Time for another Vegas TR! Now with fast cars. 21st November to 30th November

I was going to play the double stack today if it was not for my shoulder. Good luck for anything else you are in.

Tournament wise I may play the Venetian $300 tomorrow but it's not a high priority. Cash and pit degen is now on my agenda.

Sounds like an advantage slot player who also noticed the bonus was about to hit soon, and was trying to lure you away from the machine. Nice hit though! 😀

Congratulations to both you and P on the hits!

Agree with Whale's assessment.

This and this!

Starting to think this trip is not real with my run good.

Anyway yesterday evening we head down to freemont street to meet up with P's friends. They were doing the slotzilla which has zero appeal to me. The only time my feet leave the ground is to go on a plane. The rest of the time I detest heights. They had a good time though and freemont street was fun and depressing all at the same time. The amount of homeless crack addicts seems to rise every year which is never nice to see.

Had a bit of food at the heart attack grill. Probably the worst burgers in Vegas but again the friends of P had never been before and they enjoyed the experience which was nice for them. It did not bother me as I was too zen still from the spa treatment. We even got the peasant wagon (bus) back to the strip. Had some weird Asian lady sit next to me on this bus who just wanted to chat to me and touch her hands to show me how cold she was. Whatever though. You go on cheap transport expect a few weird people.

Back to the horseshoe and P wants to play the 11pm turbo $100. I flick it in for shits and giggles as I am on the 1/3 list and the wait is long. Let me play with these low limit pros lol. I had a plan of if there were more than 3 limpers in the pot before it was my time to act I was 5x',ING it and adding on the amount already in the pot.

This strat worked out perfectly as no one on the table knew how to play me. Something in me loves inflicting pain on limpers. Anyway fun hand for you.

Blinds 200/400/400

5 limpers and I am in the BB

I just pick up a hand ful of chips and raise to 3500

They all fold apart from the button who shoves.

I have AQdd so of course snap him off as I had him covered and this is a 15 min turbo level tournament.

Show my hand and he slams the table and shouts I FINALLY CAUGHT HIM BLUFFING!!! He tables TT and we miss everything despite flopping 2 diamonds.

I did have to ask him why the reaction. He replied that I was always bluffing and why do I go all in with just ace high. Inside I am laughing out loud with that comment.

Anyway we are called to the 1/3 table so I shove blind and am snapped by AT. We table our cards and have JJ and unfortunately the ace does not appear. We leave the stack in a mess and sit down at 1/3.

First hand is similar to the tournament table. 5 limpers before us to act in the BB. We look down at KTdd so raise to $25. All fold apart from the C/O older Asian guy. Flop AQ6. We cbet to $30 this time and he calls. Turn is a 8 and I lead out again for $75. He is tanking now but doing some weird shuffle with his cards and I can see one of them as he is raising them too high. I say to him please be careful with your cards as I can see your Ace of clubs right now. He thanks me and says if I can see that and still betting he must be behind so folds.

We play a couple more hands and move back over to the tournament and blind shove again. Finally lose that one as we had 63ss and we walk into KK and 55. Despite flopping 2 spades we miss and are out thankfully.

The 1/3 table was a weird mix of super tight players and 2 aggressive pre flop players but so passive post flop. It was becoming more and more apparent that this was not fun and I was regretting taking the advise on here to play PLO. However a couple of seats open at 3/5 and it looks juicy so we move tables.

First hand we are sat with the 350 we had from the previous table and no chance to top up to $1000 (table max) as we already have cards Infront of us in the BB. It folds to the button who raises to $35 (now we know this will be good). Look down at AQss and 3bet to $90 and he just shoves his remaining $290. We call and are up against 33. Flop QQ7 and he misses his 3. Well thanks for the free top up.

30 mins later we have lost a couple of smaller pots by 3 betting lighter than we should have done and getting 4 bet on. Our stack is about $550 when we look down at AA UTG + 1. Brilliant this table is so splashy we know we are getting a customer. UTG limps and we make it $25 to go and get 3 callers.

Flop A83

A terrible flop I think as what exactly is going to call a cbet here? However we have been trying to get action so we bet $20 and get 3 callers again.

Turn 8

Amazing let's hope we find the player with the 8. We need a pot size bet here to set up the river jam. We bet $150 and get 2 callers this time. There is no better feeling in poker than this. Knowing we are not scared of any river cards (well maybe another 8) and knowing full well 1 of these players is calling a river jam.

River Q

We jam our remaining stack and that beautiful sound of all in from the player that covers us and another call from the other player is shoved into our ears. Name me a better sound? You can't!! A lovely $1500+ pot is pushed our way when we show our hand. Both other players had an 8

We carry on playing for a hour and don't really get involved in many pots at all as our card distribution gets pretty bad and there is alot of gambling going on at the table. It's a shame when there is and you don't get anything remotely playable. Give me anything remotely connecting and I would have played. We bleed a little and cash out

After P busted the tournament I thought he went to bed but he was sat down playing blackjack. He is not doing well one bit and says he is down around $1500. I ask him that now the run good has come to the table does he want to do something crazy and put $500 in each and we try and get him even or even worse. He chuckles and agrees. So with $1k in 2 purple chips he asks what's the plan then? Trust me I reply and put $1k down in the box. His eyes nearly explode out of his head. Even the rest of the table at laughing at his expression.

Dealer gives us a 19 and he is showing a 6. Easy bust I say? P is proper sweating now knowing he is going to need to stump up another $500 to do an easy bust. He declined so I put $500 down myself. Now I can see the degen in him wants to but he does turn it down again. That's ok I say.

Dealer turns over a 5 for 11 and now I am sweating a bit thinking I am going to feel awful if he loses this. Dealer puts out a 3 for 14, 2 for 16 and then we see a super sexy jack!!

I pick up all the chips, and head to roulette. Now I pocket my $1k from the easy bust and put the $2k on red. P says I am mental but is in it for the laugh now. Listen it's Vegas I say and we are up overall from poker so **** it. The wheel spins and my nerves are high now as I have never in my life put $2000 on one spin of roulette. The fear hits when it drops into a black number and I think ****. However lady luck is tickling my balls this week and the balls pings out and lands on 27 red!!!!!!!

Just like that P is out of his blackjack hole and I am laughing at being $1500 up in like the space of 10 minutes.

We cash out at the desk and head up to the room giggling like a pair of clowns. I tell P when we get back to the room that with this money I am going to upgrade us on the plane. He says I don't have to do that but it's only fair and it's not really my money anyway. So thank you for the upgrade Caesars properties it's much appreciated!

Hahahaha great job!

I want my own posts to be like this one next week. LFG!

boom! all because of the $400 massage

Nice run, thanks for taking us along!

Another way to answer is "I might not even show if you call," but this is more relevant in cash games.

that’s a deluxe answer but I love it!

If you are thinking of slow playing, bet small. Love the flop-bet!

Also really well done on the pot sized turn bet. You seem to have good poker instincts; realizing that one of the callers must have an 8 (or 33) given the action, thus there is no need to bet small. Any light float like 99 or similar will just fold turn no matter what you bet, so we don't need to be concerned with keeping those in.

A+ hand, and the best feeling in the world to triple up like that

Nice spin up. Enjoy the upgrade on the way home.

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Well thanksgiving was kinda a bad day for me poker wise.

P and I woke up from the night before buzzing from the night before. A week in Vegas with all the crazy stuff going on is always kinda my limit so I wanted a slow morning. We grab a quick breakfast from downstairs as I in no way wanted anything big and we planned what to do.

Some of P's friends are playing the $300 Venetian game and we spoke about going so aim to play that. P always like to start these games on time and I said there's no way I am getting there for 11:00am as I wanted some chill time. He heads over to the Venetian and I make some calls back home, shower and just relax. Normally I would be getting ready to go back home.

I get to the Venetian 5 levels into the tournament at 400/800/800. Starting stack is 30k and blinds 30mins. The card room is wonderful but in a truly terrible place smack bang besides all the shops. Whoever thought that would be a good idea needs firing immediately. Those who have played there will know what I mean. It's a ball ache to find.

3 hands in we are dealt our first playable hand JJ on the button. There is a raise UTG to 2k and the CO 3 bets to 10k. I have one move here and that is to move all in. We are too strong here to do anything else and if we run into QQ+ so be it. UTG folds and CO snaps (uh oh but we have him covered by 4k). He has AK and we fade until the K hits the river.

Crippled by that two hands later we find A9dd so jam that in. We get called by 55 which hits the straight on a 9876K board. Bullet gone. We think about re entering but there were only 3 tables and 21 runners so I hardly thought it was worth it.

A table has opened at 3/5 anyway so we sit down and buy in for $500. To my right I have this guy who just stinks. I mean if that was a crime he should be locked away. Body odor and beer is not a good mix and I honestly thought I was going to puke at some point. How are people in this day and age allowed into places like that. Even the dealer was visibly disgusted by it.

That aside 4 hands in we find 84ss in the CO. It folds to us and a young Asian kid calls on the button, so does the BB.

Flop Js7c3s

Great got a FD here and some potential for some painful things.

Checks over and we cbet to 30 which is just under 2/3rds pot. Only the button calls

Turn 4h.

Now this is where in my head I am laughing as I thought I had 85ss in my hand so I am thinking we have the FD still and a gutterball. So I want to bet this one big to a) fold out a 7, b) set myself up for the river jam on a nice river like a spade or disguised 6 so we are getting the max off this young Asian kid.

So we size up to $105 which was pretty much a pot sized bet. He thinks for a while and when he looks away I check my cards and have the realisation of **** I don't have 85ss.

He calls and we see another 7 on the river. That's actually perfect for me as the likelihood of him having one now is low as he is never calling the turn with a 7 and the board pairing it makes it less likely. Calling on the button with with QJo, JT and J9 now are in his range along with maybe a set of 3s or 4s but we are blocking the 4 so a weaker J is what we are putting him on now and if we shove here we look like we have the overpair.

So I pump in the remaining $300+ and he goes deep into the tank. After a couple of minutes he flicks in the call. I announce 2 pair and he goes to muck as he says overpair? I proudly show the 4 (lol) and he shows me QJ. Honestly did not think he would call with that but maybe I overestimated him.

I should have topped up with this information to hand but I just was not feeling it and wanted to do some shopping so headed to a couple of stores around the strip for some gifts for the family and friends.

P soon texted me to say he was out so we looked around the forum shops at caesars. He treated himself to a $10k watch. I could never do a thing like that but it's to replace his other one so fair play to him.

Dinner in the evening at Virgils was beef brisket, mashed potatoes and gravy with collard greens.

Was ok, 6.5/10 and nothing i would rush to eat there again.

We go to play some table games in the evening but boy was it busy so as we both wanted to go out early and shop for black Friday we decided on an early night.

Rest up as we go to war on Friday!!! Can we smash the casino for more?

Thank you for that I really do appreciate it.

Have worked on my game alot the last few years and am getting to the point that I am always super happy with my play despite any of the results of the hand after.

Results have improved also and am seeing that poker is a lovely part time hobby that pays for cool things (like trips to Vegas)

Oh my what a day black Friday was.

All week P has been talking about the North Premium Outlets and how good it is for Black Friday deals. He said to me the night before let's get there for 6am so we can be first to get there before it's busy. I am not normally a fan of shopping, it's a last resort for me but what the heck we are so massively up this trip let's treat ourselves a little.

Skip breakfast and just into an Uber at just gone 6am. When we arrive the place is already busy with queues to get into shops like The North Face, Nike etc. It soon becomes apparent that Americans take black Friday seriously! Most people are armed with suitcases to put their clothes they just bought in so they can easily carry more. Understandable too as wow every shop had 50% or more off the retail price.

Shocked I went into a few shops, treated myself to some new clothes and bought tons of stuff to take back. It got to the point even I had to buy a big suitcase just to carry everything. If you like designer wears and are around the area on a black Friday I do suggest you come and visit this place.

All shopped out by 10am I decided to head back as P told me he was going to be at least another 4 hours. Not sure how he has the stamina for all that shopping but meh we want to get back and go to war with the casino!

When I get back I dump all the bags on the bed, get some more cash out of the safe and decide it's time to try and punish the casino more. As it's been a bit customary this trip we bang $500 on an even money chance on roulette. Time for black I reckon and like clockwork 10 hits and we walk away with a win. What a lovely start.

We take that profit to slots and bang in the $500 on huff and puff. We try to go for $10 a spin but I think in the end it was $12 a spin. The machine is cold as ice and we spin through that $500 super quick. I don't even think we got a line pay or if we did it was minimal.

With that profit gone from the roulette it was time for the main event, Blackjack. I do not play blackjack if there is an automatic shuffler as I do know a little bit of card counting strategy and you cannot use that knowledge if they cards are already going back into the deck to be shuffled. Now anyone with card counting knowledge they will tell me that you don't sit down at a 6/5 table but it's all that was around the casino and I am not doing any more walking to find one, so we have to roll with what we got.

First shoe was fairly good. We made a small bit of profit from it and was not really much of a rollercoaster, for those that also know a little about counting, the count never got above 2 so I was pretty much min betting most hands.

Now shoe 2 is where it got really interesting! We are hovering around break even but a quarter of a way through this shoe counting wise the count was at 5. The dealer had put down so many low cards we had to now increase our bets. This is the time I think to myself to bet big.

We put out 2 lots of $400 bets. Now is the time to win if we ever need to. First hand we are dealt 10 and the other 11, oh no I am thinking. We are going to have to double here. Yep the dealer is showing a 6 so we double both bets. Back home in the UK they never deal face down and honestly it fills me with dread not knowing what our card is going to be so I ask the dealer for face up. We make our 11 into 19 and 10 into 18. Fine the dealer just has one job now and that to bust. We have $1600 on the table and we want $3200. She turns over a 8 for 14, just a picture I am thinking. We have a little relief when she pulls a 2 for 16. No more little cards please let's have a 6 or more. Nope she pulls a 4 for 20 and we feel sick. Where are the 10s in this deck I am left thinking.

However with these low cards the count has risen again so like every good gambler let's chase our losses. We pull out the last 1k in our pocket and place down another 2 bets but of $600 this time. Much to my amusement we are dealt 11 in both boxes. The dealer is showing a 4. Sigh we need to double here and I only have enough on me to double the one hand as I have left some money in the safe. P is not around either as is still shopping as he would have bridged the gap till we got to the room. So I have to stick to just doubling the one hand for now. Not ideal but our double give us 15 on the one hand and we hit the other for 20.

Now time for the dealer to work her voodoo magic. We smile as she shows a 10 for 14. Next card a motherf'ing 2 for 16 so we have the same sweat from the previous hand. She cannot do this to us twice can she? It cannot be possible, my gamblers rules will not allow it. She then does the thing I hate and I know when she does that I am ****ed. She goes to deal the card but looks at it first before placing it down? Why do that? Why not just deal them like every other card in the deck? I hear the words 'oh no' from here when she has seen the card before me and then she slams the bad news in my face. A 5!!!! Absolute madness a $1800 hand of BJ and well over $3k blown in the space of 2 hands. Gross!!

I get up from the table and just head to the room. At this stage I am not in the mood to deal with people so I decompress. 20 mins later P comes back and I tell him the news. We had a good run though and despite that loss we are actually still in profit for the trip when I do some accounting. Should have been more but oh well.

P tells me he still needs to get a few bits for back at home!! Seriously does this man ever stop shopping so I agree to go with him. He said he needed to get to the apple shop so we walk to the one at Ceasers. However just as we get there he says he did not mean that shop as he needed to go to Urban outfitters also. Sigh!! So we walk all the way over to the mall opposite the Wynn. Jeez I have done so many steps today. Long story short I end up buying 2 iPads for my kids as I would rather spend the rest of the profit on this trip on others instead of giving it to the casino.

When we get back I sort out a late check out for Saturday and we have a couple of cheap beers at the stage door.

Last day nearly over and what a fun day!

Starts off badly with Ps alarm going off and he was in the shower. I had no idea how to turn it off so yeah thanks P for that.

He goes shopping and I see online that I can upgrade to upper for pretty cheap. I decide hell yeah I want that bed so go to pay but you can only buy for two. P does not want to spend the money which is fine. I had already upgraded us to premium so it's ok I will call and see if I can do just me. When we get back to the UK I need to drive us, so a decent sleep would be good.

55 mins later on hold I finally get through. The lady on the line said she can do that but it will be 4 times the price I was quoted online. Hopefully we can upgrade at the airport.

P goes out shopping again as he wants to return a few things so I pack, and watch my team smash the hammers 5-2 and degen for a little. We have to low ball so we pray the craps dice are good to us. We first go in for $100 and cash out over $400. I then decided to pop on a slot for a bit and hit the panda bonus. Final result

Boom we are back off to a good start. After this I decide to go for a shower, make a few calls and finish off packing. After checking out at 2pm P and I have time to kill. I go to sit down at a 1/3 game for $300 and splash around for a bit. Great table with some fun players and also I find out at the end a reader of this TR was to my right haha. Hello that guy. Sorry I forgot your name already.

We are up over $400 when we see KK UTG. We raise to 10 and get 4 or 5 callers.

Flop Q57 I believe.

I c bet around pot and the lady in MP pumps it up to over $120. She only has $100 or so back so we shove it back at her and she snaps. Sigh I say set and she shows AA lol. Nevermind she weirdly played that but got max. Although she could have got it all pre but I guess the extra $30 from the others is what she wanted.

Next hand I forget to straddle so I just raise to $6. I had been straddling every orbit. We have 72hh and get plenty of callers again.

Flop 345 one diamond.

We cbet get one caller and ask the dealer for a 6. He plops the 6d out haha and we make the straight. I bet, get shoved on so call. He had 78dd.

I decide to not reload as we have the flight soon and I am definitely out of poker steam.

The fun begins when we sit down with $100 on easy craps. End result

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We are big time back and don't want to leave!!!!
However it's time to get to the airport.

All the watches I've owned in my life don't add up to $10k. Not even $1k.

Same here. It's never anything I would buy but in all fairness it looks nice.

Just realised my craps win did not load up

Martin Ødegaard ftw!

Sounds like you had a fun and degen trip 😀 Thanks for the TR.

Laters Vegas that was fun.

Appreciate all the comments and questions. Thanks for joining me on my ride. Already missing the place and looking to book again next year.

thanks for the report and it seems you had a blast.

how much did the upgrade cost at the airport?

I paid just around $800 which was £600 odd. Well worth the money. I got over 6 hours sleep on the plane, amazing service which has meant I managed to get to work today for 9am and feeling fresh.

So glad you had a profitable, fun trip! Thanks for sharing.

Loved the TR! Thanks for sharing.