The continued massive trip report from @snickers99poker:
OK, back to the trip. I’m in Bally’s and there’s an empty seat at one of the UTH tables. I don’t know how UTH got so popular. I didn’t have this much trouble finding empty seats last year. I sit at an empty blackjack table to evaluate. Table doesn’t look too bad and it’s a $5 table. OK. Good. It’s here I realize I had $350 in PH chips and only had $200 in cash. This is before I realized I could have used those chips, or at least cashed them in here at Bally’s even though they were PH chips since it’s all CET. But I’m thinking I only have $200. I like to sit with $300. So let’s see…$5 table, max $30 bet…we’ll say that’s seven hands worth of money (7 hands times $30 = $210…close enough). Surely I won’t lose seven straight 4x hands, right? Eh, $200 should be enough to sit with for now.
By the way, my throat is still sore. Not as bad as this morning, but it’s still there. People joke and/or are mad about CVS and Walgreens being on the Las Vegas Strip but I just might end up there to get something for my throat.
I take a seat…I think it was my favorite seat on the end…and put my huge Evening Call drink on the floor. This will be good…nobody getting up and down to my left so the only way my drink will spill is if I do it. I change my $200 into chips. Oh, the $5 Bally chips are funky looking. Kinda pinkish/red with yellow and green accents. Remind me of something psychedelic or something. I’m not sure I like them.
Sometime during play, I reach down and bring up my Evening Call drink. Of course people have to comment. “What’s that?” “Where’d you get it?” Well, this can’t be the first time you’ve seen a big plastic cup of alcohol in Las Vegas but I’ll play along. I explain the whole Evening Call thing…slushy…cools you down…not much alcohol…tastes good…it’s right over there…keep the cup for a refill. (Later, as I get down to the bottom of the cup, I start to not feel well. This usually happens when I get one of these. I think maybe 50 ounces of liquid is a bit much for me. Or maybe because it’s sweet or something.)
Not sure how long I played, maybe just 30 minutes. I started out OK but then the dealer started getting full houses and other good hands. Hard to beat that. I lost $75 and my drink is almost gone. I guess I’m done for the day. Time for the walk back to my room. I decide not to cash in my Bally’s or PH chips. I want to take some pics back in the room. I also pocketed a dollar chip from Bally’s for my chip collection. On my way back, I stop at the ABC store that sells single bottles. I want to try Redd’s apple ale and Redd’s strawberry ale. And I’ll see what else they have.
I’m in the ABC store and of course there’s a mob right in front of the Redd’s stuff. A family or something but that’s where I want to be. So I kinda walk around, waiting for them to move along. The stuff I looked at while waiting didn’t really strike my fancy. Finally, the family moves along and I step up to the cooler. They have the Redd’s apple and strawberry…cool. Nothing else really stood out but this bottle of Kinky Cocktails Blue (it was blue) looks interesting. I bet it’s a tropical tasting drink along the lines of my Coco Loco drink. OK, I’ll buy it. Oh wait…all these bottles are two for $4. And Mike’s Hard Lemonade is also two for $4. I know I like them (don’t judge!) so sure, throw one of those in there to make it an even $8. At this time, I wish I had gotten a cart or one of those plastic basket things to put these bottles in. I’m in line at the register and one of the bottle caps is cutting into my finger. Not blood but you know…it’s starting to hurt. So while the guy ahead of me was paying for his stuff, I apologize and say I need to put these down on the counter before I drop them. He didn’t look happy with me. Screw him.
Back to my room, I put the drinks in my fridge. It’s finally feeling like a Las Vegas trip even though I didn’t gamble long and had just a pseudo alcoholic drink from Evening Call. I’m down $25 for the trip, or so I thought. I take pics of my chips while enjoying the jazz on the TV that housekeeping set up for me during turndown service and I realize I’m down only $18. Not sure how that happened. I take another bath but no jets this time. Just relaxing in the tub listening to jazz. Seriously, this is a nice way to end the day.
End of bath, into bed, catch up on Twitter, and lights out. My throat is still sore and I’m still pretty wiped. Not sure what’s up for tomorrow. But I know I need to do my unemployment this week so maybe I’ll knock that out tomorrow.
Monday, June 27:
Wake up and my throat is still a little sore, but getting better. Sorry if I made anybody sick at the tables last night.
On my To Do list for this trip is hike it down to the Las Vegas sign. The plan is to get up early enough so I can walk down there before it starts to get really hot. It’s about a 1.5 mile walk from Aria, but I can knock some of that out by getting the tram at Excalibur and taking that to Mandalay Bay. It’s around 10am and it’s 94 degrees already heading for a high of 109. So I think I’m up too late for the walk today.
The plan now is to set my alarm tomorrow instead of walking up whenever and see if I can head out then. I have a free MGM breakfast buffet from MyVegas. I could stop there on the way there or on the way back. Stopping there on the way out doesn’t seem smart…walking that distance with an overfull stomach. But I think they stop serving breakfast at 10:30. I don’t know if I could get up and get to the sign and then to MGM by 10:30, leaving time to eat. And I’ll be hot and sweaty. Maybe I can spend some time at Mandalay Bay and Luxor too. Maybe get a dollar chip for my collection. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
I also want to get downtown and play in a tournament or two at Golden Nugget. They have a great daily tournament going on in the afternoon during their Grand Poker Series. And another one at 7. I should grab a Lyft and play in the afternoon one, and then the evening one if I bust out in time.
My girlfriend texted me, wanting to know if she could kill the landlord to the duplex next door. Not going to get into why but I told her she couldn’t now because she texted me about it and the cops will look at her texts and arrest her. I know this from watching Forensic Files.
Today I’m being a slow poke. It’s almost noon and I’m still in bed. There’s a poker tournament at Caesars at 1, but I won’t make that by the time I get ready and head out. There’s one at TI at 2, but I’m thinking I probably won’t be ready for that one either. Maybe I’ll head to Planet Hollywood or Paris. I’ve never played in Paris before. I do have a $50 slot play reward from MyVegas for Aria. I’ll have to use that sometime this week. At any rate, with the heat I’ve decided to stay ‘local’ today…not venturing very far from Aria. And maybe after the sun goes down, I’ll venture out farther.
Out the door and down to the Sky lounge to eat some snacks and drink some Coke before heading to PH and Bally’s to at least cash in my chips from yesterday and hopefully play Ultimate Texas Hold’em somewhere.
I need to file my unemployment this week so I borrow a laptop from the concierge and take care of that. Please don’t tell them I did this while in Las Vegas. I suppose I should do the adult thing and check my job alert emails to see if there’s anything I want to apply to. So I do and no there isn’t. Shoot. I go to return the laptop but there’s a line at the concierge desk. I would have just butted in line, told the chick I was returning the laptop and left it there but they have my license. Well played, Aria…well played.
Laptop returned, license in my pocket, I grab a water and head to PH to cash in my chips. When I get there, I ask if I can have a dollar chip. She asks if it’s for a souvenir and I say yes. She asks that if I have a moment, would I like it if she went into the back and got an uncirculated chip? Sure! That’d be great!
While she’s back there, I thought that maybe I should tip her. I get a dollar out. And then another. One doesn’t seem like enough, two seems too much. I mean, she didn’t have to offer to go get a new chip. She comes back and I thank her and slide the $2 to her. She seemed surprised and thanked me. (Turns out I did all this for nothing. I got back home and found out I already had a nice dollar chip from Planet Hollywood. $3 wasted!)
Thought about playing UTH there but now both tables (both $10) are empty. Come on! Either they’re full or empty. I’ll walk over to Paris but I bet if PH is $10, Paris will be too. Surprisingly, the only table running is $5. Unsurprisingly, it’s full.
I walk over to Bally’s through the connector with all the stores/restaurants. I’m walking behind two ladies as we get near the end. A lady from a store tries to hand them something, they say no, she’s all ‘fine’ under her breath. Here’s an idea. People don’t like to be handed crap while they’re just walking along on their vacation. Maybe more people would come into your overpriced store if you weren’t standing out front bothering everybody. Try putting a sign out that says free samples to get people IN the store instead of accosting them OUTSIDE the store.
I’m in Bally’s now and there’s an open seat at UTH…$5. Cool. Time to get into the Vegas thing…I order a beer and start my bets at $10. Remember that I’m a lightweight and I pretty much have an empty stomach. Bring it on!
Increasing my bets to $10 is a little tough for me. $60 out there on those 4x hands. I try not to let it affect me. Trust the math, I keep telling myself when I hesitate to make a big bet when the strategy calls for it. If I’m this worried and thinking about it so much, should I be betting $10? But I remember that this could be my last trip for a while and I saved up a lot for gambling so let’s see how it goes.
And things aren’t going well as I’m down $50, then down $100, then down more. But I drink another beer. And then a third. Oh, I’m feeling it now! Money? Who cares about money! Weeeeeeeeee! (My financial angel asks me if maybe $10 is too high a bet for me. I tell her to F off.)
While I’m playing, a guy sits down and it seems like everybody knows him…dealers, pit boss, waitresses (one who even gives him a hug). I wonder how much and how often he gambles to get to the point where so many people know him. He’s dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. Probably my age…50’ish. He’s not betting a lot…maybe he’s just here a lot. But I don’t think he was a local. He doesn’t play long (he was playing something else all morning, he says) but hangs around the table. I’m not sure if I would want to get to the point where everybody at the casino knows me. I know if that happened at my local casino and me and my girlfriend went one night (she’s not much of a gambler) and everybody kept coming up to me to say hi and by name, she would be concerned about how much time/money I was spending there!
Now I’m on beer four and am really drunk. And I’ve been chipping away at my losses. Finally I’m up a whole $10 and need to make a decision. Do I walk away up $10, glad I wiped out the earlier losses? Or do I keep going since it seems I’m on a streak? The answer is I stopped. If this makes sense…the joy of winning, say, $100 would not be equal or better than the disgust I’ll feel if I lost $100 after coming all the way back. Does that make sense? From my past performances, it’s best that I stop now.
I color up and as I stagger off, the guy that everybody knows asks if I’m from Pittsburgh since I’m wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins T-shirt. Not originally but I live there now (I actually live just outside Pittsburgh but it’s just easier to say Pittsburgh). He says he’s originally from Beaver Falls which is about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh. We wish each other well and shake hands.
I stagger to the cashier and cash in my chips. Now I have to stagger all the way to my room. I always wonder if people can see how drunk I am. Do I look the same as when I’m sober? Am I not walking straight? Walk all the way to Paris, outside onto the Strip, over the pedestrian bridges, through Crystals, into Aria, through the gaming floor, turn to get to the Sky Suites elevator. Wait! Pizza! Yes! Drunk and wanting pizza!
So instead of going to my room, I get two more slices of Five50 pizza and THEN go to my room. The elevator on the ride up was a little crowded and people were commenting on how good the pizza smells. That’s because it is good! Into my room, I eat my pizza with one of the Mountain Dews from the ABC Store.
I’m sobering up now that I took the long walk and am eating. I mentioned before that I liked playing at the Linq so I plan on hopping the monorail and heading down that way. Even though the UTH table was closed yesterday, I’ll take a chance and see what’s up today. The sun is going down so hopefully I won’t get too hot.
I take the long walk from my room to the monorail behind Bally’s and as usual, the monorail comes just as I get there. If they had a casino game based on getting to the monorail just as it arrives, I would win all the time.
I get off at the Harrah’s/Linq station and start the long walk from the back of the building. Finally get to the casino and I don’t believe it. The table is not open. WTH? So two days in a row I took the monorail to the Linq to play UTH and two days in a row, the table isn’t open. I should ask someone why it’s not open. Most of the UTH tables at the other places I’ve been seem to be pretty busy. Now I know I won’t be using my second three-day monorail pass. Seems like it kinda was a waste getting the one.
I walk over to Harrah’s and see what they got. And sure enough, there’s a couple $5 UTH tables running. Just makes it more of a mystery why the Linq didn’t have their one table open. I get one of my favorite seats…the first one. I whip out $300 and my player’s card and lay them on the table. And this is weird…the dealer takes my card and asks for ID! I’ve never been asked for ID at a table game and I certainly don’t look underage (I wish). Later, two others sit down and they don’t get asked for ID but it might have been a different dealer by then.
I guess I passed the test as she counts out $300 in chips and we’re underway! In the last three seats are three ladies who obviously know each other. Not sure if family or what but the first two are betting $5, maybe $10. The chick in the last seat has a pile of $25 and $100 chips in front of her and she’s betting no less than $25 a hand. And she’s playing Trips AND the six-card bonus. So if she goes 4x preflop, she’ll have, um, hold on. Math is hard. Um, $200? Is that right? Yeah, that’s right. $200 a hand. Wow. I’m impressed. But I forgot to notice if she was using proper strategy. But she’s doing alright for herself.
Me? I’m not doing as well. Down about $100. Meanwhile, the two other ladies (the minimum bettors) leave but we still have the $25 chick here. Eventually a guy sits next to me, and shortly thereafter, a woman next to him. He was kinda friendly to me but this chick took his attention away from me and moved it to her. Which I’m fine with. Since I suck at flirting and all things associated, I’m not sure if he was trying to pick her up or not. She was interesting looking.
One of the rules of UTH is that players are not allowed to show other players their hand. Even though it’s you versus the dealer, looking at everybody’s hand gives you an advantage. Sometimes you get a dealer who is super strict…won’t let you look at your cards until the machine spits out all the cards and the light turns green and oh you better not talk about or show your hand. Apparently this dealer (or Harrah’s) doesn’t give a crap as everybody is openly showing or talking about their hands. The guy to my left keeps trying to look at my cards but I don’t let him and I don’t look at other people’s hands. I don’t want to be influenced by what they have. I’m just trusting the math.
Case in point, one hand the guy to my left had QJ. $25 chick shows she also has QJ. Oh well…I guess we’re going to lose…ha ha! Strategy says this is a 4x hand. Get your money out there. QJ is a huge favorite over a random hand, which is what the dealer has. But they don’t 4x because they have each other’s hand. Turns out they made a pair on the river and bet their little 1x and won. If you weren’t showing each other your hands AND playing properly, you each would have won 4x instead of a little 1x bet.
I’m stuck and this guy trying to look at my cards is bugging me, although I should have said something. I leave down $132.50. I don’t think I got anything to drink. I think I’m done drinking for now.
(Side note on Harrah’s…they have $2.50 chips. There’s a win in UTH, getting a flush, that pays 3:2. All the casinos that I’ve played this game at have half dollar coins. So you would get two $1 chips and a fifty cent piece. Harrah’s has a pink…$2.50 chip…to handle that.)
(Second side note: my notes are all over the place. I had said I upped my bets to $10 earlier in the day at Bally’s but I remember I was betting $5 at Harrah’s. I remember because the limit went up to $10 while I was playing but I was still allowed to play $5. So either I’m misremembering or I dropped down to $5 at Harrah’s.)
I cash out my chips and walk around a bit. When I was here in November, they had a poker machine called Texas Hold’em Fold Up. I won’t get into how it’s played but it was fun. The review I read said he thinks the only one in Las Vegas is at Harrah’s. I wasn’t going to play but I wanted to see if they still had it. But I forget where it was and gave up looking. I think I remember where it is but it’s not there now so either I’m misremembering (again) or it’s gone now.
Back on the monorail and I’ll think I’ll stop at Bally’s/Paris/PH. If they have $5 UTH, I might play some more.
On the monorail, they have announcements and I guess you could call them commercials. I don’t know if the casino pays for them but one mentions Britney Spears at Planet Hollywood and her ‘Piece of Me’ show. Guy who looks a little scruffy, and I think was alone (not judging…I was alone too), asks ‘who?’ I say Britney Spears and the ‘Piece of Me’ tour. He starts going off on Britney. Paraphrasing but the usual stuff…no talent, sleeps around, etc. And then he starts on the ‘Piece of Me’. Who would want a piece of her? Better make a doctor’s appointment after having a piece of her! That line made some other people in the car laugh, although I think they were trying not to.
He then asks me (apparently I’m his friend now) about her being married for like five minutes. I’m thinking he’s thinking of that guy who’s name I can’t remember (Kevin Federline) and replied that they were together for a while and don’t they have a couple kids? He says no, not him…her best friend she married in Las Vegas. OK, now I’m suspecting this guy knows more about Britney than he’s leading on…perhaps he’s protesting about Britney a little too much if you know what I mean. Then again, I know exactly what he’s talking about so what does that say about me? But I wasn’t putting Britney down…he was.
Then I remembered…yes, she did run off to Las Vegas and marry her ‘best friend’, didn’t she? I remember that it didn’t last very long. Unfortunately, we’re at the Bally’s station and I’m getting off…he stays. FYI, she married her friend Jason Alexander (not THAT Jason Alexander) on New Years back in 2004. The marriage lasted 55 hours.
As ‘luck’ would have it, there was a $5 UTH table with an open seat at Bally’s. Take my losses back to my room and lick my wounds, ready for another battle tomorrow? Nope…this is Las Vegas. I take a seat, pull out $300, and let’s go! A chance to win my money back…is something someone in Las Vegas would think. Unfortunately, this is reality and I’m quickly down $100 or so. Oof.
When I sat down, I was soooo thirsty! Probably from all the beer I drank earlier. Luckily the waitress stopped by pretty much as I sat down. She had a couple waters with her so I got two. And quickly downed them. They were nice and cold. You know a lot of times you get those little bottle of waters and they’re barely cold. But she must have just pulled these out as they were dripping with water on the outside. Much better now.
The plan was to be back in my room by 11 and get up early enough tomorrow to walk to the Las Vegas sign then come back, shower, and grab a Lyft down to the Golden Nugget. Well, 11:00 has come and gone and I’m still playing, trying to get back to even. Seems I chip away and get close to being even, then lose a big hand and have to start over.
Finally I chip away and am $5 down. Close enough for me. Again, I might be on a streak, but I don’t want to risk losing again because there lies my problem with chasing losses. Gotta stop doing that and there’s always tomorrow. It’s 12:15 as I cash out and head to my room.
It’s around 1:00 by the time I get to my room. Las Vegas sign tomorrow doesn’t look good. Maybe I can still get up, do the MGM breakfast buffet, and head downtown. No bath tonight…I catch up on Twitter and go to bed, pretty wiped.
Stay tuned for Part 6 tomorrow!
