Flew in on the 13th of June and landed at 10:30 a.m. Quick cab to MGM and I tried the $20 trick and failed as they were supposedly booked solid. Got up to the room, clean and tidy,king bed with a north east view.Good enough for the wife and I.
My wife wanted to sit by the pool so that leaves me on my own to play poker. I head downstairs and sit at an open seat at a 1-2 game. I buy in for $300 and quickly survey the table and realize no big stacks at all. Biggest stack other than mine was roughly $225. How am I going to double up? Anyway play is pretty routine, no one getting out of line but I manage to somehow get down to about $175 and thenthe following hand occurs. Im in early position and look down to see pocket jacks. Most hands of late have been getting raised anywhere from $6-$12 so I just call the $2 in hopes of being able to 3 bet. Well someone does raise to $10 and 2 others call. Its on me and I reraise to $45 hopeing to just take it down. The original raiser folds but the first caller, whos sitting on about $200 gives a speech about getting ready to go because he's bored and proceeds to shove all in. 2nd caller folds and its back on me, I think about his speech and thr fact that he simply called the initial raise and figure Im ahead. We are heads up preflop and I show my jacks. At my local casino you are forced to show you your cards once all in and called so that was more force of habit. He does likewise and shows 10-10. Just my luck flop comes out 7 8 9, 2 hearts giving him the straight draw. Turn comes the jack I dont want to see but at least I still have outs. The river bricks and I lose my stack to the bored guy wanting to leave. Oh well thats poker. I get up and lose a couple hundred on slots, I know I know not smart and roulette. Meet up with the wife for supper at TAP ,order a burger and beer and definately dont leave hungry. We walk the strip for a bit and call it a night. Down $600

Saturday we wake up and grab a quick bite from the McD'S in MGM and head for the pool. Find a nice spot in the shade and we relax for a couple hours. Later on she feels like shopping and once again I'm free to play poker. I choose to play 1-3 at Bellagio and come out a slight winner on just making continuation bets and playing somewhat tighter than what I'm used to. Not to exciting. We meet for supper at Cheesecake Factory in Caesars and I was pleasantly surprised. We had never eaten here on our 10 or so trips to Vegas and were glad we gave it a try. Portions were HUGE and at a decent price. I ordered the grande burrito and couldnt even finish it let alone have room for dessert.
We walked around Caesars and I checked out the new poker room. It didnt look too bad, a lot more inviting out in the open and in view of people passing by. We played some table games and some slots and enjoyed quite a few drinks. It was nice just to wander around from casino to casino and not have a care in the world. Ended up back at MGM around 3 a.m. and was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Made some money at poker, even at table games and slots. Up $230 for the day but still down overall about $350