Back from excursion
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:53 pm
I returned Yesterday from a excursion that saw me leave on December 7 for a one nite stopover in AC, followed by a December 8 flight from Philly to Las Vegas, where I spent 7days mostly in Downtown Vegas at the Golden Nugget, flew back to Philly late on December 15 and stayed two more nites in AC before returning home a little while ago.Unbelievable trip that reinforced all my conclusions regarding the state of things both with respect to Video Poker, and the various markets in Nevada and New jersey.I will post about my experience over the next several days, so try and keep questions and issues to a minimum until I finish......I never did make it up to Reno like I had hoped, nor was I able to spend some time in Southern California, where I had hoped to console my friends hard hit by the latest travesty involving gun violence in San Bernardino. Suffice it to say Security was TIGHTER than I ever have seen it all over Vegas and the Airports. This was a huge DRAG for me personally, as I now have to have my wheelchair essentially taken apart before being allowed through security at the airports.My Seven Days in Vegas witnessed some of the best Live Poker action (and results of my career.) I logged a total of 35 hours of CASH GAME PLAY during my time in Vegas, playing mostly at the Golden Nugget poker room (about 27 hours total) but also over at the WSOP headquarters in the RIO, and at the Bellagio (where I saw a multitude of famous Poker Professionals, but never actually sat and played with any of them)I played mostly $2-5 N/L Holdem (with a little $3-6 mixed in although that led to a few tense moments and some scary pots!) and finished way up, about $4,800....I only had one really poor session my second day there (I was still tired) where I lost about 700 bucks in one 2 hour session, but every other session (usually lasting 3-4 hours) I finished up or even, with my best session coming on the morning of my last day there when I won almost 900 bucks! I have some decent poker-related comps to avail myself of when i return to the GN hopefully in March in time for March Madness. Many of the Las vegas Poker rooms have excellent comp benefits for the dedicated poker players so I do not feel the need to play a certain amount of Video Poker just to simply keep my comp levels at a certain status (unlike AC!)I played in 4 tournaments (mostly "Guaranteed Prize Pools" in the 5,000 to 10,000 dollar range which generally happen ALL over town in all the poker rooms especially at night!) 2 tournaments were at the Golden nugget, one was at the Rio and one at the Mirage........I cashed in 2 out of the 4, including a 3rd place finish in a $5k guaranteed at the GN for about $750! I earned 190 bucks finishing 10th at a tourney at the Mirage...the other two that I failed to cash in I still played well and hung in close to the end but never came closer than 3 places from the money. Overall I was really pleased with my Tourney play because in Vegas the Tourney competition is MUCH more stiff and consistent than in AC (except at the Borgata) With my two cashes totaling $940, and my total entry fees/costs equaling $290, I made $650 profit!Now about my Video Poker play (and other things) while in Vegas......I played about 30 hours total of Video poker, mostly (about 75%) in and around the Downtown area where I found enough 99% games (mainly JOB but also Bonus Poker, and several DB and DDB games with paytables that topped at 99%) to satisfy my hankering, but I also ventured forth and played a little bit (like about 100 hands) at virtually every other casino I set foot in during my time in Vegas....kinda like sampling the wares and simply because that is how I treated this trip, as an "excursion" and I wanted to simply get a feel for what the games and machines are like these days in and around Vegas.Let me just say this.......I have NO DOUBT whatsoever in my mind that video poker in Vegas/Nevada is RADICALLY different than in AC/N.J. NO DOUBT AT ALL!I finished slightly up for my trip, about 300 bucks profit on the VP (making this one of my best OVERALL VEGAS TRIPS thanks to my POKER WiNNINGS) , but the fact I finished UP in Video POKER too made me extremely please, especially when you consider I was there long enough (7 days) to really TANK if given the chance!I did not get a ROYAL but had lots and lots of quads mixed in with what I would call (and what I remember from back in the good ol' days) a VERY VERY normal mix of hands and cards. I kept VERY stringent track of my "dud" rate at all the games/machines I played (one reason I kept my hand count to around 100 when I went exploring) and it was a very statistically normal rate of 53.9%!!!!! (supposed to by 55% so I came out really good here!) I had the best 7 days of Video POKER (when taken as a whole) I have had in YEARS! The most I was up was $920 and the lowest I was down was -$290, and I pretty much stayed within that range from start to finish. My total Hand count was about 29,000 (I clocked close to 1000 hands an hour, which is NOT anywhere near my maximum but was still a decent pace....when I want to I can easily do 1200 or more hands an hour.....)Tomorrow I will post the bookend details of my excursion where I spent 1 night in AC on my way TO vegas, and two nights in AC coming home from Vegas....and you will see WHY there is no doubt in my mind about how radically different AC and Vegas really are in terms of Video poker. SUffice it to say that my already curtailed and limited VP play in AC is about to become even MORE limited and curtailed!!!!!