When I heard that my wife and son were going back to Minnesota for my mother-in-law's birthday, I was sad because I knew I would miss them so much. But, every cloud has a silver lining, and my silver lining was a Nicolas Cage-esque Leaving Las Vegas Poker Bender.

I used to play more, and I take it very seriously. I have piles of poker books and software to track all my sessions. However, after son came, my life changed, and my poker hours disappeared. Now that our home has settled down, my wife and I figured out a plan to get me back on the felt. Because I knew I was rusty, I put the over/under for the day at a $200 loss. I am very honest about my play, and I don't always think I'm going to win. Besides, poker is one long session.

The day started bad with drama at the airport, drama with the bank, (closed on president's day?!?!) and drama with locking keys in the car and nearly running out of gas. It started so bad that I almost didn't play.

That feeling subsided in seconds. I had my day planned for a couple weeks, and I wasn't going to miss out. First, I went to the Excalibur to get a long hard look at the electronic tables. The only good thing there is how bad the other players are. I saw one guy go through over $500 on the .5/1 NL game. Of course, I got none of it, and finished up $2 for my 1 hour 45 minute play.

As for the room and tables, I was not impressed. I thought because it was electronic that there would be lower rake, like 5%. However, they take a straight 10%. The only money I am saving is on the tokes. I also believe that the game is not much faster than a game with a dealer. What slowed the game down was people who didn't pay attention and know it was their turn. With a dealer, they will always keep the game moving. I do believe, however, that electronic tables have a place in Vegas, just not for an entire room. I think that rooms should install 1-3 heads-up tables. Heads-up is very popular online, but not profitable for live rooms to spread. I think the electronic tables would be perfect.

As bad as the play was, there is bad play everywhere, so I don't need to play at the Excalibur to find weak players.

Next was the Orleans. I wanted to play Omaha, but I had to wait. I played 4/8 hold em to start, played for one hour, and lost $97. The swings there are so big because so many aggressive locals play there. If you run bad, you can lose quick.

I then made my move to the Omaha game, and I played terrible. I've only played omaha 5 times, but this was the worst I ever played. I played tight, but I made mistakes almost everytime I got involved. Fortunately, I only lost $45 in my hour.

As a side note, I hate must move games. I don't understand what the casino gains by running a must move game at 5:00 in the afternoon. Now if they needed the table later for a tourney or if they were short dealers, maybe I could understand it. But why leave one game short and make those players want to leave? Just put new players in any open spots, and then when the list is done, and you only want one game, THEN move people to the "main game."

After omaha, I played the 7:00 tournament there. They changed the buy-in and structures, so the info on this site is not accurate. I played well, but it was the toughest players I ever saw for a daily tournament. Granted, 3-4 players sucked, but everyone else was very solid. I was busted out right before the first break on a QQ vs AKs with the flush draw on the flop. I don't think I would have gotten him to fold his hand no matter what, and he rivered the flush. Oh well..

After a couple beers for a break, I headed to MGM. I had to wait about 30 minutes, which enabled me to lose $80 at Pai Gow Tiles. Once I got on my 1/2 NL game, I was happy. The game just opened up, and I decided to try some small-ball tactics from my Negreanu book. I wasn't sure it would work, since I really didn't have a deep stack. I played a lot more hands than usual, and I raised an average of at least 3 times every round. However, my raises were always to $7, no matter my position or if there were limpers. The amazing thing was NOBODY pushed back at me pre-flop. The only 2 times somebody did, I had AA and AKs. After the flop, if somebody bet into me and I missed, I was done with the hand. If nobody wanted the pot I took it. I don't know if these tactics will always work with me, but on this game, it worked like a charm! I played there for 3 hours and made $214.

Finally, 16 hours after leaving my home, I went to my last stop, the Wynn. The Wynn has long been my favorite room, and I had not played there since July of last year, just before my son was born. So I put my name on the 4/8 list, and took my pager to the Pai Gow Tiles table. I was very tired, but I really wanted to play there. I waited for over an hour, and was ready to just go home. I was tired, had a headache, and ate terrible that day. I got up from the tiles game up $60 and was ready to leave when I got the page. So, I made the long walk to the poker room and decided to play for one hour and play very tight. The table was good, and I did play very tight, but unfortuntaely, I lost $59. At this point, it was 4:00 in the morning, and I was dead tired. So I called the front desk to find out how much it would be to have a room from then until check out time, seven hours later. I was going to offer $60, and go up to $80. They started the "negotiations" at $259. I just laughed, said thank you, and hung up. I wasn't even going to shower there. I was going to sleep, piss twice, and leave.

So, I made the long drive home with the windows down, the music up, and $45 less in my poker bankroll. All in all, it was a memorable day, and a good start to my return to the tables.