Who: 7 friends (5 guys and 2 wives) who have been playing low stakes home games for 2-3 years. Only 2 of us have ever played a B&M tournament in the past.

Friday:
Six of us flew out Friday morning from Greenville, SC on Allegiant Air. We arrived at 9:00am with plans to hit the noon $150 Venetian. Dropped 2 guys of at Imperial Palace and the rest headed to the Signature. Luckily our rooms were ready so we checked in and then headed to the Venetian.

We arrived at the Venetian with less than an hour to spare so we grabbed a quick lunch and off we went. All six of us played this game. I think there were around 60 players total. Four of us were out in the first 2hrs. I hit trip 4's on the flop from the BB with an A kicker only to be felted by trip 4's with a K kicker and a K on the turn. After about 7 hours of play, 2 players had made it to the final table and took home 5th and 3rd place respectively for $800 and $1075. A great start to what turned out to be a great weekend.

Next up was the 7pm Grinder game at Planet Hollywood for $60 buy-in with maybe 80-90 players. Because 2 players were still alive in the Venetian game, only 3 of us played this one (one husband stayed to support his wife at the final table). Your's truly was first to be administered my second bad beat of the day but it wasn't the biggest blow to my ego. Before you know it, my wife, who River Queened her way there and our other player were 3-handed for the money. After 40-50 minutes and no clear leader, a deal was made and they collected $612 each. OK, now we have played two tournaments and 4 out of 6 have cashed. This was my wife's second B&M cash (I have ZERO) and she just started playing in our home games this January.

Saturday:
On to Saturday morning and another try at the 10am $60 buy-in game at the Planet Hollywood with 40 or so players. This is where we played the rest of our tournaments because of the location, nice room, and good structure. Once again all six played this game. Both wives made the final table with one just missing the money and my wife taking 5th place for $249.

OK, now the wife has cashed twice on this trip and once on our trip in March which puts me behind 0-3 in cashes. I am beginning to get sympathy and encouragement from fellow travelers who keep telling me that my time is coming just hang in there......whatever!!! Three games and 3 badbeats so my luck is due to change, right???

Five of us head off to the 2pm PH game including one guy who just arrived and there are 103 runners this time!!! The affects of being awake 23 hours the previous day and only sleeping 4 hours was taking it's toll but we kept going because, "It's all about the poker" on this trip. The second hand told me that my fortunes had changed and I was definitely going to do well in this game. I hit a full house holding pocket 10's with a 10 and two A's on board, knowing the other guy hit a set of A's. I got all-in on the river and he called to see the bad news. I was on my way. About 8 hands later I was out and trying to figure out why I thought pocket J's were invincible. Nothing interesting from the group in this game as the wives outlasted the guys, again, but did not cash.

Off to get some sleep and maybe make it back for the 7pm game but it's a little after 5pm already so it looks slim. I get a call around 6:15pm from some of the guys who had been resting earlier to see if I want them to sign me up. The wife doesn't feel like playing and I'm not exactly feeling great either. At about 6:40pm I decide that this trip is "All about the poker" and I call them to sign me up and I'll walk over.

The game had about 80-90 runners. I got a lot of good hands and ran well enough to make it to the final table with the chip lead. At 3 handed we were close in chips and offered to chop the pot 3 ways for a little under $700 each. A younger guy who had just made a huge run from low stack to 2nd in chips says he has a good hand and will consider a deal on the next hand and raises to 40k. I have nothing and fold. Chip leader says he also has a good hand and pushes all-in. Young guy calls and shows AJ to the leader's pocket 6's. Pair holds up and young guy takes down $390 which was $300 less than he was offered a couple minutes ago. The other guy and I had been at the same table the whole tournament and decided to split the money $940 and $700 since he now had a little better than 2:1 chip lead and it was 11:30pm. Second place only paid $547 which was equal to a 2:1 split so I liked the deal. I am now off the hook and only down 1-3 in cashes to the wife.

Sunday:
Last day and our flight leaves at 11:00pm tonight. We have to check out of our hotels and head to Planet Hollywood for the 10am game. There are 30-something players and we have all 7 from our group playing this one. Before you know it two of us are sitting at the final table along with a chipstack from a guy who went all-in and walked off after his opponent hits a set of Kings on the turn. The river flushes the guy who left and this dead stack stayed from around 18 players all the way to 9th or 10th place. Pretty funny. We were at the bubble and I asked if anyone wanted to pay the bubble his/her buy-in of $60 but nobody agreed. Next hand a guy goes all-in and I catch pocket 10's. He has enough chips to hurt me and I don't want to get bubbled for $0. Naturally I call and my pair holds up to give me a solid chip lead with 6-7 players. We get down to 4 players including another one of our guys, and the dealer says a 4-way chop is $300 each which is a few $ more than 2nd place so we all agree. Besides it's only an hour before the next game starts and "It's all about the poker".

I have now closed the gap to 2-3 on the wife with one tournament to go but there is one negative thing, everyone on the trip except one guy has cashed and we are all hoping, praying, whatever it takes that he will hit in our last game. We definitely didn't go there expecting that everyone would cash but when you have 6 out of 7, nobody wants the 7th guy to hit more than the rest of the group.

The 2pm game ends up with 99 players so it won't be easy. I get placed at the same table with the other girl from our group who gets low stacked early but sucks out 44 vs AA and AJ vs AA to build a respectable stack. She is now known as SuckOut Queen. I run into A's vs J's and go out around 30th or so. As it gets down to 2 tables it didn't look to good for the lone non-cash guy of our group as his stack had been cut down pretty low. However he caught some hands and both he and his wife were at the final table. They agreed to pay 10th $100 which our friend picked up and his wife took 5th for $255.

Overall we had 38 entries among 7 players and cashed 10 times. We never expected to do this well. Total profit was over $2k counting buy-ins and rebuys (only had 2 rebuys total).

Just curious what anyone's thoughts are on these results. How is the competition level at PH? We are not total fish but this was most of the group's first time in a game with more than 15-20 people.

Thanks to all those who support AVP because the information on this site was very helpful in planning our trip. Keep up the good work.

Sorry so long but there was a lot of excitement in our weekend. Please let me know if you any questions or comments.

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