What used to be a 3-4 time a year thing has been pruned down to a once a year trip to Las Vegas with the betroved and once a year with my buddy. Due to my wife's business schedule we seem to come in late September every year now.

We left our son with grandma and flew into LV on 9-26. Got to town around 8:30 pm and spent an hour and a half at the rental car site and finally arrived at the T.I. self park around 10:30 pm. The check in was longer than expected. While waiting on deck for the next available agent I got the Heisman from the next two agents that became available. One was done for the day and the other was going on break. Finally got to the room and it was good. We stayed in the tower suite overlooking the pirate show on the 29th floor. It was very nice. Dinner at the coffee shop, a splash in the hot tub, and off to bed.

We woke up early and left the T.I. self park around 7 am. To be succinct my wife accepted a position within her company the week before our trip that will necessitate our moving from Seattle to Southern California. We decided to devote the first day of our once a year vacation to a day of driving and house shopping. With GPS in tow we unleashed the raw power of our rented Chevy Aveo and headed west.

While I was born in SoCal I have been away for many years. We scoped out a few areas (good schools being the key) we might want to live in and tried to hit them all. We went through Fullerton, Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills, and Irvine. After a long day in the car we found a rental in Anaheim Hills that seemed our best bet. We hit the road and got back to the T.I. around 11:30 pm and went straight to bed. This was a first for me. Two nights in Vegas and didn't gamble a dollar.

What was originally intended to be a 4 night trip to L.V. was now wittled down to two nights. The 3rd day we got ready and headed down through the casino around 9 am. I taught my wife to play blackjack before we were married almost 20 years ago. Together we learned basic strategy, count strategies, and generally spent a lot of our young lives playing together. While I will never find a double deck, shoe game, with 80% penetration, that the dealer stands on soft 17 like I destroyed at our local Indian casino years ago, we still like to pay homage to that part of our lives together by playing a leisurely game of blackjack when we visit. We found a continuous shuffle machine at the T.I. that payed 3-2 on BJ and was only $5 minimum. I felt like I hit the lottery to find a 3-2 BJ game on the strip for $5....We played for about an hour with a nice couple from Ohio who clearly have never played before. My wife nicely helped them identify some obvious double down hands (10 vs. dealer 6, 11 vs. 7, etc.) and we all started to win. SIDEBAR: How do blackjack dealers not know basic strategy? One dealer almost forced a lady at the table to stand on her soft 17 with the dealer showing a 7!

Checked out the half price show kiosk at fashion show mall but nothing jumped out at us. We decided to check the Mystere box office at the TI and see if we could get the 2 for 1 promo they give some of the guests. We did get the 2for 1 and had the 2 for 1 lunch buffet as well. Very good.

After lunch we trammed to the Mirage and walked across the street to the Harrahs and I.P. area looking for more gambling. Unfortunately, my wife had to stop and take a couple of business calls while standing outside the Mirage. We went to Harrahs and I introduced my wife to my new favorite table game "Ultimate Texas Hold em." I discovered this at my local casino while waiting for a seat in the poker room.

While I won't bog down in a detailed strategy post of the game here is an overview of how I play. I found the optimum strategy for raising, calling, folding on the Wizard of Odds website and play very similarly. For example, the site suggests raising 4x before the flop with any suited King. I don't go that low. I will go 4x before the flop with any Ace, K-10 or higher, and pairs of three or higher. All of these hands are considerable favorites against the random holdings of the dealer hands.

Additionally, I don't play the "Trips" bonus bet. I still get a bonus pay on straights, flushes, full houses, 4 of a kind, straight flushes, and Royal flushes but my variance is not as high. Simply put, all of the money I put on the table after the ante is done when I figure to have a better hand than the dealer. If I luck into a straight flush or a royal I still get a nice bonus of $250 or $2500 on my $5 bet. Having said all of that, I am still aware that the house has an edge on this game according to the rules. However, I believe I was playing at an advantage this whole trip because of the ineptitude of the dealers. Simply put, these dealers don't know this game and the pit doesn't know this game.

I was paid on so many losing or pushing hands on this trip it was unbelievable. The best was when I broke my own table game rule and declared my hand a push before the dealer turned my hand over (I generally wait for the dealer to act before saying anything just in case). "No you win," the dealer said. I had Q-9 in my hand and the dealer had Q-6 with the board showing Q-3-3-2-10...Not thinking I said "the 10 plays" and I rapped the table with my knuckle. She pointed at my 9 and her 6 saying "Your 9 beats my 6"....I finally gave up and said "Oh, yeah!"...I was paid repeatedly on these types of hands. I had a couple of hands where I raised 4x before the flop with an Ace only to see the dealer put a 4 flush or 4 straight on the board. On two occassions the dealer paid my "Ace high" or "Pair of Aces" and did not notice her superior hand. Each instance was a $55 swing (the $30 she should have taken PLUS the $25 she paid me).

The T.I., Harrah's, and PH all were guilty of consistently paying my losing or pushing hands. However, I had to be very vigilant in that they missed some of my bonus pays also such as not noticing my straight or flush.

Finally, Harrah's had a couple of very sloppy dealers. While sitting at the first base seat I could see the window card of the flop about half the time before the flop was turned over. If the window card paired one of my hole cards I bet 4x before the flop. On one instance, the dealer flashed a Jack as the window card. My hole cards are J-3 which certainly don't warrant a 4x bet under normal circumstances. However, I new the flop would pair my jack so I 4x bet and laughed out loud when the flop came J-3-3.

Even without the dealer "gifts" it is a fun game with generally low variance and I am always assured of a good hand when I make a big bet.

The second day of the trip I convinced my wife to sit down at a 2-4 hold em game at the MGM. It was a brand new game and she took the 1 seat and I took the 2 seat and reminded her to be selective and aggressive. While I'm fully aware that it is an oversimplified strategy, I told her "don't check and call a bet. If it's worth calling bet it. If someone bets it ahead of you raise it." She sat down with $50 and followed directions well. She was the exact kind of player I hate playing against. She obviously was not very experienced but, by golly, she was aggressive. She three bet 2 times in the first couple of orbits. About the 4th orbit she 4 bet the turn and showed down a full house to rake a monster (by 2-4 limit standards).

Unfortunately, her A-K hit a board of A-7-2-A-Q only to be show A-Q by the Villan. On another hand she flopped the straight and jammed it until the third diamond hit at which point she instinctively backed off and just called only to see TWO flushes! Welcome to 2-4 hold em. I won about 8 dollars and she lost back her fortune through agressive play with good hands that unfortunately lost. I gave her tremendous props for playing so aggressively. If she had the time to learn a little no limit I think she would be very good.

The last night in town saw the wife and I propped up at the "Blackjack Switch" game at the Casino Royale. Good long session with lots of winning double downs and splits. The great thing about the Casino Royale "BJ Switch" versus some of the other "BJ Switch" games is that the Casino Royale pays a blackjack IMMEDIATELY even if you switch into it. The last time I paid the BJ Switch at the 4 Queens they treated a BJ that you switch into as "21" which would push to another 21 or 22.

A few quick hits:

Mystere was really good.

Spending $20 at the internet kiosk in Harrah's so my wife could access some work info was a downer.

Watching my wife take business calls sitting on the street between O'sheas and the Flamingo was kind of funny. She is either a really hard worker or a total degenerate.

Pete Rose in the Forum Shop sports place was sad. Pete was my favorite player growing up. He looks like a broken man sitting at the table watching a feed from Churchill Downs which was piped into the portable tv sitting beside him.

The cupcake place in the Monte Carlo towards the walkway to the Aria is pretty good.

I hate the Bellagio.

The ride to the OC from Vegas is not that bad.

I will never purchase a Chevy Aveo.

My annual guys trip starts 10-15 and a trip report will follow. It will be hard to top last years trip in which my friend gave away a trip to the Playboy mansion in lieu of some cash at the Binion's poker tournament. Unlike the wife trip, there will be much poker and sports wagering on which to report. Thanks for reading and I'll check back in a couple of weeks with a new report on the annual guys trip.