Began my trip in mid April with the morning ($40) and afternoon ($60) NL Hold 'Em tournaments at the Alladin. Wonderful experience, the staff, dealers and players were friendly to a player in my second time live card room experience and first ever live tournament. 92 players in the morning with conversation from those around me that led me to believe that it was mostly tourists. The morning tournament's 15 minute rounds catch up to you very quickly around the 4th round, I got lucky short stacked with AK I went all in with 3 callers, but later dwindled off to 22nd place.

With such a great first experience in the tournament, I decided to pony up for the afternoon tourney (20 minute rounds), and lost half my stack in either a tremendous lay down on my part or tremendous bluff by the table bully and chip leader. I regrouped with a flush and held on to the final table. 73 players with 8 paying, I managed 4th and $484. Aces to the Aladdin staff for a well run tournament and good cookies at the break.

The Flamingo room is laughable, but I played a 1-2 NL table with both locals and young (20-25) guys. Played solid for 2 hours folding and taking a few pots. Then I decided to get out of shape and play A10h aggressively from late position. $200 dollars later I decided that NL ring games aren't for me . . . yet.

My last day I wanted to get a few hours of 4-8 or 6-12 in at the MGM and while the room is lovely, the management was off their game that day. I was passed over on the list once and then called for the 6-12 only to find my seat already occupied. Overall, the did nothing to make the experience positive for me.

In my two recent trips, I would have to highly recommend the Aladdin or Monte Carlo to newer players. The staff goes out of their way to make you comfortable.

As an aside, the Bellagio was absolutely humming with the WPT and PPT, and there were players galore. Terrific trip!