Vegas Report

1st time and wow was it ever awesome. My best friend and I left our wives home (they had gone in the fall without us and had way, way too much fun.)

We're 38 so we were like kids in a candy store the entire 5 days there. The plan was to hit the clubs and lose up to $1000 gambling.

I was immediately shocked at the full amusement park line at the airport taxi stand Thursday night. Holy crap. They say there's 6,500 cab drivers in Vegas. I believe them.

Rolled into the IP a little after midnight Friday morning and immediately changed to go country dancing. My buddy and I are from Texas so we planned to do a lot of that if the club was good. It was and over the next 3 days we were there a total of 15 hours.

How much did we sleep during our Thursday 1130pm to Monday afternoon stay you ask? 17 hours.

So much fun was had at Gilleys. It's very sad that it's being torn down next month. Met a beautiful girl from Arizona the first night there and taught her to 2 step and got her number. Sent her a text the next day (this generation has it so easy) and danced another 4 hours with her Friday night. So much fun.

Played a little craps after getting back to the hotel at around 5am Friday and hit the sack up a little.

We played in the $55 daily 2pm tournament at the IP after changing hotels to the Westin Causerina. (Nice place but not much of a casino). Went out in 28th out of 43 or so with QQ versus AK all-in pre-flop. Never got much going at all.

Switched over to the 2/4 limit game while my buddy played the tourney (he busted shortly after) and won a big pot with K7 sooooted (6 limpers ahead of me) on a 555 board when a 7 hit the turn versus this dudes 10s. King on the river. He was pissed. Very.

That was the only pot I won in the hour that I played and I left up $9. Woo-hoo. I could’ve played in that game the entire time I was there and maybe funded my trip. 6 or 7 saw every flop.

The 10 cab day

We played a little blackjack and craps but didn’t get back to the IP poker room until Sunday afternoon. I sat down at the ½ $200 max game and looked down at my first hand. KK. Beautiful. The big stack (around a $1000 behind) across from me had raised to $7 and had 3 callers. I pop it to $40 still trying to get comfortable in my seat. He pushes and everyone else folds and I immediately call only to see that he indeed has aces. Wow.

I throw out $200 in cash and ask for chips and everybody at the table is shaking their heads and laughing at me. Nice. Very first hand of NL cash in Vegas and I get coolered. I laughed it off though and prepared for a long session.

My buddy had JJ 3 hands later. 6 limped so the button raised it up to $10 with 53o. Everybody folded except my friend. 553 flop. Nice start for us huh? He lost maybe $80 as he called down on a low board.

I made top pair with a flush draw with J9 soooted limped in and held on until donk to my right hits his set of 5s on the river when I hit my flush. He bet $5 into a $50 pot (or so) and I raise to $15. One fold and then he RE-raises me to $50. I figure I’m coolered again and make the crying call. Not long after that he left saying he needed to go back to his game. (video poker).

Made a couple of flushes in nice pots including one where I checked my turned nut flush and the guy to my left immediately pushed his last $48 with AJ on an ace hi board. I had to recheck to make sure I had a spade and not a club and he was drawing dead.

I was holding steady between $250 and $300 when I got kings again after the guy to my immediate right raised to $15. I re-raised to $40 (he missed my 1st hand) and he thought forever before folding the ace of clubs face up and saying he’d probably suck out on me. Later he told me he had A8 of clubs. Yes, huge lay down buddy. Geeze.

Then aggressive sunglassed youngster sits down with his luggage saying he’s transferring to the Venetian and their tournament poker rate of $120 a night. OK. Decent player but it didn’t take a genius to figure out he was stealing a ton. He was calling in position and taking down big pots with pure aggression.

I get kings again and raise to $12 or so. I forget. QJ66 board with 2 spades and he is calling down my large bets. It’s heads up and a blank on the river and I put out $50 with $150 behind. He pauses and says all-in. I beat him into the pot and throw out my kings and he mucked. I should’ve waited for him to show but oh well. Probably busted spade draw but I don’t know. Easily a $500 pot as he had me covered by $1. Quite a thrill for my first live ½ game.

As I’m stacking my chips on the very next hand I glance down at 2 more kings. Wow. Raise it up get one caller and an ace queen on the flop slows down the action. I check/call as I’m still stacking and he shows KQ and the table erupts. Another $150 pot easily. Next hand AK played slowly after a pf raise and I chop a 101055 board.

A few hands later I get JJ after utg to my immediate right limps in. I raise to $12. My buddy calls and it folds to utg. He goes to $40. I pause and say ‘hmmmm limp reraise. I fold’ and tossed it into the muck. My buddy thinks and does the same with 10s. UTG shows AA and can’t believe it later when I tell him I folded jacks and my buddy folded 10s. I kinda thought it was standard but then again I don’t think the play at IP is quite standard.

My buddy busts with his last $120 or so when utg aggressive boy to my left puts in a live straddle to $4. 1 caller then my friend raises to $12. 4 more callers so I call from the BB with 68 clubs. Live straddle dude raises to $30. Everyone mumbles bs under their breaths and my buddy pushes with 10s. Folds to live straddle dude and he thinks about it and calls with QQ. Nice. Destroyed by 53o button raiser and a live straddle who wakes up with queens.

I basically held steady at around $700 for the next 45 minutes or so and cashed out to go eat as by this time it was past 8pm.

I accidentally left the hotel underfunded so Sunday night found us trying unsuccessfully to double my friends last $80 at the Rio on one hand of blackjack so we could get into the Voodoo Lounge. We gave the cabdriver our last $12 and told him it was a flat fee to get back to the Westin. It was by far the fastest cab ride of the week. He got like a $5 tip.

Got my last $600 and rolled down to the craps table across the street at Bally’s. Our plan was to put $60 on the hard 4 or 10 (10 to 1 odds) and lay the 4 or 10 (bet a 7 would be rolled before a 4 or 10).

As we walked up the roller hit 4 for the mark or whatever it’s called. I immediately put the plan into action before my friend was even ready. The next roll was 7. No drama. Picked up my money (I think it paid somewhere close to $200) as the stick girl said ‘you can’t leave yet’. I said ‘oh yes we can, Vegas was built on guys like us not leaving’. And immediately cashed out and got a taxi BACK to the Rio to hit the Voodoo Lounge.

We roll into the CLOSED Voodoo Lounge and immediately start laughing uncontrollably. We had hit Gilleys (it was dead for the 1st time) then Toby Keiths place @ Harrahs (older crowd, no country music) then back to to Gilleys (still dead) then the Rio, back to Westin, walked to Bally’s, cab back to Rio for the Voodoo and another cab to the Wynn’s Tryst. 10 cabs between 2pm and 5am.

Totally worth it. Holy crap what a place! Hung out there until closing and took our last cab back to the Westin and had another $1.99 sunrise breakfast at Ellis Island.

Ended up around $500 in all forms of gambling and I figured out that I spent $800 so I came back $300 lighter (besides flight/hotel).

We had an amazing time. I left out about 90% of the funny/crazy stuff that happened that made me giggle like a school girl on the flight back. I had like 5 hours sleep for the last 2 nights combined and I was wide awake on my 3 hour flight back. For instance - we were offered $20 at the front of the taxi stand line at the airport to share a cab with this couple. We gladly accepted. It turns out they were about to miss a midnight wedding and he was a member of the Canadian Wakeboarding Team. ??? Vegas.

I wish I could include all of the stories but I’m afraid it would be book size and boring to those that hit Sin City all the time.