Play mostly online and in local casinos in California, but wanted to give Vegas a try. Not much of a cash game player so wanted to stick to live tournament play.

Thursday night arrived and passed by the Mirage poker room, looked decent and planned to walk through, but was heading to a buffet. I stopped on the way out and saw the room was pretty busy several cash games, did not check out the tournaments as I planned to be back on the weekend. Next ventured down the strip (very crowded) to Caesar's Palace. Really great sports book and separate poker room. Well run tournaments. Next, checked out the Bellagio and was very nice, albeit looked a little cramped. Both rooms seem more intimidating to get into, whereas the Mirage seemed more inviting. Sister did well that night on the slots so I gave that a try put in $40 in the "Deal or No Deal Game" and won $475. Sister was up $800. After looking around and getting lost went to PH to check out their poker room. This poker room was definitely out there in the middle of everything. I wanted to see if they were still running the 2am tournament, but saw that it was taken off the list. They probably didn't get enough people that were still sober enough to play. The sis and I dumped $100 each on the slots and video poker, then called it a night.

Friday had some personal business to take care of so didn't get out until 6pm or 7pm. Took the cab from the Riviera (where we stayed) to TI. Walked by at 7pm on a Friday night and there was only one table going, probably cash game. I was very unimpressed by their poker room. It looked like another store in their mall/walkway. Afterwards went to Venetian for the 7pm $120 buy-in. They make you sign up for the casino club card which was a drag since, I'm not a regular. The tourney had about 100 entrants and they allowed buy-ins until the first break. Started with about $7500 chips and levels are longer than most other tourneys so I played for a long time. I played for so long the sis lost all her winnings (this was Friday the 13th so maybe it wasn't a good day). Most of the people I played with were foreigners who barely spoke english. There was a good mix of solid players and beginners, old and young as well. Definitely found that drinking cocktails and playing in the tourney not a good mix. After a couple of drinks I had to get coffee to keep up with the table. Some of the dealers were really brash. One time I thought I was the BB and when I put my chips up I realized I was UTG I tried to take my chips back, but the dealer said it was too late and it was a call. I hadn't even looked at my cards and it was so obvious. The dealers were definitely sticklers for rules. Also the tourney area is right next to slots that make a bunch of noise so I had to yell "Raise"! several times, if youdidn't they made it a call. Overall it was a good experience. I just played solid poker and made a few mistakes that cost me. Also ran card dead right before the bubble. My best hand in an hour was J9 suited in SB. I go all in and called by BB with 72. Flop comes 77X and I finish in 11th, two away from the money. I thought it was a good performance for my first live tourney in Vegas. After, sis and I took a cab up to the hotel and decided to check out the Sahara. They have dollar drinks and Black Jack, how could anyone go wrong with that? I checked out the poker room there and it looked older, but was decent and looked to be well run. I wanted to do a tourney there the next day, but wasn't able to make it. The $1 blackjack was completely full at 2am on a Friday so we played $5 and through away a hundred in less than 30 minutes. I wouldn't recommend BJ here unless it's the $1.

Saturday had a great breakfast at the Peppermill (recommended by one of our cab drivers), then dropped the sis at the airport. Went to south strip to check out Luxor Poker room. The poker room looked nice and accessible. The tourneys were available all day, including knockouts and SitnGo's. I decided to venture up to the Excalibur for the 1pm $50 + 1 rebuy. This poker room looks older than the others, old table felts, old chips, many players asked over and over which chips denominations were. I ran card dead, rebought and ran further dead until I go all in with 10 something in the BB and SB calls with AA. Time to move on..Went down to the MGM Grand poker room for a SitnGo. I waited for over an hour and no one came to fill the single table. Poker room manager was very apologetic and I said it was o.k. I decided to try 1/2 NL and had a good time playing the rest of the afternoon. Cocktails came promptly, tv's were playing all types of football games. I could see how someone could just spend a whole 12 hour session there and not have a problem at all. The problem was I was up and down for most of the session, then really go unlucky when my queens ran into AK that spiked an A on the flop. I continuation bet and get an all in raise, what can you do? Then for the rest of my chips Raise with AQ, get called, flop comes JA2, I go all-in with remaining $40 bucks and get called with AJ and they hold. Oh well, there's $170 gone. I decide to take a break and head up the strip to a fatburger (great BBQ burger) reassess and decide to hit the Bellagio again. I go to the same exact slot machine where I picked up $475 and won $375, that makes up for my losses! Anyway, I happily venture back to Caesars and sign up for the 10pm $80. $75 with $5 add on. They got around 50 players. The poker room is right next to the PURE nightclub, but I hardly ever noticed the noise. The cocktail waitresses were very nice and came regularly. I decided I would drink in this tourney as I wanted to have fun my last night in Vegas. I played it tight and got all-in several times and got lucky. The most memorable hand was when I was BB and everyone limped. Flop comes AA7. I decide to overbet my Trip Aces and go all in. UTG+1 instacalls with AK against my A8 suited. Turn is a blank River is an 8...I almost had to hide under the table for my suckout. But the guy I played with was a great foreign guy who I bonded with the rest of the night and we both ended up making final table and finishing 5th and 4th respectively. Top 6 finisher's paid. we made a deal for the bubble (each contributing $10 dollars to the bubble). By the time finished was 3:30 am and I was up $450. The breaks were also nice during the tourney as you could see all the eye candy at PURE and the pussycat gambling area.

Overall had a great time will be back at Caesars and Venetian real soon and if I win, it's MGM for cash 2/5 NL for sure. I also will check out Luxor/Mirage tourneys too.