I'm a Fool for the City: Las Vegas Trip Report: June 9-13, 2026 -- Part II

 Thursday, June 11

After a leisurely morning, I decided to first play at ... where else, but MGM Grand. A two hour plus session netted me a small profit. And although MGM had a high hand promo going on in the afternoon, I once again did not even sniff it. 

I decided to take the monorail down to Venetian since my 24-hour pass was getting close to expiring. Once at Venetian, I decided to hit my favorite slots there that had paid off for me on my last Las Vegas trip. Once again, I did okay on the slots -- a common theme on this trip. After getting my fill of button mashing, I went to the poker room to begin a session that would last almost three hours. I got a few messages from Luke Johnston, inviting me to have some drinks with him and Alysia Chang at Vanderpump. Now, I was thinking of the recently redone Vanderpump Hotel and Casino (formerly The Cromwell), but they were actually at the Vanderpump location in Paris. There is also a Vanderpump presence in Caesars. Is the Vanderpump brand taking over Las Vegas?

It's funny that at the present time, I remember virtually nothing of that session at Venetian. My poker tracker tells me that I had a good session, but just not memorable, I guess. I grabbed a very late dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe (another freebie meal), played more slots, and decided to head south on the Strip. Luke and Alysia were long gone from Vanderpump, so I decided to check out the Horseshoe poker room.

Years ago, the Horseshoe (Bally's way back then) poker room used to be my Las Vegas home. I would always do well there. I hit a Royal Flush there. But like most good things, that ended. I then struggled to win there for several years. The room is always packed during the WSOP, so I figured that whatever happened there would be fine. If the list was too long, I'd just head back to Excalibur for the night.

I had a relatively short wait before I was seated. I seemed to get a second wind, so I was ready to go. Unfortunately, I was seated at a table that seemed to be lacking fun. Two guys who appeared to be table captains had the biggest stacks and seemed to be pushing everyone around. I was just tired enough, just cocky enough, and just crabby enough to decide that I would shake things up at that table. There was little value in making a small bet since the captains would re-raise. I thought I would just wait and hope an opportunity would come. And it did.

I looked down at As7s. Captain #1 made it $20 to go. Captain #2 called, as did I. So ... $63 in the pot, stack sizes approximately $700 for each of the captains. I had about $260 behind. The flop was Queen, rag, rag -- but there were two spades on the flop. Captain #1 bet $25. He was called by Captain #2. $113 in the pot. This seemed like the time to go. I shoved my $260 all in, figuring that these would be easy folds unless I didn't read their strength properly. Captain #1 went in the tank, which I thought was just hollywooding. Then he called! Captain #2 immediately mucked. I needed to catch a spade or maybe an Ace to win. The turn was a blank. The river: a beautiful Jack of spades! I flipped my cards over and Captain #1 was not happy to see that I pulled the hand out on the river. He was playing K-Q. I was shocked. I was new to the table, so there was little chance that he had any kind of read on me. I dunno  -- calling off $260 with only top pair, good kicker?

Captain #1 left shortly thereafter. The table still seemed to be lacking fun, so I changed tables a few minutes later. This was the funny summary of that quickie session:

I decided to Uber back to Excalibur, and of course, play some slots before hitting the sheets, Ahhh ... life on the Las Vegas Strip!

Friday, June 12

This would be my last day as I had a morning flight back home on Saturday. After eating a leisurely lunch, I headed to Aria to play poker. I hadn't played there in a few years, so I was looking forward to it. However, the wait lists were very long. Things looked worse once the call-ins showed up, so I decided to join Luke, who was heading to Caesars.

I was hoping to have a big session. One player at the table was extremely weak, playing almost every hand and constantly chasing. I was hoping to get into a good hand with him. My chance came when he raised to $15 in our $1/3 game. I had AsJc and called. The flop was ragAdQd. I was prepared. He raised the flop and I called. He raised the turn and I called. The river was a diamond. We both checked. I was guessing that I was ahead the whole hand, only to find out that his hole cards were QsQc -- meaning that he flopped a set. I was lucky that the river was a diamond, likely saving me money.

I played at that table for almost 2 1/2 hours. As 5:00pm approached, I was ready to leave to meet NormInVegas for dinner at Roma Deli and Restaurant -- Todd Brunson's place. Luke sounded interested, so I invited him to join us. He texted Alysia, who immediate asked "What time is Roma?"

Luke drove me to Roma, where we met Alysia and Norm. Alysia mentioned that the last time we had both gone to Roma, she had paid the group's food bill and mutual friend Washdude had taken care of the bar tab. Seeing as how I had eaten at Roma a few times with friends and seemed to get my bill taken care of more than once, I decided that this dinner would be on me. However, I also has a sneaky plan to have some fun!

The food at Roma, as always , was great! And Roma never skimps on the amount of food in each dish, which goes along wonderfully with its reasonable prices. I got lasagna this trip, and it was fantastic.

As we got closer to leaving, I grabbed our server and asked him to meet me at the counter, where I paid the bill for the group. I then went back to the table and acted like nothing happened. After a few minutes, I asked "They don't really know who we are, right? Let's just ditch. What are they going to do to us?" They all looked at me  incredulously. I kept it up, and even started walking toward the door. They all seemed to be wondering what the heck I was doing. Luke, who had seen me talk at the counter with our server, caught on to what I was doing and walked out with me. Nobody else followed, so we went back inside. The truth eventually came out. It was worth every penny I paid!

Norm, Alysia, Luke, and 36

Alysia and Luke left while Norm and I headed to Venetian, where we were able to sit at the same table. There were a couple of big stacks and the play was aggressive. I was fortunate to flop a set and chipped up pretty quickly. However, the poker gods decided to finally put the screws to me. The weak player on my right raised. I looked down to see pocket Kings. I re-raised and was called by both Norm and the other player. As luck would have it, Norm flopped a set of 4s. There was no Ace on the flop to help keep me in line. And yes, it got very ugly for me as I doubled up Norm. Nice way to treat a guy who just bought you dinner! I decided to just nurse my short stack and see if I could build it back up. My chance came when I called a bet with pocket 7s and hit a set on the flop. I was soon all in against two other players and looked forward to tripling up. Unfortunately, the initial raiser flopped a straight. The board did not pair on the turn or river, so I was felted. I decided not to rebuy, but instead heading for a few of my favorite slot machines in V. Norm, who had a decent stack, stayed at the table.

I was able to massage one of my favorite machines for a profit, then tried another one that kept giving me bonuses. I was ready to either head back to the poker room or my hotel room when I spotted a Casper the Friendly Ghost machine that I had played and liked at South Point. I decided to put in $20 and test it out. Then this happened:

Another quick score - just like the poker game from the night before. I texted Norm that he was now officially forgiven for taking my chips.

Norm cashed out and drove me back to my hotel. We were driving down Las Vegas Blvd in his wife's convertible, top down. I was reminded of a scene in the television show, Las Vegas. Danny and Mike were driving down Las Vegas Blvd, and Danny says, "I love this town." There is just something magical about Las Vegas. 

I planned to go to bed. BUT ... I decided to play some slots first! I played a Wizard of Oz slot, and bonuses just kept coming. I finally cashed out when I decided I was done chasing bonuses and, for this trip, gambling. Friday made for a really fun day to end the trip.

I was hoping to get in a few hours of sleep before I needed to leave for the airport. I was afraid that I'd sleep through my alarm, and I couldn't get beyond a busy signal when I attempted to leave a request for a wake up call. I'd just have to hope I didn't oversleep.

Saturday, June 13

No problem waking up in the morning. I Ubered it to the airport, flew home, and had Mrs. lightning waiting at the airport to pick me up. 

Epilogue

A few of my observations from this trip:

1) I was shocked at how deserted the Strip and the airport seemed to be the Tuesday that I arrived. Uber drivers tell me that things are really slow unless a huge convention is in town. It didn't seem very busy my entire Tues-Fri. Friday night was a little better.

2) WSOP doesn't seem like a big deal when you are not playing in a tournament. This trip was the second time I played cash games at WSOP. Meh -- unless you are playing those oddball poker games that you can't find live anywhere else.

3) I do appreciate that you can find decent deals for food and drinks if you look. However, you really have to search. No more cheap shrimp cocktail everywhere you go!

4) I continue to believe that the best poker room is Venetian. 

So ... that wraps up my trip report. It was great to get away from my local poker rooms and play at my second home. Will I ever get tired of going to Las Vegas? Ummm ... NO!!!!

Thanks for reading. Comments are welcomed.