Vegas trip report

[Effexor]

Otherwise known as "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly".

The Good.

We stayed at Mandalay Bay, in the original hotel. The room was very nice. It had a 42" HDTV flatscreen, a nice deep bathtub with a little TV in the bathroom. It was a bit odd in that there was a window that had frosted lines through it that looked into the room with the shower and tub. This was fine for my wife and I and I assume that was intended since it was a 1 bed room, but still a bit odd I thought. I could basically watch her take a shower while standing in the little hallway to leave the room.

Other than the room, the hotel had a lot of places to eat. We only got a chance to eat in one, a place called the Red, White and Blue. The menu was supposed to be like a classic diner, and I had a reuben. Not that great to be honest. The corned beef was tough.

If you stay at Mandalay bay, make sure to plan on hitting their pools. They have a wave pool with a sand beach, and lots of other pools.

Pics of room + view:

 

[WVHillbilly]

What no pic of the wife in the shower? I feel cheated.

 

[Effexor]

The Bad:

We arrived Monday night. Tues morning, my wife calls me while I'm in the poker room and tells me she's back in the room with the flu throwing up. Within the next 2 hours I slowly felt worse, and by about noon I just barely made it back to the room before it hit me as well. The next full day was filled with the two of us taking turns puking. I got so dehydrated that I ended up with rather severe muscle cramps in my legs. Tuesday was completely shot. Weds, we both felt slightly better and she was able to get back to her conference for a few important meetings while I still stayed in bed. Finally about dinner time, I was able to order some room service and kept down some chicken and rice. Not long after that I felt good enough to head back to the poker room to try and squeeze in some cards in the 14 hours I had left before our flight left.

 

[Effexor]

And the Ugly:

I blew though my entire live bankroll. I've never been broke before and it was tough on me. Granted I wasn't properly rolled for playing 1/2 NL so it's not a big shock, but it's still a kick to the old ego.

To say I ran bad would be an understatement.

Here are a couple key hands.

Dealt QQ and raise it to 20 and get 1 caller. Get a perfect flop and bet out 40, he calls. Turn is a blank, I bet out 50 and he calls. River is an ace, I check and he checks behind and flips over KK. I reload.

4 college kids sit down at the table at once and within a few orbits I got a solid read on all 4. 3 rocks and a TAG. Very predictable ABC players. I pick up 22 on the button. Rock1 is UTG and raises to 6, rock2 reraises to 15 and I cold call as does the UTG. Flop comes KK7. UTG checks and rock2 throws out a cbet of 10. I put both of them on pairs, with rock2 probably having a big PP, and these guys were absolutely not stations so I figured this was a good place to bet that scary board. I throw out a raise to $30 and UTG insta mucks. Rock2 makes this big sigh and throws away his hand. He looks at me and says "AK? ". I say "did you have aces?" he replies, "JJ". I say " I had 22". Another big sigh and he tells me "nice bet".

The two hands I played very poorly:

I had KcQc on a flop of Q high and payed off a guy that flopped a set to the tune of $100. Frankly he has been playing so overly aggressive that I didn't believe him. He had bet some weak flush draw the same way a while back. I reload another time.

I had AA on the button and raised to 20. SB gambler calls, and 1 limper calls. flop comes Q89. SB checks, limper bets 40, I raise to 80 and both call. uh, oh. Turn is a T and it gets checked around. River is a J and I fold when the limper bets out. I reload yet again. He had the exact hand I had put him on, KQ.

And finally the 2 worst.

UTG limps, I raise to 20 in late position with QQ. Limper calls.
Flop comes Q75 rainbow. Limper checks and I bet out 40, he calls.
Turn is a blank, limper bets out 40, I reraise all in and he calls.
He turns over 55 for bottom set against my top set.

River?

5.

Table goes nuts and my head drops onto the rail. The guy to my right asks me if I'll be ok, and if they should remove all sharp objects from the area. Guy to my left says that he'd probably quit for the day after that one. What made it even worse was that Mandalay Bay has a high hand jackpot so we had to sit there looking at the 1 outer suckout for like 5 minutes while they paid this guy all my money plus nearly $300 for quads. (2 hands later this same guy was dealt AA and flopped quads and got paid another jackpot. yes, he hit quads twice in 3 hands). Someone at the table told me "you can't blame the guy for calling, set over set is near impossible to get away from". My only reply was that I didn't blame the guy for calling, I wanted him to call, but you had to admit that was really unlucky.

I had $350. maniac with like 1400 behind literally raised every hand to 18 and I call in the BB with 44.
Flop comes 3,4,K and he bets out $60, I push and he calls with A2.

Turn is a 5.

I say good hand and leave totally broke.

 

[WVHillbilly]

Those last 2 hands are why I believe the Mandalay Bay Poker Room is rigged.

 

[Effexor]

In conclusion, the poker room at Mandalay bay was very very juicy, but only the 1/2 NL games. Lots of stations and drunks and people that had absolutely no idea how to play. There was always a table going, 24/7. and most of the time there were at least 3 full tables of 1/2nl. The 2/4nl table was full of regs and had no action at all. Basically it played like 0.05/0.10NL online. The best time was late evening, after midnight when people got loaded.

The rake was 10% up to $4 max a hand, and the high hand jackpot was easy to qualify for if you hit. There only had to be $20 of called bets in the pot and it didn't have to go to showdown.

I played for about 12 hours in total and saw 4 jackpots hit. 3 hands that flopped quads and the one hand against me that hit on the river. Maybe 4 quads in 600ish hands of FR is normal, I dunno. Online you don't ever see winning hands that aren't called.

The hotel and casino are very nice, but the limits in the casino were kinda high I thought. If you wanted to play some table games I'd recommend taking a taxi over to casino royal instead. (which is what we did Monday night). The service at casino royal was MUCH better than Mandalay Bay (MB).

The service at MB was poor at best. I was only drinking water and sodas and it would be gone / warm before I saw the waitress again.

No real review about the food. The places there all looked good! There was a HUGE selection of restaurants in the hotel.

Great hotel, very nice room, great poker room except for the drink service, for table games go somewhere cheaper like IP or casino royal.

 

[arahel_jazz]

Never played at Mandalay. I have partied at the HoB and Foundation room. Good food there. Great music.

 

[Wolfpack43ACC]

Just a question why raising to $20 preflop?

 

[Monoxide]

...

What do you mean? $20 is the average raise for a big hand in 1/2 live poker. Any less and you will have the whole table in the hand with you. Even at 20 you will get like 2++ callers lol.

 

[Effexor]

...

What do you mean? $20 is the average raise for a big hand in 1/2 live poker. Any less and you will have the whole table in the hand with you. Even at 20 you will get like 2++ callers lol.

Exactly right.