Was in vegas for a company paid convention and decided to hit as many tournaments I could while still working around the convention.

Get in on a Monday from east coast, so I am 3 hours off on the time difference. I am usually in bed by 11:00 normally as I have 2 kids under 4.

First off is the Mirage 7:00 $150 tourney. By the way, they now give 4000 chips instead of 2500 as the room review says. This is something new that I did not plan on (was hoping for a 4-5 hour tourney). First hand I win set over set and pull in about 1500 extra chips. Table starts berating me for now reraising on the river when there was a straight draw (did not want to bust on the first hand). Tell player I beat that that is a tough way to start and he makes some smart ass comment and gives me dirty looks. Played standard TAG poker for a while folding most hands. Competition was much tougher than I expected. Many people here who are playing the WSOP and who were doing some pretty amazing chip trips, etc. Start to get down in stack about half way through the field so I push up the aggression and get some cards to get a comfortable stack. Play usual poker for some more time and make final table. The chip leader was an obnoxious drunk who must have had 15 drinks during the tournmanent but was still playing solid poker. I steal some blinds and let the smaller stacks get knocked out and get to heads up with the drunk who has a big chip lead. Can knock him out and take second. Around 80 players so my prize is $1071. Not bad for my first live poker. It is now around 1:30 LV time an 4:30 my normal time. Its going to be a long day at my conference.

Mirage ending up being my favorite room for the whole trip. Dealers were good and the atmosphere was very nice and comfortable. The floor person was the best I had seen for the whole trip. He was counting stacks from across the room before the dealers could get the stacked to count (amazing).

Tuesday I stay at the conference as long as I can but decide to sneak out early to play the 2:00 $65 at TI (where I am staying).

About 35 people are playing this tourney. Much friendlier game with more tourists and about 1/4 locals. Play normal poker again and get lucky on one hand (A8 over AK) and I am the chip leader with about 15 left. Play big stack poker and pretty much run over most others and end up winning the tournament. Dealers were very good room was very nice. If I had more time I would have played more there. Amount won $585

Since I am on a roll decide to play the ventian later that night. That was a mistake as I was dead tired and even more card dead. Made it through half the tourney and busted. The moved our tournament ($180 8:00) out onto a roped off section of the casino floor (lots here from WSOP). The dealers I had were temporary dealers that were actually quite bad - lots of mis deals and bad decisions. Got a good nights sleep anyway.

Next night I decide to try Caesars 7:00 $175. This was a very fun night with lots of friendly players until I got moved to a table with 2 real idiots. Kept telling everyone at the table how they were world class poker players and we should all feel lucky to be playing with them. Kept harrasing this poor german girl and berating the table. Anyway I made it down to about 25 players but only 9 got paid because we had 149 players. Had there been 150 18 would have got paid. Had a decent stack, but did not want to try to limp to the finish so I push 5,5 from an all in raise before me. Raiser had K,Q so it was a race. Doing good until the river spikes a Q and I am off to the hotel with no money. Casears was proably my list favorite of the trip, but that was probably because of the hard competition and lousy atmosphere.

Summary of trip.

Mirage: Very nice room, good dealers, friendly atmosphere. Drink service was a little slow. Competition was tough.

TI: Nice room, very good dealers, less friently than I expected. Drink service was a little slow. Compeition pretty weak.

Venetian. Did not like where I played (smoke and noise from the slot players). Bad dealers (but they were not regular Ventian dealers). Good drink service. Unkwon if competition was good as I was half sleeping.

Caesars. Very nice room, good dealers and good drink service. Atmosphere was what I expected with tough players.

All in all up about $1300 for my first every live poker trip. (Thanks work for the free trip).