This was a father son trip to Vegas that we have had planned for several months now. I have been following all the Trip Reports and forums for months here at AllVegasPoker getting excited to give live poker a shot. I used to play online in limited amounts years ago, but I haven't really played at all for the last couple of years. My dad has played a little on previous trips but nothing major and I don't think he's ever won anything.

Seeing as I had never played live poker in a casino, we decided to look for some lower buy-in tournaments to break me in. The first tournament we decided to try was the Luxor $35 10:30am. There were 54 runners. For some reason, I was absolutely nervous as hell. I'm not kidding when I say I had visible shakes as I was putting my chips in the pot. The other players had to just be licking their chops looking at me. One hand of note was when I flopped a mid pair with xKx on the flop. Two others in the pot, first checks, second bets, I raise. Checker calls and the guy who bet folds. The turn comes another K. Checked to me, I shakenly fire out a bet and get called. River comes another K. Player shoves all in and I fold. Sure enough, she had the K for quads. Other than that I was so nervous I'm just glad nobody had it on tape. I was knocked out I think 52nd out of 54. Great start.

My dad on the other hand managed to make the final table, albeit extremely short stacked. Others started going all in and then it was down to 7 with 6 placed paid. Right after his blinds he was left with about 2K with blinds at 2-4K. For some odd reason, two others at the table who had decent stacks decided to go all in pre-flop only to be called by the chip leader. Both get knocked out and boom dad goes out on his big blind and cashes in 5th for $80. His first tournament cash ever so he was pretty excited at this point.

We walked around a bit and went over to the Rio to check out the WSOP. That is quite the site to see. When you walk into the tournament room the only thing you can hear is chips being moved around. We hang out for a bit and watch a few tables then decide to catch the 5:30pm $30 tournament at Bills.

Now that I had the nerves out of my system from the earlier tournament, I was much more relaxed and able to think clearly. I am playing my game and playing it well. One hand of note is when I had pp33 in late position. It limps around to me and I call. Flop comes x3J rainbow. It gets checked around to the chip leader at our table sitting two to my right. She has been buying pots for quite some time now, so I'm excited when she min bets to me. I called and all others fold. Turn is a blank and she bets 3bb. I raise all in and she insta calls. River actually came a J giving her trips, but me the boat. She continued to call me sneaky the rest of the tournament. We combine down to two tables and her husband joins our table. He is the tournament chip leader by a large margin. The husband and wife combo along with myself continue to knock people out increasing our stacks until we get to the final table. Entering the final table, I am second in chips to the Husband with the wife in third. We continue to stack people left and right and finally it's left with the three of us and 3 places paid. WooHoo I am going to cash in my second live tournament experience ever! I talk chop and they obviously don't want to because the Husband has a monster stack. I didn't feel like they were colluding or anything, but it seemed that everytime I shoved, they both called hoping to catch something and knock me out. The reason I say they weren't colluding is because they actually went all in against each other a couple of times. Anyways, I get to a low stack and shove with both of them calling and I triple up to the point where I am about even with the wife so we decide to chop 2nd and 3rd for $140. I was super pumped to have a result like this after the miserable experience I had earlier in the morning. I know these weren't exactly high stakes tournaments like most on this site are used to, but it was a great experience for me and I am hoping to move up some on my next trip.