Saturday, February 11th – Arrived at the hotel around 2:00pm. Check in wasn’t until 3:00pm so we left our bags with the Bell desk and went to grab a bite to eat before we started gambling. An hour later my wife left to go check on the room and I checked in with the floor manager and was promptly seated at a 2-4 limit table. The dealer and a few people at the table greeted my arrival with friendly hellos and I was off to the races (literally). I bought in for $100 but a $60 to $80 buy-in would have been plenty. The 2-4 limit games are about the cheapest games I’m aware of downtown. Just about all the casinos downtown (those that have poker) offers the game at anytime. If you’re a novice wanting to get your feet wet, this games for you or if you just want to play and not worry about someone pushing big stacks and forcing crazy plays, this game will appeal to you also. I played for about 3 hours and caught some decent cards and a few small pots. I was dealt a lot of pocket pairs including pocket KK on one deal. With my Kings I raised to two bets pre-flop, get 4 callers (the average norm). Flop is a rainbow with no face cards or A’s. Third seat bets, three people fold and I make it two bets again, player calls. Turn card is a dud, player checks to me, I bet $4 and player calls. River card brings the Ace. Player bets, I make it two bets, player calls and flips over AJ. My pocket KK is no good. Remember this type of hand if you play 2-4 limit poker. PLEASE TAKE NOTE - Most players (at least 95% of them) will hold and Ace all the way to the river. Anyhow, bad hand for me, I didn’t lose that much and left the table at around 6:00pm down a whopping $8. The wife and I had tickets to go see Mystere at Treasure Island for the 7:00 show. If you’ve never seen a Cirque Du Soleil show, do it. It’s worth the money, the show was incredible. We ate dinner on the strip at Maggiano’s Italian Restaurant. It’s next to Treasure Island in the shopping center and it was incredible. Was completely stuffed by the time we left and got back to the hotel at around 10:30pm. We’re from the east coast of the country so the time zone change added with the day’s long flight and with a huge Italian meal, the lack of rest was starting to catch up to me. I told my wife I was going to play a little more since I knew my body would be craving sleep sooner than later. Sat down again at the very same table I left earlier that afternoon and a dealer named Rick was there. He’s a very friendly guy and a very good dealer. I know he’s been there for awhile because most of the other dealers spoke highly of him and he really kept a smooth game going. I played for about an hour and again was able to catch a few small pots nothing huge, but managed to lose some of it in my last two hands of the night with what else, another player holding an Ace all the way to the river. I called it a night and headed to the room for some much needed sleep down another whopping $10.

Sunday, February 12th – Woke up refreshed and walked down to The Plaza to check out there tournament schedule. I read here on AVP The Plaza has Sit-n-Go table tournaments and regular multi-table tournaments that are not very expensive. The Sit-n-Go’s run all day for $35 with 1st and 2nd place payouts. There tournaments (if I remember correctly) are $55 total with add-ons and rebuys and they run regularly throughout the day (not sure of exact times they start). Then I walked down to the Golden Nugget to check out their tournaments. Stepped up to the podium and no one was there? Strange, this has never happened before. The poker area was completely empty. So, I made my way back to Binion’s to escort my wife to breakfast. While I waited for her to make her way down from the room, I stopped back by the podium at Binion’s and learned they had a $60+10 (1500 chips) Tournament that started at 10:00am! Since it was 8:50am, the wife and I had enough time to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the Fremont Hotel. IMO – for the money (less than $7.00), this breakfast buffet is best. We ate then I made my way back to Binion’s for the start of the tournament. Chose a card for table and position and sat down at table #20, seat #8. I heard the floor person mention there was 41 people signed up, small tournament I thought, I have a chance! Of all the years I’ve to Vegas this was my inaugural tournament. My first hand I was dealt 99, being out of position, I just called a small raise and the flop comes out Ks, 10h, 3s with four people seeing the flop. Table checks to the original raiser and he bets a modest 50 chips, so I call again, one person folds, Seat 2 re-raises and I’m feeling pretty doubtful about my pair of 9’s. I muck’em and the remaining two players go heads up. The turn comes down As. Original better goes all in and seat 2 now looks at his cards again and decides to lay them down. The winner of the pot “says” he had KQ, however no one called or sees his cards. A couple hands later I pick up As,Ks and I’m UTG. I raise it 250 more chips, two callers including same (KQ) local guy from earlier. Flop comes Ah, Jh, 2c. I bet 350 chips and I get one caller, you guessed it, local guy. Turn comes a 4h. I bet another 350 and this time he goes all in. So figure I just let him have a flush on the turn, but I gambled and called. He’s got me more than covered and he shows an Ac, 8c. The 6d comes on the river and I’m thinkin’ “sweet, I just doubled and I can sit a while. That is until I’m dealt A,K on the button. One guy calls the BB, I raise and make it 300, small blind folds, BB calls and #6 seat folds. Me and BB are heads-up. Flop is dealt – A, 9, K (rainbow). I just flopped top two pair. The BB studies then checks. I ponder for a bit and check (BIG MISTAKE). The turn is dealt – 6s. BB thinks again and checks to me. This time I bet another 250. He thinks for a sec or two and calls. The river comes – 7h. This time the BB looks at his cards probably three times and decides “I’m all in”. For some reason, as I’m pushing my chips in to call him, my little voice in the back of my head was telling me otherwise. Just as I turned my cards over and said “call”, the guy says “I have a straight, 10 high”. He was holding a suited 10s 8s. Gosh I wish I bet the flop. Oh well, that was the end of my first tournament. I shook his hand and looked for my wife to tell her my idiotic slow play. Later on that afternoon I started playing 3-6 Limit poker. A little bit stronger of a payout but the limit allowed me to play with my small bankroll. No great hands to speak of during the afternoon and evening play. I went to bed that night down my $70 tournament buy-in and down another $75 because I couldn’t forget my tournament play.

Monday, February 13th – Woke up to the same routine again with my wife. Had breakfast then checked into the 10:00am tournament at Binion’s. This morning I paid the $70 tournament fee plus I went ahead and bought the add-on for another $40 giving me a 3000 chip count to start (which is highly recommended) and this time I made it to the final table! It was a great day – Every playable hand I got and played was a winner. I was dealt pocket QQ early in the tournament and the guy to my right goes all in right out of the blue. He folded his first six hands then all of sudden just pushes in. Well, I figured since it was my last day, what the heck – I called. He flips over (I still can’t believe it) Jc, 9c. He explains it’s his favorite hand and I gladly wish him luck. The flop is dealt 10h, Jh, 4d. He hit his pair and he has a little straight draw now but my pocket ladies showed their dominance on the turn. The turn was another Q for me and the river was a garbage card. His luck was out and mine had just started. I played tight and aggressive when the cards permitted and when my starting table finally when on break I comfortably in about 5th place in chips overall. I figured I would coast and play super tight until the final table. After the break and another blind level, I looked around to find the other tables were waiting on us to finish the hand. The hand was completed and the final eleven (11) including me, were seated at the final table. I drew seat #6. The final table had four local guys, two of which had big stacks, the other two were shorted and the rest of the table was tourist like me. As I looked around the table I noticed I was about right in my estimation of chips and I was sitting with the 5th largest stack. Four people are quickly eliminated by the time I get a playable hand. I get Ah,Kh UTG so I push my stack. The guy to my left thinks about it and mucks, the player next to him pushes in to call and the local player in seat #10 (to the right of the dealer) ask for a count, and pushes in over the top of us two. The button, small blind and big blind fold. I’m thinking I have great chance to win some chips however my fantasy was short lived. The all-in player to my left turns over pocket QQ and seat #10 flips over pocket AA. OUCH! Both of us are eliminated and my tournament play for this trip is over.

I had a lot of fun this trip. I played a little black jack and a little craps just for the change of pace. I won some money playing craps but lost it playing black jack. I never once got on great rush of cards for poker. So I never managed to get on a wining streak. I did manage to get quad 4’s once but it was for a small pot. Also, I was dealt a lot of pocket small pairs (more than a dozen) and could never flop nor turn a set. That I found to be very strange. And usually when I had pocket pairs, over cards were flopped and my small pair was useless. Remember what I mentioned before, everyone holds an ACE in small limit poker. I am coming back in June for my 40th birthday and plan on playing more tournaments and expanding my boundaries for where I play. Downtown is nice but I know more rooms await me out on the strip. Hope you found this trip report useful – and Good Luck!!