A Floposaurus takes on Vegas: 3/18-3/21 March Madness TR

Will keep it in my back pocket for next week! Already 3-betting a decent amount obviously, but being even more ruthless with it is probably a good way to go.

GL at the Wynn!

Yeah definitely helped me. Just left for the airport. Was at a wild table with just crazy action. Group of 4 buddies who were opening $25 UTG with hands like K2o…one guy was sun running for about 45 minutes and left up 1.5k. Gave a little back but I believe to have be +$ on the trip. Will calculate shortly.

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Nice meeting you!

Nice meeting you too, and congrats on the score. Looking forward to reading your TR and even more comprehensive hand histories than I have provided to this chat.

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Haha I’m notoriously bad at hand histories, mainly because I don’t keep track and I have an extremely LAG play style that probably makes me look insane. I will leave the more detailed HHs for BIgWhale when he lands unless something really interesting happens.

Wow. I made a straight flush once, but it was only a satellite. I didn't even "cash". Never been close to a Royal.

Will have a longer recap in the coming days, but dropping a few pics here. Watermelon juice, Hard Rock progress, and Bellagio conservatory (beautiful as always).

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Some Hand Histories from the Wynn

Hand 1
$1/3 at the Wynn, $500 effective. This was the crazy table, and there were 4 or 5 guys who knew or were friendly with each other. All 45-60ish I’d say.

UTG villain is one of them. He has been betting big and pushed me around in a previous hand.

V1 opens to $15 in MP. He gets a call, then I raise to $65 in the SB w/ 9s9c. Both players call.

Flop comes Ts7d6h. With 3 players in the hand, I check OOP, and the flop checks around.

Turn is 2c. I make it $60. V1 thinks for a while and makes it $250. The guy behind him folds. I think on it for a long time. I asked him what he wanted me to do, and he kinda gave me a shrug and a smirk, which seemed pretty genuine. I eventually folded. He said I made a good fold, and his buddy kinda confirmed that.

In the next hand, the main villain is the same guy.

Hand 2
I’m on the button with A9ss. UTG V1 opens to $15. 2 calls. I call. Four ways to a flop of 972r. He bets $25. Other callers fold. I call.

Turn 7x. He checks quickly.

I make it $35. He raises to $130. I tank call, as I’m not sure what hands check-raise the turn that opened UTG. Maybe 99, but I have one of those. Maybe 76? But he should be betting that turn himself, I thought. So I took about 2 minutes on it and called.

River is J. He checks, and I check back and win against … K2o.

Hand 3
I’m in LP with Q9ss. 1 limp to me and I make it $20. SB calls. Limper folds. V in SB was also a MAWG but was not with the group at the table. He’d seen me bluff a few times.

Flop comes JsTh2c. V1 checks to me, and I bet $20. He calls. Turn 5. He checks, and I check it back.

River Ac. He checks, and I feel like he has Jx. So I took some time before betting $100. He thinks and thinks and then folds.

I was happy I went for the river bluff here and felt really good about my ranging opponents (for the most part) on this trip.

A review of how I think I played
I was really focused on playing aggressively and committed to more turn betting when it was advantageous to my raising range. I learned how often people just fold to turn barrels when you keep the foot on the gas. That was a big confidence booster for me. I think a few times I might’ve been overly aggressive, and it cost me money, but I just didn’t get paid in some spots where I thought I would. I think the largest pot I played was maybe $500 the whole trip, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying on my part.

I also felt that being aggressive helped me gain clarity after the flop, and I was able to navigate situations much better than in previous poker sessions.

Observations on the games
The games at some places were not fun. Little table talk, no drinking, etc. I sat next to some super negative players, and the moaning and groaning were pretty grating. Specifically one table at Aria, one table at Horseshoe, and both tables I played at in Bellagio. All of that complaining made me so grateful I’m not trying to play poker for a living. I was annoyed after like an hour. I can’t imagine dealing with them for hours on end.

That plays into my next point: I had the most fun when people were having a good time. I did have some really great chats with people about a wide variety of topics, and I really appreciate the conversation and finding common ground at the table.

Aria:
I think the room gets easily overwhelmed. Something as simple as changing the TVs to the basketball games caused the floor some agony and the gentleman snapped at me even though I asked very calmly and respectfully. The games were okay there, and my tables only had a few regs. I know the lists get long and it’s super busy during March Madness, but even the servers were flustered. I did play with the guy who used to run the Resorts World room, so it was cool to talk with him and learn more about what that job is like, and have an insight into the higher stakes games and how they run.

Bellagio:
I want to like this room, and hitting the royal flush is one way it’s trying to convince me. But I feel like the worst tablemates I’ve had in my limited Vegas experiences have been at Bellagio. Just quiet and not fun, taking things seriously, and some just lifeless bodies at the table.

Venetian:
I really like the room, and if it were a little closer to where I was staying, I’d play in this room a lot. My experience was great (quads help with that), but everyone was friendly, and the table was fine, albeit super reg-heavy the morning I played there. I did witness a guy with his computer and headset taking work calls while playing, which seemed absolutely WILD to me.

Wynn:
I dunno why I waited so long to go to this room, because I think I might put it at the top of the Vegas list. The whole resort felt super upscale, and the people in the purple jackets, just waiting to help you, were such a great help when I needed to know where to go for valet. The watermelon juice was as delicious as advertised, and it just felt like a completely upscale experience.

Horseshoe:
It's the same old same old here. Could be awful if you have a bad table, but I had some good tables, especially my last night. The action was good late at night, so it’s fun to play here before stumbling back to the room.

Final Results
Not getting into as big of pots as I would've liked, I still managed to make it out of Vegas with a W. I played roughly 28 hours of poker and made a measly $350. Again, I think if I got paid off in some spots, I would've come back with a lot more. But that's variance for you. I definitely felt like I played a lot better, so I'm happy with my process.

I made another $250 net profit with the rest of the table games and sports over the weekend, for a total profit of $600. Obviously, I would've loved to make a lot more on my trip, but winning is better than losing. Thanks to everyone for following along, and hopefully I helped scratch the itch for Vegas for many of you as a very amateur trip reporter.

Thanks for the trip report, I enjoyed reading it!
Glad you had a successful visit to Las Vegas!

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Thanks for the great reports.

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Great trip report!

Very much appreciate the reads on the rooms from actually being on the felt.

This is largely how I have felt about each room, each time I go.

For all the prestige attached to Bellagio, the next good game I get into there will be the first.
Aria is OK for me - the NL action is meh but the PLO is pretty good.
Wynn: yes.
Horseshoe - VERY hit/miss. Usually miss.

Great report. 76 days to go for me!

Great writeup on all the rooms. I really like the Venetian too, generally a pretty good crowd. Also loved the upscale nature of the Wynn, would consider a future stay there if coming with a significant other. Normally I just come for the WSOP series where there is a large amount of international people, but this time around I've played with a much higher percentage of local regs.

I was going to comment on this in my thread too but you are spot on about some of the miserable regs/games. Some of the local nits/waste of seats (most visible late night) are just laughable. I am more into tournaments, but the Wynn specifically had a lot of overly serious stereotypical grinder types around our age (20s-30s) who were kind of obnoxious to be around. Sure, headphones and hoodies are a staple of the game (and it is Vegas after all) but the real pros I've run into at least generally have some personality. I don't know if these people are just locals who play often or if they specifically move here to be wannabe pros. For cash games, luckily there is a lot of choice so if you find a bad table, there's always another a new one nearby!

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people with headphones at my tables. By my count, during all my play, it was something like 5 total. Plenty of non-headphone-wearing bumps on a log, though.

One guy I played with twice at the Bellagio had to have been a reg there. He and another reg were getting deep into conspiracy-theory talk, which was one of the main reasons I peaced out of that table.

Thanks for taking the time! Always nice to leave Vegas a winner 😉

Wynncore is a great room. Use to like Aria, but Wynncore is now my favorite. Aria is too reg-infested, too crowded/dark, and the drink service is horrendous! (I play PLO, so don't really do the rooms that don't run PLO.) I played at Bellagio in my NLHE past and don't remember ever enjoying it.

Yeah, completely agree. I like Aria because it's relatively close to where we usually stay, but the Wynncore just felt much better. I did like that it was nice and bright. As someone who wears glasses, the darker rooms really take a toll on my eyes over the course of a day.

One more thought as I’m reflecting on my time in Vegas: you can definitely bluff in the lower stakes games. I did it more than I expected to, and really only stepped in it one time.

I think knowing your image at the table is the best thing, but players are still calling too wide on the flop and will fold to repeated aggression.

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