ElCo, Riv + buffets + lots of poker

Highlights: I played a lot of poker and ate a lot of buffets.
Stayed at El Cortez (Nov 5-6) and Riviera (Nov 7-12)
Complete Trip Report with pictures at:
www.premierpokertour.blogspot.com


WEDNESDAY NOV 5th.

Left London (Ontario Canada) with my travelling
companion Gina, bound for Detroit Wednesday morning.
Paid $287 inclusive for my flight from DTW to LAS on Spirit.
Price actually dropped after booking, but it was still cheap enough
that i didnt cry about it.

Arrived in Vegas without any problems and headed for
the Rental Car Terminal. Alamo didnt have a car for us.
Actually, they didnt have a car for anyone... lol. The whole place
was nearly empty. They would just offer people a car
as one was returned. Not what we ordered, but the
Chevy Malibu they offered us was acceptable, better than waiting.
It was a quiet car, a bit of a pig on gas.. but at 50 cents a litre
($1.80/gal) you can afford to drive a guzzler down here.
(Paid $124 / 8 days + $27 gas).

5:30pm
Headed downtown to check in at the EL CORTEZ hotel.
Room 5567 in the Pavillion tower. $15 a night w/ACG coupon.
Room was adequate. Bed was comfy. Some minor complaints:
No hot water on second day, shower tub very slow to drain,
Traffic noise, big gap around door. It was noisy because of the
setup of this tower. Its more like a motel. The hallway entrances
are outside the building. The floor material is uneven tile,
so the laundry cards pushed by the maids make a racket in
the morning. But hey, for $15 a night, how can you complain.

Went down to the ElCo casino floor and played out $10
slot freeplay from the ACG book. Burned through it playing
Turkey Shoot and Hoot Loot.

Every trip I like to hit a few different places to eat and play poker.
The first was the Green Valley Ranch located south
of the strip in Henderson NV. Dropped my camera getting out
of the car on the way in, oops. No more pics this trip.
Putting a positive spin on it, it was my $120 "vegas camera"
and not my expensive Panasonic Lumix.

The 'Feast Buffet' was good but not exceptional for the price.
2for1 ACG coupon, 2 of us ate for $20. Features: crab legs,
mongolian grill, custom pasta station, prime rib, sliced turkey
and pork ribs. overall 7.5/10.

Obama wins ! Plenty of mixed reactions from players at
the poker tables about their new president.

Headed over to BINIONS to check out their recently
renovated poker room. Its a big improvement. It's quieter,
stylish, modern, and essentially smoke free. Rolling office style
chairs that adjust up and down. New tables, but someone
wasnt thinking too clearly. They ordered tables with 10 cupholders
when they play games 9 handed. There was some confusion
about who gets which cupholder. But at least it's an improvement
over the old tables with no cupholders and having to use those
dirty plastic ones that you have to jam under the padded rail.
It wasnt set up yet (the room is that new) but a
table-based player management system is probably in place
by the time I post this.

Now all they need to do is upgrade the dealers & floor staff
and this will be a top notch room.
All staff could use an attitude adjustment.

Binions pays $2 an hour in comps. They record them with pen
and paper so its a little sketchy that you actually get what you earn.
I heard a few stories of them not accurately logging hours.
Regular players accumulate hours towards entry into a freeroll
($50,000 tourny. 25hrs to qualify). Update: When I cashed mine
out at the end of the week, it was short.

Saw "The Duke of Fremont". This guy is a real character.
I had actually seen him on a previous trip over at the Golden Nugget.
He's always dressed in a fancy suit or tuxedo, usually has a fedora
and cane and walks around like his shit don't stink. He comes into
the poker room and sits down at $1/2 and pulls $10,000+ in cash
out of his briefcase and puts it on the table. When I saw him
do this this first time, I thought it was a joke, a casino promotion
or something. Usually he doesnt even play any hands, he posts
his blinds and folds, then disappears, schmoozing around the casino
until he returns a half hour later to post his blinds, then disappear again.
At Binions, he never left his seat. He actually played a few hands,
not many but a few.

I played fairly conservative poker.
I had been up for over 24hrs now,
it's silly to get too fancy.
Finished the session + $90.

Hit the 'Lanai Express' inside the FREMONT Hotel
before heading back for sleep. Had the 2 item combo plate,
rice with orange chicken and mongolian beef for $6.
Very Satisfiing

The PBR (Professional Bull Riders) were holding
their World Finals event this week in vegas,
so lots of cowboy hats and belt buckles everywhere we went.


THURS. NOV 6th.

Temps: High 66F (19C) , Low 46F (8C)

Up way too early, 9am. Forgot to turn the ringer for my
cell phone off. Went to the FREMONT Hotel for
breakfast buffet. 2 for $7.32 with coupon.
They have instituted a "one coupon per person per year" policy.
241 buffet coupons are the main (only) reason I have for
visiting the Fremont. Good news is, a new year starts soon.
Buffet wasnt as good as on previous trips. Less selection.

Back over to the EL CORTEZ to put some valuables
and cash in the lock box at the front desk.
Won + $7.50 on Hoot Loot slots,
enough to play for breakfast. When cashing in the ticket,
I noticed the ATM fees. $3 + 3.95%. To take out $1000,
the fee was $51. Ouch. Bring cash.

Drove to the Walmart at Charleston & Jones to get Gina some
better shoes. The ones she brought were giving her blisters.
I was looking for a replacement camera and some antihistamines.

Next stop was the VENETIAN poker room. + $140.

Went for dinner and met up with Sonny 'The Money' Rattan
and Tom Whattam (guys I know from www.ElitePoker.ca in Hamilton).
We wanted to do the SILVERTON Casino buffet, but the line up
was long, 1hr +. Sonny had mentioned the Green Valley Ranch
had an Omaha tourney thursdays, so we headed there for buffet.
Buffet was decent. I had several ACG coupons
left, so we all got it for 1/2 price. Turns out the info
that Sonny got from the AllVegasPoker website was bogus.
Monday is the Omaha tourny. Thursdays is Holdem. We all
decided to play the holdem tourny since we were there anyways.
Rake was high, about 30%. 26 players. I finished 8th.
Tom chopped with 5 left. GVR had 7cash tables going.
Three $1/2NL, three $2/4L, one $3/6L.

Back to BINIONS to play a couple more hours of poker.
ED WOODS from Hamilton was there.
I really didnt get dealt much that was playable. + $45.

Went back to EL CORTEZ.
Won +$11.77 on Turkey Shoot slots,
enough to pay for something to eat.
The El Cortez Cafe was under renovations. Very limited menu
after midnight. 2 breakfasts, salads, fruit, and drinks.
No burgers, fries, sandwiches, etc. Breakfast was $3.95 .
Home fries were cold, eggs were ok. $11.31 for 2 of us. Rate: 2/10

FRIDAY NOV 7th
Drove back down to the SILVERTON for Lunch Buffet.
Excellent as always. Awesome desserts. Carrot cake and
the chocolate crusted pecan pie are A+. Approx. $9.50 for 2
with ACG coupon. Back third of restaurant was closed off
for slot machine storage. Explains why the lineup was so long
the other day. At 1pm the Silverton poker room had one table.
Just old farts pushing small pots back and forth to each other.
The Bass Pro Shops inside the casino always has some
good deals. New Balance running shoes $34.95.
1/2 price Tommy Bahama shirts $69.

2pm.
Checked into RIVIERA. As a money saving measure,
they have installed kiosks for self check-in. It was pretty simple,
swipe your credit card and it brings up your room reservation
on screen. Downside, you couldnt select what tower you wanted
or offer a 'tip' to the staff to upgrade you to a nicer room.
Room 934 in the North Mediteranian Tower. Nice pillowtop
king size bed. In room fridge, flat panel tv, dressing table
(no countertop in bathroom. High shower faucet, plenty of
HOT water with strong pressure. In room safe for extra $3 a day.

More cowboys everywhere. Lots of SEMA (auto industry)
guys everywhere. Supposedly 130,000 people here for
the auto convention.

Went to the WYNN to play $1/3 cash game.
They use $3 chips, which sounds good in theory, but i don't like it.
I won + $145 in the first half hour
so i took that money and bought into (late) the 7pm $140+$20
deep stack tourny that Sonny & Tom were playing in.

Good structure, 30 min blinds and 10,000 starting chips.
I didnt last more that about 20 minutes. Only bad beat story
in this report ( I Promise ! ). I raise with TT, villain (AK) raises,
I call. Flop is T 4 A. I bet, villain raises, I push all in (started the
hand with 9400). Villain hesitates only 3 seconds then calls
and rolls over AK. Yippee for me.
Turn is K. River is K. I lose.
Good example why I prefer cash games instead of tournys.
In a tourny, I'm out and donkey continues. In a cash game,
I rebuy and win my money back from him. On the bright side,
the tourny was basically a freeroll using other peoples
money from the cash game.

Went back to the RIV to freshen up before heading
back out. Walked everywhere for the rest of the night so we could
get our drink on. Walked directly accross the street
to SLOTS O' FUN. Used ACG coupon for a free chili dog and a
cold Corona. That is one messy chili dog, bring some moist towelettes.
SlotsOfun was very busy place. No service staff at the booth
except during day because of layoffs. Had another coupon
$15 in chips for $10. Tables were too busy so saved for later.
They offer $3 craps, $3 BJ, and the min bet on roulette is 50 cents.
No wonder this place is busy !

1:30am
We hiked down to SAHARA, hoping to hit a juicy cash game
full of people knocked out of the 11pm late tournament.
No $1/2 game, only $2/4 Limit and a single $2/5NL game.
I sat down at the $2/5 game, but it didnt last long, broke up
within a half hour. Players were weak enough but they
kept leaving, it could have been good if more players.
Left - $10
Played PaiGow poker for a couple hours.
Sonny left Pai Gow to shoot some craps and made a nice
+ $500 profit after a young kid got on a hot roll.

6am
Walked down to the PEPPERMILL restaurant which is
right beside the RIV. Huge portions, fair prices.
Sonny, Gina and I ate for $53, I was the only one who
finished my plate. Having been awake all night gambling,
its not that surprising that conversation turned to prop bets.
Sonny spotted an item on the menu called 'Fruit Platter'.
Seeing how huge our portions were, he figured that has
got to be a lotta fruit. Gina mentioned that I dont eat fruit.
Its not that I dislike fruit, I'm not allergic or anything like that,
its just I'm not a big fruit eater. Sonny suggested a prop bet
that I couldnt finish this fruit platter. I'm not a big eater,
but I have won a couple food bets in that past (eating worms,
crickets etc). I was pretty close to taking the bet on a whim,
without even setting out a prize if I completed the task.
Sonny, trying to get a better idea of what he'd have to offer as a
prize, asked the waiter "what exactly does the fruit platter come with ?"
HAHA !
1 whole Pineapple, half a watermelon, a honeydew melon,
a canaloupe melon, several bananas, several apples, orange slices,
kiwis, etc. Plus a LOAF of Banana Bread
...LOL ! If I wasnt out of the country, I might even try this
just for laughs. But there's no way I could make a real attempt
at it without spending some serious time on the toilet afterwards.
My body is designed for protein, non fruit.




SATURDAY November 8th
Up late the night before, not awake in time for the AVP tourny.
Got up at 1pm. Arrived at the GOLD COAST Buffet
at 2:55pm. Buffet closes at 3pm for one hour. Reopens at 4pm
for dinner. Played slots to kill an hour. Slots have
tightened up a lot. Heard numerous others throughout
the trip mention they felt slots werent paying out as well as
they had in the past.
Burned through - $20 in no time at all.
Put $10 in video poker and milked that until buffet opened.
Drink service on the floor was really slow. Ordered 2 crown royals
at a time because it'd be 20-30 minutes before you saw a
waitress again. Sonny and Tom joined us for dinner before
heading to the WYNN to play another deep stack tournament.
GC Buffet was good as always. About $6 each with ACG.

I went over to the HARD ROCK poker lounge.
Very busy. Nice atmosphere, a little loud at times.
Good dealers, comfy chairs. $1/hr comps.
Seen JAMIE GOLD, SHAWN SKEIKAN, THOR HANSON, JEAN-ROBERT BELLANDE.
The Duke of Fremont made an appearance,
shook everyones hand but didnt play poker.
Better than average competition, which I tend to
do well against. Good session, + $ 237

Went back to the strip to check out some of the smaller
poker rooms and maybe find a soft game. BILLS Gambling Hall
was super busy. Both tables in the Poker "room" were full but lots of
short stacks. Hit OSHEA'S, same thing. Flamingo
poker room was reasonably busy, but didnt seem that inviting.
Walked down to the IMPERIAL PALACE. Short waiting list
and floor said he'd likely open new table within 20 mins.
Good to his word, 15 minutes later we were seated at new table.
Speaking of tables, they're huge. 10 man rectangular tables
with no drink holders. They had a giant pink dye-sub poster
of 2 women printed on the felt. Very distracting and likely
to cause drunks to miss poker chips that blend in with
the print colours.

Poker wise, it was a rollercoaster night for me.
I couldn't close any of my huge draws all night,
2 royal flush draws, 2 open ended str8flush draws,
1 dbl gutshot str8flush draw, none of 'em. Got stacked at
one point and had to rebuild. I was on the happy side of
AA vs. KK and set over set 555 vs. QQQ to rebuild my stack.
Finished + $ 220.

Gina hit her first live straight flush. 10 high with 78 of clubs
in her hand. High hand jackpot paid her $250 bonus on top of
what was in the pot.
She finished the night + $ 340.

6am.
Went back downtown for $6 CALIFORNIA breakfast buffet.
Great value. I can eat $6 worth of bacon...lol.
- $20 on video poker.
When we came out to the car, it was raining.
A first for me, raining in vegas.

SUNDAY NOV 9th
The big day is finally here, the WSOP main event final table
that has been delayed for 4 months. Unfortunately, I'll have to
watch it on tv like common folk. The line up to get into the
Penn & Teller theatre is crazy long and the set up inside isnt
very good for spectators.

Went for dinner buffet at the ORLEANS (241 ACG) and
hit their poker room after. Always seems to be a nearly full room,
even during the week. 1/2 hour wait. Their list procedures
are a little sketchy. Names occasionally appear above you
on the list with out explanation. They have different colored
symbols they can put with peoples names. Green is phone-in,
blue is table change request, etc... but people with no symbols
got bumped for no obvious reason (locals friendly w/ poker rm manager ?).
Watched a bit of the $4/8 and $8/16 Omaha H/L cash games.
Very juicy. People had very little clue to what is a good starting
hand or even knowing if they were winning.

A new must-move $1/2 table was started and we got seated.
I didnt even get to play a hand before I was moved to the
main table. After about a half hour, JERRY YANG,
2007 World Champion sat down next to me at our table.
Super nice guy, very friendly. He showed big bluff first hand
then played tight ABC after that. (He left +$300)
It was a real up & down session for me, lots of tough decisions
(which I usually avoid). River beat me on several big hands/pots.
Sometimes I just got outflopped....
I had QQ against villains AK. Flop is QTJ of spades.
Later, I folded a flopped gutshot Q high straight flush draw,
face up, to the shock of the dealer and most of the table.
3 all-ins behind me. Had invested $50 on the flop but would have
cost me my stack, $220 more. What most people fail to consider
in this situation is what your opponents likely holdings are.
With 3 other people all in, it is highly like one of them is drawing to
the Ace high flush. One of my other opponents may have already
made the straight. It is quite possible in this situation that I am
drawing to a one-outer to hit the straight flush. I might even be
drawing dead if they have my str8flush card.
Atleast I got a "wow" out of Jerry Yang for my fold.
Left the Orleans + $25.

1am.
Decided to check out CAESARS PALACE. The entire
casino floor was very quiet, nearly vacant, very few people at all.
The poker room was the same, almost empty. 2 tables of $1/2.
The high hand jackpots were a joke. $100 for 4 of a kind,
$100 for a str8 flush, $500 for a royal flush. They scoop $1
from every pot and all they want to pay back is $100 ?
That's weak. Signed up with the brush and he told us to
have a seat and grab a cocktail, wont be long. Sounds good.
After 2 failed attempts to get a drink from a snobby Caesars
waitress, we bailed. No action, no service, no thanks.

Headed back to the RIV and called it an early night.

MONDAY NOV 10th
Up at 10am and out of the room by 11am.
Off to the SILVERTON for Lunch Buffet.
$9.63 for two. Their pecan pie tastes like a giant butter tart.

Played another session at the VENETIAN.
No noteworthy hands. + $56

Recieved comp tickets to the REAL DEAL, a poker based
game show that recently opened up at the V. Sonny, Ed, and Tom
were just finishing up a tournament at the WYNN so they
joined Gina and me. The premise of the show, two poker pro's
and 4 (somewhat) randomly selected audience members play
a game of holdem on stage. The rest of the audience plays
along on computer touch screens. The audience sees its
hole cards and bets or folds based on the flop, turn, river.
There are also mini contests throughout. Pick 5 random cards
from a deck of 52 and the top 3 people with the best hands
win a prize. The final hand, you randomly select 5 cards and
if you hit a royal flush you receive $1,000,000 (over 25 yrs).
The two pros for this session were
Todd Brunson and Jennifer Harman.
Jennifer was high energy and seemed sincerely interested
in being there. Todd, no so much.
Vinny Favorito was the MC and
did a great job trying to keep this contrived
production seem natural and moving along.
Lacey Jones co-hosted and did an
acceptable job. I was a little shocked to see Lacey,
who was voted "hottest girl in poker", close up only 5 feet away.
I guess you can have skin as rough as TJ Cloutier
and still be voted hot. I'm sure she's a nice girl,
she comes across as friendly... but I have met
hotter poker girls.



One of the flaws with the show was in the software.
There was a serious time lag. On a couple occasions,
the live hand was being dealt before action was complete
on the handhelds. I was able to fold on the turn, saving myself
a $16,000 wager because I saw the dealer on stage deal out
the river which gave one of the players a full house which
beat my two pair. If there were serious prizes at stake,
there'd be lawsuits flying. Prizes were decent although
not enough to make me drool. Sony headphones,
a portable dvd player, autographed posters, books,
a bunch of $50 gift certs for V restaurants.
I left with a pretty good booty. Everyone left with a
RD hat & deck of cards because the crowd won 5 or 6 hands.
I made trips with one of my random 5 card selections
so I won a poster autographed by the RD poker pros.
When I went to collect it after the show, the girl says
"oh you won the books ! ?" I said, sure ? ! She gave me
autographed copies of SuperSystemII and Daniel Negreanu's
Power Holdem. Autographs include Harman, Brunson,
Laak, Esfandiari,etc. Overall, I liked the show.
Would I pay $75+ for it ? No.
If it was free, I would go again and again. There were
about 100 people in the audience and there were people
who actually paid full price for the show, including 2 people
who paid $140 for VIP front row seats (my freebee seats
were in the 2nd row) and they got to meet and take pictures
with the pros backstage.

Immediately after the show we headed out to the
GREEN VALLEY RANCH to take a shot at the
PL Omaha 8ob tournament that we missed earlier
in the week. Had I known the structure and rake (25%),
I would have skipped it. We arrived a little late but got
on the list to be put in as other players got eliminated.
By the time I got seated, it was late into the $100 blind level.
Starting stack was $2000. This basically gave me no play at all.
Example: 1st time I play my big blind there are 4 players
to the flop. Pot is $400. Under the gun bets pot $400.
If I bet pot ($1200) I have committed 65% of my chips
to this hand and there are still 2 people to act behind me
+ the original bettor. No wiggle room at all.
Finished 11th out of 36 by folding a lot.
Gina came in 9th and Sonny came in 6th.
On a positive note, I made + $ 80
playing the cash game while I waited for everyone to bust out.

Funniest moment of the day.
Sonny says " You gotta see this ! "
There was a guy at the poker room cage asking his friend
to take his picture, posing as he cashes out his racks
of $1 chips, like it was a huge payday.
Being the smartass I am, I say to Sonny
" Dare me to get my picture taken with him?"
So I go over and ask the guy if I can get my
picture taken with him (and all his chips), like he's
a poker superstar. I Love how he fans out his money
for everyone to see. Classic !



Hungry!. Went downtown to the GOLDEN GATE
Shrimp Bar & Deli for one of their famous sandwiches.
Had the Cable Car (turkey, ham, roast beef, swiss cheese,
lettuce,mayo) $6.99 Great shrimp cocktails for 99cents.

Wandered down to the GOLDEN NUGGET to play
a little poker. Got stacked by donkey bombers. -$200
The Nugget has started raking 50cents preflop,
so if its raise and take it with no action,
the GN is still getting there's. Boo !
Played The Price is Right Dice game - $10

TUESDAY NOV 11
Had GOLD COAST lunch buffet using 241
LasVegas Advisor coupon. $9.03 total for two.
Very slow drink service. It was busy, Veterans Day.
6x points so there were seniors galore.
Used $5 matchplay from ACG on roulette.
Will + $10.
Gina + $10.
Free lunch !

Back to the VENETIAN poker room.
Got two more free
REAL DEAL tix from Mr. Bill, the floor guy.
Another good session against predictable players
waiting to get into the deep stack tournament.
+ $251 playing 2pm-6pm.

Headed over to the ORLEANS
for Dinner buffet and brought Tom with us.
$7.53 each with ACG coupons. Great buffet as usual.
Didnt use the RD tix, couldnt make it back from buffet in time.

Dropped Tom off at the MGM and headed downtown
to BINIONS to play poker. Had plenty of good
starting hands, just couldnt hit the board to save my life.
Was down $ most of the evening but hit Quad Deuces to
get back to even. 8:30pm-1am.
Left minus - $10.
Earned $9 in comps so we'll call it even.

Hung around Binions, I played Zeus, HootLoot and
Shopping Spree slots (+ $8) while Gina
was playing Pai Gow. She was doing well so I
popped across the street to the NUG to check out
the poker room. Sat down at a table with 3 russians.
$2400, $1600, and $800 stacks. Very suspicious.
They were the only ones who ever won a pot.
I sat for 2 orbits then left.
Talked to a guy at a limit table on my way out.
He said I'm the first person all night who left
the table with money, they knocked out
every single player who sat in the game.
Not sure what was going on, very fishy though.
Walked back over to Binions and convinced Gina
to leave with a + $50 profit at Pai Gow.

WEDNESDAY NOV 12th
Up before 10am. RIV's Kiosk Checkout was easy to use.
Headed downtown to BINIONS to cash in our comps
in the gift shop. Picked up some sweatshirts, hats, card
caps for folks at home. Pretty reasonable prices.

The Real Deal playbill had a coupon for "1 free book"
from Cardoza publishing, the guys who print Doyles
and Daniels books. The ad shows SuperSystem,
Caro's Book of Tells, Poker Tournament Formula, etc.
Being the gullable type guy I am, I took this to mean
that I could choose from one of the books shown in the ad.
Wrong. The free books are actually booklets on
off beat topics or contain only rudimentry content.
Avery Cardoza, did you approve this ?
Do you realize how many people you are going to piss off ?

Remember the potential prop bet with Sonny involving
the fruit plate from Peppermills ? Gina and I thought
it would be funny to send Sonny a fruit basket.
We hit the Walmart Super Centre and bought a basket,
clear wrapping and fruit galore. Along with a watermelon,
cantaloupe, bananas, bag of apples, there were a bag of lemons,
a coconut, and an onion...lol. Got a few strange
looks putting it all together on the trunk of our car in the parking lot.

Too long without food so we hit the WYNN buffet.
Gina earned 2 free buffets earlier so we wanted to use them up.
Excellent food as before. I love that they have bathrooms
located inside the dining area. Most buffets, you have to leave
and use facilities on the gaming floor. Their bathrooms actually
have private rooms with real locking doors, not just partial metal walls.

Headed back up to SLOTS'O'FUN to use our
$15 for $10 coupon. Crapped out and headed next door
to CIRCUS CIRCUS, to use the same offer there.
Half hour of play and left with an overall
+ $ 7 in profit between Gina and I.
Woohoo

3pm.
Went to the VENETIAN to get some poker in
on our last day. Saw TEDDY "The IceMan" MONROE.
He holds the record for most WSOP coverage disproportionate
to his actual results. Met up with high school chum
ANDY BRUINEWOUD and his wife GLORIA
in the poker room. They are vegas veterans and gave me
the scoop on what they saw of the WSOP final table from
inside the P&T Theatre. Played at the V until 8pm. (+ $45).

Headed to the MGM and left the fruit basket for Sonny
at the Bell Desk. Would have been way funnier if we
could have gotten into his room and filled his room with fruit,
but we didnt have time. Dropped off the rental car and
headed for the plane. Overall, great trip.
Left + $1500 so I cant complain.

Bye Vegas, see you in a couple months.

 

Thanks for all the poker details. You had a great trip it seems. Thanks for posting.

 

Hey!!! I saw that same guy>>>the Duke of Fremont. I had no idea who he was. Great report!!

 

Great report. Thanks for posting. Nice use of all the ACG coupons too!

 

excellent report!

thanks for posting it.

 

Great report - made me want to go back and play more poker.

 

great report loved reading i am going to riv in feb. Is there a reson you didnt play at the rivieras poker room?

 

Great trip report! Lots of good detailed information about what you did, and I love reading about people's poker exploits.

I've gotta see this "Duke of Fremont" character.

 

I'm wondering if I've seen "The Duke" walking Downtown ?
So what's his deal ?
He just likes flashin' a briefcase of cash ?
.
Nice Report.
Makes me wish I could play poker !

 

You didn't do too bad comming home with 1500. Which one of the poker rooms did you enjoy the most?

 

No specific reason, just poor timing.
The Riv closes its poker room somewhere
around 1am, definitely by 2am, regardless
of how many players they have at the tables.
(what kind of poker room tells people to go away?)

A couple times late at night I was keen to play
but they announced "last round" right before
they were going to close the games down.

The other times I was around the hotel,
the poker room had steady action, between 2-5 tables.
The tournaments were well attended and the
guys said the skill level was average/mediocre.

Couple of my buddies did really well there
at the cash games. They said the action was soft,
weak tourists and convention goers.
Not a room of sharks, locals or anything like that.

Looking back I wish I had played there atleast once.
The poker room might not be there when I go back.
Any time they kick players out so the managers can
go home, its not a good sign for the longevity of the room.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much it.
He loves the attention.
He's a nice guy to talk to,
very social.

If you ask him why he flashes
the money around, he'll likely tell you
" I do it for the pussy "

 

I would probably say the Venetian.
The poker room is really well organized.
You rarely wait very long because as soon as there's
8 or 9 on the waiting list, they open up another table.
The chairs are comfortable, lots of room between tables.
The dealers are above average. Some fast-friendly A+ ones,
some not so much, but I havent run into a bad dealer there.
Table side food service, easy to get free food ($2/hr)
Drink service can be hit or miss depending on
the time of day/ how busy it is.
They have reasonably priced tournaments that are
good value and are quite well run.

The competition is better on average than some of the
smaller touristy rooms, but that usually works in my favor.
There's often a mix of solid players and ATM's, but u cant be
afraid to ask for a table change if you end up sitting at a tough table.

The $2/5NL at the V is one of the best on the strip.
The Bellagio might be juicier 9pm-3am, but their room is crowded,
many of the dealers have a crappy attitude and the Bellagio
often screws up my drinks.

 

Very nice. Thanks for posting your TR.

later, GVJ

 

Andy Bruinewoud?

That's so odd, my wife Gloria and I saw my high school friend Will in the Venetian poker room the same day!

(and we thought we needed Facebook to communicate!)

 

Great report and great job on the +$1500. Details about the poker rooms at the different casinos is much-appreciated, heading there in January to play mostly poker and you're TR gives me some insight....