Back in Las Vegas Feb 10 - 15

After a long hiatus, I am on track to return to Las Vegas for some cash game poker action February 10-15. This nine-month gap (since last June) between visits is the longest I can remember since I have been making multiple trips to Las Vegas over the most of my adult life. There were a few years when I made as many as five trips to Las Vegas in a year, but more often, I made two, three or four.

A combination of things made the gap this long. I traditionally make a Las Vegas trip right around Labor Day, but chose last year to visit my brother, thundering36, in Australia instead. In recent years, I have also made a few combined Seattle-Phoenix trips (my son lives in Seattle and Phoenix is my proposed retirement area), which lessened my ability to schedule in Las Vegas. And also, to be honest, the "changing" of Las Vegas made traveling there less desirable. The comped rooms I had formerly received from Caesars Entertainment were no longer there. Bullshit resort fees that surpassed $30/night made trips less cost effective. My tier credits on my Caesars Rewards card will be zeroed out at the end of the month, meaning that I would have to pay to park at several casinos, lessening my desire to rent a car. All in all, just more examples of how the way that Las Vegas properties are doing business are turning away people like me. They certainly do not give the impression that they care about recreational low rollers.

So here is my first shout out to friends who live in or will be in Las Vegas the week that I am there. If you'd like to get together to toss some cards or grab a meal or a few drinks, let me know via comments on this blog, private messaging through Twitter, or text messages if you have my cell phone number. I currently have few solid plans. I am planning on playing at TheTrooper97's Thursday afternoon game at Westgate. I am considering going to the Golden Knights game against Phoenix on Tuesday night and have thought about extending the trip a half day to catch the KISS concert at T-Mobile on Friday night. However, once in Las Vegas I tend to not to want to go to special events, preferring to spend more time donking off chips at the poker tables instead.

I imagine I'll be playing at some of my usual favorite rooms -- Bally's, MGM and Mirage. I also hope to get in at least one session at Aria and one at Wynn. And if someone is willing to provide private Uber service for me, I'd like to give poker another try at Green Valley Ranch. A year ago, I had a blast playing a late-night session there with ManInBlack and Chris A.

As I get ready for the supposed blizzard to tear through Illinois the next few days, visions of Las Vegas are already going through my head. I'll be loading up my car for the drive to the airport in exactly 24 days. The countdown begins ...

Thanks for reading!

Note: The picture at the top of the blog was taken at an Ultimate Bet party at Ghostbar at the Palms Casino many, many moons ago. At least one of us had his fair share of free booze at the party!