The 4 of us (girlfriend and two female friends of hers) left San Diego at 5am and drove over to Vegas. Interesting drive to say the least. We rolled into town at noon. Fortunately, Luxor let us do an early check in at 1pmish. The girls decided to take a nap and I decided to start my poker a bit early while they slept. Goal was to play 2 sessions (session defined of 4-6 hours or even till I was too tired or bored with the action) a day, $1/2 NL or $2/5 for 4 days while not playing in the same casino twice, make some profit and see where I stood versus tourists and locals. Started my first session at Mandalay Bay at 2pm….

Session 1 Mandalay Bay: Sunday, Sept. 4th Headed over to Mandalay Bay for the first session. The room was sectioned off near the sports book and was quite cozy. Had TV’s along the walls and a few in the back. It was well run by the management who were quick to move people and they fully understood about keeping tables full. They had two decent looking waitresses bringing drinks at about 20 minute intervals which weren’t that bad. Their outfits were quite strange and revealing at the same time? I hadn’t seen that one before. They also had a “Snack Bar/Deli” selling different types of sandwiches near the rear exit of the room. It was situated between the sports book and the poker room. Food looked good and they did allow eating at the poker tables but I personally didn’t order anything. Waited about 15 minutes to get in a $2/$4, $50min-$200 Max NL game. They did have two $2/$5 games, $500 max going but I wanted to start slow for my trip and build up some profit/cash before I dove right into my usual game. Was a bit nervous at first since this was my first time to play in “Las Vegas” but have played a bit in other places. Bought in for the max (as I always do) $200 and prepared to grind and check things out. Was pretty much cold decked for first 1.5 hrs and couldn’t even have entered the pot. They had two must move games feeding to a main game, which had quite a bit of money on the table. Not much money at first tables nor much money being thrown around either. Typical though of what I would see for my stay of people sitting down at the game with $75. Saw a few calling to the river with mid pair or going all in on the flop for $75 with top pair mid kicker and getting rundown by better hands. They would then pull out their wallets and buy back in for another $75? Thought that was interesting. Both tables I sat at consisted of about 2 locals who were looking to pocket easy cash, 4-5 tourists who barely knew what they were doing, 2-3 wannabes. Still trying to figure out where that leaves me? Got move to the main game after about 30 mins down a little bit due to blinds and occasionally entering 1 pot with 4-4 or the likes and then finally started picking up some steam. Built up my stack and decided to tangle with big stack (A young local) occasionally but usually played solid strong cards against other players with $200+. Big stack had at least 1500 on the table and a few of the other players had 400-600 but most had only 150-200 so it made for a dynamic table.
Few hands of interest: Had JJ against a guy who raised preflop, post flop he goes all in, had pretty good read on him and he turns over 10-10 and I picked up his stack of $115. Later when I had $400+ in front of me, I held QQ from the 4seat. Big stack was sitting in the 10seat. I limped in for $4. He makes it $20 so now it would be heads up to me and $16 to go. He had been raising preflop $30 quite a bit so the $20 raise looked odd to me. $16 to me with QQ and I was on the button. Something didn’t seem right and I kept thinking. I told him if he made it $10 I would have called but $20 was too much. We bantered for a good minute back and forth and he wanted a call here for the easy money. Finally I folded, tossed my cards into the muck and I told him my Queens were no good against his Aces. He said “What???” and turned over two red Aces. He didn’t believe I had Queens. I had showed a player to my right, before I folded. This put the big stack on tilt for a little while and I was laughing the rest of the time. Played for 4 hours or so. Easy game. Left after winning a decent pot and decided to call it an afternoon. profit: $361. Well run room, very nice and a good atmosphere. I will definitely play again here next trip. Two thumbs up and recommend it to any NL player looking for action and some cash.

Session 2 MGM Grand: After dinner and spending time back in the room, I headed over to MGM Grand for session two of the day. My goal was to make $500 per session, which I thought was a realistic goal. Due to this, I wasn’t mentally prepared to sit down and play for 4 hours straight, just wanted to pick up $140 and call it a day. Especially since not sleeping much the night before, the time change and the getting up early driving etc etc. Well MGM has a different atmosphere since it is in the middle of the casino vs. a "card room". Lots of tourists walking around the rails and checking things out. They had lots of Plasmas everywhere and the nice electronic board showing what games being spread. They had a $2/$5 and $1/$2 NL games going. I decided to just sit at a $1/$2 game and check things out. They were very quick to seat players and keep tables full. Management seemed to have their stuff together. The waitresses were fairly quick with the drinks too. Snack bar was located right outside the railing to the poker room, food looked decent but I didn’t try it. The waitresses would even go to the snack bar and order your food for you if you gave them the cash up front. Nice setup.
Once I sat down, I realized that once again nobody had any money. A local rough looking guy in the 9 seat had like 600 and everyone else had $75-$200. Once again, 1-2 locals, 4-5 tourists and a few wannabes it was a very soft game which I just watched for about 30 minutes. Finally I entered a pot as did 5 others, the local guy raises preflop. I decided whatever the flop is I am betting. Flop comes out rags and I immediately bet the pot. The local guy looks at me for a few seconds then folds as does everyone else. It was crazy. After I warmed up, I would raise preflop then over bet the pots a few times to take it down and establish a strong card presence to table. I would show some big hands on the flop bet so people wouldn’t think I wasn’t bs’ing them. Wasn't exactly running very good on cards but was picking up $20-$30 every few orbits. I had been chatting with this Canadian gal on my left whose “friend” was sitting in the 4 sit, (I was in the 7 seat). She was very nice but an obvious tourist and said she hadn’t been playing very long. She had about $50 on the table. Nearly one of the last hands I played, someone raised preflop and I called along with 4 other people as I had QQ. Flop came out Q-8-3. I bet $15 into the pot as it was a decent pot. As I bet, I told her that I just flopped the nuts so I wouldn’t call. I basically said it loud enough so anyone at the table can hear and didn’t care if anyone called or folded at this point. Well instead of listening, she pushes all in for the rest of her chips, about $45 more to me. Well I had flopped a set of Q's and she turned over K-Q. This was going to be about typical play for the trip it seemed. Made my goal of $140 in less than 1.5 hours and decided to call it an evening at about 10pm. Two thumbs up for action, management, drinks and layout. Another will play at again that’s for sure.
Session 3: Aladdin: Monday, Sept 5th Headed out after lunch to check out Aladdin’s poker room. It was easy enough to find as it looked like it is in a former slot area. One huge benefit is it has its own private bathrooms in the adjoining room, a big PLUS from me as I drink a ton of water. It seemed to be a very well run poker room, with some solid dealers. Drink service was s l o w though. One of the things that helps this room is they have 3 NL tourneys that run everyday. This brings in NL players to play before, during and after the tourneys. Had quite a few players just killing time playing cash games before the tourneys started. I hadn’t made enough profit yet to throw away a $40 entry to a tourney yet so I will play some $1-$2.They had two games of $1/$2,$200 max going and had a list for $2/$5 as well. So I decided to play some $1-2 NL and make a bit more money. They quickly seated me and gave me my chips at the front desk as you come in the door.

This time at the tables there actually weren’t any ringer/ locals playing in this game, mainly out of towners having a good time. Took me about 30 minutes to get warmed up and then at the 1 hour mark I am up $150. Took my first of two small beats of the trip. Flopped a boat with 5-5. Flop is 6-5-6, I bet heavy, get two callers. Turn is another 6, and I bet more than the guys have in their stacks trying to get them to NOT chase their boat potential. Last guy goes all in with A-10 offsuit and the other guy folds. River is an Ace; I took it stride and told him nice hand. He said he felt bad about hitting his card, “that’s poker”. I think I eventually got that money back from him though. Another beat, had a guy call me down with 6-3offsuit to hit runner runner for a straight. I hammered the bet on the turn (3.5x previous bet) and he called and hit his miracle card for the straight. Before he turned over his cards, he said he was embarrassed to show what he had, 6-3. The whole table started laughing, including me and we gave him a hard time the rest of the time. Took me about 1 hr and I worked my stack back up and then had some more profit in front of me. Near the end of the session as I am in the 10 seat with about $450ish, this Ghettoguy (he has on a “Jersey”, gold chains and baggy pants as well, so I don’t peg him as one who has studied Sklanskys methods, read many reviews, does hand analysis etc) sits down in the 2 seat with $175ish, most of it in green chips too with only a few red chips. This immediately sent a flag up in my book and I knew what his style was going to be. He gets dealt about two hands till this happens. He is in the SB. I look down to KK and immediately raise to 25. He calls and a young solid player calls as well. The young solid player knew I wasn’t messing around but at the same time he knew when to push his luck as we had been playing at the table for 2 hours together. Flop comes out, 8-5-3, they both check, I make it 45, the seat 2 guy immediately moves all in for 155 total with his green chips (easy to just throw them out there). The young guy quickly folds to me. It is now about $115 ish more to me and the pot has gotten quite a bit large. I think for a bit and finally decide to ask him “did you flop a set on me?” and he says “two pair.” Then tells me “Your AK is no good.” I tell him “I don’t have A-K, but better.” I said out loud, “No way he has two pair.” Then he shows the whole table a 5. Alarms went off in my head as I think if he had two pair he wouldn’t have shown the 5. So, now I am thinking 4-5, 6-5 or A-5 suited and he doesn’t have two pair. After about a minute I stack up the $115 separate from all my chips and just say, “I call” as I push out the chips. As soon as I say call, I turn over K-K. He doesn’t turn over his cards and just stares at the board. The whole table looks at him and he just sits there. Dealer burns, and turns. King comes off the deck giving me a set. I immediately say "two pair no good" and I regret NOT saying “dude you need to work on your hand reading skills” but he left so quick I couldn’t get it out and yes I would have been ready to pick up the chips after he would have knocked over the table. He gets up, throws his hand into the muck and walks away before the hand is even finished. Everyone at the table started laughing and saying “nice call, I bet that was tough etc etc” I played for 15 more minutes then left as it was dinner time and was running out of energy. Played about 4-5 hours. Good table, good atmosphere, one of my favorites. Great action. Some dealers that were fun to talk to: Junior and Jonathon and the hot waitress, Patricia. Two thumbs up for this place for NL action. Profit after 4.5 hours: $380

Session 4 Luxor: After dinner I don’t feel like heading to the strip to play so I head downstairs to play in the Hotel. One of the weirdest NL games I have ever seen $50 buy in max but when you get to $49 you can buy in for another $50? Very odd. They opened a new table and I sit at it. The whole room was very odd. Nobody would bet their cards and I get run down $20 by an A rag when he didn’t bet but just called on the river. $20 doesn’t sound like much but when you come in for $99, that’s a huge portion of your stack. The management was kinda old school, waitresses come at a decent rate but this play was just weird. I finally started just making plays at pots as I was getting very bored with the action as I also wanted to pocket some money and go to bed. Guy would raise preflop every time and I would call his preflop bet. He would check the flop and I would bet more than the pot every time. Several times with 4-9o just to pick up the pot from him. Played for about 1hr took the money and ran. Never really picked up any big hands and pots were tiny the whole time as well. If you are interested in killing some time or learning to play NL and scared of losing your bankroll, this would be a good “starter game” if you are looking to play some poker and make some money, this is NOT the place to play. Two thumbs down for bigger NL player. Profit: $40 in 1 hr (after losing $35+ on one of the first few hands!)

Session 5 Ballys: Wednesday Septh7th. After lunch I headed over to Ballys to check out the action. The room is not a room per se but a bunch of tables stuck on the side of casino near blackjack tables. Not a cozy card room like some of the others but this is ideal for a tourist game, as I found out. The dealers seemed to be somewhat new and occasionally we had to straighten them out on some “all in” bets and making side pots correct etc. But overall they were decent. Management had an electronic list going so seating was quick and painless. The bar is right next to the poker “area”. PERFECT location for the bar and the poker area. Grandma serving the drinks was very, very quick. Tables and the chairs were nice as well. Respectable place.

I sit down in the 8 seat with the max $200 as usual, still looking to make more profit. This time one guy in the 3 seat has about $600 in front of him, is pretty drunk as well. I can’t figure out if he is a local or just a lucky tourist. Everyone else has about $75-$150 in front of him. I start to fold my hands as he raises pre-flop every hand, gets a few callers and they all fold on the flop when he bets. Ahh so he is a local just running over the table. Not too long after that I have JJ near the button and I call his preflop raise to 15 with about 4 other callers. Flop is 10-9-4. He checks as do 4 other people. I bet out $25 trying to take down the pot. The local folds and then another guy calls my bet. The turn is a brick card and I knew this didn’t help his hand. I bet out $40 and he calls me again as he is staring at the board? At this point I can’t believe he is just calling me all the way down. River is another brick as I bet out $45. The guy folds. As he folds, the drunk local says “your Jack Jack is good!” I am honestly impressive and show the JJ to the table. After this hand I didn’t tangle with the local guy and just played pots with the other tourists. After about 30 minutes I limp in with 6-6 expecting a preflop raise. 6 people total see the flop and I am UTG. Flop comes out K-6-7. I know this hit someone, somewhere and I am going to checkraise depending on how many people bet. Everyone checks. I groan inside. The turn is a 5. Boom this made someone a straight and there are two hearts on the board as well. Let’s see who has the straight. I bet out $15, 1 guy calls, another guy makes it $45. At this point I think he has a straight or two pair with 5-6 or so. I raise it to $90. 1 guy calls and the other guy re-raises me to $150 total. Yup there is the straight. The reason I didn’t just call the 45 on the turn is I was afraid if I did boat up, they wouldn’t be able to call my bets or pay me on the river so I played it trying to get paid before I hit my outs. I call the $150, guy 1 goes all in for $105 total. Guy 2 has about $35 left in front of him. As the dealer burns I say “sir I am going to check it in the dark!” A 7 hits the board on the river giving me a boat. I say “sir I am still checking it in the dark.” He immediately bets his $35 into me. I said “well I call and I have a boat” he turns over 8-9 for the straight. He is very angry and I say “I tried to check it to you. Karma is a mfer.” That didn’t go over too well. Was getting bored after a little while and then an older guy raises preflop to $20 after I limp with KQot. I call. Flop is A-9-5. I bet 25 into him, he barely calls the bet, turn is a brick, I bet $35. He calls, river is a brick, I ask how much he has got ~$200. I bet 80 on river and he folds. Decent little pot. Finally get tired of it and leave up after about 3.5 hrs. Great action, two thumbs up for a NL player as well. Profit: $550.

Session 6, Monte Carlo: After dinner I decided not to head to the Wynn but instead played at the Monte Carlo. They only had 1 game of 1-2NL going at the time. But had 8 people on the list to open a new table. It had the nice small card room feel, very plush. Decently run by management. The room was smaller almost cramped but I would definitely play there again if I knew they had some action. The drink service was on about a 20 minute interval as I think they might have had to hike a ways to go get the drinks. After about 45 minutes they finally started a second game. They were not running must move on the table but 1st table had a ton of money on it. I came in for $200max and again most of these people come in for 75-150? This was one of the tightest tables I have ever played. They would fold to any bet or they would push all in on the flop. It was crazy stuff. Finally was patient and drew to a flush once on a guy and got paid. I wasn’t exactly getting very good cards either. I was getting tired and finally left as there wasn’t going to be much money made on the table. The table ended up breaking and being moved to the formerly third NL table as I was leaving. It probably was a better game but I didn’t want to mentally start over. Two thumbs up on this room. Small room feel to it, but decent action and not super touristy either. Profit: $125, 1.5 hours.

Session 7, Green Valley Ranch: Thursday Sept. 8th. Green Valley Ranch is a “Spa, Resort, and Casino.” I decided after going there and realizing this, it sets up from some crazy action since it takes a bit of money to be at this place. GVR is 11 miles from the strip. This I knew when I got in the cab. My total bill was $29 out to this place so I knew I had to tighten down and make some money to pay for the cab ride. The room was very nice, easy to navigate, bar in the back and lots of TVs but one problem. The management. It was unreal if you have seen chickens with their heads cut off. They were in crisis mode and the guy leaves the room and goes and wanders around the sports book? Lots of people were complaining about the way they were handling things. This place could be top notch if they are led correctly it seemed. They didn’t understand about keeping seats filled, list management or attending to the dealers needs. It was crazy. They had one $1/$2 $200 Max game going and had a list for a $2/$5, $500 max as well. I sat down with $200. There were several stacks of 400-600 on the table. For the first 30 minutes I waited to double up through them but 2 of them left in first 30 mins I was there. Finally I picked up a pot or two. In 1.5 hrs I had 400+ in front of me. Then I flopped a set of 7's on a guy with AK but he checked the turn after a flop bet of 50 and a Q appears. River is a Q and I bet 50 for value and he just calls. He was an older guy with money but very very tight and about like most of these players. Even though they were pretty tight with their money, once they had something, they would call you all the way down. After about two hours I ended up putting this German guy on tilt as he kept playing out of his rack and hiding his chips and his cards behind his arms, he came in for $140 at the table. Twice in ten hands I had to ask the dealer if the guy had cards and how much money he had in front of him. This mad him angry. He was down to $120 at one point. Then I had J-9d, flop 5-3-j, 2 diamonds. He bets out $15, I make it $30 and everyone else gets out of the way. He calls. The turn is a 9 giving me top two and I know I have the best hand. He checks, I bet $30. River is a brick, I bet $45 and he calls with 5-3 for bottom two pair. That put him on more tilt as well and he started yelling at me as he was buying back in for another $100. Earlier I made 1 mistake with QQ. A guy to my left had $400ish in front of him, tight older guy. A younger wannabe guy makes it $10 to go I am SB with QQ, everyone else folds, I call thinking BB (older guy with $400ish) would fold. He calls as well. Flop was 6-5-J. I bet 15-20 into them, they both call. Turn is a 10, I check. The old guy bets $35, young guy goes all in for $115 more, I fold, old guy calls with 6-6 for a set of sixes vs. this guys top pair weak kicker! If I raise preflop to $20+, the old guy with 6-6 told me he would have easily folded. I wasn’t too happy about that. One small mistake I made though. Definitely a place to split a cab ride out to and check out the NL action. Two thumbs up. Played for 4 hours, profit: $506.

Session 8, Palms: After dinner I had decided to check out the Palms. It was a $10 cab ride away from the strip and I had never been over there. A local player earlier in the week told me to check the game out but be careful. He said this game you can either lose, $500-$1000, win $1000 or break dead even. He was definitely correct on his assessment. They had 4 games going of $2/$5, $500 max NL going. Since I had only played $1/$2 all weak, I decided to give it a go. The room was interesting as it was open in the front so all the good looking people wandering around the casino would stop and look in to see what was going on. The drink girls in their crazy outfits did come fairly often but they expected a several dollar type every time. Lots of locals and solid players. Only 1 or two fish/tourist at each table. I wasn’t particularly thrilled when 80% of the players at my table knew the dealers, management, and other players coming and going. After the 30 minute mark, I was officially cold decked. There were a few people who were giving money away but I could never get in a pot with them as other people were lining up to take their money. I did make a mistake with 8-8 to a PF raise. Bet 25 on flop, 35 on turn and 35 on river. he had 10-10. If I bet 60+ on turn, it would have been my pot. About two hours later I had AK raised (late in the PM) flop was rags with a pair, there was a bet, a call then to on me. Normally I am beat so I folded. Of course the river brought a King and amazingly my hand would have won but this was the correct play. I could have been profitable due to one or two mistakes but was cold decked too. At one point I was up only $150 but could never break through with a big hand or even back to back wins. Players weren’t all that great and I just wasn’t getting much to work with. If you want some crazy action with big win potential, this is the place to play. One thumb up for action. 8 hours play, profit: $1.