I flew into Vegas from London with my Wife on 20th December and we were in town until 28th. As we were moving around a little to get the best room rates I decided to try and hit a couple of the poker rooms in the hotels we stayed at. I have only played live casino poker once before, at the Venetian where I had donked off a lot of money. Since then I've played a huge amount of online poker and my game has definitely improved.

First off was the Hard Rock and I have got to say how nice this room is. I stayed at the Hard Rock in April 07 and I think the poker room adds so much more to the casino. Everything about this room was impressive. I entered their $45 1pm tourney and paid the extra $5 staff bonus for an additional 1000 chips (5000 total). There were 19 players and after making the final table in about 5th position I sort of fancied my chances. A couple of lucky hands played out and we were down to 3. The chip leader had to leave as this game had been going for over 4 hours so we chopped the $760 pot 3 ways ($230 each and $70 to the dealers). I would have liked to play it out but I was very pleased with a cash in my first Vegas tourney and the guy offering the chop was being very generous with the 3 way split.

The Palms is a totally different room to the Hard Rock. It's busier, brighter, louder and there's only cash games to play. I sat at the $1/$3 NL game and bought in for $200 (max $500). I was seated next to a guy that introduced himself as an ex-world champion boxer. His name was Clarence "Bones" Adams and he was a really really nice guy. I think the 3rd hand I was dealt was 10h 10s. Bones bet $15 and I raised it to $30. Bones called. The flop was 9 9 9 and Bones made it $60 to go. I tanked for a little and really didn't want to bust out after 3 hands which potentially would have happened at the turn. I just felt that he had me and laid the hand down showing my 10's. The Gent that he was he showed me his pair of Jacks and boy was I relieved. Next hand I was dealt 10 10 again and managed to double up against a Chinese guy to get back what I had lost. I played for about 3 hours and finished up about $80.

Next day and I was back for more. This time I had a very drunk local to my left and he just kept raising blind. He had about £2000 behind and he had clearly been there a long time. He eventually left and as I got more comfortable with my surroundings I started to pick up a few pots. After about 4 hours I was up to $850 (bought in for $300 this time). It was getting late and my Wife was waiting to go out so I had decided that I would leave after 1 more circuit. I'm dealt Qh Qd on the button and there's 4 callers before the action gets to me. I raise to $20 which is a little higher than the standard raise had been all day but I wanted to get rid of some limpers. SB folded, BB folded, UTG calls and everyone else folds. The UTG guy had just moved to our table so I had nothing to go on about his game. The flop is 9d, 4h, 3h. The guy bet $30 which surprised me a little, so I just flat called him. The turn was 9h. He bets again this time $60. I'm worried he may have AA or KK but call him anyway. The river is a black Jack. He bets $120. Now I'm playing the hand through in my head and can't imagine him slow playing AA or KK UTG as it was a quite aggressive table and he certainly hadn't played it like someone on a flush draw. So eventually I call and he turns over 9s 4s for a turned boat. Needless to say I was pretty pissed off and didn't wait for the rest of the circuit to cash out. I guess I should be happy that there are people out there that will call a 7 BB raise with 9 4 but I seriously couldn't see that point of view at the time.

Overall I was really pleased with my play and finished the week up $630 in poker winnings. I did donk off some of this at Blackjack and Craps but I guess that's what these games are there for.

Looking forward to my next trip in April where I will definitely play lots more poker.