Here is how much I was looking forward to the weekend poker trip to Vegas. I calculated a goal in terms of hours at the table for the trip weeks in advance. With wheels hitting the runway at 6pm on 1/20 and a departing flight at 10am on 1/23, I was shooting for 30 hours of NL cash game play and at least 1 tournament - in other words, about 31 hours - lol. This doesn't count any time in the pits playing blackjack or other games. When will I sleep.

A total of 6 guys were going including 2 work friends and 3 others that I have played with in home games. My two works and I were on the same flight and I had a surprise in store for them. I designed a couple of excel spreadsheets to track the blinds, betting and structure for a mini, 3-handed NL tournament. We sat 3 in a row on the plane and before our fellow passengers were all seated, the cards were in the air! The stakes were small - $10 per man - but it was bragging rights that were coveted. One of my opponents was weak/passive and the other loose/aggressive. In awesome fashion, on hand #6, I managed to get it ai preflop with AA vs Mr L/A's KK. The AA held and I cruised to victory. This would be a bit of foreshadowing for what was to come. The first tournament finished so quickly that we banged out another one on our 90 minute flight. I took that one down as well and was feeling like it was going to be my weekend.

Our flight lands and we are in a 1-2 NL game at the MGM in less than 90 minutes including the navigation of check-in. I try to consciously vary my playing style depending upon the table, always attempting to play opposite of most players I am seated with. About 2 hours into the session I am up $50 and sitting with $350 in late position. There are 4 or 5 limpers in front of me and I look down at 55. I elect to limp as well even though my gut told me to raise to thin the field just a little. With 8 total players, the flop comes Q95 rainbow. I am thinking that I will get some value from a Q or 9 somewhere. One of the early limpers fires out a pot sized bet, gets 1 caller and then I raise to $120. The original bettor calls my raise and the other guy folds. The turn brings another Q. Villian bets $100 and I shove ai and he snap calls and turns over Q9o for a better boat. oops. I've got to think that a pf raise would have removed this villian.

At this point I take a poker break and head to the blackjack table. I sit down alone at a double deck, $25 dollar table. In 15 minutes I am up $200 and cash out and head back to the poker room. A couple more guys from our group have arrived and are at the tables. I join back in for the fun. About 1 hour after the start of my second session I am sitting at a full table including 2 guys from my contingent. The following hand plays out. Seven limpers see the flop and I am not involved (I begin entering most pots now with aggressive raises). The flop is Q95 rainbow. Before you know it, my buddy Dave is ai and flips over 55 only to be beat by, you guessed it, Q9o with a Q turn card! The same bad beat boat over boat by two of us on the same side.

I love the proximity of the deli and starbucks to the poker room at MGM. That was dinner. After midnight, I found myself at the same table with 3 of my party including Mr L/A who was already down $800. He had never had a major loosing trip to Vegas and usually won $. He was surly and felt the world was against him. When playing at the same table we all would all generally play straight forward against each other, i.e. not quite soft playing, but tricky or overly aggressive. Said yet another way, a raise or 3 bet meant a big hand. So I am sitting in the BB and Mr L/A is UTG+1. He raises to $20 and gets 1 caller. I look down at AA. I 3b to $120 trying to just shut off all action. He pushes ai and I am forced to call. He doesn't have time to even have a melt down as his KK improves to a set on the flop and I lose $250. After that debacle the early morning session turns extremely fun as a drunk fish and two young creative types with fancy glasses, effusive speach and weak play, show up at our table. The drunk fish proceeds to get to showdown with 3rd pair and busted draws repeatedly. The creative types weren't much better. The rest of the table jockeys for position to felt any of the 3. The drunk guy has re-bought twice and Mr L/A keeps advising him that he can chip up from his short stack whenever he gets low. At one point the dealer has to warn Mr L/A, thus protecting the drunk guy. In the end, drunk guy wins a few pots with decent hands, builds his stack to $400, and then gets felted by my buddy Dave. Mr L/A and I both feel cheated as we both worked hard to be in that position but couldn't get the timing right. We head to bed at 6am and I manage 90 minutes of sleep.

We are up and grabbing some quick food in the food court. We head to Mandalay Bay for NL cash and then the 1pm tournament. We have a $20 side bet on who will last longest with 4 particpants. The field is about 35 or so. Dave is out first and early. Mr L/A and I are struggling along and our other friend, Lawyer B, is doing quite well. The blinds escalate way too quickly. I wake up with AA on the button after a raise and call and shove. The AA's hold up and I suddenly have an above average stack. Mr L/A also chips up on a couple AI's. We hit the final table and Law B has the chip lead. Down to 8 with the top 4 being paid. I push with AQo and another short stack calls me with J5o! Of course, he spikes a 5 and beats me. Mr L/A bubbles at 5 to continue his tilt. It gets to 3 handed and Law B has 75% of the chips (and $60 in hand on the last longest bet). He begins to get owned by Pretty Asian Girl. She chops away at his chip lead steadily, until, inexplicably, she gets it AI on a bluff against the other player. Mr Law B attempts to chop at this point and I almost burst out laughing as he was down to 20% of the chips. He gets lucky and wins a big pot to boost his total to ~40%. They chop and then run a hand to determine the winner for the books and medal. Mr Law B has 32o against KTs and spikes a 2 on the river to claim the medal. Of course, he boasts about how he "took down the tournament" for the rest of the weekend.

We head to Aria for some 1-3 NL. It is the first time there for our group. The room is awesome, great service and love the 9 player tables. I had 2 notable hands in this 5 hour session. I am sitting in the #1 seat and on the first orbit they guy in the #10 seat puts on a straddle. I am first to act and have KK. I raise to $20. I get 2 callers. The straddle man 3 bets to $100. I think he is making a play and I shove for my $300 buy-in. Two folds and a snap call later, I am looking at AA on the felt. Wouldn't you know it, a K on the flop saves me and my day is looking good! The opposite of good is bad, and that happened a few hours later. I have managed to add another $200 to my stack and am sitting around $800 and have everyone covered. I find myself with JJ and raise to $12. I get 4 callers including and older regular. The flop comes J94 with 2 clubs. There is a donk bet of $40 and old reg calls. I raise to $200 and the donk bettor pushes his last $50 and old reg goes AI for about $200 on top. I am hoping to see two pair or a lower set and not the flush draw, but that is exactly what he has. I even have the J of clubs, so he is drawing to 8 outs and I have the re-draw to the boat. Of course he spikes a club on the river. Brutal, but not nearly as bad as my good luck on the KK vs AA.

We hit the seafood buffet at the Rio for dinner. I believe that I had shrimp, lobster tail, fish, prime rib, chicken and sushi...and not a bit of anything that grows from the ground! It always sounds better than it is and I think the best thing on the buffet is the chicken wings. That night, Mr L/A and I are a bit sick of our poker luck so we hang out in the bar next to the poker room at the MGM while the rest of the boys play. We proceed to chat up a number of women and use them to settle various stupid prop bets. We dream up every and any question we can ask them and bet on their response. Mr L/A is a politician of sorts and hates to lose an argument, so I somehow can never win in the long run at these prop bets. He always finds a way out. Here is one example. Earlier in the day we were walking from Excal to MGM across the bridges. We had a bet on the number of homeless people that would be on the bridges. I set the over/under at 3.5 and he went over. There was 2 on the first bridge and 1 on the second. There was also a nicely dressed street performer playing a very nice guitar on the second bridge. He was clearly not homeless. Mr L/A would have none of it, insisting the guy was homeless. To make matters worse, Law B approached this individual and asked him if he was homeless. The guy gave him the dirtiest of looks and shook his head no. And yet I still wasn't declared the winner of the bet. Unbelievable...a reminder as to why to never trust a politician.

I awoke on Saturday with a hunger for an omlette and a desire to play a lot of poker. I knocked out the omlette quickly and was the first of our group at the 1-2 NL tables at MGM. I played well and was being very aggressive, always raising when first into the pot. This was the first time that I was truly the table captain of a live game. I picked off a number of bluffs, felted a number of short stacks, and even extracted some nice thin value bets. My weak/passive buddy was sitting on my right and I was gobbling up a bunch of his limps in the course of the action. However, he had a very nice hand where he was able to double up in a dream scenario. He turned a straight flush and get it AI against a villian who had the A high flush.

Saturday night we went to Lavo for dinner. The food was fantastic and there were plenty of beautiful women all over the place. I was getting quickly tired, however, now operating on only 4 hours sleep the last two nights including the drunken night before. After dinner it was back to the MGM room for our last session. It started off well as I had KK in the second hand and 3 bet - got 2 callers, and then continued with my overpair on the flop. That took the pot down quickly. The very next hand I have A7 of hearts with 3 other players in a raised pot. I flop the nut flush and bet out. An older guy raises me and then I tank for a while trying to figure out how to extract as much as possible. I am getting really tired at this point, and finally I just shove. He thinks about it for a while but eventually folds.

My final hand to recall is the one that I will remember for quite a while. This is why you shouldn't play when overly tired or drunk. I have KK UTG+3 and raise to $13. Up to this point I was nearly dozing at the table and I had made up my mind to quit in 3 hands. I get 3 callers including the guy on my right who limped/called. The flop comes J94 rainbow. Guy to my right bets $40 and I raise to $140. One of the other players, another friend of mine, pushes his remaining $60 into the pot and everyone else folds. Guy to my right goes AI costing me another $100 to call. I figure my overpair is behind and think I am facing a set. However, this guy had been over valuing many hands that even I noticed in my tired state. I figured that their was a chance he had AJ of even a straight draw. I reluctantly call. He turns over J9 for two pair. Here is where things get stupid. The board runs out with a blank and then a blank and I disgustedly much, reaching for a chip rack to call it a night. As I stand up, I realize that the river was a 4 and I had made the better two pair! What an idiot! If I win that hand I roughly break even on poker for the weekend.

Trip totals:
Poker: -$400
Blackjack: $350
Craps: $100
Video Poker: -$100
Prop Bets: don't ask