Vegas Days 5, 6 and 7

I found that increasingly things that happened in Vegas had to stay in Vegas, so the blogging kind of trailed off...

A sort of Poker Status Report:

I played at the Rio, The Palms, The Excalibur, Binion's, The Orleans and Mandalay Bay. The best experience was the Excal, even though I got killed at No Limit there.

$2/$4 at The Orleans: Up $44
$2/$4 at The Palms: Up $65
$200 NL at Excal: Down $200
$2/$4 at Binions: Up ~$50
$2/$4 at Mandalay Bay: Up $72
$500 NL at Rio: Up $25
$200 NL at Mandalay Bay: Up $150
$2/$6 Spread at Excalibur: Up $110

2 $60 Tournaments at Mandalay Bay: Down $120
2 $30+3 Tournaments at Party Poker: Down $66

The cash games are definitely where it's at in Vegas. Tournaments are fun, but the fish die off early and it becomes a crap shoot with the better players when it comes time to get into the money. At the cash games, the fish just keep donating and donating, and when they bust out they just keep going into their pocket. "Set up on table six!"

Reviews:

The Orleans was great. Plenty of tables and the play wasn't too crazy. There were actually some complete bricks at the table. We didn't start until well after midnight, but there were plenty of games to choose from.

The Palms is kind of a pit, this tiny little dungeon off the main casino. The players there were fun, with a lot of people who stayed on the river with any diamond trying to draw a diamond flush so they could get into a $200 drawing the next day. So there were some incredible suckouts that always seemed to involve a diamond or two. Everybody laughed it up at our table, but some of the other tables seemed to be very intense. There is a separate tournament room that isn't quite the dungeon that the cash game room is, but I didn't play there.

The Excalibur was my favorite room of the trip. You could park right by the Poker Room, the games were always running and always fun. The $2-$6 spread game was really a great variation that punishes the fish and rewards the more experienced players. Making it $8 pre-flop actually scares away the "I call any raise because the pot is bigger" low-limit morons who seem to suck out every hands by sheer force of numbers. If you get AA cracked or get quads you get to spin a wheel for cash. I got Aces four times in one night but they never got cracked. I got Kings cracked big time when I made my set on the turn but TT made his flush on the river. No spin for Kings Cracked, unfortunately.

Binions is a pit. Sorry Rooster, but the place is really old and run down. The table I was on was so over foamed you couldn't stack chips on it. But you couldn't play from a rack either. When I racked up my chips to leave but wanted to play one more hand, the dealer refused to deal me cards unless I took ALL my chips out of the rack. Either have a decent table or let players play from racks. The $60 tournament looked pretty good though.

Mandalay Bay was No Fold Em to the Extreme. Not only did every hand reach a showdown, every one had 3 or 4 players to a showdown, no matter what. You could have a royal flush and show your hand, and someone would call "just in case." Smallish room cut into the sports book, so if you like to watch sports on TV while you play, it had it's benefits.

The Rio was incredible. The poker room was closed due to the WSOP, but there were usually HUNDREDS of side games going. I only played in the $500 NL game but there were games spread all the way down to $4/$8 Limit and going all the way up to unbelievable amounts. Yes the gray chips that look exactly like $1 Imperial Palace chips are actually Rio $500 chips. First time I have ever seen Chinese Poker spread in a casino.

Hammer Tally:

2 for 3. Ironically, I won with the hammer twice at $2/$4 No Fold Em Hold Em, and lost once at No Limit when I raised, was raised immediately and then re-raised. As I folded pre-flop I was beginning to think I had a tell until one player showed KK and the other showed AA.