Arrived in Vegas about 3:30PM, checked into the Flamingo at the airport - where there was no one in line - and hopped in a cab to get to the Strip. Traffic was nightmarish as there was an accident somewhere, but then again it was rush hour on a friday afternoon.

After dropping off the luggage in the room and meeting the Cali boys at Bugsy's bar for shots, the bambling began in earnest. Initially up $100 at Pai Gow, then down $200. Figured this was a sign to play some real poker so I ventured over to the expanded Flamingo poker room (well, expanded since I was in Vegas last April), and was immediately sat in a 1/2 NL game. Not much happened for the 80 minutes I was able to play before heading off to dinner at the Paris buffet. Down about $20, but at least $5 of that was for tipping on drinks.

After dinner I headed up to the TI, getting there about 9:30. It's a small room, but was seperated from the main casino which kept it quiet. Debated about playing the tourney, but sat down with $400 at a 1/2 NL table. Was able to get over $700 at one point, but after four hours of play I walked with $406. Drink service was pretty bad - one cocktail who could never bring water with my alcohol because her tray was so full. Got fed up and bought a couple bottles from the shop just down the hall. The girl to my left got 4-Q's which held up as the second high hand of the day, but she burned through about $200.

Headed back down to the brand new Planet Hollywood to play in their 2am tourney. There ended up being only 20 players with 2 rebuys which meant that the top 4 got paid. When we got down to 5 there were two big stacks, one on each side of me, and three of us with about 5-6k when blinds were 1k-2k. When I was big blind I got lucky with everyone folding around. Next hand UTG goes all in, I fold but the big stack in the big blind calls and wins putting the rest of us in the money. Next hand the other small stack went all in from the big blind and went out essentially handing me 3rd place for $189. Not bad for a $60 buy in. The structure is very good here - 4k in starting chips, 20 minute blinds. Over the course of the weekend the were replacing the felts with PH specific felts. Made it to bed at about 5am.

Woke up at about 8:30 as others in the room were stirring and I'm a very light sleeper. Hit the buffet in the Flamingo even though I was still full from the night before. After breakfast the whole group walked back to the TI. I lasted a couple hours at blackjack and pai gow before losing another $200, so I decided to head back to the room for a nap before the 2pm Tourney at PH. Much better turnout for this - 70 people with a couple rebuys. I couldn't catch a thing while my friend two seats to my right caught pocket rockets three times in the first hour. He was able to build up a big enough stack, and play well enough, to get down to the final 20, but his A-10 was cracked by A-5 when the 5 paired on the flop. I was out before the first hour was up so I decided to play some 1/2NL. Bad choice as I lost another $100+ in about an hour. Deciding that I was some sort of gambling vampire who should play during daylight hours I went and worked out for an hour at the Flamingo spa/gym to get some of my anger over my terrible play out of my system.

After a good dinner at Buca di Beppo we walked to the Hard Rock, and after losing $100 at Pai Gow I had to do something I've never done in Vegas - go to the ATM. Decided to switch it up and play Let it Ride for some reason. Apparently my friends left around midnight to go hit Spearmint Rhino so it's probably a good thing that they didn't find me as I somehow made $850 in 5 hours. Back to the room at 5am again.

Up at 9am, I stayed away from the tables except to watch friends play. Placed a few bets on the Nuggets/Spurs game and ended up watching it in the Wynn sports book. It was alright, but I prefer the MGM. Dinner at PF Chang's, then up to the TI where I ran in LV Michael. Said hi as he was leaving, and a 1/2 table was breaking up. Too late for the tourney so I went across the street to the Venetian where I had to wait about 15 minutes to get into a 4/8 limit game. There were some good players, some very bad players, including a couple who would chase 2 outers to the river. One guy had been doing very well and had well over $500 on the table - very impressive when it's all in $1 chips. My first hand I caugt an A high straight to win about $60. Two hands later in the BB with Qh9h I ended up busting a guy when the Ah hits on the river, giving him a set of Aces but losing to my flush. He was not happy to say the least. Played till about 2:30am, up $70. The cocktail service was very fast, the uniforms distracting - in a good way :). When I sat down they had just gotten down to the final table from their noon tourney. They were down to 2 players when I left. That's a looong day.

Woke up at about 7 as the roommates were packing for their flights/drives. Went back to the Planet Ho for the 10am tourney. The room was dead when I got there at 9:30 - not a single game spread. 32 players were in the tourney though this time I only made it to the final table. Top 4 paid. Played 1/2NL for about only 90 minutes, finished up $80, as I had to go to the airport for my 3pm flight back to Denver. Overall a fun, if not profitable trip. At least I ended up down only a couple hundy after food and rooms. Next year I need add a full day before the rest of the group gets in to play one of the big tourneys and not worry about being exhausted.