A Mackem in Vegas - sort of a TR (August '24)
Hello all,
To manage expectations this may well be more of a collection of pictures and random musings than a "proper" TR
I've still never been to the Orleans and I've never seen a movie in Vegas. You'd think the strip would be a natural place for movie theaters, but every 2 hours you are sitting on your ass in the dark is 2 hours you aren't degenning in table games/slots/restaurants/shops, so I kind of understand why they want to keep the customers moving. Didn't know that the Orleans has a theater. That gives me another reason to eventually go there besides their strong poker offerings.
Orleans and South Point, both built by the same outfit, both have a Cinemark/Century multiplex of 10 or 12 theaters. Layout is similar to most mall setups. They being way off-Strip, they're trying to be a more-or-less one stop shop so a family doesn't ever have to leave.
Sounds like you missed the Sunday Special tournament at Orleans. It's their biggest of the week, $40k guarantee iirc.
I did yeah.
The second Sunday I was flying home, can't quite remember why I didn't play it the first time.
Hello again - apologies for the delay in finishing this off, although I'm not sure anyone's too fussed 😉
Friday, August 23rd
As a Raiders fan I decided it would be stupid not to take advantage of being in Vegas during pre-season so, after choosing not to go to the Cowboys game shortly after I arrived, I grappled with the ****ing awful Ticketmaster/Stubhub websites early on the Friday morning and finally bought one for a total of $105 - think it was $88 for the ticket and the rest in taxes and fees.
Grabbed some food beforehand in TGI Friday's and there were plenty of Raiders and 49ers fans milling around.
These two seemed nice and friendly.
The Orleans is well located for a stroll to the stadium and you could see thousands coming in from the end of the Strip as well.
Overall it was a great experience - amazing stadium, good view from the cheap seats despite being so high up and we kicked a last-second field goal for a 24-24 draw. Only gripe was paying $18 for a beer and again not being able to use cash; at least it was a large can so better than that $14 bottle of Blue Moon!
Saturday, August 24th
Final day in town and had a short, very unprofitable session at the Venetian. Genuinely did not win a single hand the entire time I was there while the woman to my right was getting slapped in the face with the deck, a young guy in seat 8 was being too LAG and burning through cash and the guy to my immediate left won a big pot with set over set (9s v 2s) on a Q 9 2 flop.
Only pleasing thing was that I didn't lose discipline and start playing badly, but with no sign of the good 1/2 PLO game starting up I just picked up and went for a touristy wander, which included a decent kebab/gyro outside the Horseshoe (?)
Obligatory Bellagio pics
Get back to the Orleans and decide on a 4/8 hi-lo session before the 7pm tournament. Ran nicely and was going for a full snooker rack of 15 stacks but didn't quite manage it before the table broke. Played a few hands on the new table before it was time for a last tourney gamble
Three hours in and it's not going great.... completely card dead
A table move starts to turn things around. We pick up QQ and KK and also stack a shorty with AK v her KQ....
The spectators are riveted by this exciting poker action 
And this is what we're playing for.
At this point I wish I hadn't been drinking so much as my memories are fairly patchy. I wasn't hammered, but had been drinking steadily for a while.
Anyway, once on the FT I jokingly made it known I was up for a chop as the tournament clock was showing what a straight chop was and I was among the shortest stacks. Obviously no-one fancied that and we played on. No problem.
Then when it got down to 5 players an ICM chop was proposed and they worked out the numbers, but my share wasn't particularly improved so I turned it down in favour of trying to spin it up. Shortly after I indeed tripled up when I got lucky shoving QT suited from the button and outflopping both J J and 7 7 in the blinds.
Unfortunately, a couple of hands later everyone limped in, I shoved AT from the big blind and got called by a tilting, obnoxious guy (who I think had the 7s in the above hand).
He had KJo (interesting call), obviously flopped two pair and I didn't hit my gutshot, which our obnoxious friend was rooting against and actively celebrated when it missed. This pissed off another player on the FT (let's call him Bob) who had seemingly been sat next to this guy all night and was thoroughly sick of his behaviour.
So I wander off to collect my 4th place money and suddenly hear the dealer yell "FLOOR" - apparently Bob had allegedly muttered something to obnoxious fella along the lines of "I wish I could get you alone" and he had taken that as a threat. Not clear if he reported it to the dealer or the dealer also heard it, but it was all threatening to kick off.
I was happy enough with my money at this stage and think it was around 2 or 3 am so headed off to my room to eat half of the Subway footlong I'd bought hours earlier.
Had the remaining half for breakfast as I packed my bags and headed to the airport, pretty much around break even in terms of poker thanks to the final evening.
Until next time......
always good to finish on a high note, however the rest of the trip went.
nice job and thanks for following up
Nice report, mackem! This is Vman96 from the old Card Player forum, and "The Plus One" forum.
Good to see you're still having good times in Vegas! Bummer I didn't know about this in advance as our trips overlapped a few days, I would have stopped and said hello!
And good job finishing a TR before I got really started on one. Oof. I usually post mine on Vegas Message Board. And I'm nearly all video poker now as I'm too lazy to find ~cheap mix game poker anymore. :(
Hey Vman!
Nice to hear from you. Pity we couldn't get together for a beer in Vegas - hopefully our paths will cross there in the future. I'm hoping to get out there at least once next year, possibly late May.
Have you seen what the first class salt and pepper shakers have written under them?
It used to read ‘stolen’ but they’ve had that message on the salt and pepper shakers for 25+ years since I was flying Virgin in UK
Nice branding device really
Ha, I love that.
Brilliant stuff FTM
Great TR-glad you had a great time!
