I traveled to Las Vegas August 21-August 24 with the wife for an anniversary trip. Since I had to do the obligatory sight-seeing and romantic dinners I didn't get to play as much poker as I would have liked, but I'll give as much information as I can to repay all the valuable information I collected here prior to my trip.

I arrived on Monday afternoon and didn't get to play any poker at all. I checked out the Bally's room about 10:00 that night, but the wait for a seat at the 1-2 NL game was about 45 minutes, so I declined and just headed to bed.

Played the noon tournament at Caesars the next morning. As everyone else has said this tournament is the best value and the most enjoyable structure of any of the less expensive tournaments. Never really got any cards in the tournament and went out shortly after the second break. Most of the players in this one played a pretty tight/aggressive style, so they were fairly easy to read. There was one younger Josh Arieh wannabe at my table who played very loose, but he kept catching cards. The most enjoyable hand of the tournament for me was putting a bad beat on him. I was short-stacked and limped from just right of the button with A-4 of diamonds. The young gun was the BB and raised it to three times the blind effectively putting me all in. I re-raised my measly remining chips and we went to the flop heads up. He flips over As-Jc....dang. But I catch a four on the flop and he never improved. He ranted, "How could you call me with that?" The guy to my left defended me since I was short stacked, but I went out a few hands later in about 35th place when my pocket 10's ran into pocket J's.

I played the morning tournament at Bally's on Wednesday morning. Not a great tourney. You start with 2000 in chips and the blinds double every 15 minutes. It quickly turns into an all-in fest. I went out in 11th when I was the big blind with a little more than three times the blind amount in my stack and pocket cards of J-8 clubs. The button raises enough to put me all-in and I call because I'm pretty sure he is just bullying with his big stack. He turns over 3-5 off suit and catches a five to knock me out in 11th place.

The cash games at Bally's were fairly soft for a smart player. I played the 1-2 NL game Tuesday night and over the course of about 5 hours turned my $200 buy-in into about $450 with very little effort.

The Bally's dealers were generally very steady and capable. There were a couple I would consider excellent dealers and a few mediocre ones. There was only one really bad dealer. She only dealt about 10 hands in a half an hour with an auto-shuffler. She also flipped two cards in those 10 hands and misread a hand and paid someone when it should have been a chopped pot.

I tried out the cash game again Wednesday afternoon and got busted out about five hands into the session. I had a middle-eastern guy to my left who was an action junkie. He was calling every hand to the river and then folding. Obviously chasing flushes and straights. The hand I went out I had pocket Kings on the button. A couple of limpers ahead of me and I make it 12 bucks to go. Middle-eastern guy in the SB makes it 25. Action folds around to me and I go all in for about 180. He calls and when I show him my kings he says, "Well, I'll tell you this...you're in the lead." He then shows me a king and slides it aside to reveal an ace to go along with it. He of course catches an ace on the turn and says, "This hand I cannot fold. How can I fold this hand?"

I made that back plus about another 200 in a session that night from about 9:00 pm to 3:00 am.

The Bally's game was usually a couple of local players who play very smart, but only bet when they have monster hands and a bunch of tourists who are always chasing that flush or straight. As long as you can dodge those disastrous bad beats there is good money to be made here. I personally felt the games were much softer here than at my local B&M casino.

I'm already planning my return trip for my 40th b-day next spring with a poker buddy so I can get in a lot more play.