Alice In Blunderland � Las Vegas 2/15-2/18
This report is late, but I thought I�d get a quicky TR down anyway. It was
a pretty unusual gambling excursion for me. During most trips I can be
depended on to play at least 4 hours of video poker daily. If the
opportunity is good and social obligations are not pressing I play much,
much longer. During this trip to Las Vegas I played a few hours of VP
during the first day. My fingers didn�t touch a button for the next 3 days.
The Flight
I flew SWA out of Midway early Wednesday morning. The winds were up in Las
Vegas that morning and it was an interesting landing. Departure was late,
but arrival was early, as was the case with the return flight.
The Hotel
It�s the Stardust this trip. The impetus for this particular trip is to
touch base with George, a good friend I haven�t seen in a long time. George
has a conference to attend at the ol� Dust. I have a free room and some
bounce. Synchronicity. It may be my last stay there before they start
planting explosives on the structural elements.
I get the usual West Tower room they give to players. George has a suite in
the older East Tower. I�ve never stayed in the East. Rooms and hallways
are a bit frayed at the edges, but the balcony must be nice when the weather
is good. I guess any criticism of rooms will soon be moot.
Couponomy
I am an underachieving couponomist. Since I�m solo this trip (Nancy
preceded my LV visit by a week to meet some of her Okie friends and is now
home) and have few social obligations during the day, I decide it�s time to
make a stab at correcting this character deficiency. I have my ACG and POV
at the ready. Wednesday is 2X points day next door at Slots A Fun. Within
a few hours, during breaks from play on the 3 play JOBs, I have collected 3
used decks of cards, 1 free no win spin, 1 beer and a hotdog the size of a
baby�s arm� about the same color too. To my knowledge it is the sole
extant giant novelty dog served on the Strip. The Mandalay Group is quaking
at the dent I�m putting in their bottom line, I�m sure. I ladle a generous
amount of jalapenos on the thing and make a short prayer. I may have to
rethink my couponing strategy. You need a strong stomach for some coupon
runs. My couponomy this trip:
3 decks of cards
1 no win spin
1 beer
1 ginormous novelty hotdog
2 $5 Frontier MPs ($5 EV -$10 actual V)
$20 Aladdin FP ($20 EV, +$15 actual V)
$100 Harrah�s Range coupon (Given by a generous friend who couldn�t use it)
2 Wynn buffets (earned earlier from the 500 point promotion)
$125 Stardust bounce
$5 Stardust collector�s chip (from filling out a survey)
Dining
I chowed down this trip.
Peppermill �It�s a decent coffee shop (and lounge) North Strip. So long as
you don�t order outside of coffee shop repertoire you are usually fine.
George did just that by ordering the gyros. Somehow I doubt they had a big
gyros spit in the kitchen.
http://www.peppermilllasvegas.com/
Wynn Buffet �I liked the room better than Bellagio or Aladdin, but what is
the point of Kobe meatballs? I dunno, but they were pretty good. I mostly
stuck to the Asian stuff �maki, terryaki flank steak, tandoori and curry
chicken. Good sugar free desserts. We ate there twice. If you like the B�
s buffet, you will probably like Wynn.
The Range �Nice room with a good view of Strip goings on. Service was good.
The bone in filet was a good cut and done as I asked. The escargot encroute
and creamed spinach side were nothing special. I was happy with the meal,
but if The Range wants to compete with other restaurants in its price range
it is going to have to step it up.
http://www.harrahs.com/our_casinos/las/dining/dining_detail_04.html
Commander�s Palace �CP is just inside the Desert Passage Mall and is sister
restaurant to the well known New Orleans establishment. From the moment we
walked in the door service was exceptional. We were early diners and the
room was not full, but if they can keep up this level of service with a busy
room they deserve note. Food was very good as well �Turtle soup with
sherry, pecan crusted trout on a bed of micro greens and cream corn, an
Abita to wash it all down and bread souffl� with a white chocolate whiskey
sauce for dessert. We were treated by one of George�s reps, but the meal
was probably no more expensive than the Range. I was impressed and will
dine there again.
http://www.commanderspalace.com/las_vegas/menus.php
Gold Coast Buffet �The buffet is a good value, but I didn�t find any Kobe
meatballs. I was there for the company anyway.
Gambling
I took the Dust�s room and bounce and, for the most part, stiffed them as
far as play is concerned. I gave them a little MS play and the BP suited
royal progs were semi juicy, so I played a bit that first day while I waited
for George to get into town. I�m not exactly feeling a lot of pressure to
give a property that was going to blow itself up in a couple of months much
play.
So what did I do with my time if I wasn�t playing vp? I played real p�.
err, poker, that is. Aside from kitchen table acey deucey high spade splits
ya� gotta drink a beer if you lose home games, I had no experience with
poker. I am militantly antistylish, so even though ESPN WSOP, Travel
Channel WPT and GSN High Stakes caught my interest, I did not flock to the
poker tables like the rest of the lemmings. And, as gamblers go, I am very
cautious. I knew there be monsters in those waters. The thought of being
hustled by people who knew what they were doing was not appealing. I had a
good thing going with my vp, but George liked poker. I decided this trip I
would be a little adventurous, dip my toe in the waters of live poker and
catch up with an old friend. I�d play socially.
While George likes poker, I was soon to learn that he wasn�t very good at
it. Not much better than me and occasionally worse. And I am bad. I�m
still discovering just how badly I played, but I played bad super tight. I
played so tight pre flop my eyelids squeaked when I squinted at the hole
cards, but there are worse mistakes a total noob could make. I played about
18 hours of holdem over the next 2 � days.
Aladdin: My first game, Thursday morning. I decided to play a cheap
tournament as a no pressure way to work out the mechanics of the game. My
tight play was totally unsuited for a tournament where the blinds double
every fifteen minutes. I made it a little past the midpoint and was blinded
out while waiting for 2cards that were playable. The room is fine, but no
auto shufflers and lots of construction noise while I was there.
Caesars: Thursday afternoon. It is a very big room. Spacious, but no
points for style. It feels like a function or banquet room. I�m on a
$3/$6. I see seven calls on the first hand while waiting for my chips and
get the distinct impression this might be a good table for a beginner like
myself. I play for several hours and lose about $10.
Wynn: Thursday late night. The room is very attractive, but can be a
squeeze if you are on one of the back tables. The CWs are stunning and
drink service is pretty good. The $4/$8 table was affable and several of
the players were playing loose. They were well lubricated, having fun and
wanted to play, but my noob spidey senses detected a couple of solid
players. I played until the wee hours when the table broke up and lost
about $70� interestingly most of that was lost to George when the flop came
up AAX to my AK. I played it pretty strong with several raises and had him
beat, but he rivered a boat. He bought lunch the next day. Guess I�d
rather lose it to him than a total stranger.
Wynn: Friday afternoon and another $4/$8 game. A few players on the table
are very aggressive. I can�t judge how good the pushy folk are, but I can
only find one person on the table that is definitely worse than me. All
the raising and reraising has me a little rattled and I make a couple of
super noob mistakes. I get out after a couple of hours with a loss of $30.
Caesars: Friday night and another $3/$6. There seem to be more decent
players at the table than yesterday afternoon, but I manage to eek out a $55
win after 3 � hours of play. My first winning poker session.
Gold Coast: Saturday morning killing time waiting for a lunch date on a
$2/$4. The table has a kill which needs to be explained to me. I never
played with a kill before. I get lucky and win a couple of kill pots. I
end up calling one from the big blind with Q4 offsuit. I figured there
were enough chips on the table to make even Q4 offsuit a decent bet for a $1
call. I flop top pair and bet it through the river with out resistance.
The table is very, very loose and I get the impression that some folks are
in the game as much for the quad bonuses posted on the electronic board as
for the game. After 2 hours I win $37. Sorry locals.
Stardust: Saturday afternoon. The room? What does it matter, it�s gonna
be dust and chunks in a few months. George has been trying to talk me into
a NL game, but NL doesn�t exactly fit my goal of a �social� game of poker.
In fact, it strikes me as the exact wrong game for a noob to play, but it is
our last few hours in Las Vegas and there are a couple of openings at the NL
table right in front of us. Min buy in is $100 and max is $200. I have
some reservations, but with only a couple of hours left to my stay, I have
had worse results than leaving town with a few hundred less than I came
with. A lot worse results! I sense my NL play is too restrained, but I get
some decent starting cards and catch some flops. Pocket kings twice, and I
flop sets both times. If I were a decent player, I would have won more, but
after a couple of hours I�m up about $300. Time to get to the airport.
Pretty sweet and totally unexpected �I�m leaving Vegas with more money than
I came with. It has been an interesting introduction to poker. My only
holdem training before this trip was several thousand hands on the Wilson
limit HE software (as a competent vp player drilling on software was
something I could easily wrap my brain around) and as I expected I pretty
much sucked. My big surprise was how much so many other players sucked.
The difference between most of them and me is that I am cognizant of my
suckosity and am trying to correct the deficiencies that I can identify.
Self criticism is a wonderful tool for the gambler. I highly recommend it.
Meet
I was happy that this Las Vegas visit coincided with the monthly vpfree meet
at Gold Coast and made sure I reserved time for it on my final day. Tom and
Susan were gracious hosts as usual, and the company is always interesting.
If I didn�t get to talk to everyone, I apologize, but I had a rare
opportunity (for me) to listen to two poker players tell tales of people I
have only read about or seen on TV. It was great fun. Thanks guys.
The End
By coincidence I was standing next to Chris Ferguson (complete with cowboy
hat and Full Tilt carryon) just a few hours later in the security line at
McCarran. I didn�t talk to him. He was being bugged enough by other
people, so I left the poor bastard alone. Besides, what would I say? �Hi,
I just started playing poker?� Or maybe, �neat hat,� And then wait for the
awkward silence to fully ripen?
I got home very late that night and fell asleep dreaming of hands I had
played and the ways I could have played them better. I can�t remember the
last time I dreamed about video poker.
Chandler