I have posted individual room reviews of each room I visited on my trip. Please see them as well for details of each room.

Got into Vegas about noon on Friday 1/13. Stayed at Excalibur (got casino rate thanks to the info on this web site). Figured everyone said the Excal. is a fish tank, so stay there an mop up. I played from about 1:30p.m. until dinner time (6ish) in the 2/4 limit. Up about $100. Met friends for dinner at Mandalay, then back to the Excal. Poker room to wait for my friend from Indy to get in at 10:00 p.m. PLayed 2/4 limit again from 8-10 pm (up about $80). Good start to the trip. My buddy shows up (he doesn't play), so we headed to the Olympic Gardens to catch up on old times and visit. (Yeah right !) Anyway, gave all my profits to the nice ladies at OG on Friday night.

Got back to the Excalibur about 2am Saturday morning. My buddy goes to crash, so I go back to the profit of the 2/4 limit table. Pulled an all nighter. Left at 6:15 am up about $150. Went and got my friend and headed to Mandalay to hold tables in the sports book for our group of 16 guys.

Spent most of Saturday in sports book at Mandalay (and took a nap). Saturday night, my buddy and I decide to do a Poker room crawl of the strip. Went to the MGM as I hadn't played there yet and it was just being finished last Jan '05 when I was in town. Played for about an hour (see my room report on MGM). I made money, but did not like the room. Too many punk ass 20-somethings trying to act like they're the next Poker God while sitting at 2/4 limit tables. WAY, WAY, WAY too much attitude and spending WAY too much of Daddy's cash.

Then we went up the strip to the Bellagio, where I played in the 4/8 limit game about an hour. Broke even in a very tight game. Great room, beautiful casino and a very well ran staff. Dealers, drinks, etc... all the best I've ever seen, but then its the Bellagio.

HIGHLIGHT OF MY TRIP: As I'm leaving, I walk past 'Bobby's Room' and see the Big Game. A few big names inside (Jen Harman, Eli Elezra, Phil Ivey).

Then as I'm about to walk away, Doyle Brunson comes out of the room from around the corner (I couldn't see him at first). We almost ran into each other! I apologized, and he just laughed and stuck out his hand and asked my name. As I stammered to remember who I was and shook his hand, he said, "come on down here, I got to get back to my room." So I walked out of the poker room with Mr. Brunson (he said call me Doyle - but I just couldn't) and he asked where I was from and if I was having a good time in Vegas. I told him how much I'd learned from his books and how much I enjoy watching him play and how great he has been for the game. To which he chuckled and replied, "Well, the game has been pretty good to me too." He said he had to get upstairs, and the two casino hosts that had joined us at the door, led him off to the elevators. What a great, down to earth guy. Just as friendly as you'd want to meet. And he stopped to talk with ME for about 5 mintues. Easily the highlight of my weekend in Vegas.

After I came down off cloud 9 (and explained to my non-poker playing friend who we had just met), we decided to make one more stop next door to check out the new room at Caesars.

My heart still racing from meeting Doyle, we went into Caesars looking for the poker room. Its a great room and well managed. I put my name on the list, but it was looking like it would take awhile (plus I was way tired by now - don't think I could have played very well). So we just rail-birded for about 30 minutes. Great room though, I want to go back and play it sometime. Headed back to the Excalibur at about 1:30am and crashed out.

Sunday morning (my friend took off - early flight), I headed down to the poker room to put my name on the 9am tourney list. Played extremely well despite my lack of sleep to this point (and caught 3 good races) to find myself at the final table with 4 of us left. The tourney capped out at 60 players, so it had a pretty good pot for a $25+10 buy-in. The four of us decided to take $200 off the top and play for 1st, then take the remaining pot and chop it four ways. I went out in 3rd when I flopped top two pair of AAQQ (I had AQ holed and flop hit AQ3)and moved all-in. One caller with pocket KK. He caught Runner-Runner for A high str8. So I took down $285 for my efforts.

Sunday Afternoon, I was back at the sports book at Mandalay for the football and ended up passing time in the 2/4 limit game while I watched the games. I didn't pay enough attention to the cards (too much football), so wound up down $60 after 4 hours of play. Good entertainment though. The poker at Mandalay is definitely stronger competition than anything I had all weekend at Excalibur. Not impossible, but you better play tight and not chase.

Finally at 7pm Sunday, jumped a cab to McCarran, and fell asleep on the plane going home.

What A WEEKEND !