Bonus Whoring

I started my one full day in Vegas, not by hitting the nearest poker table, but by touring the strip and joining player's clubs to get some good coupons and swag. The main coupons that I wanted were for match play.

I had 3 match plays on this trip. Two were for $25 and one for 5. I won one of three for a profit of $20. so before any poker, I'm up about $30 for the trip at the start of the poker playing day. (I had a real nice +$170 session at the Hooters Poker Room late Tuesday night to put me up $10 at the start of the day)

A few other impressions of the strip:

• The City Center and Cosmopolitan projects (between the Bellagio and Monte Carlo) is a huge mass of construction. It is remarkable how far they have come in the last 10 months. (Pictures above)
• You can not tell there was a fire at the Monte Carlo a few weeks ago.
• Wynn's Encore tower is nearly complete. Except for the cranes, it looks complete.
• The Palazzo (new tower at the Venetian) is fabulous. (Pictures below)

I stopped by the Wynn to see the start of the Wynn Classic poker tournament. I was hoping to run into FlipChip, but no such luck today. I don't know if it was a sad sight or not, but I did spot poker pro T.J. Cloutier at a $15 craps table all by himself. I thought about placing a bet so I could recount the day TJ and I played craps together, but I didn't think it was worth $15. I made a swing through the Palazzo and Venetian on my way to my poker objective, the fabulous Flamingo.

The poker room there sucks, but I was hoping that the players would match. Unfortunately for me, the cards are what sucked. I found a very familiar pattern of playing very tight, getting some action on every bet, and hanging around even until a good starting hand gets my chips in only to be sucked out by somebody who should not have been in the hand.

That is exactly what happened after about 3 hours of play. I got QQ and got my $12 open called by 2 players. The flop is all low trash, I jam for about $60 more and get one caller who hit his 64o for two pair. IGBTHN (I go back to hotel now).

I hung out at my hotel for about an hour checking email and taking a short break before heading to the Planet Hollywood for the 6 pm tourney. The Grinder used to play in this one, but no longer. It is just a well structured $60 tourney. Since it was really a 7 pm tourney, I signed up and then sat at a $1-2 NL table to pass the time.

That familiar pattern of hanging around to get stacked was still in force and took about an hour before I ran my flopped 2 pair into an over-sized stack on an outside straight draw. Guess what. yep. IGGDN (get dinner). I'm now down $200 for the day and $170 for the trip.

But I'm not posting bad-beat stories on this trip. I did well in the tourney getting 6th out of 36 to double my buy-in and bring my trip total to -$110. From here I cruised to Bellagio to play some $1-3 NL and find again that they don't spread such low limits. They start at $2-5, so I keep moving. Bally's has a good sized list for $1-2, but Paris is open (they post both lists at Bally's).

I show up at Paris at about 11 pm, Ready to play for about an hour. I hang around my $115 buy-in for the hour and start to look for the exit. Then I get dealt 66 on the button and get in a 6 way limped pot. the flop comes 567 and it gets checked to me. I bet $12 and get 2 callers. The turn is a 2 and the player to my right goes all in for $38 more. I call and the 3rd player folds. The river brings the fourth 6 to make me quad 6s. Bonus! So I take down the $120 ish pot and a $110 high hand bonus. After a couple more good hands I stand up and cash out for about $300.

I end this Vegas trip just a little over $100 thanks to a late rally. I board the plane in about 20 minutes and will be home in 5 hours. Good times.