Day 1 started with the 11am tourney at the Sahara. I really didn't care for the room (it is old and dingy; aside from putting a few flat screens on the wall it appears to never have been updated in about 30 years). On to the play...I thought the tourney play was pretty soft. Unfortunately, if you looked up the term "Card Dead" in the dictionary you would have seen my picture. I finished 23rd or 24th out of about 75 entries. I went out on the following hand: I was next up to be the BB and the blinds were going to eat up 1/2 my chips. I looked down at Ad / 9d - maybe the best hand I’d seen in 2 hours - and go all in. I got four callers (in no particular order) A/Kos, QQ, KK and maybe 99. I stood up immediately to leave, knowing that I was toast. The KK's held up, knocking (I think) all of us out.

Cash Result: - $56

After that I went back to my home base, MGM, for some cash play. I had read the reviews about the noisy music and the marble race track so I wasn't expecting much. I have to say, I really liked this room a lot. The room is the epitome of professionalism. They have the wait list thing down pat. Each table has an electronic monitoring system that allows the dealer to automatically indicate an open seat, which instantly updates the wait list, which in turn allows management to fill open seats immediately. They run this thing to a T. The music is playing, but I felt like it was just slightly louder than normal background music, and certainly nothing even approaching annoying. I could do without the race track, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Other positives: the cashier is precisely in the middle of the poker room, a good deli is immediately outside the rail and the bathroom is right next to that deli. In total, it is just a nice, fun and extremely convenient room to play in.

On to the play...the table had a mix in terms of player quality, with at least one obvious fish, a couple of locals and the rest seemingly average to decent players. I think the game was beatable, but it wasn't a total pushover either. Unfortunately my streak of being card dead continued and I bled away $35 trying to make something happen before it was time to meet up with the wife for cocktails. Afterward the poker optimist in me was convinced that the card dead streak was just about to end so I returned (after the night of drinking) for more poker, remained card dead and bled away another $35 before the table was (mercifully) broken up and I forced myself to go to sleep.

Cash Result: - $70

Day 2 started with the 10am tourney at Planet Hollywood. I like the remodeled hotel and really liked the poker room. It reminds me of a plush cigar bar without the smoke...just a nice place to spend some time. The tables are nice, the chairs are nice, the room décor is cool. In terms of size, it is maybe a little smaller than MGM's room, which is also to my liking. At 10am there was only one cash game going in addition to the tourney, so they obviously need to do some work to bring in the clientele (however, at 10:30pm that same night while walking through the hotel I saw 6 cash games going).

On to the play…The quality of play in this tourney is better than at the Sahara and the quality of people playing here is also better. Play was generally pretty solid. I remained card dead for the first two or three levels, then caught AA and played it very well to maximize the payout (being card dead had created a super tight table image, so I needed to do some work to get paid with the pocket rockets). Maybe two hands later I had Big Slick and the flop came A K rag, with two clubs. The hand played out such that the board had a flush draw and another A hit on the river. Unfortunately for the guy on my right he had A/9 and was working the flush draw. The river brought another A, turning his top pair / flush draw hand into trip A’s, which lost to my boat and I doubled up. From there I finally got some cards to work with, was able to actually play a little and ended up making the final table. I went out on the bubble, but fortunately the table had previously agreed that the final six would chip in $10 each to give the bubble boy his buy-in.

Cash Result: Even

I left for the Venetian. I know everyone raves about the room, and it is nice but I didn’t fall in love with the place. It is very big, to the point that I just didn’t like the vibe here – it kind of felt like a very well adorned warehouse. Maybe it is because I’m more of a tourney player, but I found this to be a very tough 1 / 2 NL game (I’ll discuss this more in the Hand Analysis and Strategy Forum). I had the following hand early and it turned out to be prophetic for much of my session. I was down about $25 to Villain when I see Q / K os. I was priced in, so I joined the hand. The flop comes Q Q rag. Villain bet out, I raised, villain re-raised all in. I insta-called and villain showed Q/9. I was elated about my imminent double up and the prospects for a little revenge against villain. The flop brought a 9, giving villain the boat. Insert expletive and you know what I was thinking. However, the river brought another 9 and we chopped the pot. Even now I’m still not sure how I feel about this one, whether I am more PO’d that I lost my double up or thrilled that I sucked out on the river to chop the pot. Anyway, villain was my nemesis the entire session and he did get the better of it (I’m not saying I’m anything special at the table, but it is unusual for me to get continuously outplayed by any one person during a particular session). I had to grind hard for several hours just to stay in the down $30 to $60 range. Eventually my wife called and it was time to meet up for dinner. She showed up and I told her I would play until I was BB again, then I would leave the table. On my very last hand I got Q ? / 10 c. The flop brought three clubs, including the Q. I had one large bet into me and I raised all in. The original raiser thought about it for a long time then finally called, showing K c / ? c. I avoided the suck out and doubled up, very grateful to end this session more or less having broke even.

Cash Result: + $10

Day 3 was our travel day. I decided to head over to the Excaliber to try their 9am tourney. Knowing the structure, I figured there was a good chance I’d get knocked out early but it was only $35 to buy in, so what the hell. About the tourney…this is the softest game around but it is structured such that you should only play it if you are looking for a cheap way to experience your first NL tourney. It is literally an all in-fest by round 2. There were some people that at least understood basic strategy (I could see one guy counting the chips in the pot to figure out how much his raise should be), but there are numerous first time players, the dealers pretty routinely had to explain basic rules of the game, etc.

On to the play…I lost my first horse race when a women at the end of the table sucked out on the river, but luckily it wasn’t for all my chips. I got aggressive from there and took down several pots, getting me back into the game. Then I won several races. Then I got very lucky to win a three way all in when I was dominated but flopped trips. I knew I was the best player still in the game and I was chip leader. Everything was great…except that my flight was fast approaching, and I hadn’t packed or checked out. I was literally running out of time. So I started getting ultra aggressive, raising substantially with paint / anything and going all in at the drop of the hat. This really sucked because I am convinced I would have won this tourney and taken home the $550 to $575 first place prize money if I just could have played another hour of normal poker. As it was I chopped for the 6th and final payout spot, getting most of my buy-in back. Then I literally ran through the casino and across the street where I frantically did all the stuff necessary to get to the airport on time.

Cash Result: - $13

Summary: The Sahara and PH tourneys have very similar structures. PH is a much nicer room, the quality of play is better and doesn’t have jerks filling seats like at Sahara. If you are choosing between the two, go with PH… The MGM poker room was great. True, there is music and the race track sucks, but it is a nice space, everything is so convenient, management runs the room so well and if you play reasonably well it is a beatable game…I found the 1 / 2 NL game at Venetian to be pretty tough. Villain was kicking my but, and aside from that the flow of the game was just hard for me (again, I’ll discuss this more in the other forum). The vibe of the room at the V just didn’t do it for me, so I didn’t come away raving about this room…the $35 tourney at Excaliber is a good place for a first time tourney player to dip their toes in the NL tourney water on the cheap.

Finally, a word about Vegas… I have been there many, many times, but not for the past 4 years and I did have a little sticker shock at how much more things cost now. Two mixed drinks at practically any location = $18, not including tip (IP was the exception at about $14 for two mixed drinks). Cab rides = $15 to $20 to get practically anywhere, including tip. Strip clubs have $30 covers (and they were amazingly lame – I practically thought I was in Utah instead of Vegas)…Chin Chin at NY NY still serves great Chinese food and the Grande Lux Café at Venetian was great (try the Asian Nachos. I know, it sounds disgusting but it is great)...I walked through and saw the poker rooms - but didn't play - at IP (don't waste your time), O'Sheas (don't waste your time) and Caesars (very nice)...