Just got back from Vegas on July 14 following a six-night stay. Here's a look at the various forms of hold 'em I played, concluding with a perplexing situation that I'd welcome input on:

TOURNAMENTS
Played in a pair of events over the course of the stay: one of the 60-buck dailies at Planet Hollywood and the 80-buck event held each Thursday at noon at Orleans. Though I saw few quality hands in either, I enjoyed the structure of both and would play in them again (especially the Orleans).
At PH, 71 folks signed up for the Monday 2 p.m. event (eight places got paid). I encountered a handful of players who were clearly playing in their first tournament (and of course one of them had a huge stack of chips in front of him), but for the most part the players were solid. I didn't win a hand the first hour and found myself in all-in mode after the break, finishing around 40th place.
I thought the structure was pretty good, but a couple of days later I found a structure and tourney that I liked better. In the Orleans event I again got nada the first hour but wasn't anywhere close to in all-in mode thanks to blinds that increased in smaller increments. Even with 1,000 fewer chips than the PH event, I felt like I could be more patient and hung in for nearly three hours before my A-J crashed against A-K with an ace on the flop. They had what they said was a record 125 players on this day, paying the top 15, and every player I encountered appeared to have played poker before. Lots of locals. Honestly, this just felt a little bit more like a legit tourney to me.

Tourney outcome: -140

LIMIT
Intended to play lots of NL on this trip but I had a hard time leaving limit behind when I started my week by winning 78 bucks playing 2-4 at Green Valley Ranch. This was my first time here, and I really liked this place: spacious room with lots of TVs and above-average cocktail service.
Be aware that the clientel varied wildly based on the time of day. I won at 2-4 late at night at a short-handed table when the nuts kept landing in my hand (that just doesn't sound right). A couple of nights later, I played 4-8 with a table of local night owls who knew each other so well that they kept throwing bets in the pot with A-high vs. K-high all the way through the river. They knew each others' games, but their problem (and my salvation) was that they applied the same rules to how they played me, and I lost 40 early but soon made a 200-dollar turnaround, eventually cashing out with a 100-dollar profit. But on my last day, I went in the middle of the afternoon and encountered local rocks who took the 100 back from me when the cards conspired against me. I was down to 30 bucks when I got pocket Ks on the button and the one action hand while I was there broke out, resulting in a $150 main pot. But when the guy who had earlier checked his straight to me because I could have beaten him with 10-6 and 10-6 only kept betting out, I knew I was in trouble, and his aces busted me.
In between, I made about 50 bucks playing 3-6 at the Mirage (love the atmosphere there) and lost 10 bucks tinkering at the MGM Grand (like the cool marble around the outer edge of the tables) before taking a friend to the airport.

Limit outcome: +150

NO-LIMIT
Finally on the last night, I played my only no-limit of note, at Southpoint (previously South Coast). The poker room itself was not very nice, but I liked the people for the most part and thought the rest of the casino had a lot going for it as well ($5 blackjack and surprisingly strong cocktail waitresses at all hours).
So I sat down with the minimum $100 (I know, I know) at the 1-2 NL table. Early on I picked up AQ in the small blind and was the last of three to call the raise to 10 dollars from a guy with $1,300 in front of him (300 max buy-in). Flop came Q-high, I bet 20 and two called. Ace on the turn and a second diamond, so I looked down at my remaining $55, pushed all-in, and picked up the pot. A few minutes later I busted a short stack and stack up my chips to discover that I'm up to 225. "Why didn't I play more of this?", I think.
I'm soon reminded why. I pick up aces, raise to 10. The two biggest stacks at the table call, then the bb makes it 40. She has about 90 left, so I decided I wanted to thin the field and push all-in. Only she calls, with kings. All is well until the river, when -- of course -- a king reduces what was going to be a $360 stack down to $90. She, already annoying before this, tells me how much aces suck (to which I wryly say, "Not usually heads up against kings"), and then tells me she put me on 10s or Js (this entertains the dealer, who whispers about the brilliance of that "read.") Either way, she played it like she should, and I just got real unlucky.
I eventually called it a night and a trip with 60 bucks left but believe I should have had about 50 dollars more in my pocket. I had 3-2 in bb of an unraised pot, and the flop came 3-2-7 rainbow. With five players in the hand and my evening coming to a close, I decided my goal was to get all my chips in along with as many other chips as possible, so I checked, as did everyone else until the button bet $10 into a $9 pot. I called, and to my surprise, so did everyone else. The turn brought a 10 and a second diamond, and again it checked around to the button, who asked, 'Did everybody check?' before getting a nod from the other end of the table and betting $30. I started to push all-in for my last 55 and started to say "all-in" when the dealer turned to the button and said, "I heard you check. You can't bet now." He at first told the dealer what he had said but then quickly backed off saying, "Fine, then I'll take my bet back." I didn't know what to do and didn't know whether I should/could say anything that would matter (for one thing, I didn't know if he had seen or heard my all-in move). So everybody got a free card, and the river brought a non-diamond 5, putting a possible straight out there. Feeling that I'd only get called by someone who had me beat (again, what were those guys calling with on the flop?), I checked and it checked all around, with me claiming a significantly smaller pot than I had hoped over the A7 diamonds that the button showed. That's when the guy between me and the button snickered and said to me, "So you were going to move all-in on the turn but you checked the river?", increasing my suspicion that the button saw me preparing to move all-in.
Any thoughts on this?

NL outcome: -40

overall: -30