Tuesday June 28
My mother was still asleep when I entered the room at 6:00am. I don’t know when she came up to the room, and didn’t really know how she did. I called my wife.
“I can’t talk much now as I’m on my way out the door. Annie won the Citizenship Award for her class again and I’m going to the school assembly. You should probably call her later tonight.”
I am pretty proud of my daughter, as she has won the award 4 out of the 5 years she has been going to school. She must take after her mother.
So, I lie down to try and sleep for a few hours when the phone rings 45 minutes later, waking me and my mother up. It was David (RecVPPlayer). We had gotten in touch before this trip, and planned to meet up.
He follows a strict diet, but I did meet up with him and we had a donut and drink at the Krispy Kreme outlet in Fitzgerald’s. He’s a very nice and intelligent guy. We discussed some various blackjack strategies and he was kind enough to show me his extensive notes on video poker and blackjack.
After the quick breakfast, we headed over to the Las Vegas Club where he was staying. We both settled in on the Big Electronic Blackjack machine. The odds on these machines are much better than those crappy multi-hand blackjack machines that torched me last year. His bet spread was about $2 - $8 per hand. I eventually ended up just betting the $25 maximum each hand. Things weren’t going that great for me and I was quickly down $250. I got up, went to one of the open blackjack tables and bought in for $300.
I placed a $50 bet on 2 spots. I was dealt 8 8 on the first spot and 7 4 on the second spot against a dealer 7.
I split the 8’s and received an Ace for 19 on the first hand, and a 3 on the second hand. Doubling down, I received a 9 for 20.
The last spot, I doubled and received an 8 for 19. How many times do you actually root for the dealer to have a ten value card in the hole? Well, he did, and I won back my $250 in 1 hand.
I walked back over to David, and told him the good news. He was surprised that I got my money back so quickly. We made plans to meet up again at 1:30pm so that he could store his luggage in our room before he checked into the Four Queens.
The spectacular view from our room at the Golden Nugget.
I went back up to check on mom at 9:45am. We had a 2 for 1 buffet coupon from the “Golden Values” coupon book given to us at check in. I actually had to convince the front desk clerk to give me the book. Apparently the coupon books are part of “packages”. My package was the “I didn’t get the room type I wanted, so be a nice clerk and toss me the coupons before I create a scene.”
We ended up having to pay the lunch price since we didn’t get seated until after 10:30am. While we were standing in line, I noticed a couple of pretty young ladies behind us wearing T-shirts over their swimwear as well as an elderly couple standing in front of us.
“Mom, I have an extra 2 for 1 buffet coupon. Who do you want me to give it to: the people in front of us or the people behind us?”
My mom sort of had this look of disapproval at the two trashy looking girls behind us, then pointed to the elderly couple in front of us. I tapped the guy on the shoulder.
“Do you have a coupon for this buffet? No? Well you do now.” I said as I handed him the coupon. He and his wife were very grateful. I had to try and get some good karma flowing our way.
I played off the $50 in free slot play from the Golden Nugget. I managed to turn that into $67 on the “Dirty Dancing” slot machines.
I then picked up Mom’s ticket to Gordie Brown later that evening and showed her where the theatre was.
I had some errands to run and mom didn’t want to come with me, so I headed out by myself. Traffic was horrible and I only managed to complete 1 task, which was check into the Las Vegas Hilton. This offer included $50 food credit, 2 free buffets, 2 tickets to see Trent Carlini and $100 in free slot play. I managed to turn the $100 into $115 on a “Grand Monarch” slot machine.
I drove back downtown to meet David at 1:30pm, and he stored his luggage in the room. He asked if I wanted to meet up later in the day to play some blackjack at the El Cortez, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to since my schedule was pretty full. I told him I’d give him a call later today.
On the way to Binion’s to play in my first tournament, I spotted mom playing a new game called “No Flop Pineapple Hold’Em”
“Mom, what is this game you’re playing? Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“No, and I’ve already lost $400.”
I told her to take a break, or maybe try another casino if she felt her luck was bad here at the Golden Nugget. We walked over to the tournament area at Binion’s and I showed her where I would be playing. I told her if I busted out early, I would meet up with her after the Gordie Brown show for a late dinner.
The first tournament I was playing was the $210 Binion Classic Pot Limit Omaha 8 High Low. I’d say 148 people entered, and just 15 would be paid.
For those of you who don’t play live poker, or do not play Omaha 8, you may want to just skip the next few paragraphs.
This would be my first live pot limit tournament. All of the other live O8B tournaments I have played up to this point have been limit tournaments. It’s been said that PLO8 (pot limit Omaha 8) is the most complex form of poker ever created. You can’t just “move all in” like you can in Texas Hold’Em trying to steal pots since your raise is limited to the size of the pot. The pots are split between the high hand and a qualifying low hand (5 unique cards 8 value or less) and you are given 4 cards, of which you use exactly 2 and only 2 to create your high hand and your low hand.
This is the type of poker I play the most of (online). Well, I didn’t do so well in this tournament, busting out after about 5 hours. I am extremely happy with the way I played though. No less than 5 times, I held hands with monstrous potential, and lost the minimum with them when multiple draws did not come through. Here’s an example:
My Hand: A 2 10 K (the Ace and 2 of hearts and the 10 and K of diamonds)
The Flop: Q J 7 (Q and J of hearts, 7 of diamonds)
The Turn: 8 of diamonds.
Not knowing what my opponent has, virtually any card in the deck would make my hand. Any heart or diamond that doesn’t pair the board gives me a flush, any 6,5,4,3 would give me a nut low, any 9, 10, K, Ace makes me the nut straight. Well, the river is the 7 of spades, and a guy with Q J in his hand wins.
Like I said, hands like this came around no less than 5 times, and I didn’t win once. If I had been playing the low buy in tournaments on Pokerstars and gotten those hands, I would have went broke all 5 times since my opponent would have called any raises.
There was a short break right at 6:00pm so I ran back to the Golden Nugget to give my daughter a call. I ran into David once again just as he was leaving the room. I couldn’t promise him anything, but said I’d call him later that evening. I gave my youngest daughter a call and congratulated her on the award.
I busted out around 7:00pm and headed back to the Golden Nugget to wait for my mother. While waiting for my mother, I had a great roll at a $10 crap table. I passed 4 times, and must’ve hit at least 5 COME numbers before making each point. It’s too bad I don’t really press my bets playing craps, because I turned $200 into just over $1000 on that one roll! (I’m sure if Gilly from Philly or Nick Papagiorgio from Yuma were with me things would have been different.) I can’t dream it up any better than that! Even the dealers were surprised.
Armed with a bigger bankroll, I decided to try the $5 Top Dollar slot Machines at the bottom of the escalators. I decided to play until I was out $200 or got the Top Dollar bonus. Thankfully I received the bonus after just spinning off $50. The bonus didn’t amount to much though. The offers never exceeded $200 and I had to settle on a final offer of $175.
Mom loved the Gordie Brown show. She said it was different than the show she watched with my brother 2 years ago. I paid $30 less for this ticket (same row) then I paid back in 2009.
It was closing in on 9:00pm, and we were both getting hungry so we decided to eat at Lillie’s Chinese restaurant. The food here was okay, but overpriced of course. Towards the end of the meal, I received a fortune that may have been a warning for the both of us.
What did this mean? Should my mom and I stop gambling? Should I play in the smaller $560 event instead of the $1500 WSOP? Should I stop complaining about the tough Kal Bi Korean steak I was served and finish it anyways? Who knows?
We decided to check out of the Golden Nugget after dinner at 11:30pm. The host was more than willing to reverse the $39 per night charges as well as pick up the dinner at Lillie’s. For some reason the $11 breakfast wasn’t picked up, but that wasn’t a big deal. I called up David and left him a message at the Four Queens that we would be moving to the Las Vegas Hilton.
On the way to the LVH, we stopped in at the Stratosphere to try our luck. This turned out to be a bad move since we both lost a couple of hundred. We were both seated at a blackjack table, and I had my elbow on the table, resting my chin in my hand. The pit boss comes over and tells me to take my elbow off the table. I did better than that. I took my remaining money off the table and left the place. What a jerk.
The room at the LVH was much nicer than the one at the Golden Nugget. The walk to the room though was a killer, since I parked near the North tower, and our room ended up being in the East tower. I went to bed right away. Mom would be out all night.
Day 4 to follow.
My mother was still asleep when I entered the room at 6:00am. I don’t know when she came up to the room, and didn’t really know how she did. I called my wife.
“I can’t talk much now as I’m on my way out the door. Annie won the Citizenship Award for her class again and I’m going to the school assembly. You should probably call her later tonight.”
I am pretty proud of my daughter, as she has won the award 4 out of the 5 years she has been going to school. She must take after her mother.
So, I lie down to try and sleep for a few hours when the phone rings 45 minutes later, waking me and my mother up. It was David (RecVPPlayer). We had gotten in touch before this trip, and planned to meet up.
He follows a strict diet, but I did meet up with him and we had a donut and drink at the Krispy Kreme outlet in Fitzgerald’s. He’s a very nice and intelligent guy. We discussed some various blackjack strategies and he was kind enough to show me his extensive notes on video poker and blackjack.
After the quick breakfast, we headed over to the Las Vegas Club where he was staying. We both settled in on the Big Electronic Blackjack machine. The odds on these machines are much better than those crappy multi-hand blackjack machines that torched me last year. His bet spread was about $2 - $8 per hand. I eventually ended up just betting the $25 maximum each hand. Things weren’t going that great for me and I was quickly down $250. I got up, went to one of the open blackjack tables and bought in for $300.
I placed a $50 bet on 2 spots. I was dealt 8 8 on the first spot and 7 4 on the second spot against a dealer 7.
I split the 8’s and received an Ace for 19 on the first hand, and a 3 on the second hand. Doubling down, I received a 9 for 20.
The last spot, I doubled and received an 8 for 19. How many times do you actually root for the dealer to have a ten value card in the hole? Well, he did, and I won back my $250 in 1 hand.
I walked back over to David, and told him the good news. He was surprised that I got my money back so quickly. We made plans to meet up again at 1:30pm so that he could store his luggage in our room before he checked into the Four Queens.
The spectacular view from our room at the Golden Nugget.
I went back up to check on mom at 9:45am. We had a 2 for 1 buffet coupon from the “Golden Values” coupon book given to us at check in. I actually had to convince the front desk clerk to give me the book. Apparently the coupon books are part of “packages”. My package was the “I didn’t get the room type I wanted, so be a nice clerk and toss me the coupons before I create a scene.”
We ended up having to pay the lunch price since we didn’t get seated until after 10:30am. While we were standing in line, I noticed a couple of pretty young ladies behind us wearing T-shirts over their swimwear as well as an elderly couple standing in front of us.
“Mom, I have an extra 2 for 1 buffet coupon. Who do you want me to give it to: the people in front of us or the people behind us?”
My mom sort of had this look of disapproval at the two trashy looking girls behind us, then pointed to the elderly couple in front of us. I tapped the guy on the shoulder.
“Do you have a coupon for this buffet? No? Well you do now.” I said as I handed him the coupon. He and his wife were very grateful. I had to try and get some good karma flowing our way.
I played off the $50 in free slot play from the Golden Nugget. I managed to turn that into $67 on the “Dirty Dancing” slot machines.
I then picked up Mom’s ticket to Gordie Brown later that evening and showed her where the theatre was.
I had some errands to run and mom didn’t want to come with me, so I headed out by myself. Traffic was horrible and I only managed to complete 1 task, which was check into the Las Vegas Hilton. This offer included $50 food credit, 2 free buffets, 2 tickets to see Trent Carlini and $100 in free slot play. I managed to turn the $100 into $115 on a “Grand Monarch” slot machine.
I drove back downtown to meet David at 1:30pm, and he stored his luggage in the room. He asked if I wanted to meet up later in the day to play some blackjack at the El Cortez, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to since my schedule was pretty full. I told him I’d give him a call later today.
On the way to Binion’s to play in my first tournament, I spotted mom playing a new game called “No Flop Pineapple Hold’Em”
“Mom, what is this game you’re playing? Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“No, and I’ve already lost $400.”
I told her to take a break, or maybe try another casino if she felt her luck was bad here at the Golden Nugget. We walked over to the tournament area at Binion’s and I showed her where I would be playing. I told her if I busted out early, I would meet up with her after the Gordie Brown show for a late dinner.
The first tournament I was playing was the $210 Binion Classic Pot Limit Omaha 8 High Low. I’d say 148 people entered, and just 15 would be paid.
For those of you who don’t play live poker, or do not play Omaha 8, you may want to just skip the next few paragraphs.
This would be my first live pot limit tournament. All of the other live O8B tournaments I have played up to this point have been limit tournaments. It’s been said that PLO8 (pot limit Omaha 8) is the most complex form of poker ever created. You can’t just “move all in” like you can in Texas Hold’Em trying to steal pots since your raise is limited to the size of the pot. The pots are split between the high hand and a qualifying low hand (5 unique cards 8 value or less) and you are given 4 cards, of which you use exactly 2 and only 2 to create your high hand and your low hand.
This is the type of poker I play the most of (online). Well, I didn’t do so well in this tournament, busting out after about 5 hours. I am extremely happy with the way I played though. No less than 5 times, I held hands with monstrous potential, and lost the minimum with them when multiple draws did not come through. Here’s an example:
My Hand: A 2 10 K (the Ace and 2 of hearts and the 10 and K of diamonds)
The Flop: Q J 7 (Q and J of hearts, 7 of diamonds)
The Turn: 8 of diamonds.
Not knowing what my opponent has, virtually any card in the deck would make my hand. Any heart or diamond that doesn’t pair the board gives me a flush, any 6,5,4,3 would give me a nut low, any 9, 10, K, Ace makes me the nut straight. Well, the river is the 7 of spades, and a guy with Q J in his hand wins.
Like I said, hands like this came around no less than 5 times, and I didn’t win once. If I had been playing the low buy in tournaments on Pokerstars and gotten those hands, I would have went broke all 5 times since my opponent would have called any raises.
There was a short break right at 6:00pm so I ran back to the Golden Nugget to give my daughter a call. I ran into David once again just as he was leaving the room. I couldn’t promise him anything, but said I’d call him later that evening. I gave my youngest daughter a call and congratulated her on the award.
I busted out around 7:00pm and headed back to the Golden Nugget to wait for my mother. While waiting for my mother, I had a great roll at a $10 crap table. I passed 4 times, and must’ve hit at least 5 COME numbers before making each point. It’s too bad I don’t really press my bets playing craps, because I turned $200 into just over $1000 on that one roll! (I’m sure if Gilly from Philly or Nick Papagiorgio from Yuma were with me things would have been different.) I can’t dream it up any better than that! Even the dealers were surprised.
Armed with a bigger bankroll, I decided to try the $5 Top Dollar slot Machines at the bottom of the escalators. I decided to play until I was out $200 or got the Top Dollar bonus. Thankfully I received the bonus after just spinning off $50. The bonus didn’t amount to much though. The offers never exceeded $200 and I had to settle on a final offer of $175.
Mom loved the Gordie Brown show. She said it was different than the show she watched with my brother 2 years ago. I paid $30 less for this ticket (same row) then I paid back in 2009.
It was closing in on 9:00pm, and we were both getting hungry so we decided to eat at Lillie’s Chinese restaurant. The food here was okay, but overpriced of course. Towards the end of the meal, I received a fortune that may have been a warning for the both of us.
What did this mean? Should my mom and I stop gambling? Should I play in the smaller $560 event instead of the $1500 WSOP? Should I stop complaining about the tough Kal Bi Korean steak I was served and finish it anyways? Who knows?
We decided to check out of the Golden Nugget after dinner at 11:30pm. The host was more than willing to reverse the $39 per night charges as well as pick up the dinner at Lillie’s. For some reason the $11 breakfast wasn’t picked up, but that wasn’t a big deal. I called up David and left him a message at the Four Queens that we would be moving to the Las Vegas Hilton.
On the way to the LVH, we stopped in at the Stratosphere to try our luck. This turned out to be a bad move since we both lost a couple of hundred. We were both seated at a blackjack table, and I had my elbow on the table, resting my chin in my hand. The pit boss comes over and tells me to take my elbow off the table. I did better than that. I took my remaining money off the table and left the place. What a jerk.
The room at the LVH was much nicer than the one at the Golden Nugget. The walk to the room though was a killer, since I parked near the North tower, and our room ended up being in the East tower. I went to bed right away. Mom would be out all night.
Day 4 to follow.
