The Boys are Back in Town Again (June 2025 Version)

After a bit of shopping yesterday, Oscar and I hunkered down in the PH poker room for a long cash game session. About 4 hours in, we were joined by Guitarist who had just busted from the older side of the Battle of the Ages, giving the session distinct home game vibes.

Not too much to report beyond suffering the deadly trifecta of Oscar’s good play, positional advantage and rungood. Fortunately, despite him cracking my JJ and my KK, I managed to eke out a small win. We had a lot of laughs with some fun tablemates which made for a very enjoyable 10 hours at the felt.

Today is the $1.5k 2-7 triple draw, the event that my schedule was built around. Really looking forward to this event and obviously hopeful of surviving day one. [emoji3516]

Spelling the name “Duncan”‘frequently seems to be a problem for people in Las Vegas, to the extent I’ve taken to saying my name is Bob at Starbucks. But the Bellagio hit a new low with this effort….

AQ < QQ on a Q high flop.
8T < AT on a JT5T turn.

Hopefully that’s the coolers out of the way for today.

Good luck. Get ‘em!

Thank you!

Show time

Enjoying the report. Best of luck with the rest of the trip!

The combination of lots of great starting hands (257xx, 237xx, 248xx, 2238x) but whiffing all the draws in 2-7 TD leads to death by a thousand cuts. I was also dealt a couple of pat 8s that got drawn out on. It just wasn’t to be today for me.

In other news, triple bracelet winner David Prociak was not a pleasant person to play with and the only time he spoke was to growl at the dealers. Felipe Ramos on the other hand joined my table towards the end of my demise and just oozed happiness and positive vibes.

Sweeping generalisation indeed but I share your experience of South Americans.
On the other hand, I have played on the same table as some very friendly Americans big name pros on countless occasions and the experience has generally been positive. The likes of John Monette, Brian Rast, Kane Kalas and Sean Deeb were all super friendly and chatty. They recognise that ultimately, I am their customer and keeping the recs like me happy is good for their bankroll. The only other big name pro that made it a less than pleasant experience was Negreanu but that’s another story for another day.

Set over set against guitarist. Of course he was on the right side of it on an ace high flop (A63). FML [emoji2959][emoji2959][emoji2959]

God I hope it was 66 v 33 on an A high flop

Third player had an ace. I had 33, Guitwrist had 66. I check folded the turn [emoji849]

Jeez - QQ v AK of guitarist all in pre. Q in the window gives me top set. Guitarist turns the gut shot for the straight and holds. Fffuuuuuuck [emoji2959][emoji2959]

We always tell table we are mates and don't soft play and get involved with each other to win money

Boy oh boy do we. Lol. [emoji2957][emoji2957]

After an eventful few hours at the cash tables in PH and a decent dinner at Changs (Guitarist list credit card roulette for dinner [emoji38]), the three of us relocated to the Wynn. I was seated first and the very first hand I was dealt QQ. My open to $15 was met with a 3 bet to $55. At this stage, the chip runner has still not returned with my chips and the table is clearly wondering who this new idiot is that 4 bets his first hand to $155. Villain calls and I jam my non-existent chips on a J high flop, getting a slow fold. It would have been a little embarrassing to give the chip runner another $400 as soon as he returned with my first buy-in.

After moving tables to join Guitarist and Oscar, I was glad to miss out on the shenanigans of this hand. Villain opens for $15, Oscar calls the SB and Guitarist makes it $45 from the BB. Villain calls and Oscar calls. Flop comes 9 high, Oscar jams for $240, Guitarist over jams for $400 and villain calls behind having them both covered. Board runs out with low cards, Oscar tables his TT overpair, Guitarist tables his JJ overpaid and villain tables his pocket aces. Ouch for the boys.

Tomorrow promises to be fun. We have a $300 side bet on who can get the fastest lap time at the Exotics Racing Track south of the strip. Guitarist has chosen a Porsche GT3 RS, Oscar will be driving a Ferrari 488 and I’m behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Huracan. What Guitarist and I failed to take into consideration was that the cars are likely to be left hand drive, and Oscar the Swede is the only one living in a country that drives on the right hand side of the road. I’ll let you know which one of us wins this battle.

Oh the Lambo has to be a HEAVY favorite.

Seems like Guitarist is -EV at CCR.

It’s the only time this trip I have won any flip against him

Not really. I think both the GT3 RS and 488 are faster. The GT3 RS prob has the best suspension.

I never heard of this place. How much is it going to cost?

Both the Porsche and the Ferrari have 3.0 seconds 0-60 whereas the Lamborghini is 3.2. Top speeds are 202 for the Lamborghini, 211 for the Ferrari and 193 for the Porsche. I therefore have a ready made excuse for defeat!

We have 6 laps each and the price varies based on the car chosen. These particular ones are $400 for the Porsche and the Lambo and $500 for the Ferrari. I think the list expensive car available is the Ferrari 296 GTB at $549. (I thought there was a $700 car but can’t find that on their website now).

The track is probably small enough that you won't get anywhere near their top speeds. Maybe halfway?

The Huracan has a wicked sounding motor though, probably the best of the three. Take video!

And go in the morning to reduce the chance they overheat.

The exotic cars racing experience - here goes…..

6 laps is not enough to learn what you might be capable of in the car. It does take a few laps to understand how to navigate the track, hit the 10 apexes properly, where to accelerate when exiting turns, how hard to hit the break as you approach each corner etc. When the instructor said “right, that’s 6 laps. Pull into pit lane up ahead”’it came as a surprise. Those 6 laps go by very quickly.

Choice of car is so important if you haven’t experience super car track racing before and not for the obvious reason. Guitarist and I chose well in that his Porsche and my Lambo were both simple to drive. Oscar’s Ferrari was more complicated, more twitchy and less forgiving. It was more suited to someone with much more supercar driving experience.

All that said, and despite the tears rolling down my face because I forgot to blink, I did manage to win the bet. So the $900 swing went my way this time. If I had stayed away from poker this trip, I’d be heading home in a few days richer than when I came and with some free meals along the way!

I have to say that the instructor was brilliant. He was so calm and measured with his guidance throughout the experience that my driving performance was so much better than it would have been without him. Overall, I’d recommend a trip out to their racetrack, but do choose your car carefully. The fastest car will not be any better than the slowest car when you are learning the track and the best lines.

That looks like y’all had SO much fun!

That sounds way too fun. Is part of the entry fee for insurance, in case someone gets sideways?