I landed on Tues and checked into the Monte Carlo right before their 6pm tourney. It was only one table. I missed the first few hands and on my first hand, I was dealt ace-queen off. Raised. Had one caller. Flop was an ugly low rainbow. I c-bet and the sole caller rasied me. Turn was a queen. There is a backgammon club in Vegas that plays on Tues nights at 7pm and I wanted to check them out so I pushed with the queen figuring if I get knocked out, I'd go there. The guy folded.

I did pretty well for a while until I started to have coors light, after coors light, after coors light. The Monte Carlo poker is ok. Like a lesser version of the Golden Nugget. The room isn't as dark wood and orange hues like it looks in the AVP pictures. The staff was super nice. One of the floor guys had to give me his lighter when I went out to smoke. They also had a beautiful cocktail waitress named Jami. In my drunken state, I thought she was the most beautiful women I have ever seen.

After I got knocked out the tourney, I headed over to Aria. I was pretty drunk but found the poker room. The place is dark, mordern, and sterile. Lots of people seem to not like that but I do. They had a half kill 9-18 omaha hi-lo game going. I sat in that. It was up in their high limit area. It was the only game going up there.
I never use an ipod while I play at home but here I figured what the hell, I was drunk in the upper level of Aria and I'll never see any of these people again. It was nice. I kept ordering beer after beer, athough I was smart enough to order a fuji water with each beer. I even took my shoes off...
After a few hours, the game died down and I walked out with a 240 dollar profit. I really liked the game and the room. They were using lime green 3 dollar chips which threw me off though. I lost all of the my profits playing craps at Aria before going back to the Monte Carlo to pass out.

Woke up Wed. morning feeling fresh as a dasiy thanks to all the Fuji water. I swear that water helps more with hangovers than reg bottle or tap water. It was 11a.m. Changed clothes and headed to the Ventian for their noon tournament. Popeye needed his spinach so I stopped at a store and bought a big ass can of Tecate for the walk. I was able to get my mid-day swerve on right before I walked into the poker room and sign up for the tourney.
I read AVP all the time and I'm shocked by all the Ventian love on the page. It was a nice room but this room I don't think its the end-all-be-all of poker. I don't like the color scheme and that sort of soapy/sort of vanilla smell gets old fast.
The Ventian was having some thing called the North American Poker Tour and I saw Greg Raymer and Paul Magriel.
In the tourney, I was hitting cards and drinking heavy. I raised preflop with jack/8 diamonds and flopped the nut straight. A good looking woman bet into me. We got the money in. I doubled up. I snapped some all-in pocket aces with a 3-4 of spades. It wasn't all loose drunk play. I raised in ep with pocket jacks and a woman reraised. I showed the jacks and mucked. Just didn't feel like messing around with that stupid hand. 145 people entered. We got down to 20 some players and I just pissed all the chips away. I tried to win the game too early.

I left the Ventian pretty drunk and some how got lost. I ended up off the strip in what in my drunken state seemed like the middle of nowhere. I bought another beer at a gas station and started to head towards the strip. I then noticed a bar. I finished my beer and walked in. The place is called the Stagedoor. A real dive bar but I liked it. I drank several more beers while chatting up a couple that was on vacation from North Dakota. I have a friend that lives in Vegas and I called them to pick me up. I was so drunk in the Stagedoor I don't remember much except someone played, "Smells like Teen Spirit" twice and it sounded good.
My friend picked me up and took me back to the Monte Carlo which was good because at this stage of the night, things got blurry.

I woke up on my last day with the worst hangover of my life. I spent all day in bed. I could barely make it down to the food court to get a coffee and a McChicken sandwich.

This is were the Monte Carlo sucked. My ipod ran out of power and they didn't have a dock in the room to charge it like hotel rooms I'm used to. There were stains on the floor and the bedsheets and the tv was an old standard one. No flat screen, no hi def. It my hung over state, it almost felt barbaric. That was my entire Thursday.
Friday I was feeling better. Checked out of the Monte Carlo, checked my bags, and headed back over to The Ventian for some cash game action. Lost money at 4-8. Actually seemed like a tough game. Got in a 8-16 Omaha hi-low game and it was average play with dumb luck. Didn't like the people at the table. Some old cowpoke raised my blinds with redonkulous hands and hit them. When I finally lost my buy in, I was thrilled to leave the game.
Stopped in Cafe Grand Lux for the chicken and waffles. Not as good as I thought it would be. After that it was time to head to the airport. I was ready to go home. I lost money and drank way too much. Want to go back already, I need a rematch.