Winter Break! Trip report 1/27-2/3

No idea but it will easily be the biggest thing on the strip. It actually leans out over the strip a little bit.

After the Caesar's tournament I got on the list and headed straight over to the venetian. Played for a couple hours and had a decent session in for $300 out for 510 for +210. I've had a couple of good cash sessions this trip but nothing really outstanding.

Going to go to dinner soon which will be welcome after skipping breakfast today all I did was grab a cookie. After dinner I think I'm going to try one more shot at some cash games and get back to the room early to pack relax and get ready to leave early tomorrow morning.

Went to get one of my all-time favorites for dinner bone-in ribeye and steak fries at delmonico. As always it was fantastic. Way better than that steak I had at Phil's in the Treasure island. Phil's and Delmonico are very similar in price point. But that's where the similarity ends. Delmonico has way better atmosphere it has way better service and it has way better food. Even with a $40 discount Phil's wasn't worth it. If I ever get another food deal at the Treasure Island I will spend it all in the coffee shop and Gilley's.

I am basically exhausted. It's been a very long week so I decided I was going not to play anymore poker after dinner. I did want to hit the casino though and take a shot just to see what happened. I played video poker and did pretty good I want about $150 so I ran $100 bill into $250 ticket which I put into a bubbles craps machine and I basically was up a little down a little up a little down a little and left with about a $10 profit from that. But that's pretty much a wrap on this trip I'm back up in the room right now I'm just going to relax until I get everything packed away and hopefully I don't miss my flight tomorrow. Once I get home I'll give him more detailed update on some of the tournaments in action that I played in it was a great trip and I want to thank you all for following along.

Thank you for keeping a consistent write up. I enjoy your style. you got me in the mood for my trip next week. have a safe return

AWESOME trip report!

And it looks like a successful trip, too!

Fun ride along! Thanks!

I enjoyed the read. Thanks for sharing.

Great report and a profitable trip.
Thank you and well done

I've seen pics of some other ones that don't have the whole neck, just about as much as is already done on that one.

Is it going to have a poker room?

How does Venetian compare to other games like the ones at Aria or Bellagio? Do the bomb pots actually help drive action in your experience?

the bomb pots definitely drive action, especially in the $2/3 game. the high hand promos also bring in a lot of nit promo hunters to the 1/3 game. I find a huge difference in the V 1/3 and 2/3 games.

Aria felt a lot more reg-heavy in my experience and I never enjoyed the room as much, although I know MuckPls plays there all the time on his trips and loves it.
I don't think MrBB plays much at A or B, he's almost exclusively Venetian for cash games.

Gotcha. I’ve stuck to mid strip because we always stay at horseshoe. Need to venture to Venetian and Wynn.

During WSOP last year at a 1/3 table during bomb pot I won a $2200 pot where both of my opponents only played one board and both of them misread their hands and kept piling in money thinking they had straights.

The level of play is insanely bad so if you have any idea how to play PLO you can print infinity money

Beware the Wynn 1/3. IME it's full of sharks and 2/5 players. The Venetian 1/3 seems like it's on a different planet than the Wynn game.

congrats on the trip mr bb!

Made it home safe and sound. I have a feeling I am going to sleep extraordinarily well in my opwn bed tonight because I spet like **** every night.

Thanks again all for following along. I have fun doing these reports even thouigh after 20+ of them thay are all pretty similar 😀 Here are some final thoughts:

Treasure Island
Like I said I think of this place as the budget tower of the Venetian/Palazzo. V/P is my goto spot but it can be pricey depending on when you go. I like that end of the strip because I prefer tournament play to cash. Wynn daily is the nuts for daily tournaments and V/P always has some sort of deep stack series going. Plus all of my absolute favorite places to eat are in the V/P. TI is just too convienient to all of that!.. Like I said I timed it and it is only a 6 minute 45 second walk from TI elevator bank to Venetian poker room and all of those great V/P eats are convienient as well. The Petite Suite? Ehhh. It was only a couple hundred dollrs more for the week than a standard room so I went for it. I didn't love the layout though. I did kind of like the jacuzzi tub though. I like to sit at the desk with my laptop and watch TV. This layout forced me onto the couch which wasn't thrilled with. Next TI trip will likely be a standard room unless the Tower Suite is ridiculously cheap. The $40 food comp was nice (and unexpected?) but I left it on the table the first and last day. That said the food options at TI are sparce. Could really only use it at Phil's, Gilley's, Coffee Shop or Pizza place. The asian place wasn't included nor were the Krispy Kreme or Popeyes. But TI is clean and comfortable with easy access to all the good V/P has to offer.

The Wizard of Oz
Wow! Just WOW! I was impressed. The sphere is totally awesome and if you have never been inside go see something in it! The concerts are pricey (looked into the Eagles this last weekend) and cheapest seat was $475. I like the Eagles but I aint paying that plus some of them are dead. But Oz is reasonable (and awesome!). Last year I was gonna go see the movie they have there until I found out it was klimate kook crap. But Oz rocks and I have to think they will convert some other stuff for sphrere viewing although Oz is almost perfect for it.

Cash poker
I primarily play cash to kill time between tounaments. My trip reports are always light on poker content. I wish I could recall and report on hands the way someone like Big Whale can but I play in the moment and forget most of it. I had a couple of decent cash sessions this trip but can't recall much about them. But it was positive for a profit of $408. The biggest hand (a bluff!) is memorable though. I am guessing you guys can tell howq I played it wrong 😀 I call $3 under the gun with A5 suited. Next guy raises to $15 and 6 more call so I do too ending the action. I flop open ender (all small cards rainbow) and Big Blind bets $36. I and one other call. Turn is (?) some insignifiat looking card and bb bets $75 which I call and other guy folds. River (?) and bb checks, I shove and he folds. I just felt this guy was trying to buy the pot all the way and after missing on the river a shove was my only chance.

There are 2 things Venetian regs love, bomb pots and high hand bonuses. Me? I hate bomb pots and pay no attention to high hand bonuses. I play about half of the bomb pots but also find them and excellent time to take a leak. Fom me its flop a monster or fold and I have no interest in speculating on these things. High hand bonuses? I made 2 mistakes. One hand I call $3 with 22. Its me and the bb. I flop a set and bet $6 and bb folds. I immediately realized I should have checked to try and spike quads. Then in another hand I make a full house. I know it isn't high hand becuase a couple of hands earlier someone at my table put up quads 8's. But if I would have noticed the clock I woulda seen I only needed to tank for 20 seconds until the new windows opened. No real pain though becuase mt TTT88 fullhouse would be beaten within 10 minutes.

Tournaments
Obviously I prefer tournaments to cash. With 2 cashes it is always a sucessful trip since zero cashes is the expected result 😀 But I played in 4 real tournaments and a donkament for $1940 in entry fees with $2970 in payout for a profit of $1030. Coulda been better and definitely coulda been worse. The more of these things I play the more I learn. I feel tournament play is all about recognizing situations and opportunites. Cards are often secondary to position or stack size. I like to play what I call cockroach poker. Stay in the shadows and out of sight until a big juicy crumb is sitting out there in the daylight I can go grab. Anytime I try to make something happen it is almost always a mistake. Some real aggressive guys can mass some huge stacks until they fly to close to the sun. There was one guy who was on my direct right in both the $800 2 day and the $340 rebuy. This guy looked like the greatest tournament player in the world. At least until he busted 😀 In the $800 he was running over the table. Very aggressive and he was both getting people to fold and hitting hands. I was really hoping to be able to shove on this guy but I was horribly card dead. When I was short enough and shoved on him with K9 suited he had AT and I missed and was gone. He had a huge stack at that point be he did not make the cut as he wasn't at the final. But in the 340 rebuy he was a late reg and seated once again on my direct right. He does it again and runs up a huge stack with pure aggression. I did get a double up from him this time and others did as well and his pure aggression sent him packing. It seems like every tournament there are a few guys like this who just want to try and run over the table and are successful until they aren't. If these guys could learn how to shift gears they could be dangerous but they only know full speed.

Final Thoughts
It was a great trip. Anytime I can have positive results in bth cash and tournies something went right! The food as always was awesome but now I need to get back on the keto/fasting lifestyle. I did get lots of steps in and a couple of decent fitness center workouts. It was great to get out of the freezing Chicago weather into the much more preferable 60' of LV! Thanks again all for following along. Definitely plan on spending some time at WSOP in June. I used to take spring trips and avoid summer because of the heat but as a touney junkie WSOP just has too much to offer that I want.

What Langdon says. I like cash at both Bellagio and Aria and prefer tham to Venetian (because of both bomb pots and high hands) but I always stay at the Venetian/Wynn end of the strip becuase that is where the best tournament action is.

Before the Wynn dailies caught on and Venetian started always running deep stack series the Aria 1pm was the premier daily. But with only 20 minute levels it loses a lot of allure.

The tightest nittiest locals at Venetian go crazy over bomb pots. I don't get it?

great write up, bb. fundamentally good to bring home more money than you took.

perhaps because deep down none of them want to be nits and that format gives them an excuse not to be?

I feel like a good number of people either post or read similar trip reports. It almost never gets old. Thanks for sharing!

Great report!

I can confirm that they never get old for me. Nothing like seeing chips, cards, and food waiting for our next Vegas trip.

I might be in the minority here, but I would suggest to not adjust your play a ton for the High Hand promos. That said, if you were just HU here against two random cards from BB, it might be value trying to let him catch up a bit instead of betting pot. Although 'betting pot' when the pot size is $6-$7 dollars is hardly scary for anyone 😀

Yeah i don't adjust at all for high hand yet this one was doubly bad as it was in February where deuces are the "card of the month" which means quad 2's recieve a separate bonus. But my cash play is pretty obliviuos to the promo stuff.

Great report as always.

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This made me laugh as I was considering it as well and came to the exact same conclusion.

Saw the 1st (1995?) Hell Freezes Over tour from ~5th row center in Sun Devil Stadium. Haven't felt the need to see 'em since, even though it was a pretty damned good concert.