Trip Report
Vegas was great. I had a really great time, totally stress free, totally relaxed and really did it right, vegas style. Its always a little awkward meeting 6 or 7 guys you are going to live with for the next 15 days, but I think we meshed well. Days were filled with the following 5 activities: Eating, sleeping, Halo, Grinding (live and online), Basketball.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdelcast...11259885003170
One night we went to a 2+2 dinner get together. I guess it was cool having dinner with Dan Harrington and David Skalansky, well, not David Skalansky, but other big names of poker. FTR, Skalansky showed up with a very attractive 20 something african american female. Very interesting spots that guy must get into. Anyhow, after the bad buffet, we all played in the newly remodeled Golden Nugget poker room (very very nice IMO). Its funny, the staff was so outrageously service oriented there, and did such a nice job accomidating us, I felt it necessary to let the floor manager know. It was cool. Here are some pics of that get-together (my camera sucked).
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdelcast...11270633190226
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdelcast...11279785149698
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Everyone decided to leave late and go to a movie, but I was in the mood to play after. I went to the 2nd poker room where the bigger games were going and asked if they had a 2/5. They said no, but Montel Williams wanted to get a 5/10 going. I said fuggit, put me on the interest list. They sent me back to the big room and had me sit at a "private table" waiting for players. The only one who showed up was Montel. So I got to go HU for about 20 min. That was really cool. I had a great time. He's really a smart and good guy to just be around. He is tatted on both arms making him look very thuggish but then he speaks and its a stark contrast. Pretty cool. Anyhow, I asked a drunk Australian to take a pic and here is the result:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdelcast...11359519542882
The Rio was a madhouse. The games actually kind of sucked I thought. Here is a picture of me and Matt just starting a session.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdelcast...11397814926866
I took a break from a cash game and went to this Restaraunt with Rob and some other folks during a dinner break from ME. Rob was something like 10 or 12 in chips at this point so spirits were high.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdelcast...11371768604898
Overall, as I said, I had a really good time. I was up big to start the trip then down 2 BI and I really got very bored of playing live. I started grinding online and did okay for the trip + 7 BI. I wound up pulling an all nighter at the Bellagio on my last day and ended +2BI. The Bellagio has good game selection but is probably the poorest run poker room in vegas. Its crowded, dirty (take a look under a table sometime) the staff are the rudest people in vegas. In a town built on service, it would behoov the bellagio staff to re-evaluate their service quality and make some changes.
Food: 3 notable places I ate.
1st) Memphis BBQ. 5 minutes from the house and outstanding BBQ food and price. I had lunch here with Matt, his girl Jordan and Ed, the ultimate leveler in any topic of discussion. I thought the price was great and food awesome.
2nd) Fiamma Tratoria: This was the italian restaraunt that Greg (mynameizgreg), Mike (Gordo), Jay (Seabeast), Annette (Mrs. Seabeast) Matt and I went to. We got the chef's choice family style meal and it was fantastic. The service was good, ambiance good and food great. At around $85 per person, this was actually a good deal.
3rd) Craft Steak: Bobbo, Me, Devin Lake, Kirk, Dub, Clayton, Mike, Owen. Family style $185 per person. Best steak I've ever had. It was so good and rich, I don't want to eat red meat for about a month.
So my opinion of Vegas hasn't changed. AEJones, whom I played ball with and must say is a pretty damn good, said it best: "Vegas is a wretched place. Despite it being a little more friendly than I thought it would be, I felt like LV was just a zero sum city where everyone was trying to feed off of other people’s failures, or something like that. The whole idea of people doing anything for a buck really turns me off. "
There is an emptiness here that the Vegas inhabitants seem to spend their lives trying to fill. Their efforts to fill this void manifests itself in many ways. A very good example of this is as follows: When I went to the bank, I noticed that the cashier was a very beautiful women of about 20 years old. I could only see her profile at the moment and when I stepped to the counter, she turned to me and i saw that she had her eyebrow pierced twice, completely detracting from her beauty. When she reached out to take my money, I noticed that her wrist had a tattoo of a star on it. Not in bad taste, but again, a totally unneccessary addition. I think vegas has more piercings and tattoos per capita than any other city in the world. If the Vegas facade was ever ripped open, you would find nothing behind it but a bottomless pitt of money going nowhere but to a select few pushing the buttons, a "zero sum city."
On a lighter note, I did get to see the NBA summer league and was very impressed with OJ Mayo and Thaddeus Young. These guys have a bright future in the NBA.
It was fun to hang out with Matt too and meet his girl. I think Matt and I get along pretty well and it was good to see him really crush the games live and online.
I already cant wait for next year and hopefully I can get a place with Matt and Tim and whoever else (Robbin? TCBlade? Newt? Vitas?). I hope to be a better, fully rolled player by then so I can play some higher stakes and keep my interest peaked. I also hope my girl can go next time. I think I met the whole crew of leggo and I was really impressed by how professional, smart, fun and interesting these guys are.
Here is a link to the entire web album of pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jdelcastilho/VegasWSOPTrip
This is a Better Place for Vegas Trip Report
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