who cares about the Super Bowl? TR 2/8 - 2/12
2025 was bad overall year capped by my second big losing Vegas trip of the year after Thanksgiving. I decided to take 12
left Palms in a hurry and checked out McMillans for lunch. ordered the shepherds pie.
food was good and satisfying. probably the best shepherds pie I've had in like 5 years, for what that's worth.
what was amazing is that everyone else in the restaurant was British/Irish. this lovely old couple in the next table were very proper Brits. everyone in the main area was watching football. bunch of redheads and redbeards. my ancestry is mainly British/Irish so all I was missing was an accent.
if I was in the area I would come again but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here. if you want to drink and socialize I'm sure it's a fantastic place.
headed to Treasure Island. the GPS took me to the employee parking area, first directional mess up of the week. then as I'm trying to get out I'm in the deliveries area and I get stuck behind a semi trailer that takes like 30 seconds to cross each speed bump (there were a lot) and I was just stuck forever, so tilting. probably an idiot penalty for me for not following the logical route.
filled my gas tank for under $3 and returned the rental car there at TI. the Hertz desk was closed so hoping for no surprises from that.
this time I went to the front of the empty "Invited Guests" line, surpassing all the simpletons in the poor people line (I'm probably poorer than all of them haha). was able to get my room keys and all set at 1:30 without any mention of an early checkin fee, so score there.
basic clean predictable room. kinda small but whatever. the one problem is the placement of the TP roll holder. what normal person can comfortably reach that. as I was turning around and leaning back the holder thing came loose (it is poorly assembled) which is just as well so I could put the roll on the counter.
little nap now and then back to Vegas shenanigans.
getting my freeplay I found I had a bonus $15 for my birthday this month. woohoo!
slim pickings for VP at TI but I found a JOB and sat down.
hey vp pros, what's the play here?
Find a better game. 8/5 JOB is turrible--especially at $1 level.
eta: Not familiar with that paytable, but probably TT.
it was a good session, won $125. feeling better about life.
headed to Venetian for some big boy pants poker.
can someone help me out, what's the keyboard shortcut code to show the suits here? how do I get Kh to show as K with a red heart symbol
Just before I left I got quasi addicted to their ultimate X Deuces Wild game. I think I'm a sucker for the multipliers.
I can't figure out how to link/copy the output from Wizard of Odds site, but TT is the best hold by a pretty decent margin.
♥ ♣ ♦ ♠
: heart : : club : : diamond : : spade :
Shown with a space before and after the suit. Remove the spaces with the colon touching the word and voila.
I wasn't playing for hours and hours so I think pay table isn't as critical. just using my freeplay and it worked out well enough.
TT is the hold here, nothing special about this hand that would require otherwise. 8/5 is pretty shitty for JOB yes, but that's The Strip for you I guess.
I checked my Win Poker simulator. (8-5-4-3-2-1 Pay Table)
Hand - Return
TT - 4.0675
AK - 2.8051
ATQK - 2.6596
Return is the average expected dollars and cents playing five credits. Max Return for example.
TT would be 125.0000 if you make 4OAK
AK would be 4000.0000 if you make a royal
ATQK would be 20.0000 if you make a straight
So you made a 1.2624 error which is a quite significant over time. But hey, you had a chance at Royal. 😆
very smoggy today. can't really see the mountains. air is a little sickening.
they had a Venetian Poker Live recording starting. Nikki Limo sighting, no one else I recognized. seemed to be a low-roller event though, mostly red chips like us poor people plus some black.
after 10 minutes of 1/3 they called my name for 2/3. good thing because nobody at the 1/3 table wanted to do bomb pots.
Session 4: Venetian 2/3
it was a pretty fun table. guy next to me was very friendly. I love friendly poker neighbors. a few people did not know how to play the bomb pots very well and I was shocked at some of the play. there was a very aggressive crusher with a $2k+ stack and he got me a time or two but fortunately he left pretty soon. a good mix of aggression and passivity and I was not intimidated.
I enjoy the bomb pots which is why I like playing at Venetian. naturally, most of the big action came in the BPs.
1) bomb pot
in ep A♦ A♥ J♥ t♦ monster
boards come...
K♥ J♠ 4♠ , J♣ 6♥
J♦ 8♥ 3♠ , 9♠ K♦
I triple barrelled. my river bet ($105) got a raise and a call. way too much that beats me so disappointingly I fold. I may have won the top but they both beat me on the bottom.
2) I open J♦ T♦, one call
board comes K♠ Q♥ 7♠ 9♥ 2♦ for nuts on the turn. I bet $105 on the river and get a call so at least I got it back
3) chopped a big multi-way bomb pot when my nut flush draw + open ender gave me the bottom straight for a nice win. most of the bomb pots went multi-way with someone way overplaying their hand.
very quiet serious guy across from me had a Book of Mormon (show) hoodie.
tried to imagine if he was wearing that as a fellow Mormon (unlikely) or involved in the production of the show or just a fan of the show. just seemed like an odd clothing choice. I didn't ask.
4) bad play rewarded:
- completed sb with 5-2, flopped two pair, rivered a boat and got paid for it
- opened A♥ 7♦. lady next to me bet the flop and turn on something like 9♥ 5♥ 4♠ 2♥.
Ace ♠ on the river, I bet $20, she called and she cursed me out when I showed an ace that she couldn't beat. a nice pickup.
I wasn't a maniac but was unpredictable. played a lot of hands and it seemed like the others had a hard time reading me. I got snap called light several times and I'm like "what, you couldn't beat middle pair?" other times a check got me paid.
5) bad play punished:
- I open A♦ 6♣, get calls
flop Q♠ 7♦ 5♥. I c-bet, call.
turn 8♠ gives me open ended, checks.
J♠ is a miss for me.
I bet $45 and he snap calls and shows a king high flush (don't remember second card but it was lower than a 7)
shouldn't have been in there at all but I was surprised to see him in their too with only backdoors. he was one of those people that are in almost every hand and seem to get it somehow, especially against me and my neighbor.
6) - bomb pot
AJT3
boards come:
Q98r 5 A
T44r 4 6
flopped the nuts and it held up which is nice. player 1 bet $50 on flop, I raised to $100 and got two calls. turn checked through. river was like $200+ and two of us chopped the third guys chips for a nice pickup. the third guy (flop better) said the turn check was what fooled him
lady next to me hit quad Aces with a jack for a high hand, but she was knocked off by a straight flush two minutes later. there was one period where 7s full of 5s held but she couldn't even win the promo with quad Aces.
7) more bad play: open with A7 off and I rivered a straight flush. I got A7 or A8 a ton of times. seems like I won A7 every time.
V can get me a nojito. nice. too much ice and too much lime but seems like no other place can do mint
hit a bit of a cold spell folding for like a full hour... bounced back to about even... ready to go after a final BP...
8) bomb pot, a doozy
I had 10♦ 9♣ 9♥ 8♥
flop: J♥ 8♣ 7♦
gives me straight on top. I flopped so many straights this session
A♠ J♠ 6♣
I bet $50 and get calls
turn 9♠ + 5♠
player across from me had a huge stack and had been playing very big. his identical twin brother was a couple tables away. he bets pot which was like $350. new guy to my left, Chinese player in a wheelchair that had changed tables 5 minutes earlier and had mountains of chips, calls. so these are probably the two biggest stacks at the table.
my straight on top just got beat while giving me a set. bottom made a flush so pretty sure I was dead there. I folded.
river: the case 9♦, no! say it ain't so! I would have chopped like a $1800 pot on my way out
I played a full 6 hours, finishing a little down after the last hand but not bad. the ultimate deciding factor on results really is how you fare in the BPs unless you hit a big cooler in holdem. one lady seemed to get junk for like two hours, finally she won a monster with a set of jacks over pocket queens.
could be my last session? or am I in a better mood for more Venetian poker tomorrow?
It was comedian Morgan Jay’s game at Venetian Live. Good luck on the BPs!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
yes I don't know Morgan Jay but he was definitely there.
they rolled in a real nice setup of food. huge bowl of hand smashed guac
He's known for his mix of comedy and music in his shows. From social media clips, a lot of it is fun crowd work.
had a bunch of poker food comps and decided to try Yardbird for the first time.
nothing seriously jumped out at me on the menu but settled on the IPA Brick Chicken.
it was good, especially loved the dirty rice and carrots. the chicken was chicken. didn't blow me away but a good meal with a lot of roast chicken. couldn't finish it of course.
wandered around getting lost in the V casino. it was a massive sea of humanity, so many people at 11pm Tuesday. there were like 200 people in the craps area
it should have been bedtime but I had just eaten nearly half a whole chicken. Treasure Island was also surprisingly busy, especially the table games (BJ) area. sat down at pai gow hoping for a rebound.
the other guy at the table was talking constantly with a hillbilly southern accent. he hit quad kings one of my first hands and got a big payout. dealer Henry (another one) tells me "you should have been playing the fortune bonus so you could win $6 envy!" right, pay five bucks a hand so I can win six bucks once. the other player was really slow, taking way too much time every hand even on an ace high when he clearly didn't have a bonus. dealer was also super slow. I'm becoming a pai gow snob.
it was a continuation of the morning. I won two hands in an hour. far as I can recall, in two hours of pai gow Tuesday I had 4 winners and like 18 losers. how is that even possible?
a day in Vegas is a good day but it would be nice not to lose hand after hand in the lowest variance casino game.
Final Day in Vegas
I've reached the point where I'm no longer tracking wins and losses but counting how much cash I have left and debating if I need to hit the ATM
after sleeping in and doing some catch up writing I headed up to Fontainebleau. wanted to play pai gow. first table area no pg. second area a closed pg table. I told the pit boss I wanted to play pg and he directed me to another table area. I was the only player in the table area so the pit boss stood nearby and watched me the entire time.
at one point I asked the boss about my rating and she commented that it is all automatic, the table can read the chips and my name is scanned to my spot. so she doesn't seem to have anything to do but watch the game.
Session 5: Fontainebleau pai gow
started ok, then dealer changed. for my first 20 hands I had more losses than pushes and more AHPG than wins.
played about 100 hands. there were some interesting ones.
this was a time when playing the side bets would have worked out. early on we had a dealer ace high + player ace high on consecutive hands, which pays 40x. dealer had a third ace high the next hand. the minimum bet for that side is $5 so an expensive venture but that would have been +$425 in three hands.
later on, dealer got ace high 3x in a row again and on those hands (playing two spots) I hit a full house, flush and straight.
I hit a straight flush early in the game that I didn't get paid on either.
there were a couple plays where the house rules saved me. dealer had a flush but set it as a pair + AK when I had two pair for the win. another one dealer had AKQJJT9 and set it as JJ + AK which I could beat with KK + 88.
even the restrooms at FB look pretty cool
and that's the end of the good.
had a six-card straight that lost to a flush.
sometimes I played two spots at $25 each, they don't make you bet double the minimum per spot like most places. but consecutive losses, plus a third in a row when I went back to one, that was -$130 in two minutes.
a couple sat down to play, doing the side bets. won a few times and still chipped all the way down. dealer was hot! (but not the good kind)
finally the other people put the last of their chips out. I did too (like $60). then I realized 'wait that never works, the karma gods always get the final kill' and thought about pulling my bet back and sitting a hand. but I was chicken and left it out. sure enough, dealer had a dominating three pair and my chips were now gone in like 2.5 hours.
has been a weird few days. I have had a lot of success previously playing pai gow and it always seemed to be a chill way to spend time and win $50 or more. feels like I hit the wrong end of variance to the extreme this week.
I played pai gow in Atlantic City this weekend. Two dealers said that people set their hands this way in order to make it difficult for the dealer and have them pay when they shouldn't (and if the dealer doesn't see it when the player has it, then the player will correct them). Not sure if that's true, but it at least makes sense.Great pics so far. Good luck the rest of your tr
How does setting your hand wrong fool the dealer? Or what's the angle in hands like this?
Langdon, thanks for the TR and sorry about the Pai Gow runbad.
