BigWhale & brother (feat. MuckPls) does Vegas - 2025 edition (21st-31st March)
Hello people,
I can't believe it's been 6 months since I have been in Vegas, and we cannot let that go on for much longer! I will fly to London on March 20th after work, relax at a hotel there overnight, and then fly direct from there to Las Vegas on Friday the 21st (just in time for March Madness).
My brother will finally join in as well; he actually has a business trip to the US coming up in a few days, so when he is done with work he is already in the country. He will also head out to Vegas on the 21st of March.
A late addition to the trip is also 'MuckPls' who said YOLO and booked his own trip as well. I'll let him post the details on his end.
With this being the middle of March, and MGM having slashed my previous reasonable offers, it was not super easy to find cheap hotels. As of such, I have to stay at 3 different hotels to take advantage of the comp nights I had available (although I have to pay full resort fee). I will be staying at:
- Excalibur (2 nights)
- Flamingo (4 nights)
- MGM Grand (4 nights)
That said, it won't be too much stress to switch between the hotels. For MGM properties I can obviously check in and get digital room keys through the app. And for Flamingo I will just show up early and pay the (ridiculously high) early check-in fee to avoid gigantic lines.
It's March Madness time in Vegas when we are there, so I have high expectation of there being a lot of games to play and hopefully some good action as well. But regardless, it should be a fun and hopefully profitable trip. I will come back with some more thoughts + picture of shoe and bankroll in a few days.
As always, you guys can expect a lot of hand histories as well as random pictures from my end. Hopefully I can get brother to post a bit as well. And MuckPls will obviously also contribute with his own degen stories 
This is only the first of many trips to Vegas for me in 2025, but we can get back to that later. I am regardless stoked for the trip, and it will be nice having someone to share the excitement with as well!
15 Replies
Nice, a Vegas TR! I’ll keep it short for now and update later when I have more time.
Plan:
- Fly in late on the 20th of March
- Staying at NYNY until the 26th
- Room booked until the 27th but fly back home the 26th.
- ?????
- PROFIT!
I have a TON of work and meetings on Friday and Monday-Tuesday in Vegas which leaves me the entire weekend and a bit of Wednesday to go crazy.
Plan is simple, play as much cash at Aria as humanly possible, eat good food and stay away from pits / VP.
Always in for a BigWhale TR. Bonus Muck only makes it better!
Safe travels, looking forward to shenanigans.
I'll be in Vegas the 19th-22nd for March Madness. Catch you guys in the poker streets.
With this being the middle of March, and MGM having slashed my previous reasonable offers, it was not super easy to find cheap hotels. As of such, I have to stay at 3 different hotels to take advantage of the comp nights I had available (although I have to pay full resort fee). I will be staying at:
- Excalibur (2 nights)
- Flamingo (4 nights)
- MGM Grand (4 nights)
That said, it won't be too much stress to switch between the hotels. For MGM properties I can obviously check in and get digital room k
CET generally allows online check-in I think, and the keys will be spit out from a kiosk? I don't know for certain about Flamingo tho.
It's March Madness time in Vegas when we are there, so I have high expectation of there being a lot of games to play and hopefully some good action as well. But regardless, it should be a fun and hopefully profitable trip. I will come back with some more thoughts + picture of shoe and bankroll in a few days.
Lots of games, which also means long lines, so you'll want to be sure you have poker room phone numbers.
Everyone raves about game quality but I seem to be the only person ever to visit Vegas during March Madness to encounter nothing but bad games.
As always, you guys can expect a lot of hand histories as well as random pictures from my end. Hopefully I can get brother to post a bit as well. And MuckPls will obviously also contribute with his own degen stories
This is only the first of many trips to Vegas for me in 2025, but we can get back to that later. I am regardless stoked for the trip, and it will be nice having someone to share the excitement with as well!
Cool. Wish I could visit Vegas because of another event there, but I can't get off work.
IN
Looking forward to it!!!
I hear EPT is going to Malta in October. you gentlemen going to participate in that?
GL fellas. Always IN for your TRs.
Whale, I have two thoughts:
1. I have stayed at the Flamingo many times. Flamingo check-in can be miserable because their kiosks aren't working as consistently as other CET properties like Harrah's, but occasionally I've been able to bypass the line by just hitting the kiosks and feeding them my driver's license/reservation number/whatever. When it works, it saves a lot of time. I recommend trying that first at all CET properties instead of waiting in line. If you are trying to check in early, one option is to dump the bag with the bellhops down the escalator (tip $1), go do whatever, retrieve your bag after 3PM at your convenience (tip another $1), and then check in. That way you can avoid any fees for accessing the room early, provided you don't actually need to physically be in the room.
2. Your trip lines up with the WSOP-C at Horseshoe, so if you want a little World Series preview then it might be fun to fire an event. I played one event there last year in March. The structure and venue quality won't match the actual WSOP, but it's a good opportunity to get some reps against the local regs.
Good luck guys, will be following along.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Whale, I have two thoughts:
1. I have stayed at the Flamingo many times. Flamingo check-in can be miserable because their kiosks aren't working as consistently as other CET properties like Harrah's, but occasionally I've been able to bypass the line by just hitting the kiosks and feeding them my driver's license/reservation number/whatever. When it works, it saves a lot of time. I recommend trying that first at all CET properties instead of waiting in line. If you are trying to check in early, on
I didn't have any issues with the Flamingo kiosks last time I stayed there, so hopefully they will work. I can obviously just dump the bag with bell desk if I have other plans yes, but from memory the check in line at 3pm is gigantic. So if I go that route, it's probably best to wait until 6-7pm before actually checking in.
Thanks for the tip about WSOPC, I actually was not aware of that! Will go check the schedule now 😀
looking forward to it boys
GL, except against us. We are staying at Horseshoe from March 23rd to April 6th, so we might meet at the tables. At the very least, I need to check this TR frequently to see if there’s anything about drunken old Finns donating their hard-earned money at low-limit poker.
GL, except against us. We are staying at Horseshoe from March 23rd to April 6th, so we might meet at the tables. At the very least, I need to check this TR frequently to see if there’s anything about drunken old Finns donating their hard-earned money at low-limit poker.
Perkele!!! Come to Aria!
