CardSharp

I got back from Las Vegas a couple of days ago. This trip was very similar to the last one – I stayed at the MGM and played primarily mid-stakes games. I really have very little to report because all the observations from last trip stayed unchanged. The 20-40 stud at the Bellagio is still the softest midstakes games in town but is fragile – it doesn’t seem to run through the whole day. It really surprises me that most of the time when it was running I didn’t see any competent players or indeed any regulars whatsoever. That’s pretty extraordinary for a game with stakes you could live on.

I did get a chance to stop by a couple of rooms I didn’t visit last August – the Wynn and Venetian. The Wynn room was very nice. The available games weren’t too bad for mid-day either – they has 10-20 Omaha 8 going which no one else had, and limit holdem up to 15-30 as well as the usual NL. Compared to Bellagio the room was very well run and comfortable with an electronic board and good floor staff. Sadly, the Venitian was miserable – they had a couple of games of 1-2 going and nothing else. What they did have was long, presumably dead lists for a number of other games indicating they failed to call those games when they should have. I think bad managment is killing a room that has otherwise excellent facilities.

Beyond that, there’s not much to report. I played a few hands with some famous players and authors, but nothing interesting happened. It was a good trip and I’ll be headed back soon.