Vegas is awesome.

By the time we drove into town this afternoon, I had been up for seven hours on five hours of sleep. Man. Last time I was here on a gambling trip, I swore I’d never drive again, but being a full time student gives you a different perspective on things. Like airfare. Airfare’s expensive!

So we checked in at the Tuscany Suites and Casino and were mildly disappointed. A very large room with a kitchen area does not a suite make. But at least the rate was low and nothing seemed too moldy or ratty. And the fact that it’s a small little hotel makes getting stuff from your car to your room pretty damn convenient. Would I recommend this place to anyone? Not if you can stay on the Strip for the same price. But it’ll be more than adequate in a pinch. You could be staying, after all, at the Tropicana. Ugh. I don’t know why they keep that place around.

The first order of business was food. You can’t drink and gamble on an empty stomach. Well, you could, but you and your game would likely suffer. So we tried out this decent Asian fusion restaurant at the Venetian and then headed back to the Tuscany to ditch the car. Of course, once we got back, lethargy set in and I ended up napping for the good part of an hour.

We finally headed out to the Excalibur by limousine around 6:30 and checked out the poker room. They’ve got some weird spread limit, micro-blind games there. For example, in 2-6, there’s only one $2 blind. It’s $2 to call, and bets and raises can be anywhere from $2-$6 at any stage. Four bets max. Several of the group wanted to steel their nerves (they’ve got even less live experience than me!) so we hit the bar for a couple rounds, then headed back.

For the first orbit and a half, I got junk. Played A2s on the button with plenty of limpers, but missed the flop completely. Lots of suited rags that would probably completely fail to give me a winning hand. I think two straights ended up chopping it. Then I got the Hiltons on the blind. There was a limp, a $6 raise, and two calls. I 3-bet and got some callers. Flop was all low cards. Possible low straight. I bet out and got a couple callers. Turn brought another card for the straight. I bet out and got a couple callers. River brought a Jack. I bet out and got one caller. When I showed my queens, the other guy mucked, and I took down a $70 pot. Those sweet, sweet sisters.

Less than two orbits later I got the Hiltons again. I raised from EP, but it got folded all around, netting me $2.

Got KQs in MP but the flop missed me completely and I folded on the flop.

Got the assrapers in EP and raised. Several callers this time, half of whom jumped ship on the raggedy flop. The turn brought no threats and the river gave me a set. Don’t know what the one remaining caller had, but it must have lost since another $70 pot was coming my way.

Got K7s in the CO, but made a mistake on the flop. Flop came AX7 with the ace giving me the nut backdoor flush draw. Checked around to the button who bet $6. Now with a large enough pot, it might be worth calling the bet. This pot was only $6-8 and his bet gave me 2:1 on a hand with not enough outs. At any rate, I did the stupid thing and called, then folded the turn when it gave me no help.

When I got up, I had been playing for 90-100 minutes, and was up over 20BB. JB from the weekly game had already cashed in his chips and was up almost 17BB. We talked about our winnings a bit and then headed over to the bar for another drink. ER came over a few minutes later with an extra 20BB weighing down her purse. EM was up 10BB. Needless to say, we were all pretty psyched. For the last week I had been telling the weekly game that they had nothing to worry about playing against the tourists in Vegas, that they were all better players than most of the players I’ve encountered live and online, but I think they just had to experience it themselves to really know. The only one from our weekly game who lost money was CR, who was down 10-11BB, but he was getting some bad cards and missed flops.

After our drinks we decided to go eat a late dinner at the Raffles Cafe at Mandalay Bay. It’s funny how the walk from Excalibur to Mandalay can be so much more pleasureable when you’ve got four winners in your group. By the way, I recommend the “Prime Directive” at the Raffles. It’s a french dip sandwich with thinly sliced prime rib. Very good stuff. As for the Raffles Cafe itself, it’s decent, I guess, but I’ve been to the actual Raffles hotel in Singapore, and this is nothing like it.

Well, between the drive, the early start, the two meals, and all the drinks, I was wiped out. We all were. So instead of heading back to the poker room, we grabbed a cab back to the Tuscany and met up with a couple more friends in the bar. They had just gotten in from LA, so they wanted to hit the hotel casino for some -EV games.

Watching someone play blackjack is really boring. I decided to wander over to my guilty -EV pleasure roulette and throw $10 away. As it turned out, the little ball stopped on one of my numbers and paid me $70. I played another two spins and decided to cash out my $50. After I came back from the cashier, I saw that bitch of a game hit my numbers three more times. I decided that risking another $20 was worth it and hit another one of my numbers again. $70. Two spins later, another $70. After a couple more spins with nothing hitting, I cashed out my $120. I watched some more of the blackjack game, and then decided to press my luck for a third time. Poof. $20 gone. Goodbye, roulette. What a God-awful game.

But now I’ve doubled my winnings for the day, and I’m determined to log some serious seat time at the poker tables tomorrow. I’m tired as hell. Can barely keep my eyes open to type this. The miscellaneous section of SSHE will have to go unread tonight.

Day 2 is here.