Low Stakes Luckbox: A June ’25 Trip Report

Keep it up

Enjoying this and eager to see if the run good held for the last couple of days.

Yes, I think the phrase is "running hotter than the sun"?

Same response as above, haha!

Thanks!

I'm also enjoying your report. 😀
Good luck if you do come back to Vegas after the football game!

The next update for the trip is below: it’s a bit anticlimactic after previous couple of days.

Day 9 - Saturday 14th June

We grabbed lunch at Lago in Bellagio. Mains were not bad, but we were both more impressed with the Caesar salad which was excellent, really refreshing (maybe even the best one I've had):

After the meal, I was feeling a bit under the weather after Friday’s excitement and went back to the room to relax for a bit and catch up on the Counter-Strike major being played in Austin TX:

Eventually I got the energy to… go and buy some socks from Miracle Mile as I’d run out for the trip.
Mission accomplished, I got a seat at Planet Hollywood’s $1/$3 at around 5:30pm.

I didn’t start the session very well.
First hand of note was when I 3-barrel bluffed – I forget the details, other than it did not work. I think he snapped me off with second pair or something.

So I topped up another $120 and shortly afterwards the following hand happened.

UTG limped, and the player in mid-position (MP) bet $15.
I called in the cut-off with J♦9♦ and everyone else folds (including the UTG limper).

Flop was J♣9♥5♣ giving me top two (seems about right for how I’m running!) and MP c-bets $25.
I decide to just call the $25.

Turn is a blank-looking 4♦ and this time MP checks.
I bet $50 and MP then raises to $150.
Interesting line to check-raise me there, but I’m never folding top two here and go all in for $275.
MP calls.

River is Q♣, which I’m not a huge fan of because it brings the front door flush, some straights and even a set of Queens.
I flip my cards over and fortunately he shows K♣K♥ - that’ll do nicely. 😊

The next hand of note was one I wasn’t in.
The big blind had put out a $5 chip as they didn’t have any $1s.
The dealer gave them $4 change (instead of $2), which the BB quickly took back into their stack.
Late position opened to $12, button called and both blinds folded.
Then the button noticed that there was only $2 in blinds and this triggered a completely unnecessary argument between the button, the dealer, and the BB.
It went on for a couple of minutes so I just chucked $2 into the pot to get the game going.
But they continued to argue for another 5 minutes including asking for the floor… haha! 😃
I found it pretty amusing anyway: it reminded me a bit of the clock being called after 1 minute earlier in the trip.
(I guess maybe the button had been running bad??)

The other interesting hand also didn’t involve me:

A player in the cut-off (CO) opened for $15 and only the lady in the big blind (BB) called.
Flop was 56T (rainbow) and the BB donked for $20.
CO raised to $120.

BB looked as though they were about to fold and the CO then showed an ace.
BB tanked for a bit with this new piece of information and then called the extra $100, with $200 behind.
Turn is a 9, BB checks and CO (who covers the BB) goes all in and BB calls for their last $200.
River is an 8.

CO shows AA and BB shows 88 for the rivered set. 😮

To be fair to him, the CO seemed like a very chilled guy and took it well. In fact, I think the whole table had a good laugh at that hand... I wonder if he regrets showing the ace?

No other hands of note and I cashed out after a couple of hours to meet up with my wife for dinner.
The win-streak continued, finishing +$154 after 2 hours.

For our last dinner of the trip, we returned to Aria’s Chinese restaurant “Blossom”, where my wife wanted to try the special cooked-to-order fish:

The price of the fish was truly “special”, but it was a good chance to get rid of some of the excess dollars I’d accumulated. 😉

Last night in Vegas:

Gambling results at the end of day 9:
+$3,430 from 34 hours of poker
-$94 from video poker

P.S. I know it’s pretty weak to only play 2 hours on my last full day in Vegas, particularly on such a hot streak. Perhaps I wanted to give the other players a chance…? 😊
I'll wrap up the trip report tomorrow with the final day (and final poker session♠).
Thanks for reading.

Was the fish worth it? So glad you came out way ahead -- always makes Vegas a little more fun. How'd the wife do?

Safe travels! Thanks for taking us with you 😉

Was the fish worth it? She said "yes" and she's the food expert. So I guess it was!

She finished the trip slightly up, and that includes trying some of her first $2/$5 games on the last couple of days.
That was great, because she was down a few buy-ins after the first few days.

She had also set the target to me to try beat this trip, +$2,751 back in 2018:
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showp...

I think the flop here has to be a raise, simply because you can balance this out with so many various draws (78cc, KQcc, QTcc, AXcc, 89cc etc.). And we should also raise our strongest made hands here (J9s, 55, 99, maybe also AJ occasionally?).

It obviously worked out fine regardless, but as a general concept I think it's important to fast play big hands since the flop is the street where you often get the most value (before more scare cards come out). I would imagine the guy with KK would slow down on club turns for example, although maybe not on this specific hand since he held Kc.

Those are some amazing results for 34 hours! And don't worry about what others think you 'should' do on your days; just do what you are comfortable with yourself 😀

What a great trip - congratulations and I’m happy for you

Wow that fish was expensive!

Thanks for your comment - yes, I agree about doing what you want. I don't think I have it in me to play 10 hours a day: it's nice to be a bit lazy on holiday, or just go for some fresh air.

On the two-pair hand, it's interesting because - if I'm honest - I don't play in a very consistent way. There are a lot of hands which I could play a few different ways, depending on my mood and how I feel about my opponents. Maybe that's bad, but in some ways it's what keeps poker interesting to me. In a vacuum, I agree fast-playing is probably best, particularly on a relatively wet board.

Thanks!

Yes, it was. Arguably it was funded by several donations from fish during the poker games.

Final update from the trip below:

Day 10 - Sunday 15th June

We checked out of Vdara (after removing a rogue $18 “refreshment centre” charge) and we had about 5 hours before we had to leave for the airport.
My wife chose to play her final session in Aria and I went to Planet Hollywood again.

At PH, we started a new table with 4 players just after midday.
I sat next to the dealer, which is always my preferred seat because you get a bit more space. This time, I noticed that the card shuffling machines had an LCD display showing them count through all 52 cards to check the deck was correct. I asked the dealer about it and they said the shuffling machines also check for marks and the machines know which brand/type of cards are being used. Pretty cool. In London, one of the main rooms (Hippodrome) still doesn’t have any shuffling machines...

The session didn’t start great. I lost a small/medium pot with TPGK to an older guy slow-playing (or maybe he’s just very passive) pocket aces.

Then a bit later I was dealt A♦9♦ on the button and the same guy opened from MP to $12 and I called.

Everyone else folded and the flop came 2♦6♦J♠, giving me the nut flush draw.
He continued for $15 and I raised to $45. He called.

Turn was 8♣.
He checked and I continued for $70 and he called.
River was another blank, something like 5♠.

He checked to me and I decided to give up.
He showed… pockets aces again. 🙄

In between these hands I won a few smaller pots and I also topped up for another $100, so my stack stayed around the $300 mark.

I then won a medium pot when I flopped about my 10th set for the trip with 22 and my opponent kindly bluffed a couple of streets into me with ace high (no draws), before giving up on the river and folding face-up when I bet.

The situation reversed when I tried a 3-street bluff against someone who happened to have flopped a set and then turned quads.
Not that it would have made any difference, but he called rather than raised on the river, because he thought it needed to go to showdown for his high hand to count for the bonus. 😊

In between the hands I mentioned, I was able to continue stealing smaller pots with c-bets on the flop: it was quite an easy/relaxed table with passive players.

I cashed out after 3.5 hours, +$57. Very small win, but it continued my winning streak of 9 sessions in a row (and 11/12 in total for the trip).

I had a final short walk along the strip, taking these photos along the way:

I returned to Aria to pick up my wife who finished her final session +$340, after making a $1,000 hero call with pocket tens on a KQxxx board in her $2/$5 game.

We had a final meal at Lemongrass (Aria's Thai restaurant) to round out the trip.

Final Gambling results at the end of the trip:
+$3,487 from 37.5 hours of poker
-$94 from video poker

Final thoughts:

To state the obvious, I ran really, really well the whole trip.
I don’t remember needing any crazy outdraws, but I got way more than my fair share of sets and pretty much all of them held up.
Also, I avoided any coolers.

And it’s easier to play "well" (at least by my own standards 😊) when you’re winning sessions, because you don’t have to overthink any hands.
Even in the last session, when it seemed fully appropriate for me to finally post a loss, the poker gods deemed fit to flop me another set.

To add to all that luck, the trip was bookended by two notable events. My football team won their first trophy in 17 years, shortly before I left for the trip. And my favourite CS player, William “Mezii” Merriman, became the first Brit to lift a Counter-Strike major trophy just after I returned home.
…what a f**king luckbox!

Great results! Congratulations!

Well done!