Las Vegas Trip Report: December 8-12, 2025 - Part I

The beginning of December had, for many years, been a special time for me. I'm talking about Christmas, right? Ummm ... no. The beginning of December used to be the time when, back in the "good ol' days (I'm slightly past my 36th birthday, so I can say that now), a group of poker bloggers used to meet in Las Vegas for the World Poker Bloggers Tournament (WPBT), mixed games, and general gambling, eating and drinking in Las Vegas degenerate style. It was a great time: playing against, and sometimes meeting in person for the first time, a group of dedicated bloggers who played against each other in regular online poker tournaments. The biggie was The Mookie, which I tried to play every Wednesday night.

Along with the WPBT magic, the beginning of December also meant that Las Vegas would be flooded with cowboys. The cowboys that I played against at the low level No Limit games were usually fun, drank a lot, provided much entertainment, and appeared to be pretty fishy. This was long before the opening of many of the Texas card houses that are now all the rage. Memories.

Monday, December 8

I originally planned to drive to Las Vegas from greater Phoenix, but Frontier Airlines had a Black Friday sale. I was able to get a round trip ticket for the same price I used to pay a few years ago: $38. My poker buddy @ZetusLarry regularly takes Spirit and clued me on on getting the perfect size backpack that will fit as a free personal item. I am able to fit four days worth of clothes in it. So ... with my cheap plane ticket and four nights at the Dirty Castle, I was ready to go.

When I arrived in Las Vegas, the airport was really dead. The ride share area was sparse, allowing me to get an Uber in only a few minutes. The online check in at MGM properties has always been good for me, and I was already checked into my room that morning as my Uber delivered me to Excalibur. I thought that it was pretty exceptional to be in my hotel room (no early check in charge) less than two hours after my flight departed from Phoenix. Was this run good a sample of what was to come?

I considered eating at the Excalibur buffet (MGM buffet, where I sometimes go, was closed for a few days), but when I saw that the price of the buffet had gone up, totaling over $40 with tax and before tip, I decided to save my $50 food comp for another day at the Wicked Spoon. Fortunately, the Excalibur food court has a Jimmy John's, a favorite of mine since the franchise started in central Illinois (I used to live a couple of miles from Jimmy John Liautaud). After a sammich, it was time to head to my traditional first poker session at MGM.

Now, in the past, MGM used to be one of my favorite places to play. I did well, and was a close personal friend of the King of MGM poker, @Robvegaspoker. I still like playing there, but my results there over the past three years have been terrible. In fact, of all the casinos where I've played poker the past three years, MGM Las Vegas is the one at which I've lost the most money. After this trip, it finally surpassed the downtown Golden Nugget, where I just give money away.

MGM stayed true to form. I wasn't getting any cards at all and decided to leave after an 1 1/2 hours. I donked off some money on the MGM Megabucks slots. Yeah - I could use the $10,000,000. Later on, I decided to buy back into the MGM game. I hit the nut flush on a very wet board (board was paired any had straight possibilities), and of course, my turn bet didn't force out my opponent. The river double paired the board, so that ship sank fast. I eventually lost my shortie buy in (MGM is now $1/3 NL with a $1K max buy in), got some dinner, and headed back to Excalibur to degen some slot action and call it a day. The day started out so promising, but I had hopes that things would improve one way or another on Tuesday night since I would be meeting up with some friends to play poker at Venetian.

Tuesday, December 9

As planned from yesterday, I headed to Cosmopolitan in the late morning to have brunch at the Wicked Spoon buffet. Many years ago, I had gone to the Wicked Spoon at least  two times. Years ago, it had a well-deserved great reputation. I had heard that it had gone downhill after COVID-19 and since Cosmopolitan had become part of the MGM empire. I would find out for myself. The $49.99 price seemed a much better deal than the Excalibur buffet.

The buffet was pretty busy, but fortunately, I was seated almost immediately. The picture below was my first plate of food, highlighted by crab legs peach french toast, angry mac 'n' cheese, and my favorite, a bagel with cream cheese, lox, and capers. 

It was a decent start. Later, I had some really good tri-tip. The dessert was really the star, with wonderful gluten free chocolate chip cookies, cheesecakes, gelato, and many other great looking desserts that I did not sample. My verdict: perhaps Wicked Spoon is the best of the lower/middle tier buffets. It is clearly not in the same ball park at Caesars  Bacchanal Buffet or the The Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas. For a buffet with a better price point, I would go to the Garden Buffet at South Point.

After brunch, I decided to resume my poker at the Horseshoe. Years ago, when Horseshoe was Bally's and seemed to have a different location for the poker room every few years, I used to rule there. It was my honey hole where I rarely lost. Over the past several years, I have struggled to win there. Funny how things like that happen in poker. Well, true to form, I did not have a good session there. A doofus called a huge bet with a flush draw and hit it. A few hands later. I lost two pair to a bigger two pair. It was time to say goodbye to Horseshoe.

One thing for sure about Las Vegas: it is always interesting. On my way to Venetian for our meet up game, I saw the following:

Once inside Venetian and about a half hour early for the meet up game, I saw one of the players, Chris Abramski, already seated. At table 36! I checked in from my online sign up, and was able to immediately get seated at table 36. Along the way, the others in the game found their way there: NormInVegas, Flynn & Ollie (Erin), and @Onechiquita (Alysia). Let the games begin!

Norm, me, Alysia, Erin, and Chris

For whatever reason, I tend to run white hot at meet up games that I have arranged. Early on, in, I believe, the first hand Alysia played, she had A-A and I had 8-8. I called Alysia's raise to $21, as did another player. And guess what: the flop had an 8! Major props to Alysia for losing the minimum on the hand (about $100). However, the other player, with A-K, hit top top on the flop and called my all in raise. Ding!

As the session went on, I kept building up my chip stack. It was a combination of good play, luck, and pretty good bluffs. I cashed out a pretty tidy sum once it seemed that my momentum had stopped and some of the other players at the table were replaced by seemingly better players. Shortly thereafter Norm cashed out and drove me back to Excalibur to end the night. The sweet win at Venetian more than covered my previous losses at MGM, Horseshoe, and my degen slot activity, so after a rough start to the trip money-wise, I was feeling pretty good. At Excalibur, I won at slots before heading to bed. Perhaps this trip was going to be pretty good now that I seemed to shift my momentum. Little did I know what the poker gods had in store for me the rest of the trip. But the important point was that I was back ahead, and was looking forward to meeting a Twitter/X friend in person for the first time in the morning for breakfast.

Part II coming soon. 

Thanks for reading. Comments on the blog are encouraged and welcomed.