Kevin's Vegas Trip August 2026

For my last full day here, I elected to start the day in the MGM, arriving a litle after mid-day. The room was again fairly quiet and I got a seat immediately. One unusual feature of the MGM is they allow you buy in deep to their $1/3 game - up to $1000, and up to a few months ago, used to permit an unlimited buy-in. I don't really get it. If you're good enough to leverage a really big stack and play really deep, you'd be at 2/5 or higher in another room. If you ask me, most of the guys doing it (buying $1K in chips) just want to be Billy Big Balls at the table. I sat down and had one such character at the table, immediately to my left. I knew the drill and let him over-aggress on my good hands before smashing back with big raises. I probably took $200 off him in total, and eventually he moved to the other end of the table. One in the eye for the bullies! A few other deep stacks materialised during the day, but most were tourists with more money than game. I didn't get ...

After the bad-beat at the Bellagio, I left the table and after sitting for a few minutes to compose my thoughts and plans, decided I'd go for a walk, and visit an ATM - I'd perhaps been overly confident in spending winnings in cash for food, shopping etc, so after two losing sessions was a bit low. Most ATMs in the casino's charge ludicrous fees ($10 or more), so I decided I'd take a 20 minute walk to the Bank of America ATM in the M&M store - both to decompress and to give two fingers to the casino gouging! MGM Mission being accomplished I decided to go to the adjacent MGM poker room and play what would be one last session of the day if I didn't win. I wasn't making a third withdrawal this trip, so I was now on a ration. Bankroll swings are a part of poker, and overall I wasn't unhappy with the way I was playing - but that didn't mean I was just going to keep throwning money at it either! The MGM game the day before had been pretty soft, and yesterd...

  The MGM poker room Once upon a long ago, the MGM was not only the biggest casino hotel on the strip, but one of the most attractive - including their huge glass enclosures with live Lions, including the famous 'Leo' from the MGM studios movie lead-in. Their poker room too, used to be one of the leading venues, but no more. For reasons best known to themselves, they have not moved with the times and paid $2 per hour in 'comps' for players unlike most of the casinos - including fellow M-Life venues The Aria and The Bellagio. As such, I'd heard it is largely shunned by the local pros and grinders and the games consist mainly of tourists. Based on my experience today I'd say that is true. Like most other venues now they are doing one hand of double-board bomp-pot Omaha at the start of every 30 minute dealer rotation. They rake as much, if not more than other poker rooms (probably another reason the regs don't like it), but they offer lots of promotions such as...