Note: When I first began posting TRs over a half dozen years ago
they were an imaginative and sometimes imagined description of a
tourists' Vegas adventures. Over time they have grown to include
numerous destinations with liberal details of video poker plays and
now even live poker. It is a curiosity that they now seem to me less
relevant to more people. Skim or skip as you like. There may come a
day when even I don't bother reading them.
We booked the trip the same day I pulled the offer out of the
mailbox. It's our first free junket offer --Free flight out of
Chicago MDW and digs at Harrah's Laughlin, according to the mailer,
based on my Caesars play. Nancy and I enjoy the more sedate
atmosphere of Laughlin as a change from our usual LV getaway. It's a
gambling destination in the desert, but it still has kind of a weird
Dells vibe to it. Substitute, casinos for Tommy Bartlett, desert
mountains for verdant moraine and
well maybe that's just me.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to a little jet skiing sandwiched in
between large slices of doing nothing in particular.
Several weeks later and a couple days before departure I'm extremely
curious to find out whether I am going to live much less make it to
Laughlin. Something nasty has had me down to about ¼ speed and very
short of breath for weeks and several courses of antibiotics aren't
kicking it. The ER doc gives me a diagnosis of viral bronchitis
which is a darn sight better than I was imagining. Upon learning
that I was going to survive, Nancy asks the doc whether I can make
Laughlin in 2 days. Practical girl, my wife. I'm taking a dozen
pills a day and huffing albuterol like a degenerate aerosol junkie,
but I make it.
The Flight
It is a chartered Allegiant MD80. We have seats with additional leg
room just forward of the galley, but even the regular seats have
better legroom than the AA and SWA planes we are accustomed to
taking. The flight leaves late and makes an inexplicable stop in Des
Moines (Wichita on the way back) for refueling. Delays aside, a
pretty good flying experience.
The Hotel
Harrah's is supposed to be one of the shinier pennies of the Laughlin
hotels. The tower 2 room we have is certainly better than the
Edgewater room we had last year and better than Harrah's LV or Reno,
but you aren't going to mistake it for a Bellagio room. It has a
nice view of the river.
A bus and a small armada of wheelchairs (apparently we are the
youngsters of the junket set) is waiting for us when we deplane to
take us to Harrah's. No messing with baggage as bags are taken from
plane and deposited directly in our rooms. No check in either. A
girl with margaritas is waiting for us as we exit the bus and we pick
up our packet with room key, coupons and players cards before we even
enter the casino.
Harrah's has a separate "family" tower and "family" pool, which is
nice if you want to escape the screaming pygmies. They also have a
small strip of beach on the river, which is kind of neat if 115
degree heat doesn't singe the skin right off of you.
Diamond lounge hours are something like 3PM to 9PM weekdays and a
little longer weekends. The lounge has a nice little patio over
looking the river. Grub was pretty unimpressive, but I often think
that of Harrah's lounge fare.
Dining
We weren't there long enough and I wasn't in good enough shape to
truly pig out, but I made a stab at gaining back the dozen or so
pounds I had lost in the last few weeks.
Beach Cafe: The Cuban sandwich at the coffee shop was pretty good,
though grilled rather than pressed, so it was greasier.
Buffet: Eh, I am seldom impressed by buffets. This one had lots of
lunch dinner items out at breakfast and Nancy liked it. I tried
the "breakfast" sushi. Note to sushi chefs everywhere --Short grain
rice wrapped around a hunk of pineapple just doesn't work. We used
241 ACG coupon.
Baja Blue Restaurant and Cantina: As a Chicagoan I am accustomed to
having a burrito as big as my head, but I made do with the carnitas
fajitas. Not bad for chain style Mexican fare and I felt in good
enough health to imbibe a margarita. Again, 241 ACG coupon used
without incident.
The Range: Service was surprisingly slow at the Harrah's high end
restaurant. Nancy's steak was quite good, cooked as requested and
her baked potato was easily the size of my foot
. About a 10 ½. My
General's chicken wasn't quite Asian (unless miniature vegetables
make something Asian) or spicy as billed in the menu, though it was
moist and not overcooked. The tempura artichokes were 3 whole big
artichokes (hearts and stems) battered and fried, strangely served
with an au jus sauce. I'm a big fan of artichokes and almost
anything battered and fried, but this dish was just not thought out.
Most tables afford a nice view of the river. I'll keep it simple
next time and stick to the steak.
Gambling
Ahh, the good stuff. I'll first commend Harrah's Laughlin for
devoting what I estimate to be about 1/3 of their floor space to
nonsmoking and further commend them for actually keeping some
playable vp inventory there. Anyone who thinks a nonsmoking casino
would whither and die from lack of gamblers needs to see Harrah's
Laughlin. The nonsmoking casino jumps and my lungs especially
welcomed the clear air this trip.
Poker
A long time vp player, I've been playing live poker since February
and I continue on that journey. I began playing mostly limit poker,
trying to grind out small advantages while learning, taking advantage
of online bonuses and occasionally playing live. My Lee Jones LL
hold em manual is falling apart from use and poor binding, but lately
I have had an attraction to tournament play. There is a certain
purity in a cash game, but tournaments are like coke in the 70s
They're everywhere and damned addictive. Maybe the holdem tournament
is the new crack cocaine of gambling
an allusion probably lost on
all but the diehard vp player.
Laughlin is not exactly the nexus of live poker, but it is around. I
still felt like crap and was not inclined to do a lot of hoofing and
investigating options and conditions or even stray too far from my
room . I took what Harrah's offered. During the week they offered
one to two tables of $3/$6 limit hold `em w/kill. Nothing else. I
stayed away from these as I read somewhere that Harrah's L rake was
higher than normal for the area, and in truth I didn't have the
energy for long hours at the poker table while still knocking out
some coin in on vp. They opened a $2/$5 NL game on Friday, our last
night. Almost took a seat at the NL table as I noticed some of the
same weak players at the table that I'd faced off against in the
tournaments, but I was pretty tired from 2 tournaments and vp play
that day, and decided my condition wasn't good enough.
I played 4 small 2 table tournaments at Harrah's during the roughly
48 hours we were in Laughlin. I chopped with the chip lead in 2 of
the 4. Players I ran up against in Laughlin were generally tighter
and more passive than the ones I played against in Vegas. I didn't
ask directly, but I calculated Harrah's kept about 18% of the buy in
for the $150 evening tournaments. I much prefer the Paris and
Bally's method (and lower 10%) of posting the administrative fee
separate and up front.
Once again, any tournament prize over $600 rated a W2. This time
when we chopped my W2 was for the amount of the chop rather than the
place money I would have received if the tournament was stopped right
then --Much more satisfactory as I received a $1200 W2 for a $750
chop at a Paris tournament in June.
The Harrah's room wasn't bad. It was in a separate room just off the
casino floor and quiet enough. Decent view of the river if the
shades were up and the sun wasn't burning. No tournament clock, just
a timer. Most of the dealers seemed on top of the game, though one
needed to be watched.
Of my last six tournaments I have chopped with the chip lead in 3.
Admittedly no great feat as these are 2 and 4 table tournaments, but
still a pretty surprising result for someone with no tournament or NL
skills. Am I really that good or are the people I am playing against
really that bad. No question. They are really that bad. So I am
able to defend myself against the weak, careless and feebleminded.
I'll take what I can get.
Things I have learned (or think I have learned), in no particular
order, so far about tournament play:
1)It's like a cash game, but with artificial constraints of time,
bankroll and location that do and should affect the decisions one
makes during the game.
2) The art of the deal. My chops have shown me that there is an
element of negotiation that I did not think would be called for in
poker. When you are negotiating it is important to have a decent
idea of what your chip stack is worth in tournament equity and any
other mitigating factor that might affect what comprises a good or
bad deal for you. I made one silly chop and a couple of decent ones,
but as I get more confident and if the competition remains weak, I am
less likely to chop at all.
3) Be aware. Be aware of your position. I won several small pots
without much but position. Be aware of your chipstack and the
relative positions and sizes of the chip stacks around you. It
affects how you play your cards. Be aware of player tendencies
(maniac/tight/ passive etc.) and how those tendencies are positioned
around you. Be aware of the clock, and what the blind levels are and
will be relative to your chip stack and others. Be aware.
4) Verbally announce your action and don't be shy about asking what
the action has been before you. I have made several bonehead errors
because most of my previous experience has been playing limit and
online.
5) Sometimes there's a right time to do the wrong thing. In my last
TR I patted myself on the back for only getting my money out when I
was ahead. In much the same way that it makes sense in blackjack
tournaments to double/split to get more money out on the table
because of your chipstack, hands remaining or position regardless if
it is the highest EV play for the hand, it is also occasionally the
right thing to do in tournament poker to get your money out on the
table even when you have a good idea that you are behind. I was UTG
with an 17K chip stack, 4 players remaining, blinds at 2/4K and going
up next hand to 4/8K. I know I'll have to put almost half my chips
in the BB next hand. I raise my K2s to 8K (probably should have
pushed all in right there) and would be really happy to just take the
blinds, second position pushes 16K all in and the blinds fold. This
guy is reckless and hasn't needed much to push before, but it doesn't
take a rocket scientist to figure that I am probably behind. I don't
want to, but I am at least heads up this hand and the size of the
blinds soon to come my way force me to get my money on the table. I
call. He shows A10o and I am thankful not to be dominated. Flop
comes 2 diamonds and an ace and I river my flush draw to win and put
me in the money and the chip lead. I'm almost positive that even if
I didn't get lucky it would have been the right time to do the wrong
thing. I pat myself on the back this time for getting my money out
when I was behind. You're playing the tournament, not the hand.
6) If possible, make bets that make calls unattractive for opponents
if you're up against drawing hands or think you are ahead at the
moment, but the hand could be vulnerable. This is a power one
doesn't have in limit play. I made an idiotic check raise in one
tournament that practically begged for a call when I should have
pushed all in. It cost me the tournament. If I thought real hard I
couldn't have figured out a worse way to play it and I'm still
kicking myself.
7) Try to see cheap flops early on when blinds are still small vs.
your stack size. Small pairs and suited connectors. Sometimes
this is easy and sometimes not. Depends on how aggressive the table
is.
8) Limp with big pocket pairs at your own risk. As a limit
player something I don't need a lesson on, but I have seen it done
several times in my tournament play.
OK, I could go on, but this has to be getting tedious to anyone
bothering to read this. The poker players already know it and the vp
players don't give a rats' tuchus. Let's just say I'm having fun
playing poker and tournament poker in particular lately. It's
finally time to crack that Harrington book.
Video Poker
Nancy and I ran about 50K through the machines in 2 days. This may
or may not be enough for a future freebie trip to Laughlin. Time
will tell. The majority of our action was on the JB 50 plays, though
we also played some .50/1$ single plays. Nancy popped her first 4K
royal and I was royaless for the trip. Not even a nickel dinger! The
first several minutes after our arrival, while checking out the poker
room, I noticed a new WSOP hold `em based vp game from WMS. The 8/5
JB base game sucked, but I was curious and threw in a Benjamin. I
managed a 3000 plus credit hit, winning the "final table" bonus
round. Curiosity satisfied, I moved on.
I always forget the correct Harrah's nomenclature, but we seemed to
be getting at least 2 comp credits for every tier credit we earned.
If I'm not mistaken, sometimes we were earning 3 comp credits for
every tier credit. Much better than we earn locally, but still
nothing to get excited over with Laughlin inventory unless there are
good multipoint opportunities.
Inventory: I noticed a lone green glass JB slant top in the
nonsmoking casino near the drawing drum, 2 quarter/.50 JB slant tops
facing window nearest Range, several 1&2$ JB slant tops in a bank
near the Range, 2 .50/$ slant tops on east wall near poker room, 2
nickel/dime slant top JB 50 plays on east wall in nonsmoking casino
and 2 a bit further down in the smoking area. I wasn't up to much
paytable hunting. I'll try to do a more thorough inventory if we get
another invite.
Our expected loss for 50K of JB action is in the area of $250. If
that works for continued junkets, it's not a bad value for a freebie
get away. If continued invites require significantly more action,
then it is probably not a good enough value for us without some good
bounce or other slot benefits to compensate. Our actual results were
better than expected. Nancy netted a few K and, while I bled dollars
at the vp machines, my fluke hit on the novelty machine and my wins
playing poker left me comfortably in the black.