Left my home in Louisiana Wednesday afternoon and after a layover in Houston arrived in LV 2 hours late about 10:30 pm Wed., Oct 10. I was staying at Orleans and after checking in hurried on down to the poker room. Right now, they are remodeling room and half of it is closed. Once they finish that half, it will open and the other half will close for remodeling. Put this with the fact that the bad beat jackpot is up to $100K and the place was packed. I was able to get a seat at $4-8 limit faster than $1-2 NL, so I sat in on the limit game. Seemed to be mostly locals jackpot hunting. This table played a little tighter than I would have expected for the stakes. I was tired and played about an hour. Cashed out $51 ahead.

Next morning, I got up early and played 1-2 NL for a couple of hours. Again mostly jackpot hunters except for me and one other guy. The other guy was playing real aggressive and I made an ill-advised bluff reraise against him right away. Pretty stupid move, because he raised me back all-in and I had to fold. After that I settle down and won back some of what i lost on that hand. Still cashed out down $109 after a couple of hours.

Next, I headed downtown to play an event in the Binion's Open. NLHE $150 buyin. There were 129 players, and I played very well until 3 tables left. At this point, I had a big stack and had a legitimate chance to win. But, I went insta-donk and busted 21st. Don't even want to get into the details. Too embarrassing.....down $150.

That night after dinner, got back into $4-8 limit game at Orleans. This was a very loose No-foldem, holdem game. After a couple of my big pocket pairs got cracked, I decided it wasn't my kind of game........I was tired and didn't want to tilt off more money...down $96

Friday morning, I headed to Caesar's to see if I could satellite into event 1 of Caesar's classic. I got into a $65 single table satty and won that, so I had my seat in the $550 entry tourney at noon. After that I had a couple of hours to kill so I took a walk on the strip and wandered into the Flamingo. On a whim, I bought into $2-4 limit game because there were seats open. Only played about 1/2 hour. I got aces cracked by a rivered two pair.....Absolutely impossible to get anyone to fold there. Down $24....

Caesars tourney started at noon--499 players. I really think I played very well and slowly accumulated chips over the first 5 levels without playing big pots....at dinner break, I had about an average stack with 105 left. I felt pretty good. After dinner, a short stack shoved and it folded to me with pocket 8s. I figured I'd be in a race, but it was time to take some chances in order to build my stack. Since I had her covered, I called........unfortunately, she had aces. At this point I'm short-stack ninja mode with about 10 big blinds. I shove with A-J,,,call by 3-3 by a shorter stack........no help for me....real short stack now....finally bust about 85th....top 45 get paid...........down $65.

I make my comeback Saturday. Early morning, back over to Orleans 1-2 NL and I work over the left-over drunks.....Up $306.

Work-related conference rest of day.

Saturday night, I decide to give Planet Hollywood room a shot. Nice juicy $1-2 NL game, unfortunately max buyin is $200. I'd prefer $300...play patiently for 3 hours and leave up $285...

Overall, I leave slightly ahead for the trip...with a little luck I might have been able to cash in Caesar's event which even a minor cash would not have been bad since I got in for $65.

I definitely should have gone much deeper and gotten a good cash in the Binion's event, but I have only myself to blame there.

I like the Orleans room ok, but the bad beat jackpot mania made it pretty much impossible to play except early in the morning....Mostly a locals room for sure, even more so at the moment....But, even with my limited play there, the ass't manager was really understanding of why I didn't play more there. She gave me the poker room rate for only about 7 hours total play over four days..I don't think they'd do that normally. It was a $20 reduction on my entire room rate, including meals and internet connection fees....pretty sweet I thought. As a place to stay, I really liked the Orleans and I'll go back and try to give them more play next time.