Overall a nice trip. Flight to Vegas was painless and without a lot of chop, which is always nice. Stayed at the Bellagio while working the first four days, which meant little poker.

Only chance I had was the 2 p.m. Planet Hollywood on Sunday. Ended up with 70 players and 14 more "re-entries". $60 entry for 4K chips and 20 minutes blinds. No really nasty chip level moves, so the structure allowed for some play over the first 2 hours. Of course, my second table (first table was fairly tight), where I was moved after about an hour and a half didn't share my same view. In fact, at least every other hand featured a 7-8K bet into a 500-1000 chip pot. Was able to triple up when 2 repeat offenders tried this (both with little aces). Was able to ride that to the final table and a 7th place finish, which was good for just under $200.

Played Monte Carlo Monday late. Room was closed off due to construction (with no signs), but the tables they had going were filled about 5% locals, 15% older players and 80% young, drinking players. Great tables. If my aces didn't get run down by Jack/ten and my kings popped by Jack/nine I would have done really well. Finished up 150 or so anyway.

MGM was next, pretty nice room, but the table got rocky in a hurry. Left up $60 after an hour.

Mirage on Thursday night sucked. As I found out on a previous trip, the management there just isn't very friendly. I seemed to suffer through terrible cards for a lot of the night and just didn't feel like making any moves. Had queens run down by a set of 9's on the flop...of course, the old fart with the 9's didn't re-raise me, so I got off by losing almost the minimum possible. Left after 3 or so hours up a whopping $1.

Finally, played the P.H. 2 p.m. again on Friday, was out in a hurry when Q 8 just couldn't fold top pair (after calling a substantial raise pre-flop and catching that beautiful queen on the flop). The lesson, of course, is not to try bluffing players that just can't be bluffed, which makes this crappy play on my end. Played the cash game afterwards, and was able to finish up $110. Surprising in that the cash game was weak for the first hour and then got very tough over the next two hours. Got out while I was still ahead, which is always good. Also, the P.H. probably had the best dealers I ran into while on my trip.

So, I found a few things. They are:

1) Be choosy about the game you play;
2) get out of games that are too tough; and
3) always buy in for the max.

Anyway, good trip, always fun.