When we last left off in Vegas, I had just taken some huge pots off of Black Bart and some other unlucky card players at the $2-$6 spread table at the Excalibur. Unfortunately, it was bed time, so card playing would have to wait. I needed some sleep.
I know that sounds weird in Vegas. Sleep isn't necessarily a priority when there's gambling to be done. But I had a mission. And the future of the World Poker Bloggers Tour rested in my hands!! Okay... it wasn't so dramatic, but the morning of day 3 in Vegas could mean big things for the poker blogging community.
It started with contact I made with a PR person, Lindsay, who wanted my station in Louisiana to cover the arrival of a new riverboat casino in Lake Charles. It was a good story and we gave them some publicity.
After a few conversations, Lindsay became intrigued by this whole poker blogging thing and thought maybe the Aladdin might be interested in what we're doing. She set up a breakfast with the head of the Aladdin's public relations, Amy, and the poker room manager, Edna.
Sunday morning, I rounded up Bad Blood and G-Rob, we placed a few football bets and headed over to the Aladdin for breakfast. The PokerProf and his father met us there. I think it was extremely productive. Lindsay, Amy and Edna were all extremely pleasant. They seem very interested in helping us with a future event so stay tuned!!!! I'll have more on that at a later date!
Sports Betting is Evil
After breakfast, we headed down to the Mandalay Bay to join Pauly and Derek. When we arrived, we found almost the entire poker blogger group set up near the bar. Imagine, a group led by AlCan'tHang set up by the bar.
I settled in to see how my parlays would go and realized rather quickly that as much as I like sports, I have no idea how to bet it. My parlay including the "under" for the Giants/Ravens game was out the window early on (the Ravens alone scored 38). My other parlay also collapsed.
That's when I threw more money down the drain. One parlay ticket included a few over/unders. When the Chargers/Bucs started their fourth quarter shoot-out, my first parlay died. However, the Chargers did just enough to keep my second parlay alive.
I'd recount the whole Chargers' fight song merriment, but if you've been following any of these blogs, you've already read about it a million times. It was a blast.
Now, all that had to happen for me to win $110 was for my Eagles to beat the 10 point spread against the Redskins on Sunday Night Football. If they won by 10 points, I'd still win $60. I was feeling pretty confident. That's when I decided it was time for more poker, and I was itching to try the Aladdin's new poker room.
Worst. Poker. Players. Ever.
One of the beautiful things about the Aladdin poker room is that the low limits there appeal to beginner players. I sat down at a $2/$4 Hold 'Em game and settled in to watch my Eagles. When I got to the casino, I hit the sports book first and laid an extra couple of bets on the Eagles to win and the Eagles to cover the first half 7 point spread.
The football game was ugly. It was clear early on that the Eagles were planning to do enough to win, but not necessarily to cover. I lost my first half bet and at half time, laid another bet on my Eagles to cover a 6.5 point spread. That didn't happen either and my 4 separate bets on Philly (1st half, 2nd half, game and parlay) all went down the drain. I shouldn't bet on sports.
The good news is that the Aladdin has to feature some of the softest games in Vegas. Time after time, I had chaser after chaser on my premium hands. It did not take long for me to build up a stack. As the bad players passed money back and forth on bad play after bad play, I sat back and waited for the right hands.
It was like Party Poker in real life. You pick the cards and these people will play them. Granted, the pots won't get as big as they do at the Bellagio's $4/$8 game or even the Excalibur's $2-$6 spread game, but the players are so much worse they'll pay you off on your good hands every time.
And if you're looking for bigger pots, just sit down at the Aladdin's No Limit game. It features a unique $40 Min/$100 Max buy-in structure. That means at least some players will sit down at the table with an immediate disadvantage. It's something good players will take advantage of quickly.
Of course, with more bad players, you'll likely see some more bad beats, just like you do online. But the number of times those players won't hit will more than make up for the ones that do. There's a reason they're called fish. They live on the river. If you're a shark, you'll swallow up everything they bring to the table.
As much as I would have liked to have stayed, I had a red eye flight to catch and I had to get back to the Excalibur to check out. On the walk back, I ran into G-Rob and some of Otis' Missouri crew. They were in search of lower limits, and worse players. I told them the Aladdin was the place to go.
So my time in Vegas was drawing to a close. I found as many bloggers in the Excalibur poker room as I could to say goodbye. I felt like it all went by way too fast. I checked out, found a taxi, and it was so long Vegas.
It was one of the best weekends of my life, one I will never forget. And I can't wait for the next one! How's the weekend of Friday June 3-Sunday June 5 sound? It's just a thought... but I'm working on it...