We took an early Friday morning flight from EWR and arrived in LAS ~10:15. The airport was N-U-T-S, but since I can live for 6 days out of a roll-a-board, and implored my bud not to check bags either, we cruised to AVIS Preferred and were on our way to THE HOTEL at Mandalay Bay, arriving before early check in at 11:00. We met up with his sister and BIL to be, and grabbed some lunch at THE HOTEL. For those of you unfamilar, THE HOTEL is adjacent to the Mandalay Bay, but more of a boutique type hotel. The rooms are sweet, especially for 2 guys traveling together. They have a living room with big flat panel, desk, bar, couch and most importantly, a half bath perfect for those uhhhh...moments which can be less plesant.

Moving on....we head up to the room after lunch, then right down to check out the poker room at the Mandalay Bay casino. The hostess at the desk was not so friendly, but eventually 2 seats open at a 4/8 half kill table, and my buddy and I are on our way. I've played 3 times at B&M, all limit games (between 1/2 and 5/10 with variable results) and my buddy was a B&M novice. We play together in a mixed monthly home game. I have been doing some poker research, and try to play Tight/
Agressive. He is more Loose/Agressive/Passive/All over the place!.

Anyway, we've got tickets for O at the Bellagio, so we only play from ~1pm to 3pm. Of note were 2 locals atr the table, one solid, one seemingly on tilt. I end up +$32 for the session, my buddy lost his $100 by in chasing too much.

(As an aside, I try to refrain from criticising his play, trying to show him the way via my play, which I was pretty happy with).

My first impression of the Mandalay room was that I wasn't too impressed. Since it is fairly open to the Casino, the smoke was awful, and the hostess was fairly unfriendly, almost scowling. They didn't have many tables going, and that was a problem throughout the entire weekend. Competition was mixed at the 4/8 LHE, and depending on the session, fairly ok at the 2/4 LHE as well. More on the Mandalay later...

So, we move on to the Bellagio, putting our name on the list for the 4/8 LHE. After about 15 minutes, we luckily get seated at the same table, near the rail. The Hosts were fine, but they had me go to the cage to get my chips as the place was hoppin.

I was playing ok, but being a relative B&M newbie, made the common mistake of leading out a hand post flop with an $8 bet, only to get scolded nastily by a woman at the far end of the table ("It's $4 dollars!!!"). I won that hand. Very next hand, I have J8o in the SB and make it whole with 5 players. Flop is J 8 X rainbow, and I bet $4 calling the bet with emphasis and looking right at her. Next card is (say it with me) a J, and I check, she bets, I call. River is a blank, I bet, she raises, I call. She rolls a J, and I roll my boat :-). Time for the show, and I cash out +$99 !

Obviously, I liked the Bellagio, but we didn't make it back. My bud bled another $50.

Show was fun, dinner after at Fix was tasty after we got seated at 10:30pm for our 9:30 reservation. Those guys were jerks for sure, telling us they were setting our table for about 45 minutes straight.

We cab it back to the Mandalay at about midnight, and after a minute's discussion, decide to head back to the poker room. Surprise!

Only openings are at a 2/4 table, and we play for about 3 hours, and I think I lost $51 or so at the no fold'em hold'em...2/4 would turn out to be my nemesis the entire trip. After >24 hours awake, (we got up at 3:30pm local time to make our early flight), we head up to the room, my bud I think wound up +$30 or so.

The next morning, we get up at about 8:30 and with sunshine streaming in, are unable to go back to sleep. Instead, we head to the guy and work out, then head off the strip to Hash House a Go Go for massive pancakes, eggs etc. Awesome, and highly recommended.

Back to the hotel, and I suggest we head to the MGM room. We get there and wind up waiting for about 20 minutes and get on a 4/8 table. Mix of locals and NASCAR tourists. I wind up cashing out +$146 for about 3 hours play.

I think this was my favorite place to play the entire trip. The room is really well managed, and the hosts were friendly, helpful, and professional. Drink service was fast and frequent. We'd return a few times.

Off to Joe's Crab House at Caesers for an early dinner, and then we went to see Celine. My wife and all our other bud's gave us hell, but, darn it, going to Vegas and missing Celine would be like going to Nashville and missing Dolly. She was great, BTW.

Since we were at Caesars, I had planned for us to enter the 11pm $60 NLHE +$10 add on. I didn't r=try too hard to get on a tablre, instead quizzing the hostess about appropriate bets given the starting chips, etc. Plus, the entrance to the room is near the Pure line/Pussycat lounge, so there were plenty of uhhh, things to see...

We get seated at different tourney tables, and soon, cards were in the air. First hand, I'm UTG and look down to see QQ. With about $2500 in starting chips with the add on, and fast levels, I lead out with $300. one call, and the BB raises, SB calls, I call. K X X, I bet $300, BB raises, SB calls, I call. Turn is no help, I check, BB bets some amount, SB folds, I call. River no help, BB bets, I call, and she(70y.o. grandma from SD...) rolls the AA. UUUUGGGGGGHHHH, what a Donk I am!. I play 2 more hands, pocket 6's, which don't improve, I fold, and K 4 off. With that hand, I go all in, fold to her, she (big stack of course) calls, and rolls Q 3. Cut to the chase, a Q rivers..(NOW THE Q!!!), and I'm doing the walk of shame after fewer than 2 rounds of blinds. At least I wasn't the first out of the tourney.

I head over to play 3/6 LHE while my buddy continues through to the 3rd level. He eventually joins me, and I wind up +$76 at the limit table to recoup my buy in and 1/2the cab fare back to Mandalay.

We both really liked the Caeser's room. Lots of space, good competition and fun tables, dealers were mostly nice, and the staff was very nice too.

Back at home base, I play craps for 1/2 an hour, and walk away with the same $100 I started with. I used to play craps exclusively, but for some reason, $10 craps is hard for me to stomach (even with my $1200 bankroll...).

After the craps, I head up to get some rest.

The next day, Sunday, is NASCAR day, and my bud and his sis have tix, so I'm mostly on my own. I spend most of the morning by the pool, and going for a run, and head over to the MGM for some LHE for the afternoon. I play 2/4 and 3/6, and wind up not able to do anything, and walk away down $170 after about 3 hours of play. However, I had fun, and again enjoyed the MGM room, staff dealers and cocktail waitress.

We head to a late dinner after the race, and then sit down for some 2/4 at Mandalay (only available table). Nothing remarkable happens to me, and it is pretty much a wash, I end up down ~$30. However, a local gentleman to my right winds up hitting the diamond Royal Flush for a $100 pot and an additional $1200 or so from Mandalay's jackpot.
(he said he was going to use the $$ to enter in a WSOP event...good for him, nice guy and good player too)

At this point, my friend is probably down about $350, and I'm up a little, but frustrated at my recent poor play relative to the first few days.

Monday dawns our last day, and after breakfast, packing and checkout, we finally open a 4/8 half kill. Well, I was totally card dead, and any marginal hand Iplayed never flopped. Finally got sucked out of 2 pair by a straight on the river to lose my $100 buy-in and wind up the trip down $50 total. Not bad, I thought, for 4 days of fun,cheaper than dinner and a movie with the wifey. Oh, of course, my buddy couldn't lose a hand, and in 3 hours of play that morning won back all his losses and then some, including hitting quad 7's that paid him a good pot and a $112 jackpot from the Mandalay. He finishes the trip up about $60.

All in all, a fun trip, and a good immersion in B&M poker. I'd say that Caesers and Bellagio were the nicest rooms, with MGM having the best service, both drink wise and host wise. Mandalay was easy to play in, but the room tended to be smokey from the casino and adjacent sports book. Dealers were friendly, but the hosts were cold.

Thanks to AVP for the great advice!