Las Vegas Road Trip Report

By Russell 'Rusty' Springate - February 2005

22nd February

I was getting very excited as this was my first trip to Vegas and despite having a raging cold I could not wait to get there and hit the poker tables.

After a 20 hour flight via Dallas on a very dodgy looking plane we finally arrived at the Orleans Hotel and Casino, which is situated just off the main strip. The hotel was really nice with a nice size poker room offering lots of limits and games.

I had a quick shower then headed down with my buddy John to the Poker room and played $4 - $8 Holdem for a few hours. Lots of fun and ended the session up about $33.

John and I then decided to play some table games and both left a little down after a couple of hours Blackjack and Roulette. Now it was time to hit the hay and sleep off my cold.

Pic 1: Outside the Orleans Hotel and Casino

23rd February

I woke up still feeling the effects of the flight and the cold I had. Thought we would try the getting drunk cure to fix myself.

John and I hit the blackjack tables and took full advantage of the free drinks after several hours we qualified for a free meal so headed of to a Mexican restaurant and stuffed ourselves silly and drank some more free beer. The food was really good and the portions in America were massive.

After a quick nap we found ourselves down in the poker room playing $4 - $8 Holdem again.

Pic 2: Our Comp - A Mexican Feast

24th February

After two days we finally left the hotel and ventured down to the main strip. We walked for a little while and a Rusty wonder tour landed us up stuck in the middle of the freeway. Played frogger across the road and had a look around a few hotels, then a bargain buffet lunch in the Luxor.

Ended up at the Excalibur playing (you guessed it) poker for the rest of the day and much of the night. Excalibur has a bigger card room now according to John and it was a really friendly place to play with excellent dealers.

Pic 3: Outside the Excalibur

I managed to lose a little today after flopping a set of Queens and getting outdrawn on the river by a filthy 10 7 flush draw. Although John did well though and managed to triple up his stack of chips.

Pic 4: John triples his stack

25th February

I slept a lot today as I think it finally caught up on us. Upon waking went to play some more $4 - $8 Holdem with this crazy dude on the table who was cracking jokes and would not stop talking. His girlfriend finally turned up and she was getting well pissed off because he just did not want to leave.

Some more junk food and then off to bed to rest up for a tournament tomorrow.

26th February

Headed downtown for the first time to play the No Limit Holdem $70 plus one $40 rebuy/add on tournament. Before the tournament started I decided to kill some time by playing a video poker machine. I placed $10 in and after a couple of presses 3 Aces came up and after a hold the forth Ace dropped in and I won a jackpot of around 800 quarters ($200).

In the tournament there was a massive field of 198 players but I managed to get past the first break and down to the last few tables. By this time I was getting pretty low stacked and looked down to find pocket queens. There is one little raise in front of me and one caller so I stuck it all in and look very surprised when both of them call me. The board came 7 3 7 2 and a 9 on the river. First guy flips over pocket 9's and I'm out the tournament. By the way the other guy had K Q off!! Umm good call you muppet!

Pic 5: Binions Horseshoe Casino

After the tournament I went to play some $2 - $4 Holdem. After playing for a while John persuaded me to join his $2 - $4 table and have a few drinks. What a good decision it was as there was lots of drunken people including some young guy who is a Soccer Pro. And it was probably the funniest game I've ever played in. There was playing blind, raising and re-raising people out of pots, abusing people, and spilling drinks. After 5 hours at this table I was laughing and cashed out $200 in profit. However we lost another $5 to this big guy who was hassling us for money.

We then got a taxi back to our hotel and had a few more drinks and then I sat down and played a 5 hour blackjack session and ended up another $300 up. What a day!! A very good one for me all in all.

Pic 6: Day Dream Believer

And so began the long journey back to sunny Slough. I had a really great time and I can't wait for the next time!