from the show Hard Core Pawn was pissed at the drunk and crabby, and said something to me when I delayed looking at my cards when speaking with a cocktail waitress. I turned and grabbed my cards and just held them silently for several seconds. I then proceeded to act like I was going to muck them four different times. On the fifth time I actually did, turned to look the guy in the face and said "That was just me being a dick." Good times!

I decided to cash out and try my luck at Planet Hollywood. PH has never been a favorite of mine, but I have always heard about the great late-night action. This night was no different. Some terrible players were at my table, and one hand really pissed me off. The table was fairly new with most people having around $200 in chips. I looked down to see the dreaded pocket Kings. Villain1 UTG bet $16. Villain2 called the $16. I raised to $51. Villain1, who was a regular I had seen before folded. Villain2, however, called my $51. Yesssss. However, the flop brought an Ace. V2 checked and I bet. He called. Ut oh. He checked on the turn and I bet. He said "I know you have me beat" but called. We both checked on the river and he showed... A-7 os! He called a raise to $16 and then a re-raise to $51 with that. And I lost the hand!

I got chips back later after buying another hundo when I was in the big blind and called into a limped multi-way pot with K-5 os. The flop: K-rag-5! I checked and one guy went all in. I doubted he hit his set and called. I never did find out what he had as I scooped a decent pot.

I cashed out with a profit and tried to avoid the hookers in PH. It seems to me that they are really aggressive in there. One started chasing after me. I guess my natural frugal nature doesn't shine through!

Thursday was scheduled to be my last night in Las Vegas. However, I was having a blast this trip and having decent success at the tables. On Friday morning I entertained the idea of staying an extra night. I was able to change my flight from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, then checked out of Gold Coast and had lunch with AC. I checked hotel rates online and settled on Hooters as the place for my extra night.

One more partial report to come.