I met 4 buddies in Vegas from Thursday morning Oct 15 to Sunday afternoon Oct 18. We stayed the first two nights at the Golden Nugget and the last night at the MGM Grand. . I am from Seattle where almost all the card rooms deal limit hold’em. You have drive about half an hour to an Indian casino to find any kind of no limit.
I played only cash $1/$2 and $2/$5 no limit. I played at the Golden Nugget on Thursday afternoon and Friday night. At the Nugget I just could not get anything going. I found both sessions rough with a lot of 3 and 4 betting preflop. I ended up getting squeezed and playing too many marginal hands and lost a total of $280 at the Nugget.

We all checked out at the Nugget very early so we could watch English and Scottish soccer at the Crown and Anchor at 7:00 AM. After soccer we checked into the MGM. Two of us headed immediately to the poker room while the rest went to watch college football.

We were immediately seated at a new $1/$2 NL table. Over the first half hour I had my worst run of poker in over 15 years. I lost with a flush, pocket Aces (to a short stacked QTo), flopped top set of Qs, and 66 with a flop of AA6 in the first seven hands. After the full house, three people and the dealer turned to me (I was in the 10 seat) and said “you need to go for a walk and not come back for at least an hour.” Shell shocked and stuck almost $400, I left what few chips I had remaining and went to watch football. After about an hour, I went back and worked myself back to the black over about five hours. I ended up cashing out with about a $180 profit. I found the MGM much softer than the Nugget. People chased flush and straight draws all day. They were also very willing to risk huge a percentage of their stacks on just top pair. The worst thing about the MGM poker “room” is the noise. At the top of every hour, the bar behind the sign in desk, cranked up the PA system with some kind of promotion. The staff was excellent and very professional.

After dinner, we went to the Excalibur poker room. It is as advertised. We took a seat at a $1/$2 table. It had to be the most passive and softest table I had played at in years. One funny episode: During my first two orbits, I was dealt very good cards while in the big blind and raised. There were probably +5 limpers each time and I took down the pots without seeing the flop. After my second raise from the big blind, the small blind said to his buddy on the button, “This is starting to piss me off.” Fast forward to my third big blind. There were 7 limpers and I found myself with pocket 3s. I foolishly couldn’t help myself; I raised to $10. Everyone folded but the small blind who angrily and instantly called. Well, dumb luck struck with me flopping a set (God, why couldn’t I just have checked with seven limpers!). The small blind checked and I made a weak looking bet. He came over the top and went all in. I called and he showed pocket 7s and went on full tilt. He bought in again and felted a second time in about 30 minutes. I ended up cashing out with +$200 after about an hour and half of play. The Excalibur’s “room” (tables in the middle of the casino floor) is a dump. However, the staff was very courteous and helpful and the players were generally inexperienced.

I ended up playing the MGM on Sunday morning for about three hours and made an easy $200.

The trip did not have enough poker. I started out slow (I was definitely the fish at the Nugget—I expected it to be soft). I checked out Binions on Friday night but surprisingly found only about three tables going. The MGM and Excalibur were definitely the place to make money by playing basic tight aggressive poker.