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

No driver's suit required?

What was the top speed you got?

Where is that track? I can't think of where it might be.

I rented a Ferrari F355 Spyder many years ago. I took it out to the highway that goes to Reno. That thing was solid and tracked straight and true at any speed I drove. I got hooked at the time and started saving for one. They ran about 180k used at the time.

Pull a Hellmuth and drive one into a light pole.

I would have chosen the Porsche, too.

Forgot to ask: did you guys feel as if Oscar had an advantage with left-hand drive, setting results aside?

In answer to some of the questions about the supercar racing….
No drivers suits. Helmets for everyone. Neck brace only for Oscar’s Ferrari
Top speed - don’t know what we achieved but beforehand we were told we’d hit approx 140mph before needing to break on the straight.
The track is about 20 mins south of Mandalay Bay, beyond the South Outlet Mall.
No, didn’t feel as if Oscar had an advantage with being used to left hand drive. If it had been stick shift, then for sure yes, but flappy paddles all round.

Clueless supercar noob question: Does the paddle shifters have/require a manual clutch (3rd peddle)? Came to mind since you mentioned 'em.

Had a hot-hatch manual that I loved to drive. Best smiles/mile of any car I've owned. LOL at the 150 hp. Didn't weigh much, at least.

Perfectly reasonable question if you haven’t experienced them before. And no, there is no clutch. Just flick the right paddle to change up and the left paddle to change down.
I have flappy paddles on my car at home but have never used them - I might be giving them more of a go now when I get home.

KT < Q9 < AA on a AdQd9x flop. Three way all-in. Turn Qx, river brick

Wow, 140 is a good speed. It's not that track at Pahrump, is it?

How much did you beat the other guys by?

What kind of car? I'm a car geek. I had a GTI for a number of years.

It’s the Exotics Racing, about 15 mins south of the strip. Don’t trust myself going out to Pahrump!
I beat guitarist by 1.1 seconds and Oscar by 2.8 seconds (our best laps were all between 1 min 5 seconds and 1 min 8 seconds. Reasonable for a first time on that track but way short of what they could be of course.

I had a Ford Fiesta ST, their cheapest platform and most expensive "trim". 6 speed manual, turbo 4 banger, upgraded suspension, wheels, interior, etc. A joy to drive. Had to replace the AC compressor before 10k miles (free) but that was the only issue I ever had with it. Sold it for a good price after 7 years/80k miles.

I had an older Rabbit before that, nowhere near as much fun to drive.

If I ever bink a nice score in LV, a few laps (or more!) in that Porsche would definitely be on the agenda.

Nice car, too bad they don't make it any more.

Guitarist left earlier today and my flight is tomorrow meaning that Oscar will be the last man standing flying the flag for the crew. To be honest, I’m looking forward to getting home - a hug from the wife and my own bed are much more appealing than grinding cash games now. I’ve had my poker fix.

I did have a profitable session at PH - first time this trip that I have cashed out for more than twice the buy-in. Avoiding inflating pots out of position is key and I would be far better off if I had remembered this 10 days ago.

After checking in with Oscar at his $10k triple draw, I took myself off in search of food. Guy Fieri’s Flavortown was the choice - it’s like inflating pots out of position. I ordered the ribs and then spent the next 20 minutes looking around at the uncleared and dirty tables everywhere and watching 5 people in the kitchen having a nice chat. 25 mins later my server returned to tell me they were out of ribs and would I like something else. No, thank you. If you can’t clean the tables, I’m concerned about your ability to clean the kitchen. Flavortown is very much not recommended.

LFG Oscar!

GOGOGOGO!

Oscar having a solid 2025 WSOP
#tripledrawmaster

I’m sat now in Harry Reid international airport waiting to board the 10 1/2 hour flight back to the UK. Thoughts turn to summarising the trip and my 23rd Vegas experience.

What is apparent is that whilst I come for poker, the most enjoyment is had hanging with my friends. Poker is just the glue that brought us together and maybe holds us together. Sat with Watbri and Guitarist at the Venetian low stakes games, and with Guitarist and Oscar in PH was the most fun, and the most laughs I have enjoyed in a long time. They’re all great people and super company.

Other highlights are the non-poker activities we experienced together; dinner at Craftsteak, supercar racing at Exotics Raceway and various other meals around town.

As far as poker is concerned, I peaked early. Two cashes (including one top 3 chop at Golden Nugget) came in my first two days. Other tournaments didn’t go my way, including the two I built my schedule around; the $2.5k WSOP Mixed triple draw and the $1.5K 2-7 triple draw. But that’s ok - adding two more US flags to my Hendon Mob page was sufficient reward.

Cash games were a wash in the end, thanks to a late recovery. The combination of running bad with questionable plays is never going to be profitable, and that was me at the tables throughout the first week.

With regards other gambling, pai gow was brutal. With a theoretical push rate of 70+%, I clearly didn’t get value for money. I’m content losing what I put out there, but I would have liked it to last a little longer each time. Slots was true to form (I dream of the Guitarist Sun run on slots) and other games were almost zero play and not worth mentioning.

And that leaves me with thoughts on Vegas and the state of poker. These are many and varied and I apologise if I warble on for too long…

PH poker room is great - it’s airy, spacious and well managed. But I fear for its future after the WSOP with it being away from the main casino floor. Each morning it was the last poker room in town to get a game going according to Bravo / Poker Atlas.

I still very much enjoy Resorts World’s poker room. It is a pleasure to play in but is desperately struggling for volume. It’s another room which may not survive the next 12 months which would be a shame.

Wynn poker room remains my no.1. It is very well run, the staff are fabulous and the drinks service top-notch. Unfortunately everyone else visiting Las Vegas seems to know this now as the lists are very long throughout every day.

What was missing from all the poker rooms I played in were the drinkers, and the “just-here-to-have-fun” brigade. In previous years it would be a good mix of those, local grinders and visitors in town for the WSOP. This time, it was just the latter two groups; even the low stakes cash games were serious affairs and drinks orders were for water and green teas, not Jack Daniel’s and Coronas. It’ll be interesting to hear if those experiences are matched by others this summer.

I spoke about service, tips and prices before embarking on this trip. Prices seem to have not gone stratospheric since last summer, tipping was something I had accepted before visiting, but I did notice a discernible decline in service standards when not patronising the high-end resorts or restaurants. For example, if I wanted my room serviced at PH, I had to ask for it to be done. What happened to hotels cleaning your room each day like everywhere else in the world? For a $55 daily resort fee, surely I can get clean towels and the bathroom sink wiped.

Mid tier and fast food restaurant service was slower, less personable and on one occasion (Guy Fieri’s Flavortown), downright horrific. Vegas pricing is very high, and maybe the corporate owners have switched their focus on squeezing additional profits by reducing service now that the market is starting to push back on prices. It’s sad that what attracted me to Vegas all those years ago (value, service and thrills) has now been reduced to just poker. I can get that fix elsewhere and the EPT in Barcelona is increasingly my favoured option for 2026. Whilst Guitarist is tempted by that option, it probably isn’t viable for Watbri who lives in Northern California or Oscar who is bracelet hunting with abandon. We’ll have to wait and see.

For those still in Las Vegas taking their shots at glory, I wish you the best of luck at the felt. For those living vicariously, thanks for following along and take solace in the fact that the grass is not always greener in The Meadows.

Adios amigos.

Great report. Thanks so much for taking the time!

Oscar chip leading the $10k 2 to 7

Oscar 6th of 9 left in the triple draw after day 2. He’s my last hope of getting unstuck for the trip although he needs a top 2 finish for my 5% to be enough. LFG Oscar!

Thanks for posting - I enjoyed the thread.
I agree on both PH and RW poker rooms - both very nice but low volume. Hope they stay - too many of the smaller rooms have already closed over the last 10 years.

It was nice to meet you, even if it was only briefly. Safe travels and good luck to Oscar and your 5%

From my semi-limited (35 hours) sample of Cash Games during my recent trip, I have to agree that I didn't see too many people drinking and clearly only playing to have a good time. But despite that, I thought that most games I sat in this summer were full of spots and much fewer serious players than I had expected. I was fearing an influx of grinder types, but these were (at least at $1/$3) mostly nowhere to be found.

I agree with you regarding PH and Resorts World. PH seemed to really pick up speed with their daily tournaments often getting 70-80 entries, making the room seem busy while these were going. But obviously these numbers are not sustainable once WSOP is over. I think they could have done an even better job with promoting that they now have a poker room again, as it's almost impossible to find it's location on a whim if you are not aware of it's existence.

Resorts World is a stunningly beautiful property and I really enjoyed playing one of their tourneys while in Vegas. However, just like PH the number of players will drastically reduce once the series is over. I wonder how eager they will be to keep their poker offering for the long run - especially since the property as a whole is struggling badly (as evident with them recently removing resort fees entirely until September or something).

I would have liked to play at Wynn, but the wait lists there my last couple of trips have seemed unbearable at times. Good for them obviously, although it wouldn't hurt if some of these players on the lists wandered over to Resorts World and played there instead.

Overall it's great to see PH and Caesars Palace having brought back their poker rooms, but you have to wonder if all these rooms will survive the next 6-12 months. I obviously hope they will just because I like variety, but if nothing else we should at least applaud them for trying.

The other event that I think might struggle next year is the Golden Nugget Grand Series. They revised their guarantees downwards this year because of numbers but kept it quiet, and it has taken them weeks to update their tournament results on Hendon Mob.

I was watching a WPT ft, Matt Savage is a nice guy and always gives me a chip to watch in the "arena". The chip leader was from NY and only had 1 guy in his section of the rooting gallery, so they put me there too. He was a nice guy that traveled with the player, they both were staked. The guy I was talking to was about 45k in make-up. His buddy ending up winning a million, they had swapped 10%, so in just 1 fell swoop won 100k and was out of make-up.