I arrived in Vegas at 1:30 PM. I’m on a $1/2 NL table in the MGM Grand by 2:00 PM after taking the airport shuttle (no luggage for me.) I played for 15 minutes and lost $14.00 before I recognize I’m at a crummy table – not because I’m losing, but because there’s not much talk. These guys are all the silent grumpy type – some young, some old. I play poker to hang out with fun people and life is too short to play with lumps, so I leave.

I take the tram down to Mandalay Bay, and am on a new table a bit past 2:30 PM. I buy in for $120 in a $1/$2 NL game, and end up sitting at this table, in seat 7 until 7:00 PM.

I’m seated with Skip and Brian to my left – good players from Minnesota. On my right is wild player from NJ. Across from me is Olek from the Ukraine who’s a rock. They are all pop-offs who like to give out a bad time and joke around. This is the game I was looking for.

I have pocket kings and hit trips when a king comes on the flop, but doesn’t hold up to a straight on the river. Then I win with unimproved kings. Then I win with kings again with a king on the flop and a six followed by two more sixes on the turn and river. It seems like cowboys are the theme. I lost when I had jacks and a jack comes on the flop, but then the trips get beat by a flush. Brian gets a 6 high straight flush and wins a $550 jackpot. Then, I have K,Q of diamonds and have two to a flush after the flop – paid too much to see the turn and river which both blank. Then I’m down to $65 and have A/K offsuit. Flop brings nothing. Skip beats. I call. Turn is the king to keep the theme going. I go all in for $45 more. Skip calls with A/4 offsuit with a pair of fours. He hits the two outer on the river to felt me. I shake hands at my end of the table and leave for the Monte Carlo (MC).

The whole walk to the MC I fume about the two outer that busted me. I’m not upset about the call as much as I am the bad turn of events with the four on the river. I played for nearly five hours and held my own. However, now I’m down $134 for the trip and I really wanted to cover my airfare which was $120. I like to set goals and $120 is my goal.

When I arrive at the MC I can see that nobody in the room appears to be enjoying the game. There are a bunch of what appear to be locals who are all staring at the felt like they all just discovered they have pancreatic cancer. I leave and head to the Bellagio.

I buy in for $200 – the minimum for $2/$5 NL. I’m seated with four people at a brand new table, but there’s very little action and in about 10 minutes the floor manager comes over and breaks up our table. I’m told to head to table 33.

When I get to table 33 I’m seated across from an aggressive Persian guy named Ali and next to an Italian guy named Nick, who sounds and acts like Sean Hannity. Nick is very talkative and keeps things light at the table. There’s nobody donking off chips at this table. Everyone’s good. The time is a bit past 7:30 PM and I sit in that same seat (seat #4) for 10 hours when we leave at 5:30 AM the next morning. Here’s what happens…

I play steady, conservative poker, and it often costs me because I don’t play aggressively enough. (see above with my trip kings and trip jacks getting busted because I didn’t bet heavily enough.) However, at this table I end up doing well. Maybe I get lucky. I hit sets, flop a full boat once, pull a flush now and then, and sometimes call down with top pair. Slowly my stack begins to build… $200, $400, $800, $1200! Of course this is over hours of play, but it’s definitely heading in the right direction. In fact, I’m playing so well that I can’t believe I’m making the right calls and folds consistently. I’ve never seen poker success like this before, and I’m pumped about it as I think of getting home and telling my wife how well I did. This is my fourth solo trip to Vegas and I’ve won 2 of the 3 previous times, but not a whole lot ($120-200) which is A-OK with me. I just like to play and not lose.

And then a couple of bad things happen.

I had sensed that Nick wasn’t playing hard when I was in a pot - he was being nice to me. I told him to not do that and go after it. He said he would and started to play a little stronger. However, his stack, which once was big, has dwindled down. He goes all in with a flop of K, 8, 6 rainbow. Well, I had pocket sixes and hit the set on the flop, so I apologize for felting him and call his all in of like $200. He turns over pocket 10’s and the turn is a blank, but, you guessed it, the river is a 10. So, I scoot him the chips and I’m cool with it, but it was still a two-outer on the river, which hurt.

Then another bad thing happened – a guy named Jordan began to sense that I hated having pressure put on me, even when I had a good hand. So, I’m in a four way pot that was pre flop raised to $35 and I have K,Qclubs. The flop comes A, K, 8 rainbow, and I bet $20. (Again, too little for this size of a pot.) Two people fold and then it comes to Jordan. He’s been cool to have at the table and is a real thinker when it comes to poker – but he’s pretty arrogant. His normal play is to out think and out play people after the flop. Well, he goes into the think tank and keeps looking at the board and looking at me and then he bets $90 so it’s $70 more to me. I moan and groan and fold face up and Jordan turns over 2,4 of diamonds for the bluff. Now the word is out - I’m a push over.

Well, at this point it’s getting very close to 5:30 AM and I have a plane to catch at 6:40 AM – Yes, I just flew in for the night and didn’t have a hotel room and played poker all night. I have about $1,020 left. I keep thinking how cool it would be to finish above $1k.

Then comes the monster showdown pot of the evening… um, morning. I have QJ off, Nick has K,10 spades, and Jordan has K,K. The flop comes K, 10, 8 rainbow with the 8 being a spade. There’s a $35 bet from Nick and we all see the turn which is the A of spades. At this point Nick has the nut flush draw and two pair. Jordan’s sitting on his trip kings. And I just made the nut straight, which could easily be busted by a flush or full house – depending on what the river is. Of course we don’t know all of this yet, but the showdown is coming. Nick pushes all in with $253. Jordan goes into the think tank and keeps looking at me because I’m the last to act. However, he already knows that I get pushed around easily and so he eventually calls the $250 all in of Nick. I pause for a moment and then say, slowly, loudly, and deliberately, “Jordan, I’m all in.” At this point he goes nutso. He starts ranting and raving and stands up and sits down a few times. He looks right at me and says, “You have Q,J” and I just smile. Now he starts doing the math in his head for what his outs are and what he would win if he called. Half our table stands up in anticipation of what’s going to happen and players from other tables start coming over. He has the dealer count what I have left and it’s like $730. He has me covered, but just barely. After a long time thinking about what to do, he calls and I turn over my Q,J (nut straight for now) and Nick turns over his K,10 of spades (boat draw and flush draw) and Jordan turns over his pocket cowboys (boat draw) I say, “low club, Barbara, put out the 2 of clubs.” And the river is……… 9 of diamonds helping nobody and my straight holds. I pull in the most monster pot I’ve ever dreamed of -- $2,273. It felt like I won a tournament. A number of guys at the table start clapping for me as I try to calm myself. Since I was pretty dizzy and didn’t know what to say I started shaking hands and told Jordan he played great and told Nick that I really enjoyed hanging out with him. Nick seemed pretty happy it ended that way, but I could tell Jordan was pretty bummed. I get the feeling he plays there a lot – in fact someone said he plays for a living.

Walking through the Bellagio I’m stunned at what just happened and the eeriness of a gorgeous, empty casino at 5:30 AM on a Saturday makes it even more ethereal. I’m walking through a dream-world of silent roulette wheels when I remind myself - I met my goal of winning my $120 airfare.