I live in the UK, so this was my first trip to Vegas as a poker player although I have been 3 times in the previous decade or so playing mainly craps. I have been playing poker online pretty seriously for 6 months, with around 30k hands in Poker Tracker, showing me beating 1/2 LHE for 1.5 BB/100.

This was a four night trip that I tacked on the end of a family vacation to Orlando, so my table time was pretty seriously curtailed by needing to be awake in the daytime to do family stuff. Basically, I was only allowed out to play after dinner each night!

I stayed at The Orleans as it was cheap and family friendly. It turned out to be great value for money.

I love planning trips like this, so I had spent most of the past 3 months reading allvegaspoker.com and twoplustwo.com to try and figure out all the angles regarding where to play etc.

MGM 11/16 – 5hr session playing 2/4 won $30. There were a couple of very weak players frequently posting wrong value bets, playing out of turn and folding when they could check. I was $100 up in about 1hr but then leaked most of the profit back with a couple of unfortunate river events when I was very strong favourite.
After I had been at the table for an hour, two American guys sat down either side of me who arrived together. Both were drinking in solid fashion and playing decent poker. After listening to their banter with each other and the dealers for a while, I had a brain wave and asked the guy to my left “Are you the guy that runs allvegaspoker.com?” It turns out that it was indeed Doug and his buddy, who was up from Atlanta for some techie webmasters conference or other. Considering the time that I had spent lurking on his site the previous 3 months, I felt like I was in the presence of royalty! I didn’t even mind too much when Doug drew a flush on the river to beat my nut straight! Doug had some good stories to tell about the recent twoplustwo Magoo-fest and it all contributed to a very enjoyable first session.

MGM 11/17 – 5 hrs 2/4 lost $12, In general the standard of play was quite a bit better than the previous evening. I sat next to the same guy that I had sat with for a while the previous evening, who turns out to work for the Secret Service at the White House! Spent a good part of the evening chatting with a retired Texan oil-industry guy, who spends most of his time multi-tabling 2/4 at Party. I had AA cracked by flush draw on river for $50 in penultimate hand which was the difference between winning and losing.

Bellagio 11/18 – 4 hrs 4/8 won $31, I decided that I needed to play at the Mecca of poker. It was Friday night and I had to wait about 20 mins to get seated. They had 6 x 4/8 tables in play, which is the lowest limit that they spread at Bellagio. Horrible start, where the same guy flopped a made-straight with low off-suit junk two hands running against my pocket K’s and TPTK respectively. Down about $140 out of my $200 buy-in in 30 mins, but I ground back some and then won back-to-back hands where I caught a card on the river to make a str8 and top 2P respectively in approx $50 pots. Loose game with 5-6 players routinely seeing the pot. 2 drunk young Americans joined the game at about 11pm and donated $150 in no time. Some solid tight players as well, who generally seemed to prosper. One great dealer was an Asian-American guy named Joe. The fabled “big game” started in Bobby’s Room at about 11.30pm with Barry Greenstein plus 4 others that I didn’t recognise. (Most of the big name tournament pro’s were in Monte Carlo for the Millions Tournament.) This would have been a great session without such a bad start.

MGM 11/19 – 4 hrs 2/4 won $21. My final night and I decided to head back to the MGM, as the Bellagio was very busy when I was there for the magnificent Saturday Evening Feast Buffet with my family at 7pm. ($35/head well spent!) This was a very frustrating session. It took me about 45 mins to get seated as the Saturday night crowds were in. A mixed table with a couple of young shrewd guys, some competent older guys and a couple of middle-aged ladies who were pretty clueless. I couldn’t catch a hand to save my life. No bad beats, as I wasn’t in enough pots to get beat! In four hours I played perhaps a dozen hands and I was amazed to come out on top really. Towards the end, almost everyone was drunk except me, and I doubt we were playing 20 hands an hour. Given any sort of cards I could have cleaned up.

Conclusion : I was up $70 for 18 hours play over four nights. I was pretty satisfied with this although I would hope to do better next time. I am happy that I can play at 2/4 or 4/8 and be amongst the better players at the table.

I had a great time at both rooms, although the amount of space in the MGM room is very welcome. There are far too many tables crammed in at the Bellagio. The dealers at the Bellagio were almost all better than the dealers at MGM. I class better as being fast and efficient. Most were friendly in both rooms. MGM certainly wins in terms of waiting list management and efficient chip-service as you take your seat. Cocktail service was patchy in both rooms. At the MGM they allow you to eat a sandwich from the deli next door on a little wheelie table next to your seat, which is great for marathon sessions. This would be impossible at the Bellagio due to lack of space.

I have secured agreement from the wife to return on my own for a week of the WSOP in July. I am counting down the days already, and starting to scour the trip reports for tips!