My wife and I spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Las Vegas with TI as our home base. I kept track of my win / loses for each session put unfortunitly I did not do very good in recording individual hands so I will do my best to remember them.

We arrived on Alligent Air Wednesday night at 7:30 pm from Santa Maria Ca. This airline is a no thrills airline with some very good rates. I wanted to take the taxi but my wife wanted to take the shuttle so that is what we did. I think it was $6 per person, but we had to wait 15 minutes for the shuttle to fill up before it would leave. We were staying at TI so we were one of the last stops so we had a nice tour of some of the other hotel drop off spots. By the time we got into our room it was 9 pm, not sure how long the wait was for a taxi but I would imagine it would have been faster to take the taxi so if you are in a hurry avoid the shuttle.

We made a quick stop at the TI coffee shop and then onto poker. On this trip I wanted to play some serious poker and come home with a winning trip. But on this night it had been a long day and I felt I was not at a 100% so I decided to make this poker session one for entertainment and not for profit. Sat down at the 2-4 limit game at TI with $100 and ordered the first of many drinks for the night. This would be the only session that I would be drinking alcohol so I tried to have one in front of me at all times. This was an enjoyable session and only lost $72.

Wednesday pm session down $72

Thursday morning (Thanksgiving Day), I went across the street to the Ventian, physically this is my favorite room, very elegent, bright, big, and very comfortable chairs and the room still looks new. Sat down at the 1-2 NL table and started my quest to make poker a profitable game. I bought in with my typical $200 dollar starting stack. I do not remember any particular hands but I think it was this session where I got my first of three seperate times with quads on this trip. I had pocket fours and won the hand with quad fours. After about five hours I cashed out with a full rack of red $5 chips. Very memerable because this was the first time In my poker career that I had a full rack of red chips in front of me. I then went back to TI had a litle lunch and started my afternoon session at the TI poker room. Nothing much happened during this session, My wife arrived and I cashed out a little down. We waked across the street to check out the Wynn. This casino seemed a little hot and stuffy both physically and the atmosphere. With this being Thanksgiving night everywhere was busy, so we ended up back at the TI coffee shop. I then started my evening session at TI poker room, nothing memorable here and ended the session up.

Thursday:
AM Ventian session up $300
Afternoon TI session down $65
PM TI session up $79
Total for day up $314

Friday morning I went back to the Ventian because I wanted to play there noon $150 tournament. I arrived about 9 am so I sat down at the 1-2 NL table and this was the session that I had my first of four pocket kings hold up. I ended up getting quad Kings with this hand. The bad thing about this hand with quads and the one the day before is that there was no high hand bonuses. At 11:30 am I cashed out up $221 and took a short break before the noon tournament started. At noon sat down at my tournament table. The reason I chose this tournament to play in is because you start with 7500 tournament chips and the blinds go up every 30 minutes, so it is a very nice structure. Unfortunatly I did not get very many playable hands, had pocket aces once but everybody folded to my preflop raise of 4x the big blind. Last hand I had pocket 8's and was called by AQ with a Q on the flop and I was knocked out after 2 hours of play. I then went back to TI for an afternoon session. Nothing to memeroable here and ended down $135.

Friday:
AM Ventian session up $221
Ventian Tournament down $150
PM TI session down $135
Total for the day down $64

Saturday I got up early since I turned in early the night before. I joined a 1-3 NL table at TI that had been going on all night. I bought in for my usual $200 in chips. Then about the third hand I was dealt I get AQ. I do not have any read on the players yet. The flop was QQ6 rainbow and I am feeling pretty good about my hand so I decide to slow play it. Then turn is a 3 and it is just me and another player who is acting before me. He makes a small bet and I raise him the minimum and he goes all in and I instantly call, I am thinking he has a Q with a smaller kicker, maybe QK down to Q10. Well I was right he did have the Q with a smaller kicker the 3 so I lost $200 on my third hand of this session. I then make it my mission to take down this player, we will refer to him as LG loose aggresive, and retrive my chips back. It turns out this player plays very aggressively with any two cards so with a little patience I knew I would be able to get my chips back as long as he does not leave. Fortunatly he stays and plays. I rebuy for another $200. Later I am dealt AK and it ends up with me and LG. Flop is Axx rainbow and LG is betting so I just call. the turn is another blank, and LG makes another small bet and I call again. The flop is another blank and LG bets $100 and I just call because I worry he could easily have two pair. He turns over AQ and My AK takes him down, and I retrive my original $200. Later in this session I take down LG one more time for another $200, unfortunatly I do not remember the hand. It was during this session that I later learned that I was playing with Blue from AVP. Blue if you are reading this it was great playing with you. It was also during this session that I met Danette, day shift manager of TI and she is as nice in person as she is on AVP. After a 12 hour session I cashed out up $352. I meet my wife for dinner and then headed back to the TI poker room for a night session. I sit down at the 1-3 NL table with my $200 buy in. This is the session with the hand everyone dreams about.
I am dealt pocket Kings in late position. The UTG player raises it to $10 middle position player raises it to $20 and I make it $60. The UTG player folds and MP calls. The flop is KKx and I have just flopped quad kings. Before I can catch my breath the MP player says ALL IN. I am sitting here with flopped quads and this player is going all in before me. I tell him that I have to call and flip over my pocket Kings, I am not sure what he had but I think it was a middle pocket pair like fives. The rest of the hand was a blur but I raked in a $400 dollar pot and got an extra $100 from TI for having Quads. A little side note, if you are having trouble deciding weather to play at the Ventian or at TI I would take TI. I had two quad hands at Ventian and did not recieve any bounses while at TI I receved the extra $100 for getting quads there. Well I played a couple more hands and then cashed out up $357 for the session. It was during this session that I saw LVM and Yappy Dave but the room was very busy so I did not get a chance to introduce myself. Hopefully on my next visit.

Saturday:
AM TI session: up $332
PM TI session: up $357

Sunday, this was my last day before I had to fly back home so I wanted to get one last session in. Went down to TI poker room and joined the 1-3 NL game on table 7, same table that I had been playing at the previous morning and this table had been going continuisly for at least 36 hours at this point. I got to play with Blue again and a very interesting player from Texas, more on that later. I bring my $200 stack and find my seat. This is the session where I had a hand that I was truly confused on how to play it so please give me any and all constructive critisim on what I should have done differently. I am dealt QJ spades, I have been playing ALL suited high cards trying to hit the TI bounes hands for Royal flushes. A number of players limp in and the flop is 9-8-7 all spades. I have flopped a Q high flush with a inside straight flush draw for the bounes. I believe the betting went something like this; I bet $10 the Texas guy, who I do not have a good read on yet raises to $45, with two callers, one being Blue who I had played with the day before and I know is a good player. This is where I got lost on what to do. There is no way I am folding, but do I just call or raise, if I rasie then how much? I ask for time to think a little. I am pretty sure at least one person is on a flush draw with the Ace or King in there hand so I am worried about being drawn out on. I would also like to see the turn and river hoping I can hit the straight flush for the bounes. I decide to just call and hope there is not another spade unless it is the 10 of spades. The turn is a club and it is checked around. A little confusing to me so I assume no one has a made flush with the king or ace. The river is another club, and I was supposed to be the second to act but I got so excited that another spade did not come that I declared myself all in out of turn, this was a first for me and I have never acted out of turn like this before. Blue was suppose to act first so I appoligize if this affected your play. Also I would love to know what you had in this hand if you remember. Well everyone folded and I pulled in the pot. I do not know what the Texas guy had, put the fourth person in the pot had flopped three 7's. A player asked me what I had and I tod him I had QJ spades and he said there was no way I had that hand so I am thinking I should have played this hand very differenlty so any constructive notes would be greatly apprecated.
I little later I get pocket kings and a short stack player goes all in and I call. He turns over pocket aces and I flip over my pocket kings and figure the law of averages has cought up to me and my kings have lost. But the flop has a king and my kings have once again held up. Now we get to the interesting part of the story about the Texas player, not sure of his background but apprently he has money to burn and was just playing poker for the entertainent value. At one point Texas guy was just going all in on every hand. At this time texas guy has over $800 in front of him and Blue picks up pocket aces and goes all in with the Texas guy, so Blue rakes in a good pot of about $300. On the very next hand I pick up pocket kings again and I get it all in against the Texas guy, I have about $400 infront of me at this time. I turn over my pocket kings and Texas guy turns over something like J-6, well my pocket kings hold up for the fourth time on this trip and I rake in an $800 pot. I play for a couple more hours before I have to leave for the airport, but I did not have any other hands after that last big pot. I cashed out up $510.

Sunday:
AM TI session up $510

Overall trip up $1377
By far the best poker trip I have ever had.

On a side note there has been some talk on this site that there is a "love fest" at TI and that AVP caters to TI. Well I can say that there is a very welcoming feeling when you enter the TI poker room and the staff has gone out of there way to make every player wheather local or tourist feel welcomed. And I would like to say an extra thank you to Danette for the pm inviting me to introduce myself when I arrived which I did and she was very nice and took the time to talk to me and asked how I was doing, she has also taken the time to respond to my room review that I posted earlier. It is these little things that make the TI poker room so special. Now if you are looking to play in a room where there is strictly the business of poker going on then maybe TI is not right for you, but if you are looking for a room that is very freindly and you can find players ready to give away there money than the TI poker room is just the place you are looking for.