I spent 5 incredible days in Vegas last week from Oct. 2 through Oct. 6. I was joined by four friends on a "guys only" poker trip. We left Edmonton early Monday morning and were at the tables by 11:30 AM. We started out by playing the 11:30 tourney at Paris. There were 40 players and the blinds were every 20 minutes. I highly recommend this tourney as the entry was only $45 and the blinds were quite managable. I played tight aggressive, caught some good hands and was sitting pretty good with about half the field gone. Then it happened, the first suckout of the week. Only the big blind and myself were in the hand, as I had raised preflop to 2 times the BB with A-Q of Diamonds. Flop comes A-K-K(2 clubs, 1 diamond), I bet, BB goes all in. I thought for a moment that he may have a king, but something said that he was weak, so I called as I had him covered about 3-1. He flips over Q-Q, which leaves me in the lead, until runner, runner clubs gives him a flush!!! Only lasted a few more hands until my J-J got craked by A-4 and an ace come on the turn. None of us made the final table so we moved on to play some limit at the Flamingo.

Here we played some of the loosest $2-4 I've ever seen. Needless to say, what I lost at the table, I made back in Crown & Cokes. After some dinner and a few more drinks, we ended up back at the Aladdin. We all got into the $3-6 game as there were 2 tables going. Had some good hands and played for about 4 hours, ending the night up about $60.

The second day started at the Paris 11:30 tourney again. This time only 20 players, and I ran into A-A, with my A-Q to leave in 12th spot. Two of my buddies chopped first and second, so I ended up getting my entry fee back. We then ended up playing some $3-6. I enjoyed the game here, lots of nice players, some good, some bad, but all in all a good experience. Ended up leaving about $30 ahead after 3 hours, so a decent start to the day. Later that night we played at the Mirage which is an excellent room. From the room, to the tables, dealers, and service, this was an excellent experience. I sat down at a $3-6 table, and to my right was a twin of Gus Hansen. The funniest part, was that he was from Denmark too, and he raised every hand just like Gus. To top things off, there was a crazy lady at our table, honestly, she was cookoo for cocoa puffs. Between eating chocolate chip cookies, chanting to herself and speaking in some crazy language, she certainly kept us entertained. I highly recommend the Tom Collin's here, it was the best drink of the week. Ended up down about $80 here, but the entertainment was worth it!!!

Day 3: We played $3-6 at Paris again. After about 5 hours, cashed out up $75. The table started out slow, so I played 3 hands blind all the way through the river. I ended up winning 2 of them, and got the table going, so it ended up being a positive ice breaker. Later that night we ended up at Caesars Palace. I like the new room, even though it's a little on the quiet side. The $3-6 table I was at ended up having the largest $3-6 pots I've ever seen hand after hand. Pots were no less than $60 and some got up to the $300 mark.There were 5-6 players to each flop and never less than $6 pre flop. I raked in a $250 pot with quad 7's. Unfortunately, they don't hae high hand payouts, which really would have topped things off. About an hour later I took in another decent pot with a straight flush. I had 2-6 clubs in the BB. Called the pre flop raise to $6, flop came 3-5-K(3-5 of clubs). Turn was a 9, no club, and then the miracle river was the 4 of clubs. Only problem was that we were heads up and the other guy was all in for his last $12 after raising my $6 bet. Again, no high hand payout!! The best part though was the Italian guy named Dave at our table. I bugged him all night about looking like a mobster, then as he was leaving, I went over to shake his hand. We shook hands, said a few words and then he grabbed my hand and put it on his side, and sure enough he was carrying a gun!!! He then says, "I gotta go see a guy that owes me some money" and winks at me and leaves. Awesome!!! Mobster or not, he'll always be a mobster when I tell that story!!!

Day 4: Was shopping day for the wives, so no morning poker. We ended up at MGM in the afternoon and played there for about 5 hours. Nice room, nice ambience, but I really didn't like the tables. I ended up cahsing out $85 up, so it wasn't all bad. If your looking for SNG's, this is the place to go. 1 SNG was always running and a new list was being formed. We ended up back at the Flamingo again, played some more terrible $2-4 as it had the only seats available. Left after an hour to head back to Aladdin. We played some $3-6 here and saw some of the worst poker play ever. I was card dead for 2 hours but caught 2 hands before leaving and cashed out $25 to the positive.
Day five: Last day in Vegas, played some $3-6 at Paris agian and then moved to Bally's. I had a great run here. The players were decent here and there was actual strategy involved. Caught 5 winning hands in a row, only bad part was no kill pot being played. Still cashed in up $165 for 3 hours of play.

All in all, I highly recommend the Paris tourney's, $3-6 at Paris, Mirage and Caesars. As well, 2 of my buddies suggest the $1-2 NL at Bally's and Flamingo.

Thanks to everyone for your trip reports, they certainly help in choosing where to go no matter what your bank roll.