Whale does Vegas - 2025 birthday-ish edition (23rd Nov - 2nd Dec)
Hello everyone,
Starting this thread unusually early, since I am a bit over-excited. It is once again time to travel back to Las Vegas, and as mentioned in the subject line I am arriving 23rd November and leaving 2nd December.
My birthday is next Tuesday (:shocked😀, and I toyed with the idea of actually being in Las Vegas for the birthday celebration. Ultimately though I decided against it, simply because it's just before F1 and the prices was also not amazing for that time period.
So instead we will make it a Thanksgiving-ish trip, where I am arriving just a few hours after F1 have finished. I realize it will obviously be chaotic for a while after F1 as well, but at least they will start to remove all the grandstands and barriers etc. So it should at least look better and better as the days go by, and from memory I believe that Thanksgiving weekend should be a really good one for Vegas. Although I have to admit it doesn't look like that from the hotel prizes I had available (not very expensive).
Speaking of hotels, we are going with this combination:
23rd-26th Nov: Horseshoe (Resort Room 1 King)
26th Nov-2nd Dec: Bellagio (Premier King)
It will be really fun to try out the Bellagio, even if that means I will have to play 'Frogger' at times to get to my room (very crowded). For once I had quite reasonable prices there, and I felt like trying something new & to splurge a little bit. And Horseshoe is a solid one for the first few days as well, especially since it's fully comped and I am only paying the resort fee.
Poker wise I haven't really thought too much about where and what I want to play. As per usual, I will just take it as it comes and not have too many concrete plans set in stone. But I am looking forward to playing in the new/old location at Caesars again, and since I am staying at Bellagio for a lot of the trip I will probably try some $2/$5 there. I also want to brave the long waitlists and get in a session at the Wynn - somewhere I haven't played for years.
It seems I will be in town at the same time as many other 2+2'ers, so feel free to shout out if anyone wants to say hello 😀
I am sure I will have some more thoughts about the trip when we get closer to the travel day(s). So I will update more in a few weeks. But I am as always beyond stoked about going to Vegas again, and hopefully I can have a really profitable trip without making any stupid mistakes and overplays in certain spots. And maybe I'll find a tournament or two to hopefully run deep in as well.
Edit: There is also a 2% chance that my brother will join, but if i have to guess it's probably not very likely. And unfortunately there is 0% chance for any last minute booking from 'MuckPls' it seems.
Yes please! Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!
Have a great trip, and win ALL the moneys!!
I get in 5 days after you leave, so just make sure you leave *some* money behind for me to clean up.
Subbed and GL!
get em Whale
I have tentative plans of being there for Thanksgiving week because my small town has no T-day buffet. If I can get my busted oven fixed, or get my convection oven set up, and it will hold a small turkey, it becomes less likely that I'll go. If I do go, I plan to hit the Caesars buffet. I'm a mad fiend for turkey. I've done the Orleans buffet, but it's about a 6 on the quality scale. That would be more than good enough for me, but I still haven't spent my free $100 Diamond meal, so I'll be using that.
I should also try to play some poker before next year's WSOP, so I don't get too rusty. Two sessions a year is enough, right? If I see anyone at my table that looks remotely scandi though, time for a table change. Actually, I don't mind losing to Whale as long as it's not TOO much.
GL! As Whale already mentioned there is sadly 0% chance I will join. Back in august we picked up everything, dogs, kids, cat etc and moved to Spain which ate up a huge portion of our savings. So now it’s rebuilding time.
There is still a decent chance that I’ll go for 2 weeks in January during CES, but nothing guaranteed yet.
GL sir. Would have thought you'd have done December though, with the WPT World Championships on at Wynn, or is that not good for cash games at the other casinos like with WSOP?
good luck to you (except if we are at the same table ;-)
I'm in and might (2% chance) be there for a night or two, as well during this time. Post T-day, as the daughter is hosting this year.
GL! As Whale already mentioned there is sadly 0% chance I will join. Back in august we picked up everything, dogs, kids, cat etc and moved to Spain which ate up a huge portion of our savings. So now it’s rebuilding time.
There is still a decent chance that I’ll go for 2 weeks in January during AVN, but nothing guaranteed yet.
F Y P ?
GL sir. Would have thought you'd have done December though, with the WPT World Championships on at Wynn, or is that not good for cash games at the other casinos like with WSOP?
Thanks! No idea how cash games are during that time, but I don't really want to play against players who are rich & good enough from poker that they can easily afford the buy-ins that WPT at Wynn have. That series is way outside my price range at least.
GL Whale. I recently decided that the Bellagio is my favorite property in Vegas. There are newer casinos and nicer poker rooms, but something about the vibe there speaks to me. I'm curious to hear how you like your stay.
As you know, Venetian always has a tournament series running at any given time. I enjoy the Wynn dailies as well even when they aren't running a proper series. Depending on what you're looking for, the nightly actually tends to skew a bit tougher than the daily. There are always some strong local players in the turbo. If you want a more casual event, the Venetian $200 bounty that they run at 6:10 PM almost every night usually has a wide range of player types.
Good luck! Maybe we'll run into each other Sunday or Monday!
Happy Birthday and run good!
GL Whale and Happy B Day
Can you elaborate why you describe Bellagio as leap frogging.
Always had nice rooms there. Esp when we had fountain view suite once. But never any leap frogging issues.
GL Whale and Happy B Day
Can you elaborate why you describe Bellagio as leap frogging.
Always had nice rooms there. Esp when we had fountain view suite once. But never any leap frogging issues.
not Whale but....
Frogger...the 80s video game. you often had to move sideways and even backwards and sideways to avoid obstacles, before you could move forward
GL Whale. I recently decided that the Bellagio is my favorite property in Vegas. There are newer casinos and nicer poker rooms, but something about the vibe there speaks to me. I'm curious to hear how you like your stay. As you know, Venetian always has a tournament series running at any given time. I enjoy the Wynn dailies as well even when they aren't running a proper series.
I love the Bellagio, but it will always be my second favourite room. For me, and I have no idea why, Aria is and will always be number one. Convenience, food options, the poker room, I know most of the dealers and floor who are super friendly. Also a big + if you are a low stake grinder is the cap, for me there is a big difference between playing $300 and $500. Sure, you could move up to Bellagio 2/5 which is also easily beatable but the regs to recs (even if they are shitregs) are way bigger in the B 2/5 game.
Same thing btw, just something about the entire Aria vibe gets to me.
They just have too many tables in there (greed) so they're too close together. I remember crawling over the railing to get out to go to the bathroom when I was at a table against the rail.
It's also extremely filthy. Felt crusty with spilled beer because the tables don't have cupholders. Empty bottles rolling around on the floor under the tables, and who knows what else. I've also played there when nobody was running chips. Players had to make change for the dealer.
Yes, but where? I certainly have never experienced frogger world related to my room. And even the casino floor, while crowded at times is certainly far from the worst.
So explain where and what all these obstacles and obstructions you have to hop around. What are they? Where are they.
