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Trip Report Annual December trip Date: 12/20/07 Player: Stranded in Indiana For Rooms: Bally's,Bellagio,Excalibur (Live),Luxor,Mandalay Bay,MGM Grand,Venetian, Summary: A midwesterner's ups and downs at low-limit Hold-Em on the strip Content: Arrived around noon on Monday, Dec. 10. I've come out the same week for the past three years; things aren't as crowded and you get great room rates. My brother came along for his first Vegas trip, and my friend Adam was joining us after finishing his law school finals that day. My first stop was MGM Grand, just across the street from Excalibur, where we were staying. I love just about everything about this room, from the high-ceilinged, wide-open feel to the way they take you to your table and go fetch your chips. I've always found pretty loose competition in the 3/6 game, which usually works to my advantage. One memorable hand I raise from BB with KK and get a few callers, including the SB. Flop comes K99. I basically sandbag until it's me and the SB on the river, which comes a J. He leads out, I raise, he comes over the top of me. I call, and he turns over J9. He seemed a little stunned that I had flopped that hand and sort of angrily left the table a few hands later. I left after 4 1/2 hours up $124. Later that night, we take the moving walkway over to Luxor, where we were planning to play the noon tournament the next day. This was a pretty underwhelming experience. The only limit game they offered was 2/4. It was around midnight, but the room was fairly dead, and the decor and the staff did little to improve the atmosphere. It feels sorta like something someone set up in their basement. There were only about six of us playing 2/4, and one aggressive loudmouth was trying to run the table. That got old after about 45 minutes so I left and waited for my brother over in the (also underwhelming) sportsbook. Next day we go back to Luxor for the nooner. It's a $33 total buy-in, which includes a $3 add-on, and you get 1200 chips with 15 minute levels. They had 44 sign up for the tourney, so they put us at four tables of 11 (which I didn't like). I was seated on seat 1 with my brother, playing his first live tourney, on my left. My buddy Adam got knocked out fairly early when his top two pair went down against an inside wheel draw. I made it through the first table break but didn't get a better starting hand than KJ and the blinds were coming fast. I pushed with A8os, missed, wished my brother luck and headed for the rail. He played tight and tough and ended up finishing fourth ($69) to cash in his first tourney. We had a 6 p.m. dinner reservation, so my bro and I went over to Ballys, where I'd won $307 over five hours (two sessions) on my last trip. That's the only reason I went back -- I'm not a big fan of the location (roped off area of the casino) or the management. I was down $11 after two hours, and near the end the 3/6 table I was at broke up and I had to join another. Wednesday we went to Bellagio for the lunch buffet. We'd heard they were holding a WPT event there, but I thought it was in the actual room. Instead, they had an area just outside the room roped off. As we're walking by my brother says, "Isn't that Gavin Smith?" Yep, and we also saw Huck Seed, Phil Laak, Scott Fischman and one of the older Asian players whose name I can't recall. Walking back after lunch (which was great, BTW), we saw Dan Harrington being interviewed. We wanted to try some 4/8 at one of the better rooms, but Bellagio was crowded, so we went over to Venetian, which was dead. It's nice they had that little lounge for us to wait in, but there was a huge list for 4/8 with a bunch of empty tables. After 45 minutes they finally had a supervisor start dealing the table. I was surprised when people bought in for the same $100 I often saw at 3/6 tables, and I realized this table wouldn't be as tight as I'd thought. I think this is the tricky part about playing in Vegas -- a good chunk of your competition sits down without much regard of whether they blow their money or not. It's just a small part of their Vegas bankroll. I lost about $60 over six hours, and I also forgot about the Players Card comp rate until the very end (they never mentioned anything when I checked in or sat down). After some blackjack and roulette, my traveling companions were ready to crash. But I needed to finish off my poker jones. I went down to the Excal room, but they were only spreading 2/4. I took the tram to Mandalay, but they were also only spreading 2/4 (which means all three of those connected hotels were only offering 2/4 -- disappointing). I decided to go back over to MGM for 3/6, and before long a handful of guys from San Diego who flew to Vegas for the night stumbled over. They definitely loosened the game up and it was one of the funnest tables I played at the whole stay. I also got my favorite flop of the trip -- I called a pre-flop raise from the BB with Ah3h. Flop came 2h5h4d. So I flop a wheel and have the nut flush draw. The guy to my left on his fourth gin and tonic didn't see that coming. I can't recommend MGM enough -- it has a presence without being pretentious, and the whole room has a great atmosphere. (Just beware of the occasional loud blare of music in the middle of the afternoon.) Venetian was a fun experience and a really great room. Luxor and Bally's are both places that really need to try harder. When a decent Vegas resort's poker room can't compare to the ones we have in Northwest Indiana, something's wrong. |
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