Whirlwind and an epiphany

Las Vegas Trip Report

I've been going to Vegas every year to cover the WSOP for my magazine or PokerCast since 2007 and every year I take something different away from the experience.

My Las Vegas Road Trip story will be in Ante Up's September issue, but what I can share with you is that I basically found something unique about every room. For instance the Poker Palace may not be the Venetian, but it has an $18 tournament. Where else can you play in a tournament for less than an Andrew Jackson? And the Stations Casinos were so nice, and profitable.

I still love the Monte Carlo, the Mirage and TI, too. Made some serious coin there.

Some regrets:

* Not being in Vegas on a Sunday so I could play the IP's mixed game.
* Not starting the tour at the Suncoast so I could have learned of the Hoggie Game ($2-$10 spread limit stud/8 with a double qualifier) sooner.
* Not shoving on the guy who clearly made broadway when I made the nut flush and he would have called any bet at the Venetian. I also regret losing a net $88 when I was rolled up twice in the stud/8 rotation of the $4-$8 HORSE game there as well. Imagine being rolled up twice in four hands and winning the bring-in and antes and losing a huge pot on the river when a guy backs into broadway and you still have the three nines you started with.

The epiphany? There are so many tourists who are rich and/or drunk whenever I visit LV, so why did I feel the need to play anything but ABC poker these past few years? When I first visited back in 2007 I would just play straight up, play position and quality hands and come home with $700-$1K playing $1-$2 NLHE or $3-$6 mixed games. But as the visits added up I started to try to outplay the better players or outthink the drunk tourists, and would come home even or even down for the trip. So this trip I decided to go back to the basics and I couldn't believe how many people wanted to give me their money!

So I stuck with the game plan and came home with about $1K again. I'll leave the fancy play for the bigger tournaments and bigger cash games and stick with ABC when I'm playing small stakes cash in Vegas.

Comment on this trip report in our discussion forum

Previous Trip Report | Next Trip Report | Trip Reports Listing