Well, headed down for the yearly trip to Vegas (Oct 8-12). After a LONG 16 hour day of flight delays finally made it to Planet Hollywood where we had a great deal. Was able to upgrade via the $20 route to a Resort suite dacing the Bellagio fountains.

Hit the PH morning tournament on Tuesday and after some up and down play made the final table, but lost out of the money. Jumped to a 1-2 NL table afterwards and hit major lucky streak to end up $275 after 2 hours of play. Good room to play in, but needs some tweaking to become a great room (will leave a room report).

Headed off after that to the pool and then dinner with wife and friends. Walked down to Bally's where I have never seen such a cold craps table. Dropped $100 there and then decided, since the wife headed back to bed, would partake of the Paris poker room. Had seen that there was a techie conference going on and wanted to see if there were any fish wanting to play. Once again got a great seat and starting at 1030 PM played until 3:00 AM. There were 3 of us feeding on these techies and I walked away up $300. Good room but very quiet. Never saw more than 1 table going.

Unfortunately that was to be my last payday at the poker tables..

Wednesday slept in a bit and then hit the 2 PM tourny at PH. These are great tournaments with a decent starting stack and good blind structure. Good play but got greedy with pocket A's and got sucked out by a flush to end my day early. When will I learn???!! Stopped by the craps table and was able to recoupe my buyin plus some. That evening stopped by Paris again but was major card dead and dropped $150 on 2 river losses.

Thursday hit the Monte Carlo 9 AM tournament. I said it last year and I still say that this is the best run room I have been to. Small but comfortable room, excellent staff, and good drink service. Felt great about making final table again, but out of the money as I was severely short stacked. Still, excellent time again there. Thursday night hit the Jubilee show at Bally's. Not my cup of tea, but the topless ladies made it interesting and the wife was happy to finally see a Vegas style show.

Last day Friday went souvineer shopping for the kids and finally got to see the Venetian poker room. WOW! This is the standard all rooms should aspire to be. Roomy, well run and just plain the best (Monte Carlo still a close second). Was able to sit down and play with some very loose callers, which surprised me as I thought this was major shark territory. Found people calling down to the river with low/mid pairs. All ins with nothing but mid pair and high cards were the norm at the 1/2 NL I played at. Won a few nice pots but came down to getting greedy again. Pot was raised pre-flop to $12 and I satyed in with 6-7h. Flop comes 2 h's. Checked all around and I get my flush on the turn. Well, I decided to check to the original raiser and he fires out for $25. I raise all in for about $80 more. He thinks about it and calls. I show my flush and he says he didn't even see the 3 h's on board. He thought one was a diamond! Well, he has pocket A's (one the A of h). You guessed it, 4th heart comes on river and I'm gone. Still glad to have finally had a chance to play in this room. Very impressive.

Overall down for the week, first time in a few years, but great trip. Made too many mistakes and got greedy which cost me in the long run. As always, many thanks to Las Vegas Michael for running a great site, and to all of you that put in these trip and room reports. Coming back in April with the guys for my 50th so hope to play better!