If anyone was at Binion’s or the Nugget over the past week you might have seen me. I was wearing a blue or white Florida Gators hat.

Day 1 - My business plans were postponed and I left sunny Florida at 1:00pm on Tuesday (6/19) and arrived in Las Vegas at around 2:40pm that afternoon, I’ll never get used to the 3 hour time change. Work would have to wait and since I had already reserved everything in advance I might as well go to Vegas baby!! Flight was ok, I can’t stand inhaling other people’s exhales for that long of a time, watched “Rounders” to get myself worked up about being able to play poker for a nice length of time. It’s still one of those great feel good movies and perfect for the plane, made the ride seem shorter.

We were shuttled over to the new rental car place and I was quickly into my rental (Chrysler – some kind of car – wasn’t clean – and smelled funny). BTW- The new rental car place is great. Drove down Las Vegas Blvd and was amazed at the number of cranes and construction going on since the last time I was here which was over one year ago. Anyhow, sat in stop-n-go traffic for the extra twenty minute ride to Downtown where my son and I were staying at The Fremont Hotel. Nice place to rest your head at night, nothing to spectacular about the hotel, it’s always clean and they’ve always had a room when we needed one. My wife plays a lot of video poker and managed to get one of the nights for free. So, there are no complaints from me, especially since it’s across the street from where I mostly played poker – Binion’s. One thing I noticed this trip was the number of vagrants that are meandering downtown beneath the canopy on Fremont Street. I remember a time when you wouldn’t see them unless you went off to the side streets or before they built “The Experience” canopy. They may have been there before but I don’t remember them being as brazen as before with the begging and panhandling. By the time we got settled in I was itching to get to a table so my son and I practically sprinted back down and across the street. He plays Craps and Black Jack and an occasional poker tournament every now and again.

On to poker and food – My budget was “low-baller” so I quickly got into a 2-4 game at Binion’s. Gave the desk my card and she swiped it explaining they have a $2 comp rate per hour in the poker room. $100 gets you a full rack of blues and I get into an open seat without wait (Tuesday afternoon), time to have a few refreshments and relax. Played for about 2.5 hours with nothing exciting going on for a 2-4 game, then heard someone yell “Call security!!” from the Tournament area. One of the Binion’s Classic Tournaments ($150 LHE) was going. Apparently one of the players called someone an “f’ing a-hole” after a bust and they decided they were going to settle the dispute inside the joint. Well, the altercation never made it that far and one of the players ended up leaving swearing at the top of his lungs all the way out the door. After that, I was getting kind of hungry and noticed I had made a small profit of about $16. I figured I would play through the blinds and then find my son and go grab a bite to eat somewhere. I finally have the BB and get the following hand:

Ad5d (Monster BB suck-out hand for 2-4 LLHE)

Everyone throws in $2, SB completes, I check my monster - “Eighteen players wanna see a flop!!” says Buck, one of my favorite dealers at Binion’s.

Flop is: 3c, 2c, 4d - Cool, I just flopped my dinner and I casually check and so does everyone else, including button (what the hell, someone is holding one of those cards, this is 2-4?)

Turn is: Jd – Double cool for me!! SB checks, this time I throw my huge $4 bet into the middle and watch everyone fold until a middle position player (that just sat down the hand before) raised my bet. All fold to me and I reraise. MP calls.

River is: 2s – Ship it! I’m thinking….I bet my $4, MP reraises again, I reraise and we cap.

I flip up my proud straight, and he flips up his Jh2d for the full-house. You gotta love 2-4 LLHE.!!

I rack up what I have and the cashier hands me $82. Damn! One hand screws in me 2-4? Oh well, find my son and we go get the car and head back down to Ellis Island. For those of you that have not heard about Ellis Island, it’s one of those little known places that is off the strip. Not a fancy place, but a darn good place to fill your stomach when you’re in a crunch for cash. Did I say little known place? When we got there at around 5:30pm, the wait was 1.5 hours!! My son and I each played video poker at the bar right outside the restaurant on the same $20 for the entire wait while sipping on some of the home brew. For you beer drinkers - the Amber beer is absolutely incredible! Ellis Island serves a platter of ½ BBQ Chicken, ½ Rack of Ribs, Corn on the Cob, Cole Slaw, Baked Beans, and Garlic toast for a nice price of $6.95. The beer was prepaid since we were playing video poker at the bar. It’s always good, very good I might add. We were out of there for less than $18, including tip!

Back to the Hotel – I decided to head across the street to the Golden Nugget. It’s really a nice hotel. The pool side aquarium is incredible! But let me critique the new poker room, it’s not that great. The place really looks nice but the lighting was absolutely terrible. It’s too dark. I think they tried to create an ambience of a cozy room which they did but they forgot to increase the wattage or lumen output on the lights. The dark colors do not help with the light levels. IMO – it’s an accident waiting to happen from one of the many elderly people that I saw trying to squeeze between tables. Also, if you’re seated at the ends of the tables, it’s tough to see the flop. So, I moved to the middle of the table, and it was better but not by much. And, they have one dealer (I do not remember the name) but he’s old, I mean real old, and he can’t count, as in the number of chips in the pot (more to come on this in day two). I didn’t catch any decent cards so I started playing like every tourist that comes into town. If it was suited, I’m seeing a flop. If it was paint, I’m seeing the flop. If I paired the board, I’m calling at least to see the turn (crazy but not THAT crazy). I ended up down $4 after my session there. FWIW - One good note about the room, they have a high hand jackpot. As I walked into the room, they had just finished paying a person on the table next to me for hitting quad 3’s, something around the ballpark of $180. So if you had a pocket pair, you were in it all the way to the river. After that session, it was pretty late (in my time zone) and I was feeling the waves tiredness come over me, or was it the cranberry and absolute? I was in the room sleeping by 2:00am Vegas time, 5:00am Florida time.

Day two – Woke up at about 7:30am and went to breakfast at The Fremont buffet. The guy that makes the omelets makes them incredibly good. I look forward to them every time we stay there. The breakfast buffet is your standard Vegas fair. Nothing too pricey but will get you started in the morning and the food is good. After breakfast we went back to Binion’s to sign up for the 10:00am tournament. It’s a $50 no re-buy that gets you T2000 in chips. It’s very basic, but very fun. My home tournaments are modeled around this structure. The Classic Tournament’s were played later in the afternoon, and I did not partake in these events. In hindsight, I wish I had. The 10:00am morning tournament I signed up for had 68 players and only 67 actually played. I have no idea what happened to the no-show entrant. Early in the tournament, I started out very slow and ended up folding marginal hands to larger re-raises. By the time the first break came, I was one of the short stacks at my table however; I was starting out the next level of blinds on the button and there were only three tables left. The first hand after the break was uneventful, I folded Ad, 8c to a large raise from MP which was good because the raiser had KK and ended up hitting another K on the flop which busted the other short stack that called holding the same hand I had.

After that player was busted, a player moved from another table named “Cowboy”. All the dealers knew him and the dealer at my table warned everyone at our table the frenzy was about to begin because we’ll have a “pro” at the table. At first I was somewhat intimidated, but then wasn’t when I realized he didn’t have very many chips. “Cowboy” was very a friendly and pleasant guy. The whole table was beginning to get acclimated to one another in a conversational way except for One Old Nit. I stole a couple of blinds just to remain in the game through each orbit waiting for something I could double up on when I finally get this hand:

The blinds are 400/800, I have 2100 in chips remaining and I’m UTG holding QdJd.

I quickly move all-in hoping I could take it down right there and make it through the emanate blinds. All players including the button fold. OON was in the BB and the SB was a gal vacationing from Nebraska. Nebraska calls my bet and OON moves all in. Oops, I’m dead; Nebraska folds to get out of the way.

OON flips up Ac10h

Flop is: 7c Qh Qs Turn: 9d River: 6c

I double and get a “Nice move” from the Cowboy. The OON still had the biggest stack and when I check the only other remaining table I realized I had a shot at making it to final table. A couple hands later I’m on the button and I look down at AKo. Two players had called the BB and I make it another T1000. SB folds and BB which is the Cowboy calls my bet. The previous two limpers get out of the way.

Flop is: 3s 5c Jh

The Cowboy moves all in and has me covered. I go in the tank and end up laying my hand down. As the Cowboy is starts to throw his hand away he shows the Jd and asks me if I had AQ or AK. I tell him that he had me beat and we left it at that. A few moments later we are told to grab our chips and move to the final table. Cowboy’s last play stung me a bit and I find I’m tied for last place and there are 9 of us at the table. The top 7 players are in the money. When play started again, OON was still the chip leader. Cowboy proposed to work a deal to pay the bubble the entry fee back, which I was rooting for except OON who didn’t want to chop or make any deals.

The other short stack was also in desperation mode and within the first five hands moved all-in. His K7 does not hold up against a Hispanic man’s A5 and we’re down to the bubble. I’m just trying to stay out of the way folding about everything. I survive the blinds but I realize I’m very, very short stacked (T4000). Another player moves all-in and his cards do not hold up and we have our final 7, and I’m one of them, short but still in it. Very next hand I get AQh and I push in. All fold to Cowboy who calls. He flips up K9o. No help for him on the board and I get lucky to take it down with “A” high. The next few hands players were feeling froggy. OON moves all in but loses to another player and severely cripples his stack. Next hand, MP (now short) moves all in, I call from the BB and bust him when my 89d pairs on the turn against his K6. Next hand OON moves all in, Hispanic man calls him again and busts him. It was a complete frenzy and I finished in third and collected $270. My losing hand was UTG with 88, big stack calls with his AJ and he turns an A. I was ecstatic to finish that high and very pleased since it helped my little bank roll.

After the tourney, my son and I grabbed a bite to eat at the coffee shop using my $2/hour rate our bill was $.49. After that I played some other table games with my son. For the next few hours I played craps (+$30) and Black Jack (+$80). My son became very friendly with a couple of young females at one of the BJ tables and convinced them he could teach them how to play craps. So he headed off to the El Cortez with two young ones. Ah, to be single again. With my gambling money now hovering around $500, I wanted to try some higher limit poker. I looked for some 3-6 but the Nugget and Binion’s only had waiting lists for those interested and I was tired of playing 2-4. The 1-2 NL games looked juicy but I was way under-rolled and I didn’t want to lose my recent profits in one hand. So I jumped into very pleasant 4-8 kill game at Binion’s. On previous trips I was thoroughly beaten up at 4-8. In this session I played 4 hours straight up ABC poker and made a nice profit of +$102. Only hand I remember in this session was I held KK and limped in with 5 players. The flop was 10 K 3, all check to me and I bet $4, 2 callers both check the turn X card, and I bet $8. Both fold. Like I said, it was a pleasant ABC game. Most raises were respected and some big hands were lost on the river. I only saw one person dig for a rebuy. As soon as I had 1 rack of blue I called it a night. Went back to the room and knocked when I noticed the “Do not disturb” sign hanging on the door. My son answered, he let me in. I guess his craps lesson paid off, as the bathroom door was closed with the light on and I heard the toilet flush. He said he’d be back later; they were going to go grab something to eat. Not sure what time he made it back. Didn’t matter to me, I was tired so I called it a night.

Day three – Not a whole lot of excitement this day, which was our last. Bought into the $50 Binion’s tourney again. This time I was completely card dead but managed to finish in 19th place way out of the money. So I ran across the street to the cave (Nugget) and got into their $65 tourney (T2000). It’s a rebuy tourney which you can purchase at anytime prior to the first break and you can re-buy as many times as you like. There were 37 players in this tournament. Three hands were already played and I managed to sit down in the BB and saw a flop which got me two pair. I bet out quickly and only get one caller. Turn gets me a full house and I check and other player checks. River is a rag and I try and squeeze minimal bet. Player folds and says he only had “A” high. Folded quite a few hands all the way to the first break and went ahead and bought the $40 rebuy for an additional (T3000) which proved to be a good move. Two hands after the break I get AQh in MP. I move all-in and button quickly calls, he has me well covered, blinds fold and he turns over KK. Ouch!

Flop is: Q Q 3

The flop holds up for me and I double through one of the big stacks. I catch a couple of good hands and manage to take down some decent sized pots. We’re just about to move to the final table, when I get AQs again and I’m on the button. All players fold and I make it an additional T2000 to go, trying to steal the blinds and end the hand. BB moves all in with his remaining T3800 and I reluctantly call. BB has JJ and I get no help on the board so now I’m kind of short again. The other table is still playing their previous hand so the director yells for us to continue playing. Next hand I get pocket 33. All fold to me I push all in and the SB (same player as last hand) calls me again. He flips up K7 and I have a chance to double up. Flop is no help for both of us, Turn is a rag, and the river brings the 7. I’m done. Found my son and we ate lunch once again and did some souvenir shopping before heading back to the airport.

A couple of notes – I like Binion’s poker room, I always have. The $2 per hour comps is just fine by me. The Nugget’s room is way to dark and feels like you’re playing in a cave. If it wasn’t for the high-hand jackpot I probably would not play there. Also, one of the OLD dealers literally told me, after I had asked politely how much the bet was, “You figure it out.” I couldn’t see the bet size because the lighting was so damn terrible. WTF kind of answer is that?!? After the hand I explained to him I had trouble seeing the bet and the player did not announce loud enough for me to hear his raise. The dealer says “We all have down falls sir” Huh? He obviously was way past retirement and there’s not an old folks home that would deal with his crap so he works at the Nugget to give tourists a hard time. For eats - Try Ellis Island’s platter deal, you won’t be disappointed. If you eat the breakfast at the Fremont; don’t stand in the buffet line, go to the Café line and you’ll get seated right away and then tell your server you’re having the buffet. While we were out to Ellis Island we went by the Rio to see if there were any famous players hanging around. I did not see anyone I recognized so we left without any autographs but I did get a nice WSOP T-Shirt.

Hope you enjoyed the read – I can’t wait to come back!