Dolfan's Vegas Trip Report
Wednesday
Left work at about 4pm to get to Denver in time for our flight. Check in was WAY faster than we expected and we had a bunch of time to kill, so obviously we found a bar. I'm only bringing this up because something worth mentioning actually did happen.
Dave and I were talking and there was a couple behind us. We were all sitting at high tables with hardwood chairs. The fact that I'm mentioning what the chairs were made of should clue you into where this is going. So I'm in mid-sentence and I hear this high-pitched, squealy noise from behind me which is easily recognizable as a fart. Being immature, I cannot continue my story and immediately start laughing. Dave starts cracking up, too. Here's the weird part: the couple continued their conversation like nothing happened. And later my buddy (who was facing the guy) said the dude lifted his leg and everything, obviously not trying to hide it.
Ok, fast forward through the flight as it was boring. We get into Vegas at about 10pm and need to rent a car so Dave can drive himself around to his interviews. Not fun. My advice: don't be stupid like us and always make a reservation.
We notice several long lines and decide that we're going to try Sav-More. There was a reason nobody was in that line. So Dave (who is 25) tries to rent the car and his credit card is declined. Three times. They don't accept cash or check so I have to rent the car (I'm 24). When all the liability fees and various and sundry other charges related to my age are added up, we pay $140 for the car for two days. If Dave hadn't had his card declined it would've been about $50. Oh yeah, and the entire process of actually renting the car took an hour. Balls. Not a good start to the trip.
So we drive to Mike's house. I had called Mike's wife earlier in the week to let her in on the surprise and tell her to try and keep Mike awake long enough for us to get there without having to wake him up. We show up and I ring the doorbell and after a while I hear Mike's voice from inside go, "Holy sh
it, it's Brett!" and his wife is just laughing.
So after about 45 minutes of BS'ing and hearing him say, "Dude I was just talking to you on IM today, I can't believe you're here," everyone goes to bed.
Thursday
Here comes the boring poker talk. For anyone not interested, skip to Friday. I slept in and had Dave come pick me up after his first interview. Given the surprise factor, Mike couldn't get work off. So Dave picks me up and drops me at the Excalibur before his next interview.
I head to the poker room and immediately sit in the $1-$3 NL game. Things are business as usual for the first few hours and I steadily build my stack (bought in for max of $200) to over $400. For a while it was as easy as this for me:
Wait for position, raise before the flop. Bet the flop. Scoop the pot. One hand on the button I decided to experiment and I raised two limpers to $12. Flop came, checked to me, I bet $25. They fold. Notice how I'm not mentioning any cards here? I had no clue what they were. After they both mucked, I decided to have some fun and flipped up my cards (Q-5 off) and said, "Wow those were better than I thought the would be."
After a while, some better players started circulating in and it wasn't as simple as raise, bet, scoop. Kept my stack around $400 when this happened:
Dude UTG raises to $13, I'm next with QQ. I reraise to $30. It folds around to him and he immediately pushes for his last $140 or so. Woops. I'm not sure what to do so I look at him and say, "I've got a good hand but I think you're ahead of me. I would push with kings, too, to get me off a big ace."
He gives me a half smirk and says nothing. Won't look at me. Starts tapping his finger like crazy. Then I think AA is a strong possibility, too. Finally I decide to fold and I tell him to take my $30 and muck my hand face up. Everyone at the table is like, "Wow, I couldn't have laid that down, that would've been tough." He was nice enough to flip over AA and I was pumped. I'll lose $30 any time I can make a good read for a change.
So crisis averted. Yeah, not so fast. Next hand I get 7-7 UTG and raise to $10. Guy in late position makes it $25. Fold around to me and a devil pops up on my shoulder and says, "Hey why not overplay this hand and try to get lucky on the flop and take his stack? That's what I would do."
I call.
Flop comes down Q-7-4. The national anthem starts going off in my head and I decide to bet, since I'm hoping he has any big pair aside from queens. I bet $30, he raises about half of his remaining $140 or so, and without even thinking about the possibility of QQ, I push. He calls. He has QQ. Just like that I'm back down to my buy-in.
I decided that playing at this table any longer will not benefit my stack so I get up and call for a ride. Nobody can get me for another hour so I play some $2/$4 limit. I proceed to steam away about $50 right away and then scratch and crawl my way back up to even by the time somebody comes to pick me up.
That's the only poker I played on the trip. I wanted to play more, but when you're hanging with a bunch of people who A) drink a lot and

don't play poker, it's tough.
So that night we head to Buffalo Wild Wings for wings and beer. A novel concept, I know. We drink some beers and eat about 5 different flavors of wings, including their hottest which they force some poor shmuck to serve to you in a fireman's coat and hat with a siren. Wings were good, beer was great, conversation was better. I showed off my tat and got some "holy sh
it that is awesome" responses out of Mike and his wife.
We go home, and Mike and I decide it's a good time to drink some vodka. We get out his guitar and I show him how to play a few songs he likes and we drink vodka tonics until 3 am. Good times.
Friday
We slept in and Mike had some birthday/Christmas shopping to do, so I tagged along. We grabbed some breakfast first at the Sante Fe Station casino and I had the largest Chicken Fried Steak I've ever seen. Bigger than my head.
After a few hours of running around town buying gifts (great way to spend a trip in Vegas, huh?) we realize we have nothing to do. Dave was interviewing until about 5 so we did what we do best. We went to a bar. By the way, this is my favorite bar I've ever been to. It's called The Roadrunner (there are a few in Vegas) and I love it because it reminds me of home. It's a western style bar and is even the official Denver Broncos bar in Vegas. I don't like the Broncos, but I'm used to being around those idiots so it's cool. We had a few drinks there and before we knew it, Dave was done interviewing and it was time to get ready for the evening's festivities.
We grabbed dinner at some place I forgot the name of and then headed to the Hofbrauhaus (pronounce Hoff Brow House) near the strip. If I'm not there in February all I can do is strongly recommend that you guys go to this place. It's a replica (1/3 the size) of a famous beer hall in Munich. It's basically set up like a high school cafeteria, with long tables and benches. You can get traditional German style food and they have a live polka band playing. The best part, obviously, is the beer. You can either get a pint (for pansies) or a liter (for me). You also have your choice of three, count 'em, three styles. Light, Dark, or Premium. I drank 3 liters of Premium by the end of the night.
So we're all hanging out with a bunch of people and having a good time and we noticed that the dude on the accordian in the band (name was Rudy) looked very sinister and evil, like he might chop our heads off at some point in the evening. That was the ongoing joke..."Dude don't fu
ck with me or I'll have Rudy murder you in your sleep."
Next thing we know, Rudy is singing "What A Wonderful World" by Loius Armstrong. And he sounds like an evil German guy trying to sing it. We were loving every second of it and started the obligatory, drunken "Rudy! Rudy!" chant after the song. I think by the end of the night, Rudy was more afraid of us than we were of him.
We headed to a place called Timber's back near homebase and played some pool. I bought shots of, you guessed it, Jack Daniels to celebrate the fact that Dave had been offered a job on the spot earlier in the day. We played some hooooorrble drunken pool and then hit up some late night Taco Bell and went to bed.
Saturday
Nothing at all happened worth mentioning until about 5:30pm. We were all a bit unhappy with alcohol early in the day so we slept in and laid around all day. Watched 40 Year Old Virgin. It was definitely funny.
Mike and his wife had a Christmas party to go to, so Dave and I had them drop us off at The Roadrunner (again) so Dave could watch the Broncos game. Watching a game there is surreal, because you would never guess you were in Vegas. It's just like being at home.
So here's where I'm going to wimp out on the details because I could sum it up like this...watch the game, eat food, drink, drink, Mike and his wife and other friends show up after the Christmas party, drink, drink, drink, go to Taco Bell again, sleep.
Sunday
Another lazy day until our flight, which was delayed. Not cool. Get into freezing ass Denver at about 10 pm, home by 12:30 am. Asleep by about 1:30 am and still not caught up on it.
Overall, it was a great trip. I was frustrated with my lack of success on the tables, but pleased with how I played. I had a lot of laughs with some old friends, had a lot of drinks with some old friends and got just a little sad that I would soon be saying goodbye to yet another old friend of mine who will be leaving Wyoming. Not going for a "woe is me" thing here but I was more than happy to take a job in Laramie and I like it here, but when all your friends end up elsewhere (even though some are in Denver) it starts to get old.
Oh well, now I have another reason to go to Vegas a lot.
Pics to follow. Waiting on the email from Mike.
Wow, this was long.