Came in to vegas on Christmas eve and stayed at the luxor. Was not able to play poker until boxing day. First session was at the Luxor in the $2-4 limit game. Two locals at the table, the rest were tourists.

For the first hour I just spent my time calling down and raising small pots to build up an image of being loose and agressive. End up down about $80.00 due to strategy and a couple of suck outs. Then mister drunk spaniard shows up. he has a hard time speeking english let alone understanding the betting structure of limit.

Spanish guy proceeds to bet an raise every hand with crap. I decide it is time to tighten up and wait for good cards. I did not have to wait long. I am dealt pocket jacks on the button. Spanish guy is under the gun. He of course raises, followed by another raise to which I cap at 4 bets, BB calls. 4 people to the flop. Flop comes JJA. BB bets, spanish guy raises, I call, BB raises, spanish guy caps, I call ($56.00 in pot) Turn comes rag. Betting follows exact same pattern, now pot is over $100.00. River comes K, BB bets, spanish guy raises, I raise, BB calls, spanish guy calls.

I turn up my quad jacks, spanish guy shows his pocket queens and BB mucks his cards. I collect a massive $130 plus pot and an extra $20 for high hand jackpot. Play for a while longer and leave up $96.00 over 3 hours. Stop at craps tables on way back to room and loose $100.00 in 20 minutes.

Next day my wife and I head to the Tropicana to check out the Bodies exhibit. Freaking incredible. Decide the play the $60.00 20 person Nl tourney. Crappy plain poker room but the staff was very friendly and just great to deal with. Drink service was really quick. I end up first one out after my J8 got cracked by KK. Wife ends up in top ten. Only top two pay in the tourney, hard to make money buy big payday.

Head back to Luxor and play poker while wife gets massage. Nothing special this session, play for 2 hours up $55.00. Go back later that night to get more hours to qualify for the freeroll on Wednesday. End up playing for 3 hours and have a great run of cards my last 1/2 hour to end session up $76.

Next morning I head to Excalibur to play their $2-4 limit. Room is nothing special. I found room manager to be very disinterested in his job. Play for an hour but get bored with the people at my table who are very quite and dont want to talk and have fun. End up down $24.00.

Head back to the Luxor for the free roll. I am not sure how I qualified as some of the locals I talked to told me they had to put in 15 hours of play to get in. The manager had qualified me with only 6 hours of play. I was not going to complaign.

If you have not played the freeroll, be prepared for three hours of the most frustrating poker you can play. The Luxor uses the jackpot rake to build up the prize pool of $3,000. It is not a tournament, rather you sit an play a cash game for three hours in order to receive a cut of the prize pool. During those three hours every winner of a pot that exceeds $30.00 gets a ticket. The top 4 players with the most tickets bet a prize of $450 for first down to $300 for 4ht place. The remaining money in the prize pool is the split equaly among the remaining players still there after 3 hours. I ended up with 3 tickets which was no where near 4th spot who had 12 tickets. The winner had over 20 tickets. I still ended up with $58 from the split, and up $43 from playing.

This is where the frustration comes from. I was the only tourist at my table of 10. All the locals kept on capping the bets in order to get the pot to over $30 to have it qualify for a ticket. All sorts of crap hands were winning. It is a perfect opportunity to make alot of money if you get cards. I was so card dead that I decided to stay out of every ones way and just pick my spots. Next time I stay I might pass on this whole mess.

Next day tyhe wife and I enter the Luxor $30.00 morning tournament. You get 600 chips after the dealer add on. Not much to work with but if you know how to play short stack you can do well. Wife does not know how to play short stacked and did not do well. I ended up bubbling in 8th when I was in the big blind with J7. Blind took 1/2 my chips, and two other players were all in preflop. Had to call. My J7 got cracked by AA. If you just want some cheap fun, it is a nice tourney to enter. If you are serious, stay away you will be frustrated by the bad calls.

Final two sessions were at the Luxor again. Why leave if I am winning. Leave tables up over $80.00.

All in all a great trip. Going back in Sept.