My Epic Vegas Trip - Day 2

Friday July 3 – Welcome to the WSOP!

Our first full day in Vegas began with a beautiful buffet breakfast at ‘Buffet’ (another simply-named Bellagio eatery). I was ready and eager to devour about three plates of hot food and two plates of fruit but after having just one of each I realised I was pretty much spent – the Philly Cheese Steak from the night before was still taking its toll it seemed…

After breakfast we headed back up to our rooms to book tickets for ‘O’ and the Grand Canyon. You would think this would be a rather tame affair but by the time it was all done and dusted Rosie had stormed off in a huff (one too many sexist jokes by Julian) and Anna was, to put it mildly, unimpressed with all of us (“why are you so incompetent Pete!”). So that was nice.

Julian, Fraser, Pete and I then decided to head to the Rio so that I could register for Day 1D while Anna and Rosie went down to the pool.

It was a pretty cool feeling walking into the Rio. The hallway leading up to the Amazon Room is one I’ve seen a million times on TV, so to actually open a door and walk into it was pretty surreal. We turned into the first room we came across and instantly the chirping of chips filled the air. Ah…the sound of poker.

Since this was Pete and Fraser’s first poker trip they immediately went forth and set out in search of pros. I, being the seasoned veteran of the live tournament circuit that I am now, felt no such urge and instead headed out to the cage on the other side of the hotel to cash in my traveller’s cheques. Julian decided to accompany me because a) he has no interest in poker and b) he felt I needed a worthy bodyguard like himself.

Along the way we came across a restaurant name that in Australia would completely defy belief. The term must obviously have a completely different meaning and/or connotation in the US because there’s simply no way this would pass muster as a restaurant name in Australia. Anyone care to explain?

After I got my money I sat down and stared at my two chocolate chips for a good half-hour…

Ok, not really, but man, $5000 chips are cool!

While I waited in the line to register the others found the exhibition room and attacked it with glee. By the time I found them they had already putted golf and battled Gladiator-style. Fraser had even disposed of an unworthy American challenger! Australia 1, USA 0.

The other offerings ranged from lame to not-so-lame. On the not-so-lame end of the scale was the strength tester and the mechanical bull. Here’s Julian on the former and Pete on the latter.

It was getting towards 6PM by now so we decided to head back to the Bellagio. We were meant to pick up our O tickets on the way out but had forgotten so we stopped by the O desk on the way back. Unfortunately the line was way too long so we decided to come back another time and face the wrath of Anna instead.

For dinner we went to ‘Noodles’, thus completing the circle of self-descriptive Bellagio eateries. While waiting in line Fraser mentioned how his girlfriend inadvertently used lasagna in their Iron Chef cook-off, despite the special ingredient being noodles.

“All noodles are pasta” he said matter-of-factly, “but not all pasta are noodles.”

WOAH! STOP RIGHT THERE SON.

And so ensued a ten-minute debate on whether all noodles are in fact pasta: Anna recounted the historical origins of the two; I noted how vermicelli noodles (those thin, clear ones) clearly aren’t pasta; Fraser countered that vermicelli noodles must not be noodles then. In the end, we came up with this.

More than anything, I think what the above diagram shows is that ‘Noodles’ needs more damn tables! When we did finally get in, the food turned out to be pretty disappointing. It wasn’t bad or anything, it just wasn’t Bellagio, if you know what I mean.

After dinner we played some Blackjack and Three Card Poker. By we, I mean Fraser, Pete and me: Rosie and Anna refused to gamble even though I offered to stake them… so soft! I bought in for $300 and was down as low as $130 at one point before coming home strong and finishing up with a $25 win. Who’s the sucker now Bellagio!?

The girls headed to bed at about midnight and we followed not long thereafter. The jetlag was starting to take its toll and a good night’s sleep was definitely in order...

My Epic Vegas Trip - Day 1

Thursday July 2 – Arriving in Vegas

I remember clearly the first time I watched the WSOP on TV. It was halfway through 2006 and some random $1000 side event was being televised. I remember thinking how crazy it would be to fork out $1000 to play a single tournament. Given my entire bankroll totalled only about $500 at that point, my reservations I think were quite understandable. I mean, what if you lost an all-in on the first hand? Crazy!

Yet, here I was, three years later, about to embark on my first trip to Vegas and to the WSOP. As you can imagine, even the thought of this was quite the thrill for me. As players move up in the poker world, rising up in stakes or winning MTT after MTT, there’s a tendency I think to become “too cool” for everything and everyone in the poker world. You begin to realise that Negreanu isn’t actually that good at NLHE, that Doyle only beat a field of 20-odd people, that Sklansky probably couldn’t beat 1/2 online. But going to the WSOP, it made me feel like a (poker) kid again. I mean, I don’t care how bad Negreanu is anymore, I’m going to see him live in action! And so what if Hellmuth is loony? I might be on his table! And maybe, just maybe, I’ll even get on ESPN and be on TV back home and be able to show all my friends! Sick! What’s not to love?

And so, with a packed bag and a mind full of anticipation, I met up with Fraser, Pete and Anna at Sydney Airport. Our flight to LA was going to be about 13 hours and our flight to Las Vegas a further one hour. Rosie and Julian were going to meet us there since they were going to New York afterwards and had booked their own flights.

The flight to LA was pretty smooth. I watched three of the four films on offer (Confessions of a Shopaholic, 17 Again and Duplicity, though I didn’t have a clue what was happening in the last one since my fatiguing mind had no chance of following a film with a fragmented timeline!) and busied myself by doing crosswords and reading Bluff Magazine. I bet Fraser that I could finish the crossword in the in-flight Magazine within an hour and miserably failed. Heck, I couldn’t understand half the clues let alone conjure up the correct answer!

When we finally arrived at LAX I gave a big speech to everyone about how we should hurry and get through to the domestic terminal ASAP. After nearly missing my flight to Miami on route to the Bahamas in January, and having had a mad panic while doing so, I had no intention of repeating the experience. So I made the rules clear to everyone - no loitering, no separating, and no donating to those Red Cross people outside! And boy did it work. We were through immigration, customs, baggage and security within an hour and had over an hour to go before our flight to Vegas left! Awesome! But then…we got United (verb: to have something go wrong with or on your United flight).

Our flight was cancelled! Some mechanical problem had forced the Vegas to LA flight to turn back mid-air and we were placed on a different flight three hours later. Only problem? That flight was already delayed a further five hours… jeez, how bad do I run?! So now not only did my rush through US immigration look retarded, but we had to find something to do for the next 8 hours! Lameee…

Our first port of call was of course McDonalds. There Pete was quite puzzled when he found out that he was not allowed to order a meal containing a single cheeseburger. Rather, he was told, he had to order the double cheeseburger meal, a proposition that he found equally puzzling. You see, in Australia, a double cheeseburger is a burger containing two patties of meat and two slices of cheese. But not so at LAX! There, a double cheeseburger meal consists of – get this – TWO cheeseburgers. So for five minutes Pete is sitting there debating the merits of getting a double cheeseburger meal and, having finally decided that he can’t finish off two whole cheeseburgers, decides to order the Big Mac meal instead. This of course is notwithstanding the fact that a Big Mac is about the size of two cheeseburgers… Awesome.

For the remainder of the time we slept, ate, listened to our iPods and talked about what we could be doing in Vegas at that very moment were it not for the fact that we got United. I remember ringing Rosie and Julian who were already there to tell them about our terrible plight. They were exhausted and completely unsympathetic. I resolved to poison them.

Eventually, our flight finally arrived and we all clambered onboard, thankful that we were finally on our way. In preparation for Vegas we had re-watched 21 and in that movie there’s this scene where they arrive at night and the lights of the Strip come brilliantly into view. We’d always thought how sick it’d be to arrive like that and mourned the fact that we were arriving during the day. Well, I guess in the end some good did come out of that delay because by the time we arrived it was completely dark and we got to see Vegas for the first time lit up in all its glory! The airport is actually ridiculously close to the Strip so during our descent we were able to pick out all the hotels we recognised. Simply awesome!

Here’s a video of us in our taxi as we drive into Vegas proper. It was a completely amazing sight and a truly surreal feeling. One moment you’re driving along your average, run-of-the-mill highway; the next you’re being confronted by the gargantuan lights of Mandalay Bay, THEHotel, Luxor, and eventually, by the rest of the Strip itself.



After checking into our rooms at the Bellagio, Fraser, Pete and I went downstairs in search of food (the others were too tired to join us). It was at this point that we were introduced to Bellagio’s commendable policy of simplicity in relation to its restaurant-naming. We were after a snack, so where better to go but “Snacks”? I mean, I couldn’t have named it better myself! Fraser and I got the Philly Cheese Steak while Pete got the Buffalo Chicken Wings. The latter were to be a favourite with Pete and myself for the remainder of the trip (much to the disgust of everyone else)!

After that we toured the casino briefly before heading to bed. And so ended Day 1 of my Epic Vegas Trip! To finish, here’s a random video I took of the Bellagio lobby. Enjoy.

50K Downer…Sent Packing Back to 5/10…

So my first shot at playing 10/20+ exclusively was a dismal failure. I’ve lost about 50K in the last two weeks and it certainly hasn’t been very pleasant all-round. I cashed out a huge chunk (42K) when I was on my heater so now I’ve only got 54K online and am pretty much busto. I don’t like re-depositing so I think it’s time to return to 5/10 and grind it all back up again…

The weird thing about this downswing is that it never really hit me just how much I was losing until I crossed the 50K mark today. With uni being back in session I’ve been playing shorter and more sporadic sessions and this means that no single session has really caused me to tilt or go ‘jeez, what a shocking session that was’. Rather I’ve been losing small amounts frequently and consistently and so eventually it’s all snowballed and turned into this one massive downswing. Oh well.

In other news I managed to finish my summer clerkship applications last week and was about to plan a trip to London for the WSOPE when it dawned on me that I couldn’t actually go – despite it being perfectly timed to fit in with my mid-semester break, second round clerkship interviews were scheduled for that very week :(. I better damn well get through to that stage now or it’s going to be a very annoyed Joey…

Anyway, my plan from here on I guess is just to grind 5/10 until I get my roll back up to 100K and then take shots at 10/20 again. I haven’t watched many videos recently so I guess I should also start doing that again.

Next entry I’ll definitely (and finally!) start my epic day-by-day Vegas/WSOP Main Event trip report. I haven’t had time to do it because of clerkship applications and uni restarting but now that everything’s settled down and poker is going terribly I might as well sit down and write it up. Until then, peace.