Stayed at the Rio for some comped rooms its hard to beat free! Hubby was playing in the WSOP so I had lots of free times to play tournaments. Rio has a free shuttle so off to my favorite tournament at the Mirage while hubby was playing at WSOP. Played the 7:00pm $65 tournament which is ran so well and the dealers are good, drinks are plentiful and player are usually a good mix. The last 4 of us at the final table chopped at $400 each so of course this will now be where I spend most of my vacation for this trip!

I made a really bonehead move and still can't figure out exactly how I should have played this hand. Would love some feed back on the best way to play this type of hand. Hand is $300/600 4 players limp in including this tight player that looks a little like MR.T. I have J/4 off and in the BB. I check since for me this is a hand I would not normally play if I wasn't in a blind. Flop is 3-J-8 everyone checks and I bet out $1200 with about $4500 behind me. Mr.T looks at his stack and check raises my bet to $2500. I think about my options..... Call, push all in or fold. My kicker is terrible with no flush or straights possible. I have a feeling he just wants to steal the pot but I feel restricted on what to do next. I find myself in this situation about 1/2 dozen times this trip since I played so many hands. I have only played for about 4 years at home games so I know people know I am not that experienced at the table.

I fold the hand and figure there is a better time to get my $ all in the pot and get it our of my head for the time being. Managed to cash that tournament but didn't see many other hands with Mr.T as he went out a couple hands later with A/J.

Play 3/6 limit get really luck and get into a few hands and get my nut flushed was up about $150 in 1/2 an hour. That would be my only night of cash games that I was up for the night. I have come to realize that 3/6 limit is a get rich quick or lose your bank roll for the night fast!

Played that Mirage tournament to death the rest of the 2 days of the trip. Played the 11:00a and the 7:00pm everyday and night. Played it 5 times and made the final table 4 times and cashed 3 times. This tournament is really good for newer, average players with a nice chip stack at 8K and 20 mins blinds you get to see a ton of hands and the tournament last for about 4 1/2 to 5 hours. Where can you see that many hands for $65 have free drinks and see some great poker.

Another odd this happened at the table that I had seen before but never seen addressed. This guy out of position is joking around clown at the table and says "ohhh I am gonna go all in with this hand. Also, out of position says stuff like wow pocket 9s I am gonna push hard. He seems to do this only when we get a new dealer. He knows exactly what he is doing and players seem to fold to him. He is clearly trying to bully the table. Dealers kinda laugh it off since he has been drinking, warn him but he is like a Charlie sheen everyone seems to like him and no one seems to care. I finally say out loud to him semi jokingly "you say that one more time and I am to ask the dealer to hold you to it. " Of course he laughs it off.

We get a new dealer and he does it again and I say something like "that is binding? and the dealer says if he is out of turn its not binding. Thank god someone finally woke up with K/K to knock him out. But was surprised that he was able to do that for so long without the dealers not saying anything. Would love to hear your thoughts on that one. Maybe they handle the tournaments differently then the cash games? I know its a cheap tournament but I like to know what the rules are so I don't make mistakes.

Played the Rio tournament but since the tournament tables are on the casino floor the smoking around that area is so harsh I just couldn't take it. They have a great tournament too but just too smoky for me.

Had a wonderful trip and can't wait to go back in two weeks.