Black Friday getaway to the 702: TR 11/28- 12/3
2024 was the best and happiest year of my life. had some personal accomplishments and recognitions, family life was good
Definitely don’t miss Lotus of Siam at Red Rock, that place is GREAT.
woke up "late" after another full night sleep.
had an expiring coupon for a free Tropical Smoothie Cafe so drove a mile down the road for that. then headed to Red Rock Canyon for a morning hike.
another beautiful day. parked at Calico Basin and headed toward the rocks to the left/West. passed a ton of rock climbers. as I scrambled up the rocks I hit a dead end cliff and had to turn around and find another way. kept moving up until I came to another steep cliff I can't get passed. heard a group just above, but by this time I had already lost my water bottle and being solo it wasn't worth risking my life so I turned around and headed down.
I saw a larger group hiking down (likely the people I heard earlier) and was able to say hi at the bottom. they had started somewhere to the right, and they would be coming back tomorrow for a hike to the left. my hike was only an hour today so I may give it another go. I love hiking and there are no mountains in North Dakota.
got a bowl of gumbo at Lucille's for a cheap and quick lunch. had it before and it was great and it was sufficient this time. may come again tomorrow for something different.
walked around the casino a bit, looking for a $15 double deck BJ. didn't find any. watched a busy craps table. no idea what's going on there. sat down for pai gow instead.
it was a full table, everyone doing the bonus so I thought okay, maybe it's worth getting in on. first hand had a flush and was pleased with my inspiration. but my bet was with the progressive that doesn't count flush. so then I switch to the $5 regular bonus side. after three loses I quit that. later someone did hit quad 7s, but the envy payout for that is $5, which is worth one qualifying bet. so that was a -$17 right off the bat. but I won a few regular hands so it's a wash.
dealer Moe was another enjoyable dealer, and I kept winning. I looked over and saw there was a $15 ddbj next door so when Moe left I changed tables. poor choice as by the time Moe returned I was down $100. that's enough blackjack for me this trip. hopped back over to pai gow and won it all back.
put on my swimsuit and went out to the pool. two smaller heated pools were open along with a hot tub. I swam about 82 laps in the tiny pool, taking a break halfway to soak in the hot tub as the third wheel with an ugly couple who were clearly madly in love.
changed up and headed to the poker room for another fight with the beast. got immediate seating at same table adjacent to my seat last night.
Session 3: Red Rock 1/3
lively table, good mix, several solid players but not as scary. the guy nextdoor tells me "loose table." play went very fast so I didn't get very thorough/accurate notes.
a few players of note:
an Asian guy sat at my left, we'll call him Tim. for the first hour I think he played every hand.
old guy with a fishing hat, we'll call him Dan.
sporty guy with a hat, about 40yo, Chad.
- Dan limps, open, on sb I see AK and I raise to $25. two calls.
flop A85. check, check, Dan bets $45. I check raise all in. he asks for a count, then calls. but it's AK v AK, lame.
- I open JJ. get a couple calls. hoping to flop a set for an instant win $50 room promo...
king high flop, can't remember action
turn another K. think I'm good now. I check it, Tim has been running me over bets $25 and I call.
river Q. I bet $35, he calls, and I'm good! nice to get one back.
- I open A7, Tim calls. limper Dan calls too.
flop Ad 7h 4d. I make a small bet and Dan calls.
turn is an Ace, giving me a full house. I bet $20 but he folds. realized after I should have just checked back to see a potential flush come. I've seen so few premium hands though.
- T8cc I open, Tim raised. I swear he was playing every hand and 3-betting me every time.
flop J85 cdh. turn Jd can't remember action
river was Qs. I bet $35. he raises to $110.
I don't think he has a J. don't think he has a Q. I say outloud "you have ten nine" and I fold. he shows me ten nine of diamonds.
we had a bit of a chat, I mentioned he 3bet me every time and he did acknowledge "I had a good hand." true, and he's had a lot of good hands and has like $1000 in chips.
after that Tim did slow down a little and actually folded after my next open, dropping his VPIP to like 98%.
- I have Q9dd.
flop comes AQ9hhh.
turn 6h. river 6s
Chad bets and I have to fold my 3 pair. he shows a bluff! maybe Q8cs. don't think I could have done any different. "that's my only bluff tonight" Chad says.
- I open KK. Tim raises. I call. I am not 4-betting kings. especially at Red Rock against a hot player.
flop is ace high. I bet, he calls.
turn J. I check, bets $55. I fold.
he flopped set of aces. that could have been ugly.
- open A5hd, flop is 543ccc. I bet Chad calls.
turn is another club. checks
river is Ad. he bets. this is the same situation with the same "last bluff" player from earlier. two pair with four to a flush on board. sure enough, he has the ace clubs for nuts.
Dan beat me a few times and left with a healthy rack.
Tim finally left and was replaced with two legitimate shortstacked fish directly to my left. was gonna leave for dinner but finally felt like I had a skill advantage. big black old guy with a Raiders cap is Joe.
unfortunately I got no cards! 9-3, 6-2, 5-4, J2, 8-4... I finally got heads up on the button in a hand I raised A8 against Joe, but KK on the flop and Joe donk bet and showed his king.
next time the tougher players folded around to me on the button, I opened to isolate them and other guy yells "raise!" think that was the hand that Joe busted him.
I was completely card dead and Joe ran hot as the sun. he basically played face up and showed every winner to prove it. I really wanted to bluff him but I got nothing and he always got everything.
I played for close to 5 hours. I got no sets, no straights, no flushes. no football random seat draw won. got one full house and didn't get paid for it. it was so frustrating because the good players left and bad players kept coming. felt I played well overall but didn't matter to the bottom line. finally I opened with KJ, callers, Q83 flop. I shoved my small stack, got called by TT and did not improve.
the Red Rock Massacres keep coming. this is my favorite resort but I get crushed in the poker room every time I play so I'll go elsewhere from now on.
went out for a real dinner at Lotus of Siam. ordered the khao soi and it was really good. the service was awesome too.
from there played pai gow and won back $50 to somewhat salvage the day once again.
dinner at Lotus of Siam was very good
Great pictures!
That hike looks very pleasant… a nice diversion, too.
I spend wayyyyy too much time indoors when I’m in Vegas.
Glad the trip is going well! Just catching up -- tough to do from Vegas and then the holidays! Well done on the tourney. Love Lotus of Siam.
Last day in Vegas!
woke up early today to get a little work-work. before 9am I headed back to Red Rock Canyon for a group scramble hike I registered for. the group leader is my father's age and hikes 5 days a week.
we went a similar way as I went yesterday, and we passed through the place I was unable to yesterday. there were at least a dozen scrambles that I could never have done (or dared to do) alone. my first time officially with the meetup group (had hooked on mid-hike before), the leader had me stay right with him and showed me how to do all the difficult maneuvers. many times I did very uncomfortable things and steps that were a little scary. despite my non-sandstone-specific hiking shoes, I only had a little foot slip one time. it was a real cool experience and one of the highlights of my trip.
ate lunch at Lucille's again, getting the southern fries chicken. wanted some veggies, but they were the worst part. the rest was good.
after working a couple more hours I took a nap. but all I could think of when my eyes closed was clinging to a sandstone cliff wall and then losing my balance and falling back into the abyss. better in a dream than reality I guess.
drove to Bellagio. walking through the casino I saw $25 3:2 BJ and $25 pai gow. for people concerned about terrible table game rules things are ok on a Tuesday evening.
found a video poker machine and sat down to use free play, and turned that into $45 real dollars.
Conservatory is stunning right now. some obligatory pics:
to the poker room where I got immediate seating for 1/3.
That hike sounds amazing! Sorry about the dreams, though. Funny how $25 BJ is now "good." It used to be $15 was high (for low-roller gamblers like me) 😉
Bellagio Poker
there was a lot of strange behavior in the Bellagio poker room today.
- young Asian man (my in-laws are Asian, is it okay for me to refer to a player as one?) with his girlfriend next to/behind him, and she was talking to him during the hands; at one point there was a raise, he asked "30?" looked ready to call and she told him to raise, which he did. those shenanigans were recognized and quickly put to bed.
- there was a big river bet by same player, old guy tanking, asked the player "will you show if I fold", he called for his gf to translate and she just said "ok I get it" without repeating it back. weird. the player folded top pair, he showed a worse hand, but the dealer had already cleaned the board. that pissed off the losing player, other people told him what the board was, he berated the dealer, who explained that she was just moving the game along, player made a clock motion "then move it along and go, or do you want me to wait ten minutes?"
some other rude behavior later to the same dealer (can't remember specifics) and I racked up. the game wasn't very good anyway.
I hopped into a tournament that was headed for an overlay.
- then in the tourney players were making illegal raises, the dealer didn't know how to handle new players, misread the board, etc. another dealer (not a new one) was very strange; player announced "four" and tossed on a 5000 chip and dealer yelled "forty!" (four-T?) he was incredibly awkward the whole time, making weird statements about the play, making change in the most awkward way possible. I struggled to be quiet and let him operate.
- many players and dealers were unaccustomed to tournaments. guess they've only been running on the room for a short period and it showed.
all this was very surprising in a room that is generally exceptional.
didn't get anything going in the cash game and took a loss for 2 hours.
as for the tourney: $150, 20k stack, 20min levels.
chips are kinda pretty.
Jumped in 14th with 10 left, there ended up 16 players for a little overlay to the $2K.
300/600/600 then 4/8/8, then 6/12/12... most of the players were just bad and I did my best to steal the blinds as much as possible, which come around a lot when we are playing five handed.
made the final table! two in one trip. /s
some much better players moved over from the other table and a few of them had huge stacks. couldn't believe it considering how few chips there were at my table.
whole time, especially FT I was just looking for some place to shove and it never came, folding for a couple orbits.
one player opened, another guy shoved, call... it was J8o v AT. wut
flop came QT9 for the immediate knockout of one of the "better" players. so dumb.
a few hands later, the same guy (shover with J8) opened, I finally see a pair (deuces), I shove... and this time he has Aces. out in 8th.
used my poker comps for a free meal at Snacks. first time there..the pizza and pretzel knots were delicious! a pleasant surprise.
on the way out I sat down for some pai gow. they had several busy $50 tables, I found an empty $25 table and sat down. the older white lady dealer (most are foreigners so this is relevant) was a little too friendly and social for me. her father had lived in Dakota and she had been there many times. she asked so many questions about me and my life, I'm on vacation and just want to play some cards. really don't want to talk about my real life. but at least she was nice.
left at first dealer change and cashed for a quick $75 win.
what was the deal with the Macaw?
that was enough Bellagio for me. hoping for one last hail mary in a room I enjoy and have had more success in, drove up to Treasure Island to park and swiftly walked over to the V
Venetian Poker
got immediate seating in 1/3. game was pretty soft, although I didn't stay long after getting up a hundred. name called for 2/3 and I moved over there.
this table was much different. a bunch of players with over $1000 and eager to build big pots and get in with marginal hands. more like a big 2/5 game.
in one bomb pot I flopped a set of jacks that improved to quads on the turn. went multi-way and I chopped a $1100 pot.
nothing else positive.
AJ, flop A44, he has J4
get in a hand with QQ, ten high flop... he has AA
AsKc, flops three spades, he already has a flush and I cannot improve
QThh, flop comes QT5ddd and he already has a flush
I get in with JThh, a raise to $90
I open A8 to $20, even with my tight image gets raised to $110
I did get a table change but it wasn't any different. should have just stayed at 1/3.
it was very late and I took my loss and cashed out and headed back to Red Rock. at this point, not keeping track of specific $+/- in cash games because it is frankly all bad.
after packing up I went down to the casino to play pai gow one last time, looking to exchange some small bills for bigger ones. despite a stretch with a hot dealer where I pushed 10 hands in a row and then 5 more immediately after (she counted and let me know), got up $50 and cashed out a winner before going to bed.
may comment on this again later but pai gow went very well for me this trip. without hitting or playing bonus I went +$350ish
one more photo from my room at RR
my alarm went off about 3.5 hours later
after an earlier session I asked the poker floor about my food comps. "they can swipe your card and take care of it, don't need to print anything out."
at check out, I asked about poker comps going toward my bill for dining charges, but the clerk had no idea about it. "I'll have the host look into your play." the poker room has food comps for like 1.50 or 2.00 per hour. "I am kind of in the dark about that, we're the red-headed stepchild around here" (actual quote).
this is so frustrating; Red Rock has terrible internal communication. I suppose poker food comps can only get done directly at the restaurant and cannot be applied to room charges? this is the second trip I've run into this. there should be no reason the check out clerk cannot access my poker room food comp totals when they can access my bill. I'm pessimistic a host will fix it.
but anyway, car return went smoothly, through the airport smoothly and I'm on a half capacity flight home. so long Vegas.
and arrived to a snow covered and chilly neighborhood ready for Christmas. Eevee the dog is happy to see me.
will post a conclusion in a day or two. thanks to the handful of you who followed along.
Appreciate the TR!
Nice trip report. Thank you and hope you enjoyed your break
Thanks for posting!
No arrival-home dog pic?
Looks like a great trip! Thanks for sharing.
Great report as always, thanks for bringing us along.
Don't show Eevee the pics of the rocks venture! He won't be able to sleep at night during your next trip for worrying about your safety.
Nice trip. Thanks for the report and pics!
can I come back now
remind me to miss my return flight next time
I never realized this was about a thermometer:
