My Epic Vegas Trip - Day 8 (Photo Blog!)

Thursday July 9 – Mirage Pool, Grand Canyon, New York New York, Bellagio Fountains, Rhumbar


Mirage Pool

Thursday began with a trip to the pool. Unlike the Bellagio, the Mirage pool was absolutely awesome – it was packed to the rafters, it had a fun, laid-back atmosphere, and the females there were both over 10 and under 40. I saw a few college kids with a cabana trying to look suave for the girls, but they all had Bud Lights in their hand which is a pretty funny sight coming from Australia (no one drinks light beer here). I did give them credit for their cabana’s location though and decided to book one myself for Sunday – I assumed I’d be out of the tournament by then.

Here are some photos of the pool. One was taken by a crazy hot girl so if by any chance you remember taking the first picture below, send me an e-mail!

Cabana Shopping

After our swim we went back to our rooms to get ready for our helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. Whilst everyone was showering I tried to book the cabana but found out that they were booked out for the entire weekend. Lame! So I gave the MGM Grand a call since I had heard good things about their Wet Republic Sunday pool party. Fortunately they had cabanas free and I decided to splash out and order the $1500 minimum spend one – it was the day of my 22nd birthday after all! We also tried to book a table at XS for Saturday night. Unfortunately that was also booked out so I decided to draw up a list of clubs that I wanted to go to. Pete, my self-appointed agent, said he’d call them up the next day.

Grand Canyon!

After a room service brunch (I had the Japanese breakfast) we all met up in the lobby and waited for our limo to pick us up. We ended up sharing it with two other Australians who were staying at Paris and listened on as our chauffeur described the impending experience as better than anything we could possibly imagine – jeez, don’t raise our expectations much!

This was my first time in a helicopter so I was pretty excited. I shot-gunned the front seat and revelled in the sound of my own voice as I talked on the in-flight microphone. The flight itself lasts about 40 minutes and they record the trip for you (including your reactions and conversation) so that you can watch it back later.

When you begin your ascent over the final mountain before the Grand Canyon appears they play the soundtrack from Indiana Jones. With the spirit of adventure inside you, you then land inside the Grand Canyon to take some more photos and have a champagne picnic.

On the way back you fly right over the Strip and get to see all the hotels (and their pools!) from above.

New York New York

Once we returned to the Mirage we got changed and started walking towards New York New York.

This plan was quickly abandoned however as it was too hot and we were too tired. Taxis from Caesar’s next door were in order.

The inside of New York New York is surprisingly dark and dingy; I’ve never actually been to New York but I expect that, with the odd ‘32nd street’ street sign, the odd 10 metre tall painting of the Chrysler Building on the wall, and the odd diner specialising in burger and chips, it’s meant to be reminiscent of being in the Big Apple.

We started with the rollercoaster which, unlike the one at Sahara, is big and complete with loops and corkscrews. I had a pretty scary moment where I realised that my hands would probably be cut off if I didn’t put them back down ASAP after a big descent – where were the warnings damn it!

We then went downstairs to the food area and got burgers and chips for dinner. I ordered last and had to wait a good 20 minutes longer than anyone else – I wasn’t very impressed at all as everyone else was eating ice cream by the time I got mine! So much for fast food!

Bellagio Fountains

After dinner we made our way back to the Mirage, with the intention of stopping by at the Bellagio to watch the fountain shows. It’s funny; we never actually bothered to watch the fountains while we were staying at the Bellagio, so now we had to plan a trip back there just for it!

We ended up watching two displays and they were both pretty decent. I preferred “All That Jazz” since the music and fountains actually worked well together.

Rhumbar

After a big day out, the only logical way to end the night was to unwind with a few cocktails back at Rhumbar at the Mirage. Highlight of the night had to be seeing this old guy who was at least 60 fully getting into it with this woman in the corner (she looked about 30). Ah, only in Vegas...

Oh, the cocktails were cool too!

Dumb Blackjack Dealer

Back at the Mirage, Fraser and I decided to log some blackjack hands before going to sleep. We had this female dealer who, upon finding out that I was here for the WSOP Main Event, asked whether I’d qualified online. I told her that in fact I had just bought straight in and she was shocked. Not shocked that I could afford it though, but shocked that I was silly enough to do so!

“If you’re not good enough to qualify, you won’t be good enough to play the real thing here.”
Um...ok.

I tried to explain how this wasn’t true and how in fact I didn’t even try to qualify but she just looked at me with this “poor kid, just doesn’t know what he’s doing” expression. Oh well.

After a small loss I went to bed, ready to make some waves in the Main Event the next day!

My Epic Vegas Trip - Day 7

Wednesday July 8 – Main Event Day 2

Introduction

So I entered Day 2 with 32800 in chips, a mere 2800 chips more than I had started with on Day 1. Despite this, when I found my table, I discovered a rather remarkable fact: I was 4th in chips! Not only that, I was barely behind the chipleader on our table – he only had about 40,000! Our table was also right in the back corner of the room, causing one of the players to remark “this is where they leave the shortstacks to die…”

Having shortstacks at your table is actually a good thing in tournaments, and this was to be the first in a series of fortuitous table draws for myself. Indeed my luck throughout the tournament came not in the form of sucking out left, right and centre or winning every flip I came across – rather, it was getting incredibly good table draws throughout the tournament and never running into any big cooler situations.

Anyway, I had gone into Day 2 fully expecting this to be my last day, not only because of my underwhelming chipstack but because roughly half the field is eliminated by the end of Day 2. So my goal was basically to get through to Day 3 and anything beyond that would be a bonus.

Online Player Guns for Me

The day started slowly and I basically maintained parity for the first few levels by frequently 3-betting the initial chipleader, a young and aggressive player two to my right (let’s call him X). Another young player to my direct right (let’s call him Y) caught onto this and when I 3-bet him for the second time in late position he quickly jammed it in on me. I quickly folded, X said “nice one, he’s been 3-betting a lot” and I bent down to pick up a bottle of water. Upon my eyes returning to table level I saw that Y had proudly shown the 3c to the table, quite chuffed with his bluff it seemed.

This I think is where online players go wrong. I have very limited live experience, but it seems that almost every time I do play live, there’s at least one online player at the table who thinks there’s a mini-tournament for best and most aggressive online player at the table. I don’t mind his shove, but showing it is really dumb. If he didn’t show, I would have had to give him credit for a hand and respect his plays in future until shown otherwise, but now I basically know he’s one of the above types of players.

So a few orbits later Y opens the button and I 3-bet out of position for the first time all day – with QQ from the small blind. He thinks for a bit and calls. I’m pretty ecstatic because I just know that this guy doesn’t realise my out of position 3-betting range is infinitely tighter than my in position one. I may be short relative to the average stack, but I still had plenty of big blinds such that 3-betting out of position could get me into some really sticky situations. Anyway the flop comes down 234r and I bet pretty big for value, about 3/4 pot since nothing folds this flop except whiffed JTs type hands. He calls and the turn comes a 6, completing the straight and bringing a backdoor flush. I don’t think I can bet two streets now and get called by worse so I check to him. He quickly bets about 6000, essentially putting me to a decision for my tournament as I only have about 22000 left and there’s still one more street to play. A few things go through my head. First, he’s basically polarised his range to a 5 or nothing, and although he’s probably wanting to outplay me at all costs, I don’t think that even he can play so fundamentally incorrectly that he’d have many 5s in his range after calling a 3-bet with relatively shallow stacks. So I basically decide that I’m going with the hand then and there. The second thing that goes through my head though is unexpected: “Man, I’m going to look like the quintessential donk who can’t fold an overpair if I’m wrong here and stack off on a four-straight board. And man, this is the Main Event… I don’t want to be eliminated!” Before these thoughts can overcome me too much though, I stick the rest of my money in. In actuality, the best line is probably check-call turn and check-call river (although it’s definitely close with QQ compared to say AA where c/c twice is clearly best) but in the heat of the moment I made a mistake and shoved it all-in.

After I say “all-in” I await the snap-call and when I don’t hear it within 3 seconds I’m basically doing fist-pumps in my head and rolling around in ecstasy. Haha, got you! Then he keeps thinking for a good minute and I’m starting to worry. It doesn’t seem like a Hollywood anymore; am I actually trying to bluff him off a set? I think he would call a set pretty quickly if he does have one since I can’t have many 5s in my range either.

Anyway eventually he calls and shows KTs…for the turned backdoor flush. Right…

So I’m a 75% favourite to double up to 60,000 and be above average for the first time in the tournament. I’m also genuinely all-in for the first time – 25% of the time I’m going to be out of there! Oh man, the excitement, the pressure…

Fortunately it bricks a J or something and I’m going great guns all of a sudden! Woo!

My opponent was left crippled with about 10 big blinds and busted soon after. I think his undoing was partly the “must be best online player at table and outplay everyone” syndrome that I was talking about before and partly the fact that he butchered that hand pretty badly. Preflop is meh but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. The flop float though I think is atrocious since I can’t think of a worse flop to float on. All of my hands have some interest in this flop, whether I have an overpair, 67s or AK. As I said, only a hand like JTs truly whiffs this flop. In regards to his turn play, I really don’t like his bet once he turns the backdoor flush draw. As I said in my first video, this is a great spot to check it back and realise your equity, and if you would win with a bet on the turn you’re going to win with a bet on the river anyway (unless I river something). The downside of what happens if you bet the turn is pretty big and is what happened here – you get check-raised all-in and have to give up your equity or you have to call off your entire stack on a draw in really ugly fashion. It’s also a spot where doesn’t really know what his equity is so he can’t call it off very comfortably – he could have as much as 15 outs if I have 99 with no heart, or as little as 8 outs if I have AA with a heart. It’s just a really gross spot, and if I was a spaz I could even be shoving here with like AK, and then he’d calling it off behind even though I’m bluffing and in a situation where he could almost certainly win the pot if he checks it back and I brick the river with AK and he stabs.

Weird Line with a Set

Anyway that was actually the only really big hand of the day. The only other interesting one where I wasn’t sure what to do went down as follows. Player X had been doing pretty well and had about 60K as did I. He raised preflop and I called in position with 99. The flop came JT9cc. He bet 3200 into 8200 and my standard here I guess is to raise. I thought about it though and decided that 150 big blinds deep I couldn’t ever really get all-in on this flop and be in great shape. I’d basically be hoping that he was bad enough to stack off JT on that board and even then he still has 4 outs. It’s also awkward because if I raise to 9K, I’m effectively shoving since I can’t fold to any further flop action. He thus has the luxury of essentially knowing that I’ve bet 60K, despite having only bet 3K himself, and he can put in his last 57K only when he feels comfortable. Surely, that is only with a range that has 99 beat? So I decided there was more value to be had by playing a smaller pot and milking his one pair hands which would fold to a flop raise.

The turn came a brick, an offsuit 5, and he checked. Here I made a really unusual play. It’s a board where once he checks he can never be stronger than one pair. In that case he can’t ever call turn AND river unless he improves on the river. This means you can only usually get one more street of value, but usually you want to go for that value on the turn since you can get calls from like 98h or KJ on the turn which may have a great deal of trouble paying you off on various rivers. I decided though to check it back and go for value on the river because I hated the idea of getting check-raised on this board. It wouldn’t happen very often, but when it did it would almost always mean a straight and I’d have to fold my set, a hand that could’ve filled up on the river and won a nice pot, especially since my set is so disguised as he probably would think that I’d raise a set on that wet a flop. I think AA would be an easy bet/fold, but here I hated the idea of bet/folding 99, so I checked. The river was ugly, an offsuit Q, making the final board JT95Q with a whiffed flush draw.

He checked to me and I had to decide whether I could value bet. I had planned to over-bet the river if it bricked since it should look very suspicious to him as all the draws missed and any hand worthy of overbetting the river for value on my part would surely bet the turn. On this river though I could hardly over-bet and expect to be called by worse. I decided that he rarely had a better hand since he would bet any straight on the river since I’ve shown so much weakness and am likely snap-checking this river back. Thus I bet like 3200 into 14600 in the hopes of getting called by a hand like two pair. He grimaced and eventually called. I flipped over my set and he showed A8 to take the pot. Ugh…

End of Day 2 Baby!

Anyway, I did make it through to the end of the day which I was very pleased about. I basically went nowhere after that big pot though and finished the day with 57600 in chips, quite a bit under the average again. We had another day off the following day, but once Day 3 came I knew I would have to seriously start accumulating some chips. I couldn’t tread water forever…

My Epic Vegas Trip - Day 6 (Pics Galore!)

Tuesday July 7 – Mirage, Venetian, Wynn, Sahara, Stratosphere

Moving to the Mirage

Day 6 was by far my favourite day of the trip.

We started the day by packing up our things and moving to the Mirage. Before we left for Vegas we had debated for hours what two hotels we should stay at. The Bellagio was pretty much always locked in so most of the time we were tossing up between the Mirage and MGM Grand as our second hotel. In the end we went with Mirage, mostly because of its better location, and in hindsight I’m pretty happy with the choice. In some respects I even preferred the Mirage to the Bellagio. It has a much younger crowd, a much more fun and happening pool, and all night room service. Unfortunately it also has a terribly small bathroom (and I mean tiny) and a very dim and dull casino. I didn’t think the latter would bother me too much since I’m not that big on table games, but I found I really did miss the atmosphere at Bellagio. It’s just so alive and it really makes you feel like you’re at the centre of Las Vegas.

Once we found our rooms we had a general look around before going for lunch. Here’s a picture I took of the pool from our window – as you can see it’s pretty damn enticing!

The Venetian and Palazzo

For lunch we had the buffet at Cravings, one of the Mirage restaurants. They had a pretty cool noodle soup kitchen thing going on and awesome guacamole. The crab wasn’t bad either.

Then we headed out to explore the rest of the Strip. Our first port of call was the Venetian, a hotel I was really keen to see and had seriously considered staying at in place of the Bellagio. Here are some pics of our walk to the Venetian.

Once inside we took the escalators up (note the cool fresco thing on the ceiling) and suddenly found ourselves in Venice! Well, not quite. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with it all – it definitely looked a lot better in pictures and videos. When you’re actually inside you don’t get that illusion of space that I was expecting at all – it’s all very small, narrow, fake and quite tacky. I was still glad to see it all, and the novelty of it all was definitely still cool, but I was glad I didn’t end up staying there. Here are some pics of the canals as well as of the ‘town centre’.

The Venetian joins onto the Palazzo and when we crossed the threshold it was like suddenly walking into another universe. Unlike the Venetian, the Palazzo was visually stunning and I actually wish we had a better look around (we basically walked straight to the exit). I took a couple of pictures and I think you’ll agree it looks amazing.

The Wynn and Encore

After leaving the Palazzo we walked down towards the Wynn and Encore. On the way we passed Treasure Island and saw Trump Hotel and some strange UFO-looking building (a shopping complex I think?). I also managed to take this snap of the two Wynn hotels side by side and was especially pleased.

Wynn and Encore are meant to be the two best hotels in Vegas so I was really keen to check them out and I was especially hoping that they wouldn’t be a huge disappointment like the Venetian.

Fortunately, I wasn’t let down – the place is simply sparkling! As soon as you walk in, you immediately think “damn, this is a slick place” – the floors are polished, the gardens are immaculate, the whole layout of the place just oozes class, even the casino slots!

The only problem with the place, as you can see in the photo above, was that it was nigh on completely empty! It was like walking into an empty building, there was no atmosphere at all. I assume that this was because of the recession and the fact that the Wynn hotels are the most expensive on the Strip. During peak times I imagine this place would be just buzzing.

Anyway we decided now was a good time to stop for a drink. There was a bar in the centre but we decided to head downstairs to the outside courtyard. On the way I pointed out to Julian the smoking hot waitresses and the ridiculously short skirts we had just forgone by going downstairs. He was not at all impressed at our decision, but fortunately the ones downstairs didn’t end up being too bad either!

At the door to the courtyard the girl told us that we had to buy at least one drink each. I thought this was probably just standard procedure but everyone else thought that because of our age and our clothes (thongs, t-shirts, shorts etc.) and the way she said it she probably thought we couldn’t afford a drink there and just wanted to take a photo or something. So we decided to show her and have TWO each!

The courtyard was like this little sanctuary and except for the heat you really couldn’t tell you were in Vegas at all. There were no buildings jutting into view, no sounds of cars rushing along the Strip – just a really nice and relaxing environment to chill, put your feet up and have a drink. I don’t remember what I ended up drinking but I remember it was nice and that I had a good time overall.

No Man’s Land and Sahara

After our drinks we headed back onto the Strip and made for our final destination – Stratosphere. Someone suggested that we should probably get a taxi there because it’s quite a long walk but we all laughed it off – “Look how big it is! It can’t be that far away!”

Ugh.

20 minutes later and the Stratosphere is not much bigger than it was when we left Encore. Damn, big things really do confuse your sense of perspective! By now we’re all exhausted, Fraser has a bleeding foot (dangerous, rocky terrain!) and I’m starting to think that we’re not going to make it out alive. Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration, but for some reason no one ever told me that the space between Encore and Stratosphere is like a super-dodgy, barren wasteland! There are flyers for prostitutes everywhere, dingy looking hotels like Circus Circus, and run-down stores and booths selling everything from fake sunglasses to cheap show tickets to Grand Canyon helicopter tours. We even got to see one of those stereotypical old-style Vegas wedding chapels and there was even a bride and groom leaving from it, both dressed in wedding attire. Julian also took a picture with some girls outside Riviera – I think it made his day.

We also passed Sahara and stopped in for a look. It was host to a giant burrito eating challenge which only like 3 people or so had ever completed. This was the sort of thing that Julian was born to do, but despite our universal encouragement he chickened out, saying that the buffet lunch we had just had would prevent him from reaching his full potential. Anna, Rosie, Pete and I then decided to give the Sahara’s rollercoaster a go. It was a pretty tiny one so we thought it’d just be a bit of harmless fun. Since we wanted to sit at the front we let another group go in before us and watched as the first batch of people left.

My god, it was like the scariest thing I’ve ever seen! The acceleration from the start was incredible – the people got ripped to the back to their seats and their faces opened up in horror. To make matters worse they returned in the space of what seemed like 15 seconds. Since we had seen the rollercoaster from the outside, we knew that for it to return in this short a time it must have gone damn fast. So we’re all scared out of our minds now but have no choice but to take our seats.

In the end, the ride itself was not scary at all. The acceleration at the start didn’t feel different to any other ride, the ride felt like it lasted a good minute or so, and there weren’t any heart-stopping moments at all. But whenever I look back upon this I always remember the horror of seeing the first people leave and return and I can’t help but smile.

The Stratosphere

At about 6PM, we finally reached our destination – the Stratosphere! It was good timing actually because although we hadn’t intended to get here so late it was starting to get dark and that meant the view from the top would be even more of a spectacle. The view did indeed turn out to be amazing, especially with this huge orange moon in the distance, but unfortunately I couldn’t get any really good photos – they were either blurry or didn’t do the view justice. Anyway here are two to give you an idea.

Fraser, Anna and Rosie decided to take to the rides as well (as soon as I saw the Stratosphere rides on YouTube before we left I was like no way in hell am I doing that!). Here’s a photo of one of the rides as well as some videos. The first video I think is pretty funny – Rosie is getting all confident and waving at the camera and then BAM!

Back to the Mirage

At about 10PM we finally caught some taxis and made our way back to the Mirage, just in time for the volcano show! It was a pretty hot show (haha!), although I would’ve liked some lava melting down the side or something. Here’s a sick pic I took of the volcano as well as a busy street shot to give you a general idea of the atmosphere.

For dinner we got Maccas or room service and munched away in our rooms. We even got treated to another volcano show (we realised we could actually see and hear it from our rooms; the latter fact became rather annoying). Eventually at about 1AM we finally retired to bed.

A very productive day I have to say, and a lot of fun!