I arrived in Vegas on Friday afternoon at around 2:30 PM. The drive from Phoenix wasn't too bad, but the traffic crossing Hoover Dam was ridiculous. I checked into my comped room at NYNY, showered, and headed down to South Point to play some poker and meet Minton for some $1 beers.

I got seated in a $1/$2 NL game after a short wait. This table had possibly the second worst players that I've ever played against (worst is coming up later in this report). Two of the biggest pots were won with 6-2, when he paired his 6 on the river to beat 5-5 on an A K 10 9 6 board for $175, and with 7-4, who rivered a gutshot after calling large bets on every street, to scoop a pot worth $225, cracking pocket kings in the process. I was extremely card dead, and couldn't catch any kind of hand to mix it up with these guys. I left after 2 hours, down $22.

I met Minton and Zippyboy at the lounge for some $1 beers. The place was absolutely packed! Apparently, word of the deal quickly spread throughout Vegas. We had some drinks, talked poker and sports, and had a good time. Zippy left, and was replaced by Mrs Fox, and her husband. They're good folks, and it was nice to see that their poker adventure was working out quite well.

Minton and I met zippy at Bill's for some drunken $0.50/$1 NL action. I didn't know players this bad existed. One calling station dropped $400 in an hour, and never showed a hand better than one pair. As much as he stacked off, he twice folded to Minton's bets on the river while he Minton had the absolute nuts. Minton and I were carving up the table, and also wearing the cocktail waitress out. I will say that Bill's has the fastest cocktail service of any poker room I've ever played in. PokerMuffin dealt me some big winners early on, but the drunker I got (and I was getting drunk FAST) the worse I played, and the worse the beats got. Minton called my all in on the turn with an OESD and nailed it on the river to crack my flopped set. I flop the second nut flush, get it all in, only to see that V flopped the nut flush (I guess that's why you don't play Q4s for a raise- I told you I was playing bad!). Random donk called my $20 reraise with J-4, and then called my all in with only bottom pair, and promptly turned another 4. So gross. Between being drunk, and getting kicked in the nuts by the deck several times, I got up and stormed out. Sorry I ran out on you Minton. I was actually looking forward to some cheap steak and eggs, but I needed to cool down before I punched someone. I left Bill's down $275. I suck at poker.

I stumbled back to NYNY, which is a LONG walk while drunk. When I get there, I remember that I have $75 in free slot play on my player’s card as part of the promotion I received. I decided now was a good time to play some slots, and drink more beer. The cocktail waitress was way too fast bringing more beers. I ended up turning the free play into $111.75 after hitting some min jackpot on my last free spin. Instead of cashing out with a Benjamin of free money, I decided to go to a $1 machine and try and hit a big score. (I should not be allowed to be in a casino unsupervised while drunk!) Needless to say, I lost that hundo pretty quickly. So I decide it's time to go to bed. But on the way to the room, I pass a blackjack table, and decide that now is the perfect time to play. I sit down at a $25 table, and try and bet $10. When told that the minimum is $25, instead of leaving, I pull out $200 and stay and play. I drink some more beers, and do some shots with the other guy at the table. After about an hour (could've been longer, or shorter, as the memory is starting to get a little fuzzy at this point) I look down and realize that I'm exactly even, with 8 green chips in front of me. I then do the smartest thing I've done all night, and get up and leave.

After cashing out, I get lost trying to find the elevator up to my room. I take an escalator to the upper level. I look around, and realize this is not where I need to be. I turn around, and try and go down the up escalator. I’m actually successful at doing so, except I made it to the bottom by tumbling head over heels. I get up at the bottom, and am quickly met by two security guards. I try and pretend that I’m sober, and that I’m all right, but they insist on escorting me back to my room. I thought that I was going to be in some major trouble, but I find out later that it’s hotel policy to get escorted by security to make sure that I make it back to my room, and that I’m not seriously injured. I pulled a muscle in my calf on the way down, and it still hurts today.

I wake up on Saturday with a raging headache and a calf muscle so sore and swollen; I could barely walk to the shower. After a shower, some Advil, and about 4 bottles of water, I’m feeling well enough to leave the room. I walk over to Excalibur. I have a soft spot in my heart for this place, as it’s the first casino that I ever played poker in. The cash games are full, but I’m told that the 1 PM tournament is about to start. I figure what the heck, and register. I should’ve asked some questions first. It’s $40 for T2000 chips, with an optional add-on for an additional T1000. Blinds start at 100/200, and double every 15 minutes. The dealers were horrible. We got 5 hands in on one of the levels. It quickly turned into a shove fest. I actually won some all in coin flips, and went into the break as the chip leader. The first hand back from break, the blinds are 1500/3000, and I have about 14,000. I double up two short stacks when I lose all in coin flips, going in with the best hand both times. People are getting knocked out at a pretty fast clip, and before the end of the level, we are down to the final table. That’s right. At a tournament with 29 entries, we were down to the final 9 in 1 hour and 10 minutes. After several short stacks bust out on the first hand, we’re down to 6, with 5 paying. I’m now the short stack, with 9,000, and blinds still at 1500/3000. I ship it in with pocket 10’s, and get called by AK and AQ. A king on the flop ends my day, and I bubble. I’m not sure how much longer the tourney lasted, but I’m guessing not very long. Avoid this tournament at all costs. There is no point in the structure where you can actually play poker.

I walk back across the bridge to NYNY to get my truck, and realize that I have no idea where I parked it. I wander around the garage for 20 minutes, checking every level, until I finally remember that I left it at Bill’s the night before. I make the trek over to Bill’s, get my truck, and head up to TI. They only had 1 NL game going, so I took the tram over to Mirage, where I’m promptly seated in a $2/$5 NL game. There were two total donators at the table, who both seemed perfectly content on going broke and then rebuying, several times each. I took down a nice pot with a flopped set of nines off of one of them. I then turned broadway a few hands later, and doubled up through the big stack at the table after he slowplayed a flopped set of queens. I cashed out up $500 after only 3 hours of play.

I took the tram back to TI to play in the HH tournament at 7 PM. I got seated next to Zippyboy. Zippy proceeded to get slapped in the face with the deck, flopping quads, sets and flushes like nobodies business. I couldn’t even flop a pair, or even a decent draw. We went into the first break, and I was down to 3200 chips. I get a few good flops holding AK and pocket 77’s, and then double up with JJ against A-5o. I have about 16,000 when I’m dealt pocket kings in the CO. Blinds are 200-400-50. I raise to 1600. Table bully in the SB calls, and we see a flop heads up. Flop is Kd 10s 4s. He checks, I fire 3500, to which he instacalls. Turn is the 3s. He checks again. I did not put him on a flush, as I figured he would lead the turn. I shoved my remaining 11,000 (I had the Ks as a redraw). He thought forever, before finally calling. I tabled my set, he tabled As9h. Of course the river was the 9s, and I was out in 12th, with no bounties collected. Not sure why he called my flop bet, or how he called my all in with just a draw getting less than 2:1.

I headed over to Hard Rock after grabbing a quick bite on my way out. I had heard good things about HR’s $2/$5 game, and figured with the Canadian poker series thingy going on, that there would be some good action. I was wrong. They had 3 limit games going, 3 $1/$2 NL games, and only a small interest list for $2/$5. Apparently the series was drawing very few entries. The $340 that started at noon on Saturday was just finishing up, but they only had 32 runners. It must be a pretty amazing structure, as it ended at 2:00 AM, 14 hours, with just 32 players.

I got seated right away in an $1/$2 NL game. The table was playing uber tight. I was up about $50, and was dead tired, and decided to leave. As I was looking for a rack, a new player came to the table, pulled out $300, looked at the dealer, and said “Fhskvol ifhoasi kaogih”. He was beyond drunk. I decided to stay a little while and see where this leads. He was so drunk that nobody could understand what he was saying, and he was raising every pot, often to $40. He couldn’t count his own chips, and when it was his turn, would say a number, put a stack of chips out, and let the dealer figure out if he owed more or if he put out too much. On two occasions he checked his cards, flipped them over and asked if he could double down. He looked genuinely surprised when the dealer told him we weren’t playing blackjack. I took $200 off of him after flopping 2 pair with QJs. He called my river bet of $100 with 9 high! He eventually busted and immediately rebought for another $300. He got up a few minutes later to use the restroom, and we all made a prop bet that he wouldn’t be able to find the table on his way back. After being gone for about 20 minutes, the chip runner came around the corner with him, and showed him where his chair was. He couldn’t remember what table he was at, so he joined the first table that had an open seat and tried to buy in. The chip runner recognized him, and led him back to the table. Unfortunately, his friend found him, and convinced him to leave. I won one more decent pot with a flopped set of 9’s, and cashed out up $300.

I woke up early Sunday morning, checked out, and headed over to PH for their breakfast buffet. I was thoroughly disappointed. The food was just mediocre, and they didn’t have a very large selection.

I drove over to the Venetian to get one last session in before I had to drive back to Phoenix. I bought into the game for $500 and immediately went card dead at one of the juiciest, most action packed tables I had ever been at. I get down to $290 when this hand came up. UTG raises to $30. MP reraises to $100 straight. I look down and find two red aces, and raise all in for $290. The table big stack, sitting on roughly $2000, thought forever, and finally cold called. UTG went all in for a total of $75. MP also called my all in. The flop came K 7 3. MP bets $300, button raises to $900, MP shoves for a total of $1400, and button instacalls. I know I’m beat, and am expecting to see one of them with pocket kings. Turn and river are both blanks. UTG mucks his cards, saying he missed. MP shows KQ off for top pair, and button shows 33, for the flopped bottom set. He cold called my three bet all in for $290 with pocket 3’s, and spiked his two outer, taking down a $3500 pot. I hate poker.

I rebuy for $600, as this action is just too good to pass up. It slows a bit as the big stack leaves, but there’s still plenty of money to be made. I pick up a few decent pots, and am up to $800 when another monster pot brews. A solid, extremely tight player raises UTG to $30. If folds to me in the CO, and again I have two red aces. I raise to $90. Button and blinds fold, UTG calls. Flop comes out 2 2 2. UTG checks. I know I have the best hand, as there is no hand that this guy would’ve raised and called a reraise, UTG, with a 2 in it. I fire out $75, wanting him to call, or better, raise. He does just that, and shoves for $1100! I snap call, and he shows pocket 7’s, and thought he could push me off of AK. I’m already mentally stacking his chips, when the dealer burns and turns, a fricken 7! I went from a 91% favorite to 95% dog on the turn of one card! River blanks, and once again I get my AA all in as a huge favorite, only to be busto after the river.

I head out to my truck, and had 6 hours on my drive home to stew over those two hands.

All in all, I lost $1200, but had a blast meeting, drinking with, and playing poker with several other AVP'ers. My next planned trip is for the SEMA convention in November, but there will be very little poker, as I will be working the show with my dad’s company. I might make it out again sooner if MGM/Mirage decides to offer me some more free weekends.