For out recent trip to Vegas (Nov. 15-18) I used AVP to plan almost every aspect of my poker playing escapades, thanks AVP! We stayed at TI. This is just a short summary of some memorable hands and the great time my wife and I had.

My wife met up with her cousin for a majority of the weekend for shopping and "girl time" so I was home free for as much poker as I could get in, well that was plan. On a side not, we had an amazing time taking in the sights for our first trip and Mystere at TI was one of the coolest things I've ever seen, money well spent. I would recommend that show to anyone.

On to the poker...

Thusday... Got in around 9pm and I entered into the 10pm TI tournament jump start a great weekend. Needless to say I got sucked out on twice, rebought and my KK lost to 10h7h. Blinds 100/200 and the guy raises to 1000 in MP and I push in the cutoff. He thinks then donks off another ~2500 chips. No clue why, but he flushed on the turn and byebye $130. Great start. Dropped another $100 at the craps table to really get the trip started.

Friday... Got up late and had a quick muffin at Starbucks before heading over to Caesar's to sign up for the 12pm $330 tournament. Since it was only 0930 we decided to run across the street to the Venetian to check it out. I wanted to ask some questions about their tournaments. Great move on my part. The Venetian has a sweet poker room. It's right inside the main doors and is a huge room. Tall ceilings, high quality tables and chairs and lots of TV's made this my favorite room by far. They run some great tournaments at the Venetian. I decided to stay there and play in the 12pm $150 tournament. I believe it was 7500 in chips, 40 min levels and a great structure. Also, there were about 115 people signed up, ~8k to 1st. I had very high hopes. Unfortunately I was completely card dead for the first 2-3 levels. Caught some pocket pairs and some good suited connectors but could not hit the flop to save my life. I doubled when my J8s made top two on the turn and picked up some more chips with AA. I was frustrated but surviving when this hand comes up. Blinds were 25/100/200 and I have A9h in the SB. Three callers to the button who raises to 1600. This guy was an Orthodontist and a chatter box who didn't have a clue what he was doing so I called. Probably a little loose but I didn't believe him and figured if I flopped anything, I could take all his chips. UTG+1 calls (uh oh) everyone else folds. Flop comes Ac10c4d. Button man physically groans and shakes his head, mumbling to himself, I'm good but decide to try to check raise him. UTG+1 goes all in for about 5k, wtf I'm definately beat. Button man groans again and says almost instantly "I've gotta see this." UTG+1 has him covered by about 600 so he is all in. What am I supposed to do. I would have had about 1200 left if I would have called. In hindsight I should have insta called, ~15k in the pot, and would have if I was on my game. But I was convinced I was beat by UTG+1. Think about it for too long and fold. Bigggg mistake. UTG+1 has 4c5c and button man has two red Queens. Sick. Queens take down a big pot and everyone at the table is stunned he called. I was stuck and not playing well and my QQ went out against Orthodontist mans AA all-in preflop about an hour later. Very frustrating.

Friday continues with my checking out different rooms and losing $200 at the Mirage in a tough 1/2 NL game. I was in a bad mood and shouldn't have played, oh well. Spent the rest of the day seeing sights and staying away from the poker room. Dinner at ESPN Zone at NYNY, not bad. Saw David Benniamine (sp?), Sheiky, Freddy Deeb, Brandon Adams and Gabriel Thaler (I think) and some other pros at the Bellagio. I felt star struck, hehe.

So basically, at this point, I'm down roughly 500 and pissed off at my poor play and bad run of cards. Then comes Saturday...

Saturday.. Got up and decided to play at TI in the 11am tournament. I was in a much better mood for whatever reason and told myself to pull my head out and play like I know I can, great pep talk. I started out sitting next to a guy named Tim and the table named us Batman (me) and Robin (Tim). In the first two rounds I ran my chips up to around 9k and had a huge stack. Having a huge stack is so fun in those kinds of tournaments, you don't have to worry that the blinds are going to catch up to you. Robin and I had all the chips and knocked out a lot of players, it was pretty fun. It helped that I was catching crazy cards. Just one example. Blinds were 100/200. I've got 8s6s in MP and just limp. All in all there were 6 players to the flop. Flop is 5s9s3h. Checked to me and I bet my straight flush draw for 700. Button calls, SB calls. Turn 6c. I check and button bets 700. SB folds, I call. River is 6d. I check. Button goes all in for 1800. I instacall and he says bye bye. In the end, it was down to me and Tim heads up. I had a pretty significant chip lead on Tim and could have ginded it out but decided to chop it up with Tim, he was a good guy and it was all in or nothing poker. $740 each. Great way to turn things around.

Later that night, after seeing Mystere, I sat down at the Venetian for a new table of 1/2 NL. Everyone bought in for $200. Within 5 hands being dealt I already had pretty decent read on two of the guys at the other end, I'll just call them #1 and #2. Both were very aggressive and were winning $3 pots with 20-25 dollar raises, stupid. It was just blatant aggression, I was kind of excited. I picked off a couple small pots and then picked up Qs6s in the big blind and no raisers. I turned a boat on the turn when the other guy had trip Q's and added about $120 there. A couple hands later, #1 raises to 20 in MP and no one calls, I look down at AhKh and just call in the SB. Flop hits my A and I check raise his $40 bet, he calls. K hits the turn and I bet out 60 he calls. River is a blank, 3 card low straight, no flush possibilities. I decided to check and call anything. He bet another 60. I call and win, he doesn't show. Nice pot. He then rebought and changed tables, shucks.

#2 was even worse. He had built up his stack to about 400 and I was now sitting around 400-500. I had had enough and called his EP raise of 20 with 8h9h in LP. Heads up, flop is all diamonds, T42. He, of course, bets out 40. I raised to 90. He folds. I decided to show. Did I mention this is my first time playing NL live? Basically I was giddy and decided I like bluffing :-) About 4 hands later and get KsQs on the button. Mr. #2 was raising again and this time I called and the BB called. Flop was TJ3 rainbow. BB checked, #2 bets 30, I call, BB calls, interesting. Turn is the A, all rainbow, what a card. Another 30 by #2, I call, BB out. River is 7 for TJ4 A 7. Mr #2 now leads out for 75 bucks. I stare him down for a couple seconds, try as hard as I can to act like I think hes full of it, and say all in. He laughs (what??), throws his cards down face up and says call. Like "ship me the money you moron". He has 89o and made the small straight. I say "Big straight.." and smile. Ship me the 400-450 pot, woohoo!!!! Such a rush. I think the bluff was maybe more fun though. After poorly playing a few hands and donking off about 300 I called it a night and cashed out for about 850.

I played another session Sunday at the Venetian where my QQ, KK, QQ, AA all lost and somehow I still ended up 30 up to pay for lunch before the flight. Weird.

I apologize this was so long, but its fun to share experiences. I'm already planning the next trip down and will be counting the days. It was a great trip and a great learning experience for me. Next time I will for sure play at TI some more, I really enjoyed the tournaments they had to offer. The smaller room was more homey and very inviting, I just didn't have the time on this trip. All in all a great trip.