Headed out to Vegas with my girlfriend, a friend from work and his girlfriend on Saturday, Nov. 24.

Arrived late afternoon and checked into the Imperial Palace. We had a room there for 3 nights for a grand total of $103! The Happy Holidays special got us a deluxe room with two beds, two free buffets, four free drinks and two free $5 matchplays! What a deal. I had stayed there this summer in an ok room, but this deluxe room was a little nicer and it overlooked the pool.

After checking in, we headed to the Imperial Buffet for our free buffets and stuffed ourselves with shrimp and prime rib. Then we headed out of the smelliest casino in Vegas to the strip. Saw the sights. Had some drinks. Got to Caesar's for the 11 pm $120 tourney. I had some hands and almost doubled up in before the first break. Then about 20 minutes into the second hour I had JJ lose to AdKd on a 4d5d Th flop. Can't blame the guy for getting the money in there. Got knocked out when my AJ lost to A2 on a 345 flop. I had 700 left and he checked the flop after hesitating when it looked like he wanted to bet. I stupidly just threw in my last few chips and hoped he would fold. He insta-called and I said "Whoops, so that's why you did that!"

Why do I always "see something" and then not think enough to do the right thing! AHHHH.

Got into a 1/3 NL cash game with $300 at Caesar's and liked what I saw right away. Lots of action and a few small stacks and a few big ones.

Won some pots and left with $185 in profit and ready for bed after a long day of traveling.

On Sunday we grabbed lunch, and then I headed to Treasure Island to play some no limit cash in the highly regarded poker room and home of the famous "Las Vegas Michael." I had a feeling I would see him there but was disappointed when I didn't see anyone that looked like him. Sat down in a 1/3 game (or was is 1/2???) and bought in for 300. It didn't take long for me to double up when my QQ hit a set on a Q43 (all clubs) board and a guy with KsKc bet and reraised me all in. I had to sweat a K or any club but won it!

I moved to the 6 seat to get a little better position on an aggressive player in the 1 seat and then LVM came strolling in with 1 blonde on each arm, $100 bills hanging out of his pockets and everyone in the room collectively cheered his arrival (ok, so he quietly came in and sat down and said hello to our dealer Hank and we kept playing, but thought I would exaggerate just a little!) After a few hands, including one where I folded 99 on a 256 board just because LVM had raised in EP and led out again on the flop, and a player between us called too, I introduced myself to LVM. He was extremely nice and willing to talk about poker and this wonderful site. He even called over Danette to meet me and pointed out YappyDave. I really have to say that poker is all about the people. My experience in just a few hours at TI was awesome. Of course, it helped that I had my biggest win of the trip there, but all of the dealers were nice, quick and professional.

One other interesting hand came up at TI when I had JsTs and got my money in on a flop of K97 with two spades. Hit a spade on the turn and won a three-way pot to get me over $900. I blew $100 of that when I called a river bet of $50 with KQ on a K83J3 board and lost to a guy with 33 (good for a $100 quads jackpot for my tight friend who I stupidly thought was bluffing).

Went to LOVE at the Mirage on Sunday night after dinner at Samba (a brazilian rodizio, you have to go to a rodizio if you've never been before, you get all you want of great grilled meats and tons of excellent sides and Samba was $38 per person). LOVE was one of the coolest things I've seen in my life. Cirque du Soleil is quite the experience and I love the Beatles. It was sensory overload with incredible acrobatics, symbolism, beautiful music and bright colorful costumes. I definitely felt the LOVE, baby!

I forgot to mention that throughout the trip I played blackjack, video poker and slots at random times. I luckily won a little in blackjack after a 5 hour session at Shea's that lasted until 8:30 am. I love Shea's because they have great dealers and you get drinks pretty quickly since it's so small. The slots let me down on the trip, as did playing 2/4 limit at the Imperial Palace with a bunch of drunk idiots. I played every hand and blew $55 just for the hell of it. I thought it would be fun to play like an idiot for an hour but was wrong. I felt like the hicks that I was playing with including one lady who kept placing her bets in the pot. I swear half the table was on drugs - poor poker room manager tried to call down the lady and she practically threatened him. Time for bed, I said, and I headed through the smelliest casino in the world back to my room.

The Imperial Palace should really be called the Incompetent Palace or The Smelliest Casino in the World.

On Monday, we checked out the Venetian but didn't play any poker. It was a little tough to play poker having the gf with me on this trip but oh well. We had fun together though, and I'll know to go alone or with my boys on the next trip. Won $55 in a 1/2 game at Mandalay before we headed to Mamma Mia for a great show full of ABBA music. Walked to New York, New York and got some pizza and then we got drunk at this piano bar where two guys were playing requests and making fun of the guests kind of like dueling pianos.

Had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe (overpriced food!) and left for the airport on Tuesday. But not before stopping at the Bellagio for gelato and seeing Layne Flack, Allen Cunningham, Nam Le, Eskimo Clark, Men the master, and some others at a prelim event for the 5-Diamond WPT event.

I ended the trip up about $560 in poker and even in everything else. I weather was in the 60s and was very comfortable. The shows were great, especially LOVE. The hotel room was cheap and clean. The food was cheap and good (oh yeah, the World Buffet at the Rio for lunch is awesome, we had that on Monday, try the Chinese dim sum!). And I learned two things - Treasure Island has a great poker room with even better people!, and the Imperial Palace is the Smelliest Casino in the World.