Bri's semi live TR - June 12th to June 27th

I've been watching my little countdown timer tick away for the last 5 months until, finally the big day is almost here. I'm flying tomorrow out of Heathrow and landing at 7:20pm. It's a 10 1/2 hour flight, so I've sprung for business class both ways so I'm looking forward to getting to the airport early and spending some time in the lounge and relaxing into my holiday.

I'm making the trip with my wife and our first priority is to play our first ever events at the WSOP. Like a few other VMBers, we're playing the Monster Stack starting Saturday and we're also registered for the Seniors event starting the following Friday. Other activities will be dependent on how long we survive these tourneys.

We'll have 9 nights at the Rio then we're getting out of town for 3 nights before coming back and staying at Aria for our last 3 nights. I'll aim to provide regular updates on poker and anything else of interest.

 

I will be next door to you for 4 days. See you at the WSOP.

 

good luck!

 

Best of luck in the WSOP!!! Hope you have a great trip!

 

who you flying with bud ba or virgin?

GL in the pokerz and remember to keep us all updated, by way of pics, of all your gambling

- - - Updated - - -

who you flying with bud ba or virgin?

GL in the pokerz and remember to keep us all updated, by way of pics, of all your gambling

 

Good luck don't know if my bankroll could last that long in Vegas.

 

Hi! Dajjy - I'm flying with BA. I meant to say, if there's a couple of VMBers on the same flight who don't have lounge access, PM me and we'll see if we can sign you in. (Offer good for first respondent only!)

Bigmac - Tournament poker is a great BR saver. Having pre - reg'd for the tournaments 3 months ago, that money is already gone so the spending money should just about last the trip. Plus I'm hoping to be all kinds of tiers advanced on my CET and Mlife players clubs so not paying for too much of my in-resort spend.

Meanwhile, here's a photo of my final, all too depressing, commute home.



No need to spend any time on that. It's just me checking that I can use the photo function on Tapatalk.

More tomorrow when the journey actually starts!

 

Well, take off time is just about here.

Sitting upstairs on the 747 and I've just been offered my pre-flight glass of bubbly. I should be touching down in about 11 hours.

 

ANy updates? How is poker treating you?

 

I cant even fathom an 11 hour flight

 

coybig

 

My admiration for people who manage to keep these semi live trip reports up to date grows by the day. It's tough to make time to get this done but, realising I left this thread hanging in the air - literally - last Friday, let me provide some updates now.

So, we arrived into Las Vegas more or less on time and After a fairly smooth passage through immigration and customs, we were in our taxi to the Rio. Luckily our taxi driver took the direct route avoiding the infamous tunnel.

Check in at the Rio was fine. They were a little undermanned for a Friday night but we didn't have to wait too long. Once safely ensconced in our Samba Suite on the 27th floor in the Masquerade tower, we unpacked then headed straight down to get a look at the World Series of Poker for the first time in the flesh.

All very exciting and we spotted Vanessa Selbst playing in flight A of the Monster Stack. We picked up our registrations for our own attempt in flight B and after a nightcap, crashed out at around 11pm, which was 7 am on our body clocks.

Woke up at 3:30. Damn jet lag. Killed time for a while and had breakfast in Hash House before starting the Monster Stack. I ended up busting halfway through Level 6.

Shot some craps later and finished that around even before feeling completely wiped out and crashing.

 

Sunday was a poker free day and we spent time Downtown. Taxied up to Main Street Station for a beer in the brewery then a little craps in there before going to the Mob Museum. That was interesting, although it's a barely disguised ad for US Law Enforcement agencies to get more tax dollars. I'm not a U.S. taxpayer so I could simply enjoy it. From there, we headed down Fremont as I wanted to go to Atomic Liquors. They have some really nice beers in there and I was forced to enjoy several of them thanks to a new Vegas experience for me. A really severe thunderstorm lasting about a half hour meant I just kept drinking. Nice.

The rest of Sunday is a little bit of a blur between continuing jetway and continuing beers.

 

Feeling much better jet lag wise on Monday so signed up for the Daily Deepstack tournament. $235 entry and usually over a thousand players so big prize pools. I survived that one a little better than the Monster but still didn't cash. If anyone is interested in more of the poker related content, I'm keeping a blog at www.losershistory.com which you're welcome to take a look at.

I mentioned before that we had breakfast in Hash House our first day and I know there are always conflicting opinions on that place. Well, that day we had hash in there and it was excellent. It was so good, we went back the next day and had their Benedict and it was awful. I can see why people disagree about it.

Today, I'm feeling completely alive so celebrated with lunch at Mon Ami Gabi. Really good food and a nice bottle of Saint Veran has prepared me fully for today's Deepstack.

 

In the past i have attempted a live TR, I dont even think i did one day live!
Have fun & Good luck; -)

 

Yeah, it's asking a lot really. But good updates so far! Good luck in the tourneys!

 

Tried the Daily Deepstack again yesterday, but I played terribly and bust out early on. I could have had a rebut but I decided I was playing too badly to justify it. That may have been partly a result of the bottle of wine at lunchtime. I need to score that off my list of good ideas for poker preparation.

After shooting a little more craps and failing badly at that as well, took a little break up in the room before jumping on the Rio shuttle to Harrahs. I'd heard a lot about Carnaval court so decided to check it out. It was pretty decent - good music from the DJ and the covers band did a nice job as well. Lots of Sierra Nevada was consumed and things got going a little slowly this morning. Another poker free day today, so we drove over to Peppermill for breakfast - I do love that place. After that, we went to the Springs Preserve for a little bit of un-Vegas like experience in Vegas. Some nice displays about the springs that gave rise to the meadows that gave the city its name.

A quick stop at Gamblers General Store for some home game supplies that are much cheaper here than in the UK, then back to Rio. Tonight, we're having dinner at the Voodoo Steakhouse then going over to HRH to watch Alice: a steampunk Fantasy. It's had mixed reviews but I liked the sound of it. I'll do my best to report on the food and the music tomorrow. Although, again, things may start a little slowly.

 

Voodoo Steak. Well the view from up there is fabulous. We got up there around dusk which was perfect to watch the sun fall and the strip coming to fully lit life. The food? Meh. I mean, it's good food but at the price they charge, it's like they've decided that the location justifies the premium so the food doesn't have to be special. I wouldn't go back, although I may go to the bar for cocktails and catch the view from there.

Alice over at the Hard Rock was actually really good. It's a show that is out on by a variety of performers from other Vegas shows about once a month at 11pm after they've performed in their regular roles. It's a musical vaguely woven around the Alice story and features high energy covers of well known songs: Paint it Black; bad romance; Sweet Dreams; Titanium and various others. Also, if you want to meet the performers from almost every other Vegas show, go to this. Everybody seemed to know everybody (except us) and the guys who shared our table had come straight from Jubilee and hadn't had time to remove their stage make up. Tickets are cheap and I think well worth it.

 

Played the Planet Hollywood 11am tourney on Thursday and I was awful - out before second break. That left me free to head back to Rio and win $500 on craps, which covers the costs of a couple of my failed poker ventures. For dinner, we went over to Gold Coast and ate at Ping Pang Pong. The food there was outstandingly good. I was honestly amazed at the quality and flavour and, at the price, it's tremendous value. Will definitely visit again.

It's now Friday and just around 80 minutes till the start of the Seniors event. I just went down and had breakfast at the Starbucks in Convention Way, next door to Hash House. I can confirm that seniors LOVE Hash House. There is a huge line of people waiting to be seated and the vast majority of them look like they qualify for the seniors. Starbucks, meanwhile, had 2 people in line when we got there.

Also, I don't know how many motorised scooters Vegas has for rent, but I'd guess there's a pretty big percentage of them lined up in the corridor down there.

I'm trying to bring my A game today as I know I've been making mistakes in tournaments until now, sometimes even as I'm moving the chips forward while thinking "You're being a dumbass." Let's hope for better performance today. I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

Good luck, keep up with posts if you can,