Drove down to San Diego for a weekend softball tournament (Oct. 10 & 11), and decided that I've already driven that far, why not take yet another weekday swing over to Vegas. It turned out to be a good decision.

Booked yet again at the ElCo downtown. $19/night. No dishonest added resort fees. Tried the $20 trick at checkin to see if I could get upgraded to a Jacuzzi room, but no dice. Desk clerk seemed clueless. Oh well, still got on top floor, view of strip. (Yawn.) Got in shortly after 5.

Had heard about the reduced rake in the $8/$16 game at the Venetian. Last time I'd gone there, they had the same deal, just after they opened the room, and I got crushed. Time for take two.

So after relaxing a bit in the room and spending a little time online (paid Internet access, yuk), headed down toward mid-strip. Wasn't sure how easy or difficult to parking was at the V, so parked at Mirage and walked over. (I also thought I might have time for the Mirage $10/$20 game. I had the time, but there was (mostly) no game.) Got a seat right away in a short game. Was short for most of the 2 1/4 hours I sat in. And wow, was this a tough, aggressive game. 3 or 4 people were routinely aggressive preflop, including a couple of Europeans and a couple of women. It also wasn't unusual to have 3 or 4 callers of the preflop raisers. I managed to adjust my game, called more preflop myself, called down when I caught on the flop, folded a lot preflop, but also raised preflop with some hands I'd not normally do so with. Got up $100 after 2 1/4 hours and cashed out at 11:30pm.

Walked back over to the Mirage and swung by the poker room. The $10/$20 game was going. I didn't recognize any faces form my August visits. After a somewhat long drive and one tough session, was feeling tired, so just watched a bit and then left.

Tuesday I spent most of the day working in my hotel room (I picked up some work on the side updating the website of a company in my industry (writersua.com, if you're so inclined to be interested.) after enjoying sleeping in. (Was also still in recovery mode a bit after 5 softball games in 3 days, including one long one Saturday night that went into extra innings three times.) Headed down to the strip and got to the Venetian at 6:00, only to find no $8/$16 game going, and I was only #4 on the list. Yuk. Decided to sit in on the $4/$8 Omaha/8 game until the $8/$16 game wa called. That was about 7:15. In the meantime, the Omaha game itelf play short most of the time, but I did end up leaving with a $49 profit.

I recognized a couple of faces at the $8/$16 game, and it was mostly the same: very aggressive. Was able to counter with (a) more calling preflop, and (b) more preflop aggression. Played for 2 hours, finished up $219. One interesting hand. Raised with poket jacks. Flop came all undercards, low card 4. Was bet into me, I raised, got a couple of callers, including an old lady 3 or 4 seats to my right. Turn was a blank. Bet out, only old lady calls. River pairs the 4. Old lady check-raises me on my river bet. I call. She tried to bluff with KQ. I take down a nice pot.

Walked back over to the Mirage. No $10/$20 game going at about 10pm. Only 3 names on the list. I'm flabbergasted. And disappointed. I do not want to wait. I leave.

Wednesday was Orleans day. They have just about the only limit tournaments around. Busted out way too early in the noon tournament after my stack was crippled a couple of rounds after the break when my pocket aces ran into a flopped set of queens, and I bet out on the river when the turn card paired, thinking that the turn aggression by the other guy was a flopped two pair. Finished 24th of 26. Took a break, went to see Zombieland in the theater there. Came back, sat in on the Omaha/8 game for a couple of hours before the 7pm tournament, basically spun my wheels for 2 hours and finished down $17. I did better in the 7pm tournament, finishing 11th of 36, but got short stacked late when a guy to my left called two bets cold after I flopped a set and hit his gutshot. I was down to $200 in chips and got lucky on a triple up, then hit an AQ, and actually got up to about have the chip average close to the second break, but found myself short on chips not long after that, and was forced to call all-in when we were [playing shorthanded with a suited 9-3. The other guy turned up AQ. Flop came KKJ, turn 3(!), but river Q and I was out.

Back over to the strip. Park in Mirage, walk over to V. This time I actually have to wait for the $8/$16 game; I'm 2nd on the list. Not long and I'm in the same game: lots of aggression. A couple of Euros are talking frequently behind my back between hands in, I think, Swedish. I occasionally catch a phrase that sounds like a poker phrase, and I think they are discussing play, perhaps play of players. I make it a short session, just 45 minutes, as I decide to leave when I get up $142.

These games being aggressive also mean that they are high variance. I decide a good strategy is, when I get up a good amount, no matter how long (or how short) I've been playing, I get up and book it. Of course, it'd be a problem if I ever try to book the poker room rate (not likely; it's still way too high), as I'd never get in enough hours.

I still think I prefer a tough, aggressive limit game to NL though.

Walked back over to the Mirage's poker room. 10pm, no $10/$20 game, just a couple names on the list. Bummer. Again.

Thursday was another work day for me. Was having an issue with my work, so headed out late afternoon to try and find a book (on jQuery, if you must know) to help me out. Found a Barnes & Noble east of the strip. No luck. Found the Borders on the south strip. No luck. And nothing at Fry's.

As a result, got to the V a bit later than I planned, but still got in the game right away at 7:30. Interestingly, they opened up another, must-move game about an hour later. I didn't stay long enough to see how long that 2nd table lasted though. I was already doing well, and shortly after I hit a big hand with a big pot, I left. Actually, I played one hand very loose and got lucky. But I think I'd been missing some thin calls earlier that I probably should have made, considering the texture of the game.

I actually was very lucky. I had the choice of 2 seats, and I saw one seat (7) to the immediate left of an Asian guy who I'd seen playing loose-aggressive, and two seats to the left of a Euro guy who I'd played against the night before, knew him to be very aggressive, and had a big stack. Two younger guys were to my left, but as it turned out, they played fairly tightly. A couple of times I raised preflop with my new favorite raising hand, at least at this table: Q-10 off. Both times I hit, once with top pair, once with trip queens. Never had to show either, as I kept betting out and everyone had folded either on the turn or river. (BTW, an interesting note to this game is that nearly everyone in a hand called flop bets.) Meanwhile, a new player had joined in seat 1. He looked kind of like Borat. He seemed to play loose, but not aggressive early--until he hit a couple of big pots and built a stack. Then he got aggressive, but stupidly so. So in this one hand, I'm in MP, several limpers, and I limp with Qc-8c. Couple more callers, Borat raises (surprise!) in the blind (forget if he was SB or BB), everyone calls. Flop comes 10-9-x, one club. I have a gutshot, a backdoor flush draw, and an overcard, and already a pot with 14 small bets. Borat bets out, several callers, including me.

Now here's where I get (probably) stupid, but lucky. Turn brings another club. Borat bets out. couple of calls. Asian guy (as he seems to like to do), raises. Now I think I have a pretty good draw, and the pot's getting large now. I don't think anyone is going to fold. So I cold call. I almost never cold call two bets on the turn with a draw, especially not the non-nut draw. It's folded to Borat--who repops it. Oh crap, I think, Asian guy's gonna make it 4 bets. But he doesn't, and I call the third bet. And that's when bingo hits the river: a jack. All of a sudden, it's checked around to me. I bet, Borat is the only one who calls, and I show the second-nut straight and rake in a huge pot, somewhere approaching $300.

I play one more orbit and rack out, up $360 for another short, 2-hour session.

I go grab a bite to eat, then wander over to the Mirage poker room one more time, around 11pm. No $10/$20 game. Practically no list. Drat! Go back to the room and crash.

Friday morning, I swung by the Orleans one more time to grab the buffet for my drive home, then sit in the Omaha/8 game for a little bit. Again, I spin my wheels, but I finish up a whopping $8 after 1 3/4 hours.

Overall: +$723 (not counting tourney buy-ins)
$8/$16, +$683, 6 hours, $113.83/hr. (14 BB/hr)
$4/$8 Omaha/8; +$40, 5 hours, $8/hr. (2 BB/hr)