Ongoing VP TR, PART 2!
Hi all, apparently my previous thread may have gotten so long that it's causing issues for the website. So, here is a ne
Thanks for the exciting, awesome update leon. It seems like at some point in there the expectations would have risen so high as to lament hitting only a few hands above expectation rather than being dealt a unicorn. I was hoping for a switch to UX or spin for a true lightning bolt, but the trip isn't over yet. Well, it ain't over until after the report in my book.
Yeah you feel me. I just kept going and going, hitting and hitting, simultaneously thinking "this can't continue" while ALSO thinking "if I'm ever going to be dealt a unicorn, it's now".
I always say, I really need two monsters in short succession to make a truly massive score. First one lets me take a shot at levels I don't normally play. The second... that's the home run ball.
Rest of Day 1
I take a break and finally head up to the room.
I decide to hit the craps table and slow things down after my huge start. Well, sort of. I buy in for 10k and decide to bet 1100$ even numbers, basically 2x or more my usual bet.
I have a solid, but short session. It was never bad and the instant it turned I walked. At this stage I'm still flying solo and waiting for D to get in.
In for 10, out for almost 19k.
I've got an hr and a half until dinner at SW, so I head back to the hi limit room. I don't play particularly large, but the magic from before is gone. At some point I move over to the single line machine that bailed me out last trip.
Despite those hits, I'm still stuck 5k for this session. It's time for SW!
Way too much food, obv. Everything 8/10.
After gorging myself, I had a thought that I ended up discussing more with D. I only ordered what I did bc I wanted the variety. I knew full well that I wasn't going to come close to finishing the food. That made me think, would I have ordered what I did if it wasn't comped? I think the answer is yes- I already scaled the steak back to basically the smallest cut I was interested in and didn't get Kobe or Wagyu- that would have been beyond wasteful. That led to the thought that I wish restaurants would charge 50% for 1/2 portions.
Knowing that cuts into their profit, I THEN had the thought- what if restaurants charged the same, but if the guest wanted, they could specifically request smaller portions, and the restaurant would have to donate the excess food? I'd TOTALLY do that. I get they have to charge what they charge, but for someone like me that'd be the nuts. I'm never going to force myself to overeat, and if some good comes of the excess food, perfect. In fact, I'd preferentially eat at a restaurant if I knew I'd still have to pay full freight but the food wouldn't go to waste. Obv this would be optional for the guest. I know for a fact in France restaurants and grocery stores can give leftover food to the homeless. It's illegal in this country bc something something health code violation something something 'merica. Anyways, it was an interesting thought exercise. We're such a wasteful country, YET we obv have our fair share of starving people too.
I head back to hi limit, and slowly but surely get crushed. No pics, and I think I gave back 15k before calling it quits. In retrospect, to not have one pic means it was a very icy session. I hope I don't end up regretting this...
Day 1 result- + 39K
Dealt quads- 2, one premium
5 digit hits- 2
Day 2 coming soon...
After gorging myself, I had a thought that I ended up discussing more with D. I only ordered what I did bc I wanted the variety. I knew full well that I wasn't going to come close to finishing the food. That made me think, would I have ordered what I did if it wasn't comped? I think the answer is yes- I already scaled the steak back to basically the smallest cut I was intereste
Get a doggie bag and give it to a homeless yourself? It's not like they're so hard to find on the Strip.
Get a doggie bag and give it to a homeless yourself? It's not like they're so hard to find on the Strip.
That’s what we did when we were there a couple of years ago with my wife. Walking to Aria we saw an old guy outside with two dogs. Had pizza at Aria and ordered way too much food, took it to go and gave everything to the guy and his dogs.
But then again, not sure how much Leon actually goes out to the strip
'solid but slow craps session'....=+9k! in my dreams!
Get a doggie bag and give it to a homeless yourself? It's not like they're so hard to find on the Strip.
The point is a way we could build into the system a way to reduce the amount of waste at the point of sale without the customer themselves having to take care of it. Obv anyone can do what they want with the food after the fact. Eg take food home as leftovers (we do this all the time in SD). As things stand now, the onus of reducing waste is on the individual consumer- I'd like to see other parts of the system help with the process.
As far as your comment about homeless on the strip, giving them handouts there is likely to increase the chance that's where they park themselves. OTOH, if in my hypothetical scenario the Vegas restaurants distributed the food at an off-strip food bank, it should decrease the number (or at least the amount of time) the homeless spend on the strip.
I said solid but short 😀
Maybe next time the Wynn will get its act together and have your room ready when you arrive!
…out of self-preservation
America has so many ridiculous rules, and we are such a wasteful country :(
A lot of the strip food waste gets collected and sent to a pig farm. I'm not kidding.
As a long time cook/volunteer in the kitchen at Catholic Charities of SN, it's a matter of logistics, transportation, food safety. To serve to the public, I need 100+ servings to start. Any decent restaurant would go bankrupt with that kind of waste. And it's very hard to re-purpose cooked food when you have no idea how it's been held or handled. Did it spend 3 hours on a buffet line already? Think no one would donate bad food? I saw plenty of stuff I wouldn't feed a dog.
Btw, the staff in the CCSN kitchen (20-25 people) is mostly shelter people and take 1st dibs on the really good donations. I was very happy to serve them smaller donations. It was the best perk of working in the kitchen. Fattened those guys right up. Soda was especially beloved. Donated cans of Coke were currency like cigarettes.
Best donations come from caterers who have multiple trays of food that's been well cared for. I once got about 40 lbs of amazing brisket that made quite a stir the next morning as chipped beef on toast.
Thanks for your continued posting Leon. Love the thread.
A lot of the strip food waste gets collected and sent to a pig farm. I'm not kidding.As a long time cook/volunteer in the kitchen at Catholic Charities of SN, it's a matter of logistics, transportation, food safety. To serve to the public, I need 100+ servings to start. Any decent restaurant would go bankrupt with that kind of waste. And it's very hard to re-purpose cooked
Thanks for the insiders' perspective, that's pretty cool. When you say donations, is this food that the restaurants etc prepped that never got served, food that they prepped specifically to donate, leftover food or a mix of all three?
Thanks for the insiders' perspective, that's pretty cool. When you say donations, is this food that the restaurants etc prepped that never got served, food that they prepped specifically to donate, leftover food or a mix of all three?
Very few restaurants donate. They re-purpose everything. If not sold, employees will get it for meals.
Caterers donate when they have huge extras (bad weather, cancellations, etc) that are paid for. People can request they donate it.
No one makes food to donate.
I loved people who would buy a 25lb or 50lb bag of rice that was on special and give that. Tons of people did that around Thanksgiving with Turkeys
Supermarkets etc give when the sell by date has expired. 90% of that is still good for a day or 2.
Supermarkets etc give when the sell by date has expired. 90% of that is still good for a day or 2.
A day or two? Try a few days for meats, weeks to months (or longer) for boxed foods like crackers, flour, etc., and years for canned food 😉
Drives me nuts when people toss food because it's "expired." LOL. It's "sell by, " not expired -- unless it's baby food. Idiots. So wasteful.
A lot of the strip food waste gets collected and sent to a pig farm. I'm not kidding.As a long time cook/volunteer in the kitchen at Catholic Charities of SN, it's a matter of logistics, transportation, food safety. To serve to the public, I need 100+ servings to start. Any decent restaurant would go bankrupt with that kind of waste. And it's very hard to re-purpose cooked
Prior to the pandemic, I volunteered once a week at a soup kitchen that served sit down dinner 365 nights a year. They had food coming in from a wide variety of places. They had a different church or a temple for every day of the month that would bring in food to be cooked (i.e. The Church of Whatever would bring food in the second Monday of every month). The soup kitchen also had an enormous walk in refrigerator and freezer for food that came from grocery stores, restaurants, donors, etc. Cans of everything you can imagine. Bread that was still good, but no longer usable/sellable by grocery stores and restaurants constantly arrived in large quantities. A van full of vegetables arrived once a week to provide huge amounts of healthy eats. If anything, we often had too much stuff to give away on top of the hot dinners. Admittedly, this was an extremely high-end (quality of food as well as it had volunteer servers who brought the food to patrons restaurant style), efficiently run organization that was hitting on all cylinders.
Unfortunately for me, during the pandemic the soup kitchen changed from dinner 365 nights a year to lunch 365 days a year, which hasn't worked for my work schedule, although now that I have sold a number of my office buildings perhaps I might be able to volunteer again.
RPPoker, it feels weird to see you in this thread and not your own.
With the dealt quad 4's on 25 play, I see you drew the kicker 5 times in a row at one point.
Pretty sure I would feel an erection starting if that happened to me 😀
Prior to the pandemic, I volunteered once a week at a soup kitchen that served sit down dinner 365 nights a year. They had food coming in from a wide variety of places. They had a different church or a temple for every day of the month that would bring in food to be cooked (i.e. The Church of Whatever would bring food in the second Monday of every month). The soup kitchen also
Best giving tips:
Buy deeply discounted staple foods that stores want to move. Just leave it in your trunk until convenient.
Do anything outside of the holidays. Everyone shows up thanksgiving. It was comical. I avoided Thanksgiving like the plague. Show up in March or July.
And enough of this charity bullshit, lets GAMBLE!
Allen Kessler sits down at $0.50 10 line UX and hits a dealt royal second hand for $36 000…
this thread def confirms how bad I run.
Day 2
The late night beat down was so fast I actually didn't go to bed that late last night... which guarantees I'm going to wake up too early. I'm up at 4:30am!
Need all the run good this trip sphere!
I head to hi limit and play slowly, trying to preserve this win.
It was objectively a great AM session; my only regret was not locking in another 5 digit ticket. I ended up giving the vast majority back but still booked a 2k session win. At the time, I rationalized that I survived a session, padded my win, and took a swing (and missed). I moved over to craps with the same mindset. I walk right into a cold beat down, stuck several K before I caught a good roll and am now up several k! I play down to... a 2k win again. I'll take it. Up 4k for the day so far, and D is set to arrive very soon!
In for 5, out for 7.
D puts his stuff in the room and we meet at Tableau for breakfast.
After breakfast, D has several hrs of work calls he's got to get done. We still have yet to play a session together. I head back to VP.
All I remember from this session is that it was a loser. I lost at least 4k here. D is finally done with his work, we walk over to Encore for craps.
It's a generally warm session and we were never down. I end up winning 5k and D is up 6k! Great start for him.
In for 5, out for 10.
I'm up 5k on the day now. We decide to hit Red 8 for a late lunch, then grab a nap. We're registering for the tournament at 6pm, and the winner take all portion starts at 7:30, so we figure we'll be playing right thru what would be a normal dinner time. Let's plan this out smart, get food while we can, and rest up so we can play well!
LOL took a pic of the menu but not the food. Everything hit the spot today, 8-9/10.
After my nap, I head down for VP and lose 5k lightning fast. OK, I'm even for the day now. That's not a bad spot to be in at all, esp coming on the back of a 39k Day 1 win. We head to Intrigue where the tournament is being hosted.
So the deal with the warmup tourney is- anyone who spends 3k in rebuys/add ons now will have a spot in this tourney. I don't like our chances in a winner take all donkfest, but IMO we have to sign up. We're likely going to rebuy and add on in the main tourney anyways (have to be prepared to), and given that we might as well take this shot at 50k AND a seat at the final table! Plus, if you buy all three now you start with an additional 25k (which is the starting stack) in the main tourney. The EV is simply too good to pass up. So D and I plunk down our 3k and walk around for a bit while waiting for the tourney to start.
I plan on being able to buy you when I'm done here...
We head back down and get ready to play. Structure is LOL bad- 10 min rounds. Blinds start at 100/200 and go 200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 500/1k then 1k/2k LOL. Starting stack is 10k chips! This is really going to be a crap shoot. Gotta get some hands early.
They were expecting 20 runners... and have at least 44. Even more of a crapshoot now.
I grab my seat and we're off! Within the first few hands, I have most of the people on my right pegged. Weak/loose. I have a great seat. How do I know they're weak loose? Well, limp limp limp every hand would seem to imply that, and when they turn over such monsters as 37 sooted or A3o that's further evidence. Of course, I'm utterly card dead and can't even see a flop. I'd happily limp in with a marginal hand but I can't even get that- just utter trash like 83o or a weak ace. There's no bluffing or thinning the field here so that's out too.
Finally, I pick up JQo on the button and raise a limper. Blinds and limpers call and I miss the flop completely. They check to me and I debate stabbing at it but decide to just take a free card. Turn is nothing, SB bets out and gets called by the field except me LOL. Top pair no kicker ends up beating middle pair and middle pair no kicker LOL. JESUSFINGCHRIST I need cards!
Meanwhile, someone got knocked out the very first hand! I hear his sob story- he flopped a set and opponent turned a full. Then, my phone blows up- it's D. "Doubled up first hand LOL". I surmise D knocked that guy out... yep. Turns out the dude flopped trips, not a set. And gave a free card. D had pocket 5s and filled up on the turn. LOL nice slow play sir.
The blinds are big enough now that I'm in push bot mode. I shove KQ on the button and get called by an ultra short stack- he's got a weak ace. Of course there's an ace as the door card and now I'm even shorter than before. Now someone LIMPS to me, I shove with a weak ace. I get called by... KQ. Ace in the door for me, one time?
No. A King AND a queen. Boy that's fun. Not.
So I'm out. Only consolation is we knew this was the likely outcome. I go grab a cigarette then come back and root for D.
Exterior of Intrigue.
I sweat D- he's getting somewhat playable cards but just whiffing flops. Eventually he makes his stand and gets outflopped. So that's done. There are still 20 some players left when he's done so we didn't even survive half the field.
We head to craps and it's a god-awful session. I lose 5k pretty quickly, and it was very unfun. Head back to VP and get PUMMELED. Initially I had a stop loss of 5k, but instead I get raped and end up donating 10k. So now I'm stuck 15k for the day, and we've burned one of our shots. Actually, I'm stuck 3k more bc of the rebuys etc- have to count those. So, a pretty crappy end to the day. HAVE TO RUN BETTER tomorrow!
Day 2 result- -18k
Overall- +21k
Dealt quads- 2, 1 premium
5 digit hits- 2
Day 3 coming soon...
Awwww I had big plans for your donkament run!
Better luck next time.
Wow, you have more chance to win on the actual craps table than that crapshoot poker tournament lol!
There's still the main tourney on Sat!
Wow, you have more chance to win on the actual craps table than that crapshoot poker tournament lol!
It's funny, I had no strong feelings about Friday's crapshoot. Just never got any cards, got it in in pretty standard spots and just ran poorly. I feel like if we play that scenario infinite times I've got to come out ahead. The players were just so bad, I felt like I was basically sitting on the sidelines.
D played a hand differently than I would have, wanted to see what you all thought. He's near the button with I believe A10 offsuit, 10bb. One limper to him. I shove here- he mucked. I think I'm right (obv). Thoughts anyone?
Oh, thought of another meta-discussion D and I had which I'd like opinions on. He was adamant that if he could find a spot early on to advertise he'd do it, even if it cost him chips. Eg, he was willing to run a bluff and get caught, and in his opinion the MAIN value was being able to turn over his cards and everyone could see what a donk he was.
I am of the opinion that it's generally better to get too much respect in hold 'em than not enough. And against specifically these opponents, there's little point in advertising bc they probably don't even understand what they're playing, let alone what you're selling. As usual in our poker discussions, I feel (know) I'm the better player and just let it go. Thoughts?
I'd probably push with ATo with 10bb with 1 limper in the CO. These guys can very possibly call with much less. I wouldn't be thinking it'll be folded through.
I doubt these non-poker players will be paying attention enough to notice any people playing "loose".
