We arrived Thursday morning and quickly checked into our room at Bally's. The $20 tricked worked like a charm and we got a north tower junior suite on the 25th floor with a view of the north strip. After unpacking, we went to grab a bit at La Burger Brasserie and then hit the 1/2 NL at Bally's.

I have played at Bally's 5 times, and every time it is the exact same game. Very aggressive players with no clue about good starting hands, value bets, pot odds, or how to let a hand go. Pots get very deep very fast, which sounds ideal in theory. The problem is the continuous suckouts. After the first hour, I had almost doubled up. Then players started calling any bet with any 2 cards. The problem is they would almost always hit their draws (which were poor draws to begin with) and would drag huge pots as a result. I remember one particular hand where I held AK and flopped 2 pair with AK8. Pot size was about $85. I made a continuation bet of 3/4 the pot and got 3 callers (!!!). Turn shows a 3. I make a pot sized bet and get 2 callers. River is a 3 and I bet 1/2 pot and get 2 callers again. I show my 2 pair, one guy mucks, and another shows 8-3 for a boat. This is how most large hands play out at Bally's because players cannot seem to let a hand go once they get involved.

I decided to call it a day on poker and headed to the sports book to do some betting on the Thunder Mavericks game. Later, I played some other games with some friends. Did very well at Ultimate Texas Holdem and so so on blackjack. Went to bed up $5 and a deck of cards for some special hand I won at some point.

The next morning I woke up early at 4am and decided to go for early morning poker. I bought in at Bally's but after seeing more of the same horrible play, I decided to try Bellagio. After a 30 min wait, I got onto the 1/2 table and found it to be almost the same exact game as Bally's. No notable hands of interest. They did have a 100-200 limit game that had been going on for a full day in the special room, but I didn't see anyone I recognized in there.

After Bellagio, I spent some time with friends and played more table games. Then, around 10pm I decided to check out the game at the Flamingo. I happened to walk in just as a new 1/2NL was starting, so I got a quick seat and got to work. On the very first hand, the australian guy next to me ran his KK into another guys AA and threw one of the biggest fits I have ever seen about how unfair that was and cussing like a sailor. He immediately went back to his pockets and saw he had about 800 in there and I made it my mission to get at least half of that before the night was over. About 5 hands later, I look down at 10-10 on the button. It's a family pot when it gets to me and I raise to 17. I get 2 callers, australian guy, and the guy that beat him on the first hand. Flop comes 9-6-2 rainbow and they both check to me. I bet 45 trying to take the pot down right there. Winner of the first hand folds and australian guy raises me to 90. This is exactly how the first hand played out, so I'm putting him on AA, KK, QQ, or possibly A-K. I also know that he is still tilting hard from the first beat. I decide to see how bad his tilt is and push all in for another $130. His head slumps and I know this is my pot, but he makes a HUGE production out of it. He stares at me saying things like "really? Can you really beat queens? Did you get the ****ing aces?" Finally he counts out the chips to call and then thinks for another minute and folds. He remained on tilt the rest of the night and I got about 350 of that 800. The rest of the players were just very meek and would fold to any decent sized bet. Preflop raises from $7-20 were common, but most hands ended after the flop. Unfortunately, around 2am I got very tired and needed to sleep, otherwise I would have stayed all night.

Saturday morning I ate breakfast and headed to the Wynn to play the noon tournament. This was a very well run tournament and was one of the best times I have ever had playing poker with one exception: the woman running the tournament was incredibly boisterous, rude and unorganized. The early stages of the tournament were quite tight and I chipped up on a few hands. By first break only 2 of 47 players were gone. By second break that number began to climb quickly and things got crazy. The antes and raising blinds were forcing a lot looser play and people were dropping like flies. I almost made it to the third break, but ended up finishing 15th.

I headed back to Bally's for a bite to eat and to watch the Thunder Mavericks again at the sports book. Went to bed early after the game.

Sunday I played some more blackjack and did not do well at all. Decided to head back to flamingo for more poker. It was basically the same as the previous game, with the addition of a few locals who identified themselves as such, and were there only to earn their spots in the freeroll tournaments. Because of this, they were not interested in getting mixed up in huge hands, and would fold to almost any decent bet, unless they held a monster hand. They were extremely easy to read and within 2 hours I was up 250. I did make a mistake on a hand where I had the nut flush draw and missed seeing that my river flush card also put 2 pair on the board, so I called an all-in bet on the river thinking I had the nuts only to be beaten by a boat. I think I must have been getting tired. I ended up cashing up a hundred and a half.

Sunday night I took my wife shopping and to see a show (Absinthe) and got quite drunk and ended up playing more BJ and doing well on that. I staggered back to the room at some point and passed out.

Woke up this morning, packed, and headed to the airport. All in all it was a fun trip, but not excessively profitable.