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I chronicled the exciting sweat of ChipsAhoya in my previous two blog entries, so now it is time to talk about the actual poker in Vegas. The landscape of online poker was completely different than when I was last in Vegas. Last summer, during the WSOP, Stars and FTP were at the top of the online poker world. A few new emerging names like Jungleman and Urnotindanger were just making their splash at the nosebleed games and we had yet to learn the names Jonathan Duhamel and John Racener. We all still had our safety net of internet poker and our stream of income from the fish all around the world. This year, the vibe was entirely different. I'd estimate that cash games at the Rio increased by 2.5x in volume and the overall feel of the event just seemed different. Gone were the luxuries of retreating to your hotel room after busting an event to grind online. Tons of young kids toting backpacks full of tens of thousands of dollars trying to find a seat in the juiciest game possible. After celebrating with Eric, I was planning to crash at Stingers house (sweet brag) but he was still in a good PLO game with Farha and some others. I called the audible and opted to go get a room at the Aria. I'd read good reviews about their poker room and knew that PLO was a fairly regular spread game there. Their staff and service completely blew me away. I should preface my review of the Aria by saying that each time I go out to Vegas and play cards, it makes it painful to return to the local cardrooms in Ohio and Indiana. More details below. In the course of my 40 hours or so at the Aria, I logged several sessions. I played some NLHE, lots of PLO, and some 11-game rotation with games like Badacey, Razzdugi, 2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi, and more. I played some short-handed, some full-ring, and a little heads up. Usually what stands out to a player is the quality of the games. Here's why the poker room stood out to me: 1. I played a session there early and cashed out. I returned to the poker room later that day and the floor manager tracked me down. "Are you Alex? This is yours." Apparently the cashier had shorted me some money and they took the initiative to not only figure out how much I was shorted, but to also find me and make sure I got what was rightfully mine. Perhaps this is a universal service across all poker rooms, but it certainly left a pleasant aftertaste. 2. Amazing cocktail waitress service. Not only do they serve you good FIJI water, but they are virtually overstaffed. You didn't go 10-15 minutes without having a waitress nearby offering to bring you a drink. You are lucky to get a drink every half hour here in the local casinos. 3. Aria really provides the players with a feel that it's a "player's room". What I mean by this is that the dealers are very friendly and not power-trip Nazis. They let players negotiate running it twice or more, they allow players to facilitate chops, and they give us the freedom to modify the game of our choice. So for instance, we were playing 3 handed PLO and the two guys at my table decided we should play with 2 cards face up. No resistance from the dealer and we 2up/2down PLO for about 40 minutes. There was another big pot at my 5/10 PLO table and 5 people got it all in on the flop. The dealer allowed a player, who was clearly competent, breakdown the pots and sidepots (while observing of course) which sped the process along. Lastly, we were playing some mixed game and then decided to just do 2 flips for $100 a man 5-ways. I can speak with 100% certainty that none of #3 would be allowed in a non-Vegas casino. The local casinos forbid you to play any draw games, forbid you to modify rules (even if all players are in agreement), and forbid you to run it more than once. I'm all about keeping the integrity of the game and having a stern and clear set of rules, but when the table agrees to do something that doesn't give an unfair advantage to anyone else... why not let them gamble or have a little creative fun? Anyways, poker room trip report aside, the games were fun and pretty juicy. I played anywhere from a 1/3-5/10 PL/NL game to a 10/20 Mixed game and never felt like an underdog at my table. It's quite amazing either how much money some people have, or how willingly people are at dumping money when in Vegas. No where else in the world can you win 1k+ off a guy who hands it to you with a smile and compliment. My journey was a short one centered-around sweating Eric but I enjoy the short getaways. I don't know what it is about Vegas but I just never get tired there. I was in Vegas for a period of 45 hours and slept exactly 2. I never felt exhausted and just grinded at the tables when not out meeting CR pros or eating (which I also do irregularly in Vegas). It's a pretty unhealthy and certainly unsustainable lifestyle, which is fairly reasonable given that the strip is quite an unhealthy lifestyle in itself. Now a few life updates: My girlfriend's triplet sister is getting married this weekend. I'm super excited for them and very happy to be asked to go to Orlando with them for the first leg of their honeymoon. We'll be going to Universal Studios for two days and flying down there together. As a surprise, I rented a limousine and will have it meet us in the airport lobby. It'll be fun to see their reactions! This is also the last week for my coworker kidxmicah here at CR. Without going all emo and sappy, I'm pretty bummed he's moving home. I understand his motives for relocating, but we've become pretty close friends and it's definitely sad to see him leave. Luckily we've had a good few nights together with some live poker and a Swamp get together last night at a bar. I got to see Epdog, allreds26, and Micah and I also got to meet crashoutcassius and RodeoBlue for the first time. Keep your heads up guys and thanks for reading! I chronicled the exciting sweat of ChipsAhoya in my previous two blog entries, so now it is time to talk about the actual poker in Vegas.
The landscape of online poker was completely different than when I was last in Vegas. Last summer, during the WSOP, Stars and FTP were at the top of the online poker world. A few new emerging names like Jungleman and Urnotindanger were just making their splash at the nosebleed games and we had yet to learn the names Jonathan Duhamel and John Racener. We all still had our safety net of internet poker and our stream of income from the fish all around the world.This year, the vibe was entirely different. I'd estimate that cash games at the Rio increased by 2.5x in volume and the overall feel of the event just seemed different. Gone were the luxuries of retreating to your hotel room after busting an event to grind online. Tons of young kids toting backpacks full of tens of thousands of dollars scavenging to find a seat in the juiciest game possible.
After celebrating with Eric, I was planning to crash at Stingers house (sweet brag) but he was still in a good PLO game with Farha and some others. I called the audible and opted to go get a room at the Aria. I'd read good reviews about their poker room and knew that PLO was a fairly regular spread game there. Their staff and service completely blew me away.I should preface my review of the Aria by saying that each time I go out to Vegas and play cards, it makes it painful to return to the local cardrooms in Ohio and Indiana. More details below.
In the course of my 40 hours or so at the Aria, I logged several sessions. I played some NLHE, lots of PLO, and some 11-game rotation with games like Badacey, Razzdugi, 2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi, and more. I played some short-handed, some full-ring, and a little heads up.Usually what stands out to a player is the quality of the games. Here's why the poker room stood out to me:
1. I played a session there early and cashed out. I returned to the poker room later that day and the floor manager tracked me down. "Are you Alex? This is yours." Apparently the cashier had shorted me some money and they took the initiative to not only figure out how much I was shorted, but to also find me and make sure I got what was rightfully mine. Perhaps this is a universal service across all poker rooms, but it certainly left a pleasant aftertaste.
2. Amazing cocktail waitress service. Not only do they serve you good FIJI water, but they are virtually overstaffed. You didn't go 10-15 minutes without having a waitress nearby offering to bring you a drink. You are lucky to get a drink every half hour here in the local casinos.
3. Aria really provides the players with a feel that it's a "player's room". What I mean by this is that the dealers are very friendly and not power-trip Nazis. They let players negotiate running it twice or more, they allow players to facilitate chops, and they give us the freedom to modify the game of our choice. So for instance, we were playing 3 handed PLO and the two guys at my table decided we should play with 2 cards face up. No resistance from the dealer and we 2up/2down PLO for about 40 minutes. There was another big pot at my 5/10 PLO table and 5 people got it all in on the flop. The dealer allowed a player, who was clearly competent, breakdown the pots and sidepots (while observing of course) which sped the process along. Lastly, we were playing some mixed game and then decided to just do 2 flips for $100 a man 5-ways.
I can speak with 100% certainty that none of #3 would be allowed in a non-Vegas casino. The local casinos forbid you to play any draw games, forbid you to modify rules (even if all players are in agreement), and forbid you to run it more than once. I'm all about keeping the integrity of the game and having a stern and clear set of rules, but when the table agrees to do something that doesn't give an unfair advantage to anyone else... why not let them gamble or have a little creative fun?
Anyways, poker room trip report aside, the games were fun and pretty juicy. I played anywhere from a 1/3-5/10 PL/NL game to a 10/20 Mixed game and never felt like an underdog at my table. It's quite amazing either how much money some people have, or how willingly people are at dumping money when in Vegas. No where else in the world can you win 1k+ off a guy who hands it to you with a smile and compliment.
My journey was a short one centered-around sweating Eric but I enjoy the short getaways. I don't know what it is about Vegas but I just never get tired there. I was in Vegas for a period of 45 hours and slept exactly 2. I never felt exhausted and just grinded at the tables when not out meeting CR pros or eating (which I also do irregularly in Vegas). It's a pretty unhealthy and certainly unsustainable lifestyle, which is fairly reasonable given that the strip is quite an unhealthy lifestyle in itself.
Now a few life updates:
My girlfriend's triplet sister is getting married this weekend. I'm super excited for them and very happy to be asked to go to Orlando with them for the first leg of their honeymoon. We'll be going to Universal Studios for two days and flying down there together. As a surprise, I rented a limousine and will have it meet us in the airport lobby. It'll be fun to see their reactions!
This is also the last week for my coworker kidxmicah here at CR. Without going all emo and sappy, I'm pretty bummed he's moving home. I understand his motives for relocating, but we've become pretty close friends and it's definitely sad to see him leave. Luckily we've had a good few nights together with some live poker and a Swamp get together last night at a bar. I got to see Epdog, allreds26, and Micah and I also got to meet crashoutcassius and RodeoBlue for the first time.
Keep your heads up guys and thanks for reading!
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