Vegas.....here I come!

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Got here!

Hit town just before 2pm. The drive through Utah and Arizona was humbling. Talk about an amazing view the entire way.

Drove around town for about the first half hour.

First negative EV play....ran over the 60 minutes at the MGM parking garage. Under 60 minutes are free....I got out at 67 minutes. $9 down the fuckin drain.

Now at south point watching the games.

When does the luster of this city wear off? I'm hoping never.
 

Brayden11

EOG Dedicated
Got here!

Hit town just before 2pm. The drive through Utah and Arizona was humbling. Talk about an amazing view the entire way.

Drove around town for about the first half hour.

First negative EV play....ran over the 60 minutes at the MGM parking garage. Under 60 minutes are free....I got out at 67 minutes. $9 down the fuckin drain.

Now at south point watching the games.

When does the luster of this city wear off? I'm hoping never.

A few more stops at South Point should knock the luster off the city. JK...I'm envious of your undertaking and best of luck.
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
A few more stops at South Point should knock the luster off the city. JK...I'm envious of your undertaking and best of luck.
I have a front row seat in front of 2 giant TVs with college basketball on them with a nice running ticker and $1.25 hot dogs within 4 steps from me.

Is this heaven?
 

Brayden11

EOG Dedicated
I like the race book and stop in every trip. Can't beat the hog dog deal and the cocktail waitresses are great if you tip.
 

ChuckyG

EOG Master
First negative EV play....ran over the 60 minutes at the MGM parking garage. Under 60 minutes are free....I got out at 67 minutes. $9 down the fuckin drain.

I've done this b4. A few options:
1) If there is a clerk at checkout, u can ask them to give u allowance if you're a few min over.
2) If u plan ahead, it's pretty ez to get these parking tickets validated. $50 of total bets in sportsbook, or any table gamePlayyy.
 

waco

EOG Dedicated
South Point is my favorite place to stay! Go to WESTGATE and get on their mobile. You will be glad you did!! March Madness is coming and lines will be long. WESTGATE has the best props!!
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Got here!

Hit town just before 2pm. The drive through Utah and Arizona was humbling. Talk about an amazing view the entire way.

Drove around town for about the first half hour.

First negative EV play....ran over the 60 minutes at the MGM parking garage. Under 60 minutes are free....I got out at 67 minutes. $9 down the fuckin drain.

Now at south point watching the games.

When does the luster of this city wear off? I'm hoping never.


Sporty's question: When does the luster of this city wear off?

Answer: Beware the five-game losing streak.
 
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John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Best free place to park on Las Vegas Boulevard: Tropicana Hotel and Casino.

From there, you can check out the hooters at Hooter's.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
From that intersection at Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, you can get a quick look at the prices and pointspreads from three sports book chains: MGM Mirage at MGM Grand, CGT at the Tropicana and William Hill at Hooter's.
 
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Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Little update via Feb 25 monday morning.

Caesars palace poker room is top notch. Very good dealers, plenty of cash action with the ability to get gentleman jack on the rocks while playing. I have a horrible -ev situation yesterday calling off about $200 throughout the day against old white man grinders who never ever bluff or value bet thin. Lesson learned. But $2/hr comps along with 68 tier points during the month of February is nice.

Stay away from the grinders and money will come.

Sportsbook is nice. Great screens and generous with the drink tickets. Normally got 2 based on only a few hundred dollars of action.

Food is pretty much $15+ for just about everywhere including Subway for a footlong. Insane. Luckily the comps card from caesars covers a ton of places so that has helped. If I ever hit diamond status via sports and poker that will open the diamond lounge area for food.

No attempts at any buffets yet. Simply out of my idea of value as I cant eat enough in my old age to profit from it. I love shrimp but crushing $40 of it isnt there.

Other scenes. Venetian poker room is good for people who enjoy tossing $300-$500 around without a care. But $7/ rake per pot is fucking insane. I did get lucky Saturday night. Sat down at the table and 10 minutes later our table won the table promotion in which a table is selected and each player at the table wins $100. Nice bump. Won about $450 playing a few hours getting a nice AA vs A8 vs QQ win late in the session for a $500 pot with a drunk dude and a women who bought in for a $100...lost and left.

Venetian sportsbook is amazing to watch games. No drink tickets so far. I'm sure I would need to 20x my action just to sniff one. That isnt in the cards right now.

Most impressive place has to be the Wynn. Dealers at all table games are top level eye candy. Waitresses are all top notch. Plus the working girls are flooded all over the place. I named dropped "I know john kelly" and they said they have a 10 minute special for that coupon code. I passed.

Westgate poker and sportsbook were solid and will be visited again for sure.

It's a long way to go but here are the results since Wednesday when I came into town.

Sports +550 (get away from the parlays and this improves)

Poker +788 (dont get into situations where putting money into a pot against a rock whether in position or not. Plenty of better spots)

Total $1,338

I'll try to give an update at least once a week or every few days if something exciting happens.

Also....walking outside the venetian/wynn/caesars there are tons of kids opening passing joints. I dont know what good weed should smell like but if it smells bad the better it is then there is some solid stuff out there. I will stay as a second hand pot smoker. I have enough vices already.
 

John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
A fabulous week, Sporty.

Great update.

You're winning while you're learning.

Usually learning in Las Vegas is NOT tuition-free.

One suggestion: I would not drink and gamble in combination.

It's okay if the bet buys the drink but soon the drink buys the bet and then trouble ensues.
 

ejd_5277

EOG Dedicated
Little update via Feb 25 monday morning.

Caesars palace poker room is top notch. Very good dealers, plenty of cash action with the ability to get gentleman jack on the rocks while playing. I have a horrible -ev situation yesterday calling off about $200 throughout the day against old white man grinders who never ever bluff or value bet thin. Lesson learned. But $2/hr comps along with 68 tier points during the month of February is nice.

Stay away from the grinders and money will come.

Sportsbook is nice. Great screens and generous with the drink tickets. Normally got 2 based on only a few hundred dollars of action.

Food is pretty much $15+ for just about everywhere including Subway for a footlong. Insane. Luckily the comps card from caesars covers a ton of places so that has helped. If I ever hit diamond status via sports and poker that will open the diamond lounge area for food.

No attempts at any buffets yet. Simply out of my idea of value as I cant eat enough in my old age to profit from it. I love shrimp but crushing $40 of it isnt there.

Other scenes. Venetian poker room is good for people who enjoy tossing $300-$500 around without a care. But $7/ rake per pot is fucking insane. I did get lucky Saturday night. Sat down at the table and 10 minutes later our table won the table promotion in which a table is selected and each player at the table wins $100. Nice bump. Won about $450 playing a few hours getting a nice AA vs A8 vs QQ win late in the session for a $500 pot with a drunk dude and a women who bought in for a $100...lost and left.

Venetian sportsbook is amazing to watch games. No drink tickets so far. I'm sure I would need to 20x my action just to sniff one. That isnt in the cards right now.

Most impressive place has to be the Wynn. Dealers at all table games are top level eye candy. Waitresses are all top notch. Plus the working girls are flooded all over the place. I named dropped "I know john kelly" and they said they have a 10 minute special for that coupon code. I passed.

Westgate poker and sportsbook were solid and will be visited again for sure.

It's a long way to go but here are the results since Wednesday when I came into town.

Sports +550 (get away from the parlays and this improves)

Poker +788 (dont get into situations where putting money into a pot against a rock whether in position or not. Plenty of better spots)

Total $1,338

I'll try to give an update at least once a week or every few days if something exciting happens.

Also....walking outside the venetian/wynn/caesars there are tons of kids opening passing joints. I dont know what good weed should smell like but if it smells bad the better it is then there is some solid stuff out there. I will stay as a second hand pot smoker. I have enough vices already.

Great report, Sporty!

A quick note on the bolded part: merely making Diamond will NOT get you into the diamond lounges. You need 25,000 tier credits for diamond lounge entry. That's 10,000 tier credits more than the 15,000 required to get the diamond card.

Welcome to Las Vegas in 2019... one big f'ing racket.
 

Heim

EOG Master
Great report, Sporty!

A quick note on the bolded part: merely making Diamond will NOT get you into the diamond lounges. You need 25,000 tier credits for diamond lounge entry. That's 10,000 tier credits more than the 15,000 required to get the diamond card.

Welcome to Las Vegas in 2019... one big f'ing racket.


My former neighbor was Diamond and I've been in that lounge a few times. I didn't know they've made it
more difficult to get a few meatballs or carrot sticks. Cool place to watch a game and the drink service is top
notch. I should have known the gravy train was up for Diamond members when they wouldn't allows us
to park in the back off Flamingo anymore.
 

ChuckyG

EOG Master
Great writeup, Sporty. I'm going to review in detail. A few comments:

1) Drink tickets are actually a great COMP, as (declining) Vegas Comps go. Depends on the shop, but most ticket writers will tell u that $50 action gets a drink ticket (or two). If you compare that value to amount risked, it's actually VERY good compared to other comps like machine-play accumulated pts. Can easily exceed a couple %pts via Drink-tickets. More value if u are an alcohol-drinker, and makes for a nice gift (too).

2) Like EJD says above, Harrah's is always chiseling down on the Diamond card comps. Diamond Lounge (at 15,000 annual pts) was a nice comp. Had a good one at Rio. Now costs extra to enter Diamond Lounge, unless you achieve EXCLUSIVE Diamond status (25,000+ annual pts). I'm sure it varies a little, but I think that's the gist. Diamond card still gets two monthly Vegas show comps, which I like to give as a gift.
 

ChuckyG

EOG Master
Good stuff, Sporty. I like the Wynn, too:

1) Wynn parking. One hour is comped. Might need ticket validated (in sportsbook or poker), if exceeding one-hour stay.

2) Wynn sportsbook seemingly has some of the unique lines. Not sure why, but can find extra 1/2-pts there if u look.

3) Nice poker room if u park in Wynn + walk around to the Encore end. Not sure on parking in the Encore end.

Also, the walk-thru in Wynn is fabulous. Can view the Popeye art, etc.
 

Jb777

EOG Dedicated
Got here!

Hit town just before 2pm. The drive through Utah and Arizona was humbling. Talk about an amazing view the entire way.

Drove around town for about the first half hour.

First negative EV play....ran over the 60 minutes at the MGM parking garage. Under 60 minutes are free....I got out at 67 minutes. $9 down the fuckin drain.

Now at south point watching the games.

When does the luster of this city wear off? I'm hoping never.

As soon as you meet Fishhead
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Wow so once you think you achieved diamond status they simply move the carrot a little bit farther. So 25,000 tier points implies 735 hours of poker playing which is 92 days of 8 hour shifts. Boy oh boy. Not sure if sports betting gets any tier points.

Ok so what type of food is in this diamond lounge situation? Also which property has the best food inside these lounges?

Last night I figured out the rake on these daily tournaments.....holy fkn lube job. The nightly $150 takes out $41 of that entry for the house. Jesus christ. And a few local grinders said that's standard around town for the tourney rake.

Had an exciting night last night. Lost a $1150 pot when 68o beat my QQ when a guy went nuts on a 652hh flop. Money went all in in the flop. Then at 4am driving to my air bnb I got pulled over by the cops for driving "erratic". Got asked a ton of questions, searched my vehicle, padded me down and such. I was on the good side of judgement as I didnt feel like having a drink tonight. But being up for 22 straight hours didnt help my look as the officers asked about my eyes about 50 times. They told me they were bringing in a drug dog as I sat on the curb and asked if the dog was going to smell anything. I said I had some summer sausage in the front seat. They didnt enjoy my attempt at humor.

I found it interesting how leading their questions were. He asked me if I had anything to drink yesterday just to use that as a reason to either make me take a breathe test or do the drunk gymnastics. Boy that was an interesting experience.

The whole event took about 45 minutes. Long day.
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Still made $50 in the poker game. The action was more like a 2/5 game last night.

Also thought I lost my sports bet tickets when the officer was searching me. I didnt have them in my pockets when i checked last night. Run good is real as i found them in my driver's seat this morning.
 

unluckysob

EOG Dedicated
Sports---You still running out of state plates. That may be reason they stopped you. Some states require front and rear. Union plumber buddy of mine from Georgia drove out to work, he is not much of a gambler. Staying at a motel on Boulder highway. Cops knocked on his door, told him not to back in. They have to be able to read tag when riding through parking lot.
 

ChuckyG

EOG Master
Sports, Harrah's has made changes in the past few years. Per usual, casino mgmt doesn't like to give anything away too easily. They have slowly made the Diamond comps stickier to get.

I used to eat at the Rio Diamond Lounge. It was nice. Good entrees, good desserts, free drinks...just tip the waiter.
 

ChuckyG

EOG Master
You are 100% right about Poker tournaments in Vegas. The rake is WAY too heavy.

When u calculate how much $$ is being held out, it's often 30%. So, 70 pays out for every 100 going in. Effectively means you have to be 50% better than field to generate any profit.
 

ChuckyG

EOG Master
One other poker tournament trick is the Add-on. If base buy-in is $65 for 10k chips...the Add-on may be $5 for 5k additional chips.

Of course, you have to get the Add-on. But that's more $$ that's not going into the payout pool.

My view on Tournament poker in Vegas is that it's fun. But very hard to view it as a REvenue stream. WSOP events may be a little better, w/ lower hold%.
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
Sports---You still running out of state plates. That may be reason they stopped you. Some states require front and rear. Union plumber buddy of mine from Georgia drove out to work, he is not much of a gambler. Staying at a motel on Boulder highway. Cops knocked on his door, told him not to back in. They have to be able to read tag when riding through parking lot.

Yes this did cross my mind but I have front and back plates as that's the way they require it in Wisconsin. I'm not sure how long I can run with WI plates in Nevada (I would believe until my tags need to be renewed. Hell everyday I'm just here as a visitor.)
 

Sportsrmylife

EOG Master
March 2 update. Early morning.

Found a nice sportsbook triangle. Venetian, caesars palace and treasure island. Have found an extra half point on games at treasure island a few times.

Like the venetian for the added board. Those other two dont have them.

Poker is alive and well. Was at a table on Friday at caesars where a older gentleman went through 1500 in under an hour at 1/2 nl. He called off 400 pre with A2o. I got a little taste of that 1500.

I hit the sante fe casino buffet Friday night. Under $20 with the card. I'd give it a C- at best. It definitely pay an extra $10 for a better selection and quality.

The sante fe sportsbook was a nice surprise. Good selection of betting options. Your own TVs for games. What I love is they announce the line changes over the speakers. That sounds old school to me.

I'm going to start getting the mobile app loaded at all these different sports books as betting in person during March madness might be almost impossible with the lines.

Finding chipotle that takes reward points has been a godsend instead of paying cash.

Went to aria to play poker earlier this week and had a double lounge burger at an organic joint just outside the poker room. Absolutely the best burger I've ever had. Worth $14 ... every fkn penny!!

I'll have a recap on wednesday to show what the first 14 days have been for me. As of right now....poker very good....sports so so.
 

MrTop

EOG Master
I like the triangle offense you have there with the 3 sportsbooks. Agree with signing up with the apps & maybe along with minimum 1 offshore to get in at post time if shutout at the apps. Eating out for meals is a must for sports & poker bettors. I like these updates sporty
 

railbird

EOG Master
The last yr of binions existence they posted numbers in the morning and would never move them
 
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John Kelly

Born Gambler
Staff member
Enjoyed Sporty's description of a sports book triangle.

Back in the day, you could walk less than a half-mile and visit 10 sports books to see different numbers on the same game consistently.
 

Sol Diablo

House of Heat
My one and only stay at the old Desert Inn. August 2000.

Wife and I got a room for $49. When I asked for as specific room type at check-in, the nice lady told me she didn't have what we were looking for.

She said fuck it. We are only open for two more weeks. She gave us a suite that opened up to the back of the property. For the $49 rate.

Casino was a morgue. Last black jack table I cashed out on I kept a $5 chip and put it in my pocket. Still have it today.
 
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