Started the weekend with the 1PM $40 buy-in NL tournament at the Aladdin. I loved the room, it's isolated from the rest of the casino and therefore noise level is ideal. Players ranged from complete beginner to solid tourist. There's a re-buy in the first hour (you can take it at any time) for $20. The dealers were experienced but very surly, beginners making string bets, etc, made them angrier than warranted. I was knocked out after the break when I flopped trip deuces, slow-played, and got bit by another guy making a better full house on the river. This is a great way to start your weekend if you get to Vegas early on Thursday, as I did. Recommended.

Moved from there to $1/$2 NL $200 buy-in at Bally's. GOOD LORD were these guys loose. It was routine for someone in early position to make it $40 to go (remember the BB is $2) and to get three or four smooth calls. INSANE. After an hour of watching him, I saw the loosest guy there, who didn't speak much English, try to ask if the dealer if he was required to use both his hole cards, or if he could use just one. This is AFTER I've seen him call $80 bets on the river with middle pair. Yikes. I never saw any cards during this session. Fortunately, the game remained this crazy the entire weekend, and at a later session I made $550 in profit in 15 minutes when KK, AA, and AA again got huge action and held up. The room itself is just a roped off area of the casino, but it's literally next to a bar, which means drinks come very often and were super-cold. Waitresses could get a little scary, but when you're getting free-ish ice-cold beer as fast as you can order them, who cares? I liked the dealers here a lot, very astute. For the smokers, you take three steps away from the table, and you're good to go. Play here.

Friday, myself and 3 friends played the 2PM $70 (with add-on) NL tournament at Binion's Horseshoe downtown. I played at the WSOP here last year, so I already was of the opinion that this is the place to play in Vegas, and I was not disappointed. The place was run better than any place in Vegas, the dealers are pros, most players know what they're doing much more than on the strip. My friends and I finished 38th, 35th, 27th (me), and 18th out of 120. I busted when my AKo failed to suck out on JJ, which would've put in me great position for the stretch run to the final table. There's a re-buy for $40 in the first hour. For me, four hours of excellent, well-run poker action for $110 is the best deal you can get in Vegas, and very much like the high-level tournament action everyone's watching on TV these days.

Next, I played $1/$2 NL $100 buy-in at Imperial Palace. I hated everything about this place except the dealers, who were very experienced. The players were terrible, but with only 50x the BB you take one bad beat and you're re-buying. Most players were drunk, it was very noisy, the buffet line runs next to the room, the tables were terrible...can you tell I didn't enjoy it? Play here if you enjoy toothless morons talking about where to get the best hookers. Ugh.

Finally, some important info on Bellagio. They've begun their $6 million Poker Room renovation, which means their poker area is now also just a roped-off section of the casino. If you've played in the old room, it's a very unpleasant surprise. I didn't really get to experience it, however, because at 4PM on a Saturday there were at least 25 ahead of me on the $2/$5 NL $200 buy-in tables, and similar lists for almost everything else. The room manager, who was great, told me it's always like that. We hung out an hour and moved on. I would avoid the Bellagio until April when the room is ready.