Just returned from 5 days in Vegas of almostnon-stop poker. We visited pretty much every poker room in the middle and south part of the strip except for Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and Monte Carlo. We really only played at Venetian, Caesar's, Planet Hollywood, MGM Grand, and Sahara.

Day 1

Arrived in Vegas about 2:15 pm and made it to our hotel and headed out to check out the strip and do the touristy stuff since it was my brother-in-law's first trip to Vegas. He really wanted to eat at a buffet, so we caught the monorail to Ballys and rode the free shuttle from there to the Rio for their awesome Carnival World Buffet. After we ate until we were uncomfortably full we caught the shuttle from there back to Caesar's. We basically just wandered from place to place on the strip until about 9:00 checking out the various rooms. We headed back to Sahara to play in their 11:00 pm tourney. We were staying there, so we had planned on playing the 11:00 pm every night so once we were eliminated we could just head up to bed. The room staff at Sahara were very surly. After buying in for the tournament the guy that took our money just mumbled, "Take a card." We grabbed one of the laminated seat cards that looked like they had been in use sine Sahara was built. Their tables aren't felt, but this sort of weird satin material that is badly stained and worn. The chips used in the tournaments there are even more filthy. The white chips were basically grey. I also hated the fact that none of the chips there have denominations on them. I'm color blind and since the chips are so filthy I was having a really hard time telling the difference between the green ($25) chips and the red ($1,000) chips. I got knocked out soon after the second break. I honestly don't even remember the hand. My BIL lasted much longer and went out in about 15th place. After the tournament we just messed around playing some blackjack.

Day 2

Woke up about 8:30 and headed over to center strip. Grabbed some breakfast and then went over to Caesar's to buy in for the noon tournament. While waiting for the tournament to start we walked over to check out the action at Bellagio. The room was already pretty full at 10:45 in the morning and there were several tables where all of the players had huge stacks of red. I didn't really care for the room setup because it looked just a little too cramped for me and the action was just a little too big for my bankroll, so we never played there. The Caesar's tournament didn't go so well for either of us. My BIL went out on a real winner of a hand. He raised pre-flop with pocket queens and got re-raised by one of the table maniacs. He shoved all in and got called by A3o. Flop was 2-4-5. Ugly. I lasted until just after the first break when our table was 7-handed for like 5 orbits even though there four or five other tables playing with nine players. After the antes kicked in my stack was dwindling fast and I wasn't getting cards. I finally pushed with a pair of nines and was called and lost to KQ. My brother-in-law had headed over to Planet Hollywood to play in their 2:00 pm tournament. After I busted I headed over to see how he was doing. I got there about 2:20 and they let me buy in late. I sucked out early when I made a horrible mis-read and wound up all in against the table bully with my 7's versus his jacks and caught a 7 on the turn. Nothing much exciting in that tournament. I cashed in 4th place for about $200. We then headed back to Sahara to play the 7:00 pm tournament. Both of us made it to the final 2 tables. I went out in about 18th when I shoved my short stack all in and my K-Q of diamonds was called by J-10 of diamonds. No diamonds on the board, but there was a jack. My BIL made a huge comeback from tiny stack to probably the third or fourth biggest stack. He made a tactical error when he pushed (thinking the opponent didn't have a strong hand) with pocket deuces. He happened to be right, but it didn't matter when the guy's K9o caught a king on the flop. The highlight though was when the cards were turned up one of the railbirds said, "Whose deuces are those?" That became a catch phrase for the week.

Day 3

We were planning to play the 10:00 tournament at Planet Hollywood, but when we arrived there were only about 12 people on the list. We jumped into the 1-2 NL game that was going and had some success. I wound up about even after about 3-4 hours of play. My BIL won about $200 for the session. After that we decided that we weren't going to play in any more tournaments and strictly focus on cash games. I wish we had stuck to that plan for the whole week. We then went to MGM to get in another cash game. This time I wound up about $175 and my BIL was about even for the session. My BIL was meeting his girlfriend's dad for dinner, so I was on my own for a few hours. Sat for about an hour at the pai gow table and broke even, but got stupid drunk on free Heineken's. I stumbled over to the Venetian to try out a 1-2 NL game. I was lucky to leave there up about $20. The room was super comfy and posh, but the players there were on average just a little bit better than anywhere else that we played. My BIL caught back up with me and we headed downtown to catch the Fremont Street Experience. It was mildly entertaining, but took second place to all of the characters hanging around down there. We cabbed it from there back to MGM and played cash until about 3:00 am. By BIL finished up about $125 and I donked off about $200 most of it on another bad misread.

Day 4

We headed back over to Planet Hollywood to either play cash or maybe do their afternoon tournament. When we arrived they had just opened a new 1-2 NL table populated by about 5 twenty-somethings and one middle aged guy. We grabbed two of the three remaining open seats. It was a pretty uneventful and very chill table. Lots of limping and friendly play for the most part. I was okay with playing a little low variance poker to kill some time. About 45 minutes into the game a thirty-something New York girl sits down. She does the whole "I'm new at this game so you're going to have to help me" act. It was obviously BS because she knew how and when to post her blinds with out being reminded and won several hands. She was playing a little loose, but was catching. About an hour or so after she got there she made a clear string bet. She dropped 5 red chips for $25 over the line and then as she went back to her stack she declared $40 verbally and threw in three more red chips. The dealer started to pull the $40 into the middle when everyone at the table protested that it was a string. A pretty heated argument ensued until the floor came over and ruled that it was a string, but allowed $30 to stand as the bet (not sure why that amount, but I wasn't going to argue anymore). At the time of the bet there was like $10 in the pot, so nobody with a brain was calling without the nuts. The whole argument was really kinda pointless, but she was being a real witch about it. She raked in her $50 pot that contained about $8 in profit and said, "All right. You guys wanted to make a big deal about it? That's okay. I won the pot and got your money." She was clearly steaming. The very next hand there were four or five limpers including me. She was on the button and bumped it to $22 preflop. It folded around to me and I called with my KJo. I figured I'd call based on implied odds. If I hit the flop I might get paid big time since she was clearly tilting hard. As soon as I made the call the two guys to my right whispered good luck under their breath, so the whole table was clearly rooting for me on this one. Flop comes J-8-5 rainbow. I bet out $50 and she insta-calls. Turn is a 10 and I bet another $75. Once again she insta-calls. I spotted my BIL looking at me wide-eyed from across the table. I just gave him a reassuring nod to say that I knew what I was doing. River is a 2. I'm not super worried about that card, but I started to worry that she might have woke up with a real hand like aces, kings, or queens or maybe Q-9 for a real disaster. I checked the river prepared to call any bet she might make since I now only have about $75 left behind just so I can see what she might do. She just checked too and we went to the showdown. I showed my K-J and the dealer showed my pair of jacks on the board. She said, "What does he have....just a pair?" My heart sank thinking she might have hit two pair when she turns over A-5 for a pair of fives?!?!? I'm still not even sure why she showed her hand. I left a couple of hands later cause I didn't want to give any of it back. My BIL and I went over to the pai gow table at PH and played for four hours with really no loss or profit except for about a dozen beers. It was one of the most fun tables I've ever played at. The people were friendly and the floor staff were very accomodating. It was my BIL's first time playing pai gow and the floor person even allowed the dealer to switch his hand when he misplayed it so he went from a loss to a push. I'd never seen a floor person basically give back money, so that was very cool. After our stint at the pai gow table I walked by the poker room to see if the steaming ATM was still playing. There she was still sitting in seat three looking just as pissed off as before and reaching into her purse for $200 more. I grabbed one of the dealers, Junior, and asked him if she was still tossing money at the table and he confirmed that she was. I was tempted to get back in the game, but thought better of it since I was just a wee bit too tipsy to make good decisions. After that we walked up to TI to see if we could find Las Vegas Michael. They only had one table going and it was 5 or 6 handed. I was a little disappointed in the action there after LVM talked it up so much on here. Oh well....I might have just hit it on a bad night.

A few things I took away from this trip.

1. Planet Hollywood is now my new favorite mid-strip casino. I really like the improvements they've made to it and all of the staff were very friendly and service oriented. I have to mention a few staff. The casino floor staff Kenny and Steve were awesome as well as the pai gow dealers Gina, Danni, and Janice. All of the poker room staff were very efficient and friendly. I can't remember everyone's names, but Mike, Junior (very cool guy), Wayne, and Sherry were all great.

2. The Sahara is a bargain, but you basically lose the savings paying cab fare and monorail fees to get to the middle and south end of the strip. They also need to put some of their profits back into the casino. The felt on all of the table games was filthy and covered in cigarette burns and a lot of the staff seemed like they really weren't all that happy to be working there except for one dealer named Tony. Nobody was blatantly rude or anything...they just didn't go out of their way to make you feel welcome.

3. If you're a decent poker player and want to make some money, cash games are where it's at. Don't waste your time on tournaments unless you are just looking for a few hours of fun with very little money spent or won. If I had stuck to cash games and resisted the temptation to waste money on blackjack, pai gow, and the occasional slot I would have broken even for the week after cabs, food, and other expenses.

4. If you can't spot the fish at the table it might just be you (I felt like I might be sprouting gills at the Venetian).