This trip to Vegas confirmed many of the things I have been thinking about it. First, it is damned expensive. Buffets (my go to meal in the morning) have become increasingly expensive. Then, in a fairly new twist, all the strip hotels are now charging a "resort fee". The fee at the Rio was $34. a day!!! For this you receive internet access, pool access, excercise access, and local phone. In other words everything you would receive in most any hotel anywhere for free with your room charge. Can you say "rip off"? Transportation can be managed by free shuttles from the hotel to the strip but they are damned inconvenient, running every half hour until 1:00 a.m. The good news is Uber, which is quick, easy and cheaper than a taxi. My pet peeve with the Rio was the new lack of coffee in the room. Last visit they had Keurigs. The Starbucks downstairs had continual lines 20 plus deep. No way.
I avoided my classic mistake of playing poker the first day of arrival until the wee hours insuring that I was groggy and off my game the remainder of the trip. First tournament was the $365. WSOP event starting at noon Sunday. There were 6 flights and 1,498 entries. I was eliminated after about 4 hours or so. Nothing spectacular, nothing to see here. My friend Don did well enough to claim our $5. last longer side bet. Due to my early departure I headed over to my favorite casino, The Venetian to find an Omaha game. There were none running so I opted in to the 1/2 no limit. Since I had not eaten since breakfast, had to check my comps. Last visit, the total was around $160 in the account. You earn $2. an hour in poker there and it represented a lot of hours over the past few years. I was surprised when they told me that I had zero dollars. It was explained to me that if there is no activity in one year the comps go away. I believed that last year I had played some, but their records indicated no activity since 2015. Fortunately, the management stepped up and offered to replace $50 of the lost comps, plus pay me $3/hour for my play that day. Nice. And the Jumbalaya dinner was also nice.
More to come on this trip.....hopefully more interesting.
5 comments:
Gee whiz I guess there's a good reason I've never bothered going to Vegas. Resort fee? Are you serious? That's just lame. I think you'd be better off just going to Spirit Mountain now and then. I hope your trip improves!!
My luck lately in a nutshell - of course my opponent was Donna (help me!). Last Saturday's tournament at Jokers: I have A-10. There is a small raise pre-flop and I call along with Donna, Steve Stark and one other player. The flop is A-10-2 rainbow so I've flopped top two - yippee! Steve Stark bets 150. I come over the top to make it 600. Only Donna calls. (Help help help). The turn is a 5. I bet about 1500. She calls. The river is a blank (can't remember). I bet 2000. She calls. Can you guess what she had? Oh yes. Pocket 5s. What a good player don't you think she said sarcastically?
Have fun down there. Hope to see you someday.
Hey Phil your blog is always interesting. Keep them coming.
We are holding down the fort for you here on the coast.
Dewey,
When you are dealing with a calling station, and she is the classic one, it just leaves you shaking your head. All she can see or think is that she has a pair that could improve, no different than if she had flopped bottom pair, and same number of outs. She will never consider the action, bet and raise as being a red flag that her low pair is no good and drawing thin. Nothing you can do, chasers going to chase. It is what they do.
I know. You're right. I really need to stop letting her get to me. She's oblivious to what she's doing so there's no point in getting riled up.
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