Day 1:
Got to Harrahs Wed at around 2pm. Ate at Grand Panda and played BJ switch at Casino Royale. I love that place. Lost about $40. Went to Harrahs poker room and played 1-2NL. Bought in for $150. I have been running super bad lately and was hoping live play would kill my online bad beats. Played tight and was pretty scared by the regular $12 raises preflop and standard call from 3 people. Then a continuation bet of $30+ post. Table had 1 huge fish that was felted 3 times. He showed middle pair when he called an all in, then showed a flush draw after the turn card in another all in. I was down to about $70 when I was dealt 10’s on the button. I raise to $12. 2 callers. Flop comes 7,6,2 rainbow. Now I have about $60 left with $36 in the pot. 2 checks and I go all in. Both players tank and eventually fold. One guy who works at Harrahs bar said he had a gutshot and any other bet he probably would have called. Fine by me. I’ll take my $39. Up to about $110 when I get 5,7s button +1. I call with the $2 blind and the flop comes 4,6,J with 2 diamonds. Check to me and I bet out $8. Harrahs bar guy calls. Lovely 3c turn card. Check to me and I bet $16. Call. I am a little afraid of the flush draw and when the river is the Kd I hear the Harrahs guy say to me “you know we can just check it down”. Now I know I have the best hand and can bet with no worries. We had been talking a bit before the table got started and he is a really nice guy. But not my buddy and we are playing poker together ;). I bet $45 and he instacalls and says “I got the J”. I say I have a straight. He says, “you do?” He is surprised I played 5,7 because I was playing so tight before (isn’t that the point?). Anyway, I am happy to have won and lose a couple of small hands. The Harrahs deep stack starts in 10 minutes, so I leave the table about $30 up. I play well in the tournament. For $150 the blinds are really too steep and the levels only being 20 minutes are no good. It is way past my bedtime by midnight (hey…I got 3 kids) when we make it to the final table. I start talking chop because we are all short stacked but 2 of the players wanted nothing to do with it. We got them to agree to give everyone their buy in back when it got down to 7. 3 were supposed to be paid. $1250, $650 and $230 or something like that. It was shove or fold and no one went out for about a full level. I am on the button and it has folded to me. Blinds are 2K, 4K and I have about 14K. I shove and the small blind wakes up with KK. I am out but get my buy in back. Whatever, no big deal. I am happy to be in Vegas and broke even for the day. I got to bed at around 2:30 and am way over tired. Then I hear the beating of the party pit bar with a live band outside. It keeps me up half the night. That pissed me off. I always stay at Harrahs and to have that kind of noise heard from inside the hotel room is just wrong. I have never had that experience from any other time I have stayed there. With the white noise of the AC fan, I manage to get some sleep.

Day 2:
Excited about playing at the Venetian noon. Play Let it Ride and win about $80. Left the table when the pit boss decides to up the minimum. I tell him that he is an ass when it is 10am in the morning and there are only 2 tables with people on them. He says there are tables at the other end of the pit that are cheaper. I go back to thank him for lying to me after I walk around the pit twice. He walks away from me. Just for reference, I enjoy being a jerk when I am treated poorly from people who are supposed to be in customer service. No skin off of my back. Head back to Casino Royale and give them $100 in blackjack money.
Register at the Venetian for the noon tourney. As stated around here, that room is top notch. Comfy and clean. Drinks were a little slow coming around, but I wasn’t ordering, so I didn’t really care. A few hands to speak of. First, I had A,10 and am in SB. 2 callers before and I raise to 175 (blinds 25/50). 1 caller and he folds to my continuation bet. I see him do this 3 more times and I have him pegged for a pretty weak player. Soon after, he raises from mid position to 350 (blinds 50/100). I call with A,10 offsuit again from SB. All others fold. Flop = 3,10,3 rainbow. He bets 700. I raise to 2000. He calls. At this point I put him on mid pocket pair or maybe even AK, AQ. He had about 5500 before this hand. There is now over 4500 in the pot. The turn is a 6. I think for a minute, then put him all in. He calls quickly and flips over jacks. Not sure even now how I feel about this play. Please comment (#1)….
After that lovely moment, I have around 1800 in chips. I go all in with AQ and double up when A,10 calls. Next hand I am BB with 6,9 and 3 players limp to me. I check and flop = 7c,8h,10c. Early position bets 500, 2 folds and I raise to 1800. OB calls. Turn is Kd. I go all in and OB calls with another 2200 with KJc. River is the 8c and I am out. I think that was a pretty bad call, but I know I can get these guys tomorrow.
I go to my room and get a fresh Cigar and walk to PH. It was freakin’ silly hot. Made my smoke unenjoyable. Walked in and ate at Earl of Sandwich. That place it cool. Good, fresh food and mellow area to people-watch into the casino. Played some 2-4 limit to goof off and drink a little until the 7pm tourney started. That is a fun tourney, but nothing compared to the V I had come from earlier. I had 66 in the hole when the flop came 6A6. Two callers when I lead out. The turn was another 6 and I knew life was gonna be good here. One guy folded to my bet, but the other player called me all the way down with her boat of sixes full. My count was well above the rest of the field with 3 tables left and I tried to play power poker, to no avail! Every time it was limped to me and I raised 7-8x BB, got 2-3 callers! One would hit and I ended up losing chips this way. Players were poor, but they kept making hands. 6 got paid and I was out in 8th. I wish I had this one to do over again. Walked back to Harrahs and gave $200 to the Let it Ride table.
Day 3:
Woke up and decided this would be an all poker day since my wife was coming to town tonight and I wanted to hang with her and party once she was here. Played 1-2NL at Harrahs and met Leo. There was some kind of drilling and installation going on and Leo announced over the loudspeaker, “Welcome to Harrahs poker room and orthodontics center, come on in to the poker room, we have immediate seating”. Funny stuff! 4 locals at the only table running that early and I lost about $20. No hands really and I was just killing time until the V tournament started at noon. Got to the V and 190 players ended up registering! Top prize was $7400 and 18 got paid. Now that is a tournament! I am super happy with my play and was up about 1K when my table broke. Sat next to 2 young vegas locals who were very cool guys and had 3 older guys at the other end of the table. Noteable hands: I started getting hit with the deck and I knew the older guys were noticing I had been raising a bunch and not showing down. I got kings, aces, 77, AQ and AJ and won with them all. Life was good. I picked up KJ off when it was limped to me by 2 other players when I am dealer +1. I limp as well. Flop comes K,2,K. I lead out for 800 (blinds 150/300, 1400 in the pot) knowing the older guys were thinking I was making a play. Button raises to 2200 (Yesssss). I am thinking how to get good value out of this when the small blind goes all in for just about my stack size. Now I am confused. Why would he do that? I tank for about 3 minutes and decide he has a better K or 22 and fold. Please comment on my play here (#2), I will post what they each had later.
I play solid until there are about 45 players left (5 hours in) and then it happens. I have about 32K in chips and pick up AK c on the button (blinds 1K, 2K). Cutoff seat goes all in for 17K. Folds to me and I call. Blinds fold and he shows AJ h. Flop = 10,J,A with 2 diamonds. I hate this game. Turn and river are 9,9 and I am down to 12K in chips. Break time which means blinds now 1500, 3K and I have about 15K left. 3 hands into this level I get 10,10 button +2. I shove and BB goes all in for 45K. SB (guy who won with AJ, shoves all his in. He shows AK, BB shows AA. I am out in just 4 hands in 38th place. That was a bummer. I leave feeling like nothing is going my way this trip.
Wifey comes to town and we party/gamble until 3am. Fun stuff and we make about $200 at IP craps. Head to bed and um…..nevermind.
Day 4:
We hit a hot streak this day and won at just about everything we touched. I actually won $150 at roulette (never even heard of anyone winning at that game!) and sat there for about 2 hours. Went to play at the 3:30 Harrahs tourney and played alright. What a shove fest. I was in the top 5 in chips with 2 tables left and again decided to play power poker (dam I’m a donkey). 3 players limp for 800 each and I have AQ in the BB. I go all in and the guy who can cause the most damage calls with 77. What a terrible play. I learned my lesson. If I had it to do with the cards face up I might have done the same thing, but there was just no need at this stage of the tourney. It is such a shove fest that you have got to get chips. If I had won that race, I would have been a real force to first, but it was not to be. I was crippled when his sevens held up and had to shove with 55 against 88 3 hands later. Out of another one.
I must mention that my wife played at Casino Royale the whole time I was at the tournament and got 3x points during the day hours. We ate at Outback for free up to $100. That was 2 rounds of drinks, filet and dessert. It’s no Lawry’s, but it was a good steak. And when it’s free, it seems to taste better. After dinner we made it back tot eh craps table at Casino Royale (who can beat $5 craps on a Fri. night with 200x odds?) and I proceeded to shoot 9 points in a row. Yes….9. Most at any table I have ever been at. The pit bosses were around me checking how I was throwing the dice and everything! I made about $350. Played roulette at Harrahs and won another $100 or so. Side note #1: While we sat at Harrahs wheel, a guy came in and started playing $5 chips. He was super drunk and told the dealer that the girl next to him was not with him and he thought she was a hooker. She got thrown out. I like to think she was his gf and he just dumped her like that ;). Note #2: I have never won $1 at roulette. I have no idea how or why I won twice this trip, but trust me, I don’t plan on winning at this game. Went to bed about 2:30am.

Day 5:
Gave all my winnings back. Played the shove-fest at Harrahs and vowed to never play it again. No real hands to speak of. I was out after the first break when I had to shove with 55 and got called by 88. Found my wife playing her favorite game “Triple Shot”. This is a 3 bet game where 1st bet is War, 2nd bet is BJ and 3rd bet is a 5 card hand with 6 cards dealt to you. Bad winning odds, but she likes it. She looks a me and says, “Sit down”. I say, “Naw, I’ll just watch”. She says, “NO, SIT DOWN”. Ummm..ok, I guess she really wants me to play. Then I see it. The old man dealer is dealing the blackjack portion of the game FACE UP. He clearly has no idea how this game is dealt, because instead of clearing the war cards after he deals them, he deals the next one face up next to the first. Then he goes around and sees who wants to hit and who will stay. He never even flinches when we hit on 18 while he shows a 20. It only went on for about 15 minutes and he went on break. I am pretty sure no one ever caught him. I saw him later dealing regular BJ correctly. That was one for the books. In the end, I lost $100 there, lost $100 at roulette, and lost $100 at BJ. That was in about 3 hours. Not so fun for the last day.
We left for the airport and flew Jet Blue home. As nice as it was to have assigned seating and TV’s in all the seatbacks, the plane was scary. Funny noises, squeaks I have never heard before and strange bumps made the 45 minute flight feel like 4 hours. I will stick with SWA from now on, thanks.
A very fun trip that made me think I can play with the best of them if I am not running so bad. 5 days is the longest I have ever been in Vegas, and I can honestly say, that is about the right amount of time for me. 4 seemed short, and I was ready to go after 5. Thanks for reading and don’t forget about my 2 hands for comments!