Summer 2015 Las Vegas Trip Report - Part I

Saturday, May 30 - Sunday, May 31

My summer 2015 trip to Las Vegas would begin much differently than most of my other trips. Due largely to American Airlines and its lack of availability when using frequent flier miles, I selected a trip that would begin right in my town. The downside was that the flight was scheduled to leave Saturday evening and get into Las Vegas around 10:30 p.m. The initial plan was to crash for the night in Pete P. Peters's room at Caesars Palace. Unfortunately, PPP had to change his Las Vegas trip plans due to work, leaving me with no really good options for the night. Either I had to pony up $250 to stay Saturday night at The LINQ or else get a less expensive room somewhere else, knowing that I would only be in the room for a few hours maximum before having to check out. I was not renting a car this trip, so I felt like my options were more limited.

I decided to do whet seemed to be the best option: gamble all night until I checked into The LINQ sometime Sunday. In retrospect, maybe it wasn't such a great plan.

My flight got into Las Vegas early and I shuttled to The LINQ to check my bags. I already knew that poker room waiting lists were mega-long due to THE COLOSSUS going on at the WSOP that weekend, so I decided to go next door to Harrah's to check out the line. I was number 36 (ding!) on the list and decided to just wait it out there. I had to wait almost 1 1/2 hours to play.

My first poker session in Las Vegas was a disaster! The game was wild, which I liked. It featured a woman who was a dead ringer for Alanis Morissette -- a woman who was uber-aggressive and got caught bluffing twice. One guy trapped her when he flopped a set of 9s vs her pocket rockets, but she avoided being stacked by rivering an Ace. I wish I ran like that! She then walked away from the table and didn't return for what seemed like an hour. Very strange.

I got stacked when I raised with JJ and was three-bet by a big stack on the button. I had seen him play his big hands aggressively (the set of 9s I previously mentioned) and had also seen him shoot barrel after barrel with nothing. Yuck. The flop was all low cards. I checked. The villain bet and I shoved all in. He called. Oops. He flipped over the dreaded pocket kings. I started the trip down a buy in.

The table just didn't feel good to me, so I left to walk south down the strip. I stopped at the Flamingo to see how its refurbished poker room looked. Not bad. It was late and I took a seat. Big mistake. I had never really liked playing at Flamingo for a number of reasons. On this night, the table had a bunch of total morons who kept jabbering away and taking forever to play. I had a few draws that didn't make it and left the room down about $100. Maybe one day I might actually have a good experience at Flamingo.

Since the night had been turning into morning, I bummed around a bit and did things like checking out the refurbished poker room at Mirage. It looked nice. I waited for the buffet at Harrah's to open and used some of my dwindling comps to get some chow. Breakfast favorites of biscuits and gravy and bagels with cream cheese, salmon and capers woke me up and got me ready for what would hopefully be a better Sunday.

After breakfast, I attempted to check in early at The LINQ. No open rooms. Damn COLOSSUS! I went to my old honey hole, Bally's, to play some morning poker. Maybe it was the fatigue - I dunno. But I seemed to be impatient and just didn't like the table I was at. A few of the old farts (I guess that means guys older than me!) didn't like my aggression when I had hands. I ended up getting Aces cracked by 6-2 (almost The Grump!)  when a guy who button straddled called my raise. I guess I was just a chump and he outplayed me when his stealth hand flopped two pair on an innocent looking board. Stacked again! Did I suck or what?

I was getting weary and decided to see if I could check into The LINQ at 1:00 p.m. When I got back to The LINQ, the check in line was very long. I saw the VIP area and decided to check in there. I guess even those of us lowly Total Rewards platinum card holders with low tier scores can check in there, right? I was out in five minutes and all set. As a bonus (drum roll, please), I was notified that there was free water, soda and light snacks in the back of the VIP room. FREE Mountain Dew? angerisagift would certainly say "The GOOD stuff with real cane sugar and SHEEEEEIT!"

It was finally time for me to get some sleep immediately. Outside of some cat naps on the flights to Las Vegas, I had now been up about 36 hours and was ready to hit the sheets.

My room at The LINQ was really quite nice. The furnishings were not high-end, but the room was decorated quite tastefully. I liked it.

After getting some shuteye, I met Boob Rob at TAP in MGM for some dinner. Rob graciously used his comps to cover dinner, which was greatly appreciated. He didn't even attempt to charge me half the value (take notice, Tony)!

Rob and I played a session at MGM, but were rarely in a hand together. Interestingly, despite playing several hours together at MGM this trip, we never really faced off against each other.

Rob called it a night after the midnight promo drawings, but I was stuck and not full of energy. Of course, u can't leave a table STUCK, u see.

I got even and played until 5:00 a.m. I am happy to report that the MGM session was the first one in which I pulled a profit. Things were about to turn around. I hate to brag about my win rate of $.25/hour at MGM, but ...

So ... my first day and a half in Las Vegas was relatively uneventful and kind of boring. It was time for a healthy walk back to The LINQ and to try to get my waking/sleeping hours in order.

COMING IN THE NEXT POST: Winning poker sessions, dinner at the Lux Café with some familiar names, and a Mr. Subliminal sighting.