I arrived in Las Vegas on the 22nd and left on the 27th. I played poker each day except for the last, and while I was down a bit on the trip, I had a good time. Following is a description of the rooms I played in / saw, and my experiences. (This is a long report, but if nothing else, check out the description of the Imperial Palace game at the end).

Rooms At Which I Didn't Play, But Saw

1. Bellagio - I stayed at the Bellagio, but did not play there. The poker room seemed pretty busy for the middle of the week.

2. Mirage - This was probably the busiest room of all, with almost all tables in use.

3. MGM Grand - This is a very nice room. At one point on a Thursday night, they had five 1-2 NL games going at a time.

Rooms In Which I Played

1. Wynn - I played 1-3 no limit on two occasions. Both were mid-week afternoons. The first time, I had to wait about 20 minutes, and the second time, about an hour. In both cases, I got into a game when they started a new 1-3 table. It looked like they wait for about 10-13 people to be on a waiting list to start a game, which is probably standard practice in many rooms. During the middle of the day, not many people were leaving the games, so the list would grow pretty quickly.

In the 1-3 game, they use peach colored three-dollar chips. Everything seemed to run smoothly. Some dealers called out bets in chips rather than in dollars, though. ("That's a raise of 5 chips.") Maybe some people who can count in 5s and 1s cannot count in 3s?

In any case, about an hour into my first game at the Wynn, I suffered a terrible beat. I had KK, raised to 12, and was

called by one player. The flop came 6-4-2 rainbow (I think). Acting first, I bet twenty-one at the pot. A woman playing conservatively went all-in for 59 more. Thinking that if she had pocket 6s, there is a good likelihood she
would have checked, and that she was trying to bully me out of the pot with something strong but not the nuts (and with good odds), I called. She had 88, so I had a 9-1 advantage. The next two cards were 8-8 runner runner, and I lost. Suffiice it to say, that wasn't a good start.

Two days later, I played again, and met similar results. I did make some mistakes, but also just had poor luck when no good starting hands turned into any money. The players at the Wynn seemed to be mostly solid players / locals. On the second day, there were a few players who were weak and lost all their money (unfortunately, not to me).

On the whole, the room is very nice. See my room review for the whole round-up there.

Plaza - The second day of my trip, I decided to take a break from poker, because I wanted to try to make sure I was mentally ready to go again. That day, my brother and I took a cab downtown to check out the scene. We walked into the Plaza at about one o'clock on a Tuesday, and heard an announcement for a $25 Sit-N-Go shootout, so we went to their poker "room" and played one. I played well, but went out 4th after a minor bad beat. The players were relatively solid, with no craziness. Nothing else was going on in the room at that hour. When we left, some game began in which it looked like about 7 players were dealt the whole deck, or close to it. I am not sure what game they were playing.

Aladdin - I did the Wednesday 10 AM tournament, and made it through the first break, but went out shortly after that when my A2s met 55. I was going to be blinded out soon, so I had to make a move with something. The tournament was well-run, but the blinds go up so aggressively that most moves become all-ins past the first two levels.

Monte Carlo - Looking for a change of scene the next day, I checked out the Monte Carol's room. There was one 1-2 NL game going, which I got into pretty quickly. The management and dealers are all very nice and pleasant. While not a big room, this is a very nice place to play (and easily accessible from the Bellagio via the free tram running between the hotels).

Imperial Palace - Ever wonder how people would react to a player going all in or make huge raises on almost every hand? I found out at IP, in what was the most entertaining poker game I have ever played in at a casino. One player, who I will call "Bob," made a large raise or went all-in almost every hand. This made for an EXTREMELY tight game. Bob continually raked in the blinds, because none of the other players were getting cards (or the guts) to challenge him. The game became fun, though, as it developed into a situation in which seven guys (no women were playing at the moment) were waiting around to see who could get good enough cards to win Bob's money.

Eventually, Bob's aggression caught up with him, with him losing three big hands. On one, he raised all-in and then mucked his cards before the other player said anything, so he lost $88 dollars without a showdown. (Bob had had a bit to drink by this point). Second, he went all in with AQ against another players AJ. JJ came on the flop. Third, Bob went in against pocket Aces, and lost. Nonetheless, he rebought and kept being aggressive!

Bob was a character. Several times, he "tipped" everyone else at the table - one time $5 each. While this is not technically allowed by house rules, it managed to slip by most of the times he tried. (And the players gladly took his money, with one using it to tip the dealer).

The other players all seemed very nice, and if not for Bob's presence, I think there would have been a pretty good, low stakes 1-2 NL game. Still, I cannot complain, because Bob gave me three hours of entertainment.

Note: Being from the Northeast, I had only played before in Atlantic City casinos. Compared to the 1-2 NL games there, the games in Las Vegas are definitely more aggressive. People act as if they have deeper pockets, which makes for larger raises and bets.