(Wow, I apologize for this being so long. This probably deserves somes "tl, dr" comments.)

Finally getting around to submitting my trip report. Arrived in Vegas last Thursday about 4 hours later than expected. Thanks Delta (although with free first class tickets I guess I shouldn't complain too much.)

Arrived at the airport and 1:30 pm Vegas time and it was eerily empty. No crowd at all and we were able to walk directly to the front of the taxi line and were at the Flamingo before 2:00. Checked in and headed up to the room. Had the $20 in my pocket to try to upgrade and thought I'm only in the room a short time anyway and kept it.

My buddy wanted to play some low limit black so we headed to O'Sheas(which is a dump). I bought in and played for a while. Then my blackberry started buzzing. An email from AVP telling me the TI thread had been updated. Checked it and found out that the round for round 1/3 PLO and NLHE game was gettng underway. Took that as my cue that it was time to play poker. By the time I walked down the TI the game was only PLO so I grabbed an open seat at a 1/3 NL table.

What a great table. There were some not very good players at this table. I really didn't have any big or memorable hands. I just played TAG solid poker. I seemed to make good reads and lay down when I was behind and bet when I was ahead. I played 3-4 hours. Bought in for $300 and cashed out for $626! Nice start.

Walked back to the Flamingo to meet my buddy for some dinner. Ended up grabbing a mediocre pizza in the Flamingo. A little blackjack and back to the TI for more poker. Played at the TI from around 11-2:30 am, IIRC. Ended up being seated next between AdRock and his buddy; Blue was at the table with us as well. Played TAG again and was rewarded. I took some beats early on and was down to $100 but slowly built it back up. Buy in $300 cash out $655. So end day 1 up $681 at TI, no wonder you guys like this room. Alas that would be my poker high point.

Back to Flamingo for a few hours sleep and up early the next morning. My buddy and his friend who arrived later on Thursday want to head downtown. Play some blackjack at the Golden Nugget until their 11:00 a.m. $65+$40 rebuy tournament starts. Ended up with about 35 players of which 33 took the rebuy at some point.

I'm playing solid poker an accumulating some chips. They only started us with 2K but I'm to about 3300 when a big hand occurs. I have K10 offsuit in the big blind. Blinds are 25/50 still on first level. I check, I know I probably should have raised to see if could just buy the pot at that point but the table had been fairly loose. Wanted to see if I could flop a hand and make some money.

Flop comes 10d,9d,Kc. Alright I flop 2 pair but there are those pesky diamonds. Ok I'm going to win this one right here. SB checks I bet the pot, 250, fold fold, LP calls and SB folds. Alright 2 players. I put him on a straight or flush draw.

Turn comes Kd. Woo hoo, money card I now have top boat!! I don't want to run him off so I check and thinks a couple seconds and goes all in. I call faster than Phil Hellmuth can sing his own praises. You guessed it, my top boat was drawing dead. My opponent was holding Qd,Jd for a turned straight flush! Luckily I had him covered but only had about 500 left so I go ahead and rebuy and get 3000 chips for $40! I make the break with a healthy chip stack. We start losing players after the break due to the escalating blinds. We get down to 6 and blinds are making folks start to do a lot of pushing free flop. It was like a table of cockroaches, the short stacks would never die. I bet the short stacks won 8-9 allins in a row.

Blinds have made it up to 3k/6k and I'm UTG with 12K. Big stack has about 40 and the other 4 have around 20-25 each. I push with A3d and it folds to the big blind who only has to double the big blind to call. I know the big blind almost has to call with any two cards but he could not have had a better hand to double me up with. He turned over 2,3 offsuit. Oh yeah, time to double up and make some money. Deuce on the river sends me packing just out of the money. Top 4 get paid. As soon as I bust they start talking about giving 5th their money back. Oh well. Down $105.

Head over to MGM later that night for some 1/2NL. Tried to buy in for $300 but was told it was a $200 max game. That should have been my warning sign to leave but I stayed. Got stacked when my flopped set of 10s ran into a flopped set of queens. Rebought and treaded water for another hour or so before I left. 5 hours at the MGM 2 buyins and cash out for $175 so down another 225.

Saturday morning I play the Caesars $70 tourney. They end up with about 70 players I finish 9th just outside the money again. No real memorable hands for me but I did see the worst poker player I have ever seen. This guy had no idea how to bet. He was pushing preflop and on the flop a lot. Guy bets into him one hand and he says "I call all in", WTH? Dealer tells him that isn't allowed that he said I call first. He looks puzzled but accepts it. So he just pushes on the turn and wins the pot. Later I'm in the pot with him and down to 1200 after raising preflop to 300(blinds were 50/100). I bet another 500 on the flop and he asks how much I have left. I tell him 700 left. He throws 700 into the pot as he's saying I put you all in. I look at the dealer before I say anything and she grins and tells he just made a call. We get all in on the turn and I double up.

But the worst play was the hand he went out on. He and a lady next to him are the only 2 to see the flop. They were the blinds and it was a limp pot. She hits some of the flop and bets and he calls. Flop is A,Q,7. Turn is a deuce, he checks and she pushes all in to which he immediately calls. She has AJ or A10 something similar. What did our caller check-call and all in with you ask? K4 offsuit. No straight draw, no flush draw, no anything. The whole table has kind of an incredulous look on their face.

It's my last night and I decided to head back to the TI for one last session. Who cares if I'm tired and been drinking for a while, right? Well I should have. I got away from the successful TAG style my first two sessions at TI and morphed into some donkey like LAG and even worse some loose passive. I buy in for $300 again. Young kid at our table decides he is going to raise it to $15 every time he plays a pot. He wasn't afraid to follow up his raises either. Picked up early on that he would play ANY ace all the way to the river if an ace came on the flop.

I get AK in the BB blind and he raises to $15 so I call. Flop comes rags and I check it to him and he bets $15 again and I call. Turn comes an ace and the pot is $61. I only have about $120 left so I bet $50 and he thinks for a few second and pushes. He has me covered as his weak aces have been holding up. I call and this time he has pocket aces. Oops!

Rebuy for $200 and get into a big pot with Ace boy again. I have AQ this time and call his $15 preflop raise. Flop is AK4. He bets and I push all in with my last $125. He immediately calls with A6. Turn and river are both 9s for a split pot.

I build my stack back up a little but can't get any traction. Could have something to do with running into pocket aces 3 times in an hour including the hand above. The other two times I have pocket queens and pocket tens. Total buy in 500 and cash out for 169 down 331.

Head back to Flamingo to pack up and hit the bed. I stop by to check out the Flamingo poker room for the first time and decide it's not even worth. Watched for a few minutes and it was moving very slow and I'm pretty sure I would have lowered the average age significantly (and I'm 38). No automatic shufflers, no computerized list, cocktail waitresses who were supplementing the social security and Copag cards from the 2005 WSOP that were very faded. Decided to just hit the hay.

Ended up around $125 for cash games, down $175 for tournaments for a net poker loss of $50. Shouldn't have played when I was too tired and slightly inebriated, never a good combination.

Next time I come to Vegas if any of you see me sitting at a blackjack table anywhere in Vegas I give you permsission to hit me with any available object and knock me from my chair. If it is at the Palazzo you may stomp me after you knock me out of my chair.

Overall an enjoyable trip even if I did play poorly on Saturday and give away a substantial portion of my cash winnings.

TI was great. MGM was good. Caesars had a very well run tournament and the Golden Nugget surprised me with a very nice room which was well run.

Kudos to the folks at TI. Your involvement in this site was the only reason I played there. Otherwise it probably never would have crossed my mind. I really liked the intimate feel of the room. Small but big enough to stay busy. Each and every dealer I had was great, no mistakes, kept the game moving and were sociable. I can't really recalll the floor being called at all in the 10-12 I played there last weekend.

Next time, I'll make it a point to introduce myself to all the familiar faces I know from your avatars.