MuckPls and BigWhale vs Vegas (01/13-01/27)
j Back to Las Vegas Lifestyle

MuckPls and BigWhale vs Vegas (01/13-01/27)

Avatar
MuckPlsOP
1yr ago

Hi everyone! It’s the holiday season so figured I’d start this thing off. 2 weeks until we go to Vegas for two full weeks.

I’m not entirely sure that I’ll be able to post daily updates. The reason for that is I’ve been busy with work the past couple of months and the new company I work for is based in Las Vegas (yay!!) which means I’ll be working pretty much every day I’m there including business dinners during weekends. I will still obviously use the time off to play as much as possible, but no more playing nights jet lagged unfortunately and hopefully a lot less degen stuff.

Btw: there has been a lot of discussion about my last TR, I really like(d) to put my own emotions into the TR and share with you all the ups AND the downs of gambling. This did not come over well with many people so will just try and stick to summaries daily. People forget that I only do this for entertainment purposes and once it loses its entertainment value it all goes to ****.

So yeah anyways will post obviously but probably not as frequently and as detailed as before, will keep it as a daily summary and let BigWhale post more updates.

Oh also expect a lot of restaurant reviews and food posts as I have booked 6 or 7 restaurants so far.

As for the hotels I have the following booked, all comped:

13-16: Cesars Palace
16-20: Vdara executive suite
20-23: Cesars Palace
23-27: Vdara executive suite

Lots of moving between hotels but whatever, this way I can maximise comps. And since I’m still Platinum I can pretty much get checkin and checkout any time I want.

Last but not least, we are flying Malta - London Heathrow - Vegas and I have booked premium economy with Virgin Atlantic so will be really nice!

28 December 2023 at 09:58 AM
Show posts by Original Poster
Show most liked posts
Reply...

337 Replies

Search in Thread

Reply...
X 9 u
x

About OP

Avatar
MuckPls
veteran

Top Posts

BigWhale
1yr ago

I have made it safely home now, in much better condition that the signage from the airport above (no light bulbs on the first A + still haven't updated the name).

Flights home were uneventful; managed to sleep a lot on the flight from Vegas to London (probably 5-6 hours of sleep). And the flight from London to Malta went by super fast as well. Have been working a half day today to ease back into things (didn't have to wake up super early), and now I just need to buckle down with work & gym and some poker in between for a couple of months. But I will surely get the itch to go back to Las Vegas again soon!

Let's do some final thoughts:

Horseshoe

As always, a chill stay without being too fancy. Room is big and clean, gym is pretty good (love the selection of machines & the opening hours), and I actually think the Video Poker selection and paytables are reasonable for a Caesars property. There are some machines that aren't completely horrible, and they have a very good selection of different games.

New York New York

First time staying here. I like the overall casino floor, and it's not so huge that you get completely lost. Had a Premier King Two Queen room, which was huge (that's what she said). However, some very visible scratches on some of the funiture, and the shower/bath tub sometimes didn't have very hot water (seemed to be a capacity issue, as other times it was good). Furthermore, the switch between bath and shower stopped working after two days. So I only had water for the bath, and practically nothing coming out of the shower. Probably just unlucky with the room, and should probably have complained. But it was certainly not perfect.

Video Poker selection was ok-ish but obviously not very good pay tables. That said, I did like that some of the machines looked very new and inviting, no sticky buttons and very nice screens with good sound as well.

Video Poker in general

I didn't play as much as I had planned, mostly because I was running pretty terrible. That said, I was very disappointed to see that Aria had removed some of their offerings, and seems to only cater to people who either wants to play carnival games (like UX or DSTP), or want to play for very high stakes. I guess it's to be expected though, as Aria is probably catering more to high rollers. At least there was a lot of machines for my taste over at Mandalay Bay, although that's obviously a trek unless you are staying in that area.

Selection at Horseshoe was as expected, and I quite like some of their machines (like the progressive DDB machines near poker room). Didn't check out the other properties too much, although I swung by Paris one morning (seemed to be about the same).

Poker

On paper my results doesn't look great. $16 profit on Cash Games after almost 45 hours, that's so pathetic that the hourly didn't even reach $1! But if we put things into perspective I was down almost $1000 with two days to go, and in that regard I am very happy that I managed to turn it around for a tiny profit.

I did get slaughtered in the one $2/$5 shot that I took, but such is life. It's not because the game was very tough, I just made one terrible call that I shouldn't have made + got somewhat coolered in the other big pot. But apart from that I also think I was trying a bit too hard in some hands, and ended up costing myself a bit too much in some spots. Might be a mental thing, since I quickly saw some of the other players limp a fair bit and thought I could run over them a bit. Instead I easily got stuck a hundred or two, and probably lost a bit of confidence. I definitely remember feeling a bit 'stressed' in the game, and stupidly enough I recognized it but didn't take a break to reset mentally etc.

But like someone wrote in the thread, now I know how it feels to lose quite big in that game and it won't be as scary next time. I am not saying the game was scary, and I felt totally chill when I sat down, but I am obviously aware it's a bigger game and probably need to get even more comfortable with it.

And in general I am quite happy with a lot of my play. I still need to be better at adjusting, both in regards to sizing and when I can be aggressive versus when I should restrain myself a bit. But I think I had a lot of good thought processes while playing at times, although there is still work that needs to be done.

I also need to get a better mental game; and be ok with losing some pots. I can probably end up looking/sounded very frustrated if some things doesn't go my way - never in a rude way to others, but I am still too visibly upset at times, even if it doesn't affect my play (I don't think I have any tilt issues at all really).

And although lol sample size (45 hours is nothing), I actually think that I was never all-in for my stack and getting called when I had the best hand. So I never got any kind of full double up, although I at times took out some shorter stacks. But never a full double in a huge pot. Granted, I should have had it in some spots (opponents making terribly tight laydowns), but still might be an indication that I didn't run insanely well. That said, I don't think I ran insanly bad either. Probably somewhere in the middle, and regardless my only focus should be my own actions and how to improve those.

Vegas

Very lively as always, and lots of people around most days. Especially Bellagio is always crowded AF. I must say that since I got sick and didn't feel too great some days in the middle, it was a bit exhausting at times. So some of the days when I was not running terribly well in poker and was pretty weak in my body, it was a bit harder to take it all in and feel grateful for being in Vegas. But I somewhat recognize that feeling from other trips as well, although I also remember many times looking around and feeling blessed to be able to go to Las Vegas so often and just being in the moment. Although it's much more 'routine' by now to be in Vegas, I still have moments every trip where I just smile to myself and think how awesome this is.

What else? Let me see...

- I loved having the view to The Sphere at Horseshoe. Definitely have to actually visit inside The Sphere one of these days.
- I never made it to Fontainebleau, was a bit too tired/sick most days and didn't quite have the energy. Will do it next time.
- Although no success in $, I had a lot of fun playing the daily tournament at South Point. Lots of value if you can get chips early.
- Despite trying to, I didn't end up playing poker at Resorts World this trip either. Too bad that such a nice room struggle with traffic.
- Game quality in general was good most places, some grinders here and there obviously, but the $1/$3 games mostly play like they always have.

All in all it was a fun trip, and it felt really long this time around! Normally the days just fly by and I feel like there is never enough time, but this one actually felt like it was the right amount of days.

Hopefully MuckPls can get some rungood his remaining days, but for me this is the end in this thread. But as said above, will be back before you know it. So stay tuned for hopefully more TRs in 2024 and beyond!

AvatarMuckPls
1yr ago

Landing in Vegas 12th of April and staying until 29th of April. PLO friend who I’ve mentioned a couple of times in previous threads will be there at the same time and we’ll be sharing rooms for 2 weeks.

I was initially going to book June but I had 3 general problems:

1, WSOP and tourneys will make cash game waiting lists very long and annoying

2, it’s probably going to be pretty hot already

3, I have a couple of other plans for the summer

Anywho, will put together a new thread when the time comes. Who knows, maybe BigWhale joins too.

AvatarMuckPls
1yr ago

Officially booked the next trip, 15-29 June. Only 140 more days to go!

Contact Us • Privacy • Terms of Use ©2008-2024 Hand2Note Interactive LTD