Winter Break! Trip report 1/27-2/3

Good luck. How’s the weather in Vegas at the moment?

60 and sunny. Airports in Chicago and LV both practically empty. Seems light. No line at check in, CF was emptier than I have ever seen it. CP poker room not real active. Int he 4 hours I don't think my table ever had all 9 spots playing. hope the tournies have good turnouts.

Slept better than I thought I would but still not real good. My body clock is way off so I still woke up at 4:30 Vegas time. Decided to get cleaned up and go out for my morning walk. First morning I always head down to the Bellagio to see what the conservatory's up to this trip. Since I started making these January trips I always figure out real quick with Chinese year of is this is the year of the horse.

Then I decided to head down the strip for an old school Las Vegas breakfast.

Went to the Peppermill which is sort of a destination breakfast place in Las vegas. I got my traditional day one eggs benedict. They were outstanding.

The couple of poker rooms I walked through look very Bleak as far as early morning action. The Bellagio had one game going a 1-3 with a couple seats open. The Venetian had 2 1/3 games going. The Wynn had zero tables open. And this is in the 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. time frame.

Just going to chill in a room for a while before I head over to the Venetian to play some morning cash. I got about 6 miles in this morning so I'm on Pace for my steps.

That’s a lot of walking before the day starts! GL in the games today.

Nothing is more LV than mrb eating at CF. Peppermill also looks good. I'm officially excited for my trip later this year!

I hope you have a good trip.

Just played a couple of lackluster hours at the venetian. Venetian has horses too.

I was pretty card dead and just treaded water most of the session. I ended up cashing out down $24. I did have one exciting bomb pot hand. I was dealt QQ55 all red. I did flop a set of Queens on one board and really nothing on the other. It was just me and one other guy. He had the lead and I was calling. Until the river when I hit my fourth queen. At this point I shoved. He thought about it for a very very long time and he finally called. Four Queens was nice but on the other board all I had was my pocket pair of queens. So we chopped and it was very uneventful. I wish you would have folded that would have been nice.

I got a lot of steps in so far today but I feel like I need to do more so I'm going to go hit the fitness center for a little bit before I try to play again this afternoon.

cool horsey picture.
I've kinda come to the realization that CF is tons of bread and/or rice. and after an entree it is impossible to finish a slice of cheesecake without a partner to share.

I am in! Some day we will try Peppermill -- either it's too crowded or we are not hungry, and we eat at odd hours in Vegas. Also, looks a bit expensive for what it is, but it is on the Strip.

I've never had an above average meal at Peppermill but I always go there for the vibes and I love having a drink in the lounge area

Thats why i only ate half of the sandwich. I really wanted the cheesecake. As to the Peppermill its really not better than anywhere else. Its just nostalgic. Hadnt been there on 10 years at least.

Had a good wprkout now back at it at Venetian.

Just finished another nothing session at the venetian. Played for a little over an hour and ended up losing $14. Haven't really been able to get anything going in the cash games yet. Probably try again later tonight but right now I'm off to see the wizard.

The Wizard of Oz at the sphere was awesome and I would highly recommend. Unless you dislike the old movie The Wizard of Oz for some reason you will find this and enjoyable experience. The visuals were incredible the sound was awesome and the effects were spectacular. The Highlight for me was the tornado scene. The seats rumbled wind blew throughout the sphere and paper leaves blew all around. You actually felt like you were in a tornado.

With the circular atmosphere of the sphere you actually feel like you were there in Oz with dorothy. I'm really glad I decided to see this show the sphere is just an incredible place. In the scene where the trees throw apples at the Scarecrow they actually drop apples from the ceiling. But I think you have to be in the expensive seats to get that because none of them fell around me. And in the scene where the good witch makes it snow to wake them up from the poppies it actually snows inside the sphere.

After the show I headed back to the Treasure Island to grab something to eat. I found something out when I checked in yesterday that I was unaware of. I get a $40 per day restaurant credit. This means I'll probably be eating at least one meal a day at the treasure island. Tonight I was pretty hungry and decided to try out Phil's Steakhouse the Treasure Islands premier restaurant. It was very good. But very pricey as well as my $40 discount didn't really cut into it that much. I got the 20 oz Delmonico steak and truffle fries. It was outstanding. It felt like I ate a lot of fries but I didn't even Dent that bowl it still looked full when I left. I was pretty hungry because it had been about 12 hours since I ate those eggs benedict this morning and I didn't have anything in between.

I decided I'm not going to play any more poker tonight I'm just going to chill in the room and try to get a good night's sleep. I'm playing day 1A tomorrow in the $800 two day tournament at the Venetian day two will be Sunday and hopefully I make that. In any event the rest of this trip is going to be more focused on tournament play than cash play. Tournament is my favorite way to enjoy poker.

this is a sentence I've never said, heard or read before. I've stayed at TI like 7 nights now and never eaten on site.

that's cool you got some food credit. I better ask if they have anything for me

In previous stays there I have eaten at both Gilleys and The Coffee Shop. Both are okay but nothing special. I expect tomorrow I will eat something post tournament at the TI depending on if I bust early or go late there will be options.

Good luck in the tournament!!

You'll be right there at the Grand Lux.

Definitely going to Grand Lux tomorrow, it's French Toast day and a pre-tournament favorite!

Good luck!

run like the sun!

Gogogo!

I’m curious - do you have similar habits at home to your Vegas eating rituals?

NO! i do strict keto and intermittent fasting. This is vacation 😀 When i get home i will imediately fo a 72 hour fast. I do one of those every month.

Slept pretty lousy last night. Got up around 5:00 a.m. I decided to go out for a walk but only got about three and a half miles in. I wanted to get back and go to the fitness center cuz I felt like working up a sweat. Had a pretty good workout and I decided to just walk around for a while until I got my minimum 15,000 steps in before breakfast. Went to the Grand Lux and had my French toast. It was awesome as always but way too much food and I only ate about 3/4 of it.

Tournament starts in about an hour and a half. Trying to decide if I should just keep walking around until then or try to get an hour in in a cash game. The tournament has real good structure with 40 minute levels and a 40K starting stack so there's plenty of time not to do anything stupid.

I decided to play a little cash before the tournament. I played for a little over an hour and won $40 it was my first winning session of the trip. Hopefully that's a good omen for the tournament. The tournament starts in about 5 minutes but there's only eight people signed up so I'm going to walk around for a little while and probably check in about halfway through the first level.

Lets go! Before I had a chance to take a picture of my 40k stak i won a decent 3 way pot with a kimg high flush. Its a start!

Forgot the picture