A little background. Wife is a veterinarian and attended the Western Veterinary Conference this year. This left me 4 days to have fun. I've been playing online for about 3 months, all nano limits, and in the last 6 weeks or so, have really started to see my very small bankroll start to increase. I was only looking for 2/4 limit games, as for our 4 days there, I only had a $400 bankroll to work with. We were staying at the Excalibur. Nice enough hotel, but I always felt I had to walk from one end to the other in the casino to do ANYTHING. I'm sure that is by design, but gets a bit old.

We arrive Monday afternoon and after getting into our room, my wife heads off to get in a few hours of continuing education before the end of conferences for the day. I head to the Excalibur's room to pop my B&M cherry. Nice enough room, tables were a little worn, dealers were competent, and the players generally horrible, but at least for my stints there, also catching cards. I lost ~40 my first session, and then it was time to meet my wife. Since we were still on Ohio time and had eaten around 2 Vegas time, we were not hungry and headed to the casino. Got the wife a players card, added her to our safety deposit box, and because she likes to play craps, and I don't, we split up. Another bad session in the Ex and I'm down another 40ish. I'm a little depressed at this point, starting rereading some sections of Small Stakes Hold'em, etc. We pack it in around 9 as we were up 5 ET (2 PT) that day.

Tuesday morning, wife heads off to her conferences, and I decide to look around. I begin walking down the strip, discover Fatburger and get a sausage and egg sandwich, and keep going. I walk through the Aladdin, Desert Shops, Flamingo, Barby Coast, etc. Some others I'm sure. My lord, the square footage that is occupied by slot machines is absolutely astounding. I was also sucked in by the size of everything. Oh, I see the Paris down there, just a couple of blocks away (from the walkway between the NY, NY and MGM). Heh, needless to say, I have a couple of blisters. Finally get back to the hotel and head back to the poker room. I drop about $80 in a little over an hour. I had to get away, headed over to the Luxor and bought a 3 pack of their shows, IMAX ride, IMAX film, and the Pirates 4D show. To continue my streak, my cell phone had fallen out of its holder in the ride and I thought I would be slick and just undo my seat belt real quick to grab it... The ride detects this and shut down. I'm pretty embarrassed at this point, and I let everyone else on the ride know it was me that screwed up. Luckily, they restarted the ride from the beginning for us. I then go see the Pirates movie, and figure out too late this is the same one Sea World created several years ago and I had seen it 20 minutes from my house when Sea World of Ohio still existed! Still, it was fun and a distraction. I wanted to see the Fighter Pilot IMAX film, so I picked one for the next day as I had missed the early one for Tuesday. Time to meet the wife again, and we walk down to see the fountain show at Bellagio, then to Harrah's to eat at Toby Keith's bar. I had the baby back ribs, and while they were OK, I expect baby backs to have the meat fall off of the bone, these were not the case. Oh well. We are both kind of beat at this point, and pay for the monorail back to MGM. Wife heads back to craps tables, and I'm off to the poker room again. I drop another 40 or so, and didn't win one pot. The best hand I had in that last session was AsKs and the flop was QQ rag, none spades and it got bet and raised in front of me so I let it go. Wife is doing great at craps, so I donk around at 1¢ slots for a bit. Wife had a good night at craps and is up overall. In total, we are probably a combined even with my losses and her winnings. I'm monster bummed thinking I'm just going to sit in the hotel room for the next 2 days doing nothing!

Wednesday morning comes and I'm a little slower to get ready in the morning. Spend some time going over the hand quizzes in SSH, reading some of my Harrington on Hold'em book (NL is next on my list for learning to play well). I then head off to Fatburger again, get a Kingburger this morning for breakfast. I stop in some of those shops on my way back through looking for T-shirts and whatnot. I end up walking through the Tropicana on my way back. Wow, it just felt "right". I liked the look of their poker room, nothing fancy, but separated off, and more of a real room then just an area of the casino. I didn't play there yet, as I was still stinging from my early losses. I also finally found some of the Vegas sign T-shirts there for a good price in the gift shop. My wife then decided to blow off the afternoon meetings she had. She had wanted to visit the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay until she saw the 15.95 price tag. I still had my IMAX ticket, so we headed to the Luxor and we both watched the show there. The wife was pretty hungry at this point as she hadn't had lunch yet and didn't have Fatburger for breakfast. We wanted to take in a Buffet and decided to head down to Aladdin's. We take the Deuce down this time. This is one great buffet! Hand carved Steak, crab legs, etc, BUT, the desserts. My God man, I could have dropped the 25 bucks and just gorged myself on the desserts and been a happy, happy man!!!! We decided to walk back down to the hotel to work off a little of dinner. It is now time to head to the casino again. I'm feeling really gun shy at this point. "I'm just an online donk, I don't know what I'm doing, I should just go back to my 5¢/10¢ games." Wife heads back to craps tables, and there is no way I'm playing at the Excalibur anymore, just too much bad mojo. I go ahead and head to the Tropicana and they have a 2/4 game going. I sit down with $80 in chips and begin. Nothing special at first, and then magic starts to happen. I get a few really strong hands that the flop hits, take some pots. Then Steve sits down for his push as dealer. An older gentleman with a gigantic gold ring encrusted with diamonds sits down at the game a few hands before this. He likes to raise a tone pre flop, bet if no one has, raise if someone has. In short, I think the 100 or so he sat down with meant absolutely nothing to him. I'm catching cards, playing well, and raking pots. Steve was very, very good to me. I'm still doing well over the next hour or so. I was in the 1 seat and my chips were starting to get in my way, the dealer asked if I wanted to color up, and I declined at first as I didn't want to do anything to change my hot streak, so I just racked up some of the chips and let that sit on the hand rail. Steve pushes back in and I take 3 of the first 4 pots. At this point Steve makes a comment that "... and he is going to want to take me home with him." To which I reply, "Thanks Uncle Steve." Cheesy and stupid, I know, but it got a laugh out of the table. I was having fun at this point. I wish I could remember some details of some of the hands, but most of it is just a blur at this point. Maybe my next trip I'll take a notebook and write down some details each night or morning. I finally had to color up and they racked up a couple of my chips and gave me two pretty black chips. Things start to even out now and I decided to pack it in around 1 am. I started at 9 with 80, left at 1 with $308. I'm basically back even now, which was really my goal when I came out. This also includes all of the tipping of dealers and waitresses.

I'm feeling much better about myself and the trip now, and my wife is committed to all day meetings, so I get up early and get an all day pass for the Deuce. I take it down to the Sahara and start my Casino tour again. Went into Circus Circus just because, got one of those giant hot dogs with chili and cheese at Slots of Fun, boy is that thing messy! Walked through the Stardust and then down to the Wynn. Very nice place, as soon as I walked in I was like "Whoa, I'm in high roller territory now." Walked to the poker room and I think the lowest they had going was 8/16 at the time, way too rich for me, so I headed back outside and took the bus down to Fremont street. I head down to Binion's and sit down at a 2/4 table just so I could say that I did it. My table had a lot of older gentlemen at it, and these two 23ish Canadians who were absolutely smashed! They were loud and borderline obnoxious, and several players got up and left the table. At one point a dealer even called the floor to let them know, but there were not quite at the level to make them leave yet. As for me, well as long as they still had chips in front of them, I was not leaving that table!! They would bust out, and pull more money out and get more chips, one guy went to do it and didn't have anything left and then announced, "I have to find an ATM that accepts a Canadian bank card!", the dealer kindly directed him to the cashier's cage. In hindsight, I probably should have tipped him for that! I think I was there from around 11-2 and I was up about 60 and then the young guys left and I was sitting at a table of much older gentlemen that seemed like all they wanted to do was limp in pre flop, check to the river and then only bet if they had a hand on the river. I decided it was time to leave. So, I can say I went to Binion's and left a winner! A very different kind of poker room. Very old school kind of feeling, nothing stuffy or pretentious or modern about it. It was a very good experience. I was starting to walk around the Golden Nugget when my wife called and said she would be done at 4, it was around 3 now, and I knew it would probably take me at least an hour to ride back on the Deuce, which it did. We then headed to the Excalibur's buffet. I had read some bad reviews on it, but it was in the Hotel, it was our last night in Vegas, and it was only $15 a person. It wasn't bad. Simple food, Fried chicken, potatoes, mac and cheese, stuff like that. They did have a carving station with Ham and prime rib as well. It was good. Was it the Aladdin? No, was it Home Town Buffet? Hell no, much, much, much better, and I think you drop $12 at those places anymore. For the price, I wasn't upset with the food. Time for more gambling. Wife goes to craps again, and I head to the Trop looking for another 2/4 game. All they had going was 1/2 NL and I'm just not a NL guy. They have me sit down and bring me a drink waiting to see if anyone else comes by, but when I finished my beer and there was nothing going I let them know I was off looking for a game. I then headed next door to the MGM. Very nice room, nice modern tables, well run, organized, etc. Just didn't "feel" that friendly or comfortable, and I don't mean the chairs, or the people or staff. It almost felt sterile. I dropped about 60 there in a hour and decided to see if the Trop had a game going yet. No dice, I go and check on the wife, she is doing well, and I donk ten bucks or so in some slots. Head back to Trop and still nothing, the room manager suggests the Monte Carlo, says it is a nice intimate room kind of like theirs. I head up and check it out. This was another casino that "felt right" as soon as I walked in. I really liked their poker room. I sit down at their 2/4 game. They were running a half kill game and only a single $2 blind. I started out down a little, but started to come back. My table was really hitting cards. For one hour several hands won by flushes, the next, all full houses. Kind of crazy. At one point a lady sat down and I think she said she was from Canada, but wasn't 23 or drunk. She had an accent of some kind, so maybe she was from Quebec, she said when she sat down this was the first time she was playing in a Casino. I'm not sure she should have added the "in a Casino" part. She often had to be told what to do, "call or fold", "Bet or check", etc. At one point I was in a hand where I hit a full house on the turn, but there were obvious straight and flush draws on the board. There were 3 of us in the hand, and I was in the middle, the Lady was last to act. The first person bet out the turn, and I decided to wait for the river to raise, and the older lady called as well. I don't think the river improved anyone as the flush and straights were already completed. First person bets out again, and I raise, the lady again didn't know what to do and the guy next to her (out of the hand) said, "You can call or fold", and then I added "or she can reraise me." I felt a little bad at this point as I just knew she had a straight. She said that is what she wanted to do, but didn't announce it and she ended up making a string bet as they were very strict about those in the Monte. So she had to just call, and the first to act called as well. I had the boat against both the str8 and flush. This table was kind of nice as I was winning with really strong hands so had somewhat of a good table image that played out on one hand where I had Q7o in the blind and checked it preflop, the flop was all junk and it was checked around, another blank on the turn and I bet out and everyone folded to me. I ended up doubling up my 100 sit down and ended my Vegas poker playing experience up around 100.

So to sum up, I played in 5 different rooms. Excalibur, Tropicana, Binion's, MGM Grand, and Monte Carlo. I rank them as follows:

1. Tropicana - I liked their dealers the most. No misdeals, they were good at knowing when the table wanted to be chatty and when we just wanted to shut up and play cards. My big night there Steve, Janice and Jie(sp?) where the dealers and I thought they were very good. I liked the feel of the room and I think they had a waitress just for the poker room. It was only two tables, but cocktail service was very good. I'll probably never get to play there again, as in the middle of my run I asked the dealer if they offered poker room rates, she said no, and they had no comps at all, and that she expected them to be closed by April. Apparently MGM is looking to buy them, tear them down and put up condos.

2. Binion's - Another good feel room. You can tell it has been around for a long time, old crusty players, a somewhat crusty staff, older tables, but I liked it a lot! It was almost like I could feel all the historic poker that had been played in that room. I think if you play poker and you go to Vegas, you have to play in Binion's at least once.

3. Monte Carlo - This is only ranked below Binion's because the 1/2 Kill structure was little weird to me. Their dealers were very good and professional, they didn't chat at all, which is OK, but I like them to chat it up a bit at times. Intimate room, separated nicely from the rest of the casino. They also rake to $5 max instead of $4 and have a high hand jackpot, so on $50+ pots they are taking $6 bucks out of them.

4. MGM Grand - Probably only here because I lost there. It really was a very nice room, but I felt really dwarfed with the giant ceilings, and it was all just too good. Also, they have a marble chip rail that isn't close to being flush with the felt. Often when the dealer toss my cards to me, they would rise up some, I don't know if players on the other side of the table could see them or not, but the edges did lift off of the table. That is a nit though.

5. Excalibur - Their room was OK. Staff was friendly, I didn't see any mistakes. I got to spin Ace's cracked wheel once, only hit for $20, there are TONS of 20 spaces on that wheel (20-100). However, the Ex rakes at $2.50 instead of $10, and they bring quarters onto the table. So, you are constantly picking these quarters out of pots pushed to you and maintaining stacks of them to use as blinds and whatnot. After playing at the other rooms, I realized just how freaking annoying this was.

I really wish I could remember some more details about some hands. All in all, it was a very good trip. As far as I'm concerned, the Strip starts at the Wynn. The north part of the strip was just old, run down, and tons of construction. I'm sure in a few years, it will be quite the place again, as from what I can see, Vegas isn't about nostalgia. The exception might be Fremont street, but it looks like they have been able to keep that kind of modern. I would have liked to explore the Golden Nugget a little more as I was only in there for like 10 minutes before I had to leave, that was another casino that had a good "feel" to it. I'd like to see Fremont Street at night next time I go too. I would also recommend exploring the strip in both the Day and at Night, just be prepared to walk!