I hit the Strip almost precisely 9 hours after I left the Bay Area, a long drive during which I basically stopped only once, to get gas and food in Bakersfield. It was the start of a 7-day trip that included my birthday. The hotel where I stayed was easy to find. So I'll start there.

The hotel used to be the Greek Isles, but was bought last spring by the Clarion chain. It's basically tucked in on the street behind Encore. And what a find. It's not about luxury, but the location and cost were well worth it. I found it on booking.com. The weekday nights weren't the cheapest ($33), but the weekend nights were a real steal ($55). It's a tiny (by Vegas standards) hotel, 12 floors and a bit more than 200 rooms. The casino is even tinier, with maybe 4 or 5 dozen slot machines and nothing else. I asked for a quiet room on an upper floor and got an east-facing room on the 9th floor. It wasn't exactly "quiet," as the rather noisy HVAC was nearby, but the in-room A/C wasn't exactly quiet, and it drowned out the HVAC noise. The room was quite large, with a comfortable bed, a desk, an OK TV, and a recliner. Hot water came almost immediately in the bathroom. And not only are there no resort fees, but the in-room wifi is free, free, free.

I decided to walk over to the Venetian and settle in with a small game. The walk took about 25 minutes, not bad at all. On the corner on the strip was a Walgreens and a 7-Eleven, and a little strip mall with a few restaurants and other stores. Very convenient. Got to the Venetian and asked for a $4/$8 game and got a seat right away in a game they were just starting. ON a Monday night, 3 $4/$8 games going. Wow. I found a flopaholic on my immediate left. There were a couple of over-aggressive players, so I opened up my game a bit. Once, one raised and after a few cold callers, I called with A6s and flopped the flush. I played only 2 hours and finished up $88.

I should note, so much at the Venetian seems dirty and worn. The felts are dirty, the chips are filthy, and the cards are gray and worn.

Got back to the hotel and they had a stack of QVegas magazines on the desk. Added to the badge on the hotel's home page, made for a comfortable feeling. A nice little rag to learn about nightlife--as if I planned to be anywhere but the poker tables.

I was up early and over to the Mirage to play promotion poker. The game was getting pretty loose. Once it was raised PF and I found KK in the SB and 3-bet it. and it got capped PF with 4 people in. Flop was KQx w/ 2 clubs. I bet, all called. Turn was another club, I bet, 2 called. River was a 4th club, it was checked around, and I still won with top set. Another time I did a LP limp with K-10s, flopped a 10, hit a turn 10, and got paid off by a QQ who didn't raise PF. Played for 2 1/2 hours and finished up $68. I had plans for Tuesday.

(Up $156)

First was a job. I had applied for a technical writer job at Bally Technologies. So I headed over to their office to drop off another resume, in person, and reiterate my interest. All that work, and nary a peep anyway. Bummer.

My next plan was to find Cheeburger Cheeburger. But as I left, I started hearing a scraping under my car. I pulled over and saw something stuck between the front wheels. I tried to pull it out, but it was stuck. So I changed my plans and found the nearest Honda dealer, which turned out to be over on Sahara. Turns out the faring that covers the undercarriage between the front wheels and covers the A/C and wiring had come partially off. They pulled it all the way off and ordered the part, with a $300 estimate. And off I went to have a lazy evening, the cheeseburger having to wait.

Back to the hotel and a walk over to the Venetian again. Sat down and found a big stack on my left. Ick. Raised w. AA and got paid off on a 10-high rainbow board. A super-loose player hit a 10 on the river holding A-10 vs. my AK on an A-high flop. Moved to get to her left. Game began to get more aggressive PF. I was getting small and medium pairs when the PF betting was most intense, and never hit my set. Lost AK to KJ on a J-10-x-K-J board. With A-10 I'm third to A-5o and 42o (both of whom called PF raises) on a A-6-5--7-8 board. And after some more rough hands like that and after almost 5 hours I decide to leave, down "just" $133.

(Up $23)

Wednesday morning I'm back at the Mirage for more $3/$6 promotion poker. I start out card dead, but then go on a mini-run, getting KK twice in one orbit, losing one to both a gutshot that hit and AA. Just after 1, I finally get my first AA at the Mirage, but it's after the promotion, so it's good that they held up. I leave up $65 to head over to the Honda dealer.

(Up $88)

At the Honda dealer, I find they ordered the wrong part. They ordered the one for the Civic, not the Civic Hybrid.

Back to the hotel, and then another walk over to the Venetian. Here is where I have some bad experiences. There are three $4/$8 tables going and a short list. I watch the games a bit and decide which game I think will be most profitable for me. (I will be wrong, but that's not the point.) When I am called, it's to a different table, so I ask the person at the podium for a table change to the table I want, and he replies, curtly, "Find someone in a suit." WTF?? I look around. No one to be seen. I head toward the rear desk, find someone there, and explain what I wanted. He says that it's not his responsibility, but he will find out whose it is. He walks me back to my initial table, and at about the same time a woman comes along, who apparently is the floor for that area of the room. She takes my request--and writes it on a small pad of paper she's carrying with her. Huh??

As I suspected, when the tables got full and a seat opened up a the table I wanted, she was nowhere to be found, and someone was called to that table. Fortunately, the floor was coming down the aisle, and I jumped up and asked her for that seat.

Once I got settled in, I had my first and only (minor) celebrity/pro sighting of the trip. Hal Lubarsky, the almost-blind player featured on ESPN a couple of years back, was playing two seats to my left. He was playing fairly tight, and apparently, as were a few others, waiting for a new $8/$16 game to open up. He was gone before I ever had a chance to strike up any sort of conversation. Unfortunately, too, I had a really big stack on my immediate left. When I got the chance, I got a seat change to put that big stack on my right. Not that it made all that big a difference. I got two big hands clobbered early, losing QQ to AA and flopping top set on a KQx board to J-10 hitting a turn A. With several limpets, I call a LP raise in the BB with 97o and see a 744 board. I check, the PF raiser bets, the button calls, and I CR. The original raiser folds but the button calls. I check a turn 10 that puts 3 clubs on the board, and the button checks also. A Q hits the turn, I check, button checks, and my 7s hold up. WTF was the button calling with? Later I raise with 2 red kings, only the BB calls, and 3 spades hit the flop. the 4th spade hits the river and the BB wins with----62o--with the 2 being a spade. And then the table began getting really wild. And I stopped getting and playable hands, for the most part, and when I did, I missed flop after flop. For the last couple of hours it was nothing but a downhill grind, and I decided to end it when my initial buy in of $160 ran out.

(Down $72)

One thing really bothered me too about this session here. A player joined the game who purported to have just come back from Afghanistan, not as a soldier, but as private security. At one point, someone commented on his watch. He replied by saying he'd gotten it as the "spoils of war," the implication being he'd taken it. He was offered $100 for it, and he replied that is was worth $2K. I certainly respect our soldiers who have gone off to war (whatever you feel about the war itself), but soldiers of fortune who profiteer additional by stealing items of value during their deployment I have no respect for whatsoever. (It didn't help that he was on a crazy getting-drunk heater raising and reraising with about any two cards and hitting way, way too often.)

I decided that the $4/$8 game at the Venetian was getting too wild for my style of game, a too-high variance game, at least for this trip.

Even though I got a late start in the morning, I'm starting the $3/$6 game at the Mirage just before noon. For the first time in many sessions, I actually get AA before 1:00--and I forget and raise. The makeup of the table was such that I would have gotten at least 2 or 3 or 4 callers--but someone made it 3 bets 9with what turned out to be JJ. I ended up making a wheel and taking a decent pot though. The game is good, but I'm mostly card dead, save for flopping J-10-9 with KQ and getting paid off. I have to leave early to head over to the Honda dealer, otherwise I'd stay, but because I have to leave before the dealer service closes, I'm down $47.

(Down $119)

At the dealer, they have he part and get it in quickly--and the bill come sin at $100 less than the original $300 estimate. Sweet!

I decide to take a break from evening poker.

It's Friday the 13th. I wonder if it'll be a lucky day. I get the $3/$6 game going at the Mirage shortly after 10. I'm card dead early. The game is good, and I can't do anything about it. I can't generate any "illusion of action," as I tweet. It's frustration. I get AA, hit a KQJ flop, and still can't get 'em cracked. Officially, I'm now 0 for 6 in getting aces cracked. I'm talking with a player and he starts asking some strange questions, finally figure out that it's an fellow AVPer, Local Rock, who is a really nice guy, and rather rocky too. I have yet another strange limit experience. After 3 PF limpets, the button goes all-in for 5. I find QQ in the SB and make it 3 bets for 8. 6 people see a flop of QJx. I bet, 3 callers. 10 on the turn, I bet, 1 caller. River K, I check, the last caller bets, I make a crying call--and win! River bettor had a naked K. I don't' know how you bet a big pot like that without the A. I got only the side pot though, which was pretty big, as the button was the one who had the A. I had a bit of a wide ride for a bit. I went 5 bets PF with KK and lost to someone who called all 5 with 64o and hit 2 pair on the flop. I 3-bet QQ PF and hit a J-high flop--which was 4-bet by KJ, and won a nice pot on that one. It's getting late, I haven't really quite made enough to enter the "special" Friday the 13th tournament, but I am getting hungry, and with a good 6 calling stations at the table now who will call any amount preflop, I decide to take my $140 profit after a 9-hour session and hit the buffet, which I can get for comps.

(Up $21)

Let's just say I've had better buffets. I suppose I should have known from the line--or lack thereof--at 7:30 on a Friday night. The prime rib was good, with not much fat. The curry chicken dish from the Chinese section was good. The BBQ ribs were fall-off-the-bone yummy. But overall, especially if you're not a seafood eater, selection was sparse overall. There was not a whole lot in the dessert section either. The service, however, was great. Neither my lemonade nor my water glass ever got less than half full. I screwed up, though, and forgot to leave a tip for the good service.

I was feeling stuffed, so I decided to go for a walk. I thought I'd head for the shops over at Caesar's and then poke my head into the IP poker room. Well, the Ceasar's shops were as far as I got. I headed back to the Apple store. I approached one of the sales folk and asked, pointing the the iPhone 4, if there was still a 2-3 week wait. And was floored when the answer was not only no, but that they had them in stock. Woo!!!! Out comes the cash, and in a short time, I'm, the proud owner of an iPhone 4. I stayed n the store a bit to use their wifi to download a bunch of free apps, and then head back to my hotel, walking on air. The display, the responsiveness, miles ahead of my old, poky 3G.

I'm back at the Mirage and have to wait for a $3/$6 seat. I finally get in just after 11. It's a rough day. Well, with one exception. I hit top set with 99 in the BB and get no action, even when an A hits the turn. Small pot. A weird sequence happens when I get JJ, QQ, and KK on consecutive hands. It's not often that I come in for raises like that. Fortunately, the latter two hold up. I lose QQ on a KKx flop to 22 who hits a river 2. I get down a rack and buy on for one more, It's a passive game, and Im card dead and can't do a doggone thing about it. After 1 limper, a pretty quiet player raises from EP. He gets one cold-caller and I call in the BB with AJo. The flop is AK9 with 2 hearts. I check-raise, he 3-bets, and the 3-bet gets cold-called. I think I'm beaten and fold--only to find both of them have A-10. I figured one had a better A, AK, or a set. Grrrr….

Finally, my Big Event. After a few limpets, I limp in the button with Kh-Jh. (You could make an argument for raising here too.) Flop was Qh-10h-x. I hit the Ah on the river. Royal Flush!! A nice tidy $599. I think I may have tipped a bit much: I gave $5 to the dealer from my pot, gave the floor $40, and the dealer another $40 (two $20 chips each). I was feeling good. Technically, I was down $21 for the session a bit, but the jackpot put me way up.

(Even, plus $514 royal jackpot net)

I decide I'm going to have a good pre-birthday meal. I walk over to Samba, in the Mirage, to try out their Rodizio meal. It's basically a BBQ meats dim sum. It's one of the best meals I've ever had. I was told it's "family style," but I was a "family" of one that night. The bring out a tasty salad, then some side dishes, which included black beans, veggies, and fried plantains. There's a small block of wood on the table, painted red on one end and green on the other. You put the red side up if you're busy and the green side up when you want more meat. And when you want more meat…… Waiters wander carrying these thick, 3-foot-long skewers, each one with giant hunks of meat, from flank steak to sirloin to Hawaiian BBQ chicken to lamb to pork to bacon-wrapped turkey. They come at random, and if you want what they are carrying, they put the sewer point-down on your plate, take a big knife, and hack a hunk off and push it down off the skewer. I found the flank steak to be especially juicy and tasty, although most of the other meats were yummy as well. I wanted, really, wanted, to stay longer, but fearing a long-slow waddle back to my hotel, I stopped at a reasonable amount. But boy, was that good.

I decided I was going to go out. I headed back to my hotel, went down to the pool and just languished a bit to cool off, showered, and changed, then it was back to the Mirage at 11ish. The Mirage hosts a weekly Saturday night party at Bare called Heaven. It was only OK. No real dance space, so I was kinda disappointed, and I had some pent-up energy I wanted to release. The music was good though. But I'm not really outgoing and sociable, and quite a few folks seemed to know each other, so I never really even talked to anyone, and left before 1--but not before I saw a few folks slip into the pool, an interesting experience for a nightclub.

Sunday was birthday day. Back to the Mirage, where I got a seat at the $3/$6 game shortly after 10. It was an up-and-down day, mostly down. EArly on, I raise PF in the HJ with QQ, got 3-bet by a local in the blinds with what turned out to be QJ, and then he raised a flop with an A, but I took the pot. A bit later, I raise PF again in the HJ with 66, and the same local makes it 3 bets. I CR an AJx flop and he shows QJ and folds. That made me feel pretty good. I spend another time just being card dead, then I limp with 44. Flop is 456 with 2 clubs and gets 4 bet on the flop with another player just calling all raises. A 5 hit on the turn, I bet, and everyone called. A club hit on the river, the caller suddenly bet, I called and it turned out he was bluffing with K8(!) I decided to get a sandwich at the deli. Got chicken salad on a roll. Not all the impressed. Although there was a *lot* of chicken salad on the sandwich, the taste was just so-so overall, and there was nothing else, no lettuce, tomato, or anything else, and the chicken salad had nothing else in it either. I finally worked my way back to even. In one hand, I had AQ, hit a K-10 fop and rivered a Q. It was getting late and I had dinner plans, and so I decided to shut it down with a tiny session profit. It turned out to be a mistake, as my last hand (before the blinds) I threw away KQo and watched 2 queens hit the flop and a K hit the turn. Oh well, I would have to be happy with my $6 profit.

(Up $6, plus $514 royal jackpot net)

It was 7:30. I had planned to head to the half-rice ticket place, but I wanted to grab a Sunday newspaper first. I finally found the Mirage sundries shop, only to find all of their Sunday papers had no ads (or comics). So I traipsed over to Walgreens, then back to the Mirage garage to drop the paper in my car and change shirts. I got to the half-price ticket place at 8:10--to find them closed! How any place like that in the 24/7 cities of 24/7 cities, especially with lots of 10pm and later shows, closes at 8pm is beyond me. But it turned out to be to my advantage. At the time, however, I was quite upset, and I stalked into the Venetian. I went up to the Blue Man Group ticket counter and asked if they ever do deals on tickets. They said no special, but they did offer discounts to students and military. Bingo! I take a local community college night class, and with my student ID, I got a BMG ticket, 3 rows from the stage, a bit left of center, for less than $50. (Normally, the tix go from $75 to well north of $100.) Nice! Then I went back to the poker room, got a $50 comp slip, and headed to Delmonico. It was a 1/2 hour wait, so I decided to eat at the bar. I got the 18 oz. rib eye, but the sides were all a la carte, so I picked just one, the smushed potatoes. The steak came alone on a huge plate with a pat of butter, and the potatoes came in a mini stew pot. I savored that steak and downed ever bit. A nice, and nearly free, birthday dinner. Then off to the BMG. The show was pretty much as I remembered it form a few years ago, but still fun and a good way to end my birthday.

Monday morning was my last day in Vegas. Checked out of my hotel (very quick and easy) and headed to the mirage for one last session. I got AA twice, and for the first time, got them cracked. Same color too, so a nice $150. A decent pot on the other one because someone tried to bluff at it. Got knocked back a bit when I raised with KQs, hit a K on the flop, but they were all the same suit, a 4th one of the suit hit the turn, and although a known weak-loose player bet out, I called him down. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Ended "up," but because of the aces cracked. From play alone, I finished down $30 when I picked up at 1:00 to hit the road.

(Down $24, plus $514 royal jackpot net, plus $140 aces cracked net)

All-in-all, a nice trip. Was nice to chat with Chris again, nice to find another AVPer, some really good food, and some up-and-down poker. Unfortunately, I don't know when I'll return again because I've started taking an evening iPhone Programming class at my local community college on Tuesday nights, and I know I am not going to want to miss any lectures. So unless I find a way to do a long weekend, it's unlikely I'll be back for awhile. (Plus, if I actually find a job, I won't have lots of days free.) But I really like playing at the Mirage.

However, I should add that I found a couple of minor issues with a couple of dealers. The first one was with a younger Asian woman. The river had completed a straight on the board and also three to a flush. One person bet, and another in the pot, probably a tourist, asked the dealer is there was a straighten the board--and the dealer said "yes." I piped up immediately and stated to her that she can't say that, that she can't answer such questions. But of course it was too late. The other was from a Filipino (I think) dealer. There were 5 people still in the hand at the river, which completed a good hand, I think it was a full house on the board. The first two players revealed their cards, and instead of defining the specific hand, by pushing all five cards up and saying something along the lines of "jacks full of fours," the dealer said "play the board." The remaining players then revealed their hole cards for a 5-way split. I said that was inappropriate, that the players who had not yet revealed might have folded if they hadn't gotten that cue from the dealer. The dealer argued that he was in the right, at one point asking how long I'd been playing poker(!)

The couple of minor quibbles, the dealers overall make the Mirage a good experience. I especially enjoy the tall thin southern guy who deals graveyard. But most of the others are affable, have good mechanics, and run the game well. I did chat with one about one of the above incidents, and he passed it off as being a "low stakes' game in a tourist room, but I'm of the mind that you do all things the right way whether your dealing for dollars or pennies. First of all, it's never good to get into bad habits at any level, and second, you never know who might be starting out and learning as they plan to work their way up and play in higher stakes.

Also, the room overall is much cleaner than the Venetian, especially the cards and chips. The felts do get a bit grimy and worn though.