Background: I'm from Belfast, Northern Ireland and me a two friends were on a month long tour of the West coast. We also saw San Diego, LA and San Francisco (but Vegas was the real reason I was there!). We arrived in Vegas a 11pm and I had planned on hittin the felt straight away, but having spent some 18 hours sittin on a Greyhound from San Francisco I was surprisingly tired!

OK, enough foreplay, into the action! We stayed at Terrible's (student budget) and it wasnt actually too bad - clean enough place to sleep. I'm a big poker fan and used AVP religiously before the trip to choose a tourney to play, back home we play a home game every Fri night for £5 ($10) so I decided I wanted a fairly low buy-in tourney and settled on PH 2pm. I paid in and was seated and was a nervous wreck for the first 30 mins or so. Although I'm a pretty solid NL hold'em player the occasion was getting to me - first time in a casino and first time in a 90 runner tourney!

After I played a couple hands I settled down and realised that I was far from the worst player in the field. I won a couple hands with top pair - enough to keep me ticking over. Admittedly I played one hand very poorly and got away with it, I put in a very large raise (nearly half my stack) one before the button with Kc Jc and the button re-raised all-in and the big blind called (he was a shorter stack). I had them both covered and they seemed quite loose and I figured I had equity in there so I called. Button had 9 9, BB had 2 2, I hit my K in the flop and took down a lovely pot.

Apart from this hand I played very solid and got myself into a strong position. One notable hand I had 88 and raised 4 big blinds and an old cowboy-looking guy called from SB. Flop was 8AQ all diamonds, he put out out a massive bet and I had to think about the flush, however I gave him a steely glare and proclaimed 'all-in!'. The stetson nearly fell off the old boy's head and he reluctantly folded. I was now in nice shape to make the final table.

I continued my ABC poker and made the final table (10 left and 9 got paid). Everyone at the table got REAL tight fearing the bubble and I took advantage - stealing 4 sets of blinds in a row at one stage. Players started to drop off and we got down to last 3. They were paying $1200, $800, $400 and a chop was offered but one guy wasnt interested. We played on but the blinds were KILLING all 3 of us, the other guy was desperate for a chop (I reckon he shouted "CHOP!" about 40 times in 2 hands). Finally the first guy agreed and we chopped for $800 each. Not a bad start to the trip and my first proper live tourney.

The rest of the week I played cash games - the tourney had taken over 6 hours and I wasn't used to sessions that long. After this I fell in love with cash games. I think they suit my game much better than tourneys as I am usually patient and feel restricted when the blinds get too high. I played 4 sessions of 1-2 NL in PH and managed to squeeze out a further profit of $800 for the week making a grand total of + $1600.

Most notable hand I had AA and raised to $10, got re-raised to $30 then someone else re-re-raises all-in $45, we both call and flop comes AKx, I prayed that the other guy would have KK, I bet $40 and he went all-in for $100 total. I insta-called and turned over the rockets - he did have the KK! (poor guy - nasty hand). The turn brings the case A and I take down a big pot of over $350 and $72 for a high hand jackpot! :-) I cant say enough good things about PH poker room - comfortable, nice tables, decent dealers and excellent drinks service - one drawback was the geezer playing the piano just behind the poker room - Ive never heard anything so painful sounding in my life! lol

I also played at Mandalay Bay on Sunday morning but found a group of guys who all new each other (locals probably) and some guy from Rhode Island. Tight table and nothing notable happened - they all seemed very respectable players and I was proud to have survived a table without as many weaker players that I encountered at PH. One hand I looked down at QQ and made it $12 to go and Rhode Islander said "Irish guys will do that with KK" - nice read - but then the dealer (who was a loud mouth) says "yeah they will" - very unprofessional in my opinion - I didn't think a dealer would make a comment that might indicate that someone had a tell or a good read. Shortly after this I left!

Apologies guys if there hasnt been many actual hands described - this trip actually happened last summer but I never posted it - today is exactly one year on so I decided to finally write it! Overall it was a great trip and I'm totally hooked on Vegas - admittedly I ran VERY WELL on luck all week (still wondering if it was a fluke), but this is only adding fuel to the fire for me to come back and try it all over again. My one regret was not playing 1-2 at Venetian and 1-3 at Wynn - both rooms looked fantastic! - Its on the to-do list for my next trip.

Funniest story of the week was when I went to Pure at Caesars Palace - I had gotten front of the line passes and the clipboard guy got me in but said I had to 'look after' the head doorman. He was the size of a gorilla and covered in fake tan - I handed him $20 and his response was "what the hell, $20???" he said in disgust! I felt like taking my $20 back and Chuck-Liddelling his big ass! So we headed in and after 1 hour of not getting served at the bar and constantly getting nudged by guys cleaning the floor (??? in Belfast clubs get cleaned once a year not 8 times night!) I said "screw this" and headed to PH - 20 mins later I hit the quad Aces - I'll take my $350 and that jackass on the door at Pure can use the crisp $20 I gave him to go get another tan and a reality check!

Sorry this is sooo long guys - closing comment - I love Vegas and poker and your site is the stone cold nuts and I cant wait to get back over again! PS dont worry about the $1 Bellagio chip as advertised - I wouldn't expect you to mail it 7000 miles across the globe!

Kev