I misplaced some notes so the slots and table games are from hindsight. Poker notes are fairly accurate.

Landed in Vegas on Tuesday June 2nd, with wife and 3 (damn) kids in tow. :)

Well, I wouldn't be in Vegas every year for a week if my wife's sister didn't live there so I really can't complain. They live in

Green Valley so we frequented a few off-strip places.

Non-poker:

We went to a few casinos like Sunset Station, Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock (what a nice place). Mostly played slots and a few table games. On our 10th anniversary we went to PH on the strip. Was supposed to be an evening but wife was feeling off so we just gambled for about 3 hrs. Blew through $80 at $10 craps pretty fast, so we did slots mostly. She hit the bonus spin/feature on every slot she sat at. Over the 3 hrs we broke even on the night which is pretty fabulous at slots.

I won $155 at 3-card poker- betting $15 with $10 pair plus I hit a par 3 in a row, a straight and 2 flushes.

At GVR it was my turn to hit a lot of bonuses. I was up $100 early but we still lost $150 on the evening as I used it to gamble for the $12 million Megajackpot slot.

We ate dinner at some local places like half shell, BJ's and a few others I cannot recall in the Green Valley area. All good eats for the kiddies.

Poker:

So from Wed-Monday I got in 2 poker sessions. Coulda has a third on the final night but wife wanted one more trip to the casinos so I didn't play the PL O8/b at GVR.

Thursday night - Orleans - Limit Omaha 8/b. $60 for 5k in chips (only $40 to the pool). There was 100 runners total (paid 9) which was more than I expected. The blinds go up each 20 minutes and after 8 levels the avg stack of 15k faced blinds of 500/1k.

I had a good start (25/50 blinds and 50/100 bet level), very first hand I had A23K and turned nut low on a 48K7 board. Turn and river were capped 3 handed and I took low and was already up 500. I was always above avg stack when the blinds caught up. With about 18k and 1k/2k blinds I made a crucial error. PF I has A2 10 10 and PFR to 4k. We went 4 handed to the flop and it was checked around. Turn was a King and when it was checked to me I knew my 1010 was ahead and I should have bet 4k. Instead I checked and it went free to river with a 9. It was checked to me and I bet 4k and the last to act thought for some time and called 4k into the 20k pot. He turned over 99xx.. ugh! So I was down to 10k instead of taking the hand down on the turn and been at 30k.

From there I struggled and when I had 8k and the blinds were 2k/4k I was moved (first move) when we were down to 2 tables. With about 15 left I was in high jack (I would be being BB the next hand for 4k). I saw Ad5dJJ and decided to push to 8k. The same guy who had 99 before re-raised to isolate (I was happy about that) and the blinds folded. So the pot was 22k and he flipped A2JQ. The flop was almost perfect with 2d4dKh giving me the better low and a diamond flush draw. Wouldn't you know it the runners were a black 9 and a black Queen giving him top pair. Oh well. It was a lot of fun for $60 lasting me 4.5hrs, and knowing I made the right reads just about all of the time. I was going to play 8-16 O8b cash but there was only one table (and one 4-8 too) and a 7

man wait list for both. Kinda dumb of Orleans not to spread more than one table on the night of the O8 tourney.

Note, on Monday the GVR 7pm PL Omaha 8/b ($40) had 30 runners. When I got there at 9pm it was down to the final table. Blinds were 200/400 and the avg stack was about 15k. Paid top 4 (something like 450,340,260,170). I only watched for about 20 minutes but it seemed quite nitty. I could see a few peoples cards and these dummies did not bet out their high when a low draw presented on the turn, not making the person pay to see his low. I wish I played it.

On Saturday night I was going to go to Orleans but the draw to fleece the fish at the strip was too big. I went to Caesars after having taken down $600 last year at 1-3nl. I bee-lined past the slots and the line of chickies and cougars at Pure and sign up for 1-3nl. There was no wait. I thought about doing 2-5PLO but figured there would be less fish and more variance there. It was over a year but I did recognize some people in the room!

Boy it was like the good ol' days of Atlantic City... the fish were certainly out! I got a seat in #7 and sat with $300. Noone had more than $400 so I didn't need to sit with more (max was $500). It took me only 20 minutes to get solid reads on 7 of the 9 players at the table. There was a loud mouth kid on my left who was actually a very good player. He was very coy and talkative and annoyed just about everyone there. For example he'd look at his cards, stare at the table behind his sunglasses for 20 seconds and then limp for $3!

I was raising right and folding right and making perfect reads. I made a few too many comments when folding on my accurate reads and a bunch of people were verbally saying I was not one to mess with. Being a fish table I still knew not to bluff or even semi-bluff as they would call just about anything. Glad I did that.

The $300 stack meant nothing to me so I was totally relaxed and took my time when in a hand. Funny how thinking for 15 seconds really makes people nervous. I was up to about $400 in an hour.

There were 2 women at our table and one was pretty good but she had a clear tell of staring at the board when she hit. Middle cards were flopping all night so I started to play them. In one cold hand I had 10-8 and on a board of 10,4,K,5,10. I bet $30 on the river into about $75. She CR me to $90 and I knew she had me. I still tossed in the $60 (into a $195 pot) and she showed A-10. That knocked me down to about $220 when I caught my run.

A pretty bad player (PBP) limped with 3 others and looking at Jh4h in the BB I saw the flop for free. $15 pot. Flop came Kh10h10s. PBP bet $10 into $15 and folded to me and I called. Turn was a Jc and he bet only $15 this time. I called figuring a river heart would do it. River was a pretty Ah. When he bet just $15 (into $65) I knew he didn't have the boat and was not sophisticated enough to bet small to induce a trap-raise. I CR to $60 and he called. I showed the hearts and took down the $185 pot. that got me back to $315 or so.

In the very next hand in the BB it's limped 3 ways to me so I put in the extra $2 with 89 offsuit. Loud mouth kid (LMK) makes it $20 which looks like a steal. I'm all set to fold when all 3 limpers call the $20. I verbally say I'm calling for action plus I'm going with the continuous middle cards flopping. I'm putting LMK on a strong ace.

$100 pot. Flop is 278 rainbow and I check. LMK bets $30 and it's folded to me. I really think I'm

good here with my 8 so I call ($160 pot). Turn is the 9d and I know I'm well ahead but it's 2 diamonds now. I check knowing he's aggressive. He bets $35 and I check raise to $135. It takes him about 10 seconds to call the $100. I totally put him on AdK and pray for no diamond river. I also see he only has $59 left and I have him covered. The pot has $430 and the river bring another 9 for my runner-runner nuts. This is where I make a small mistake. I should have just bet about $35 knowing he would call or go all in but instead I bet $75.

He stood up for 5 minutes and talked it out. He flashed Aces (my goodness I just cracked aces) and commented that he laid down Aces in the WSOP which he would have won and cost him $200k in what he would have likely won... suuuuuure. I tried to show some weakness but he quickly read it (I shoulda sat like a statue). He was about to fold when I said I'll show if he folds. Then he thought some more and I called the clock. With 10 seconds left he folded Aces face up. I decided to show him (only since he showed his aces and he only had $59 left). If he had a stack I would not have shown. I never saw someone so happy to lose a $430 pot!

So I eventually get up to $613 when I called a $10 PFR which what will be my last hand with 56 off. 5 ways the flop is 279 rainbow. PF raiser bets $20 into $50 and gets 2 callers before me. I really want to call since an 8 will seal the deal with these fish. I announce this is a big laydown and fold my 5-6. Person behind me calls too and pot is $130. Turn is the 4d (2479) and I woulda had a double gutter but 2 diamonds are out (4 and 7). PFR bets just $25 and again two callers which gets me steaming... then the lady behind me goes all in for $150 total putting the pot at $330. PFR folds and one other guy calls all in for less for about $90.. Pot is $420. Would have been $465 if I was in. I know I would have called the $125 (4:1 odds into 6:1 pot.. definitely -EV but I could not have slept that night knowing I woulda won). Knowing the lady did not have diamonds and the other bad player likely had an over pair (I was right) I watched in pain as the river was the 3c- meaning I would have won the whole pot and cashed out for $1000 and not $600.

Oh well, it was the right fold on the flop, staring at a 4 outer. At least I doubled up my buy in. Can't complain about that for 2.5 hrs of play.

Plus I feel good about the O8 event after the Orleans tourney, and look forward to playing the $300 limit O8/b at the Borgata on Tues. June 16th.

Thanks for reading.