Poker Trips 2024 / 2025
This trip report follows on from my WSOP trip report here
Wynn Millions
Day Five - Sunday March 2nd
Nice to see I got some of you watching the billiards. Mixed day for me booking wise. Lost on the 1st semi, won on the 2nd semi and lost on the final. Still a decent tournament overall. Glad it’s over though. I get my mornings back for the rest of the trip.
Not that you can tell from the photo but it’s cold and blowing an absolute gale today.
Decided to walk over to the Paris to get one of my favorites from the summer, the chicken parm at Cafe Americano for lunch but get a bad beat instead. They’ve taken it off the menu WTF?
So we went with the fish and chips. Not bad, but not proper chip shop chips.
Onto today’s tournament $1,100 HORSE
35k starting chips today with 40 minute levels.
We don’t win a pot the first 2 hours and go down to 20k but recover to 35k again at the next break.
Starting the 3rd session we have a good Stud 8 round making a full house with 33322 then aces up to scoop 2 nice pots.
We finish late reg at the end of level 9 on 70k
After the break we move table and win a 3-way Razz pot with an 8-5 with no call on 7th.
We then lose some in Hold’em running AJ into AA on a J high flop.
We recover in Omaha 8 knocking out Jake Schwartz when we river a straight with no low.
Sitting on 120k last break of the night which is about average.
Coming back after the break we lose a big hold’em pot with 5-5. We flop a set but villain makes a flush on the turn
We lose another in Omaha 8 with A278 on a 2-2-5 flop. It runs out 3-6 and we fold on the river.
A big 3-way Razz pot finishes us off. We start 2345 and brick out. Bust in 14th with 9 paid.
So another long tournament day for nothing.
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Tough beat bricking out just before the bubble.
I’m still predicting big things this trip!
So close both times! I know it's a drag, but you are due!
Wynn Millions
Day Six - Monday March 3rd
”Boba Fett?! Boba Fett?! Where?
So as we didn’t make day 2 of the HORSE we had two choices for today’s tournament:
$1,600 PLO at Wynn (with $500 bounty)
$400 HORSE at Resorts World
I was going to put up a poll last night and let you all decide for me, but couldn’t work out how to do it.
PLO is my main cash game, but I prefer it just as that, a cash game. On the other hand we do love HORSE tournaments and would be cool to go to Resorts World as I haven’t been there yet.
But at the end of the day we decided to go for the big money. Pretty sure that’s how you all would have voted anyway. [emoji3]
With nothing else to do now in the morning I decide to go to Wynn early and try to grind out the buy-in for the tourney in a cash game. There’s no bigger PLO so $1/$2 will have to do.
We manage to win half the buy-in for the tournament in the couple of hours we play so that will have to do. In for $1,000 out for $1,800 mainly due to an all-in on the flop with a big wrap against top two pair. Villain asks for twice which we agree to and we make a straight on both runouts.
Onto the tournament.
”He’s no good to me dead.”
Interesting spot early on.
Villain 1 who is short opens.
We call with 889Tss
Villain 2 looks at villain 1’s stack and min raises.
Villain 1 goes all-in with just enough that it will allow villain 2 to re-raise.
I know what’s coming but I have a hunch they might both have aces and my cards will be live so I decide I’m going to gamble.
I call villain 1’s all-in.
Sure enough villain 2 now re-raises all-in.
Did he really think that we would fold?
We call.
Good news. They do both have aces.
Bad news. Villain 2 has my suit and an 8-9 killing most of our outs.
Better news. The flop is J-8-9 giving us a set.
We cover them both and add 2 bounty chips to our own worth $500 each cash money. [emoji857]
This is the tournament clock on the first break. After just two hours of play which finished at 300-500 blinds (so a starting stack would still be worth 60 bigs) we have managed to lose more than half the field?
It really is amazing how badly people play PLO.
They can’t wait to jump off the bridge, tie themselves to the railroad tracks or go into the lions enclosure at feeding time.
”What if he doesn’t survive? He’s worth a lot to me.”
Top set of aces against a straight, but a running pair fills us up and we collect another bounty.
”Put Captain Solo in the cargo hold.”
We knock out another short stack and with 4 bounties will be in profit for the tournament no matter what.
Then comes the inevitable cooling off.
We call a raise with 4678ds. Heads up.
Flop 5-7-A r
Villain bets.
It’s a good flop for our hand. A complete wrap. We think about raising but elect just to call.
Turn: A (also brings a flush draw for a suit we don’t have)
Villain bets.
We let it go.
These 1pm starts with no dinner break are brutal. We have to eat something at the table while playing but the smoked turkey sandwich is legit. Turkey, bacon, cheese and garlic sauce. Really good.
Getting down to the business end of the tournament but my chips are dwindling down also. Haven’t won a pot in a while.
We open KKQTss and get 3-bet from a tight player with a bigger stack.
We let it go.
On the bubble now. 14 left with 13 paid.
It turns out to be the longest bubble I’ve ever played. Almost 2 full hours of hand for hand with the TD running 2 minutes off the clock for each hand.
There were a few shorter stacks than me but they keep doubling up. Now I’m the short stack.
Well we’re not folding aces, bubble or no bubble. We get it in pre and are called by a big stack with QJT8.
A Ten on the flop worries me slightly but we make the but flush on the turn.
Someone finally busts on the other table and we’re in the money. [emoji383]
Not long after we have a re-match against the guy we doubled off on the bubble.
This time all-in on the flop. Top 2 for us against bottom pair and a straight draw.
Unfortunately we can’t hold again and are out in 10th [emoji22]
If we hold there we would have had decent chips going into the final table and a shot at the $30k up top.
Instead we have to make do with $5k between the prize payout and our bounties and rue what might have been.
Very happy with how we played though. Playing great. 4 out of 5 tournaments now we’ve been in there at the business end.
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Awesome to meet and get to sweat you for a bit man. May you run like the sun. I saw you after I finished dinner last night, you were walking out of Encore so I figured you busted. Probably not the best time to bother you :(
Great to meet you as well. Yeah I'm not the best company in the immediate aftermath of busting a tourney. [emoji23]
What a great day! Cash win, tourney cash, lots of bounties and a nice looking sammich!
Well done!
Nice runs! I always enjoy your reports even though I don't play any mixed games.
Great run!
Completely agree with your takes on PLO, especially PLO cash.
Absolutely no good reason to sit in a public NLHE cash game in 2025.
[QUOTE=pig4bill;58912227]What's the over/under on that sammich? Thirty bucks? Forty?
I don't remember exactly, $20 something I think.
That's not bad for Wynn. The last time I ever ate anything there, not including the $7 Raisinettes I bought during a tourney break, was pre-2020. I got the cheapest thing sold at that snack place near the sports book, a hot dog, for 9 bucks iirc.
Great run!
Completely agree with your takes on PLO, especially PLO cash.
Absolutely no good reason to sit in a public NLHE cash game in 2025.
There is if you're not rolled for it. It takes a LOT more money to sit in those games than it does in hold 'em. I watched a friend burn through 3 $500 buy-ins in about 15 minutes years ago, and he was experienced at PLO. It basically went bet, raise, pot, he called for less.
Wynn Millions
Day Seven - Tuesday March 4th
We wake up to a beautiful morning. Still not that warm, but the strong winds of the last couple of days have dissipated.
The Vdara pool is closed but we can use Aria.
This is how we Vegas. The pool is longer than I remember and we get a good workout doing lengths as there’s no-one else swimming or obstacles standing in the middle.
We must be feeling better as we’re getting our appetite back. We set off early down to the Wynn planning to stop somewhere and have lunch on the way.
Feeling like Italian we check out the grand canal shops at the Venetian and come across this trattoria.
Penne (with prosciutto) a la vodka and garlic knots.
Solid, if not spectacular and reasonably priced.
We find some mint chocolate ice cream at the Wynn for dessert but no rainbow sprinkles [emoji30]
Not as good as the gelato at Hard Rock.
Last tournament of the trip today. $600 Omaha eight or better.
Unfortunately not much to report. We pretty much whiff every flop, blanking two bullets in the process.
We do see Hannah, our favorite (and certainly the fastest) dealer who travels the circuit and works Hard Rock as well. She deals us aces with a wheel card 4 hands in a row but we don’t manage to win even half a pot with any of them.
We try to recoup the bullets in the $1/$2 PLO cash game with the help of a couple of espresso martinis. The expresso martinis are very good, the game is not.
We bluff off half our stack with the bare ace on a flush board and are called by a 7 high flush.
After a couple more hours of treading water we call it a night down -$500
I did talk to one of the cash game floors yesterday and have a seat locked up for a $40/$80 mix game that runs on Wednesdays so we have that to look forward to for our last day tomorrow.
Walking back to Vdara the strip is dead. Not even any slutty showgirls bothering people for photos.
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Not had a sports bet this trip but we like Liverpool on the Asian handicap tomorrow in the Champions League at PSG.
Will probably fire 1 unit at pk and 1 unit at +0.25
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Wynn Millions
Day Seven - Tuesday March 4th
We wake up to a beautiful morning. Still not that warm, but the strong winds of the last couple of days have dissipated.
The Vdara pool is closed but we can use Aria.
This is how we Vegas. The pool is longer than I remember and we get a good workout doing lengths as there’s no-one else swimming or obstacles standing in the middle.
Aria's pool is so nice. when I was there in late May 2024 I was still able to swim laps unobstructed
Wynn Millions
Day Eight - Wednesday March 5th
Last day. Woke up later than normal. The plan was to go to Aria to bet Liverpool then have a swim before heading down to the Wynn.
Aria had a horrible line +0.5 -200 so that threw a spanner in the works. Bellagio and Cosmo would have the same line as they’re all MGM. Which Caesars property is closest?
I didn’t think there was much in it between Caesars and Paris so opted for Paris. Had to walk across in my flip flops and swim shorts but it was worth it.
Liverpool +0.5 -170 30 cents better than MGM. Neither of them were offering pk or +0.25 but the -170 on +0.5 was a very good line.
Pro tip. Line shopping is super important in sports betting.
We’ve conquered all of Europe, we’re never gonna stop.
From Paris down to Turkey, we’ve won the f**kin lot.
We used all our run good up on this today. Stone cold wrong side. Only the best goalkeeping performance I’ve ever seen by Liverpool’s Allison made this a winner for us.
The $40 / $80 at the Wynn wasn’t a true mix, but O.E. which was fine with us as we like both games.
For some reason though they play it 9 handed which I didn’t like.
The table was okay, a couple of nitty spots, a couple of so-so spots and a couple of weaker spots.
As it was the last day and with no tournament we were determined to have a proper dinner so we took a break from the game around 5:30pm to go eat at Sinatra.
We ate at the bar.
Filetto with polenta fritta and a glass of Cabernet.
Tiramisu for dessert.
Nice meal, the tiramisu was really good.
We were in and out in about 50 minutes then back to work.
We lose the first pot we play after dinner and are now stuck nearly 2 racks so we move from the 4 seat to the 9 seat. After all it can’t be us, must be the seat.
We fare better in the 9 seat and by the time we had to go had recouped to be only down -$600 after 8 hours play.
No real memorable hands. We didn’t scoop any big pots. The deck ran over one of the weaker players who was up like $6k when we left.
The game was better than when it started but we have to go. We need to walk back up the strip, cash our Liverpool ticket at any Caesars property and collect our carry-on from Vdara before heading to the airport. And it’s raining [emoji2414]
So that will do it for this trip.
By the numbers:
Tournaments
Played: 6
Total buy-ins: $5,700
Cashes: 2
Total Prize money: $8,990
Net: +$3,290
Cash games: -$300
Sports: +$1,760
Combined: +$4,750
Flight and hotel expenses came to $1,600 so we netted out at about +$3,000 which isn’t bad.
Overall happy with the trip. Played some really good poker. Would have liked to get the mini Wynn trophy in the 2-7 and we were close to a big score in the PLO but that’s poker.
It sucked that we were sick which spoiled the trip a little.
Enjoyed spending time at Wynncore. It really is the best property in Vegas, just wish the rooms were more affordable so we could stay there.
Who knows, maybe we will do an Encore soon. [emoji6] (see what we did there) [emoji3]
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Nice report, thank you and glad you had a win.
Nice trip. Thanks for sharing it with us. Were you already a Red Card member? It's been a lot of years ago, but I remember getting some pretty great free room offers for very little gambling when I first signed up with them.
Thanks for taking us along, Tony!
Great report. Well done! Thanks for sharing.
