This year, my Vegas trip was going to be different. Unlike the recent past, when I had targeted the WSOP (World Series Of Poker) in June or July for high buy-in "shot taking", I decided to go for a more relaxed, laid back approach. It would be a solo trip taken on weekdays, arriving on Sunday and departing Wednesday. I'd play a few small to medium tournaments and fill in the rest of the time with cash games.
The theme of this trip was going to be minimalistic - travel, dine and drink lightly and try to enjoy my time at the tables, while engaging in that special mix of relaxation and occasional terror that only poker can offer. In August, the price of flights and hotel stays drops significantly, serving as another incentive. Using (mostly) AMEX rewards, I booked a room at Aria. On the day, I packed a carry-on plus backpack and headed out to the Seattle airport's Wally park garage. Despite having booked with Alaska - the first stop on the shuttle's round - I asked the driver to take me all the way to the end of the line so that I could go through the shorter TSA-pre security lineup on the South end of the airport, where the international gates are located. I then proceeded to take the underground train to link up to the North gate my flight was departing from - effectively hacking the system. Although the flight was during the lunchtime hours, I didn't stop to get food - I'd decided to bring my own protein bar and beef stick to carry me through. I did stop at a Starbucks to fill my Zojirushi coffee mug, a useful travel habit. On the plane, I was seated in a premium window seat, next to a middle aged lady on her way to some sort of convention. "That looks good" I remarked to her bland-looking chicken sandwich to get some form of polite conversation going. She seemed a nice enough type but didn't have much to say. We reached agreement that it's a good idea to purchase food at the airport and not on the plane these days. When the drink cart came around (don't they seem to take longer to get them going these days?), I opted for another recent favorite - two mini bottles of single malt whiskey (Glenfarclas) and a half cup of ice. Watching Netflix's Formula 1 series "Drive to Survive" kept me engaged - such a male cliche.
Arriving at LAS airport, the walk through the baggage claim area to the rideshare elevator was a stark contrast to the previous trip - taken in mid-June 2023, my wife and I had to compete with a loud and rowdy swarm of travelers to get to the carousel and collect our luggage. This time, the vast hangar-style room was almost vacant and silent, informing me that this indeed is the "low season". Arriving at the Aria, same deal - no lineup to checkin and I got my room instantly. Aria, built a decade or so ago, is still a very nice property although it falls short of other premium hotels like Wynn, Venetian. The rooms, while still nice, are starting to show signs of age - the bathroom faucets and shower-heads are way past due for replacement, for example. No matter, the rest all worked well for me and in particular I enjoy the push-button blackout blinds, essential for morning (or any time of the day) sleep.
Too late to play the daily 1pm tournament, I decided to play 1/3 for a few hours. I like the Aria poker room - although smaller and non-descript compared to the more popular Venetian and Wynn rooms, it is fairly well run and notably, does not have a jackpot drop, leaving the max rake at $5. The 1/3 game has a max $500 buyin which I came in for. And the players are fairly pedestrian, tourist types, mostly sans the annoying geeky nerds that dominate other cardrooms like Wynn. The downside is that being adjacent to the slots, there's a lot of inane background noise, calling for noise cancelling headphones (which I generally prefer not to use in sessions so as not to block out the table chatter and tells).
Cash sessions don't always go one's way, and such this one started out. Every made hand was out-ranked (KQ vs AQ) or out-drawn. To deepen the run-bad, all of my draws missed. This went on for about 2 hours, then sort of an upswing, then more downswing and I found myself at about 7:30 pm down over $500. Still, I continued topping up to the max and over the next hour dug myself out of the hole back to almost par (mostly thanks to an A8cc hand rivering a flush and getting all in action from a K high flush). Next to the poker room is "Posh Burger", a pretty basic burger joint for about double the price of a normal basic burger joint anywhere but Vegas; I satisfied my hunger with an Impossible Burger (veggie). I got up at 8:30 pm and headed to my room for a quiet night of sleep.
On Monday, I played a Venetian Seniors event with a $400 buyin, 30 minute levels, 200 BB to start and re-entries up to level 10 (contrary to one of my home game members who had insisted that re-entries are always up to level 4, everywhere). Since the event had a 10:10 AM start, my plan was to rise early, get a swim at the Aria pool, get coffee and a small snack at Starbucks, shower and head out to Venetian. To my mild dismay, the Aria pool only opens at 9:00 AM, forcing me to go to the gym instead. While the gym is great, it was jam packed and after my standard warm up on the elliptical, I had to compete with the weight jocks to get in a few basic reps (my entire routine, including warmup, is around 25 minutes). Post-gym, there are multiple breakfast options there, the conventional sit-down ones being exorbitant ($45 for an omelet and juice anyone?). Starbucks burnt my egg whites and I gave them the feedback - they offered a replacement but I didn't have time.
Arriving at the Venetian main door, my task was going to be to locate their new poker room, having recently relocated to the Palazzo second floor of shopping venues. After futzing around with Google maps and the useless touchpad hotel directory, I figured out that I need to head down the center aisle of the casino, following the signs until I get to the escalator taking me up to the right place. The room itself is large and impressive, with its own lavish restrooms and a free lounge, coffee and soft drinks area.
I saddled up to the cage to get my tournament ticket and found my seat. There was a grizzled old guy seated (talking into his phone in the Youtube short above), in a heated conversation seemingly pitching his sales skills to someone. When he ended the call, I asked "business?" and he said in a Middle Eastern accent, nah, I'm retired, just making noises as if I'm working. That sounded a bit strange to me. I said, well I'd like to retire! He said that retirement is great, but it's a total mindset switch, no matter what I do today. I said that I might become an independent agent of some sort as a semi-retired occupation (side note: I have a Mortgage Loan Originator's license but came back to a full time job recently). He said, that's not retirement, retirement is really doing nothing except what you want. Well, I said, I need enough money for that. "Bluff more" was his answer and we both laughed. I said "I'll let you know when I'm bluffing". I later learned that he's a reg at that room, his name is Mohammed, or Mo as his buddies call him.
People sometimes come into Senior's events with preconceptions - the main one being, that they are mostly OMCs (Old Man Coffees) who only raise and 3Bet with the nuts etc. But my observation was that this tournament played like a typical midstakes event, with recognizable error patterns but nothing terribly surprising. The over-50 crowd has adapted at least somewhat to game theory and I didn't see the ridiculous open bet sizings (7X? 10X?) from even 2-3 years ago. I was card dead for the first hour or so, until I chipped up with A8 suited that flopped top pair, turned two pair, rivered a full house and got action on every street from AQo.
Now, back to our friend Mo. He was busy as a bee, playing about 50% of hands and piling up a large stack. Bluff more indeed, I thought. Then this hand: I picked up JJ on the BB, with blinds at 200/400 and a 400 ante, 46,000 in my stack, he covers. Mo opened to 1000 from early position, the SB called and I raised to 4000. Both of them called. The flop came T85. The SB checked, I led for 4000 (1/3 pot), Mo called and the SB folded. The turn was a 6. I bet 10,000 into the 20,400 pot and he made the call. The river was another T. I decided to check and he meticulously counted out 26,000, putting me almost all in if I called. I tanked - he was representing a narrow value range and in a cash game situation this should be a slam dunk call, especially with this player type. But the river T told a somewhat-plausible story that he had made trips or better, and in my experience it takes a special player to bluff most of his stack on the river. I ended up making the fold. Moe broke into a mischievous smile and winked at the fellow across the table from him (on the other end of mine). I concluded that I was likely bluffed but was ok to live and see the next hand with about 70 BBs remaining in my stack.
At some point and after a few more levels, I started to make hands and found myself at the 600/1200/1200 level with about 34,000 chips. I picked up AA and got all in vs KK to almost double up to 60,000. Then, card death until at the 800/1600/1600 I made "THE BIG STEAL"! It didn't matter much in the grand scheme, but I was proud of this one. I held 66 on the Button. Early position raised to 3000, there were 3 callers, I called and the BB called. 17400 in the pot. The flop was Q85, a whiff. It was checked around. The turn was a 9 and miraculously, it checked to me. I bet 1/3 pot (6000) and they all folded. Talk about value for yo money baby!!
A few levels later, money time. Blinds were 1000/2000/2000, I had 45,000 in my stack with QQ on the button opened to 4500. BB raised to 15000 and he barely covered me. I decided to jam (almost trivial with 22.5 BB) and he snapped me off with AA. Duh. I said nice hand and exited. I don't get tilted by these events because the play at this point is almost robotic with these holdings.
A pity though, because this event generated a prize pool of $41,000.
It was still early afternoon and I was going to stay at Venetian and play some cash. I got onto the NLHE 1/3 and 2/3 waitlists and walked down the Palazzo shopping area to shake off the tournament bust out ickiness. Downstairs from there, I located the Miznon Israeli casual eatery, offering affordable and innovative meat, falafel, humus and related condiments in pita and plate options. When my plate arrived (roasted lamb and veggies), I got the call for 1/3 and completing my meal, walked up to the podium - I was about 10 minutes late and the seat had been taken but 2/3 was open. Even better! It allows a buyin of up to $600.
Seated on seat 5 (my favorite), I noticed that seat 4 was a 40-ish well dressed tall Asian guy, man-spreading to almost prevent anyone from taking a spot next to him. When I said something like "sorry if I'm in your way", he grunted and improved his shape. As the game proceeded, I noticed he was playing close to 100% of hands as a limp, and seemed uncaring about whether he won or lost.
In this game I didn't take notes - I had had enough of that in the tournament - but it was a very slow and quiet one until an active young-ish guy (30+?) sat down and started to shake it up. To start, he punted off a $200 stack on a silly call-down of a river jam by his opponent. I figured it might be advertising to get action down the road. Then, he proposed we do $10 bomb pots at every dealer change, which I enthusiastically embraced. He also proposed we do a round of straddles, I agreed but the table didn't cooperate. The bomb pots were double board no-limit holdem. In one of them, I rivered a full house on the top board, lost to a pair on the bottom board, still a chop was nice. Later, I scooped both boards, although the initial dealer read (and my own) was that it was a chop. New guy remarked that I scoop because I made an unnoticed flush on the bottom board. I thanked him and tried to toss him a $5 chip, he tossed it back and joked I can "give him the $200 I won from him" - however I didn't win any such pot from him, the largest being perhaps $40 or so.
Bottom line, after 4 hours of play I decided to make it a day and booked $210 in winnings, almost half of the tournament buyin. I made it back to the Aria for a quiet evening, watching some of the Democratic convention blabbering (Joe B finally did figure out how to talk) and catching up on House of the Dragon on my iPad.
Tuesday, Mickey (my son) was going to join me at the Aria for their 1pm daily $160 tournament, and so I had the morning to myself. At 9am I walked over to the pool area and checked in. Aria has two large pools, and trying to swim in the first one was futile - it was already getting full of families. I switched to the second pool and it was almost empty - ideal for a 15 minute swim. Starbucks had the spinach and egg wrap today and they didn't burn it.
With a bit of time on my hands before the tournament, I sat at the Aria 1/3 game and it was a mid-morning sleepy one, with little action. I played for 2 hours until the tournament started and booked a $172 win.
For the tournament, Mickey arrived and we were seated on adjacent tables. I was on seat 1 in the corner of the room, and felt slightly claustrophobic. Some of the dealers were also not flat bellied (to be kind), and that made it hard for me to track the actions of seat 8 to the right of the dealer, forcing me to lean forward. The poker also sucked and I couldn't get anything going for the first levels. I found myself with a starting stack (22,000) to start level 6 300/600/600. Then stuff started to happen. I won a series of hands with AQ and QJ. I went into level 7 (400/800/800) with 45,000 chips. Then, a cooler with KQ that flopped trips and lost to a straight, and a mini-cooler with 74 in the BB that was checked to, flopped two pair and had to fold the river to aggression on a coordinated board. At level 8 (500/1000/1000) and holding Q9hh, I opened to 2200 from the cutoff, got 3 callers and the flop came Q84. They checked, I bet, one called. The turn was a 9 and the caller strangely led for 4000. I had seen this guy play hands weirdly, including stacking off his first buyin with a weak holding. So I decided to jam (I covered) and he snap called with a set of 4's. Well, well. And Mickey got to see that one since he had just bust and come to let me know.
Going from there, my stack was down to about 8000 and I chipped up to 20,000 with an all-in AJ being called by Q9. Then hung in there for another few levels, until at level 11, 1000/2000/2000 and 14000 in my stack, I open jammed AJ from early position, was called by AK and was out.
Like the previous day, I had some time to kill before I was going to go to dinner with Mickey. I walked up to the podium and was seated at a 2/5 table (max $1,500 buyin). I decided to buy in for just $600 because that matched the hundred dollar bills in my right pocket (as opposed to opening the zipper of my money belt). More importantly, it was what I felt comfortable risking sitting down at a table of unknowns at what may turn out to be a tough game.
As in cardrooms nation-wide, 2/5 plays differently than 1/3. There's more 3betting and less people go to an average flop. This one was no exception, and for a while I folded while trying to figure out a decent entry point into a hand. Then, I picked up KQcc in the small blind. Early position had opened to 20 (the standard for this table) and the button called. I raised to $65, a bit small compared to sizings you'll see in solver charts (like 3.5X + the number of calls for something like 85 or 90), but felt it was enough to build a nice pot if I flopped well. They both called. The flop came QX3 with two hearts. I led for $100 into the $185 pot, and just the button called. The turn came a blank, missing the flush draw. Given the $385 in the pot and my having about $410 behind, I jammed and the button folded. So I made $230 just in that hand. That first hand really helped build my image (I showed down he best hand in another spot) and later aggression on my part was mostly folded to. The rest of the session went swimmingly and I cashed out after 90 minutes of play, up $425. That was helpful.
For dinner, the Aria options didn't really look too attractive and the best restaurants were quite posh and forbidding (one doesn't even publish prices on its menu). So Micky and I decided to double back to the Venetian and our trusty Miznon spot. I switched to a Pita with freshly roasted chicken (awesome) and he had a Pita with steak. $25 each plus diet coke (vodka soda for him) and we were happy guys. For Dad and son fantasy shopping, we took a peak at the Man-Cave store at Palazzo, worth walking into even if you don't feel like taking out a second mortgage to get one of their massage chairs.
Mickey stayed overnight at my Aria room (he had been in a fantasy draft with friends the days prior) and flew back home early Wednesday. I woke, did the swimming / Starbucks drill again, checked out and - you guessed it - headed to the poker room to fill time until I needed to depart to my flight a bit past noon.
To have a relaxed time, I sat at 1/3. This was a pretty weird cast of characters (aren't they all strange in different ways?). I was seated in the hated seat 1 and moved to seat 2 when it opened up. To my left was a quiet lady with Caribbean or South American features. On the opposite side of the table in seats 6 and 7, was a couple of what looked to be "young rich Asians", both the lady and man terrifically dressed, with designer clothing and handbags, and a shit-ton of chips in front of the guy - $1,400? - she too had a nice stack. He must have built it up quickly, given the max $500 buyin at that level. While it was clear they were colluding, it was a soft collusion where they sometimes clashed in a hand. Nobody seemed to care. I'll call the guy Richie Rich.
Early on, I picked up KK in the BB. There was a limp, and a call from Richie. I raised to 35 and they both called. The flop was AAK. I cBet 30, the limper folded and Richie raised to 120. I thought, if he has an Ace I don't have to raise, all the money is going in anyway. Plus, I was only losing to the unlikely AK (2 combos) and AA (one combo). So I flat called, as I would with other nutted hands like quads. The turn was a 9, and it checked around. Blah. Now I knew he had bupkes - maybe a lower pocket pair. On the 8 river, I led for 200 and he folded.
After losing an annoying pot with ATdd vs 33 when it flopped AT4 and turned 3, I picked up 66 in the BB. The lady to my left opened first to act, SB and I called. The flop was the beautiful 642. I checked, she bet 20, SB folded, I raised to 60, she hesitated and said the magic words: all in. She had AA and got felted. I genuinely felt sorry for her.
Getting up after 2 hours, I cashed out for a $562 win.
End results:
- Tournaments: -$560
- Cash: +$1,319
- Satisfaction: 100%
