Kevin's Vegas Trip August 2026

  Weather in Vegas as I leave Check out this morning was 11 am, so left I bag with the bell-desk and headed off to the Venetian for a last session before departure. They formed a new table just after I arrived and it was mainly sober, and not very good, tourists. I won a few nice pots with big pairs and a nice bomb pot where I manged to scoop both pots from a nice lady who considerably overvalued her hand - a made straight on one board with no-draws. I finished the session up $364, which was a nice way to close before heading to the airport. I had another win there as I was asked to check in my hand-luggage for free as the flight is full. €150 saved over the holiday by avoiding checked baggage - even though I was prepared to pay the cost on this trip, as with various bits and bobs purchased the case was full and I was at the cabin weight limit (having established the case is also, marginally, oversized on the outward journey. Boarding starts in just over 1 hour, and I'll be home in...

I headed to the Venetian (yes, I'm a creature of habit - but it was hot and I didn't want to walk too far outside!) at about 8, and had decided to use my 'comps' to get a nice meal, for my last 'proper' meal in Vegas. Despite what google assured it, it turned out I wasn't able to simply present my card in the restaurant, and after first visiting the Casino Rewards desk, I was sent to Poker Room to get my voucher there - they really don't want to make it easy for you! Fortunately, in anticipation that I might have some issues, I had chosen the Grand Lux Cafe, which is immediately downstairs from the Poker room. That meant I didn't have far to go, and by the time I got back to the Cafe, my carbonera was waiting for me. Carbonera at the Grand Lux It was delicious, costing me $5 for taxes and tips, with $25 taken care of by the comps. Then it was upstairs to the poker room. Despite being registered, it took a while to get involved - but they set up a new...

  Back Street Boys An inauspicious start to yesterday as I had an upset stomach and decided to take a quiet day in my room, reading and snoozing. By late afternoon all appeared fine, so I left about 5:45 and made my way to the nearby Venetian. The place was mobbed, but thanks to their use of the Poker Atlas app, I was able to add my name to the list before leaving my room and got seated immediately upon arrival. The table was mainly tourists for most of the night and generally not too challenging. I was picking up my share of small pots, but it was taking a while to get going. I ended up staying for 5 hours, during which time I was in 4 big pots - winning one and losing 3. The first one saw three limpers and I, on the button, looked down to see beautiful AA. I raised to 20 and got 2 callers, going three way to the flop. 862 with a flushdraw was pretty good so I bet 40. One caller folded and the other raised to 80. I wasn't thrilled but there were many hands that raise there that I ...

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...

Pagliacci Pagliacci is, reputedly, the most tragic of Italian operas, although if you asked my opinion, having to sit through multiple hourse of fat costumed singers warbling through some melodramatic excresences is tragedy enough. Life mirroring art, I was that singer experiencing the melodrama on Thursday night and yesterday morning. Venetian  After my last post I went to surroundings familiar. The table was nothing remarkable - a few locals, some tourists and a couple of Chinese kids. The latter turned out to be both native Chinese, but both had come to college in America. Both played that aggressive, large-betting style that their compatriots seem to favour. So be it, it can be turned against them. It was interesting to hear one of them talking about the college poker scene in his university (Urbana-Champaign) amongst the Chinese students. Absolutely mad stuff. Playing 25-50 no-limit with 10K and 20K stacks. There are either some very rich Chinese students (probably) or a very ...

As mentioned in this morning's post-breakfast dispatch , the plan was to play some more poker this morning, and then evaluate. Having finished breakfast I decided I'd also do some shopping for some gifts and the latest pharma requests from daughter number 1. First stop was the Venetian which I hit about 9:30 am. I decided to try out the Poker Atlas app - it allows you to register your name on the wait list remotely. Worked a treat and I was seated as soon as I arrived. Wizard of Oz display in the Venetian Given the time of the morning there was nobody drinking. One of the players (German I think) had been at my table yesterday and seemed solid. Most of the rest looked like regulars, but it emerged there were a few tourists. There was one local pro who I'd played with last year, but I remembered enough about him not to be worried. Things were slow to get started, but gradually I started to get a few hands. The first big one, I raised TT and got called by the button and big b...

Having started the poker element of the trip at the closest card room to me in Caesar's, yesterday morning I went to probably the next closest - The Venetian. This has often been one of my favourite rooms. The tables are spacious and comfortable, there are free help-yourself coffee and soft drinks, and the dealers are usually pretty good. The crowd there varies, but there are usually a mix you'd expect and hope for depending on the time of day. I forgot to take a picture, but here is one from t'internet which is actually the table and (one of the) dealer I had yesterday Poker at the Venetian Given that it was 10 am or so when I landed, I didn't expect much partying to be going on, but there was a guy drinking a corona immediately to my left, so not all bad. He turned out to be a fairly tight local regular, but he was a nice guy and we had some fun as we had many pots where it was checked to me, and as the Venetian don't allow a pre-flop 'chop', we would chec...