Originally, I was going to do a day by day update of my most recent Vegas trip. However, I figured I'd spare you all the bad beat stories and just do a general overview.

First, I'll just let you know that this was not a winning trip for me. I won't lie and say that I played fantastic poker and just got the shit end of the stick, but I will tell you that there were times that I played my best poker and just downright got kicked in the sack.

I played 6 or 7 tournies this trip. I played tournies at Harrah's, The Luxor, Binion's, Sam's Town and The Sahara. I played cash games at Harrah's, Luxor, and The Orleans. I did not cash in any tournament. I played poorly in some and took bad beats in others. I will only bore you with my last tournament story which was at Binion's. My final tournament was the 2am tourny which is $70 with a $40 rebuy. I got busted early when my QQ's met up with AA's. I re-bought and played great, building my stack back up to a respectable level. Then, heads-up with the player to my right I put all my money in after catching the ace high nut flush on the turn. He bet all in and I instantly called. He caught his 3rd 10 on the river to kill me with the full house. I won't really call it a bad beat, but will go away knowing that I had the best hand when all the money went in the middle.

Now for some of the cool things about this trip:

* The Luxor is a pretty cool hotel to stay at. This was my first time getting a room there (we also had a room at the Plaza which we alternated nights staying at). The room is spacious and the bathroom is one of the best I've seen. There is an oval tub for the ladies and a stand up glass shower for the guys. The Luxor also has an interesting NL cash game. Their game is a $50 min-max buy in with $1/$1/$2 blinds. Now, at first site it's not a great game to get into because there are not only 3 blinds, but the buy in is really low for a $1/$2. However, the correct strategy here is to get all of your money in with the best hand the second you can get heads up with one of the big stacks. This strategy worked for me on day 2 netting me a $360 profit (however I was already down $700 for the day on non poker related gaming).

* The Plaza Hotel on Fremont is inexpensive and adequate. Although they have a poker room we did not have an opportunity to play any tournies there. The bathrooms are pretty small, but for the price you can't really ask for more. It's old, the clientele are retirees, it's a little dingy, but it is old Vegas and I'm glad I got to experience it. For $6 they have a pretty good little buffet. For me, good fried chicken is all it takes to make me happy.... and they had it. I also played some 3 card poker at the Plaza on my last night and hit trips for 30 to 1 odds. Unfortunately, I only had $5 bets out so the total take was like $175.... which more than made up for my Binion's tournament loss.

* On Monday night I hurried back from the Luxor to Binion's to play in the 2am tournament (this was my first Binion's tourny on this trip). An interesting thing happened. I got there at 1:57am and there were only 4 people registered. I went ahead and registered anyway because they poker room manager said that's never happened before and a bunch of people would be walking in an registering late. Well, that didn't happen and the 5 of us decided to play. By the break we were 10 handed. The reason this was so weird is because this was BINION'S! The home of poker........ and no one was registered to play in the tourny. I've been there a few times before and never seen less than 3 tables at the 2 am tourny. Now, the manager told me that sometimes they only have 2 tables but he thought maybe the pro rodeo that night had something to do with the turn out.

* The Sahara has the best low buy in tournament around. It was recommended to me by some locals and some of the dealers while playing at the Luxor. It's $40 and a $20 optional add on or rebuy. You start out with 3000 chips and the blinds are quite a bit longer than your average Vegas low buy in tournament. So, if you don't wanna pay $500 to play in a legit structured tournament this is the one for you. It starts at 7pm and usually has over 120 players. The 1st place money the night I played was over $2400 and I am told it averages between $2000 and $3500 for first.

* Sam's Town is a cool place to catch a movie if you need a break. We had a 6 day trip so on day 4 we decided to slow it down a bit and catch the Borat movie. Afterwards, I was right on time for their 7pm tournament. Josh decided to sneak into The Departed, so when I busted out of the tourny I had to kill some time. I saw a 3 card poker table with only 1 guy sitting there. The dealer was teaching him how to play and he had a huge stack of winnings. At this point, I never played and only knew that it was my mother's favorite table game. I watched him play for awhile and decided I would sit down only after the crew of asian ladies sat down. I thought they were filipino at first (I am half filipino) and was going to sit down simply because of that, but I found out they were Japanese and sat down anyway. Well, they were pretty damn lucky cause I built my bank roll up to $300. I love that game. It wasn't until the witch-like cooler lady sat down to my right, stealing all my hands away. Once she sat down, she got 2 straits and a flush and I got NOTHING. I figured I'd take my money and run.

* Up until this trip, I have never seen any celebrities while in Vegas. However, I did see Antonio Esfandiari and the Unibomber Phil Laak being interviewed on the strip across the street from Bellagio. That was pretty cool. But... not as cool as who I saw on my last night. On my last night, Josh and I walked over to the El Cortez to do some cheap gambling. I talked him into playing some 3 card poker. He lost, I won. He ended up leaving and I stayed a bit longer to play. After the evil dealer lady took my money I decided to walk over to Binion's and play in that 2 am tourny. As I got onto Fremont, I noticed a police motorcycle escorting a film truck carrying a car on a trailer. Seeing this in the past, I instantly knew they were filming a movie. The light turned red for them so I crossed the street and noticed that in the car was Chazz Palmenteri. I was like 4 feet from the car standing on the curb of Fremont. It was just me at that intersection, no one else around but a couple making out. They had no idea who he was. "THAT GUY WROTE A BRONX TALE, THAT'S CHAZZ PALMENTERI!" I said, but they didn't give a rat's ass. I tried to get as close to the car as possible as to maybe get into the shot but the camera looked pretty tight and I think it was just gonna show he and the female passenger. It looked like it maybe was a movie that happens in the past because he was driving a 1950's or 60's baby blue cadillac convertible. If that's the case, I definitely won't be in the scene considering I had on my cargo pants and sketchers. So, in a year or so if you see a movie where Chazz Palmentieri is driving a chick in a baby blue caddy with a bunch of shopping bags in the back seat, just keep in mind that I am standing on the curb as the pass through the intersection of Fremont street.

* You will NOT find a better breakfast than at the Golden Gate on Fremont. Just trust me. I'm a fat guy..... and fat guys know where to get breakfast. So, if you're on fremont and it's 3am there should be no other consideration, just go to the Golden Gate. Get the ham steak and eggs and you will thank me. I promise you.

* Fat Burger is the best burger I've ever had. Up until recently I'd say Dan's Hamburgers in Austin but after visiting Fat Burger not once, but twice... I can now say without a doubt that they have the best burger. We don't have those here in Austin so if you already knew this about that joint please excuse me. My recommendation is the king combo.

* The Aladdin is a great place to take a shit. You can quote me on that. Now, this was my first time going to the Aladdin. The only reason we went is because Josh said the buffet was fantastic. He was right. If you are ever taking a chick to Vegas, this would be a place to consider staying. There is a huge mall inside the Aladdin and the ceilings are painted like the sky. Pretty neat. The buffet was the best I've had to date. The casino is pretty fancy and if you go upstairs to play poker there's a very nice business area where you can use the cleanest restroom I've ever seen in that town. I like the decor of that casino and will be visiting there in the future.

* The Orleans is not such a good place to take a shit. You might be asking "Tom, why were you taking so many shits?". Well, I eat a lot. Whatayagonnado? Now, I will start by saying that I love the Orleans. They have a great poker room, a lot of restaurants, a movie theater, etc etc. However, if you happen to be caught out there and need to make a deuce you will have to endure a little nastiness. First of all, you'll need to find the one stall that doesn't have actual feces on the seat. That may be challenging. Then, you'll notice that there are ash trays in the shitter! Are people that goddamn addicted that they can't put their square out prior to dropping trow and depositing a poop loaf? C'mon old folks, you got some problems if you aren't fully concentrated on the act of shitting in such a crap infested box. If you can let your guard down and multi-task in that environment than you either are minutes away from cancer or you did some bullet dodging in WWII and this is a piece of cake to you.

* Rent a car. It's worth it. This was an interesting trip for me for 2 reasons. First, it was 5 nights and 6 days. My previous trips were always 3 nights. Second, we had two rooms.... one on the stip and one one Fremont. I actually think this was a pretty cool way to experience the best of both worlds. However, this couldn't have been done without a rental car. With the additional trip over to Sam's town, we probably saved a couple hundred bucks total by having the car.