Business trip to Vegas, where I managed to squeeze in some play either side of working.

This was my first trip to Vegas since poker hit big time on TV. My poker experience is predominantly through on-line play at lower limits. I would consider myself to be a slighly above average, profit-making player at on-line lower limits (hold-em - limit, no limit, sit-n-go's, and multi-table tourney).

SUNDAY
Aladdin has a new poker room (used to be their high limit slot area). This is a reasonable room, as it is effectively walled off from the rest of the main casino.

Started with the NL $100 max ring game for an hour or so after lunch, for which there was no waiting time. Competition was average, and I was pleased to be able to hold my own against the competition.

Got a taxi to the Luxor. The poker room at the Luxor has more tables than the Aladdin, but feels totally cramped and squashed in. It took 30 minutes to get a seat at the NL $50 max ring game (there was only one table running this).

Competition appeared to be a bit stronger. There were at least 3 folks at the table who really knew how to play NL. 1 or 2 fish who came to the table soon lost their buy-ins. With the low buy-in of $50 it makes you short stacked very quickly. If you lose one or two pots early on and are left with