February 2018 Las Vegas Trip Report - Part I : Almost Missed My Flight and Poker at Green Valley Ranch

Tony Bigcharles asked me when I was going to write a trip report on my recent trip to Las Vegas and how many parts would I be writing. I told him I may not even write up anything, which is what I have done on occasion. However, this seems to be about as good a time as any for me to type a few things out, so here goes.

The trip got off to an unbelievably bad start. Instead of driving to Chicago-Midway and taking Southwest (my usual routine), I flew out of my home airport to Chicago-O'Hare, then to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, I was concentrating on the three-hour layover I was going to have at O'Hare and completely screwed up getting to the airport. It was just past 12:30 pm on Saturday, Feb. 3, I was ready to head to the airport, and then I realized that my flight was leaving at 1:12pm! I had just 40 minutes before my flight would leave. I yelled to my wife that we had to scramble, got in the van, and was sweating bullets as my wife was majorly exceeding the speed limit to try to get me to the airport on time. When we got there, I bolted out of the van with my carry on while my wife was getting my suitcase that I would check. I got inside the airport and saw that American Airlines had already closed its ground floor check in counter since my flight was the last one leaving for the day! An American Airlines employee saw me and suggested that I go upstairs and see if they would let me run my suitcase through TSA security. I was throwing off my hoodie and shoes and getting stuff on the conveyor belt as quickly as I could. I got through and ran to my gate only to see ... that I still had a minute or two to get on! I was quickly checked in and my luggage was able to be tagged through to Las Vegas and make the flight. I entered the plane with an armful of things including my hoodie, jacket and shoes ... but I made it! Whew!

I arrived in Las Vegas just after 7:00pm, got my luggage and headed to the rental car center. I had gotten a great deal on a week's car rental through Hotwire and was wondering how the service would be at Thrifty Car Rental, which I had never used before. Despite several negative reviews on Yelp!, the Thrifty folks were friendly and quick. No problems at all. My car was a 2017 Nissan Sentra with 11,000 miles. I was soon on my way!

Hotel rates for Super Bowl weekend were running a little high, so many thanks to ManInBlack, who got me a nice mini-suite at his hotel in Henderson for a cheap price. Excellent job, Joe!

Alysia Chang happened to call and was also looking to get dinner, so she came by, picked my up, and we ate at Taco Y Taco. Great food there, but the ordering process was confusing for this  first-timer. She dropped me off at my hotel, and I found that MIB, who thought he would have to work, didn't have to. I grabbed some stuff and we headed to Green Valley Ranch for some poker. I had only played there once before (thanks to TheNeophyte), so I didn't really know what to expect. I played my usual $1/2 NL. The game was quite nitty for some time, but loosened up. MIB came to play at the table, and a few people were practically giving away chips. Stump saw on Twitter that we were there and made an appearance. Pretty soon all three of us were at the same table. Good times! It was a virtual Republican takeover (although TBC says that I am a RINO). And ... I think I finally got back at MIB for destroying my top two with his set of deuces several years back! I cashed out with a nice profit, dropped MIB off at his place and headed back to Henderson. The day ended much better that it started.

After a few hours of  sleep, I got ready for Super Bowl Sunday. My plan was to play at MGM, one of the few places that seemed to have a good Super Bowl promotion for visitors. I played there a total of seven hours. In that time, I never flopped a flush (which would get me a chance to pick an envelope for cash prizes) and never had my seat drawn in the random drawings for picks. I therefore got absolutely zippo out of the promotion! I did, however, book a small win.

After my session, I grabbed some dinner and was able to have a great chat with The Boss -- Pokerkraut's wife. She was very sweet and told me about their upcoming vacation, which would start the next day. I had this great (heh) idea for Pokerkraut's vlog, but there wasn't enough time to talk with him about it since he was getting ready to work. Maybe next time.

Coming in Part II: Road trip to Primm and Goodsprings and poker with Tony Bigcharles.