WelcomeWelcome to a collection of Vegas adventures. We cover it all, from dancing the night away at Pure to hitting a royal flush. Whether your style is wining and dining at exclusive N9NE or hitting the buffet at Circus Circus, you can read it all about it here. All stories are submitted by our readers, and we're always looking for more.
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Featured Story
 The Consumer Electronic Show in Vegas was the place to be this past week. It truly is a geek Nirvana, displaying the latest and greatest of everything tech, all readily available to play with. Getting to go year-after-year is a huge brag – if you ever have the opportunity, and have any interest in this kind of stuff, don’t miss it.
Day one:
I flew down from Seattle on Tuesday evening. Checked in at Bally’s, and made it over to Planet Hollywood just in time for their 7 p.m. bounty tournament. $80 buy-in, with a $25 bounty for each player you knock out. They were boasting about awarding 87% of the prize pool, which they say is the highest percentage of any low buy-in tourney on the strip. 41 players started with 7500 chips, 20 minute rounds.
An hour and half later, I’ve got a pretty good stack, having slowly but surely chipped up. I’ve taken advantage of some weak play from beginners who limp too often, but I haven’t earned any bounties. Blinds have climbed to a point where people are open shoving frequently. I wake up with pocket Queens, bust a short stack, and collect my first bounty. My second one comes a few minutes later, and I’m well above average chip stack and feeling good. Another few levels, and two more bounties later, we consolidate to a final table. Top six pay. Somebody proposes the bubble get his entry fee back. No objections from the table.
Blinds keep climbing. This one will be over soon. We get down to seven (who is appreciative of the deal), then six, and we are in ITM. A few hands later I’m UTG +1, and am dealt J-10 suited. My M is 7 or so. I bet half my stack. (Should have either shoved or folded, right?) The table big stack calls. Flop comes 10-high rainbow, and I shove. Big stack insta-calls with Queen Jack, and I’m done, cashing for $118, plus $100 in bounties. Good start!
It’s 10:30 or so, and I’m starving. I grab a bite at Earl of Sandwich. Cheap and surprisingly good.
From there I go over to City Center, which just opened a few weeks ago. I’ve been passing by the construction site for many a trip, and am very curious what they’ve done with it.
It is very impressive. The whole complex starts with an uber high-end shopping mall (Tiffany jewelers, $3500 suits, etc.). Emerging from there, you see the multiple towers that make up the numerous different towers/hotels. The casino, Aria, has a dazzling front entrance, with an enormous wall of water and light display. It is all very impressive, but seems out-of-touch with times. I’m sure it seemed like a brilliant idea circa 2007 when Vegas real estate was still sky-high.
The Aria poker room is suitably luxurious. At 11:30 on a Tuesday night, they had 1/3, 2/5, and 5/10 NL, but no 4/8 limit game. I kept moving.
Back at Bally’s, the list for my 3/6 limit game was three-deep, and not moving. But we are starting a brand new 1/3 NL game! Have a seat.
I buy-in short for $100. Draw for button. I am big blind. The second hand of the brand new table, there are multiple limpers, and I call another $1 out of the small blind with 5/4 off. Flop Q/5/4 rainbow. I lead out for $12, and am called in two places. I’m a little surprised, but not worried. Turn is 5. Bingo. I lead out for $40. Player in early position pauses, then calls. I make no real effort to put him on a hand. River is a blank. I bet another $40, which leaves with me $7 left. Villain raises me for it. I call and in the same motion, reveal my monster full house. Villain turns over … Q/5. I lasted less than three minutes in the game. Time for bed, obv.
Day 2:
A long day of conferences. The CES show is not open yet, so nothing too exciting to report. I was able to walk around the halls and watch the set up, consisting of tens of thousands of Teamsters, administrative assistants and trade show personnel all working very, very hard.
In the evening I head over to the Venetian. Poker room is top-notch, one of the best in the city. I sit at at 4/8 game, and my cold streak continues. Kings cracked twice, and I’m down about $160 in less than two hours.
Alright. Fuck this. Time to start visiting places I know run well. Like the Wynn buffet. I run very well there, enjoying a multiple serving of tiramisu. You know where else I run well? Skeezy strip joints off the strip. There I meet a lovely working mom whose lap-dancing skills far surpass those of her younger collegan-ated colleagues. She restores my good mood, and leaves my enough money to play a little poker before bed.
You know what happens to players who can’t beat the 1/2NL game? They end up playing 50 cents/$1 NL at Bill’s, conveniently located across from my hotel. This was a fun game, because I got to play poker with Borat. He didn’t have the mustache, but the suit and level of comprehension were right on.
Typical hand:
Hero: Fold
Mouth breather #1: Bet $2.
Mouth breather #2: Raise to $4.
Borat: “I cheeek”
Dealer: “It’s $4 to you, sir.”
Borat: “But I heave noothing.”
Pause.
Dealer: “It’s still $4 to call, sir”
Borat: (Kazakhstian epithets)
Various variations of this followed for the next 45 minutes. I left up $30 or so.
Day 3:
The door of CES open!
It’s impossible to see everything, but highlights included..
All of the major manufacturers (Sony, Samsung, JVC, etc.) were showing off new large-screen 3D TVs. Many were HD, and/or showing off Blu-Ray DVDs as well. But they all required the glasses, which oddly retro. It’s a weird experience to have a cutting edge, ultra-thin 60 inch super Hi-Def TV – and need to wear glasses that seem out of 50s sci-fi movie to watch it. The picture/3D was phenomenal, but I’m not sure I want to wear those silly glasses for day-to-day viewing.
The coolest next-gen stuff was a series of different applications billed as “augmented reality.” Hold up a standard piece of paper (like the recent Esquire magazine cover) to a web cam, and it launches hidden content. Also in this category was the Parrot Drone. It combines a physical remote control object you fly around and a video game that is happening on a screen in front of you. Awesome.
 Sharp had the world’s most advanced solar car, which has traveled thousands of miles powered only by the solar panels that cover its ultra-light weight body. The computer manufactures all showed off tablet PCs, ahead of Apple’s big announcement.
The car audio manufacturers showed off Lamborghinis and Ferraris, tricked out with more entertainment equipment than most people have in their living rooms. High end Sony noise-cancelling headphones silenced even the roaring guitars from the Monster cable booth. I played with a Droid phone and the new and improved Zune, neither of which are as good as the Iphone.
Thursday night I ate at the Bellagio, then played 3/6 at Ballys. My luck didn’t change, and despite the game being pretty loose/juicy, I was hemorrhaging cash. A rack disappeared, plus a good chunk of another one. Ugh.
Tossing up my hands, I quit to check out Jet at the Mirage. It wasn’t bad, with a solid DJ and pretty good crowd, but I may finally have to admit that I’m just too old for the mega nightclub scene. Or maybe I just need more sleep beforehand. Either way, I didn’t stay all that long.
I’d like to report that I went back and grinded my way back to profitability at the tables. Instead, I went back to the strip club to let another dancer grind her way to profitability.
Today was another full day of conferences. But I was still able to wander the floor, and check out the weirder gizmos. I smoked an “e-cigarette” (Nasty, but I’m not a smoker). There were some really fun Iphone applications, including one that could start your car remotely and another that transforms your Iphone into a universal remote for your TV, stereo, etc. I tried on device you wear on your chest that pulsates in time with the action when you play a video game or watch a movie.
Other goodies: A $10,000 celestial camera with a three foot lenses that can photograph Mars. A headset with pulsating lights designed to replicate meditation. And a game that connects a computer keyboard to a nerf missle launcher. Press the space bar, and that sucker goes 25 ft. Iguana robots. An alarm clock guaranteed to wake the soundest sleeper (that sucker was loud). An old-school boom box that plays your Ipod.
Signing off from McCarren, where they have free wi-fi, but my flight home is delayed.
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