Las Vegas Trip Report: July 9-11, 2024

To go or not to go -- that was the question. My friend, Koala Pete, was going to be finishing his five-week trip from Australia to Las Vegas on Wednesday, July 10. I had made plans in my mind to fly back out to Las Vegas to see him before he left. But there were complications.

I sent out a tweet saying that on Monday, July 8, I had had the most frustrating day I've experienced in 30 years. It involved frustrations with a police office, a bank, and a hospital. There is a long story attached to this, but I do not want to put any details in writing, especially online, while there are several things in the works. However, the frustration was very real. The temperature was around 115 degrees. I was hot, I was tired, my stomach was hurting, and my attitude was just shitty. I had planned to fly to Las Vegas later that afternoon, but there was no way for me to make that flight. I considered taking an evening flight, but I still didn't feel right. Around midnight, I felt a little better and decided to just head out on the first flight in the morning. I had already rescheduled a physical therapy appointment on Thursday morning so that I could at least stay two nights. I made a hotel reservation at Excalibur, my Las Vegas home, and Frontier Airlines, my low cost carrier. I was hoping to be back to 100% after a few hours of sleep.

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

I had my wife drive me to the airport. Lately, I've been liking this more than my usual driving myself and parking at a slightly off-airport lot. My usual routine paid off as I do not pay for anything for Frontier flights except the ticket. I was assigned a window seat in the 14th row. Not bad. The airplane seemed new, clean, and spacious for Frontier.

When I went to the Uber/Lyft staging area at Harry Reid, I was shocked to see virtually no one there. I quickly got an Uber and headed to my Las Vegas home, Excalibur. Thanks to MGM's app/online check-in system, I was already checked into my room before I left the Phoenix airport! This is certainly much different that Caesars, which once offered to check me in 30 minutes early ... for an extra $60! I texted Koala as I headed to Jimmy John's in the Excalibur food court. Nobody was in line, so I stepped aside to answer Koala's return text. When I did so, a complete girl's volleyball team with coaches got in line in front of me. Needless to say, the new plan was to Uber to Rio to have lunch with Koala.

Koala's remodeled RIO room looked very nice. It reminded me of a couple of times many years ago when my brother. thundering36, and I stayed there. We talked until friend Alysia C got off work, picked us up and drove us to The Golden Tiki, where we were later joined by our friend Norm. We had a great time, especially when the entertainer,  Dino a' la Carte, stopped by the table to regale us with stories of his being Frank Sinatra, the Fonz, and Ringo Starr! What a great, fun guy he was!

Me, Alysia, Koala Pete and Norm

After The Golden Tiki, Koala headed back to Rio as he was still recovering from a medical emergency. Meanwhile, Norm drove us to Bellagio to get on our pokerz. Alysia C joined us later, and we all got on the same table. What a blast! Best yet, we all left winners. I have been running extremely hot at Bellagio in 2024, and that night was no exception. I had a full house and flopped a set early on and took lots of chips off three weak players at the table. Norm, who had been card dead, flopped quad Queens, followed by a hand where a weak player kept calling his second nuts flush. Alysia, meanwhile, won a huge pot when she jammed all in with top two and  a huge flush draw. It was a fun fun fun night!

One of only two bad things this trip happened when I got back to Excalibur. My usual favorite slot  machines, which have almost always pay off, didn't. Grrrrr. Isn't there some kind of casino law against this? 😀

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

After relaxing in the morning, I headed to Excalibur's Buca di Beppo for lunch. The salad and pasta lunch special is not a bad deal for $12.99.

I was still a bit tired and thought of heading back to my room for a bit, I decided to go to Mandalay Bay since it would be the easiest room to walk to. I waited for about a half hour before I was seated at a $1/2 game. The poker "room" there is still "temporarily" next to the House of Blues -- adjacent to the bottom of the escalator that is near the tram station. In fact, with a national girls volleyball tournament going on, it was fun to see all the teams coming down the escalator on their way to the Mandalay Bat convention center where, I heard, there were 100 volleyball courts set up. Imagine!

Evening dinner that night was at Shake Shack at New York New York, followed by a final poker session at, where else, Bellagio. My initial $1/3 table didn't seem too favorable, so I switched to another. I still need to work on switching tables the minute my intuition tells me to move on. Anyway, I went from being down to being up when four of us were in a pot together and I had a suited hole cards with the Ace of Diamonds. The flop came diamond ... diamond ... diamond. I won a nice pot. 😀

Table dynamics shifted as some players left and were replaced, so I decided to cash out with my win. I had enough time to hit up one more poker room for the night. Although I have been winning at Caesars this year, I decided to head to Horseshoe. The room there used to be my poker home ions ago, but it had been very unkind to me in 2024. Time to give it a shot, I thought. 

After arriving, I saw one of my favorite dealers, Gianna. Once seated, I saw another of my favorites, Ronnie B. Unfortunately, things afterward did not go well. I was card dead and was second best in a couple of hands. I switched positions  and got A-Kos. I bet $12 and was called by three other players. The flop was 4-A-9 rainbow. I bet $25 and the table lucksack raised to $50. Of course, poker is all nice and fun when you hit every flop! What did he have: A-9, A-4, 9-4, a set, A-Q/J? I had about $150 behind and he had a stack of about $450. What did I do? How did he respond? What did he have? How did the hand end? I will give people a chance to weigh in with their thoughts before I update with the answers. Please put your guesses in the comments section. Sometimes people post them on Twitter, but then nobody knows what you are referring to. Whatever. 😁

Thursday, July 11, 2024

I woke up at 5am, knowing that I had to leave for the airport around 7am. I decided to go to the airport early and have a leisurely breakfast there. Ha! Few people were in line to go through the TSA station. However, when my bag was in the X-ray machine, the person running the machine disappeared! Several of us waited for what seemed to be an eternity before the treys started coming out of the machine. When mine finally came out, it was kicked to the side for an individual search. After waiting again for several minutes until someone grabbed my bag, I was told that the machine did not take a picture of it and it had to go back through the machine. Geez. At least the TSA agent put it right in in front of the other treys waiting to go in. My plane trip and ride home were thankfully uneventful. My first course of action at home: a nap! And being a true poker degenerate, I headed to Desert Diamond in Glendale for some poker action later that night.

All comments, especially about my hand at Horseshoe, are welcomed. Thanks for reading! 😃

Update to the hand at Horseshoe

To review ...

I was card dead and was second best in a couple of hands. I switched positions  and got A-Kos. I bet $12 and was called by three other players. The flop was 4-A-9 rainbow. I bet $25 and the table lucksack raised to $50. Of course, poker is all nice and fun when you hit every flop! What did he have: A-9, A-4, 9-4, a set, A-Q/J? I had about $150 behind and he had a stack of about $450. 

I was guessing that Mr. Lucksack had either A-9 or A-4. Of course, other hands like A-Q/A-J/A-10 were also possible. I was inspired by an episode of Yellowstone. When faced with a task that needed to be done immediately and no great answer of how to do it, say "Eff it." So I did. I shoved all in, knowing that I was likely behind. He called the all in but did not immediately reveal his cards. The turn was another 9, and Mr. Lucksack started whining "Now the kicker will play." At that point, I knew that my guess had been on target. He had A-4 (not even sooted) and now was a river card away from doubling me up. The river was a brick and my loss turned into a win. I guess I didn't see the need to tell him that this is why we do not play any A-rag hands without abandon as getting counterfeited is a very real possibility. So ... I sucked out. I'll take it!