I took a much needed Vegas trip for a weekend at the end of February. On the plane from Chicago to Vegas, I sit next to a cute girl that asks if she can take a picture of me because I look exactly like her friend – which was crazy, because she showed me the a picture of him and it was like looking into a mirror. Totally nuts. She snaps a photo, and we’re in the air. Crazy start to the trip, just how it should be.

I meet my dad and brother at the airport, and we cab it to Harrah’s, after telling the driver not to take the tunnel. We’re there in less than ten minutes and the cab fare is around 15. Not bad.

We play a few hands of blackjack and win about fifty. We leave up when our drinks arrive, and we start boozing it up. We hit Casino Royale, Bills, Paris, Caesar’s, and Mirage. No poker on the first night – too much drunken debauchery. I didn’t want to cluck off my stack.

The next morning, I wake up and immediately hit the Harrah’s poker room. I said hello to the poker room manager, and looked for LVM, but didn't see him grinding. I sat down at a new 1-2 NL table and bought in for $200. A few interesting hands:

Hand One:

I get 2-5 suited in BB. Me and my poker buddies call that the playboy hand. You can do dirty things with that playboy. 6 limpers. Flop is 3-4-8 with two hearts (I have spades). Hero checks, V1 bets 10, V2 calls, V3-6 folds. Hero calls. Pot is at $42. Turn JH. It checks around. River A (not heart) giving me the wheel.

I check, since I saw V1 slowplay a flush earlier. V1 bet $30, V2 folds, I call. V1 rivered 2 pair with the Ace, so I take it down with my straight. Should have raised!

Hand Two:

Hero in LP with TT. 3 limpers, hero raises to 20. Folds around to BB, who thinks a while, and calls. Everyone else folds. Pot is $47. The flop: 4-8-2 with 2 hearts. BB looks at me, and moves all in for 55. I have the ten of hearts in my hand. I look at him, as he tries talking to me, like he’s talking me out of it. He thought I raised with AK. I put him on a flush draw and call, knowing one of his outs is in my hand. He flips over A7 of hearts, the turn and river are spades with no ace, so I take it down.


Hand Three:

I pick up AQs on the button. 4 limpers, I pop it to 17. One caller. The flop is A-J-3 with one of my suit. V1 checks, I fire 20, he calls. Turn is A (now the flush isn’t possible). V1 checks again. I look at his stack and he only has 50 behind. I’m a little worried that he outflopped me with a weaker Ace, but I’d rather put him all in than have to call one off here, so I bet 55, and he snap calls with (of course) AJ. The river is no help, and I give some back. I completely overplayed this hand, and I knew it. I stayed another hour and grinded some back, though.

Saturday night, I hit the 7PM tournament at Caesar’s. I really like the 30 minute levels, it actually lets you play some poker. There were around 90 runners, which was surprising since the V’s deepstack event was still going on. The top prize was like 3K. Nice.

I was card dead the entire tournament. I’ve never seen 9-2o so many times. I’m a tight player, especially in the early rounds, and didn’t even get cards that were connecting. I’ve never been so excited to see a mediocre hand like A-10. With my image, I was able to raise pre-flop, and take down a lot of pots with a c-bet on the flop or turn.

In the third level, I picked up pocket kings, made a standard 3BB raise, and everyone folded. Damn.

When the blinds and antes started getting up there, I pushed a few shit hands to steal the blinds and stay a float. Then, I got a table change. My tight image was gone. The only image I had was a small chip stack around 11K.

I picked up JJ and pushed. I got called by AK…and by QQ in the BB. K on the river takes it down, and I’m out in 27th place. What can ya do?

Walking out of Caesar’s poker room at 11 PM, the line to Pure was already insane. On my way out, I put 20 in a poker machine, and hit quad kings with 4 hands at the same time, so I make back my buy in. Nice!

We get wasted that night, and try to hit up the nightclub at PH. There wasn’t really a line – just a lot of people hanging out in front of the ropes, with no sense of when we could get in. Apparently the cover was 30…but we saw two guys bribe the bouncer with $140. Fuck that. Back to Bills for more drinks and let it ride. The drinks were better than the let it ride.

On Sunday morning, I hit IP for some poker before we head to the airport…except they don’t have a 1-2 game going. Weird. Harrah’s had a wait, I thought for sure IP would have a game. Instead, we play craps at IP, double up our 100 buy in, and call it a trip. Just writing this makes me want to go back!