Vegas Jan 2020 Trip Report

Part I – Mostly about Poker

Intentions were expressed, but commitments were not made. The two that did materialize: A) playing at the Wynn for the first time in a long time, and B) not making any real plans. The two that did not materialize: A) a backseat tweet ride with @LVCabbieChronicles and B) going to the Sahara poker room opening. Neither Flynn nor Ollie feel especially disappointed, as both of these are achievable at one of our many other visits in the future.

The F&O arrival via air was early in the morning on a weekday. A Uber to the hotel got them set up, but not checked in early, as apparently CET has changed their rules on that again, and Ollie’s status only gets a 2 hour early checkin. Park the bags, and off to breakfast with cocktails. In addition to some sweat producing chow and libation, Flynn also rode the bull @ Chayo before getting kicked off by the manager.

Food and adult beverage checked off the list before 11 am. Time for some gaming. Flynn and Ollie stumbled on over to Caesars, decided the list was not acceptable, and made their way to the Mirage, where they promptly lost their buy-ins (or two). FWIW, this is a rare occurrence for Flynn, who usually turns a profit there. But, meh… can’t win em all.

Fortunately it was time to check in. Done and… a long nap before taking a stroll to the Bellagio Poker room (via a stop at Dirt Dog) around 9 pm. Flynn stuck out a boring table and a loss until 2am-ish before calling it quits to fly home to Harrah’s solo. Ollie, on the other-hand, stayed and played, and stayed and drank. Clearly Ollie had the fun table. Faithful readers know this is upside-down, as it is Flynn who is the degenerate. Well, it is Vegas, so strange things happen.

At 10 am the same day, Flynn awoke to find himself still alone. Ollie was still at the Bellagio (safe and sound) playing and drinking and having a blast. Not wanting to be left out, Flynn made his way to the closest acceptable poker room that had table-service so he could get some breakfast and another hit of NL. Now, now locals and pros, don’t be judgmental; Flynn played at the Venetian. Hey, they have good food. And, the turnover is usually high enough that one does not have to wait long for a NL seat. This day there was some tournament going on, and apparently January had a $1k hourly high hand as well as a random seat drawing hourly for $800, so Flynn bid his time by eating a killer omelet at an empty poker table and watching the grinders carefully.

To be honest, there is not a lot to remember about the game when Flynn got seated at a new game. He got the favored #1 seat, recognized most of the players there from previous trips, and settled in to wait to hear from Ollie. Not a lot went right during the session, it was uneventful with the exception having a Q’s full hold up for the high hand – $1k outta nowhere. Boom. Snap. Cha-ching. And, he was not even trying. (QQ in hand, board Q xxxx, no brainer) . Other than pocketing $940 – yes it comes off the table immediately – the best part of the HH was the commentary from the grinders who were there specifically to try to hit it. Come on guys, it does not merit a 15 minute discussion of : nice hit, lucky it held, I’ve been playing all month and have not won, and poorly executed congratulations.

The one interesting convo was with a good player from out of town. His comment was that Flynn had tipped a large amount. ($10/floor, $50/dealer). He indicated that he would not have tipped that much, and that it was generous. Was it? Seems like in tournaments 10% of profit is often the norm. This was half that. Flynn always tips, but does not often win $1k promotions, so has no idea if there is even a ‘standard’ protocol. If any of the F&O readers would care to chime in on this topic, we would love to hear it. It’s a month too late to get that tip $ back, though, so don’t make Flynn feel bad for over-tipping. (Snort) BTW, the player making this comment was not a cheapskate ~ he was a younger male, competent, and was there to make $, not to nit it out for hours or promos.

Okay, okay. Around 1 pm Ollie finally went to the room and took a nap. 15 hours at the same table, sure hope he was logged in! Flynn wrapped up the loss-win (loss at the real game, lots of profit) at 3 pm and then stopped at the Harrah’s poker room to play a bit. Can’t help it, like their guest rooms & location, HATE the poker room. This had not changed. It’s dark, dirty, uncomfortable. The patrons are not – uhm – pleasant to sit with. One supposes that if Flynn were to book a win there he might change his mind, but this did not happen therefore it is off the list for a while. If Flynn is going to always lose, then he is going to do so in a poker room that is pleasant to play in. Lost a buy in, and ran out snarling to meet Ollie.

F&O headed off to dinner together around 6 pm to the Wynn buffet. The buffet has been on the F&O ‘should try it’ list for years, so it was perfect timing since the trip to Steve’s property was ultimately to play poker. It had been so long, Flynn didn’t even realize the poker room had been moved to the Encore. Ollie and Flynn were put at different tables of 1/3. Ollie had a fun table (again) of tourists and imbibers. Flynn had a table of seriousness and silence. There is nothing like sitting down with a $300 buy-in where everyone else at the table has 3 times or more in front of them. It’s either gonna be a really good hit, or a really fast bust-out. Flynn opted for the quick hit and run. Up a buy-in, and outta there in less than an hour. Getting Ollie to leave took a bit of time, but eventually they got back to the room for a real night’s sleep.

Finally, a night’s sleep. The next morning was breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi on our way to the Aria (preferred poker room of Flynn). F&O made it to the tables around 10 ish, after having called on the walk there to get on the list. When they arrived , they were 11th and 12th on a list of 30 and climbing, and all tables accounted for. Ollie decided a long wait was not for him, so he Uber’d to his favorite venue, the Orleans, to play O8. Flynn hung out at the Aria for 2 or so hours, putting $20 into slots and making a whopping $2 profit, before getting seated. Whew! Aria is nice, but for a bird that does not gamble, that is a lot of time to kill. Hold-em is not gambling, right?

Flynn settles in for a nice long session at the Aria. He orders food for lunch. He enjoys the entertainment (see the previous post “When a Good Fish goes Bad” for the deets). He does not book a win, he does not book a loss. He breaks even or close to it. Flynn has a good time, but knows it’s bad mojo to stay too long, especially when a bird is getting tired. After 9 hours, he heads out, again solo, to the home @ Harrah’s. A late to-go order at some Mediterranean place on the way back, is the last stop of the night. An hour later, around 11:30pm, Ollie gets back from his stint at the Orleans. He had another good experience with the local nit cranky grinders. Who wouldn’t?

This trip ended early the following morning, with an Uber to the airport at some UnVegas-like hour. This was the shortest trip Flynn & Ollie had made to Las Vegas in many, many years, and it was the 1st time in 15 years they did not have a car. It was almost like being a real tourist. It was fun.

“Part 2 the Food” is coming next. Stay tuned. The editor is typing as fast as humanly possible.

Fin

Flynn