Well, as requested by redright, this is my trip report. It won't be much, and since I didn't play much poker (4 tournies and about 3 hours of cash games) I won't mention many details. In any case. I stayed at the Excalibur, which is a great place for $60 a night: some good food, good pool, fun dealers, and a pretty good location. I played in their 11 a.m. $35 tournament on Monday. 40 players, 6 paid, and I came in 6th. Got my money back. But it was an all-in tournament, and I pushed with my remaining $2200 with blinds at 400-800 with A8 and got called by kings. No ace, but I'll take my $35. Played in it again on Tuesday, busted 11th when I made a similar move with KJ suited, but the guy in seat 2 that had tripled up on K8 earlier (against K10 and a pair) was holding aces. I decided to play in the 1 p.m. that same day since it was already a bit past noon. I had an early exit after calling a preflop raise with 88, board came 6 high, I pushed, got a call by the original raiser who was holding AJ, he turned an ace, and that was that. I played about 2 hours of 2/4 and made 40 bucks. I managed to irritate a middle aged woman. I had been betting pretty aggressively, and one particular hand it was checked to her on the river, she folded, and I said "you must've known I was going to bet again", and she promptly replied "well, I do know that you're annoying me" and walked away. Oh well. Everyone else at the table was having fun. I also played a brief session of 1/3. I was up about $50, then the same guy called my continuation bets with gutshots and hit them twice, so I left down $80. I played the noon tournament at the Luxor on Wednesday. Another all-in tournament, but a better structure than the Excalibur. I think we started with 4 tables, and got down to 2. After I moved tables I looked down to find AA. Well that seemed nice enough. I had 2700 in chips, blinds were at 200/500. Guy UTG pushes for 800, I push, then another guy with 1300 pushes. Guy with 800 shows pocket 8s, guy with 1300 show AK. Good for me...well, until the king flopped, and another one came on the river. Wasn't upset with the players, just the cards. I was too angry to go on, and with blinds coming around, I just pushed in middle position with J7. Got a call from the big blind holding 87, but he hit a straight. That ended my poker for the trip. I didn't think it'd be a very good idea to continue playing poker in the mindset I was in. So, I was down about $140 for poker, but whatever.

Aside from poker, it was nice to spend some time around town with my girlfriend, who had turned 21 on July 4th (this was her birthday present). She was actually about even for the trip. I was down thanks to the stupid Wheel of Fortune machine. We did see the Big Elvis at Bill's. We were walking the strip on afternoon and walked in there and happened to catch the end of the show, and decided we wanted to watch the whole thing the next day. So we did, and it was highly entertaining. Big Elvis might be the best free show in all of Vegas. I thought it was just going to be a novelty, but he turned out to be very entertaining, and had a pretty good voice. We stopped by Frontier since it's closing next week...it was gloomy, and some of the employees were big time downers... We also walked off the strip to Ellis Island. Had the $4.95 steak special. Steak was decent, potatoes and salad were good, as was the $1 microbrewed beer.

As far as table games go...well, not so hot. But my girlfriend and I both had a great time on Thursday night (she was up about $90, I was up $120). She managed to make $65 betting $5 on black for about an hour total. She then sat down at a $10 blackjack table with $20 while I went to go play some video poker. When I returned she had an enormous stack of reds, and a couple of greens as well. She switched back to roulette and I sat down at a different $10 blackjack table. By the time the pit boss returned my players card to me, I was up $110 and left. He seemed kind of pissed, but that casino already had enough of my money. We used my $25 of match play on Friday morning and made about 20 bucks on roulette again.

I guess I had more to say than expected, but I definitely recommend that Big Elvis show, as well as Ellis Island. The price is just too good to pass up. I'm a bit surprised I didn't play more poker than I did, but it's probably for the better. Oh, and I also believe that the Excalibur, as a hotel, not as a poker room, is a great place to stay. I also went on a tear at the midway games downstairs. Won about 6 stuffed animals. Kept one for my mom, and we gave a couple to some kids that were down there (I really just like playing the games). I apologize for not having more on poker. Perhaps I'll try to fit more in next year. And now to catch up in the forums...