We flew out from Chicago to Vegas at 6am on Sunday. My original plan was to get a good nights rest at home, get to the airport by 4:30am, get to Vegas at 9:30am, and be prepared to play the Venetian Deepstack $550 at noon.

Of course things didn't work out that way, I got barely any sleep b/c I was too excited. Instead I would just play a bunch of daily tournaments and hopefully one of Venetians Nightly.

We were staying at Caesar's Palace since they comped us for 2 nights, $50 sandwich landed us in the Augustus Tower looking at Bellagio. We weren't able to check in until 2pm though. So instead of waiting around, I hit up the noon $85 tournament at Caesars. It is a fairly solid structure imo. Had a decent turnout, 63 players, with the top 7 getting paid. Had AA three times in the tournament. Each time getting paid off or doubling up. 2pm finally rolled around and my friends were wanting to check in, so I left the tournament at 200/400 level to check them in, came back with about 15 BBs at 300/600 level, made some plays and chipped back up nicely. A couple key hands, a lady who was sitting to my right would raise with any two face cards. I looked down and AQo and shipped my stack in, she snap called w/ JKs and I caught an Ace on the flop, I double up. A few hands later, we are down to 2 tables, I look down at AA and I make my standard 2.5x raise, another lady snap shoves, has me covered, and flips JJ. I knocked her out a few hands later with my J8o vs K6 in a blind vs blind scenario with her having less than 3 BBs. I continue to play solid poker, avoiding other big stacks unless I had the goods. We get down to the final table, nothing exciting happens, at one point I was chip leader, but blinds got so high that short stacks would push about any two cards. My goal was to make top 3 as payouts were $1400, $900, $500. I get 3 handed, and have less than 4 BBs. I am in the BB and utg folds, chip leader ships it all in, I look at K9o and called, thinking this was the best spot I would get to get all my money in, and he flipped JKo, flop come 996, I double up, and immediately after, the chip leader wants to do an even 3 way chop. He had me outchipped by 3:2, other guy has me slightly. I quickly said yes, and we each got $932, off to a great start!!

I figured I would just relax and have a nice dinner to start my trip, rest up for the next day.

Woke up at 6am due to the time change. Relaxed a bit, had some coffee, walked around the strip, and by noon, I was ready to hit up the $85 Noon Caesars again, this time it had 65 runners w/ the top 9 getting paid. No memorable hands to mention, ended up getting 21st.

Grab some lunch, chill out, then hit up Venetians Nightly tournament, it had a field of 130 players w/ the top 13 getting paid. Field consisted of some solid regulars and a handful of donks at the table. Things looked very promising. I was feeling good, had my lucky hoodie on, I felt great! Chipped up nicely vs the weaker players. Starting stack 7.5k, I chipped up to 15k within the first hour never showing down a hand. We get down to the 3 tables and this hand occurs. A tight guy in seat 8 opens to 4k at 800/1600 level. And by tight, I mean him mucking AQ on a board of A78 turn A, to a older regular gentleman who pushed all in everytime he was in a hand post flop. Anyway....so he opens up to 4k with about a 20k stack, folds around to my SB and I have around 39k, I make the call w/ AA. The reason why I made the smooth call was, I figured the BB who had about 15k would try to make a play and shove all in since he had the perfect resteal stack and he had done it numerous times before. Unfortunately he smooth called as well. Total pot: ~14k. The flop came K24 rainbow. I check, BB checks, seat 8 checks. Turn comes a 6c, putting 2 clubs on the board. I check again, BB ships all in, seat 8 guy thinks, and ships in his stack as well. Getting 4:1 w/ my AA's, I tank for a good 2 minutes. I reluctantly call, BB shows Ac7c for a turn flush draw, Seat 8 shows 66 for a turn set, and I am drawing to a 1 outter. After this hand, I convinced myself I played it quite poorly, I should've shoved the flop and be happy with the 14k pot. Had I reraised preflop, Seat 8 would have made the call imo b/c he had raised about 20% of his stack. Oh well, lesson learned. I get crippled, and I bust out in 27th.

It is my last night in Vegas, so I did not have plans on sleeping. I went to the 1am Caesars $70 tournament, I was the 6th one registered when it started, we filled up to 11 with an alternate. First place was $330 2nd was $210. Made small talk with a guy from San Fran and another guy who was there for his buddies wedding. A guy in seat 3 was getting hit with the deck and anything he played, he would scoop a pot on. He went on to knock out at least 7 of the players. It got down to 3 handed, San Fran guy would keep shoving on my BB with less than 8 BBs about 3 times in row. Finally I wake up w/ AA, and he shoves, I took about 10 seconds, I look at my stack to see who has who covered, and I call, he quickly flips JJ and went crazy when I showed him AA thinking I slowrolled him. I couldn't stop laughing inside. I then went on to play the luckbox heads up. I was just pretty much stealing his BB everytime I had the button, he would fold his SB to me every so often. Then I finally have him covered when this hand comes up. 300/600 level, im on the button, I raise to 1500, my standard at the time, he smooth calls. Flop is 582, he checks, I bet out 2200, he reraises me to 5k, and I smooth call. Turn was a 8, he checks, I check. River is a 5 he bets 5k and see he has only a 25 chip behind, I make a crying call thinking if he has me beat, I still have a stack to come back. He shows me 6c7c for what he thought was a straight, I show him QQ and scoop the pot. He has 25 left, and goes on to win 4 hands in a row, still not having enough to cover the BB, he gives up. I take it down for $330.

I go across the street to Flamingo to kill some time and play a 2/4 limit game. I am not a huge fan of cash game. I ended up winning about $20. Saw a big guy get carried out on a stretcher for having alcohol poisoning. Quite an adventure.

I am now tired, I stay up, play the 9am Caesars tourney, this time around we got 28 players, nothing special happens until I get moved to another table, to my suprise, I see the San Fran guy who thought I slowrolled him. He is on my right. I fold my first hand utg. Following hand I am in the BB and get dealt AhTh, we are playing 6 handed (almost final table), button limps in, SB San Fran guy completes, and I ship all in. Button folds, San Fran calls w/ 89o and I flop the nuts, he quickly gets up w/o saying anything to me.

I catch my plane back to Chicago at 3:30pm and am now looking forward to my trip back out in June for the Deep Stack events.

Overall, I did quite well, left up over $800, cashed in 2/5 tournaments, and went deep in every tournament I was in. I was very happy with how I played.

Hope everyone enjoyed my first trip report.