Las Vegas Trip Report, part 2

My wife’s conference started at Noon on Wednesday, 12-5-07, and neither of us are what you would call “early birds”, so we grabbed a mid-morning breakfast at the Flamingo across from Caesar’s. The coffee shop at Flamingo was packed but did not seem particularly impressive when we walked up. However, the food was very good and the service was excellent. We enjoyed what I would come to think of as my “breakfast of champions” for the week, steak and eggs. Then while she went to work, I headed to MGM for some afternoon poker. I learned long ago to rent a car in Vegas and that way you can go anywhere you want – any time you want. I also learned that valet parking is the way to go. Why troll through those massive parking garages and end up 2 miles from the casino and lose 30 minutes of time, when for a small tip, you can valet and walk in the front door? The MGM poker room is rather large with lots of tables. It is open with the rest of the casino so it reeks of smoke and you can hear the constant ringing of slots, etc. I bought in for $100.00 and had to wait about 20 minutes to get a seat at 1-2NL. I was card dead and played for about 2 hours before cashing out with $50.00 in chips for a small loss. The MGM room was OK overall but I did not care for the marble ring inlaid on the table. I did like that each table has a card swipe for players cards instead of having to go to the brush/cashier like at other places. I picked up my wife and we headed to Gordon Biersch brewpub on Paradise. We have eaten there every time we came to Vegas since our Honeymoon so this time was no exception. The food and service were good but my medium rare flat iron steak was not as tender as I would have preferred and the winter bock as mediocre. I recommend the Marzen amber as the best beer they have. The best part of a not inexpensive meal was the garlic fries. Yea, that’s right, the fries. I am not even a fry lover but these fries were incredible. We then drove over to the Palms since a guy on our plane said it was a good place to see some celebrities. The Palms has a poker room off to the side of the main casino that was broken into 2 sections. It was about one third full and not all that impressive. Later that night, I went back to Harrah’s poker room. They had 2-3 tables of 1-2NL going so I bought in for $100.00, saw some of the same players from the night before and obtained a seat at their table. One of the guys that had lost his stack to me the night before was giving me plenty of respect and, in fact, I could tell he was avoiding playing pots with me. Sweet. I had him right where I wanted him. He finally got tired of me raising him and played back at me. Guess what? He picked a bad time and I felted him again. He left after that but another donkey took his seat. I had a plan to stop playing anytime I was up more than 2.5 buy ins or I began to feel off my “A” game. I played about 3 hours and cashed out with roughly $400.00 in chips. Wow, do I ever like this room!