Trip Report: Last Vegas, April 2011 P1

I went over with my mate Laurence, we've know each other for about 10 years and also started playing poker at the same time, although he tends to play for fun as appose to grinding most evenings. Loz has been to Vegas briefly before, he's just come back from 4 months travelling the whole of America on his own, so when I said I was going to Vegas he was well up for it, as he said he didn't spend nearly enough time there. We flew over separately as I was flying direct and Loz had some stop overs there and back, he booked the flight last minute for about £550 return I think, which was ok. He had one change over in Minneapolis on the way there and 2 change overs on the way home.

FYI, Loz wrote a pretty comprehensive travel blog while he was in America, it's 90% finished but the detail is amazing. If ever you get a chance take a read, highly recommend it... Laurencecastle's Blog | Just another WordPress.com site

Hotel

We stayed at the Imperial Palace which turned out to be a fantastic location. It was in the middle of everything and had a bunch of casinos either side. For 6 nights we paid £200 so £100 each and got 2 double beds in our room. As for a casino it is definitely one of the lower ranked casinos and we hardly spent any time there, however in terms of a place to stay I highly recommend it. We were literally only there to sleep, shower and change for for about £17 a night, in the centre of the strip you cannot go wrong. You'd be paying way more than that to stay over the road in Caesars and would be there the same amount of time.

Getting There

Loz and I both got the same bus from Chepstow to Heathrow on Thursday (21st) morning, he got off at Terminal 3 and I stayed on until Terminal 5. Everything ran smoothly at the airport and I boarded the plane fine. I was seated smack bang in the middle of an Indian family of about 15, made up of 4 generations. Between them they had about 3 young children under 5…Why take kids to Vegas??? Obviously the guy in front of me enjoys the recline button and the old women to my left likes to sleep and "lean" to her right…..is that all? nope! there's a french couple to my right with 2 young children. Great.

It was a slog of a plane journey, I watched 3 movies but couldn't sleep a wink so was literally just watching the clock. It made me realise how amazing it would be to be able to play poker on a plane, I could easily burn a 10 hour flight without realising it.

So I land in Vegas at about 7pm Vegas time and have 2 hours to kill until Loz arrives. I get a shuttle to the strip, it was totally amazing driving into the strip for the first time. It's annoying that I'll never get to experience my “first taste of Vegas” again as it's something special. It was getting dark so the lights were shining and I was buzzing I got to the Imperial Palace and as Loz booked the room I couldn't check in, they were just starting a $1/$2 NLHE cash game so I jumped straight it.

Right away I realised there was no money to be made at the table. Everyone was playing tight and keeping it very ABC, no one was being pushed off hands so it was pretty much just sit there until Loz arrives. I got involved in a few pots but after 90mins of play I was about $30 down and then Loz arrived. It was pretty surreal just seeing Loz strolling in But I cashed in my chips and we joined the checkin queue which lasted 1 hour haha apparently an hour wait is good and some people have waited up to 3 hours?!

In the queue Loz starts talking about the $20 trick he read on 2+2, it had mixed reviews but it was worth a shot. Basically you push the employee checking you in a cheeky $20 and see if they'll sort you out with an upgrade. I'm not really sure what upgrades the IP has to offer as it was no Wynn but we decided to give it a go.

An hour later Loz checks us in and says to the guy "We're checking, if you have any complimentary upgrades we would be more than willing to tip generously for your services"………The guy looked at him, laughed and said nothing. Not really sure what that mean't but we guessed it was a No!

So checked in and we were both pushing 28 hours with no sleep, with that said we weren't tired so decided to get showered (together) smarten up and have a little look around. We didn't want to venture too far so decided to head over the road and check out Caesars, looked at the WSOPC schedule, checked out the poker room, pissed $100 up the wall on roulette and decided to eat. It was about 1am and we decided to eat at Munch Burger in Caesars. I was unable to find a ¼ pounder on the menu so had to go for a ½ pounder...........with a bucket of fries. Steady start to eating in Vegas.

It was our first taste of Vegas food and straight away realised it would be hard not to get fat in Vegas with our free "bucket" of fries haha (each). Once we ate we headed back to get some sleep and refreshed. I figured 8 hours sleep and I'd be sound after being awake about 30 hours. After a good 8 hours we woke up and both feeling fine, no jet lag or anything and we're both buzzing for the days ahead

Friday

Friday morning we decided to hit the shops and have a look around the various casinos. We had that burger in the early hours so just got a couple of slices of Pizza at a cafe in Paris. We looked around Paris as well as the Miracle Mile shops and the Forum Towers at Caesars. I was loving the shops, they had an MMA shop so I bought myself a sick Silver Star t-shirt (Anderson Silvas label).

We decided to have a few drinks in Blondies Sports Bar in the Miracle Mile shopping area, it was 10am and they were showing Leeds Vs Reading haha. Was so surreal drinking at 10am on a Friday morning, in Las Vegas watching Leeds Vs Reading I had never tasted Bud Light before so got a few pints of that, I thought it was quite nice, just a flatter version of Bud.

It is a slog walking up and down the strip so by the time we were done with the shops we decided to head back to the IP, get into "evening wear" and head out for some drinks. We checked out all the major casinos, Bellagio, MGM, Mirage, Wynn, etc… We headed to Planet Hollywood for a steak which was nice. Every place in Vegas is rammed as everyone wants the "buffet", so Planet Hollywood had the smallest queue which swayed the decision.

By the time we were done and had a few more drinks we decided to call it a night around 1am and get some rest before our WSOPC Event the next day.

Saturday

We were up early on Saturday and both buzzing for the Poker Tourney. It was a $350 Championship Event and we swapped 25%. We headed to The Hash House for breakfast looking for a good feed. It was at Imperial Palace and made famous because it featured on the show, "Man Vs Food". He ate the Fried Chicken Hash House Farm Benedict. It has Chipotle cream with peppers, scrambled eggs, griddled mozzarella, fried chicken, bacon, market tomato, spinach, biscuit on top of griddled potatoes. Pictured below…

I ordered their "award winning" Meatloaf Sandwich called The Kokomo, it's girdled Meatloaf with Smoked Mozzarella and Roasted Red Peppers all on their Fresh Amish Style Milk Bread. It was a beast I'll say that much. From the picture it doesn't look massive but the contents were so filling I had to leave a bit. Loz went for the Waffles and got 4 of them, who needs 1 or 2 when you can have 4!!!, needless to say he left some.

Loz had fruit, ice cream and potatoes on his plate. I gave him a slice of my sandwich and at one point he had waffles, eggs, ice cream, strawberrys, potatoes, meatloaf and fried bread on his plate.....why not?

So over to Caesars and get bought into the event. A very nice cardroom and some sick pictures of all the pros on the four walls. Loz and I soon realised we were seated at the same table next to each other? WTF?! it turned out they don't do a random table draw, they simply seat you as you register, so the first person to register is seated at Table 1 Seat 1, the second is seated at Table 1 Seat 2 and so on. Fortunately there was an influx of buyiins and they were freeing up all the seat 10s, I was seated at seat 10 so was moved to another table. They even postponed the start for 30mins which annoyed me. In the end there were 520 runners, which was some sort of record for a $350 event. It was a combination of the online ban and people wanting to ship a Championship Ring on the cheap.

10k starting stack on a 30min clock but lots of extra levels, we started at 25/25 then went onto 25/50 then 50/75 lol, never seen that level before. I was seated with an English women who looked like an older version of Liv Boeree. She seemed very nice and looked like butter wouldn't melt until…

With blinds at 100/200 she makes it 600, BB pumps it up to 1,800 and she makes it 4000 he calls. Flop comes down all rags with 2 diamonds, bb checks and she shoves. He calls with QJ of diamonds and binks on the river. She went mental calling him allsorts and as she left she said "You fucking prick" haha ! At the end of the day it was a bad preflop call by him, when he 3 bets pre she doesn't re-raise much so he could argue he's priced in. Once he flops the flush draw he's going with it, what more is he looking for. He was probably playing 12k before the hand, if he's committed that much preflop then he's going with it. Chill out love, he binked a flush….get on with it.

At the first break Loz says theres a guy at his table, on his iPad raising every hand. Later I see who it is and it's David Williams, sitting there with a sick framed picture above him on the wall next to Phil Ivey haha. Anyway inevitably both myself and Loz get knocked out. Loz first after 2 limpers he shoved 10 bbs from the bb with AK, initial limper calls with AQ and the other guy finds the call button somehow with JT (for half his stack). J on the flop and Loz is gone.

I last about 2 more hours and feel like I'm playing well, I picked up some decent chips 3-betting preflop and pick up KK. I raise as I have been doing often and some women ships in 17 bigs, I snap her off and she shows AJo, ends up rivering a flush and I'm gone.

During the tournament there was slight commotion as some guy had just jumped off the top level parking lot bridge and killed himself, crazy. There was no emotion at the table and people started with the jokes “Red obviously came in when he bet black”...I had to lol.

The day is pretty much gone so we spend the evening having drinks, checking out the various casinos and gambling. Winning $0, spewing a few hundred…standard.

Sunday

Sunday was by far the best day, we were fully settled, getting to know our way around and ready to hit the drink. Visiting Vegas makes you realise how genius everything is. Everything is designed and geared up to make you spew money, it's amazing. For example, we often sat down at the slots because you always get offered free drinks (well $1 as you have to tip). Why pay $6 for a Bud at the bar when you can get one for a dollar. But the women takes a while getting your drinks so you end up spewing $10-$20 on the slots haha. At the bars they have video poker on touch screens in the bar, so you get given free drinks while you play to keep you there grinding out. The scantily clad hot women dealers are useful, and some of the places have pole dancers in the middle of the roulette tables, minimum bets are slightly higher but you think ah well why not. It's amazing though, the Casinos are raking it in by the millisecond. To think Harras which isn't the biggest of the casions has purchased the likes of Caesars, Rio, etc… Crazy !

As we walk out of the IP in the morning we get approached by a dodgy looking black guy who asks us both if we want some “nose candy” hahaha !!! Love it. Unfortunately he didn't make a sale on this occasion.

Just a slight side track but theres loads of tramps in Vegas and I was always wondering what the split was between the tramps that are just from Vegas originally and those people that went their to make their fortune and it got the better of them. Thoughts?

For breakfast we decided to hit a random place in Paris…

So as we were yet to see a show and are both Penn and Teller fans theres only one shout. Looked online and they were about $100. Theres plenty of half priced ticket stands in the street and we managed to get our tickets for $60 each, steal. As well as that we got 25% off anything at the VooDoo Steak House at the Rio and free entry to their VooDoo Lounge, best money we spent during our whole stay in Vegas. Penn and Teller are simply awesome. Penn is a very intelligent guy and talks for America (which is a crucial part of their act to keep you distracted). They do their magic is such a way it's pretty amazing. They basically tell you how there tricks are done and even often show you yet, they manage to put a sick spin on the routine and still leave you wondering WTF.

Once we got our tickets from near Paris we thought we'd quickly stroll over to The Rio, as it only looked over the road…..Wrong! It's a fair way out and took a while to walk there. Glad we did though as we sorted our seats early and got some good ones on the front row of the middle tier. Checked out their casino and decided to give the Rio some of our hard eared money, probably $40 each, they clearly need it (lol). So we headed back to the IP got dressed into our evening attire and headed back to the Rio.

So we walk out of the IP and theres a few taxis waiting, a porter guy calls it over for us and opens the door and tells the driver where we need to go. Wasn't really sure if that was tip worthy? but we chucked him $1 anyway. Taxi to the Rio cost about $20, I'm sure he went some sort of long way around. Anyway we get there, get some drinks in and head to the Penn and Teller Theatre. The show was awesome, really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. IMO a show like that is way way above a David Copperfield/Criss Angel show. As those guys try to go for the "supernatural" theme when it's clearly trickery (more Criss Angel really), but Penn and Teller expose everything which was so cool, to do that and still leave the audience stunned is something. Plus the majority of tricks people are aware how to do anyway. They did the standard saw in half trick but somehow managed to put a spin on it to leave the audience thinking WTF?!

They did this sick trick where they took a random from the audience and got took their phone, they then made the phone disapear and reappear inside a dead fish under someones chair in the audience. The amazing thing was they took the blokes phone, and started video recording the trick from the start, they said only the man is going to know how the trick is done because he can watch the video on his phone when he gets home. BUT, we found a video on youtube of a guy from the audience who they do the trick to. It's a really long trick and was totally amazing, it turns out from watching the video that it's over right from the start....

YouTube - My 2 minutes of fame with Penn & Teller at the Rio in Vegas

Once that was over we took our tickets and headed to the VooDoo Lounge, we get in and are ushered to an elevator which takes us to the 51st, as we walk out of the elevator and see the views it was totally sick, the roof terrace was awesome with a bar and massive speakers.

YouTube - Voodoo Lounge, Rio, Las Vegas

We got there about 10ish I'd say so wasn't that packed early on, we could easily get a drink when we wanted, watch the dancers/dj and plenty of room of the roof terrace. This place was the least pretentious "nightlife" place I went to in Vegas. For example we went to Pure at Caesars later in the trip (will be TR'ing about this) and there must have been a good 10 guys outside the club in suits with their "business cards" doing nothing but standing around on their iPhones. Needless excess people on the payroll? 1 or 2 guys would have been more than enough. Anyway at the VooDoo Lounge there was one guy at the door, let us in fine, our free tickets were exchanged for entry, ushered to the lift…done!

I think that the Rio and the Palms are your best shouts for nightlife with sick views, as the others are on the strip they're on top of each other so views won't be as breathtaking as the Rio or Palms, as you can literally take it all in within one view. It was totally sick, I'll definitely be going back there….AMAZING.

Only annoying thing was that as it was a Sunday it closed at 2:30am which sucked. Fairly drunk we naturally just walk back to the strip. Obviously didn't take as long when drunk lol, on the way we bumped into 2 English guys from Northampton who were on their way to the VooDoo Lounge. So we walked back to the strip with them and all went to the Wynn to see what was going down. It was quite a slog and at 3.30am "the moment had gone" so to speak to start drinking again. So we part ways and Loz and I head back up towards the IP, having only had thad breakfast that day (that pretty much fills you for the day) it was 4am and we decide to head for some early morning food. We go to Bills and I get a steak and Loz tackles a breakfast

After this we called it a night about 5.30am to catch some rays for the penultimate full day.

The next 2 days which include the Gun Store and The Caesars Club Pure will be uploaded tomorrow