Just got back, had a fucking blast.
Thursday morning get up at 4AM, meet the fellows at work. One of the other guys at work is getting married next week... so time to hijack him and take him with us for an impromptu bachelor party, I figure I won't be playing much poker as a result, but I'm fine with that. We wake him up at 6am, haul his ass out of bed, throw him in the car.
After noontime we arrive in Vegas from San Diego. We catch a buffet, few drinks afterwards, folks wanna take a nap, so I hit the poker tables. Start off with 1/2 and almost double up in an hour. Super fishy table, people overbetting the pot by like 4x on the flop about every two or three hands, but preflop things are pretty chill. Limp the small pairs, limp the suited connectors. Get paid on a straight and a small set, alright, good to go.
So we go out for the night, I figure, hey I'll hit the tables at about 2am, give me an hour to sober up and be ready to pull an all nighter. We hit centrifuge and Studio 54 in the grand. I end up dropping the winnings on a VIP table, rounds of drinks and other deviousness for the guys. Out until dawn. I get so drunk I can barely walk, so poker is out of the question, don't remember going to sleep, but it seems to have happened.
Get woken up at 10am, I wake up missing some shoelaces and have some bite marks on my neck, wallet is in shreds but everything is there. Roomie, the other poker player says: "Hey there's a tournament at the luxor, lets go while everyone is still sleeping!" I think I'm still drunk and the hangover check is in the mail. We catch a cab to the luxor and I literally drink about eight cups of coffee and three+ bottles of water. My stomach is kililng me something fierce. We sit down at the tournament structure is the wackiest goddamn thing I've ever seen, just super optimized for getting you in, paying a rake and getting you out. Definitely not a post flop action tourney. Field is ninety some and there's some decent players here. One guy to my left has Phil Hellmuth syndrome and is talking to the invisible man and he's obviously well versed in Sklansky and Brunson and Harrington, he knows what he's talking about. Buy in is 28 (25+3 dollar add on (WTF?)) field is ninety some.
Down to three tables and I've got about 10x bb, but I'm real sober and aside from stomach pain and the occasional trip to the bathroom, feeling real good.
Getting into desperation mode at 10x with a loose player behind me and had one extremely choice read with 1010 vs ak on a J high flop with me out of position.
Get a decent table texture at the final table and Didn't catch much in the way of cards, got KK once but the only person who paid me off was a 2xbb short stack. By the time heads up play rolled around I was a dominating lead. Didn't have much in the way of showdowns, lived and died by aggression. End up taking it all, first place.
So plus just shy of 800 - dealer tip for first place (first live tourney 1st place, fifth first place finish overall), I'm now waaaay up.
Go out with the guys for awhile but everyone is burnt out from the night before, I hit the bathroom about 30 fucking times. Hit the tables at about 9pm at a nearby 1/2 game and take awhile to double up. Have a lot of tight players that I actually had a lot of respect for and they're assembly lining the fish through (Friday night memorial weekend there were some real wacky players coming through.) Its about 3am and I think I'm done with my double up, we're leaving the next day. Then I get it in my head I just wanna sit with the 10/20 guys at the ballagio for a few orbits.
So I walk my ass over to the bellagio, thinking I'll just donate 60-100 bucks for a few orbits try and limp some pockets or raise any monsters. I railbird a five handed game and every pot is raised preflop and the blinds are going around fast wtih so few hands, so I think better of it, realize I don't wanna be the jackass that says "I was up XXX then I did this stupid fucking thing at five in the morning and now I'm down YYY can you buy me a sandwhich?"
Leave vegas this afternoon up eight hundred after all is told(Total winnings was about 1200 minus drinks, room and club fees etc) in about 10 hours of poker and never put out more than 200 (Though I was ready to roll 1000 off the bat.). Overall, had a blast and anyone that's thinking about going, I highly recommend it.
Ended up hitting the tables at:
Bally's
Grand
Luxor
And railbirded the Bellagio
Low stakes I recommend Bally's the highest, had perfect poker table position so tons of people pouring through and the dealer's were actually pretty good. This place is very very humble though. If you wanna feel like you're a high stakes player in Vegas this isn't really the place to go, but was a good place for action for me at 1/2. Edit: Should also mention Bally's was the only spot I saw w/ 1/2 that had a traditional buy in scheme, 100x the BB cap, minimum 50x. Everywhere else had some very low caps or other random garbage to force action and pump the rake and get people pushing with queens and jacks preflop.
Grand was great too, had even better position, right next to a club, sports book room, a bar and basically smack dab in the middle of everything, also great dealers and just a beautiful casino overall. (Also lots of girls.)
Luxor didn't like too much, OK position for tables, dealers were OK their tournament structure was essentially the worst tournament structure ever devised and... well, its a decent spot, but I wasn't too fond of it. Didn't play any cash games here. (Also: lots of old people from the midwest.)
Bellagio was absolutely amazing and I clearly would have gotten my ass handed to me. Still, they treat their poker players with a lot of respect and the waitress was actually comping me while I was railbirding (Nice!)
Didn't get a chance to check out the Wynn or Binions, but really wanted to.... next trip.
