Another quick 3 days 2 nights trip from Los Angeles. Rooms were super expensive due to the Billboard award, but Aria gave us a promotion and we decided to take the bait despite my bad experience with them before.

First stop at MGM, I was hoping to find some juicy action like everyone else described here. Last time I was there, the action was pretty tight and slow. Unfortunately, same thing this time. Everyone was playing tight at my table. After an hour, I gave up and walked over to Excalibur.

Only a few tables at Excalibur and I was promptly seated at $1/2 NL. I picked my spot wisely at seat#7, far away from a young gun (YG) at #2 with $300 stack and listening to his iPod. He looked like one of those internet young guns. I played patiently, YG straddled all the time from the button or UTG. I picked up 99 when he straddled to $4. I made it $15 to go MP. YG called, I can’t remember if anyone else called since I was gunning for him anyway. Flop 68J, he checked. I fired out $20. YG checked raised to $50. It was either a push or fold for me. I wasted $35, and didn’t really want to risk another $100 (I bought in for about $130) to hero pushed him with 99. I would be a big underdog if he caught the J. So, I mucked.

I waited and waited for a good hand to go after the active YG since the rest of the table was pretty tight, we were down to 7 players at one point. I finally picked up AQ EP, bumped it to $12. Short stack #10 (loose player) called, seat #1 and #2 (YG) called. Pot $48. Flop AXX (2 hearts). I checked expecting someone taking a stab at the pot. Short stack at #10 complied and pushed his remaining $25. #1 mucked, #2 YG raised to like $60. I studied him for awhile a concluded that he could not for AK. $25 from seat #10 didn’t worry me since I had him covered. I pushed all in for about $110. YG called. Turn another heart and I skipped a heartbeat, maybe a couple. River brick. YG proudly turned over his nut A6 heart soooted. He summoned his Caterpillar machine and dragged in a pot of roughly $300. I got felted right off the bat of my trip, 1 buy-in down. Yikes! I left shortly afterward disgusted. My wife saw the whole action and she said I looked so tired and shocked at that hand. Maybe I was exhausted from the drive, so just called it a day and wanted to reflect on my play. Went back to the room and checked on the Holdem calculator. I was the favorite 53% vs his 43%, so I know I made the right play. We went to buy a 24 hr Harrah buffet pass for $45 and ate dinner at Rio. Their food was always decent.

After a good night of sleep, we went to eat brunch at Caesars at 1030am. The line was long, with only 2 cashiers. There was really only 1 since the other cashier was constantly helping the Diamond members. Waited in line for an hour for a freaking brunch. Not too many varieties like Rio, but good crab legs. Omelet was good. Now, I am in the mood of battling on the felt. My wife kissed me good luck and I headed over to Flamingo.

Flamingo had only 1 table going on Sunday 12pm!! What the heck was going on? I put my name on the waiting list. The 5 minutes wait felt like an eternity, so I decided to try Bally . Escalator was broken and sometimes I wonder if they turn off the escalator on purpose or not. I had to walk up and down the stairs and finally got to the front door of Bally. At least the people walker taking me into Bally was working. Can’t say the same on the other side when patrons tried to get out of Bally. That must be a conspiracy on Bally’s part, just so you won’t want to come back out of their casino. Little did I know, the next people walker to Bally was broken / stopped too. So, I had my exercise of the day by walking to Bally. 9 people on the waiting list in addition to their 1 table of $1/2 NL. The guy said they were going to open a new table so I waited around. I bought in the usual $120 and the lineup is:

Tight older lady at seat#2 (OL)
Young blonde at #3 and her husband at #4.
A very lively local bald guy at seat#5
Tight short stack (