It was a painful morning. Not sleeping tll about 6am and waking up around 9:30am is just not fun, even if it is in Vegas. The reason for the early wakeup is me and my poker buddy(just for reference, i have a poker buddy and just a buddy buddy on this trip), we wanted to head to the Sahara 11am poker tourney. For those who dont know, this is probably the best poker tourney under $100. They give you lots of chips, there are a lot of players, and good payouts. But making it to the Sahara didnt happen since it took so long to get to the Sahara and took us even longer to get out of bed. Instead, we went to Ceasar%26#39;s Palace and played in their noon tournament. Tournament is a little more expensive, $130, but you still get a lot of chips and long levels so the blinds dont get crazy. We took a walk, paid our entry fee, and went for a bit of food. While walking around for some fast food(long walk since I have no idea where everything is at) we noticed a very hot, and short shorts wearing lady with hooker boots on. Apparently some girls work early in the day.
After a quick eat at the Cypress market(nice pizza there), then we were ready to play some poker. There was some confusion regarding the tournament since their computers werent working at the time. My buddy and I took our seats at different tables and the game was on. For the $130, you get a total of 4500 chips(1500 starting, 3500 rebuy). Blinds start off at 25-50 and they go up every 40 minutes which is a long time. Early on, I caught a major hand with pocket 10s. On the flop, I hit quad 10s while the lady next to me gets a straight draw. She hits her straight on the turn and we%26#39;re going back and forth. She goes all in on the river, I make the call and add a lot to my chipstack(she only had about 1500 at the time, really wish she did the rebuy early). I was doing fine with a big chip stack when I ran into an unfortunate hand. With my pocket 8s, I get a set of 8s on the flop. The other guy in the hand keeps calling my raises and I noticed that when he reaches for chips, he starts to shake a bit. That%26#39;s telling me that he has a good hand and sure enough, he has trip Aces beating my hand and luckily, I lose a chunk of my stack rather than all of it.
I check with my poker buddy during the break and he%26#39;s not doing that well. We check on the prize pool and first place gets a nice prize of $3500(93 players or so were playing). Back to the tables and the blinds go up and I stop getting the cards to win. About three hours after the tourney started, I ended up busting out as did my poker buddy a bit earlier. Next for us, time to check out the room at the Venetian.
Being that I%26#39;ve played in almost every poker room on the strip now, the Venetian has the perfect blend of everything that makes a poker room good: comfortable chairs, good dealers, a somewhat closed off area but not so closed off that you feel isolated from the casino. Also, while the place is a high end casino, it still has lower limit games($1/2 NL game with $100 min/$200 max buy in). On top of all that, the competition is a blend of people that know how to play and those that dont. Our plan was to play here until about 7pm so we have time to get to the Steakhouse at Circus Circus for our 8pm reservations. My poker buddy and I sat at different tables playing $1/2 NL holdem and after about an hour, I just did an incredibly dumb move. I want to blame the lack of sleep but anyway you look at it, I completely screwed up. Simply put, I had pocket Kings and I was focused on my hand rather than the action, thus acting out of turn, thus going all in, and ended up busting out. It was a terrible move on my part and I really wanted to kick my own butt. After a little break from the table, I played at the $2/4 limit table with some people that didnt know much in regards to poker but like most limit games, it was about having fun. Lost some money at this table but then again, I was still on tilt for what I had done at the previous table.
Meeting with my other buddy, the three of us took the Deuce to Circus Circus. I have to say, CC really seemed low class. Lots of ';thugs'; acting hard while playing arcade games. My poker buddy who in Vegas for the first time, just couldnt stand the place after staying the Aladdin. Funny thing is that when I look back, in all honesty, CC is more of our style. All three of us barely make $30k a year and were not on the same level as some of the people staying at the Aladdin. Luckily for the three of us, I can find the deals at the better casinos.
Being that we got tere a little early, we wasted some time at the arcade on the second floor. It was funny that we were the oldest people there that werent with kids. It was a good thing that I made reservations a week early since they were sending a people away since it was so full. I wanted to say we were undressed but then I saw a family dressed similar to us(shorts, t-shirts, blue jeans) so it didnt seem to matter. It took about 10 minutes or so to be seated. I decided to get the porterhouse steak with mash potatoes and a ceasar salad, my poker buddy got the top sirloin with mash potatoes and house salad, and my other buddy order the filet mignon, mash potatoes and house salad. The salads were first and I would recommend everyone get the ceasars salad. Not that it%26#39;s an amazing salad, but the house salad is just filled with almost every vegetable and wasnt that appealing. Then came the main course. First off, we all agreed that the mash potatoes were great. They have the potato skins in it and really just great. Now for the steaks, while cooked exactly the way we asked for, there was one problem. No steak sauce! All the sudden our waiter was gone for a good ten minutes even after we asked for the sauce. We had to wait for the guy who filled our water glasses for him to get the sauce for us and by that time, we were halfway through our steaks. Really have to take off points for that. I liked the steak sauce. It had a sweet, yet spicy taste to it which reminded me of a local BBQ place that has a similar sauce. Overall, our checks were about $45-50 a piece including tip.
Now the plan was to head to the Sahara after dinner to play at their tourney that we missed in the morning. After the big meal, none of us were in the mood to talk over to the Sahara. We all agreed to head back to the room and take a power nap. Our power naps ended up being about 12 hour long, damn it. My poker buddy woke me up when he finally got up and headed to the poker room. I fell back asleep and woke up in time to get ready for checkout. We checked out right at 11am and asked to be rated in hopes to have a room comped. Unfortunately, we didnt lose enough for any room comps and we didnt charge any food to the room so we didnt get that comped.
With our flight being a few hours away, I decided that I should take my poker buddy to the MGM Grand. My poker buddy and I played some $1/2 NL holdem and after a rought beginning, I really took off profiting a nice $160. A nice way to end my poker part of the trip, leaving about even on cash games, but down $200 in tourney poker. After some McDonalds(hey not all meals can be fancy), we proceeded to get the souvenirs. As a big joke, we went to the penny slots, put in a dollar and lost everything but a penny, then cashed out. Nothing funnier than seeing a person%26#39;s face after receiving a tickets for a penny and also seeing that it expires in 30 days. On the flight back, apparently we took the Singing Airlines rather than Southwest. One flight attendant was singing most of the instructions, too bad the choice in songs was not that great.
Anyways, while I sit here going over all the details of the trip, I%26#39;ve already reserved for our next trip. ONLY FOUR MONTHS AWAY!!
Trip Report Finale - Poker, more poker, and the Steakhouse
Enjoyed your poker report. What did you lose the pocket K%26#39;s to? Looking forward to my first casino poker experience in a few months. I do very well at my local home game, but that%26#39;s like being ';Farmer Ted'; in Sixteen Candles......King of the Dip Sh**ts
Trip Report Finale - Poker, more poker, and the Steakhouse
On the flop, there were three diamonds and the guy to my left did a small raise. Then that%26#39;s when I did the stupid thing and reraised but it wasnt my turn. The guy who I acted in front of reraised himself and I went all in. I figured he had a flush but not a good one. I had the King of diamonds so I still had outs but again, I felt like a shmuck about the whole thing. He called my all in, showed the low flush, and I couldnt get another diamond to win the hand.
A prime cut of beef cooked to perfection doesn%26#39;t need any kind of sauce, it would ruin the flavor of the beef! However, I know how some love doing just that! In a restaurant that specializes in prime cuts of meat, many chefs take it as an insult if someone asks for sauce.
Let the chef take the insult. If I am buying a expensive steak via my hard earned money there better be a bottle of ketsup on the table. And not just any ketsup,,it better be Heinz!
Now If the Chef was actaully joining me for this meal, I might feel a little different putting him/her thru this misery.....hense I%26#39;d just compliment the steak with a little dab instead of soaking it.
joncor
The thing is, porterhouse steaks are really about just having a big hunk of meat. They%26#39;re not the best steaks so I could have used some sauce. I still ate most of it without the sauce.
If you%26#39;re just going to slather it with steak sauce, I don%26#39;t know why you%26#39;d go to CC to spend $50 when you can go to Ellis island and spend $5. You won%26#39;t be able to tatse the difference. However, I do agree that if you paid for it, it%26#39;s your right to put sauce on it, however uncouth it may be.
Glad you had a good time OG. And of course you won at the MGM! lol
Hey, you%26#39;re allowed these two things:
First, sometimes I%26#39;ll order a prime rib and end up killing myself with too much straight horseradish, turning my nose inside out. I understand everyone has different tastes. Service is what you needed while the steak was hot. Should not have happened.
Second, no matter how much you make, Vegas wants your money. Who cares what others may think?
Hope you win big your next time around! Thanks for the report.
OMG, no steak sauce. I cannot imagine the horror of no ketchup on your steak. The staff should have thrown you out with the rest of the trailer trash.
Derek, if they threw out all the trailer trash at CC, who would they rent rooms to? Haven%26#39;t you seen the Circus Circus celebrity spokesman? It%26#39;s K-Fed....LOL
%26lt;i%26gt;OMG, no steak sauce. I cannot imagine the horror of no ketchup on your steak. The staff should have thrown you out with the rest of the trailer trash.%26lt;/i%26gt;
Yeah I know. What kind of moronic business would spend time creating their own steak sauce so they could maybe give it to their patrons. Seriously, the Steakhouse is filled with geniuses who spent who knows how long making their own refined steak sauce and keeping it away from the customers. I guess the next fad for restraunts is to have salads but never put any salad dressing on it... idiot.
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