disclaimer: Below is a lightly edited version of my similar post of the same name on twoplustwo.com, in the B&M forum.

Steve, Alex, Matt, Nate, & I leave Chicago Thursday night. We travel balla-style with just carry-ons, except that means we have to watch out for the liquids police at security. I have a full-size tube of toothpaste in my backpack. Beat: Security pulls the backpack to inspect after it’s scanned. Brag: they only wanted to check out my frolf discs in the backpack. They pull those out and laugh, and don’t even open the toothpaste pocket. OK so that’s not that big a deal, but to me it was a good omen for the trip.

Security beat for Alex: Alex has with him an ¾ empty jar of honey that he likes to scoop fingerfuls out of for occasional energy boosts. Of course, security pulls it, and despite his efforts to dissuade them, they confiscate it. But to prove to them that it’s just honey, he eats the rest of it before they throw it away.

Our flight’s delayed an hour, so we teach Nate (never played before) Hold’em via a $1 buy-in sit-n-go in the O’Hare food court. I pwn the sng after a hand against Steve where I hit a set of 7s on the flop, Steve straights on the turn, and I quad the river. SIHB. Another good omen for the trip. All of us except Steve yells and cheers, and everyone looks at us.

Arrive in Vegas, where Dave is supposed to pick us up since he’s driving in from Phoenix. He gets stuck in Hoover Dam traffic, so we get in line for a cab. 50 minutes later we’re at Gold Coast, where Dave has already arrived during the time we waited for a cab. We check in at GC and get two balla suites on the 10th floor w/o any sort of $20 tip or sweet-talking the clerk.

First stop, GC restaurant for $1.95 eggs-n-bacon, which we budget-balla w. coups for $1 each. Between Steve, me, & Alex, we’ve got two of the Tony Curtis pocketbook-o-values, and three American Casino Guides. Add to those all the coups you get in the players club funbooks, and budget-ballin will be a theme for the trip.

We each down a few free (coups again) stiff drinks from the bar and head upstairs for some more ballin’. Bowlin’-ballin’ that is. You heard me. $1 games after midnight Mon-Thurs, and that includes a free drink w/ your game. We buy 3 games + shoes for $5.50/person. First game warm-up, then we make a few wagers. Steve beats me & Alex in the second game for $10 each. Dave & I have a heads-up going at the same time; I’m down $20 after game 2. Nate bowls the game of his life with a 192 that second game, but refrained from betting beforehand (beat). Game 3 I ask Dave for double-or-nothing, and I pwn him 186 to 152.

Steve & Dave are itching to play cards and settle in for some 4-8 from 4 to 6am, but I go to bed and get a few hours of that Vegas sleep where you don’t really sleep - the kind where you look at the clock and see it's 4:57, and wonder who's got 68.

Friday morning I wake up and head for the 4-8 (half-kill) game. As with other times I’ve been to GC, it’s full of gamboooooling Asians. Awesome. I rock it, winning 3 kill pots in a row at one point and leave +$200 after 2 hours.

One win of note: I’m in middle position with pocket red Kings. I raise pre-flop, and am called by the button - a super loose Asian guy who had been hemorrhaging chips since Steve was at the table last night. Flop: Ks 9s 2s. I bet; he raises; I re-raise; he calls and shows his buddy standing behind him his cards. Buddy shrugs. Umm, OK, thanks for that. Let’s not see another spade come. Turn is not a spade, river is not a spade, but he calls my bets at both, then mucks when he sees my set.

Lunchtime at the Port-o-Call buffet means it’s budget-balla time again, and the 5 of us eat for $4.95 each with coups. 6/9 for food/service. None of us sampled the delicacy known as "meat salad".

Jon & Ubaldo arrive Friday afternoon and meet us at Bally’s, where we’re staying for the weekend. We had heard that the north tower was way better, but the place was packed, so we got south tower. Our view is great, with the fake Eiffel tower and the Bellagio fountains.

Ubaldo, Alex, Matt, & I want to work out, and head for the Bally’s spa, despite the $22 non-budget-balla price. On the way, I put $60 on Butler (+10) to cover against Florida. I’m from Indianapolis originally and know Butler plays that old-school Indiana farmer type of ball that Florida won’t be able to handle.

We get to the spa at 4 and find out it’s $15 after 5:30. The manager rounds up the clock and we’re in for 15. I just stick with dumbbells, but the place is way decent for a hotel gym, and that’s before we wander into the spa side. The attendant hands us robes, towels, & sandals and we do a steam room -> cold tub -> hot tub -> sauna cycle. We wear towels around our waists the whole time (including in water) to avoid seeing each other’s junk, but a few cat brains get exposed when sitting down. We clean up in time to see Butler lose only by 8. Totally refreshed and me +$54 from Butler, we meet up with the rest of the group to walk to our Friday night dinner spot, the budget-ballin’ paradise Ellis Island.

They told us it would be at least an hour wait for a table at the Ellis restaurant, so what better time to make use of some unlimited-drinks-for-2-for-one-hour coupons from the POV? I shared mine with my brother, and Steve shared his with Ubaldo. We gave the other guys a couple of 4-free-cocktails coups and we were good to go. I don’t remember much of that next hour or so except running to bar every 5-10 minutes in between blackjack and craps. We had all these blackjack match-plays but somehow I still dropped 40, and then 20 or 40 at craps, which I’d never played before. Yeah that was smart.

Finally, we sit, and it’s $4.95 steak dinner (always that price at Ellis, no coup needed) time. Steve & I bust out the buy-one-get-one-free coups for some appetizers, and wings & chicken fingers are on the way. If you haven’t had the EI steak dinner, you need to. Food/Service = 8/10.

Being the budget balla that I am, I cover dinner for our group, which was a whopping $70.95, including gratuity. The guys throw on another $20 tip, and we’re outta there. (let me clarify that even though we were budget ballin’, we never skimped on tips)

Back to Bally’s, we meet up with Sam, and decide on courses of action. The poker players of the group want to go to the Venetian, and the other guys come along. Finally some more poker action.

The V is packed but there’s only one 4-8 on a Friday night. Steve, Dave, and I eventually get spots at the table, and my first hand, BB, 63off. 3 limpers, no raise, I check. Flop is J 7 2, gets checked around. Turn 6. I bet, call, call, fold. River 3. I bet, call, call. I show two pair, and an Asian woman next to Steve scolds me for playing it. Okay, if that makes you feel better for not betting your jack on the flop. The guy next to me told me she was crafty, so she’ll be known as Crasian in this story.

Two hands later, I have AdQd on button. Folders, then Crasian raises, fold, fold, I re-raise, Crasian calls. Flop is Ah Ks X. She checks, I bet, she check-raises. I’m thinking if she had AA, KK, or AK, she would have re-raised pre-flop, so I call the check-raise. Turn is a Qh. She bets, I raise, she calls. River’s a 2c. She bets and I just call because she’s got me all confused now. Of course, she shows AK for a better two-pair.

A few hands later, I raise in MP with QQ. Crasian’s in SB and calls, BB calls. Flop’s K J T. She checks, BB checks, I bet, they both call. Turn’s an 8. Check-check-I bet- Crasian calls, BB folds. River’s X. Crasian checks, and I just check, again all confused by her. She shows pocket Kings; I ask why she never raised, and she says she thought I had AQ again. I say, if so, you should’ve folded. She shrugs.

Any commentary on the above two hands is appreciated. I feel like I played them pretty decently?

So with those hands and some stupid limping, I’m down like 120 after 30 minutes, then things get a little better. I hit a set & boat and happen to not be involved in pots against Crasian, and end the session down 75. At one point a group of hot girls walks by our table, and one of them waves and says “hi boys”. The whole table turns their heads. One end of the table is whispering and I can’t hear it, then later Dave tells me it was Nicky Hilton. We had the obligatory Johnny Chan sighting too, who walked by Matt & Alex’s NL table.

On the way out I put a buck in the nickel salmon-n-bear slot by the bathroom, and it starts spinning itself for about 2 minutes, and I cash at $50. I’ll take it.

Back to Bally’s and half-sleep from 4 to 8am.

Saturday morning I come downstairs at Bally’s and see a 5-handed 3-6 game going, so why not. I put my chips down, then go grab something to eat, and when I come back, it’s 4-handed including me for 5 minutes, then one guy leaves, and it’s me against two Asians. I ask about a rake reduction, and the dealer says if we have one, then we’re not eligible for the jackpots. I say that’s ok with me, but my table-mates will have none of it. So we play 3-handed for an hour. I get OK cards and play fine, but when I stand up, I’m down $8. That’s why you don’t play raked 3-handed. Oh well. At least I’m warmed up for what’s next: private tournament at TI for our whole group.

Before the trip, I had arranged this thing with Chris Coffin, the TI room manager. He’s on allvegaspoker and was hella cool in setting it up. Buy-in for $50+10 for T1500, another T1000 for a $5 add-on, and optional $25 re-buy if below T1500. First three places cash. We start at 10am, and there’s a 3-6 mixed game going on in the corner from the night before that’s calling my name.

Everyone’s pretty tight at first, and I jump out to a lead with some aggression early, like real early, meaning it doesn’t mean much. As evidenced by the friend descriptions in my first post, there is a wide variety of poker experience levels here. If you had asked me before who I thought would win, I’d say Matt with his laggro style, or Alex, who cashes in home game tourneys routinely. I’ve cashed in about half the sngs I play on stars, but have never done anything in a real-life tourney.

My aggro pays off until Ubaldo won’t fold when I’m betting big at him with middle pair, and he has the same pair, better kicker. Jon & Alex re-buy early but still drop. Dave gets down to like 250, with blinds at 50-100, but builds it back and has the lead for a while without ever rebuying. I get too tight after my early aggroness, and donk off raised blinds until I go all-in pre-flop with my last 700 (BB 400 now) w. JQo, and Ubaldo calls with AQs. Needless to say, nothing hits and I’m out in 7th, no use for a re-buy. I look over to the mixed game and it’s breaking, but I want to stay and watch our game anyway.

Sam gets knocked out in 6th after a valiant post re-buy comeback. Now it’s down to Matt, Steve, Nate, Dave, & Ubaldo, and Ubaldo’s got a big lead and can’t stop grinning and telling everyone “I just want to get third! This money’s for the baby! Let me get third!” Nate (whom we taught to play poker in the airport, remember) hits three 2-pairs in a row and overtakes Ubaldo, earning himself the creative nickname “Two Pair”. I to Nate: “See, what did I tell you? It’s easy.” Nate: “I’m still waiting for the dice to come out”.

(Steve, correct me if I’m wrong with all this. I know you will). Ubaldo knocks out Dave, and we’re down to four, with Steve in 4th w. only 200, and the BB is at least 400. Steve’s in BB and triples his 200. Next hand, he’s all in at SB and triples again. A hand or two later, he’s all in again and robusto at 5400. Now Nate’s down to 700. He’s BB, pushes, and triples to 2100, triples again, then doubles it to 12600. Ubaldo’s been enabling all this tripling by calling while he’s chip-leader, and he’s not the leader any more. Matt was an enabler too, but without a lot of chips, and now he’s down to 1k or so. Steve goes all-in vs. Nate, Matt calls Steve’s all in, who has him covered. Nate’s pocket 8s hold up, knocking out Matt & Steve, and Steve gets 3rd ($110).

Now it’s Nate vs. Ubaldo, of course the two with the least poker experience. Nate has about 7/8 of all the chips. They take turns folding blinds, then Ubaldo goes all-in with 9T, and Nate calls with Q4. Flop 7 Q 6. Turn 6. River Q.

Nate “Two Pair” K. takes down Ubaldo “I’m just trying to finish 3rd” M. in the TI Scotty-Win invitational with two-pair on the the turn and a full house river to rub it in. Nate cashes $260; Ubaldo’s around $200; we tip our dealers & Chris and it’s lunchtime.

Back at Bally’s for the Big Kitchen buffet, and it’s budget-balla time again. Sticker price is $20. Between two buy-1-get-1s and six $5-off coups, it’s $13 each. We hadn’t heard anything noteworthy about this buffet, but it was hella good. Prime rib, shrimp, smoked salmon, an omelette, and bbq pork found their way onto my plate. Our waitress is on it like vomit with the re-fills, and wants Sam to marry her daughter. 9/10 food/service at this place.

Saturday afternoon we split up. Steve, Alex, and Ubaldo go to the Mac King comedy show at Harrah’s (coups), and David, Nate, Jon, Sam, & I head for the frisbee golf course at Sunset Park on the other side of McCarran. Sam, David, and I play a good amount and have our own discs, but we don’t play enough to be the type to call it “disc golf”. It’s frolf. We only play 10 holes because Sam & Nate are going to Spamalot that night and need to get back in time. David & I play heads-up for $20, and I jump to a 4-throw lead with pars on the first four holes. Then I start donking my putts, and he comes back to tie with me, both at +6, after ten holes; meanwhile, Sam schools us both, finishing +3. Playoff hole between me and David. Both our drives are way off. I get a good approach, landing about 20 feet away. Dave’s is about 30 away. He putts and misses, going about 10 feet past. I just have to hit this 20-footer to win, but I donk it off the top of the basket. Now he’s got the easy 10-footer to clinch a tie, but he hits one chain and it doesn’t stay in. My shot’s a gimme and I cash +$20. David’s pissed.

Nate & Sam head for the Wynn for their show. I try to nap a little back at the room before the next part of the trip, the Dave Matthews Band + The Fray show at MGM.

I try to nap Saturday afternoon after golf, but again, all I see are cards dancing through my head, so I jack it and that does the trick. 90 minutes good solid sleep, and I’m ready to roll to the DMB show. Alex, Jon, & I chug some tall-boys on the way. The strip is full of hot girls in tank tops and we have a fun walk, with one guy yelling out “hey it’s hay-soos!” when he sees Alex. (Alex has a long beard, so that's funny.) We get to the arena and have to wait for my brother to come over from X-Cal, so we jump in the nearest bar for some scotch & beers. You gotta love that at the MGM arena, they let you you come in with drinks as long as they’re in plastic cups. Dave (brother) arrives; we re-buy; I pour mine into a plastic cup, and we’re in our seats a little bit after The Fray starts. They’re a good band and a lot of the crowd actually knows their songs.

Time for another re-buy. Dave and the band come out and play the following: Crash, Die Trying, Grey Street, Sweet Caroline, WWYS, Idea of You, Seek Up, DDTW, Dancing Nancies, WAYG, Maker, Bayou, Stolen Away, Down by the River, Tripping Billies. Encore: Gravedigger, new song I don’t know, Halloween. If you’re a Dave fan, you know that’s an awesome setlist. My brother & I always try to guess the songs, and we have all these bets going but neither of us gets one right. Alex knows like six DMB songs total and nails Gravedigger, getting a $20 from me.

Each of us bought a round at the show, so that’s four more drinks down. We make a buzzy bee-line for the MGM poker room, hoping that it will fill up with drunk Dave fans ready to donk the night away.

Steve’s there already at the sole 4-8 table, so I get on the list for that and sit down for some drinks at a cozy game of 2-4. Five minutes into it, a smokin’ hot chick sits with a rack sits down to my left. She’s got $100 in chips too.

First two hands, her KK hold up, then she hits a flush on the river. After 10 minutes she’s up about 140 and I’m telling her to warn me if she’s gonna play a hand so I can fold. She replies “oh come on, I’m friendly” with a touch to my arm. She starts showing me her cards when I’m out of the hand, small talk about the Dave show, where we’re from, how long we’re in town (it’s her last night), she tells me I have nice eyes, I return the comp, blah blah blah, and with each blah she’s either touching my arm or my knee. Giggity.

I get distracted by poker for a little while, and flop a set, top two pair, and a flush almost consecutively. Then hottie starts racking her chips and I’m all “awww you’re leaving?” and she’s all “yeah my boyfriend’s on his way”. They call my name for 4-8 and I bounce, up $94 after an hour.

My first hand I get red88 in the BB. I raise and get 3 callers. Flop comes as raggedy as can be, with no face cards, and just two clubs to worry about. I lead out with a bet and everyone calls. The turn is a glorious 8s, and I check, next check, bet, fold, I raise, bettor calls and shakes his head like he knows he shouldn’t be in the hand. River is a 2c, I bet, he raises, I call, and he apologizes for playing Qc 6c.

Just like Crasian the night before, this guy would be my nemesis at this table. For a while at least. He’s cleaning up and barely can look at his cards with a wall of chips in front of him. I go about an hour without playing outside my blinds, and when I play those, Nemesis takes them on the flop.

Finally something: KK in late position. I’m re-raising, but someone else caps it at $20 with FIVE callers. Come on cowboys. Flop comes 5c 6h 9h. A loose guy bets out, call, call, I raise, loose re-raises and goes all-in for his last few chips; I just call that re-raise and two others call as well. River’s a 5h. Not exactly a good card for me, but it gets checked around and I bet it to see where I’m standing. Two callers and nemesis folds. Looks good. River looks fantastic: Kh, giving me the 3rd-nuts, a boat. A caller from before now bets out, and I raise, and he re-raises. I pause and for a second get scared that he has either 7h8h, for the absolute nuts, or pocket 55. Those thoughts make me just call, and Steve shakes his head at me for not re-raising. Other guy shows Ah9c, so top pair that became a flush on the river with that beautiful Kh.

Two hands later I’m on the button with AdQd. Nemesis raises; I re-raise; he calls, and everyone else folds. Flop is Q Q X. He checks; I bet; he calls. Turn’s an A. He checks; I bet; he calls. River’s a T. He checks; I bet; he calls and mucks. Thanks for that.

Very next hand, 6c7c that I feel gambly with and call a 4-way cap pre-flop. Flop is 3c 4h Jd. I feel like I have the right odds with a gutshot and backdoor flush draw after a bet-call-call before my turn to act, and I call. Turn is a 3h. Check, check, bet, I try to represent the 3 and raise. Fold, fold, bettor re-raises, I call (yeah stupidly here but the pot was humongous and I was feeling gambly). River is another 4 and no straight for me. He bets and I muck. He shows JTo for just top pair. Oh well, so I drop 60 on that hand after +240 on the previous two.

I win a few small pots, and a while later, an African-American woman sits down, plays every hand she gets, and 80% of the time angrily mucks her hand at the showdown but doesn’t say a word. She will be known as Angry Black Woman (ABW) from this point forward. ABW gets into a heads-up raising war with Nemesis, who gets her to go all-in eventually and shows the nut straight.

ABW re-buys and now I get to play against her in my last hand before heading back. I raise UTG with Ac7c, and she’s the only caller. Flop A 2 T. I bet; she calls. Turn’s a 7. I hesitatingly check; she bets; I raise; she calls and glares at me. River’s a 4. I bet; she calls and mucks. She’s down to less than 10 chips again, and wants to re-buy, but the dealer’s out of chips because she’s been dispensing them so fast. I offer to sell her a rack or two and the dealer approves, but ABW’s having none of that, and mumbles something in my direction. Whatevs. I rack up and cash at $504, +$310 from that table, and we walk back to Bally’s at 4:30 to sleep.

Four hours of half-sleep at Bally’s, and I’m back down at my morning spot, the Bally’s 3-6. This time there’s a full table. The table’s real loose but I only have a little while to play. I hit a flush and am up 20 or so until this hand:

Ks7s in the SB, no one raises; I complete, four to the flop. Flop’s 7 7 3 rainbow. I bet out. BB folds; MP calls; LP calls. Turn’s a 9. I bet; MP calls; LP raises; I re-raise; MP calls; LP calls. River’s a 4. I check. MP bets. LP calls. I call. MP: pocket 33. LP: pocket A7. I muck in humiliation. Good thing it wasn’t no-limit or I’d been busto.

After 45 minutes ($-18) there, it’s time to go back to the room to round up for the Spearmint Rhino visit. Why are we going at 11am on a Sunday, you ask? Because there’s free cover before 1pm - you know how we roll. This part of the trip was really for Ubaldo. He never got a real bachelor party and wouldn’t let us stop hearing about it. So we keep the true purpose of SR a secret, and he thinks it’s just some place we can get a cheap brunch. Steve and I had heard there’s a dress code, so we try to encourage people not to wear holey jeans & t-shirts, but without giving away the destination.

We get to the place around noon, three in a cab and five in Dave’s car. Steve was in the car with Ubaldo and will have to pipe in about how he reacted when he figured out where we were headed. We’re in there, no cover as advertised, and there’s a few scattered clusters of dudes and girls in the corners, and no one on stage (of course, since it’s freakin’ early).

We sit all lined up on a bench, and within 30 seconds we’ve each got a girl nestling into our laps. I’d been to one strip club before, but the girls stayed on stage at that one, so the direct solicitation is new for me. Steve and I buy Ubaldo $20 lap-dances pronto, then my brother springs for one for me. She’s a decent blond with real boobs. She rams her butt against my crotch for a while and that’s that.

In the meantime, Dave’s got this girl talking to him the whole time, and no one’s bought him a dance yet, so I get him one and she escorts him to a dark corner. Steve’s got a 40-year-old w. fake boobs on him at the moment, but as soon as she’s gone, he’s like “uh oh, where’s Dave?” and I point to the corner. We’d heard stories about what happens in those corners and how much it costs, so I’m a little curious/worried about my brother, but it turns out he just got another dance. I’m there long enough and don’t feel like dropping any more $20’s, and the other guys seem the same, so we bounce as soon as Dave’s done. Like I said – nothing too exciting.

Next was lunch at In-n-Out. It’s packed as hell and we wait half an hour for our food. We amuse ourselves by watching all the drunk people stumble around. One girl runs into Jon, and he looks at her and she tries to say “sorry” but “sugh” comes out, and she holds up two Coors Light tall-boys and shrugs.

In-n-out is a cluster-eff as the whole wait-for-your-food-before-you-grab-a-table cycle of life has been abandoned, but Alex finagles an 8-top by pretending he’s Jesus and blessing the group that’s about to leave. Then he asks them for their leftover fries, sprinkles holy water on them, and eats.

After that, we decide to try Luxor. I’ve got a little itch to play NL, seeing as I’m +$511 from limit at this point, so Alex, Ubaldo, & I sit down at the famous Luxor $50max game. I play two hands, go all-in on both, and lose both to Alex, who has top-pair-higher-kicker both times. Well there goes my NL experiment.

A 3-6 game is about to start, so I join it, and find out it’s this “tournament” Luxor has where anyone with 15 hours the previous week qualifies for the jackpot. Whenever someone wins a pot that’s at least $40, they get a ticket from the dealer, and after three hours, whoever has the most tickets wins $375. But other than that, it’s just a 3-6 cash game. Anyone heard of that before?

It’s all 15-hr locals at the table except for me, and I recognize one guy in a wheelchair right away, who’s been at Luxor every time I’ve played there (last June, October, December). His name’s Tulio and seems tight-aggressive, the only one at the table that way.

The game starts and I figure out after an orbit that if no one flops the nuts and the pot isn’t $40, they don’t care about it. It’s like it doesn’t count since it’s not a jackpot qualifier. So, I loosen up, but avoid playing against Tulio, get a little aggro, and turn-bluff three $20 pots, and not just heads-up or position bluffs; there are like three to six people in the hand, and position doesn’t matter.

Shortly after that, another familiar face sits down: Angry Black Woman. She’s still mute and angry like at MGM, but now is wearing a sparkly hat. I text Steve to come see who’s at my table. He joins a little while later. I win a big pot when my flush hits on the turn, then do nothing for an hour until I get AA and five callers, and it holds up. Next hand, JJ with four callers that holds up. Two hands later I hit two-pair with an A4 that I shouldn’t have even played post-flop, but eff it. I stand up +$154 from that table, happy to make up that lost hundo from NL.

Nate, Jon, Sam, and Matt have left to go back to Chi at this point, and the five of us remaining go to the Bally’s spa again. The 4-hour-half-sleep nights are catching up with me. We get in for $12 this time. Nothing notable here except Steve was scared to walk into the cold tub after being in the steam room.

Last event of the day is dinner at Hooter’s. Ubaldo loves wings almost as much as he loves hooters, and hey, who doesn’t. There’s a big line to get in. Steve puts a $5 bill into a penny-slot, hits max play (40cents) for max lines by accident, and spins. Hello… it’s something like four treasure chests and a seven. It’s a winner and the machine starts counting. A crowd gathers, and we’re trying to figure out from the prize pictures how much he’ll get. I go take Dave’s spot in line so he can watch, and it’s still going. It finally stops at $48.00 and Steve cashes out. Steve wishes it had been at least a nickel slot that paid out 1200x instead of pennies.

Despite the slot win, we’re all too tired or hungry to have much fun at dinner. Paying $20 for a meal seems way too expensive after what we’re used to, and the Hooters girls don’t seem like anything special after our trip to Rhino earlier. So we eat our wings & burgers and split.

I’m about to pass out, but the other guys want to try to all play in the same 3-6 game at Bally’s, so I join in for a hundo. Stupid move on my part. The table’s loose and limber, but I’m donktastic. I lose an early hand to Alex when I have KK and he flops a flush that I check-call down to the river. I lose another hand to Steve when he calls my AT raise pre-flop with 9To, and the flop’s 9 T X. He re-raises me on the flop and I should’ve recognized. Later I end up all-in when my flush draw hits on the river, which gets me back to $55. I boost it up a bit more, then am about to leave, satisfied that I rebounded slightly, when I get QQ UTG. I raise, and everyone folds but Alex and the BB, who just call. Rag flop. BB checks; I bet; Alex raises; BB folds; I call. Turn and river are more rags – at least I remember it that way – and I’m check-calling Alex. He shows KK, and I’m pissed that he didn’t re-raise me pre-flop. Forget that I played stupid; it’s all his fault. I go to bed -$68 and get a whole SEVEN hours of sleep Sunday night.

The seven whole hours of sleep does me good, and I’m looking for poker at 8am on my last day in town. Unfortunately it’s a Monday. I want to get some comp $$ for lunch and feel like I should play more at TI since they had set up the tournament for us, so I wander down that way, but there’s only NL. So I think “Venetian has that bigass room, they’ll have something”, but nada, and they tell me to come back at 11. Then I wander over to Mirage, and there’s one 3-6 going, with a NL in the back of the room from the night before. I’d never even thought of playing at Mirage before, oddly enough.

I sit down and am loudly welcomed to the table by a talkative guy on the other side of it. He announces that they’ve all been playing through the night, and asks “how much sleep you get last night?” I answer truthfully, and they’re all like “you better get to that table in the back of the room, we don’t want none of your kind here”. I stay. The first drink I order is a green tea and they flip their lids. There was a hot blond waitress there, by the way, the best looking one I’ve seen on the trip. She’s from Texas – anyone know her? Sorry no pic.

Anyway, I win some small pots, nothing spectac, and hover between $120 (my buy-in) and $150. It’s getting close to the supposed game time at Venetian, so I play one last hand, river a straight, and leave Mirage +$30 to go meet Alex & Steve at the V.

I’ll play any limit up to 8-16 at this point, but of course there’s no game going at the V. Steve & I are on an interest list that never goes more than five deep. Alex sits down for NL, and Steve & I are about to head for the Bellagio, but then what to my wondrous eyes should appear but some workers setting up a lunch buffet in the poker room. It’s a free lunch for poker players that V offers MWF 11a-1p and 5-7pm all through March? Today’s prime rib sandwiches. Steve & I aren’t even playing though, so I ask the floor if it’s okay for interest-listers to partake and he says go right ahead. Ship it. While we eat lunch, Alex wins $200-something at the 1-2, then joins us and we go to Bellagio for one last session before the airport.

I’m pumped to play at the B. Before this trip I was intimidated by the place and had never even thought of playing there. Also, before this trip I had never made a poker profit without hitting a jackpot. But I’m up $522 at this point and think it’s time to test myself.

Well, if I really had wanted to test myself, I’d have tried 8-16, but I’m not that ballsy yet, so it’s 4-8 again. I come in with $160 and hover between that and $200 for the first couple hours. It’s a fun table and I’m wishing I didn’t have a flight to catch (but really who doesn’t wish that in Vegas?). Two hands I’m proud of, but maybe I shouldn’t be:

I get 33 on the button. Two limpers and no one’s raised, so I bop it up and get four callers. Flop’s like a 9 7 4 rainbow, and everyone checks to me. I have a pretty tight table image and decide to see what I can do with it, so I insta-bet. Everyone calls. Turn’s a K. Check-check-check-check to me, and I have my 8-stack fingered and ready to fire, but I very slowly check. River’s a 2 and it’s checkville to me; I confidently fire 8; everyone folds.

A little later, I raise UTG with 77. Everyone folds except the BB, who re-raises, and I call. Flop’s 8 8 3. He bets; I raise; he calls, and I think he has AK, or else he would’ve re-raised me. Turn’s a 3. He checks; I bet; he calls. River’s an A. Hmm. He checks. I think he wouldn’t check-raise on the river if he hit that, so maybe he has KQ, and I bet. Oops, he does check-raise. I deliberate and know that you shouldn’t fold on the river, but I tell him “you have ace king” and muck. He flips over A K and apologizes for staying in the hand that long.

I play another orbit and leave +$8, the eight chips that I saved by folding on that hand. We fly back to Chicago that afternoon.