As usual I found a great deal on a trip to vegas from the Allegiant Air website, and decided I'd go for it. Called a buddy of mine and a couple days later we booked it. We were in town from Feb 15-18 staying at Planet Hollywood.

The drive to the airport was good, very little traffic and virtually no waiting when crossing the border. When we got to the airport and parked the car however, for some reason the car's tail lights would not turn off. No other lights were on though, nothing on the head lights or anything on the side, looked like the brake lights were stuck on for some reason. Popped the hood, checked the fuse box, but any fuse in there that listed lights wouldn't do the trick. Eventually we disconnected the battery and decided that we were just getting rid of all our bad luck at the airport. Upon checking in at the airport we were able to get the emergency row seats for extra leg room. The flight was uneventful, I watched Ocean's 11 on my Ipod Touch to get me ready for Vegas!

The taxi line was fairly long; about twenty minutes, gave us some time to gawk at the eye candy waiting around. Didn't get "tunnelled" and arrived at Planet Hollywood a little after 1pm. As we entered the lobby we were immediately greeted by hotel staff that offered us half-price admission to Prive and put yellow wrist bands on us. We both muttered that we knew where these wrist bands were going as soon as we could find a garbage can. There was almost no line at check-in. I told my buddy we should ask for a strip view room, he said he wasn't paying extra for it. From experience I always ask and they're usually accommodating to such a request. We asked for it, as well as having a room close to the elevator. The clerk was very nice and we got a room on the 31st floor with a view of the Bellagio Fountain Show, and it was just the second room from the elevator. Awesome.

We were both hungry so we went downstairs. This was my first time staying at Planet Hollywood but my friend told me he had ate at Planet Dailies restaurant before and it was good so we went there for some sandwiches. My buddy had a ham and cheese, and I had the chicken salad sandwich. It was ok, but too heavy on the mayo. After that we watched tv for half an hour to let the food settle, then went downstairs for some poker.

Less than an orbit into the session I get dealt pocket kings in late position. One limper to me and I make it $10 to go. Folds to the big blind who makes it $20 total. Folds back to me and I reraise to $50 total. Big blind then pushes back at me for $200, putting me all-in. I go into the tank and wonder if I'm against aces. I'm a little shocked that five minutes into my trip I'm already facing a tought decision. Eventually I decide to call and am promptly shown the bullets. Luckily for me the board flushes out and I've got the king of spades to scoop the pot. From there I proceed to get run over by the deck. I flop trip fours with 4 6 of diamonds and get paid. I flop a nice combo draw, it comes on the river. Flop top-two and they hold. I crank it up fast and am up almost $750 within two and a half hours. I miss an open-ended straight-flush draw for a loss of about $100, then miss a few flops after calling preflop raises. After three hours I count my chips, find that I'm up $609 and decide to lockup the profit for a great first session. About this time I realized that I had not taken off my wristband to Prive. My buddy had taken his off immediately when we had gotten up to the room. He had lost $100 in the game and we came to the conclusion that it must be the lucky wristband that accounted for the discrepency. I didn't take it off for the rest of the trip.

We were kind of hungry again and decided on Blondies in the Miracle Mile shops at PH. The food was ok, I ordered a hot turkey sub and my buddy had the chicken caesar wrap. Along with two cokes and tip the check was almost $40. Not a good value, especially since the sodas were $4 a piece. Needless to say we did not return to Blondies, though it did become a running joke to ask each other if we wanted a coke any time we walked by the place!

We played our next session at the Bellagio. Turned out to be a short session as my friend busted in a little under an hour. I managed to win $101. The play was better than at PH earlier in the day and I didn't get too many pots to contest. Successfully bluffed to scoop a medium size pot when I sensed some weakness in a couple players. Happy to have booked another win though. We walked through the gardens at the entrance of the Bellagio to check out what they did for Chinese New Year. Kind of neat, and I like the animatronic tiger. We walked back to PH for one more session.

We played just over two hours here and saw the hand of the trip. Neither one of us were in the hand, but definitely the most memorable hand. A tight player in early positon raises to $7. It folds to a newer player on the button who makes it $15 total. Folds back to the tight player who ships it in for $200. The new player instacalls with K9 of clubs! Of course the tight player shows his aces. Next thing you know the flop comes Q J 10 rainbow! No help for the aces on the turn or river. My buddy turns to me and says "did that just happen?" I look at him and say "we're not going anywhere." I end the session up $222, but my friend has lost another $200. We went upstairs a bit before midnight as my buddy was going to be playing the noon Deepstack event at the Venetian the next day and wanted to be rested for it.

We were up and ready to go around 10:45 and walked up to the Venetian. Had Belgian Waffles and morning coffee/tea at the Grand Lux Cafe. I've ate there several times and usually like it. It was fine, nothing special this time, but I wasn't feeling that great so that probably had something to do with it. I wondered over to the Mirage to play there while he played in the tournament.

Got into a new game almost right away. There were a couple weaker players here and there but overally the table had decent players. I don't remember too many hands from this table but after three and a half hours I was up $141. After that I wondered over to Treasure Island and had a bowl of chicken noodle soup and some toast at there coffee shop. It was ok for what it was, chicken was a little dry, but overall ok. Walked back over to the Venetian just in time to see my friend bust out of the tournament about half way through. He put his short stack all-in with top pair top kicker, but got called and run down by a flush draw that got there on the turn. There were approximately 370 entrants and when I looked at the tournament tracker on the monitors there appeared to be about 160 entrants remaining. He told me he played well, but couldn't win a race. Also got two-outed on the river on a pot that would have made him have about 50k in chips when the average was about 25k. That would have been a nice one as first place was over $25000.

After that we walked back to PH, watched some Olympic hockey in the room, and then decided we'd check out the new City Center. Walked over there and checked out some of the shops and the casino. The casino did seem dark. Considered playing some poker here but there was a wait list so we passed on it. We crossed the street and walked throught the Coke and M&M stores. Played at MGM Grand for just under an hour. Unfortunately my table was a rock garden full of water drinkers. I took my $13 profit and decided to play elsewhere. We went to the food court in the Showcase mall and had Wendy's on our way back to PH.

We played one more session here and both managed to lose $200. I ended up putting all my money in bad in a hand I shouldn't have been in in the first place and felt like it was a poor decision. There were several limpers and the player to my right made it $18 to go. There had been lots of callers many hands no matter how large the raise so I got in with J 10 of clubs. There were three more callers after me so preflop the pot was just under $100. The flop was K 6 3 with two clubs. The preflop raiser bet $100. I decided to go for it, getting what I thought were pretty good odds, and pushed all-in for $150 total. I was called by one other player and the preflop raiser. The other caller had A Q of clubs and the preflop raiser had A K. So the only way I could have won the hand was running 10s or Js, neither of which happened. I don't mind my push on the flop, just unlucky that the other player had the larger flush draw. My preflop call though was certainly one which I regretted, I shouldn't have been in the hand in the first place.

Now that my buddy had played five sessions and lost over a grand I told him he should go back to the lobby and get another Prive wristband. He declined.

He was frustrated and wanted to do something else for a while the next day. We had gotten a coupon upon check-in for buy one get one free at the spa. We went down there for an hour or so to relax. In the afternoon we took a cab to the Premium Outlets. Checked that out for a while, had Subway for lunch there, but didn't have much luck shopping. I picked up a couple things for my fiance at the Guess store as that's always one of her favorites. Neither one of us bought anything for ourselves though. Just nothing that we had to have, many ok items, nothing amazing.

We got back to PH and I dropped my purchase in the room and watched tv for a bit. My friend went over and played at the Bellagio and I eventually walked over to play at Bally's. I ran a nice bluff with 2 3 of diamonds. I raised preflop to $12 and got two callers. The flop was J104 with two spades. One of the callers bet $15. I raised to $15 total to represent an overpair. He called without too much hesitation. I thought he probably had the draw. The turn was an offsuit 6. He checked, I decided to check the turn and wait to see if the river completed the flush draw as I didn't think he'd fold on the turn. The river was another 10, he checked to me, I bet $60 and he folded. I didn't show. I lost a hand when another player put me on a bluff. I raised from mid-late position to $10 with K4 of clubs and got two callers. The flop was 10 8 3 with two clubs, it checked to me and I continuation bet $22, just the one player called. The turn was a 4, again he checked to me, this time I bet $45. He moved all in for about $50 more. I called and he showed just pocket 7s, saying he thought I was bluffing. No help for me on the river. I don't know how he magically "thought I was bluffing" but these things happen. I won a few small pots to get back to even, then won a decent size pot when I flopped top two pair and turned the boat. After a little under three hours I finished the session up $231.

Met up with my friend for some food, turned out that he lost again at the Bellagio, then walked all the way up to the Fashion Show Mall to walk around and check things out there. He was tired from all the walking around so we decided to have another session at PH. I offered to go get him a Prive wristband from the lobby, but again, he declined.

I managed to river the nut straight against a player who flopped a set for a quick double up. Unfortunately I missed most of my hands thereafter, misplayed pocket kings making a bad fold on the flop after being too passive and eventually losing it all with K7 to AK on a AK672 board. My buddy lost as well and we called it a night a little after 2 am. When we got up to the room it sounded like there was a party going on in the next room. We watched tv for a bit, tried to go to sleep but couldn't, it was so loud! Eventually we called down to the front desk to tell them about the disturbance next door. Within a couple of minutes we heard security at their door. Seems like no one was in the room though. Eventually we heard the security go into the room and shut the sound off. I guess they just left the tv on really loud or had some sort of radio playing. We were impressed with how fast PH reacted to our call. Overally we were very happy with the service, the room, and the hotel itself. I would definitely stay at Planet Hollywood again.

After falling asleep at roughly 4 in the morning we slept in as long as we could and checked out of our room at 10:58! Our flight wasn't until much later in the day so we still had some time. We played together at The Flamingo for a little under two hours. I lost $120 and my buddy finally won a session, up $72. He really should have gone back for that wristband! After that he had to back to get a purse for his girlfriend, I didn't want to come and went for one last session at The Mirage. There were a couple of weak players and calling stations, I just wish I had more time to stay and play. Played for just over an hour and won $150. We met up again at The Flamingo and cabbed to the airport. Unfortunately our plane was delayed for a little over an hour so we were pretty bored in the airport.

All told I played for about 24 hours and won $947. I was happy with that. Hope this report wasn't too long for y'all.