As a certified poker addict, a Vegas visit has to be on my itinerary for at least one week in a travel-permissive year. This came true in 2021 at least for the spring and summer periods, whence our CDC sages declared the pandemic in retreat (later to be retracted). Given my wife's and my recent vaccinations and generally healthy disposition, I was able to convince her to accompany me to a week in the hot and muggy, tentatively inviting sin city. All in order for me to bring offerings to the poker gods and hope to escape with some sort of profit, or at least a few good poker hands to share.
Since the World Series of Poker in its live incarnation will only be taking place in the fall of 2021, I instead targeted the alternate tournament series running in July - the Venetian deepstacks. The buyins, guarantees and target population all seemed right, and the excessive rake justifiable, if not from an EV (expected value) point of view, then at least from an entertainment value standpoint. And who of us has not been jonesing for some live, fun tournament play?!
A sweetener was being able to book both our flights with the long-lost airline points we had had no opportunity to use over the preceding 18 months. Scouring the travel sites for a good hotel deal, I landed on Vdara, the companion Aria property offering the benefits of no casino and a convenient location. I'd considered the Alexandria Tower at Sahara - a recently renovated property - but was somehow dissuaded by a TripAdvisor review complaining of thin walls and noise from one room to another.
Deciding not to rent a car for this stay (we wouldn't be moving around much), the trip out to LV from Seattle and Uber to the hotel went smoothly. We punched in an online hotel checking, bypassing the long lines at reception and landed in our first room. Tali (wife) and I have a running joke that she always wants to reject the first room given to us, but in this case I quickly realized it had to be rejected. It smelled poorly and there were visible human stains on the sofa and carpet area. Hmm I thought Vdara was supposed to be a high-end property... after a few calls to front desk and a 20 minute wait, we were moved to a "nicer" room. Except that within a few minutes, I noticed the bathroom sink draining slowly (later to be entirely blocked) and that the water coming out of the faucets was only hot. A couple of other Vdara gems (if you plan on going): they don't operate the gym mid-week, and their Starbucks franchise is closed most of the time. On the plus side, the rideshare pickup is convenient (right in front of the hotel) and its proximity to Aria does provide interesting dining and gambling (poker room) options. Oh and the beds and temp control are super comfy.
On our first evening, we headed out to the Venetian - to purchase a tournament ticket for the next days' $400 Senior's event, and to dine at the Black Tap restaurant, a swank NY-based fancy burger and shakes outlet (while there is a two-hour wait for a table with no advance reservations taken, we were able to snag a spot at the bar). Their menu is quite good (if you like fancy Burgers - I had a bison one), and a gal sitting next to us ordered this, just to send the picture to her mom back home:
Day 1
Monday, I headed to the Venetian and sat at the Seniors (50 and over) event. The notes below - until Day 4 - are of interest to poker players only :)
The structure was quite decent, starting at 30K chips, 100/100 blinds with 30 minute levels. Re-entries were allowed up to the end of level 8. All said, there were 181 entries, creating a prize pool of $60K with $16.6K for first spot.
My table seemed fairly soft, with most of the players playing unbalanced, predictable games and often overplaying made hands. Yet, in these early levels one has to make some hands to chip up - these guys are tough to bluff and often don't understand bluffing lines- consequently over-defending on some boards they should be folding under pressure.
At level 3 with blinds at 200/300, I had a healthy-ish stack of 35,000 and this hand played:
8-handed, UTG (first to act) called, UTG1 called, and I looked down at KJo in the HJ position. I decided to get a bit out of line and raised to 1500 (5x the blind). They both called and this created a pot of 5000 chips.
The flop came J92 with two spades, I did not hold a spade.
It checked around. I should be missing this board a lot and so from a theoretical standpoint, a check back or a small bet make sense here. In-game, my thoughts were that I will also not be denying value from any two-spade holding, many of which will have me in poor shape. I also like to protect my check-back range, much of which wants to realize its equity as cheaply as possible on this board texture. However, the counter argument is that a pair of J wants to fold out all Ax, Kx, Qx holdings which all have decent equity on this board. And so I should be betting at least part of the time.
The turn came an offsuit 8. UTG led for 2500 and UTG1 called. I decided to call, balancing the facts that the turn had reduced my equity, with the 5:1 pot odds I was being laid. The pot was now 12,500.
The river was one of the worst cards in the deck for me, an offsuit Q. Any Tx now made a straight, alongside the other holdings now upgraded to two-pair or a better top pair.
UTG bet 4,000, UTG1 jammed and I folded. UTG1 claimed he had QT, which I found believable. I assumed UTG had KQ, QJ, Q9 or Q8.
Anyway, that's what these guys do - limp/call offsuit broadway hands, hoping to hit a hand. Lesson learned: raise them with premium, then some weak and some implied-odds holdings when deep enough (like suited Aces) - not with KJo which is likely in the middle of their limping ranges. AQo+ is probably the threshold for "premium" here. Also bear in mind, in tournaments were are often too shallow to play implied-odds hands effectively -- but in this spot with 100BB effective, I think that would be ok.
A couple of hours into the event (I was not moved from my table), an elderly gentleman sat to my immediate right. After a few moments passed, one of the other players said hey guys, we have a true poker legend at our table, this is Jack Mclelland, a poker hall of famer. I struck up a bit of a conversation with him and through the internet, later learned that his nomination had been due to his contribution to the game as the Bellagio tournament director and trailblazer of the Tournament Directors Association. Apparently, he had also been ill in recent years and required a heart transplant. He did seem gaunt compared to his online photos, and at 71 he appeared to me as much older. Regardless, he struck me as a gentleman, whom it was nice to meet. We played a hand heads-up, on which I folded the river to a clear value bet against my A6 suited that missed all of its draws.
Beyond that, the Seniors event did not go exceptionally well for me. I picked up hands here and there, but not enough to survive the crucial middle stages, where most players are short stacked and you have to win "flips". I made it to level 11, was moved to a new table, and busted there, shoving my 9 BB stack with K6o in the small blind and being called by AQ.
Out of the tournament with lots of time to spare (at 3:30 PM), I decided to join the 1/3 cash game. I was seated at a fairly wild table, with an Asian lady to my left routinely making 10x preflop and flop bets, and a younger guy to my right also eager to get stacks in. This was going to be fun!
In one fun hand, I raised A2 from the button and the lady called from the SB. The flop came A72 and I managed to get stacks in against her A8! That hand alone yielded me over $200. By the end of cash play that day, I hade made back most of my tournament buyin - $315.
Wrapping up, I was going to bring dinner back to the room. I ordered from Black Tap, headed back to Vdara and we enjoyed a good meal with wine in our decently equipped suite (despite all its shortcomings).
Day 2
Tuesday was going to be a "rinse and repeat", this time entering a regular (non-seniors) $400 Venetian deepstack with the same structure as the previous day. Well-rested, the earlier stages of this event went decently for me and I had a 38,500 stack coming into level 4, at 200/300/300 blinds.
That is, until I open raised to 1,100 with AKo in the SB (folded to me) and the BB - a nice young British chap I had been chatting with (living in the British Virgin Islands) - 3bet to 3,500. I jammed into his 11,200 stack behind, and lost to QQ.
That hand, although not putting me in the danger zone, had an effect on my chip accumulation potential further in the event. After a few more levels, I was able to scratch my way up to 35,000 at Level 8, with blinds at 600/1200/1200.
Then this hand:
Lojack (4th from the button) raised to 2800, Hijack (3rd from the button) called, and looking down at 66 on the button, I decided to call. The blinds folded and we had a pot of 11,400.
The flop came QJ9 with two spades. It checked around.
The turn was a K of spades. It checked to me. With low equity, I decided to lay in a bluff of 6,000, just over half pot. I was representing a flush that had just "got there". To my astonishment, they folded and I, for the first time, made it past the 40K threshold.
Regrettably, after that hand, I had to fold AK on the turn, when it flopped A high all clubs (me without a club), and an opponent jammed the turn, showing KQcc after I and another player had folded.
No other lighting struck for the remainder of the event, and I ended up exiting at Level 10, flipping AQdd against JJ and losing.
I repeated the Venetian cash game experience, but this time my table was seated mostly 1/3 regs nitting it up, some short-stacking. I found it to be frustrating and after our table broke and I got onto another rough table, ending up with a loss of $490. Honestly, a good chunk of that loss was due to poor and/or passive play on my end.
So, to this point I was down $975 on the trip (including the $800 tourney buyins). Not a great start, but I held hope for the remaining cash games I was going to play on the following days. And, I had always assumed that I was probably not going to cash the tournaments - an average player will cash a tournament about 15% of the time.
Back in the room, we decided to order from a Mediterranean outlet via Doordash, and indeed our hopes were "dashed". The order, originally slated to arrive around 8:30pm, kept on being pushed out and had about 3 delivery drivers changed, before it eventually arrived an hour late. The food was soggy and undercooked. My beef skewers were literally raw. We got back part of our Doordash order cost, but overall it cooled us off of deliveries, in particular using that app (it was our second bad experience with them).
Day 3
Wednesday, I was done with tournaments. I woke a bit later and hit the Aria gym, fairly well equipped with friendly staff who hand you a towel and water bottle when you walk in. I then sat down to play cash at the Aria poker room, and although it can be tough to get into the 1/3 game with their long wait lists, I was able to get started on a 1/3 table at 1:40 pm.
The session was a bit up and down, with no hands really worth sharing. One general mistake I made, was to open with mid-range but implied odds hands like A8ss in middle position, then get 3bet from early position and call. With approx. 100 BB deep, these implied odds hands do not play well as a call even in position, and in the 3bet-call instance, SB had AK which profited some more from me when an Ace hit the flop.
The session ended minus $20 and I headed to the room at 4:15, to grab a quick drink with Tali at the Vdara's lounge and then rest a bit before that evening's planned event - meeting Persuadeo (Kris Murray) and another friend for dinner, and then playing the Sahara 2/3 game that he helps organize.
I headed out towards Sahara, in time to arrive for our 6:15pm dinner reservation at Bazaar Meats. This would be my first visit to the renovated Sahara, occupying a north-strip and somewhat distant location from the strip's "center of gravity". Kris and Ritti (the friend) showed up and after a few minutes, we were seated. The restaurant is apparently a new and upcoming top-tier establishment, offering a meat-and seafood oriented menu with a variation on modern chef restaurant themes, like sharing all plates and menus designed for 2, 3 or 4 people. They try to push the "chef menus" at exorbitant prices, but we stuck to our guns and ordered a la carte items that we chose. Being neither restaurant critic or serious foodie, while I can't do the place justice suffice to say that the starters - oysters, beef tartare tacos, and fried mushrooms (?) then the main courses of lamb and steak - were top shelf. Kris had to leave a bit early to start the cash game (or at least be there in time so that it isn't disbanded); and with Ritti and I wrapping up the meal, I left actually craving some more of their food.
Sitting at the Sahara game: the newly renovated Sahara is itself a gem and their cardroom is - bar none - the most luxurious I've seen. Everything - from the tables to the seats, cards, chips, dealing staff, floor - is top notch. It is uncrowded and the players all appreciate the environment. Kris himself - to those who don't know him - is a Seattle expat whom I met years ago playing in his UW-district home game. Today, he is a coach and entrepreneur who has also ventured to organize a semi-private cash game at Sahara. Although technically not a "private game organizer" (that would imply his taking a rake), he does ensure its smooth running and has been able to work with the Sahara staff to establish its ground rules. One of them is a $5 half-hourly time rake - a vast advantage over the usual casino rakes.
This week, the game had been moved from Thursday to Wednesday night due to another cardroom obligation, and some of the players who had been in line to play, pulled out for various reasons. We started the game with 4 players, and ended up with 5 until my departure at 12:30 am.
The min buyin to this game is $600 or 200BB (blinds are 2/3), and I did that. Since there are often straddles, a $10 straddle turns $600 into a 60BB effective stack and so not ideal for this table. So I probably should have entered with at least $1K. Anyway, within a few orbits, I managed to plough my stack into Ritti's, my QQ losing to his AA. At that point I was not really tilted, but thinking ok - I will have to play some really good poker and get lucky if I am to recover from this spot.
I rebought for $700 and shortly thereafter, started to pick up some hands. I also observed that one of the players was pushing me around with large bets on a pretty wide range of hands - he was playing most pots - and did some effective bluff catching against him.
In this game I did not record my hands, but starting hitting sets and powerful top pair hands that were paid off. A couple of new players arrived, one departed, and the game started to become more "fun" and active. At around midnight, my stack having grown to ~$2,200, I started to really feel tired and let the group know I'll be departing at the half hour. My cash out was $2,545, up $1,245 for the session. Although this was my best-ever cash result, Kris was of the opinion (shared later in a chat) that I should have profited $2.5K+ in it; and he's likely correct since I took nitty lines in spots I should have been getting stacks in. Anyway, this was a learning experience for me - the largest cash game I had ever played - and I didn't feel like I was quite rolled for it; not so much in "life money" terms but in terms of the amounts I was willing to risk playing my hobby.
Day 5
Thursday was going to be a relaxing day, ending with dinner in downtown LV. I took a few laps at the Aria's pool - not really getting a great workout in the overly hot and crowded place - but enough to get myself moving for the day. I am (sort of) a healthy-semi-athletic type who makes sure to get some sort of gym routine done almost every day. I am also a keto-diet follower, trying to avoid the diabetic experience that others in my family went through.
For brunch, we discussed going out but Tali convinced me to order in, this time from a better-looking Mediterranean joint via Uber Eats. That turned out quite well (Shakshuka anyone? - look it up if you haven't had it). I then headed down to the Aria again to play cash, this time 2/5 with a $1K buyin, emboldened by the previous night's cash game.
The table was loaded with LV regs and tourists playing tightly. Soon after the start of play, I got into this spot and played it perhaps poorly preflop and then decently post-flop (at least in my mind): I opened in UTG to $15 with A6cc, the button raised to $40 and I called, pot size now $80. The flop came 8c 7x 5c. I checked, he bet $60 and I called, creating a pot of $200. The turn came 5x and he bet $125. I decided that with my robust equity (a flush draw plus OESD) and his overcards /overpairs range, this will be a great spot to raise; and so made it $300 and he called (pot now was $800). The river came a 3x, whiffing all of my draws, but since on the turn I was repping a trips plus hand, I decided to jam. I moved towards my chips and he insta-mucked. (Footnote: I modeled this hand in GTO+ and given the action and betting options presented, in my spot it check/calls the turn and check/folds the river. However, these results are highly sensitive to assumed ranges).
The remainder of the session was up and down with typical flop misses, then a win with an overpair, then some more flop misses. I cashed out after 3.5 hours with a $125 profit.
While I was playing poker, Tali headed to a hair salon and was caught outdoors in one of Vegas' infamous Monsoon downpours. Within seconds she was drenched, but the ladies at the Salon took good care of her and even proffered her with an umbrella for the way back.
Towards the evening, we headed downtown to have dinner at Carson's kitchen. Carson's is a middle-brow, inexpensive local joint, serving excellent locally sourced food and frequented by a young, local Vegas crowd. Definitely off the "tourist-trap" path common to Vegas restaurants, we have turned this into one of our go-to spots. While we enjoyed our meal, I couldn't help but notice that the place - partially by design - is quite noisy and unsuitable for a relaxed conversation. The tables are mostly long and shared by multiple parties. So, if you plan on going, be aware of that fact.
After dinner, and still being fairly early at 9-ish pm, we decided to stroll through the "Fremont experience" and do some people watching. Here's one fun nugget I picked up there (to be clear, I do not support the message):
