Arrived in LV Sun. Aug. 7 at supper time and checked in at Mirage. We were upgraded to the top floor - E - which pleased both my wife and myself. Dinner was at Toby Keith's so I could drink out of a mason jar. Then I headed off to play the !0:00 at TI. Made it to level 6 with an above average stack when my flopped set ran into a flush on the river. I enjoyed meeting Troy ( aka Talon ) and hearing some WSOP stories and his insights as a dealer. His blog at the defunct site was well written and I hope that it can somehow be continued here at AVP. Spent Monday at the pool in the am then wandering around the strip before settling on supper at Diablo's. The guacamole is great and the atmosphere is fun. Played the 10:00 at TI again and was card dead. Knocked out by a better two pair made on the turn. Got half of my $50 entry back as I caught the tail end of a hot shooter at the craps table on the way out the door. Walking back to the Mirage I was thinking how that was a nice quick hit. Bought in for $200 at a 1-2 table in the Mirage and first hand look at QQ. It's already been raised to $6 and called so I call and the flop comes Qxx rainbow. The young fellow at the other end of the table put a pot sized bet in and gets called before I think " the nuts " so I shove, get one caller and my ladies stand up. And I start thinking quick hit. The next two hands get tossed into the muck as I keep looking at the stacks of red chips in front of me. I get AK on the fourth hand and call a raise and join about half the table to see a flop of AK8 rainbow. A different young guy bets big, it folds to me so I double his bet, he reraises putting most of his chips in the middle so I reraised putting him all in. The board didn't help either of us and my AK>A8 :) I pulled in the chips thinking quick hit - so as cheesy as it is, I grabbed a couple of empty racks from the next table and almost filled them ( with mostly reds ), tossed the dealer another fiver, and headed straight to the desk where she counted $705 out for me. Quick hit. Off to bed with a big smile. Pool again in the morning ( I was in line before 7:30 each morning and was at least 40th each day ) and off to Olives for lunch. We ate outside in the 107 degree heat and were too early for a fountain show but the food was great - I had gnocci - mmmmm. We walked off our lunch visiting different casinos and having some slot success - especially at Paris. I decided to go and play the 10:00 at Caesar's. But I needed to get some WSOP merchandise and after some help from the Player's Club in Bill's ( I was picking up a chip ) at about 8:45, I took a quick shuttle from Bally's over to the Rio. Found what I wanted and jumped on the shuttle that left at 9:30 for Harrah's, made haste to drop the stuff off in the room and made it to CP just before 10:00 ( six hotels in less than 75 minutes - whew! ). I was really card dead and saw only 5 flops in the first three levels. Things didn't change after the break and my end came when I missed with 4 to a flush on the flop that never materialized to KK. I left feeling I played as well as could be expected being so card dead. More pool time the next morning then it was up to the Wynn in the afternoon for a few chocolate martinis that my wife loves while playing slots. The ribs at Gilley's were pretty good for an early supper. I knew I was going to play a 7:00 tourney on our last day in town - but where? The Mirage didn't have many runners at 6:25 so I decided to walk down to the MGM as I hadn't played there previously. Made it to MGM in time to sign up and get a couple of Sigma Derby races in before the tourney started. I was quite impressed with almost everything about the tournament. Management was always present and kept things moving nicely, drinks were quick and plentiful, bathrooms very close, tourney played at one end of the room with cash games at the other and best of all, I was getting good cards. One time I had AsKs and flopped the nut flush; hit two full houses; I was above chip average almost the whole time. There were 40 runners in the tourney and we were down to two tables just before the break ( after 6 levels and 2 hrs ). A young European fellow ( YEF ) has a huge stack at the table I move to and he is playing real LAG and continues building his stack up to the break. During the break I check stacks at the other table and figure our table has about 70% of the chips in play. Amazingly, it took over an hour to get to the final table! Not long after the break, the YEF gets into a pot building exercise with a player at the other end of the table that results in the YEF losing about1/3 of his stack. Two hands later and Yef donks off about half of what he has left on a board that had both flush and straight possibilities ( the straight won it ). Next hand he open shoves and loses with 9h7h. We couldn't believe what just happened., eh Tony? ( from Toronto ). By the time we get to the final table, I'm below average and second shortest stack. First hand I see AdKd and shove getting one caller who shows JJ. Saw a couple of diamonds before the river but bowed out there in 10th feeling pretty good about my play again. I checked out the Tropicana room before walking back to the Mirage for some 1-2 before calling it a night. Played for 75 minutes and made a nice profit of $186 finding JJJ fairly early and then doubled up later when A9>A6 on a A8752 board. That was it for playing poker in Vegas as Thursday was departure day for part two of our journey - seeing the Red Sox and Mariners at Safeco ( Red Sox won hitting 3 homers in the process ). Played on Friday morning at the Tulalip Casino north of Seattle in their $20 tourney - 1500 chips and 10 min. levels. It's mostly locals and my run good continued for just over an hour - I knocked out half a dozen players before my 1010