Trip Report: Solo Vegas Trip Feb 11-15, it's all about the poker

Arrived at the Bellagio at 12:30pm. Two 5/10 games going, I got a seat right away. Very different makeup today. There is one player with a $2.8k stack and everyone else is under $1500. I bought in for $1100. The other table is similar, mostly small stacks. Very different from the last few days where the 5/10s were filled with big $3k+ stacks and what looked like all regs/pros.

I feel pretty comfortable at this table so far. There has been a bunch of preflop limps already.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

GL

Better for 2-5, Venetian or Bellagio?

Topped off to a $2k buy in now.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don’t know have enough info to say. Currently only one 2-5 going at Bellagio.

Yesterday Venetian had a ton of 1-3 games and I think only one or two 2-5s, and the lists were kinda long. But tons of players in there, many of them for a tournament.

It looks like Bellagio is best if you want a seat quickly.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh man, today hurt.
It might be a while before I elaborate.
At least I can say my poker winnings covered my meal expenses for the trip….
:(

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well that’s a lot better than some of my Vegas trips

Know that feeling. Sometimes it can be a bit hard to start elaborating some sessions on here.

yeah that was my Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week

Continuing where I left off...Saturday, Valentine's day afternoon...I sit in the 5/10 at Bellagio...the stacks aren't big and the lineup isn't intimidating. There is an older Asian guy in a wheelchair who is playing a lot of hands, but playing aggressively, I keep an eye on him. Soon he leaves. There are 1-2 open seats that occasionally get filled by a new player, but we regularly lose players to the main game. No fish seem to be coming. After a couple hours, it proves to be a game lacking in action, so I move down to the 2/5. I lost just $111 here.

After a bit at the 2/5, it's clear that this is also not a splashy game, and most of the players are decent. I feel fine here and try to focus on the game. I'm playing tight, and am not getting a lot of hands to play, but when I do, I play them aggressively. I make a couple river bluffs that I think were reasonable, and the villains tanked a while with decent hands before they called. I'm still not getting many hands to play, but trying to stay patient. This 2/5 session stretches into 3 hrs. Towards the end, I get a couple playable hands and am playing them well, but on the river, I end up paying off villains who have nutted hands. In both instances, the villains were quite polarized and I thought I had reason to believe they could be bluffing. They weren't, and at the end of 3 hrs I find I am down $1276 in the 2/5 game. I feel a little frustrated and am questioning my plays a bit, so I decide to leave, take a break and plan to come back later in the evening.

It's already dark and the walk back to my hotel is slowed by the Valentine's Day crowd. I eat a lettuce-wrapped burger at Johnny Rockets in the food court at Horseshoe. I'm a bit annoyed at myself, because I had been playing really well on this trip so far, but was now criticizing myself for paying off those villains' all-in river bets. I've already played 5 hrs today, but it's my last night in Vegas, and it's Saturday, so I for sure am going to play again tonight, late into the night. I try to get my head right.

7:30pm, I am back at the Bellagio. I had phoned in to be put on the 1/3, 2/5, and 5/10 games. The 1/3 had on open seat and of course it's a good game. I play 30 minutes and am up $155 when I get called to the 5/10.

The 5/10 is the same must-move table that I was at earlier today. The action isn't much better. It's reg-heavy, and we are playing 6-7 handed the whole time. Nobody is drinking alcohol. I'm playing fine, I feel confident and am staying disciplined. But I am feeling a little annoyed that this game isn't meeting my expectations. The main game doesn't look much better. I've been keeping my eye on the 2/5 list, where I am slowly making my way to the top. I want to move to the 2/5, I'm feeling impatient. Finally a new player sits in the 5/10, he doesn't look like the stereotype of a reg or a pro. He buys in for $2.5k. Now, finally, they call me for the 2/5. Damn, I wanted a chance to check out this new player, but I've been on this 2/5 list for 2 hrs now. I decide to get up and join the 2/5. This 1.5 hr session at the 5/10 was a $79 loss.

I join the 2/5, it's 10pm. Nobody is drinking alcohol. It's super reg heavy. All white men at the table (except me). There are 1-2 guys who might be more like rec players, but they aren't newbs. The rest all seem solid. I am running super card dead. Trashy hand after trashy hands keep coming my way. Folding everything. I'm not exagerrating, I am crazy card dead. Nothing to play, and when I play the very rare bottom-range hand (like ATo CO open, or A4s 3-bet vs CO open), the hands go nowhere. Over the 4 hr 2/5 session, I have to fold a couple 4 bet bluff hands (I open LP A5s, BB 3-bets, I 4-bet, BB shoves, I fold, he shows KK; the other was KQs). So I think my table image is tight, but not exactly passive. I have to top off my stack over and over, and I start thinking about how much I have lost today, in the earlier 2/5 session, and now. I believe I am playing fine, but I am struggling not to feel irritated. It really doesn't help that I am nearing my 11th hr of poker for the day, and I have been playing a ****-ton of poker for the past 4 days, and I haven't been getting a ton of sleep. It's also nearing 2am, and I never stay up this late. I am fighting tilt, thinking how I was up $2500 for the trip just this morning, and now only up a few hundred. I decide this is my my last orbit. Then, I proceed to get 88 in the HJ, and then the very next hand I get TT utg1, and I end up losing $400 on these last two hands. When this happens, man, am I pissed off and disgusted. I was up $2500 this morning for the trip, and now I am a net loser! I get up and start heading out of the cardroom, but the dealer tells me that I have chips left because I cover the all-in winner by a little. I also realize I still have several black chips in my fanny pack that I need to cash out. My brain is obviously not at it's best.

I cash out, and I actually had more black chips in my fanny than I thought, and I wasn't as quite stuck as I had thought I was. But I'm just +$155 for the trip. Man, am I tilted. I want to quit poker. I want to take a break. The poker has gotten out of control. I'm going to deposit my whole bankroll back into the bank. I've been playing way too much poker the past 2 years. I need to get back to spending more time doing other things with my life. I played well for almost the whole trip, but then still lost it at the end. I just punted it off with my last two hands. -$1106 over 4hrs at this last 2/5 table. I go to bed feeling completely done with poker.
==

HH for the last 2 hands I played:

1)
80 y/o man opens utg for a $5 dollar chip and two $1 dollar chips. Dealer says it's a raise to $10. Unclear if player meant to open for $15.
H in HJ calls with 8d8c.
LJ calls.
B calls.

Flop: ($40) Qd 9c 7h
Checks around.

Turn: 7c
Check.
H bets $30.
B calls
.
River: ($100) Kd
H checks.
V bets $60.
H calls, V shows JTo.
H is pissed at himself for this call.

2)
The very next hand, H gets TT utg+1
H opens $20.
HJ calls.
V in BB raises to $80 (has $230 behind after the raise). BB is one of the weaker players at table and hesitated before the raise.
H thinks he has a read on the villain and shoves.
V snap calls with KK and wins.
H is disgusted that he just punted 2 hands in a row on his very last orbit.

Final day:

Sunday morning, I manage to sleep in til a little past 9am. I woke up a couple times in the night, but managed to get about 7hrs of sleep. I feel better than I did last night. I've got a couple hrs until I need to leave for the airport. I walk down to the casino level of Horsehoe to get some coffee and food. Man, it's packed with people this morning. The lines for all the coffee and pastry spots are super long. I make it to the very front entrance of Paris, and the cafe stand there has a reasonable line. I order a small coffee and a ham and cheese croissant sandwich. $28.16. Wow. I give the lady $30 and say keep the change.

Back up to the room to eat my breakfast. I pack everything up, including my bankroll of 100 dollar bills. I have $160 in twenties in my pocket and time to kill. I don't like to gamble, except with poker. But if I do anthing else, I'll play blackjack and count cards. Sadly, because I play so infrequently, I don't have basic strategy memorized, and so there is no way it can be +EV. I figure I can spend $160 for entertainment value. The $10 6/5 blackjack table is full, so I take a seat at the $15 3/2. It's just a little way into the shoe. I start with a $15 dollar bet. But little cards come out, and right away the count is positive. The true count is maybe just barely +1, but I increase my bet size to $25. More little cards come out, and I lose. The count is even better. My bet size goes up to $50, More little cards come out, I lose. Next thing I know, I need to pull $100s out from my luggage to cover the double down opportunities. I lose. Count is still good. So I pull out a couple more $100s. Before I know it, I am down $500. The true count is no longer positive. Haven't even finished the shoe. I guess this is just how the end of my Vegas trip is going to go... I walk away from the table and cash out.

My flight's been delayed, so I have about an hour til I have to leave the hotel. There's on open seat at the Horseshoe $1/3 NL. Of course it's the softest game I've seen in Vegas so far. And of course, I get more playable hands in the first 10 minutes than I did in the first 2 hrs at the Bellagio 2/5 last night. I win $77 in an hour at that game, and that's a wrap on my Las Vegas poker trip.
==

Totals for the trip:
31 hrs 42 minutes of poker played
+$232 net result

Thanks for the TR. Also thanks for bein honest with yourself about your play. This is how we learn and grow.

Coming out ahead is nice.

Nice TR even if results were not what you hoped. If it helps, I have that feeling after at least 80% of my Vegas trip (the results are not good enough), even if I am mostly winning.

May I ask what your normal stakes are back home? Assume you are used to $2/$5 and $5/$10 since you chose it as your primary stakes in Vegas? Or are you just a guy with disposable income that can easily afford it? Or both 😀

My usual game is a $2 button/$3 SB/$5 BB game. Sometimes this game has a mandatory $10 straddle. Either way, the max buy-in is $800. I've been beating it pretty comfortably for the past 2 years, though the last 3 months haven't been great.

With my poker winnings over the past 2 years, and my own income, I can comfortably afford these games, but the downswings still affect me even if they don't financially hurt me.

I always buy-in for the max at home. But the $2500 max at the Bellagio 5/10 is a little intimidating. Losing a full buy-in would sting, and losing multiple buy-ins would be hard to swallow.

I brought 14k to Vegas, just to be prepared to play some juicy 5/10 games, but those never materialized.

My conclusion is the Vegas 2/5 and 5/10 games just aren't that great. Most of the players are at least somewhat studied, playing a reasonable pre-flop range, and sizing their bets decently. And nobody is there to drink, gamble, splash chips and just have fun.

In contrast, at my home casino, on Friday and Saturday nights, people are drinking it up at the 2/3/5 games. Occasionally people will put a dead $20 in front of the $10 straddle. Or someone will walk in off the street with a couple thousand they don't seem to mind losing, they just came to gamble. Unfortunately, I can't get away from my wife during those times. So I play mostly daytime hours with a lot of regulars, but a decent amount of those regs aren't really studied and ignore or are unaware of GTO concepts.

The $3 blind games that I played in Vegas were a lot softer. Plenty of older players who seem experienced at poker but are just playing the way they always have, playing predictably and not very well. And random inexerienced players who come to play one buy-in and head out when they lose it. Despite the soft competition, I wonder how much the rake limits your win rate in these games.

Goals results:

Thanks for taking us along!

Thanks for the report. 4-5 days of poker is such a small sample size that it’s unrealistic to always run well and win but we build these trips up and they’re so much more psychologically important than standard poker sessions

Keep playing well and the results will come

Thanks for sharing. It was good to hear your experience of the 2/5 and 5/10 games that you played.

It’s entirely anecdotal, but I’ve always found 2/5 in Vegas to be the nut low stake. Proper whales want to play bigger, and the completely clueless sit 1/3.

Those Bellagio games sound abysmal. Out of curiosity why didn’t you try Aria or Wynn?

Do you play any PLO? When I play cash in Vegas 95% of the time it’s 1/2 PLO at Aria. Games can be hit or miss, but if splashy is what you are looking for you are far more likely to find it there. Cash hold em is like watching paint dry in comparison.

I stayed at the Horsehoe, so Bellagio was super close and I never had to wait long for a game.
I chose convenience and saving time over potentially better games.

No, other than an occasional PLO bomb pot, I don't.