Well the flight was fairly uneventful. In fact, it was remarkable that both legs of my redeye flight from Guayaquil to Houston to Las Vegas each arrived a bit early. The only trouble was my typical complaint of a redeye flight: I was unable to sleep. So I went from 6am Sunday to Monday evening with only about an hour’s sleep. That is no the way to get me on my game.

In Vegas I got my luggage and rental car, and headed over to The Sahara, hoping I could check in early. Well, I could check in, but I couldn’t get into my room until 3p.m So, I headed to the poker room and signed up for the only cash game going, a 2-4 Limit holdem table.

While on the waitlist I sat at a blackjack table for a few moments, and blew a massive $29 until I realized I was at one of those horrible 6/5 blackjack payout ripoffs. Fortunately a seat came open then and I then killed an hour and a half at No Foldem Holdem. Nothing really to report. I left up a whopping $9.

By then I was getting so dopey I wandered off to the hotel desk and found I could get my key. So I headed up to my room for a much needed hour's nap.

Feeling a little better I grabbed the Monorail to Imperial Palace Station. I grabbed a quick bite at Panda Express then headed to the Venetian’s Poker Room.

This was my first experience here and, wow, was I impressed. Nice looking room, friendly and prompt management, good dealers, this could quickly become my favorite place to play in Vegas. The management at the Bellagio need to come here for classes.

I started at a 1-2NL cash game and played an hour before I got good reads on the table. Good mix of locals and tourists but very passive with lots of limping preflop. Most players playing with $100 or less chips but I’m in for the full $300. After a bit I found that I could easily outplay them post flop. No fantastic hands, but a typical one was four limpers to me in the cutoff and I make a loose call with Js7s. Six see the flop of 772! Then a MP player started betting heavy and I merely called him through the streets as he built the pot. He finally goes all in on the river. He winces when I call quickly and is already reaching for his wallet as he shows AJ unsuited for a naked bluff.

I ended up rolling over the table, because since they didn’t bet to protect their hands early they never knew if I was betting hard on the Turn or the River with tissue or with a monster. I cashed out $840 for a $540 profit over two hours.

Then I played the $180, 7pm tourney at the V. I really loved the format. Unfortunately, I never really caught any cards. I’m able to build my stack to one of the top 5 stacks by playing some small pot poker when I could. Then this hand came up: In the BB with a raise from the cutoff, who I have covered, I look to see AhQh. This guy has been over playing his draws and TPGK so I’m happy to go heads up, and I just call. Flop JQ7 with two hearts so I have TPTK, the nut flush draw and a backdoor straight draw to the Broadway. I check, villain goes all in and I happily call. He shows unsuited KT for an up and down straight draw. I’m a big fave since he essentially has only a 3-outer.

Of course, the K hits on the Turn and none of my 14 outs hit on the river so I’m hurt hard. I go on a bad run where I get good enough hands to play but others are betting me out of pots or I'm completely missing the flop with no play possible. I go out when I make a stand with 5M and my AJ runs into AK.

Back to the 1-2NL game for an hour. Same situation, different people. I cash out with another $125 profit. One hand to share. Peolple with 2s had won three hands in a row, and the going joke at the table was bet it if you have any two. I'm on the button and I call two limpers with K2 just because. The BB raises. He's probably the best player at the table (me possibly excepted) so I know he has a good hand, probably AA-QQ/AK. But I have position and he is capable of mucking a good hand.

Flop is a 768 rainbow. He bets and I call. Turn is a 5. He bets, but I can tell he hates the board. I fire a big raise and he looks at me ruefully and mucks KK faceup. Everyone oohs and ahhs his laydown. Then I flash my K2 and the whole table cracks up, including the BB, nice guy with a sense of humour.

So I’m beat, and I have a lot of writing to do, but I wanted to give all a bit of an update. I will be giving the Venetian’s poker room a full review when I have a chance.

Tomorrow (or rather, later today – Tuesday) I have meetings Downtown and at the Wynn and I’ll probably do some more damage at the Wynn poker room.

I'll do another update, then be gone a couple days before being back on the 25th.

Good Luck all!

The Numbers So Far:

Day One

Cash Games: +$674
Tourney: -$165
Other Games: -$29
Total: +$480