MuckPls & Whale - a March Madness TR part III

That's mostly true just on or near the Strip. A mile away, or even less, costs are much more normal. The casinos see us coming. They try to entice us with "$2 an hour comps" to play poker, because they know they're just going to take it back. We HAVE to spend it there in the hotel. Case in point - I tortured myself playing 30 hours in 5 or 6 days, amassing $60 in comps. I burned it all on one meal. It was in Grand Lux, not even a fancy restaurant. I got a pizza, buffalo wings, and a Caesar's salad, not even anything with French words in it. $64 with tip.

I have been home for almost 48 hours, so I will try a quick (hah!) summary about my thoughts on this recent trip.

The flights home went by super quick and without any hitch, although I must have ate something bad on Friday as I started to feel a bit queasy just before boarding the 11:15pm Virgin Atlantic flight over to London. Within the first 90 minutes I had to go to the bathroom 3-4 times to puke 😡, which is not something I ever have had to before on a flight. That said, it wasn't super bad and I felt better afterwards. But I was feeling quite shabby the entire flight, to the point where the flight attendants at times came over to check if I was ok etc.

Thankfully I started to feel better as the Saturday progressed and I had no issues on the flight home to Malta. I did however sleep 14 hours once I got myself in bed here, and didn't wake up until 4:30pm (!) local time. I also had to skip work today, but hopefully we can be back in action in a day or two. I had no issues with my back on the flights home either, which is nice as I was not very optimistic when I first got pain last Wednesday. It's a bit sore now, but I am sure it will be completely fine as the week goes on and I am starting to feel more like myself again.

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Now let's move the focus to Vegas. I will first say that I was very happy with my stay at New York New York. Spacious room, I love that they have a deep soaking tub in the bathroom and unlike some of my previous stays there the water pressure and heat was perfect every single time. I slept great all nights, and my only complaint is that the in-room fridge was freezing everything to ice if it stayed in there for too long.

I enjoyed some pool time while there was still warm enough for that, I used the gym frequently up to when I got a bit sick, and although the location is not 100% ideal there's hardly ever any wait for an Uber (+ there is a Zoox-stop!). I am actually someone who often prefers staying a bit on the south side of The Strip, so being around NYNY or MGM Grand never bothers me.

Poker wise I won $1255 USD in Cash Games over 39 hours and 15 minutes. I am actually quite happy with that number of hours, as I missed out of an entire day of play on Thurday due to a sore back + hardly played anything the day I went deep in a tournament at South Point. If not for the sickness + bad back I would have come close to 45 hours I think.

An hourly rate of $32 USD obviously sounds decent, but if we examine the numbers further almost 80% of my winnings came from promo money ($800 at Resorts World and $200 on Venetian). These are obviously poker winnings and there is nothing wrong with getting lucky to win these, but it's a bit depressing to think what the number would have been if I didn't have any of these two hits. I was maybe a bit too self-critical regarding some of my sessions during the trip, but at times it feels a bit like I am not getting full value anymore like I used to. And despite coming into the trip with a plan to 3-bet more and get to play more pots HU, I shied away from way too many such spots regardless.

On the plus side, there was not as many spots where I punted away my stack in spots that were obvious folds, although I had some ugly AK-spots one evening at Venetian. But I still need to be even better to adjust my play to some very predictable opponents, and as always I need better emotional control when things are not going my way. I still have a tendency to just sigh loudly, shake my head and mutter things if I lose big pots, which feels a bit unncessary. It's never for a long time period and I never direct it at an opponent, but I just really wish to achieve that mindset where I don't show anything outwardly and rather just steam on the inside.

Speaking of adjustments, I am obviously very happy with my Tournament results. 2/3 cashes and a profit of $2051 USD is way more than I had expected, and I really like the way I combated both the gigantic field at South Point and the smaller one at Cesars Palace to get two 3rd place finishes. Obviously there are some luck along the way, and I can't expect those kinds of runs every trip no matter how good I play.

But after having a bit of a lackluster period here in Malta for tournaments recently, it was good to put some results up on the board and get some confidence for my tournament play. It obviously helps that a lot of the players in these $100-$150 tourneys are beyond awful compared to what I am used to, but regardless I am very happy with the adjustments I made on the fly on how to best play against such straight-forward droolers. The players entering daily tourneys in Vegas are those I wish sat down in cash games as well!

Video Poker and -EV gambling was a complete disaster this trip. Obviously no 'MuckPls' level of degeneracy, but I basically lost back around what I won in poker while at the same time posting my lowest 'coin-in' at MGM properties for many trips. Hopefully that won't slash my offers too much, so that I can get another chance to come back and still having half resort fee at some hotels if nothing else.

Not really that much more to say about this subject; I got slaughtered on all games and as a result didn't really dare putting in a lot of money at times. Even though I know I need to play some -EV to get decent offers, it's tough when you feel like you might lose all your poker winnings every time you sit down that day.

As for other random stuff, I should as always have played in more poker rooms. No Wynn this time around either, and I didn't make it out to Green Valley Ranch like I said I would. I did at least get a fun session in at Resorts World before they closed if nothing else. I should also have made it to Mandalay Bay and The Orleans.

Weather was amazing, very hot in the beginning but it cooled down the second week. Overall probably a bit better than what is usually expected for end of March/early April, and from memory there was only 1-2 really windy days.

I did not get involved in as much non-poker activities as expected, as the person I wanted to see got sick the entire first week when I was there, then she likely infected me and I got sick, then I got my back pain etc. Very poor timing on that regard, but not much to do with that.

One last thing as I once again got sick in Vegas, and although I have had a few trips without such issues now it still happens a bit too often. I think I need to change my approach slightly moving forward in regards to a couple of small things, especially in regards to better eating habits (I too often go hungry and then eat something super unhealthy) and also getting outside and walking more. Although I am slightly better than 'MuckPls' when it comes to taking breaks from poker and doing other stuff, I still spend way too much time in casino air and not enough time in fresh air. I also don't get enough sleep all days, and I am constantly stressing from being behind on this TR and wanting to get out there as soon as possible to play more along with squeezing in everyting else.

Better time management and less stress is the way to go; even though I am still young and healthy (obviously deluding myself on both fronts here) I can't run my body in the ground every day in Vegas and expect to be fine at the end of it. Sometimes it works out fine, but definitely not always.

I also want to apologize for all the terrible spelling mistakes and forgotten words in the TR-posts along the way. I simply don't have time to make these anymore, and I should probably stop posting live from Vegas. It's very stressful, and after spending an hour + on many posts, I simply don't have the energy to fine read with a comb to find all obvious mistakes.

Vegas is also a massive life-leak for me, and I am not sure how much longer I have the finances to go as often as I do. That said, I will be back this summer and I already can't wait 😀 Dates and everything TBD, but most likely around end of June.

Awesome trip report - thank you! I didn’t notice the spelling mistakes

Sorry you got sick - poker rooms really aren’t a healthy place so it isn’t surprising, but still disappointing.

It would be great to meet you if our June dates overlap

yep, always a fun read from muck & whale...appreciate the efforts you two put in to your reports.

Glad to hear. It could have been worse, as in coming out both ends at the same time. It's bad enough when it happens at home, happening on an all-day plane ride would be horribly awful.

How much is a Zoox ride? Less than uber? Less than taxi?

What kind of promos did Resorts World have? High hand?

I find it impossible to win a high hand jackpot. While I was super lucky all trip, not lucky enough to get much in the way of high hands.

This trip was my best cash game result ever. I was unbelievably lucky. I haven't found all my little cash bundles yet. I was just stuffing a handful at a time in various luggage pockets. I drove, which tends to result in leaving bags in the car for longer than I should. So far I've found $3250, but that probably includes some amounts I started with. Probably between $500 and $1000. I know I played 45 hours because I played the Venetian freeroll (30 hours) and the Horseshoe freeroll (15 hours). That's cash games. My total also might include the $750 or so I won at vp.

I didn't keep track of freeroll tournament time. I think the Venetian freeroll was about 6 hours? The Horseshoe was 8 levels with 20 minute levels, so 2 1/2 hours? It stops when there are 45 players left, we all got $200 each. The Venetian freeroll was "normal", when 1 player has all the chips, except the last 5 of us agreed to a chip chop. I won 1760-something there plus $200 Horseshoe money for about $1950 total. I have had a bigger tournament result, when I had an inkling to play a $275 WSOP sit-n-go. I usually play $125's and $175's, and chop the results. The $275 the opponent was convinced he would crush me, and told me so. He kept offering me 40% of the take even though I had 60% of the chips. I told him I would rather lose than screw myself on a bad chop deal. Two hands later I flopped the nut straight and that was it, for a bit over $2500.

Some vitamins couldn't hurt. I'm a huge believer in those.

WSOP!!!

1) As I mentioned earlier in the thread, the fully automated Zoox-rides are 100% free for now. Rumor says they might start costing money soon, but I would be surprised if they start any higher than maybe $5 a ride. Let's see.

2) Resorts World were giving away promo money yes, so they had an $800 high hand every hour the last few days that they were open. As documented in the thread, I got super lucky to flop quad Aces and win one of those for $800.

3) Good point. I am not the best at taking my vitamins even at home, never mind when I am in Vegas. But having some on hand probably can't hurt.

4) WSOP will be fun yes, although I will have to combine it with the FIFA World Cup (soccer). My original home country of Norway has finally qualified after 28 years of exile. Have not had a chance to look closely into any dates and schedules yet, but will do so once I start feeling a bit better.

Thanks, but I can assure you there was way too many stupid spelling mistakes and misuse of words etc. Not because I don't know the correct words, but just because my brain is trying to get everything out too quickly and malfunctions occasionally.

When are you going this summer?

Aren't they playing some of that in the U.S.? I imagine tickets would be moonshot expensive.

USA, Canada and Mexico yes. Me and my brother already have expensive AF tickets to Norway's opening match in Boston on the 18th of June. Most likely heading to Vegas after that, play some tourneys and watch the (hopefully not) last two games in the Sportsbook etc.

I noticed a small number of typos and grammatical errors in the mooment, but it didn't distrakt at all from the wonderful storytelling.

Ooh, Flights C and D of the Millionaire Maker 6/19-6/20.

10-19, so I'll probably miss you