After 10 days of me being out of town, we had our 3rd excellant adventure.

At around 10 pm our HEROS met at Arizona Charlies on Decatur to play poker. (Yes heros! Its my trip report, deal with it) Between 10 pm and 5 am we experienced 3 rooms I had not played in and 1 large room that got me even. Oh and we added an activity.

We had originally tried to open up this trip to other players, but no takers except Sabrina (relief shift manager for Texas Station, also a hero!). EVIL said she wanted to come with, but couldn't get out of the Mirage on time. (I'll discuss EVIL in a future report.)

So we started at Arizona Charlies at 10. They had a 4-8 limit Hold'em game going with overs. Out of 10 players, 6 had overs buttons. It was the only game going. They have 2 tables. The action was great. We played until 1 am. The dealers were good. Mike, one of the dealers has been dealing in Vegas for almost 30 years. Real nice guy.

LVMike and Sabrina will rat me out if I don't mention that there is a Carioki bar 50 yards from the poker room. I sang two songs: "That's Amore" with Sabrina. And "Its Not Unusual" as a solo act, which I dedicated to my former boss TI-Poker who would have me turn up the music whenever Tom Jones came on.

Fun experience even though I lost 200.

At 1:30 am we went to the Stratusphere. There were some good things about the Stratisphere, Dan the shift manager was very gratious, the action was great, and they had a couple good dealers. There were 2 negatives. The first is that regardless of the action, the room closes at 4 am. Second, and this is something that drives me up the wall. A player asked for the pot to be counted. This is against the rules, but it was done anyway. I won $110. Then we got pancakes.

Sabrina then left us to sleep or work or something.I never listen. Leaving Mike and I to continue our adventure.

The next stop was the Riviera at 4 am. It had 5 tables going. There was a pool tournament at the hotel so the action was heavy. I played 3-6 and lost $35. Not sure what the action is like on a regular day. I was a little disappointed with the dealers. We left early.

At around 4:45 I wanted to leave and get one more casino in. So Mike and I went to the Wynn. Best parking of any poker room! Not originally on the schedule. At this point I am down $125 for the night. I play 2-5 no-limit and pick up $210 by 6am. That makes me up $85 for the night. Mike doesn't play because he had to go home.

What can I say about the Wynn? When it first opened, Steve Wynn said "This is not a break-in house." He's right, of all the rooms we have played in so far, they have the best dealers. The action was great, 8 games going at 5 am on a Tuesday. Very professional floor people and great cocktail service.

I originally wanted to review just smaller independents but time ran out due to pancakes and Karioke. So it was nice of the Wynn to stay open so that I could get even.

It was a nice night of poker. I think Arizona Charlie's is a hidden gem of a little poker room. Along with the El Cortez, Fitzgeralds and Sunset station from previous trips, I have found some new smaller rooms to play at.

I would like suggestions for our next trip.

Good Luck,

Perry