I arrive in Vegas after an uneventful flight and get to my room at IP by 11am local time.
I attempt the $20 trick simply because I want a bottom floor room to avoid long elevator waits. This is my first “bad beat” of the trip. I get “upgraded” to a delux, remodeled room on the 3rd floor. Remodeled means wallpaper peeling and no room safe. In retrospect, I should have listened to the receptionist because she said (after 10 minutes of not noticing mthe $20 on the counter) it wasn’t necessary to leave the tip, but I didn’t want to look like a douche by taking it back. The room is sufficient for this solo trip, but I probably could have saved myself $20 out the gate.

I decide to check out the IP poker room that I read a bunch about, and it’s got 2 tables going, a 1-2 and a 2-4 limit. There’s a list, so I don’t wait. I decide to take my friendly plane-neighbor’s advice and go check out Flamingo, but that’s more of the same, so I decide to head to MGM. I purchase a 3 day monorail pass and in the process notice that one of the stops has a shuttle to the Wynn. Instead of heading south to MGM, I head north, only to exit the monorail to find out the Wynn no longer provides a shuttle from the monorail. Ouch…
Back on the monorail and head to MGM, only I decide to exit at Harrah’s/IP and check out Harrah’s room. I wait about 5-10 minutes for a game and finally get seated in my first 1-2 game of the trip. In the interim, I am twittering about my adventures and find out our very own LVM is in the room at the same time. My game breaks after a while and I get seated next to Mr. LVM.
I had already decided pre-trip that I wanted to participate in the EA that he and SPP were embarking on this evening, and instead of starting at 9pm, SPP arrived early and the EA started at 6!!

LVM is have a bad run of it at Harrah's, and SPP just arrives. They decide to leave pretty quickly, so I cash in my earnings and head to Binions.

Arrive to find no openings in a 1/2 NL game, so we find seats in the 2/4 game. Before we have a chance to sit down, a new 1/2 is opened up and the 3 of us are seated. We start the game short handed, and a few hands into the "action" SPP asks for a "wash". In the meantime, I secretly plan to counteract this "nit-tastic" tour by playing non-traditional hands poorly to stimulate action. With only 5 of us at the table, I hope to pick money from the two non-AVPers because I am relying on the LVM and SPP to keep me on the EA. I limp (because there wasn't much raising) into the pot UTG with 53o and spike two more 3's on the flop. I "coyly" check it down and hit my money card on the turn with the 5. I boated up and this guy to my left is betting my hand all the way. I bet, he raises, I go all in and he calls. River is a blank and I proudly table my 3's full hand. Undeterred, V shows pocket 5's for a bigger boat! Doh!! There went my Harrah's profits.

Nothing else exciting happens here (besides LVM knowing everyone in the poker room) so we call it quits. SPP and LVM are hungry, so they go to Carson Street in the Nugget and I head to the poker room to pass time. No 1/2 games have seats, so I sit at 2/4 until a 3/6 opens. I make a flush on the first hand I played (95c) and moved to the 3/6 up about $25. No real excitement at 3/6 except a pretty hot MILF sits to my right. She leaves before I do, and LVM and SPP come to rescue me with a $20 profit from the session. The Nugget expanded their room some more from my first trip (last month). They knocked down the wall behind the desk (Keno area) and added a table or two in the room. Nice.

From here we head to the highlight of the trip: Boulder Station. I was warned that this was one of 2 poker rooms left in Vegas that still allowed smoking. I was also told dogs were allowed as well, but I couldn't decide if I was being ribbed or not. I saw no pooches there, well, none that weren't wearing cocktail outfits. We waited a decent bit for a table here and the guys both get into other games (omaha) while waiting. LVM wisely sends me for a players card which is just around the corner, he says. 10 minutes later I am clear on the other side of the casino, nowhere near where he pointed me, and collecting my card. I was called a 'nit' by the guys because I pitched my pamphlet that came with my card telling me how to get free slot play. My reasoning: too much work. This room didn't disappoint. Everyone around me stunk of despair...and cigarette smoke. I won a pot and got my stack back to even in the room, so I decide to share with the table that I am no back to even for the room. The bundle of sunshine to my right chimes in and says "no one is ever even in Vegas." I choose not to play along, so I respond, "well, actually, I am. this is what I sat down with." After thinking for a few minutes, he comes up with probably his most clever response ever..."they always get ya somehow. You needed gas to get here. They got ya there." Luckily, I had a retort, and was quicker-witted than he, so I said "No they didn't...I didn't drive!" He conceded. We had the "racist" a few seats to my right as well. This guys always had something to say whenever he was in a hand with an older asian guy at the other end of the table. He wasn't quiet about it either. The highlight of this room was watching LVM ash in an abandoned coffee cup only to watch its owner reclaim in and take a big swig of the yummy drink. He was at out table, too.

This place just oozed "class". In fact, royalty was at our doorstep. Where else can you get Burger KING and Dairy QUEEN all withing 20 steps of the poker room?! Not at the Bellagio, I say.

Final stop, the Orleans. What a big room this was. LVM and SPP quickly get into Omaha games and I wait for 1/3. I jump into a 4/8 game in the interim. What a wild table. Each street is 3-bet nearly every hand and usually over $200 in the pot each hand. I manage to hit a big hand just as my name is called for 1/3, so I leave the limit fireworks up $20 or so. If I hadn't waited so long to post this report, I would remember some of the hands of this trip, but I don't. All I know is I felted this guy twice and left up over $500. I left 2 hands after I felted him the second time and the table was giving me a hard time for leaving so soon. I blamed LVM, as he was waiting for me :)

The EA ended here and I found myself sitting in my room not wanting to go to bed. I head back down and over to Harrah's, where I find myself in another good game. I played through till about 8am and decided to call my first day back a wrap. I would have played longer but the "breakfast clubbers" were making their way to the game. I picked up AA and raised to $6 (table raises were normally higher)...everyone folded. That was my last hand as I searched for a rack. I pulled about $500 profit off the table and went to bed up $1000 for the first night.

The excellent Adventure was awesome, even with the guys constantly apologizing for joining the "worst" EA to date. I got to see places I never would have made it to, and got to meet fellow AVPers.

Tomorrow proves to be not so enjoyable...