Saturday

Very nice and seemingly quick flight from Columbus on Southwest Airlines. We get a lot of free flights thanks to our SWA Rapid Rewards Visa and Mr. Lederer’s business trip miles. I watch the movie “21” on my iPod Touch on the flight to get me in that Vegas mood. Flight lands 25 minutes early and I catch the shuttle to Excalibur, where I got a $91 Saturday night rate plus $25 in dining credit. I must admit to being quite interested in trying out the much-debated PokerPro machines. I just missed their 9 a.m. freeroll, so I strolled over to the Luxor to see their new poker room. But I’m confused. It’s back by the sports book, but I always thought this was a temporary location. It looks quite out of place and I liked their old location better. Just missed their tournament as well. Play a little 25¢ video poker and made $5. I hope this is a sign of even bigger things to come!

I walk back to the Ex and am ready to try a low stakes cash game on the PokerPros. I tell the woman (Nancy) at the desk that I’m very sad they took away live poker, but that I was willing to give it a try. She said that 97% (!) of those who try it like it. I put $40 on my account and sit down at .50/$1 NL. This table was not sociable at all. Everyone seemed to keep their eyes glued to their screen and not chat. I notice they are offering $30+5 SNGs, so I sign up. At one point in the cash game I’ve run my $40 up to $80, but by the time they call us for the SNG, I’m down to just $2 profit. This SNG only has 5 players, but they still pay 3 places and I take 2nd.

I take a break to check into the hotel and receive a coupon for $10 in credit at casino bars and $15 credit at the Steakhouse or Regale Italian Restaurant. I unpack for the night and hang out a bit in the room. I already decided to pace myself this trip, as when I’ve done Vegas solo before, I play too much and get burned out physically, mentally and financially. I walk to the pool area which apparently has been redone recently, but it’s nothing special, and in fact, the biggest of the three pools was closed when I checked it out. I did use my $10 coupon for a free mango frozen drink concoction. Yum!

I play one more $35 SNG, this time with a full table of 10 players, and take 2nd again. For some reason, the SNGs were much more sociable than the cash game and were pretty fun. I go back to the room, call Mr. Lederer and watch a little TV. I head back downstairs and lose a bit on video poker but make it back on 3-card poker. In all my trips to LV and stays at Excalibur, I’ve never gone downstairs to check out their arcade. I wander down there and actually spend quite a while, and about $15, trying to win a stuffed animal worth approximately $1.25. Surprisingly, the arcade was full of adults playing skeeball, air hockey, etc. as well as kids. I actually had a great time even though I never did win the teddy bear.

I debate using my $15 food credit at Regale (this trip being all about the bargain) but decide to just get a quick meal at Manchu Wok. I go to my room, get as glamoured up as a 39-year-old Mom from Ohio can get, and cab it to the Hard Rock to check out their poker lounge. I buy in $200 for 1 / 2 NL (or was it 1/3? I forget) but can’t get anything going. I add on $50, but eventually give up after a couple of hours and a loss of just over $200. I cab it back to the Ex, change into jeans and sensible shoes and play one more PokerPro SNG, where I bubble in 4th. I treat myself to some Cold Stone Creamery ice cream and am in bed by 10:30, though it’s 1:30 a.m. Ohio time and I’ve been up for over 20 hours.

Sunday

I wake up at 6 a.m., get dressed and play misc cheap video poker and slots. I eventually take a cab to Harrah’s for my free 2 night stay. It’s too early to check in, I leave my bag at the bell desk and walk around. This is at approximately 8:15 a.m., and there are no players in the Harrah’s room. I was willing to try their 10% voucher promotion, but an empty room didn’t look promising. I walk across the street to play in Caesars’ 9 a.m. tournament, but first eat a slice of pizza from their cypress market food court for breakfast. In line ahead of me is a large blond woman swigging Captain Morgan from the bottle. She asks the cashier what time it is and can’t believe it’s 8:30 a.m.

I sit down with 27 other tournament players where the top 4 cash. In the first level, I get A 6 in middle position, and limp and there are three of us to the flop, which comes As 6s 10x (no spade in my hand). Early position lady bets 300, next guy calls and I raise to $1k. Lady folds and guy goes all in for about another $300. I call and he has 10s 3s. He rivers his flush and I’m down to just under 1000. I make a conscious effort not to tilt and tell myself that I’m still in it, yada yada yada, and I play for another 90 minutes or so, but no big hands. Finally, after I would’ve won 2 hands in a row if I’d played my rags, I go all in blind UTG for my last 800. The blinds were 100/200 and would increase on the next hand, so I just went for it. I got one caller who had A 9 and I flip over my cards and see 10 2. A couple of us said “C’mon Doyle!” but I got no help and was out in 13th place.

I walk to Bill’s to play $1 NL during their aces and kings cracked promotion. Last trip I liked playing this game at Bill’s for a little cheap NL practice, since I’m fairly new to that form of the game. But during the aces and kings cracked hours, it’s a very different game. The table this time is made up of über tight local retirees who talked football the whole time and gave 50¢ tips to the dealer. I couldn’t win much with my big hands, but ultimately lose my buy in with my 8 high straight vs. a 9 high straight. I did get aces once, but flopped trips and no one could catch up.

Finally check in to the Harrah’s room. I’m still pacing myself, so I spend a couple hours watching pay per view sex…the Sex and the City movie that is! It’s almost time to head out next door for the IP mixed game and surprise LVM. Yep, I didn’t post on AVP that I was coming to town because I thought I would be funny to just show up. I take a shower and when I get out I see that my bathroom floor and tile in the entry way is flooded! The shower/bathtub had a weird granite shelf thing that the shower curtain couldn’t fit in, and a lot of water got out and ran all over the place. I thought it even ran under the front door into the carpet outside, so I hurriedly start mopping up the water with all my towels. I felt like I was cleaning up a murder scene.

I eat a free meal courtesy of my comp dollars at IP’s teahouse and arrive at the mixed game right at 7 p.m. LVM and Cindy (pokermuffin) were indeed shocked to see me waltz in, and we have a good time playing all those crazy games, though I do end up losing over $300 before I call it a night at 3:30 a.m. I head back to my room and call Mr. Lederer who is dropping our son off at school and I tell him I’m just heading to sleep.

Monday

I wake up at 7 a.m., having less than 3 hours of sleep. I watch a little TV and try to get some more rest, but no can do. I get dressed and head out at 10:30 a.m. I take the shuttle to the Rio to eat their buffet and use a $5 coupon I have. AVP says Rio has a tournament at noon, but it was actually at 11 a.m., so I missed it. I break even on video poker and decide to shuttle back to Harrah’s. I walk to the exit for the bus and watch as it pulls away just as I step outside. I’m too cheap to take a cab, so I walk next door to the Gold Coast, where I haven’t set foot in several years. I remember it being kind of dumpy, but it was actually rather nice. Like a half-step down from the Orleans. I head to their poker room where they have one table of 2/4 going. I had planned to only play NL this trip, with the exception of the mixed game, but decided to give it a try. I actually have my best run of the trip and nobody, including me, can believe my luck. I get dealt 7 4, which I seem to get ALL THE TIME, and I just had a feeling I should play it. (I know…I know…) Sure enough, I flop a boat and slow play, eventually pulling a big pot for a 2/4 game. The guys on the other end of the table say “She’s a nightmare” because I’m hitting so many hands. I play for about 4 hours when this hand comes up: I have As 10s in early position, I limp and by the time the preflop betting is done, it’s been capped to $10 with 5 callers. The flop was J high with one spade. Bets and raises and calls, including myself. The turn is another spade, same thing. I’m literally praying for a spade on the river and God must have taken mercy on me because there it fell. Beautiful. I have the nuts on this non-paired board. By this time there are 3 of us left. I check, one guy bets, the other calls, I raise and get one caller. I take down a pot of about $93…not bad in a little 2/4 game.

I cash in, and head over to catch the Rio shuttle back to Harrah’s. My watch says it’s 5:52, and the shuttle leaves every 30 minutes, though that morning it was almost 10 minutes behind schedule. I’m walking leisurily (sp?) until I turn the corner of the Gold Coast and see the shuttle across the street. I take off running as fast as my out of shape body in decidedly UN-running shoes can go. I didn’t want to wait another half hour for the next one. By the time I reach the shuttle, my heart is pounding and about to explode and I can barely breathe, but I get on the bus and plop down trying to catch my breath. As we’re pulling out of the parking lot, the drive comes over the speaker and says “I’m so and so, and I hope you had a wonderful day at the Rio. I’ll be taking you to the Paris today…” Ooops. Wrong shuttle. Oh well.

I check out the Paris poker room, which opens each day at 5 p.m. I sit down at the only table, which was 1 / 2 NL. I buy in for $150. On my first hand, I get A J. I just limped, which I need to learn not to do. There are about 4 of us to the flop, which is A high with 2 clubs. I bet $15 and get one caller. The turn comes (don’t remember it, but it’s not a club) and I bet another $15 and get called. The river is a club. I think I bet $25 and get raised. Dammit! I had just sat down, and didn’t know how this woman played, so I stupidly called and she had something like K 4 of clubs. If I’d raised preflop, I bet she would’ve folded. So I was down to around $75 after my first hand, but again I stayed focused and built it back up and eventually cashed out at $170 when the game broke up due to the tournament starting. Financially, this wasn’t a really success, but even though I made a bad call early in the session, I was proud that I didn’t let it get to me too much and fought back. The roller coaster in NL is very different from limit and is also very different from NL tournaments where only your initial buy in is on the line. I need to get used to that feeling.

I make my way back to Harrah’s, stopping at Bill’s along the way to use a $5 matchplay coupon I received, and make an extra $5 when I bet on odd on roulette and it hit. Played some dud video poker at Harrah’s and had their dinner buffet. Had fun playing pai gow but headed to room at about 10:30 p.m. cuz I was absolutely beat (hmmm….that’s about the time I crashed every night. I’m getting old.) In my room was a note from Harrah’s management that they were testing their reserve power or something, and electricity to the guest rooms would be out from 3-5 a.m.?!?!? Hmmm. Weird. Sure enough, it was out when I woke up in the middle of the night, but was back on by the time I got up in the morning.

Tuesday

It’s my last full day and I’m up at 7:30 a.m. I got about 9 solid hours of sleep. Hurray! I cab it to MGM for my last night. For $90 I get a nice room, $25 in dining credit and a voucher good for a $300 refund on my next flight to LV. Bargain! I check in and head to the poker room. The 11 a.m. tournament didn’t look too good, only 4 places paid even if they have up to 49 players, so I skip it. I make few bucks playing video poker. I’ve discovered deuces wild this trip, and it’s pretty good. After eating the MGM’s buffet breakfast, I put $21 into a Megabucks slot…enough for 7 tries at $12 million. I’m not a slot player at all, but after just a couple of spins, I hit 3 white 7s and run my $21 up to $80, so I cash out. So this is why some folks dig the slots so much!

I walked to Excalibur for the last time hoping to play another SNG. There was no list, so I play some pai gow, then sit at a .50/$1 NL table. I bought in for $50 and ran it up to $150, telling myself to cash out. But as usual, I’m not a good listener and eventually gave back my profit plus $21. A SNG opened, but I was about the 4th to bust out.

It was getting close to the time for the Tuesday night ladies tournament at Planet Hollywood, and I’ve been looking forward to it all weekend. I freshen up in my room and walk up to PHo. Hmmm…what are these strange looking tables in the poker room, and golly, it sure is quiet around here. Ah, there’s a sign — essentially “we’re moving to a new location by the Heart bar and will open on Wed., Oct. 1” Sigh. I really wanted to play that tournament. Oh well.

I see it’s about 7:20 and maybe I can make it next door to Paris for the 7:30 tournament. I get there at 7:25, but there’s already an alternate list. Jeez, will my last night in Vegas be a bust? I walk to Bally’s and sit down at a NL table, once again buying in for $150. I quickly get up to $300, but lose a big chunk when I lose with boat over boat for the 2nd time this trip in a NL game, and both times it’s been expensive. I play for several hours and get down to $25, then up to $156. I should’ve left, as I was exhausted, but didn’t and eventually lost my last few dollars with A 10 vs. A A. I cab it to MGM and pretty much pass out.

Wednesday

Up at 8 a.m. and have about 4 hours to make back $800. Better get started.

The poker room was pretty dead except for one NL table which frankly looked intimidating to me, so I just puttered around on some machines for a while, then ate a huge breakfast at the Studio Café using my $25 dining credit: 3 huge pieces of brioche French toast, fruit compote, sausage and hash browns. Too much food.

I make my way back to the poker room for my last 90 minutes or so, and a 2/4 table had opened up. I play and quickly lose $63. Thankfully before I can lose it all, it’s time to go, so I cab it to the airport and fly back home uneventfully.

NL Summary:

I’m starting to really dig NL and feel I can be successful. I was ahead at one point just about every session. (This is my reasoning to Mr. Lederer about why we should move there: I was ahead and we lived there, I could just leave and come home, unlike during a vacation when that’s all there is to do.) I either 1) maybe felt a little too sure of myself and made bad calls when I really shouldn’t have; or 2) got pretty unlucky with big hands vs. big hands where I think most people would’ve done the same as I did. Sometimes I think you’re just destined to lose big hands. After making a couple bad calls, toward the end I had the discipline to lay down a good, but not great hand, when I got reraised. I may have been bluffed, but I don’t think so, as I was playing tight and was betting the right amount. I think my opponents hit 2 pair or better, when I had top pair a good kicker.

If you’ve made it through this 4-page Word document without falling asleep, congratulations and I’ll see you on the felt.