Luxor

Always a favorite of mine. The $50 buy-in at the NL table draws people willing to drink and have fun. In other words: easy money. I always cash out at three to five times my buy-in and have a heck of a time playing there.

Some fun Luxor stories ...

This guy who appeared to be pretty drunk told another guy at the table (a good player) "I wanted to get some of your big stack of chips." The second guy responds, "You'd have to work hard to do it."

Well ... seeing the challenge ...

I was dealt pocket Aces and decided to slow play. This player with the big chip stack keeps matching my raises. He calls my final raise on the river and I have only a few chippies left. The board is a rainbow of low cards. The guy with the stack smiles at me and turns over his pocket Kings. I wait a second, then turn over my pocket Aces. *Ding - we have a winner!

Yep - I worked hard. Yep - I got them.

At the Lux: I see this guy calling raises foolishly, so I tuck this little bit of info in my head. He had been drinking too much also - another good tidbit.

I don't remember all the particulars of this hand, but after the turn I have the nut straight with Queen-something. No flush or full house draws are on the board. Now ... If the board reads 10-J-K-A and someone places a big bet, what would you put him on? He calls. The river is inconsequential. I figure that we are going to split the pot, but I raise anyway. He calls. We turn over cards and he does not have a Queen. What was he thinking???

A final Lux story: Flop shows K-J-rag. I have a Jack with a good kicker. Same guy raises, and I put him on K-something. His raise is minimal, so I stick around. The turn is a Jack. He raises, so I re-raise a hefty bet. Hmmm ... what could I have?? He is running out of money, but decides to call. The river is another Jack. He checks. I put him all in for the rest of his chips. He calls and acts surprised to see that I have the final Jack. The quads win me an extra $20 from the Lux, a little icing on the cake.

I love the Luxor!

Bally's

Very soft play at 1-2 NL. Made good money every session. Every table I played seemed to have about three solid players and the rest were generally not very good.

Stuff I couldn't believe: Saw a woman call two all ins for $280 with Q-10 unsuited. She hit a one-outer on the river. Saw this same woman catch another Queen on the river in another hand to beat a full house with a higher full house.

Saw one woman hits quads twice when all in within two hours, yet was down in chips.

Some fun Bally's stories ...

I had pocket 7's and two other players both re-raised. I fold my hand and tell the guy across from me that I folded a pair. He said, "Why? There are cards in the deck." When I was heads up with this guy several hands later, I remembered his philosophy and went all in with a good hand. Yep - he called, and chased after those cards. Doubled up.

At Bally's: I had a chance to sneak in a last hour of play on my final day. We're getting a new table of $1-2 NL together, and this one guy says, "It's my last day here. I want to see chips flying." I wait. I get A-K suited and smooth call. The flop gives me flush, straight, and straight flush possibilities. I quickly compute at least 17 outs, and call the raise on the flop. Turn doesn't help. He raises, and I call. Final card makes my flush. I check, and he bets. Now -- how much to bet to take the maximum from him? I triple his bet. He knows he is beat, but I bet just the right amount to keep him in. Yes - his chips were flying - straight to me.

Caesars Palace

Played in the afternoon tournament, which was temporarily moved to 2:00 pm due to a televised tourney. I get down to 20th or 21st place even though I get no cards whatsoever. As I have read in so many places, this is an excellent tournament. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have been looking at the final table with any kind of cards at all.

At Caesars: A big money game was going on. We see Sean Sheikhan at the table and immediately hear g** d*** and f***. Yep - Mr. Personality. Saw Mike Matusow, Eskimo Clark, and other pros.

Stardust

Wanted to play in a tournament there before it closes. I make the final table but am short stacked. The chip leader is to my right and in the small blind and forces me to go all in or fold. With few chips and an A-3 suited, I call. He turns over pocket 10's. I catch a 3 on the flop, but no Aces or another 3. I go out in 9th place. Tourney paid four places.

I did play a little $3-6 Limit at Stardust against some regulars there, and actually finished ahead. Picked up a few good tips in case I decide to try limit poker again.

Sahara, Harrah's

Played in tourneys at these places. At Sahara, I got caught trying to steal blinds and a bet with A-Q suited. Ran into pocket rockets. 'nuff said.

At Harrah's, played a tournament with players who were extremely poor and some who were new to the game. Got wounded and put out by donks. One guy re-raises my pocket Kings with A-5 (but they were soooted) and hits an Ace on the turn. Another guy who is clueless gets lucky and hits a set on the flop, crushing my pocket Kings again.

Aladdin, Excalibur, Imperial Palace

I just can't seem to get any cards at Aladdin. Nice room and good payouts to high hands, but just unlucky for me again.

Played a little low limit at Excalibur. Same No Fold Em playing. Lost a little. The room moved during my trip, but I didn't play in the new space. Still a friendly place to play, though.

Imperial Palace: I didn't like the new space there. Had two negative exchanges with employees that will keep me from going there again. A new dealer came to the table and I got out of my seat for five seconds to move an empty glass to a side table. He dealt me out of the hand and told me "I didn't know if you were coming back." How about asking, genius? Worse yet was the person who appeared to be the evening manager, a rather large woman with a larger attitude. When I remembered that I needed to get my card turned in to document time played for comps, she told me "You were supposed to do that when you started playing." Well, excuse me for not remembering every casino's policy.

So ... as you can see, I certainly recommend Luxor and Bally's for soft 1-2 NL action. This action gave me a nice wad of cash for the trip home. Players were pretty friendly and I had a great time.

Sorry - no reports of drinks and cocktail waitresses. I am pretty much a poker zombie (albeit a nice one) when I play and really don't factor those things into where I choose to play.

I am going back to Las Vegas over Labor Day weekend. Can't wait!