Food!
I'm a big food junkie. I love eating good food, and really don't care what it costs if the experience is worth it. That said, Vegas is just packed with amazing restaurants, and although we didn't go to too many of them in the 6 weeks we spent here, we definitely had some good meals.
Nobu (Hard Rock)
The night at Nobu was definitely one of my favorite nights of the entire summer. Early on in the day I get a call from my friend Ryan from Atlanta who is in Vegas for a few days. Ryan works with Pokernews Strategy which I think will definitely take off in the near future as they have some amazing names doing content for their site (hey, I might even make a video or 2 for them in the near future!). Ryan tells me that he's meeting up with a bunch of the poker players from Pokernews Strategy at Nobu that night and asks if I want to tag along. I'm always down for good food and good company so I tell him that I'm in.
Then Ryan asks if I can do him a favor and pick someone up at the airport for him. I'm a bit reluctant picking up a stranger at the airport, but I ask him who it is and he tells me "oh, it's nanonoko."
Now, all the poker people reading this will know who that is, but for you non-poker followers let me use an analogy to help you understand a bit more about the legend that is nanonoko.
online poker : nanonoko :: tennis : Rafael Nadal
Yep, he's basically just the boss. He runs the streets, and all fear nanonoko. Luckily for me I'm up lifetime on nano, by about $20. Unfortunately for me, he probably just rolls around in piles of cash all day.
Anyway, Ryan and I pick Nano up at the airport and head over to the Hard Rock for dinner at Nobu. Besides the 3 of us, we meet 5 or 6 others there including a couple other online poker legends. Among the group are Kane (nascar_1949), and Josh (LitleBstrd). Kane is one of the best Heads Up specialists in the world and also plays some of the biggest 6max games on the planet. Josh is a pot limit omaha specialist who had also won a WSOP bracelet in holdem just a few days before this dinner.
There we also a bunch of tourney players who I don't really remember, and Nolan (probably the best player that plays the same games I do, and is also moving to Miami with me) ended up joining us as well.
No one really knew what to order, so we ordered the Omakase which was just the chef's choice of enough food to pretty much make all 10 of us never want to eat again. It was probably the best meal I've ever had as sushi, oysters, steak, and other types of seafood were just pouring out of the kitchen and onto our table. We also had bottles of orange sake flowing which were actually pretty good even though I've never had a thing for sake.
Some pictures from dinner... Unfortunately I think these were iPhone pictures, so the quality is a little poor.
a few types of oysters
some sort of filet that was cooked at the table on piping hot rocks
more of the filet and an MTT pro in amazement
one of the many plates of sushi
All in all it was an amazing dinner. For 10 people we spent a little over $2k, and all but 3 of us bought out of the credit card roulette. In the end, Josh ended up paying for the 3 of us that played, so it was a free night at Nobu for me.
Afterwards I took Nano back to his suite at Vdara. He's an insanely nice and modest guy which is just awesome given how well he does. I kind of expected most high stakes pros to flaunt it, but he seemed completely down to earth and we talked for a good half hour about poker and life in general.
The rest of us ended up at O'Sheas where we played some high stakes beer pong (Josh and I got up about $600 each on Kane and Ryan before losing it back in the double or nothing game). Kane and I then played some heads up poker on one of these electronic heads up machines. The best part about this was we layed about 5k in cash across the table as well as Josh's WSOP bracelet so passerby's would just stop in awe of what was going on.
Somehow the night continued with a bunch of us getting a private 1/2 poker game at Hard Rock and playing/drinking there for a few hours. Of course, nano won all the money, although I'm pretty sure I was just handing it away by the end.
From left to right we have Kane, Me (ok I might have been a little drunk by this point, keeping the eyes open was difficult), ChicagoJoey, nanonoko, Ryan, Josh.
Craftsteak (MGM)
A few nights later was ChicagoJoey's birthday so a bunch of us went out to Craftsteak to celebrate with him. I think he turned 25 which means he's an old man in our world. I'm not a huge steak fan, but the meal we had was excellent. We did something similar to Nobu where they ended up just bringing us tons of different cuts of steak and some amazing sides.
The steak was out of this world and they had some interesting deserts which we tried after. Everything was pretty excellent except for the bacon ice cream (yes, I said BACON ICE CREAM). Unsurprisingly, it tasted just like bacon and ice cream. Separately, these are two of my favorite foods on the planet. Together, they taste like utter garbage.
Amy was out here for this dinner so the two of us went as well as my roommate Greg and his brother. Kane also joined us as well as internet poker legend Ariolis30. Joey and his gf were of course there and Ryanmack ended up coming later in the night for a few shots.
From left to right we have: (Ariolis, Kane, Amy, Me, Joey's gf, Joey, Ryanmack). I guess by this point Greg and brother had left to do weird things.
Naked Fish:
Now I had been to Vegas 7 times in the last year and a half before this trip, and had been told everytime that I had to go to Naked Fish if I wanted great sushi. We actually went there pretty early in the trip. My friend Alex from Atlanta and his friend Stewart came along as well as Horstman. For those that don't know Horstman he was a senior at Tech when I was a freshman and we met somehow most likely involving a random poker game. Eventually, he dropped out of tech with one class left and moved to Vegas where he still lives.
Naked fish was very good, but the sushi at Nobu was probably a little bit better. Definitely a place to check out though if sushi is your thing as they have plates signed by tons of famous people that have eaten there.
Here's one of the rolls, I believe the WSOP roll, which was probably my favorite of the night. By this point, I have no clue what was in it, but I definitely remember it being pretty tasty.
Afterwards, we made a trip to Rhino which actually turned out to be pretty epic. We dared Stewart to get undressed and start giving random guys lap dances and see how much she could make (no, Stewart is not a guy). I thought there was 0 chance this would actually happen. However, a few drinks later, I looked around and noticed the 2 of them were missing. A few minutes later I had a text from Stewart...
"Got kicked out, headed to Sapphire... but I made $80!"
N9NE (Palms)
I figured I might as well save the best for last, so we're ending this foodblog with N9NE steakhouse. We've actually been to N9NE three separate times now, and everything I've had was amazing each time.
Trip 1 to N9NE was made with a bunch of online players who I play against nearly every day. Among the group were Petteytheft, Blggiesmalls, Marccus85, ZepHendrix, FatDan44, and dankness. I might be leaving someone out but I think I covered it all.
This trip I had the lobster bisque and the Surf and Turf which were both amazing.
It was without a doubt the best steak I've ever had, and the lobster on top wasn't half bad either. Oh, and it was served on a bed of lobster mashed potatoes. Dankness ended up losing the credit card roulette and got stuck with the $800ish bill.
Trip 2 to N9NE was probably the most memorable. This time I went with the roomates from the house, and well as two of Tom's friends from UMD and Horstman. The drinks were flowing and one of Tom's friends (Tails?) was completely shitfaced throughout dinner. This kid was drunk beyond anything I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure he broke 2 or 3 water glasses, and he definitely ordered a vodka tonic from every single person in the restaurant. Oh no, not just the staff, I mean everyone.
I had the sashimi appetizer and the lamb for my entree this time and once again N9NE delivered. Unfortunately I don't think I have a picture of this one. Tails ended up asking the waiter for the bill, which gave everyone a good laugh, but I'm pretty sure he was serious. We ended up rouletting for this one as well and Horstman got stuck for $1.1k or so. Unfortunately for me, I had to cover it.
Trip 3 was pretty recently when Nate and Chris were out for a few days. I'm not entirely sure who else was with us, as I was pretty drunk for this one, but I think it was most of my roomates and Dan from Canada. We ordered all of the appetizers to share as well as tons of oysters, some sushi, and pretty much everything else. I did the surf and turf again and it was still very good. Most people ended up buying out of this roulette but 3 of us ending up going at it, and I got stuck for $500 or so.
All in all we ate some amazing food in Vegas, and definitely had great times with great people at all of these dinners. A lot of restaurants didn't make the list, but a few more definitely stuck out as being very solid.
1. The Aria Buffet - This is still the only buffet I've been to in Vegas and I don't think I'll go anywhere else. $30 gets you all you can eat and the highlight is probably Alaskan King Crab Legs which are already pre opened for you.
2. Little Buddha at Palms - This was our last big dinner of the trip, and was definitely good all around. Speedle offered to pay the bill if we all snorted a line of wasabi, but to his disappointment it didn't happen.
3. Exreme Sushi - An all you can eat sushi place similar to RuSan's back home, but the quality is amazing.
Aaaaaand that's about it. I'm trying to scope out one more restaurant to go to tonight before my flight, but most people seem to have left town already so it might be a problem finding a crowd to go out with.
Until next time,
- Weinman
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