Trip Report without taking the family this time….

Really enjoyed your trip report. More pics would have been nice, but your style of writing just grabbed and held my attention. Of course, it helped that you frequent the same casinos that I do...Harrah's/Silverton/Downtown Boyd and 4Qs. I do differ on Rio. I'll stay there as I like their large rooms but I won't play or eat there when the food and games are just sooo much better right next door at the Gold Coast.

 

I didn't know this. Thanks for the info!

 

Nice report!

 

Thanks!
Video poker or table poker?
My last trip I didn't get to play any table poker at all (I was with the family that trip, and when I find a good game it's so hard to leave, which was a potential disaster waiting to happen...)

 

Thanks! I am just real clumsy with my phone camera, and I usually don't think much about taking pictures. When I was at the TI and got my first 4-Royal (with a pair of Aces), I tried taking a video of holding the 4-RF (and dropping the off-suit ace of course.) The draw then bricked, and the video was so shaky I guess I decided this wasn't for me....

I completely agree regarding the games being better at Gold Coast than at Rio. Check out my TR from last Summer (link at the top of Day 1 of this report and in my sig), on DAY 3 of that report we went to the Gold Coast in the morning, and even discussed folks from the Rio going there to eat! This was actually my first ever VP trip to the Rio, and the only reason I was playing here was to get enough CET Tier Credits to extend Diamond for another year (I know, the worst reason to play....) When I said I liked the place, I think I meant relative to Harrahs/Linq/Flamingo, I just found everyone much friendlier there than on the strip, and I found the VP tables better than the CET strip properties (but not as good as Gold Coast of course.) What do you play when you go to Harrahs?

 

No problem! I think this may be the best deal downtown. Lots of players clubs have been slashing the bonus's they give VP players, so lets just hope this holds up. Just make sure whatever machine you are on is able to read your players card!

 

Like many on this board, I have local casinos where I play. In my case the local is Atlantic City which has a full Vegas style Harrah's-AC, Bally's-AC and Caesars-AC. Each of these casinos has 9/6 JoB and 9/6 DDB as well as other good games. They cost $20/tier point but at least I find them playable and my amount of play through the year gets me to diamond. In LV I stay at CET properties but I wouldn't play at any of them when there are so many full-pay plays around town.

 

If that VP offer for covering the rooms applies to 9/6 JOB that's quite a deal. Roughly $5k coin in a day covers a weekday room. Thanks for the info. They've always offered some of the best comps and that's another plus on their side.

 

Great report really enjoyed it and the summer report with the family

 

Unfortunately for me, I am not anywhere near a local CET casino. And I completely agree, the games CET casinos offer in Vegas are pretty bad. Now this may sound strongly opinionated, but I somewhat find the CET strip casinos a little focused on the high school spring break / freshman dorm minded crowd, and I have found a lot of the employees at the strip casinos just not so friendly. And then I found the Rio to be nicer and the employees much friendlier. But that is just from my extremely limited samples. In my last report, I went on a rant on all the things I didn't like about CET. But then after the Boyd disaster and talking to some people, a few months later and I am now a CET Diamond.... I would have much preferred to play 9/6 jacks at $20/tier credit to extend my Diamond Status, but with just Vegas, I really found the Rio much better than the CET casinos on the strip for getting there.

 

You do what's best for you. You know your situation, your goals and your options. Go get 'em!

 

I'm not much of a poker player but I am really interested in how Persuadeo can put a table on tilt. I don't think I have ever heard of this.

 

What I have seen him do, and other players of his caliber, is they will start playing very loose aggressive (against what is normal for 1-2 NLH regulars), which includes opening to unusually large sizes (for example, the normal open in 1-2 NLH might be 7 to 12, and they might open 15 to 25), lots of 3-betting other opponents opens, check-raising, and over-betting pots (for example, a $120 bet into a $40 pot.) And they aren't getting good cards more frequent than anyone else, so they certainly know how to bail out before they get in trouble with their bad hands.

This type of play frequently causes loose opponents to play looser and tight opponents to play tighter. And because these players are observing all their opponents at their table, they play to exploit each opponent’s perceived weakness. They can get loose opponents to call very large bets with their best hands, and they can get tight opponents to release their stronger hands by betting so much it puts them in their "threshold of fear and pain." And because they know how frequent their opponents are going to have hands that beat them, they don’t get upset when their opponents double up (it’s part of their aggressive game plan), which enables them to play fearless.

So, while they create a lot of mayhem for the hands they are in, they certainly aren't playing every hand, but I have seen one player like this become a catalyst to making everyone play tilted for even the hands they are not in.

 

That's just brilliant!