Flew out to vegas on July 3 with the wife, who also plays poker...landed around 12 and got to the home base Stratosphere around 1:00 and our grand suite wasn't quite ready so we hop on the monorail to MGM.

I won't detail my wife's week in detail, although she lost about $200 overall in cash games and placed 4th and 3rd on the Excalibur morning tourneys on Thursday and Saturday and we chopped a SNG at the Plaza 3 way for $110 a piece.

CASH GAMES

First session at MGM buy in for $200 and wait 1 hand before I am the big blind...get AK off in blind and have a raise to $15 and a call in front of me so I flat call....flop of QQJ and it is checked around....10 on the turn with flush draw and I check, original raiser bets $15, caller raises to $60 and I push in $160 to take the pot down, which I do....end the session up $291...most interesting hand was one I did not play...33 on the button, still stacking my chips from earlier and UTG raises to $15 and 3 callers....I fold 33 to see a flop of 3K3...2 people end up all in with AA and I assume AK for a pot well over $700...which could have been mine!

Tuesday night at Stratosphere buy in for $200 and seem to make every hand, although no really big pots....connecting on my straights and hitting several nut flushes....end session up $275.

Wednesday morning head downtown to play at Binion's in hopes of earning a seat into the $500 tounrney that day....sit down with $200 before the SNG and don't win a hand and miss several darws, end session down $120....

Wednesday night hit Excalibur....not sure what it is but I have never had a losing session here...$200 buy in and within the first 45 minutes have AA, KK and QQ all holdup and end session up $418.....

Thursday morning back to Excalibur and while wife plays the tourney I buy in for $200 and within 3 hours have a stack of $727...catch AA on a live stradle and get all the money in against KK.

Head to the pool Thursday afternoon and then back to Stratosphere and buy in for $200 before dinner....nothing much in the way of cards and lose $60....off to dinner at Emeril's in MGM and then back to MGM poker room...$200 buy in, cash out for $438 a bit later....

Friday, go shopping with the wife and head to the Rio...pretty cool what was going on. Got our pics taken with Esfandiari, Furgeson, Laak, Duke, Hachem, Harmon, Raymer, Tony G, and Liz Liu?

Early Saturday morning wired from Sahara win and sit at the Stratoshpere about 5:00....within 30 minutes I have $657 after calling a guys all in with 66 against a junk board with his Ak...2 hands later i pick up TT and he goes all in in the dark, another player goes all in for $67, and I bust both of them when the original guy has 85 and the smallall in doesn't pair his AQ...pick up 99 later and limp to a pot and hit 29K on the flop....player bets $15 and call....turn is a blank, he checks, I bet $60, he calls, river nothing, check, I bet $100 and he calls, turns over AK....cahs out $672 in just over an hour.

Saturday morning head to Excalibur and then a quick session at MGM before heading to the airport....no sleep since Friday morning and it was starting to show....$200 buy in both times and ended down $90 at Excalibur and $75 at MGM.

TOURNEYS

Stratosphere.... $60 buy in...played this twice and lasted around 13th the second time....4000 in chips, not a bad structure....

Plaza..... $40 SNG and chopped 3 ways, 1 was wife, for $110 a piece......

Binion's...$120 SNG for 2 seats, we added $40 a piece and 3 seats were awarded....just couldn't get anything going and was out in 7th when my AJ lost to AA on an A49 flop.

Sahara....played this twice...Tuesday and Friday....lasted about 3 hours Tuesday and chopped 9 ways Friday out of 119 players....My first table was SO BAD and it was 100 degrees in there drinking warm beer...players calling reraises with Q5 off and hitting....I was all in blind at 11:45 with my last 1700 so I could make the Stratosphere 12:00 tourney and was called by two players....the player to my right had an AVP print out so I hope he sees this....anyway called by KQ and K6 and I hit my straight on the river....now I am stuck here and ride some tight, aggressive play and timely hands to a chop....which wasn;t bad...we all had about the same amount of chips....I was actually the short stack with 9 left at 31,000 and went all in 3 consecutive hands with no callers to pick up 36,000 in blinds....the chop left all of us with more than 3rd place money.

OVERALL ROOMS....

Stratosphere...small, more like a hole in the wall...decent dealers and management....soft games, decent tourney

Excalibur.....love this room...management was nice and professional, delaers old, but competent...play was poor to below average...small tourneys for beginners

MGM...nice room, not a fan of the marble, like most....seated rather quickly and room is always busy....lost of big stacks at table that can be intimidating, but I like that as more money is on the table for the taking....

Binion's....not too bad, although I didn't win here....early in the morning, like 11:00 so not much action going on.

Plaza...no games at 10:00 in the morning, but they do run $40 SNG's with a good structure.

Hooter's...walcked by the room which had 2 tables going, no interest in playing, just there for the wings and sights....

Planet Hollywood....stopped by after dinner and room was packed....did not play here although it looked like a great action room.

OVERALL RESULTS....

Cash games +2136
Tourneys....+261
Blackjack...-200
Craps....-200
Slots...+350

Up $2347 for the trip in gambling, minus expenses for food and other items the wife bought and came home with just over $1800 more than I left with....very nice trip and Thanks to everyone at AVP for all their posts and insights into Las Vegas...we are already planning our next trip, hopefully some time in September.