First trip to stay entirely downtown. The Nugget is nice. Reminds me of strip hotels. Especially the crowds. DH & DS12 head to track daily w/ ILs. Me, no way. I would be ticked off to spend 8+ hours/day at a track in VEGAS.

Days downtown were nice. Evenings packed, with a lot of VERY interesting folks....not even going there.

Arrive Thurs. and do the boring family thing. Friday send the boys on their way, and I wander into Binions for their 10AM $52 (true buy in) tourney. HUGE poker room, NS. Great tourneys here. There were 3 or 4 tables, fairly conservative/aggressive play. Seemed a lot of locals at this one. Lasted almost 2 hours before busting out, making top 12. (unlikely to play BJ for 2 hours on $50). Head to the Fitz for a $35 noon tourney. (unfortunately this is actually a $65, I think, with re-buy and add on). SMALL area. But cheap, I'm thinking. Looser players here. Still last nearly 2 hours, top 15 (4 tables to start) Rushed to make 2PM $110 Binions. 8 tables. Similar play to AM. My hands SUCKED....folded FIFTEEN hands in a row at one point. May have proved to be a blessing....end up at final table. Good bunch except jerk at end who keeps telling us he has won 3 of last 5 tourneys or some BS. OF COURSE this guy is going all-in every other hand. Foolishly I let my emotions get involved and refuse to double him up when he goes all-in and I have AQ offsuit (call would only have been half my stack). Stupid move. Would have taken him & another guy out. Did finish third, for a $600 take. Nice.

That night DH & I hit DT; seriously played 3 card for an hour, only folding 3 hands, winning EVERY other hand. Crazy. Covered DHs loses.

Saturday I foolishly decide to forgo AZ Charlie's $100 players club deal to head to Binions/Fitz/Binions for same round of tourneys as Fri. Lasted about an hour per tourney. Didn't feel too bad until 2PM Binions tourney. Big tourney w/ guarantee $10000 total pot. Things start well w/ ultra-conservative first round, buy quite a few pots. First blind raise, and POW, it's like I was playing w/ different players. Suddenly super aggressive. And I begin to hit mid-pairs and crap like that. Finally hit top pair (Qs), go all in, some guy w/ A 10 calls and gets runner runner for straight. OK...I'm done. UNFORTUNATELY there is little to do downtown...too cool at pool...feel stupid hitting Glitter Gulch w/o DH. Good thing heading home Sunday AM.

Lessons learned...downtown is good for a day, but prefer the strip for assorted non-gambling activities to keep me from tapping into investments to fund my gambling habit....
Binions is my FAV tourney in town so far (have tried TI, Harrahs, PH, Fitz, Binions), worth a trip DT...Vegas is NOT for children; having 12 YO with us put a serious damper on SOOOOO many things that make Vegas a fav destination for us...I need another trip...August looks good...record 3 Vegas trips in one year!