Arrived in Vegas last Tuesday and made it to my room at the Mirage by 6:30pm. I decided to go over to the Venetian to play in the 8:00 tourney. I knew this was a bad idea since I was already tired but I was so pumped up I just had to play. Ok, so I got my wish. I played like a donkey and was out walking the strip by 10:30. I guess it was good to get that impatient "I'm so excited to be here" play out of my system early and for limited risk.

My initial plan for this trip was to play more middle limit cash games than I have in the past. I ended up only playing in 2 cash games for a total of 2 hours. Mainly due to the fact that the tournaments here are so much better than in Chicago and I can play good middle limit games at home any time. I modified my plan so that if I made good bank in a tournament I would go take a shot at the 15-30 or 30-60 game at the Wynn.

Wednesday 9/26/07
Shot well in my tournament today breaking 99/100 in singles and 95/100 in the yardage event. Won $50 and a trophy for the yardage event. Nice start.

I had never played at Caesars so I decided to give the 7PM tourney a shot. There were 55 entries to start. I played well. Very well in fact. I was rested and focused and dialed in to my inflection points. I ended up taking 4th in that tourney for $660. After tip and $20 to a bubble pool walked away with around $430 profit. 1st place only payed like $1,700. Decent tournament but a lot of work for such a little first place.

Thursday 9/27/07
Had another decent day at the shoot winning another $50.

I decided to take Thursday off from poker and fart around town a little bit on Thursday. I did sit down to a 10-20 game at the Mirage at around 11pm. Bought in for $500 and immediately (like in the first 7 minutes) dropped $250. Playing like an idiot. Ok, so I get myself together and get my reads dropping another $50 over the next 40 minutes. The blinds come to me and I tell myself "one more orbit then out."

Well, I must have done something right since I get good cards and by the time the blinds come around I am up $25 for the game. C-ya later bye. This would have been a tremendously profitable game if I had my head in it. It played a lot like the 5-10 games around Chicago. Some decent players but they called down way too much and didn't raise hardly at all. That got me into trouble since I was calling way too much preflop in the beginning. when I got my wits about me and realized I was the only person at the table raising preflop I did ok. Even so, I was not playing in good form so leaving was the best choice at that time.

In a good mood I decided to play my annual game of craps. I hit 7-7-11 then hit three points in a row on the first roll after establishing each point. Crapped out, picked up my $160 profit and went to bed.

Friday 9/28/07
Ran 99 out of my first 100 targets in the 150 target singles championship event then missed 3 on the 5th trap. What an idiot I can be. Missed 2 more for a 144/150. shot Ok in the yardage event though and won another $100.

Played in the 8pm at the Venetian. 125 players, around $6K to first. Time to get my game on.

This was a Seniors hall of fame bounty tourney led by Oklahoma Johnny. It was also his 80th birthday. What a character. I started at a table with his wife. I played well, stuck to my game and ended up at a table with OK Johnny's daugher Sarah. Ok, now she can't be much more than 25. Funny girl. She busted out and was going through the iPod of a dude next to me and found that he had a Bette Midler song on his play list. "The Rose." That led to a rip roaring good time of ribbing.

Top 18 paid, and we are down to 23. I am sitting at 30K with an M=10. Blinds are 600/1200 and I raise to 4000 with AK offsuit from UTG. Late position player with around 18K shoves all in. I've been watching him and he has been adjusting his moves according to his inflection points and I've seen him make similar moves with AJ etc. I think for a second then call and regret it as he has Aces that hold up leaving me with 12K and the blinds. No luck and I'm out in 23rd. I broke my rule against calling away late in a tourney with AK but I was thinking about first place not 18th and a win there would have put me at 50K with the final table coming close. I simply have got to not make those calls with AK. It is not a calling hand. At least I piked up 3 bounties for $30.

Saturday 9/29/07
Shot doubles into a 30 MPH quartering wind today. That was fun. A 32" barreled trap gun with the over under barrels on it isn't exactly aerodynamic. More like swinging a sailboat to the target. Pulled out a 92 in the yardage event in the wind which was good enough to win my yardage class and another 100 bucks.

A friend of mine from work and his wife was in town tonight so I decided to head over to Caesars to find them. They were not in the pit yet so I played an hour of 1-3 NL. Get AA all in against KK and lose $300 when a king falls on the turn. "Checks Please!" I bought in again and sat there since I could not believe how little a clue these people have. No way should those people be playing no limit but I am happy they are. (I never knew that J-2 off was good for a 5XBB raise from UTG at a full table. I need to get my books out again...) Sat there for a while and just stayed even at 300 from my second buy in and leave to find my friends.

I find my buddy at a $25 Black Jack table in the main pit and buy in for 300. I sit there and play with him and another lady for 3 hours and make $450 being up 800 at one point. Now I feel better. We had a great time. Joey from New York was hands down the best BJ dealer I have ever had. Thanks Joey!

On a side note I will say that I am not a big fan of the Frat Party that Harrahs is turning Caesars into. Sure the 23 year olds in the little skirts are nice to look at but for crying out loud this is Caesars Palace. It seems Harrahs is hell bent on turning this icon into another of its 80's Vegas dives. Yuck. Seriously, Pussycat Dolls dealing blackjack? With no double down after split and double down only on 10 or 11? What a joke.

Sunday 9/30/07
Last day of my trapshooting tournament, 2 yardage events today. I posted a 93 and 91. Not bad but not good enough. Great tournament though. My hat's off to Steve Carmichael at the Las Vegas Gun Club for yet another spectacular Las Vegas Fall handicap trapshooting event.

Final night in Vegas and one more chance at glory. I buy in at the Venetian for the 8pm tournament and away we go. All the stars must have been lined up. After nearly a week in town with getting up at 7am to shoot all day and playing cards or screwing around every night I should be exhausted but I feel completely alert and relaxed. I stick to my game and after the first break manage to keep my M from 8 to 15 for the rest of the tournament. I make moves when I need to and lay down before I get committed in a bad spot. 50 people started and 5 are getting paid.

We get to the final table and are down to 7 when we go on break. First place pays 2700 and an even chop would be 1100. It would take 4th or higher to do better. I'm sitting with 25K out of 250K in play and one guy has over 100K. He understandably does not want to chop so we keep playing. It is a friendly table and we are all having fun. One guy that has been getting lucky on his all ins pushes with Q2 against two players and a board with K-K-10-10-6. Buh bye. The 6 of us left decide to take $100 off the first 2 places for 6th place and to play the rest of it out.

It all gets fuzzy from here but I have a great read on all these players and they are all playing very conservatively. I smell blood and start pressing. Before I know it I am the chip leader with 4 left. I take out 1 more in short order. We are now 3 and one of those two had been set up 2 hours before for the move I made on him next. Earlier in the tourney with an M=8 and the blinds going up in 2 minutes I pushed all in from the small blind with nobody behind against his BB. I had A-10 or something like that. I had him covered and knew he would fold with anything less than kings. It pissed him off a little bit that I just shoved all in. Step forward to this hand and I raise to 12K with 10s Jc. I think the blinds were 2000-4000 but I had over half the chips in play at this point. Flop comes 10 high with two spades and I shove all in. Villian only has another 20K and he looks at me and says "Were you planning on doing that anyway?" I just smile, he calls, I win.

Now we are heads up with me sitting at 210K and other guy at 40K. I raise one hand and he folds to me. On the next hand I get Queens in the small blind and call. He checks. Flop comes jack high and I check. He bets 12K and I call. Turn comes a king. Now, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a king at this point. He has not shown strength and I haven't seen him make a tricky play all night. Me on the other hand, I have thrown everything I have at them all night and he has seen 75% of it since we moved to the same tables. I check it to him and he bets 12K. I call. River comes a blank and I shove all in. He is sitting with only about 15K left and had to call with his J9. My Queens hold up and I win. Yee Freaking Haw.

I have cashed in a bunch of tournaments but this is my first win. I started playing in May 2002 right before the WPT hit the tube and poker went bug nuts. Anyway, after tip and the 100 bucks from first we put into the 6th place pool I cashed out $2,450.

Monday 10/1

Time to go home. This was a great trip, I cashed in 2 of 4 tournaments, should have cashed in 3 and shouldn't have played in the first one to begin with. All in all a good week. Best thing is that I hit this win too late to go blow it on the middle limit Wynn games!

I'll post my best outfits of the week in a separate thread.

--Scott