HEY this is my report all the way from South Korea, includes a stupid amount of time in poker rooms with up and down results. Just to say I didn’t take notes bu my memory is pretty good. The only thing that might be wrong is the days, the time difference so screwed with my head so if I met anyone on a day that was wrong I apologize.

Travel: My traveling there was long but ok. Leaving at 4AM I had to get a 5 hour bus to the airport in Seoul from where I live and then I had a 3 hour wait for my flight with United to San Fransisco. Btw how beautiful is San Fransisco from the air, it’s now definitely on my to do list. Anyway was an easy enough flight even if long and then my hop to Vegas went without a hitch. Luckily I only had a carry on and got through pretty quick however I got totally screwed by the cab driver to get to the Imperial Palace, 30 Bucks! What!!!! Oh well I’ll be sure from now on to always specify no tunnel.

Accommodation: I got given an Imperial Palace room that overlooked the strip and I knew about the noise from Harrahs. It was Great, like surprisingly great. The room was huge, bed was good with a balcony overlooked the carnival court, elevators were quick. I pretty much had none of the problems I had read about before and would happily stay there again. In fact the only difference there was between the Bellagio was the Bellagio obv had nice décor, a much much bigger bathroom and was less the noise, but for a solo trip the IP was great.

Ok Now onto poker, of which pretty much the whole trip. There was the odd other thing but it’s about 90% poker.

Day 1 – Sunday. Well I got there about 3pm and instead of going straight to bed I went and played, bought in for 200 and the IP and played pretty horribly. I didn’t make the call on the K high board with top pair and a flush draw as I have said in the hand analysis but the over bet my two pair into a flopped flush. After dropping the 200 in about an hour I decided bed time was right and went to sleep and woke up just before 12, went down and lost some more but slightly slower at a fun 2/4 table, but even on there my luck was out when I managed to lose a big by 2/4 standards pot with a full house beaten by a one outer 4 of a kind. Got drunk, went to bed.

Day 2 – Monday. My luck continued today, waking up too late to make the super sats for the Caesars World Series event and so just played a bit of 1-2 and continued to dump to the poker community. I played the 7pm Planet Hollywood and was totally card dead but was happy enough with my play, not going out till just before the 2nd break in a race. Went back to the IP and donated again to the 2/4 game while playing with some cool people but just sitting there getting drunk till about 9am! I can’t remember a thing of that session apart from my wallet was quite a bit lighter.

Day 3- Tuesday. After getting the I’m in Vegas syndrome out of my body I decided I’d go to the Secret Garden at Mirage, chilled out, that’s a good break from poker if anyone wants something to do on the cheap and then I headed over to Planet Hollywood for the 2pm tourney and to watch Man Utd beat Barca. This tournament again I was happy with my play, just after the first break I get JJ and it all gets in against AJ, twice this happened in Planet Hollywood tournaments and everytime my Jacks didn’t hold up. This is a call out to The OD who happened to crack my jacks a few days later but hey that’s how it goes.
Headed over to Paris to get slowly drunk playing Video Poker. Well I hit a couple of 4 of a kinds, nothing huge because I was playing 2 coins at 25c and after talking to the Barman for a couple of hours decided I’d play the Paris Tournament even though the structure is horrible as is the starting chips. Basically it’s a luck fest, but it was full of conventioneers and I managed to chop it 3 ways for just under 400 bucks. Luckily my lucky had started to change, and not to jinx it I went to bed happy with my win.. My solid play had finally been rewarded a bit so I went back and played some 2/4 an amazingly turned 40 bucks into 220 in a quite a short time. I was playing with some of the guys I’d played with already so my raises got respected by them and I managed to take down some pots uncontested and we were playing half kill and I managed to pick up some good hands on those pots.
Btw Earl of Sandwich is great! I highly recommend it to anyone who needs something quick and delicious.

Day 4- Wednesday. Today I went to the Stratosphere, which is a cool play to go, apart from the walk between the Sahara and the Strat, but going up there once is a must do, as are the thrill rides. I managed to get back to the PH just in time to enter late for the 2pm and had no luck again when a Q7 all in raise was called by me with KK to which I lost with a rivered straight. Steaming I went to the NY NY and went on their roller coaster, which is cool and then stayed at the ESPN Zone until the 7Pm tourney at PH in which I met The OD which was cool but he again took me out with my JJ to his AJ.

Day 5 – Thursday. Played the PH 2pm and made the first actual mistake of only 2 I made in tournaments while I was there. A minimum raises under the gun folded to me in the BB, who had already folded some big hands in the BB to raises, normally a raises and a re-raise (Once with 1010 and once with JJ) and I found AK, went all in and got called by AA. I didn’t luck out but decided to Play the 7pm, in which I took the 4th with that horrible 4th placed bet which I posted in the hand analysis forum. Still pretty happy with my Tournament displays I decided to play pretty exclusively tournaments on my final day and see how I’d do.

Day 6 – Friday. Woke up as late as possible cause I didn’t have a room for the Friday night. Played the 12 imperial palace tourney, it’s badddddddd, but I made only my second mistake. Ran KQ into AA with again a min raise from under the gun. I’ve learnt my lesson now. Ran over to the PH and managed to get 3rd and played pretty much as good as I can play. Only downer on that tourney was a true Hollywood guy, asking for time all the time and just hitting absolutely everything,a nd I’m talking all in way behind that I saw 3 times and hitting runner runner for a flush, totally sick. A guy from Michigan, a very good player I thought ended up chopping for first with him but with the diference in skill he shouldn’t have, so that was a nice near 500 bucks. Tournament finished about 10 mins before the 7pm and I played in that too, playing really well again and actually getting a few people say they weren’t surprised I got so deep in the 2pm, which was nice. I went out with 2 tables left from this one, just a usual race with my nemesis JJ against AJ, which happens all the time too me!!!!
Went and played 2/4 for a bit and made a little of a drunk donkey, who was just sooooo annoying and then I went over to the 1/2 and turned 150 into nearly 400, just playing as well as I had been and not getting those beats.

Travelling back was bliss, slept everywhere from Vegas Airport to the Bus Home which was great. If you get the chance Asiana Airlines are awesome, on the way back I got steak and roast potatoes on the flight! Unbelieveable!

My trip was cool if not that successful. I came back down a few hundred dollars because basically my cash game play just ain’t good enough, but I can improve. My reading of players has hugely improved. Those last two days I made some really good lay downs including AQ suited pre flop with only a min-raise from under the gun which would have ruined one of my tourneys. I just knew he had KK, which when someone else went all in he had it, and I also, in a tourney managed to lay down trip tens against trip queens on the flop, again a huge lay down totally read based.

There is no experience like live experience and I am 100 percent sure it has improved my game, only thing is I can only play online now for at least 7 months so I’m gonna start taking it seriously and try and build a bankroll. I’m sure the game can be beat and I’m sure I’m on the right way to becoming a good player but I still have huge gaps in my cash game experience even if I am happy with my tournament play.

Thanks for reading and any advice would be greatly appreciated and I listen to all advice if it’s criticism or complimentary!!!

Thanks. Scott