Last Minute Dash to the 702 - TR 11/3 - 11/7
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Last Minute Dash to the 702 - TR 11/3 - 11/7

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LangdonOP
3mo ago

For those of you who know me on here, I'm a guy who usually books a trip 6 months in advance and plans everything down to the minute and dollar. already been to Vegas three times in 2024 and I have another trip booked for late January. my MGM Gold tier expired and I don't have any great offers. I'm super busy at home and the cold season is approaching. so why the heck did I just book another getaway one week in advance and how did I get away with it?

the wife just went on a 3 week trip overseas leaving me to take care of our two boys and dog. that was exhausting, but successful. she and daughter have been slowly getting over jetlag so I've continued to pull a big load (not really comparable to what she usually does but responsible enough). frankly, her trip was to get even with me. but I've been teasing and joking about having a getaway and 'oh look at this cheap flight' which she shoots down but then last week she yielded. caught me off guard. I had already concluded that I had enough other crap to do and I could save up my bankroll for January. but hey why not

I really have a poker itch and my friend who runs a home game has been inviting me for a few weeks. so I tell myself, we'll see how Tuesday night goes. if I come out on top I'll book the trip. as it turns out the "night" did not go well and I dropped $360 in one hour before leaving with my tail between my legs. so my decision is made.

then for some reason I check hotels, make some reservations and buy a fight ticket. don't have any good reason to other than I wanna play pai gow, I wanna get out of North Dakota, and "I'm a man, I'm 40!"

I'm losing count but I think this is my 12th trip to Vegas, 10th solo. was last there with the whole family for the steamy Fourth of July. all I wanna do is play poker and pai gow; I have no other plans or expectations. the NAPT will be going that week up at RW so maybe I'll venture up there and try out for The Big Game audition tourney.

unlike typical trips with lots of bouncing around, I have all four nights booked at Park MGM. didn't seem to be better prices anywhere. Mandalay Bay was only a little bit higher but I called to check and their poker room is back to the regular schedule of closed Tuesdays, and that was the deciding kill factor.

not renting a car, not expecting any shows or shopping. only expenses expect to be food and Uber. if gaming goes good early maybe I'll splurge. if gaming goes super bad I'll have my work computer with me to keep me safely busy and saving PTO.

wife reminded me I'll miss voting day so I better look into early voting. then maybe I can watch the election night carnage from a poker room TV.

will only buy into 1 tourney max, rest of time expects to be poker cash games at Mandalay Bay, Aria, Bellagio, Wynn, and maybe Resorts World. and pai gow at Park.

you can expect some hand histories and some stories from the table. hopefully plenty of chip porn scooping my way and food pics when I am able to eat. I think I'm more consistent writing my TRs than most of you are reading them. hopefully you enjoy it

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26 October 2024 at 12:02 AM
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Langdon
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AvatarLangdon
3mo ago

Concluding Review

two reasons I decided to go this week: experience the NAPT at Resorts World, and to escape the onslaught of election week. and no of course I couldn't totally avoid it but I was distracted enough with other stuff that it wasn't in the front of my mind and I didn't need to care. would have been depressing to follow at home with my wife. NAPT was cool to see and be a part of, even for a short time. was so impressed with the organization of it and the whole staff and dealers that made it a totally enjoyable experience. they had a ton of tournaments but other than the $5K Main and the ladies event, all the tourneys were pretty small field.

I like Park, I like playing at Park, I like how close the hotel rooms are to everything else in the resort, if you are willing to brave the open air I like that they have a heated pool during the "off" months. I didn't visit the fitness center despite bringing clothes for it. the unusable wifi from the hotel room is kind of a problem when I want to work from my laptop. the walls are thin and sound carries; the neighbor pulling the chain to open the blinds felt like they were in my room and I heard every chain link move, and the neighbors had their TV on and it was loud in my room. but the shower was fine and the bed was comfy and I wasn't in the room much for anything else. can't remember ever staying all four nights in Vegas at the same hotel.

my favorite poker room is still without a doubt Resorts World. the dealers are elite and the staff is great. the location sucks and that limits the number of games, but still in all the times I've been there the game has always been good. I hear they say 6 hours of cumulative play on your players card gives you free parking. I hope it carries through to the new calendar year but the staff would probably put it on my card if I ask. the room borders a hallway so you don't get wafting cigarette smoke and bad as other places. I think I heard the dealers say they would be introducing promos soon.

I played at Wynn and Bellagio for just a couple hours. Wynn is also elite. I found the Bellagio dealers to be unengaged and not too friendly. and since the room is adjacent to both the casino floor and the sports book area and a restroom, there was a lot of unpleasant smoke. I like how they serve watermelon juice. like Wynn.

the fourth place I played was Mandalay Bay. generally I like the space. the primary reason is 97% of the player field is visiting tourist recs. most of the dealers are good, but several of them consistently hassle about the blinds. I hate that. I'm not a noob, I'm relaxing on vacation and socializing, might be taking some HH notes for the TR. the old black guy from the South, Wayne bugs the hell out of me. for years now. I think for daytime games it is a good place with their room promos, although I was unable to capitalize my last couple trips. $2/hour food comps is higher than other places, and I should have enough banked for a good meal next time.
speaking of comps I didn't get to Venetian this time and probably missed getting $3/h. is the room better than Bellagio?

I think I'm doing better at live poker. I'm not a GTO grinder pro, I'm there to have fun and not lose tons of money. I only got mixed in a big pot couple times, when with 88 I flopped a full house and got paid; lost when I turned a set of threes vs turned flush. couple other nice wins with a set of deuces and pocket aces. pretty slow and tight the rest of the time. tried to be smarter with my bluffs and after some failed experimenting early I did better later on. only got shown a bluff maybe once. did buy-in to 2/5 again for the second time and not intimidated finished on the right side. honestly I've busted like 7 straight poker sessions in Dakota and outside of tourneys I haven't lost much in Vegas for a while.

I played several hours of Pai Gow and my last session put me up about $250. only played one hand of BJ with a match voucher. played 20 minutes of Ultimate and lost a billion. I'm 0-2 in quick fashion at Ultimate in Vegas. played slots sparingly and hit a nice jackpot early in the trip that eased any financial pressure.
overall, even after punting about $500 my last half day I went home with over $1000 more cash than I came with.

I like buffets and finally splurged at Wynn. it is really good. I don't like crab or cold seafood, and they didn't have any hot seafood (like my favorite food steamed lobster tails). but there was almost an unlimited variety of everything else. I don't even know what my strategy would be for next time. but I do expect a next time. the rest of my dining was not really noteworthy: didn't have much extra time and ate out of necessity and it wasn't a priority.

hired an Uber to and from airport, to and from Resorts World, and to my sister's house. got a taxi from Park to MB, and taxi probably would have been cheaper to RW too. may have saved a little compared to renting, but it also kept me from venturing off Strip to eat.

Allegiant was smooth and uneventful. both flights arrived early. happy with it.

I used 3 myvegas rewards: slotplay, BJ matchplay, and comp room at Park. the funny thing is, after I booked my comp room and made it home, the comp room reward was still in pending status and I could cancel it for a reward point refund. the same thing happened last trip with my wife at Park! they've got a bug in the system.

anyway, that's my trip, 4th of the year. got some relaxing in, managed to work about 10 hours to reduce PTO usage, and won back my flight and rooms costs with profit to spare. wife and kids can't get mad or laugh at me. came back safe without losing any stuff. absolutely smooth in virtually every way. did get a little sick (a cold) but that's kinda expected.

looking ahead, I already have another trip planned for the end of January! used Allegiant points to cover the flight cost and rooms booked already. still have a play bankroll.

thanks for following along to the TR, which was a very standard one for me. I enjoy keeping these as a journal. gets tiring, but especially when I'm on my own it keeps me occupied. can't wait to go back!

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