| Las Vegas Trip Report |
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My flight from Upstate NY arrived on time and with no hiccups. Check in at the Palazzo was a little slow but it was 11 am and check in was not officially until 3. After an hour in line, I was given the key to my four night home courtesy of the Grazie card promotion. The rooms at the Palazzo are amazing, as was the service. This was my first trip alone to Vegas and I was able to play tons of poker. The first order of business was a short walk to Harrahs to pick up the shuttle to the Rio and the WSOP. I walked around the WSOP area to get my bearings for a bit and then registered for the 3 pm $320 main event satellite. There were roughly 100 runners with two main event seats up for grabs. I played about as well as my game allows and busted out 11th when my JJ’s ran into a flush flop and out I went. I returned to the Palazzo for a much needed nap after my 4 am eastern time wake up for my flight. It was then off to the Venetian for the 7 pm $120. I did not fair as well in this one and went out about 90 minutes in with a great cards and mediocre flops. I decided to play some ½ NL cash and in a little over three hours was up just under $500 to bring my poker fund for the week almost back to starting strength. I woke up early Tuesday (5 am) with my body still working on east coast time unfortunately. I hit the breakfast buffet at the Grand Lux which was good and reasonable at $15. I played a little Let it Ride at IP which has become a Vegas ritual for me after hitting a straight flush there on my first trip to Vegas. Although the straight flush eluded me I did manage to escape with a $50 profit. It was then off to the Venetian for the noon Deepstack. I can’t say enough about the Venetian Poker room and their professionalism in running their tourneys. There was just shy of 500 runners and I rode the rollercoaster for nearly ten hours before pushing with K Q suited with eight blinds left. Wednesday I was off to Binions for their 2 pm deep stack and had a pretty good run but again feel short of the money. I found Binion's tourney to be pretty well run as well although I can never remember as many calls for the floor in a 100 runner tourney. To the floor's credit it appeared each call was dealt with quickly and professionally. The pattern was formed and became pretty much the ritual, deep runs with no cashes. The night brought more ½ nl at the Venetian with the good fortune of hitting a table with a couple of very new players who could be read with little insight. After a four hour session I was up just over $300. Thursday brought another shot at the let it ride tables at IP and a $100 loss. More cash games in the afternoon with another fair profit of $225 which would have been much higher except for one hand were my pocket tens and my $15 raise preflop ran into the big blind’s pocket J’s and a board of low mixed cards. This trip brought different results than my previous Vegas trips. I had always done pretty well in the tourneys with a couple of wins and a very good cash rate. This time around it was the cash games I did well at. All in all it was a great trip and a fun time. I can’t wait to the next trip west. |
