I will make this one in two parts, the top part will just cover the poker part of my weekend, and the second will cover everything else.

So here we go-

Poker Part-

I played my first session at the Fitz, (Fri Feb 23rd). It is a nice little room, and the 9:00 tourney had just finished so there were some people there. I took a seat at a 3/6 full kill hold’em table. I bought in for $120, was down to $12, and rallied it back into $325, by around midnight, unfortunately I was pretty hammered by this time and didn’t get up and leave, and donked off the rest of my chips over the next hour.

Saturday I jumped between 2 $2/4 Hold’em sessions at Binion’s and their Pai Gow Table for about 9 hours. I bought in for $50 each time and cashed out with over $200 each time. I was getting some premium hands, some great reads, and some amazing flops, I actually had people at a $2/4 table respecting my bets, and not trying to suck out on the river.

Sunday I headed back to Binion’s to play some 4-8 half kill split game half hold’em half Omaha 8. I had an absolute blast, bought in for $150, played for about 5 hours, and ended up about even. The floor people told me they'll spread any game as long as they can get a whole table, almost had the table convinced to change it to a HORSE table, but one lady didn't want to play stud, so we kept it at the split hold em/omaha 8

All in all a good poker trip, did see several people get booted from the Binion’s room, the lady that ran the room at night (carol I think) ran a pretty tight ship, and wouldn’t take crap from anyone, and was very concerned about her patrons comfort. I didn’t play in any tourneys or any $1-2 NL, but I can always go to the Indian Casino in Oklahoma for that.

My thoughts on the rooms-

The Fitz- Nice little room, not a whole lot of action, went bye it several times a day and there wasn’t anything going on, which took me by surprise, but it was nice for the few hours I played, had I been sober it would have been better. Decent drink service, she came around fairly fast, and my bottle never got empty.

Binion’s- It was much better than I remember, I mainly played 2/4 limit, there was at least one table running all day, usually 2 of them, and it was pretty much all tourists dumping money onto the table, a few locals (none very good), and some other random people waiting for the tourneys. Decebt drink service, kind of slow in the afternoon, but was still faster in the poker room than at the Pai Gow tables.

The Other Part-
Here’s the skinny on the other things I did, during our trek.

Friday- arrived at about 5:30 took a limo from the airport, and got to the hotel around 6ish. Met up with the crew and got our rooms. We were spread throughout the hotel, I got on the 4th floor, which was nice, even though our room overlooked a roof full of a/c units, it made it pretty nice, because the elevators took forever, our guys on the 33rd floor had times where it took over 30 minutes to get an elevator and make it down to the casino floor. The rooms were nothing fancy, but I have stayed in worse. The Fitz was having their 5th anniversary celebration and a festival of food and soul. There was some amazing BBQ (very tempting on the first Friday of lent), and a bunch of bands playing on a stage in front of the casino entrance. They had a Prince Cover band (Purple Rain I believe) that headlined every night, and they were amazing, we had no clue this was going on during our stay in Vegas, but it was a nice added bonus, even thought it meant the Fitz was packed, and Freemont street was a zoo.

Friday I played a lot of Pai Gow right away, and started to drink a few, we ended up down at the plaza’s bar drinking $1.00 Old Style Light, nothing but High Class for this guy!!! We had a blast drinking cheap beer and Bsing with the bartender, then headed back to the Fitz and played some 3/6

Saturday- Got up, shook off my hangover (thank you alka-seltzer morning relief), had some Krispy Kremes (nice to have in the hotel) and started playing again, went to the Golden Nugget and shot craps, I really suck at craps, but we still had fun, then off to Binion’s for about 9 hours of Pai Gow and some $2/4 hold ‘em, watched KU beat the hell out of Iowa State at the bar in Binion’s. Had BBQ at the stands set up by the Fitz great ribs and chicken, forget the name of the stand, but it was excellent. Then we all headed off to the Hogs and Heifers Saloon, on 3rd and Ogden. It was a pretty interesting place (the movie Coyote Ugly is based on the NYC one), we had a lot of drinks (several free drink coupons from the LVA daily discount website) watched some girls dance on the bar, and got a boat load of free shots, since it was not only my little brothers B-day, but his bachelor party as well….poor guy! Crashed around 2ish Sunday morning.

Sunday- Had Breakfast at Binion’s restaurant, nothing fancy, but all in all a good breakfast. Then headed to the Nugget for more craps…yep I still suck at craps, and then some other gambling, mainly Pai Gow, but there was some BJ and roulette thrown in, actually hit a $5.00 bet on my lucky number 6, yay!!! That afternoon we had dinner at the Carson Street Café in the Nugget, it is right by the pool (which was closed for repairs, but looked amazing), it was a really nice dinner, had a comp one of the guys who was on a tear at the craps table. I had the Monte Cristo sammich, it was amazing, everything was really good, I have had their buffet and liked it, never thought I would like the restaurant as well. A pit stop the Glitter Gulch (there were 11 guys in Vegas we had to stop….even though we shouldn’t have not very impressive, better clubs back in Kansas!) Then headed back to Binion’s and played some $4/8 half kill half hold’em half Omaha 8, it was a bunch of fun, a very laid back friendly table, and the dealers were all very friendly. Had a late night snack at the Chicago Brewing Company and Cigar Lounge inside the 4 Queens, very good pizza, great cigars, amazing beer, and unbelievable service, definitely going there on every trip from now on (much better than Triple 7 Brew Pub in Main Street Station)!

Monday- Nothing major, played some slots, some roulette, some pai gow, some craps…still suck at craps, and some other games, took a short trip to the forum shops, and the shops the Belliago for some souvenirs, also the only time I spent on the strip the entire trip, and then headed to the airport, and back home.

All in all it was a great guys trip, some of us did partake in a few too many beverages, and others lost some money but it was a good time, even though we didn’t do half of the stuff I had planned, and I didn’t get nearly the poker time I wanted to, only ended up with about 30 hours over the weekend of play, which was good for some grub and some trinkets from Binion’s They don’t have much in the gift shop for us big guys (2XL), but I did get some good stuff.

Trip Summary-
Guys in the trip 11
Hours in Vegas 72
Total hours of sleep 9
Hotel- The Fitz, nothing fancy, but a lot of fun.
Hours of poker played- 30
Poker Games Played- 3 (2/4 3/6 and 4/8 split)
Number of points I hit at 3 different craps sessions- 0
Number of prince cover bands- 1
Number of prince impersonators in said band- 2 both amazing
Cigars smoked- 3 (2 don diego playboy’s and one Mike Didka)
Total amount of alcohol Consumed- Too much!
People who passed out at random locations throughout downtown-2 (not me)
Players forcibly removed from poker tables- 4 (none in our group)
Total out of pocket cost for my trip- $50!

I would definitely do this trip again, plans are already being set for next august when the next Minton man turns 21

Thanks to everyone who helped with suggestions, even though we didn’t really use any of them, we did have fun