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peterbirksThe problem with Las Vegas is that, if you aren't playing cards, or gambling, or eating/drinking, or going to the cinema, there's no really easy place just to chill out and relax. As a result I am now at the airport ridiculously early, because it's easier to sit and do nothing at the airport than it is in the casino/hotel/city.
I finished the holiday $978 up in terms of poker profit, plus about $160 in rakeback comps for food. If we count the Friday after the Flamingo freeroll as "the end of the week" (which is about as good a time as any) then I was $638 up after the first week, $842 after the second week and $978 by the end of the trip. But that apparently smooth progression masked the reality, whereby I was$1,277 up at one point on the first Sunday, and effectively struggled for the final 12 days. Indeed, I was "saved" by my performance in the freerolls, which contributed $750 in my final two weeks. In cash I either ran bad or I ran unlucky (where "bad" equals being card dead and never hitting decent flops, while "unlucky" means getting the money in good, but being outdrawn). I must have had 40 chances for a straight flush or Royal Flush (big high hand bonuses) and missed the lot. I only hit one set of quads (that was in week one) and I failed to get a single decent double-through (i.e. of more than $100) in the final 12 days. Normally I would expect one every couple of days, maybe even an average of two every three days.
Half way through the holiday there was an interesting period when I had possibly the most inept drug dealers in the world inhabiting the next room. Then again, perhaps most drug dealers are always so wasted and/or drunk that they are all this incompetent. Anyway, here's some tips, putative wholesale merchants.
1) Do NOT shout about the details of your deal at the top of your voice, even behind the closed doors of a hotel room. Especially when there is a connecting room between your room and the room next door (i.e., mine)
2) Do NOT hold a conversation with the counterparty on the hotel phone. But, if you do, definitely don't put them on speakerphone.
I never quite worked out if these guys were from Los Angeles or back east, but they had clearly come to Las Vegas to do a deal on some wholesale quantity of Black Tar Heroin, aka BTH, and possibly a type of BTH or other type of heroin/cocaine unknown to me called R&R.
They were also what is known as "renegotiating" (or, as one of the louder of the three guys called it "re-renegotiating"). Some might calling it "backsliding". Whatever. They clearly had hopes that this would be "the big one" that would leave them on "Easy Street" (I mean, does ANYONE talk like this any more?)
How did it all pan out? I shall never know. At least two of the guys were clearly users, and there were at least three of them, possibly four. Most entertaining, in a "I hope they don't catch me listening because if they do I might get shot" kind of way.
At the poker, it's clear that there's a sequence of freerolls at many casinos that, if you time your playing correctly, can generate an expected income of about $500 a week. On top of the ones that I played (Harrah's, Bally's, the Flamingo) there's MGM, Rio, Caesar's, Binion's and the Linq. Added together that would make about 80 hours' play a week, plus 14 to 20 hours actually playing the tournaments, so clearly there's no shortage except of time. If you hit the lot and cashed about 40% of the time, that would be $500 to $800 a week profit. That assumes breaking even at the actual cash games (a pessimistic assumption) and does not include the other benefits ($80 in rakeback, plus an effective $250 or so from high-level loyalty card memberships).
Unfortunately, whenever a good deal like this appears, Las Vegas tends to halt it sooner rather than later. The plan of each casino is to get players accustomed to playing in one place. They think that poker players are creatures of habit. The effect is somewhat different. Players put in precisely the required number of hours for optimum EV and then head somewhere else.
As for the best winning strategy at actually playing the hands; well, that varies according to the time of day and the type of table. As per usual, maximum profit tends to come with maximum volatility and/or maximum unpleasantness at the table. "An enjoyable game is rarely good and a good game is rarely enjoyable". A complete loudmouth drunk late at night is a nightmare to play with and even more of a nightmare when he puts a bad beat on you, but they are easily the biggest source of profit.
Weak loose-aggressive players are the next most profitable and next-most volatile. Then we have the weak-tight-aggressive fish, whose ranges are so narrow that they might as well play with their cards face-up. Finally we have the weak-tight-passive and (rarer than hens' teeth these days) the weak-loose-passive players.
I have deliberately adopted a policy of buying in for 60 big blinds (the maximum is 150 big blinds) with the original plan of committing myself with top-pair-top-kicker. I've had to adapt that strategy somewhat for the tighter games, not least because the smaller levels of pre-flop raise that have now become the norm (I was a pioneer here I think!) mean that 60bb can easily have play on flop, turn andd river. When everyone else was raising to six times the big blind and getting three or four callers, playing 60bb was almost automatic. These days, you often have to make tough decisions.,
Two years ago the recession was still in full force in LV, as evidenced by the incredible promotions and price discounts at the outlet mall. Last year the strength of the euro brought the French, Belgians, Dutch and Germans in force. They were far less in evidence this year, proving (at least to me) the intense value-sensitivity of mainland European tourists! Actually, there were fewer British players as well. The US economy might not be particularly sensitive to currency volatility, but it must have an impact on Vegas. That said, the domestic economy has picked up to such an extent that this would more than counterbalance a fall-off in foreign trade.
Christmas week sees a massive surge in visitors from Asia, both domestic (ethnic Asians from other parts of the US) and international (from China and the Asian sub-continent). I was playing poker with a guy who "works the strip" in the evening (I asked no more) and he said that in Christmas week the strip at night zoomed from about 10% Asian to about 60% Asian. Without heading too far again into racial stereotyping, most of them are a pain in the arse.
1) There always seem to be at least three generations of them (I mean, if you are in your 30s, aren't you a bit old to be going on holiday with your parents?)
2) They don't gamble; they just wander aorund looking at things
3) They hunt in packs (between five and eight seems the most popular size) , but slowly, thus blocking up the throughways.
Perhaps there are Americans and Europeans who are the same, and I just don't notice them.
Oh well, it's Christmas; they deserve the right to have a good time in their own way.
19 days is about the right length for me for this type of holiday; I'm looking forward to going home. I'm not looking forward to going back to work, (obvs) but it's going to be a challenging year rather than a tedious one. I'm not sure that I will be able to arrabge a three-week break next year, so my love of Vegas grinding may have to be put on hold for a couple of years.
I finished the holiday $978 up in terms of poker profit, plus about $160 in rakeback comps for food. If we count the Friday after the Flamingo freeroll as "the end of the week" (which is about as good a time as any) then I was $638 up after the first week, $842 after the second week and $978 by the end of the trip. But that apparently smooth progression masked the reality, whereby I was$1,277 up at one point on the first Sunday, and effectively struggled for the final 12 days. Indeed, I was "saved" by my performance in the freerolls, which contributed $750 in my final two weeks. In cash I either ran bad or I ran unlucky (where "bad" equals being card dead and never hitting decent flops, while "unlucky" means getting the money in good, but being outdrawn). I must have had 40 chances for a straight flush or Royal Flush (big high hand bonuses) and missed the lot. I only hit one set of quads (that was in week one) and I failed to get a single decent double-through (i.e. of more than $100) in the final 12 days. Normally I would expect one every couple of days, maybe even an average of two every three days.
Half way through the holiday there was an interesting period when I had possibly the most inept drug dealers in the world inhabiting the next room. Then again, perhaps most drug dealers are always so wasted and/or drunk that they are all this incompetent. Anyway, here's some tips, putative wholesale merchants.
1) Do NOT shout about the details of your deal at the top of your voice, even behind the closed doors of a hotel room. Especially when there is a connecting room between your room and the room next door (i.e., mine)
2) Do NOT hold a conversation with the counterparty on the hotel phone. But, if you do, definitely don't put them on speakerphone.
I never quite worked out if these guys were from Los Angeles or back east, but they had clearly come to Las Vegas to do a deal on some wholesale quantity of Black Tar Heroin, aka BTH, and possibly a type of BTH or other type of heroin/cocaine unknown to me called R&R.
They were also what is known as "renegotiating" (or, as one of the louder of the three guys called it "re-renegotiating"). Some might calling it "backsliding". Whatever. They clearly had hopes that this would be "the big one" that would leave them on "Easy Street" (I mean, does ANYONE talk like this any more?)
How did it all pan out? I shall never know. At least two of the guys were clearly users, and there were at least three of them, possibly four. Most entertaining, in a "I hope they don't catch me listening because if they do I might get shot" kind of way.
At the poker, it's clear that there's a sequence of freerolls at many casinos that, if you time your playing correctly, can generate an expected income of about $500 a week. On top of the ones that I played (Harrah's, Bally's, the Flamingo) there's MGM, Rio, Caesar's, Binion's and the Linq. Added together that would make about 80 hours' play a week, plus 14 to 20 hours actually playing the tournaments, so clearly there's no shortage except of time. If you hit the lot and cashed about 40% of the time, that would be $500 to $800 a week profit. That assumes breaking even at the actual cash games (a pessimistic assumption) and does not include the other benefits ($80 in rakeback, plus an effective $250 or so from high-level loyalty card memberships).
Unfortunately, whenever a good deal like this appears, Las Vegas tends to halt it sooner rather than later. The plan of each casino is to get players accustomed to playing in one place. They think that poker players are creatures of habit. The effect is somewhat different. Players put in precisely the required number of hours for optimum EV and then head somewhere else.
As for the best winning strategy at actually playing the hands; well, that varies according to the time of day and the type of table. As per usual, maximum profit tends to come with maximum volatility and/or maximum unpleasantness at the table. "An enjoyable game is rarely good and a good game is rarely enjoyable". A complete loudmouth drunk late at night is a nightmare to play with and even more of a nightmare when he puts a bad beat on you, but they are easily the biggest source of profit.
Weak loose-aggressive players are the next most profitable and next-most volatile. Then we have the weak-tight-aggressive fish, whose ranges are so narrow that they might as well play with their cards face-up. Finally we have the weak-tight-passive and (rarer than hens' teeth these days) the weak-loose-passive players.
I have deliberately adopted a policy of buying in for 60 big blinds (the maximum is 150 big blinds) with the original plan of committing myself with top-pair-top-kicker. I've had to adapt that strategy somewhat for the tighter games, not least because the smaller levels of pre-flop raise that have now become the norm (I was a pioneer here I think!) mean that 60bb can easily have play on flop, turn andd river. When everyone else was raising to six times the big blind and getting three or four callers, playing 60bb was almost automatic. These days, you often have to make tough decisions.,
Two years ago the recession was still in full force in LV, as evidenced by the incredible promotions and price discounts at the outlet mall. Last year the strength of the euro brought the French, Belgians, Dutch and Germans in force. They were far less in evidence this year, proving (at least to me) the intense value-sensitivity of mainland European tourists! Actually, there were fewer British players as well. The US economy might not be particularly sensitive to currency volatility, but it must have an impact on Vegas. That said, the domestic economy has picked up to such an extent that this would more than counterbalance a fall-off in foreign trade.
Christmas week sees a massive surge in visitors from Asia, both domestic (ethnic Asians from other parts of the US) and international (from China and the Asian sub-continent). I was playing poker with a guy who "works the strip" in the evening (I asked no more) and he said that in Christmas week the strip at night zoomed from about 10% Asian to about 60% Asian. Without heading too far again into racial stereotyping, most of them are a pain in the arse.
1) There always seem to be at least three generations of them (I mean, if you are in your 30s, aren't you a bit old to be going on holiday with your parents?)
2) They don't gamble; they just wander aorund looking at things
3) They hunt in packs (between five and eight seems the most popular size) , but slowly, thus blocking up the throughways.
Perhaps there are Americans and Europeans who are the same, and I just don't notice them.
Oh well, it's Christmas; they deserve the right to have a good time in their own way.
19 days is about the right length for me for this type of holiday; I'm looking forward to going home. I'm not looking forward to going back to work, (obvs) but it's going to be a challenging year rather than a tedious one. I'm not sure that I will be able to arrabge a three-week break next year, so my love of Vegas grinding may have to be put on hold for a couple of years.
