Ongoing VP TR, PART 2!

3/20-23 NO TR

UGH. So I just got back from Vegas obv and you know the result simply from the title. Got absolutely demolished and I have zero desire to write this up. Maybe just as important, I don't have any new or amazing pics to show so what is the point posting a lot of repeats of food/sights, basically no jackpots and typing up a ton?

I will, however, describe the basic gist and the highs/lows such as they were. Did my usual Thurs - Sun with D, we were supposed to come back by noon on Sun for our weekly game, but we knew going into it that we weren't going to have a game. So stupid me suggests we push back to a more typical 3pm departure. The flight ended up slightly cheaper so at the time it seemed like a no-brainer. Obv in retrospect all we did was extend the ass-whipping we were taking.

Thurs started off ok- we started with craps for a change and it was a good session. This was the high water mark of the trip. Went to VP and lost, used free credit early thinking it might change things and just spent Thurs trying to survive. I ended up losing a little more than I planned on Thurs but otherwise was ok and optimistic for the trip.

Friday... ugh. I had talked with D about not playing ANY VP on any Friday anymore for a couple of reasons. One, it always seems Friday is horrible. I know this isn't true but what can it hurt to limit my VP. Two, and more importantly, Friday is always the inflection point of the trip. If it's bad (which it figures to be), inevitably I go into Sat upset/scared money etc. The only times I don't are when Thurs and/or Fri are good. So as a default, if Thurs is no good and I can just play craps on Fri, no matter what I'll go into Sat doing ok.

So what do I do? Play slow and small Fri AM and actually book a win. So now I've got hope. We played dice and it sucked, which reconfirmed my desire to play VP but also made me take my eye off the ball. So I went BACK to VP and it was terrible. I'm staking TonySoprano9 in most of the mixed events at the Horseshoe so we meet up on Fri just to hang out.

Hanging out with Tony was literally one of the few bright spots of the trip- we're playing craps and I'm already playing kinda scared, the session is sht until it isn't. Tony takes 10% of a few rolls and they're decent/small winners and we end up basically winning 1k for that session. As we know, he goes on to bink 5th in the TORSE event after a marathon 2 days. So happy I got to be a part of that, it's not even the money bc the Wynn has already killed me exponentially more than my share but just to be part of his run, read his write ups etc... like I said, one of the few bright spots of the trip.

So I intentionally didn't make any plans for Friday for D and myself. The thought was save some food comp, maybe walk to Tacos El Gordo or Bellagio, play dice there, etc. So we have no agenda and nothing but time but of course gambling sucks and we're scared money. Ugh. We decide to take an early dinner at Red 8 then ride to Bellagio. I've been standing at the dice tables more than usual bc I've been avoiding VP and my legs/feet are tired. Maybe we'll walk back, but no way I want to walk both ways.

Bellagio craps was typically shtty; we collectively bought in for 5k and were 3k in the hole in no time at all. Then, we catch some ok rolls, never a break out but get within touching distance of even. It's just choppy now and we've been playing for hours... we call it and take a small loss. We of course get a ride back bc we're even more exhausted than before.

I know I should go to bed Friday night but it's literally 9:30pm. I know I'm done with craps for the day... maybe VP isn't going to be sht? Yep, it's sht and I'm stuck over 20k after the first two days.

Sat was in many ways the worst day. I woke with still half my bankroll for the trip and was cautiously optimistic. That optimism evaporated over the day with just mini-session after mini-session of both dice and VP that were always bad. Lose 2k twice or 4k once, what difference does it make? Things I did to slow things down- hit the spa (very rare for me) by lunch time, played PLO with D to slow things down (see more below), went BACK to the spa in the afternoon, met up with brother for dinner at Sinatra... all irrelevant. Now that I think about it, I don't think I hit one jackpot on Sat and had zero winning sessions.

PLO was... dumb. We played 5/5 with a rock and I'm in for 2k. Get great cards early on, build some nice pots and always get outflopped/never get there. I always have the nut draw or wrap which just means I'm going to lose more money than if I completely whiffed. Guy to my left is playing any 4 and he's murdering me. Every pre-flop raise I put in gets called without thought (in retrospect I don't think he needed to look at his cards bc it didn't seem to matter). Very early on, we establish this when I've got KKQJ ds, pot preflop and take a flop heads up against this guy. Flop comes rainbow disconnected and I pot, he calls. Turn brings a second diamond, I pot he calls. River completes the diamond flush, I check he makes a small bet which I payoff just to see what he's playing. Yep, any 4 with two diamonds. He had no pair/no draw on the flop but called me, then went runner runner non-nut flush. I wonder if I bet the turn if he mucks but I'm going to assume no.

He felts me basically the next hand where I have aces double suited. He outflops me on the ol' 7 5 2 board with bottom two. The board is both my suits on the turn and I pot again. The river obv makes me top set that at the time I was pretty sure I didn't want to see. I'm basically all in at this point anyways, and obv he has 5432 rainbow. Clearly he gave me no credit for anything the entire hand, which I guess he shouldn't bc of course I can't make a hand of anything this trip. He played it right since it was against me.

I rebuy for 3k and slowly bleed off half of that before I get too frustrated and rack up. The game is worse and my nemesis has left... there's no win here. I head back for more VP and craps and keep getting pummeled.

I was in bed by 10pm@@!!!!!! on Sat night and slept until 7am Sunday. FFFFF I was so disciplined with sleep and avoiding play this trip overall, not that it mattered one iota. So I was basically felted by Sat night and they felted me at some point Sunday. 45k trip loss.

Oh, other fun stuff- D lost his phone at some point Sat, we visited lost and found and they didn't have it. They had security run the tape and see if they can find out who took his phone, not so much for recovery at this point but just to add weight to a missing items claim and maybe ban the thief if they can find it? They say they'll call us back in 1/2 hr. They never do, of course, so D checks back in with lost and found as I'm going to bed and lo and behold his phone was always there????! So at least he's got his phone back. Sun as soon as we get through security at the airport, D turns to me in shock- he LEFT HIS CASH AND CREDIT CARDS in the safe!!!

Cue frantic phone calls to host, etc. Ultimately they sent a limo back for him and put him up in a room for FREE. That was very generous of them and I'm actually shocked. He got his stuff back, just had to rebook his flight since he wasn't going to make it. Ultimately D got out of there at 9pm. I had to uber home from airport bc his wife isn't picking just me up which is fair.

Just a total, shtshow, snake bit trip from start to finish. So, so, so upset at how badly I ran. I know for a fact I only hit one 4AWAK and 1 royal. Never multipliers, never converted one trip ace or premium trip draw. That is simply unsustainable at TDB at any game type. Overall, craps was pretty bad too. We had our fair share of OK rolls, but never a great one which you need to offset all the crap. Plus, I really chose poorly on Fri playing as much VP as I did. Really should have stuck to the gameplan, should have stuck to the original flight but I have no one but myself to blame.

Upsides- got a bottle of Stagg Jr from my food comp, hanging with Tony/him coming in 5th in TORSE.

Downsides- all the rest.

As I said... UGH. Down but not out.

Oof, sorry Leon and not surprised at all for the lack of a normal TR.

Thanks for the summary and hopefully this is the low point for the year

I can relate. I keep my poker records on an app and I always catch myself looking at the stats when I have a good month. When I have a bad month I hate even opening the app

Do you get any additional backend comps/freeplay when you book a big losing trip? Do you find it impacts future offers?

Short answer, yes. I posted about this a while ago, but the Wynn has definitely cut my front end comps. I was very upset about it at the time bc I felt they had violated an agreement we had. Well, we DID have an agreement, but that obv isn't enforceable or set in stone forever.

So what I've seen since then is that the Wynn is very much like other casinos now- I can't get the moon on the front end. I always get decent offers and my host has been trying to top those off where he can (which is partly why I'm once again ok with my host and not pissed like I was before). If I book a winner (see late Feb/early Mar), they literally will not comp a DIME over what was agreed. OTOH, this last trip I was several hundred over the agreed-upon front end comp and they took care of it no questions asked, AND gave me additional free credit for my next trip.

So in the past, I would have received more on the front end, but wouldn't have ever gotten a better offer even after a losing trip. Less possibility of back end comps. All in all, I'm not even sure I dislike the "new" system more. After a trip like I just had, no amount of front end comp would have stopped the >40k loser, but I would have been less able to get stuff off the back end and wouldn't have gotten an increased offer for my next trip. So who knows.

I will say, from a predictability standpoint I still prefer front end. I've got a family trip lined up at FB in June (giving them another shot) and the front end is just ok. I'm having to game out where we're going to eat to minimize OOP expenses in the event I win which is kind of annoying. OTOH, I don't want to eat cheap crap all trip and end up booking a loser that would provide comps on the back end. It's annoying.

One upside of back end/better offers "next time" is it makes me feel less tied to just the Wynn. I'm not necessarily giving up a great front end offer to stay somewhere else.

there's nothing more annoying than asking for a comped room and being told "just go ahead and book it and we may decide to comp it come checkout time" and meanwhile the casino hotel is 3x the price of the place 2 blocks walk down the street

Yep. *** back end comps only. Front end is the nuts, until they don't give you enough. That's why I think I may actually be in a semi-optimal situation right now.

Here's a rare handpay on quarters triple draw without being dealt a winner. Obviously I was super shocked.

Can't wait for the next one leon.

Nice one! Which casino was this at?

9/6/4 for Double Bonus is at least somewhat reasonable for The Strip (although the strategy changes when you don't get 25 for the straight).

Sorry this is east coast borgata, which has good pay tables still. I usually play ddb but change it up.

Later again I got this miracle draw. Weird to go sooooo long without a royal and basically get 3 in one day

Wow sequential too!

Had a good day at the local recently.

Been a long time since I've been dealt 4 aces. Gotta make this count.

Kicker draw-

Spoiler

Show

Definitely above average!

Stepped up to 50c credits after that, hit this-

Wish I could say I took a ton home, but things turned terrible afterwards and I definitely gave back more than I should have chasing another huge hit. Ended up +17k for the day.

Very nice

Random post but it goes back to your 2024 KY bourbon tour in particular at the BT distillery. Just read it now, great stuff.

You mentioned Weller being the same as regular Buffalo Trace just stored in different parts of the rickhouses. This isn’t true. Weller has a different mashbill than BT. Bourbon mashbills are at least 50% corn then a “flavor” grain usually rye or wheat (average around 10%) and usually a few percent malted barley which helps the fermentation. Weller is a bourbon that uses wheat instead of rye in the mash bill.

Now Stagg (GTS and Jr.) have the same mashbill as Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare and Benchmark but is stored in different parts of the rickhouse, for longer and bottled at higher %alc and filtered differently.

Blantons and all the Ancient Age products (Elmer, Ancient Age, Rockhill etc.) all use a bourbon mashbill that’s different then standard BT I believe with a slightly higher rye percentage.

I did, thanks!

i feel pretty dumb but am unable to figure out which one he picked

at the end it has this, but those are not "guesses" they are just a way to listen to the audio

Click the names (i did the same thing)

Submitting another royal pic (drawing 3) to keep the good vibes in here going

Nice video of the evolution of the Wynn (starts kinda slow, but gets better as it goes on...)

Wonder how many of these long-time employees Leon has interacted with over the years?

11 that I recognize. Maybe more (I didn't look closely at the pictures with a ton of employees in them). One of them is an amazing person at the check in desk- always has keys ready before I walk in, recognizes me, etc. Several dealers I recognized in there (although not the best IMO, they have a few there that will memorize my bets between trips and when I change it up it always throws them for a loop at first lol).

Maybe you’ve mentioned before but are you are Wynn loyalist when you go to LV? If so why? Have only played poker there

Hope all is well

The only employee who recognizes me is the men's room attendant at Jerry's Nugget 😀

For the most part, yes. I stayed at the FB last year to change it up and have a trip planned there for later this year. Otherwise it's all Wynn. I started off slagging off my dad's comps and for basically the last decade have earned my own. Classic trap, once you're earning comps in one place it's really hard to move to another place. And in the case of Wynn, any place is a step down. FB was nice but not as nice as Wynn. All the little things that a place doesn't do quite as well as Wynn add up. About the only thing better about FB are the restaurants and I say that knowing it's mostly bc I've grown sick and tired of the Wynn food. FB's pool is better too, but again that might be because I'm just used to the Wynn and nothing is fresh there anymore.

The pool at FB is partly why I'm staying there again (it's a family trip) and I want to give them one last chance. Ideally I have a good trip and I can really solidify the pluses and minuses of each place so moving forward I have two good options to pick from depending on my mood.

Having started my Vegas "career" staying at places like Boardwalk and Westward Ho I can confidently say every place feels like a shthole to me now compared to the Wynn and maybe FB. Maybe shthole is too strong of a word but there are enough issues even with "nice" places like Bellagio or Aria that there is zero chance I move my place over there.

If Wynn ever goes to 9/5 TDB and/or significantly worsens the gamble available that'll do it. I got really pissed when they moved from 9/7 to 9/6 but ultimately couldn't leave bc there wasn't a better option. 9/5 is too shtty to justify.

Wynn is by far on a different level than Bellagio.

Not that Bellagio is a dump by any means, but as you were saying those differences do add up.

Bellagio's location of being across the street from Paris/Horseshoe is certainly a plus during the WSOP though, but again that benefit is relative. On the flip side, a lot of the VP machines back up to main walkways so if you're looking for a quieter VP session that might not be an option unless you move into the high limit area and do 100+ a pull.

I'm going to date myself here, but a lot of the ambience has changed in Bellagio over the years. The northern part of the property by the night club / Snacks / Fix is way more subdued since I think there's no primary night club there anymore and Fix has been boarded up seemingly since Covid. Bellagio has also removed about 30-40% of table games from the floor over the years and the entire section of them has been removed from that area of the floor for quite some time as well.