I was really looking forward to my trip to Vegas. I hadn't been since the 1st week in December. My husband always lets me go by myself because he doesn't really care for Las Vegas. I prefer to go by myself anyway, that way I can do what whatever I want on my own timeline. What I want to do is poker, poker and more poker.

Brett put an audio book on CD for me to listen to on the long drive between Phoenix and Las Vegas. I was listening to True Evil by Greg Iles. I left my house by 8:30 Friday morning. Just outside of town there was a slight delay due to an accident involving the rollover of a horse trailer. Unfortunately, it looked like one of the horses was dead on the ground. Maybe this was a sign that I wasn't going to have a good trip?

Traffic ended up being pretty light up through Kingman so I decided I was safe to travel over Hoover Dam instead of going around through Laughlin. I rolled into Vegas around noon, local time. I made it in 4.5 hours, not too shabby. I checked in my Capri room at Imperial Palace. The Capri rooms are the rooms around the back of the hotel near the parking garage. They seem to be a bit bigger than the regular rooms but are decorated pretty much the same. It's a bit of a hike to the casino but you don't have to deal with the umber slow elevators. Plus I was close to the parking garage for easy access to my car.

I still see my hairdresser that I used when I lived in Vegas. This way I have to come over to Vegas once every 6 - 8 weeks, as necessary. My husband probably thinks this is a scam and he is probably right!

After getting rid of my gray, I went back to IP, changed clothes and made my way over to Planet Hollywood. I wanted to play the 7pm deepstack tournament. The starting chip stack is T15000 and the blinds start at 100/200. With the blinds starting that high, I don't think this is really a true deepstack but it was still fun. We started with around 3 players and the top 4 would be paid. It was $150 to enter. My first table was pretty weak, I was able to accumulate quite a few chips.

I had a couple of Captain Morgans and Diet Cokes. After about 2.5 hours we get to the final table. The gentleman next to me asked my name and then introduced himself as D-Rod from AVP. It was nice meeting him in the tournament. One hand I remember, player in early position with an average chip stack shoved all in preflop. I went all in (I had him covered), everyone else folds. I had AA he had 33. Before I even knew what happened the dealer was pushing him the pot. He had hit a friggin' flush. I ended up taking D-Rod out (Sorry D-Rod!) of the tournament. When we were 5 handed I asked if we could pay the bubble their money back. Everyone was ok with that. I guess it was a good deal because don't you know I was knocked out next? They all gave me $40 from their pockets for a total of $160. I made a $10 profit. Yippeee!

I saw SoCalMike playing a 1/2NL game so I went and talked to him for a few minutes. After a bit I noticed Jason Alexander (George Costanza) was sitting at his table! I imagine he will be playing at Planet Hollywood quite a bit since he is going to be in a show there. D-Rod was also staying at Imperial Palace so I offered him a ride back. We both got in a game at IP. I ordered another Captain and Diet Coke. While I was playing my abdomen started burning. After a bit I decided I would go back to my room and go to bed since I wasn't feeling well.

Next morning I woke up around 5:30 and my stomach was on fire! I had been having a burning sensation in my abdomen for a couple of weeks off and on but it was nothing like this. I thought I was going to die! I was nauseated, in a cold sweat, shaking, crying and in some serious pain! I called my husband at 7:00 am and asked him what I should do. For the first time I wished my husband was in Vegas with me! He told me to find an urgent care. I found one on my iphone map behind Planet Hollywood but when I got there at 8:00, it was closed. I tried another one on Flamingo and it was also closed! I guess you can't get sick early in the morning in Vegas. LasVegasMichael suggested on twitter that I try Desert Springs Hospital on Flamingo so I went there.

I got into the ER and they took some blood, urine and ran a few tests. I was dehydrated, had an infection, and probably an ulcer so they got me started on a couple of bags of IV fluid, some antacid, anti-nausea medicine, and morphine. After several hours, they sent my on my way with several prescriptions and direct orders to not eat anything spicy or drink ANY alcohol or caffeine. Great.

After picking up my prescriptions at CVS, I went back to IP and crashed for a few hours. I woke up and there was a text from SoCalMike asking if I wanted to go eat some sushi. I was feeling better so I decided to go. We went to this nice place just off the strip. It was $22 for all you could eat. I love sushi and it was pretty darn good! After dinner we went to Planet Hollywood and met my friend Brandy there. Brandy lives in Henderson but I know her from Alaska. Brandy and I got in a 1/2 NL game and Mike got in a 2/5 game. I lost the minimum in a hand with a guy who turned quads to my AA. He made over $200 in a high hand bonus. A couple of hands later his wife busted out. As she was getting up he gave her the rack of chips with his HH bonus in it and also took $100 of his original stack and put it in the rack and she walked away from the table with it, leaving him with only about $75. I told the dealer he just took chips off the table. The dealer told him he couldn't do that. The guy got pissy and left. I wasn't feeling very well so I decided to call it a night. I cashed out up $100.

Superbowl Sunday I was trying to figure out where to play. I decided to give Mandalay Bay another try. I haven't been there since they did away with many of their nitty rules. I must say it was a much better experience than the last time I played there. I stayed about an hour but I just wasn't "feeling it" there. I was card dead. I cashed out down and decided to see what was going on at Planet Hollywood. Perry and SoCalMike were playing 1/2NL there. I got into a different game. The room was pretty dead. Because I don't see any point in sitting in boring games I decided to go over to Aria.

Aria is a beautiful building. It kind of feels like an airport when you drive up to the valet. When I got to the poker room I stood at the podium for about 10 minutes before anyone acknowledged me. I could see the floor people walking around but no one took the time to come up to the podium to see if they could help me. There weren't even that many games running! Finally, after 10 minutes someone came over after there were about 8 of us waiting. When I got to the game I but $200 down on the table. The dealer dealt me 3 hands and I finally said, "Is there a chip runner or something?" She said, "Oh yeah!" and yelled for one. Duh! I need chips to play this game. I was quite annoyed with the customer service. This is the same type of service players complain about at Bellagio. I will say the drink service was excellent. The cocktail servers made me feel welcome even though I wasn't drinking.

I lost my money when I had 10 10. The flop was A A 10. Of course the guy had AA. Then he slow rolled me. I didn't have a good experience at Aria. I don't say this because I lost money. The customer service I experienced was unacceptable. I decided I would just take my car back to Imperial Palace and walk around there. When I got back to IP the poker room was a little dead so I decided to go see what was going on at O'Sheas. O'Sheas was the party place during Superbowl! I got in the 2-6 spread game and made $100 in less than 1 hour. When the game was over O'Sheas had a classic rock band. They were playing some awesome music but it was so loud in there I decided to go back to IP.

I got in a new 1/2 game at IP. I got there just in the nick of time because the room filled up and they had long lists for everything! I played for a couple of hours but I was having a hard time staying alert because I had taken a painkiller. It's kind of like playing drunk. I had one hand that I semi-recall. I had 88 and the flop was 8cKcJd. There was about $50 in the pot preflop. I bet $40 on the flop everyone folded but 1 guy. He called. I thought, he must have a king. Turn was a 2h, other guy checked and I bet $50. The guy called. I don't remember what the river was but it was a club. He checked. I thought for a minute. I don't think he has the club because he wouldn't have called $40 then $50 on a flush draw. And he would have bet the river. I shoved and he called. He turned over 6c7c. Doh! My bad for betting the river. I couldn't believe he called the flop and turn bets with a small flush draw! I decided I had enough for the night and cashed out what I had left.

I ended up down about $300 for the trip. I was disappointed I didn't get a poker-packed weekend as I intended. I'm still battling the ulcer. I saw my doctor here at home and he gave me some more medicine and said the same thing: no alcohol, no caffeine, no spicy food.