Well, first time for me posting here also. Been playing poker regularly around Honolulu for the past 3 years. I'm staitioned in Hawaii with the Army. I'm an attorney, and was wanting to finally do the trip to Vegas....this MLK weekend gave me the opportunity to get away from the office and I was able to get away from the Mrs. to take a 4-day trip with another attorney from the office......well, here goes (oh, by the way....consider myself an average player)

Fly out at 10:00 PM Thursday night from Honolulu on separate flight than friend. He left 2 hours earlier, but is set to arrive a couple of hours behind me in Vegas. He's not the poker player, and is going to see the sights and play his occaisional game of blackjack or roulette.

I arrive in Vegas at 5:50 AM on Friday and immediatley make my way to Bally's and drop off my bags. I start hunting for my first game and plan to play for about 3 or 4 hours until my friend arrives. No games going on at Ballys and one game at Paris. Instead of jumping in to the Paris game, I hit the strip to check out Planet Hollywood and MGM rooms as this site has led me to want to play in these rooms.

Stop in PH, but was again a dead room. 1 table of action, and it appeared most of the players were in uniform, so I'm thinking at 7:00 AM, their probably dealers and I'm really not wanting to sit down with the locals for my very first game when the table is full of them....back on the strip and continue the walk towards the MGM.

MGM has about 4 tables running, and I set at a 1/2 NL (by the way, I've only played NL, and all of the games I talk about are 1/2 NL). I sit down with the Max buy-in of $300. My first hand dealt is A/Q suited (diamonds). There is a raise and 2 other callers of a $12 bet in front of me and I didn't want to jump in a raise on my first hand before I saw what these guys were playing, so I call with the A/Q. One more caller behind me, and I'm off to see a flop on my first hand with about $60 in the pot. Flop comes Q/J/7 rainbow. Checks in front of me and I lead out with a bet of $45. Player behind me pushes in for an additional $110. Fold/Fold/Fold and action is back to me. I start to consider how many hands would beat me....maybe he's slowplaying K's or A's, but he would have most likely raised preflop, so I then think he called with Q/J and I'm up against two pair. I thought for it a while though, and said I couldn't live with myself if I could call with top pair/top kicker on my first hand and these guys would beat up on me for the rest of the session. I call it and he flips over J/9 of spades. Did I say that 1 of three cards on the flop was spades. Yes, you know where this is going, he runner-runners the spades and I'm beat by a flush for @ $160 on my first hand.

Just as I recover from that hit, and I'm talking first 5 hands, I look down and there is K/K stairing back at me. Again, about 3-4 $15 callers/betters in front of me. I think about it and determine that if I push, they probably put me on tilt after that 1st hand disaster and I'll get someone to call. So, I go all-in and people start to fold.....well, all but one. He sits...sits....sits and then says he can't fold the hand, so calls the $140 with Q/Q. And what do you think hits on the flop? And after about 15 mins of my Vegas trip, I'm down $300.00 after playing better than I could have even anticipated. At that point I should have got up and walked away, but I put in another $200 and saw that go down to $100 before I left. @ 2 hours of play and I'm down $400.

Go back down to the Paris to meet up with friend and get in a 1/2 NL game there. No memorable hands and I pretty much play there and at Ballys on my first night until about 3 in the morning. I call it quits and turn in for the night @ $500 down at that point.

Noon on Saturday starts my 24+ hours at Venetian. Loved that room. Comfy, spacious, play is decent, but you can still pick off the bad players. Over my 24 hours at Ven., I get my run of cards and make about $800 from that session. Before doing that; however, I am involved in a $800 pot in which I flop the A high straight and am able to get player to put all of his $400 chips in with two pair. Of course, as you can tell by now, he hits one of his two cards on the river, and his full house beats my straight. I think he was playing K/J and I played Q/10 and A/K/J hit on the flop, meaningless on the turn, and then J on the river....Again, I'm down but not out. I continue to play on like I said, made about $600-$800 at the Venetian.

The next portion of this is not meant to offend anyone, and I made a friends while in Vegas, but the characters I met, well, here goes.....sometime about 3:00 AM, our 1/2 NL table is close to breaking up. Theres a few friends that are playing on the dealers right side, and I'm seated in front of the dealer to his left, when a couple of "shaggy" eastern-euro types come in and play very conservatively for about 2 hours. A couple of Asian females roll in to set on the dealers immediate left, and they say maybe 3 words the whole time their there. ONly 1 plays in the game and I swear she looks like the freak from the ring. Her dark black hair covers her face...she's pale beyond all belief and when a couple of guys at the other end of the table start to poke at her and try to pry words out, she just gives a death stare that silences everyone. She talks to her friend a couple of times, but in foreign language. The dealer explains she can't do that, but it's to no avail....the freak show finally leave, but my night at Venetian sees another "event" when a drunk at another table says he didn't say "all-in" when his competetor caught, him, called and demanded that he "pay me my f---ing money" It was awsome. Drunk dude starts shouting at the staff when they start to escort him out. Funny episode is when he almosts crys asking them, "Why is everyone here treating me like I'm some kind of a--whole." Well, in unison, the room goes....you are some kind of ...........And that was that.

I did get the opportunity to send a player to the rail when I called his all in bet with my A/J suited. I think I had raised the pot up to $50 preflop with my hand and he had went all-in with about $150. I say this only b/c he did such a great "acting" job sweating out whether to push or not. I knew he had kings, the dealer knew it, the other players at the table knew it.......I think the most novice player could have seen through it. I at that time was about 4 or 5 hundred up, so I went ahead and called (I know it was a bad call, but oh well) and I got some luck and hit the A on the river. He starts cursing me and almost cries as he exits the floor. Oh, well.....if he'd taken the beats I had over the last few days, he would have swore alot more. By the time I leave Venetian, it's 3PM on Sunday afternoon and I've been playing since 12 Noon on Saturday. I head back to Ballys, get into a game there and basically break even.

I meet up with my friend, who I think I've talked to about 10 mins of the trip so far and we head down to Mandalay Bay to the House of Blues and for a few table games there. ON the way back, I decide to check out the Excalibur room b/c I need to make some money back and the reviews here lead me to believe I can do that.

Well, that's when my trip goes completely CRAZY. I sit down at another 1/2 NL table with an incredible cast. Seated on my right is young/cool/punk with scruffy facial hair, the tobogan (sp??) pulled down to his eyes, with the shades and baggy clothes...yes, you know the guy. To my left is a decent player that seems to know what he's doing, but loves to tell everyone about implied odds/ all of the outs he has / and any other tidbit of poker info he's read in the latest poker book. To the right of the dealer is this huge bald guy that is in a Brett Favre jersey and makes this smiley face everytime he contemplates a move. I get very worried that I've stepped into a game with people that have lost their minds. My favorite character at the table is this small foreign player that has his hoodie and does this frantic little head move when he contemplates his all-ins. I set down expecting to just take all of their money only to find out this table is like a field of land-mines. Preflop raise up to $15 to $20 still gets 6-7 people in the pot. And then a post-flop bet of $50 still has 4-5 people in the hand.....I'm like, "Come on, people, you all can't have hit the board!!!" Oh well, money is going back and forth, back and forth....I counted 5 straight hands with all-in.....Little foreign hoody dude is involved in all of them. I start to feel sorry for the dealers there. They have to put up with this all the time, and the constant counting out of these all-in bets has to get frustrating and slows down the game. I finally make my move when I get all my money in on an A high straigt only to be called by a guy that's playing A-something. Well, I make about $200 on this stop, but I get out with my chips and vowel never to place a foot back into that poker room.

Finally get to sleep about 5 AM monday morning, so I went about 41 hours without sleep. I wake up at 9, go and enter Ballys 11:00 AM tourney and finish 2nd...win $500.00. I did get all of my chips in with pocket Qs, he had 8-6, and two sixes hit on the flop.....I lose!

I play the rest of the day at Bally's and head back to Honolulu only about $200 down. It was a very fun trip. I'll be back and have to fair better the next time around.