I spent three days and lots of hours on a poker trip this last week, and had a great time, even with some horrible moments. My wife and I stayed at Harrah's, where we can usually get a comped room, but I won't play poker in the Harrah's room due to lack of comps and lack of competent management in that room. Had a horrible time there right when it first opened last year, and it doesn't look like it has changed.

I played 3/6 at Mirage the first night, sat down about 2 PM, and was seated immediately. Very nice room, generally good dealers, my only complaint is the slooow service for beverages. I don't fault the waitresses, but it looks like they have two servers for all 31 tables in the room. The action was great, we had the usual Mirage mix of three experienced players and some very green folk. I don't know if the table was so loose because of the WPT taping that week, but whatever it was, I had a good session. Almost all my good hands held up (man, it's a nice thing when statistics follow their course), and paid well. I went out up $187 for six hours of play, which doesn't count my tokes and beverage tips.

My wife had to get into a tourney the next day, but we had forgotten our laptop or the CP magazine with the list of tourneys. I did remember that Imperial Palace ran some tourneys, so we headed over there about 10 AM, checked it out, and they did have a $55 NL at 1 PM. We ate some breakfast, and sat in on a 2/4 game. I like the room and free coffee and donuts, and I love the $3 hour comps, but for some reason, my wife doesn't share my enthusiasm for the action. She likes the classier rooms. By the time the tourney came round, I was up $64, she was up $24, but we had to get going. I made it to the last 20 players after getting only four hands, but the great part was one of my hands I doubled up against my wife when I had QQ against her JJ, and called her all in on the flop of rags. I didn't knock her out, thankfully, but dented her stack horribly. The best play of the day, two players with pocket rockets went all in against another player who had 66 but flopped a set and turned quad 6's. It must have been a family day, as one of the players he eliminated was his dad. After I got eliminated, I played some more live 2/4, and finished up $28 after an hour. They do have good dealers, great management at IP, my only complaint is that the players never wanted to start even a 3/6 limit or 1/2 NL table. I have played NL there at night, with a great deal of $40 min/$100 max buyin.

We had to check out the room at Wynn that night (we hooked up with a friend of ours from LA), and the only negative thing I can say about the room is that I couldn't catch a hand other than second best for about five hours. I shouldn't gripe, but at a 4/8 table I had AA, raised and reraised preflop, did the same on the flop, yet still lost the hand to a fourth position caller with 3-4 x who turned two pair. I slowed down when he bet the turn and river, as he had been passive until then, but thems the breaks. One end of the table was inhabited by maniacs, and my end was trying to keep up, but only two out of the four of us could catch cards. One of the better players at my end, though, was up over $500 in the four hours we played. The dealer also misread my A high straight at one point and was going to chop it three ways to two K high straights, but was quickly corrected by me and one of the other players. The Wynn is a fantastic room, and with the one exception, great dealers, very experienced and professional floorman, and excellent drink service and very good looking servers. I'll go back there again, as the whole facility is great and they do offer a good midweek rate for poker players. I still wound up down $76 for the session, which isn't horrible, but sticks in my craw.

I wound up the night at the Mirage, 3/6 again, but my night of no cards and second best hands continued. I finally picked up about 3 AM, as I was both dog tired and sick of not getting playable cards...I had five BB around without having anything, and I mean anything, playable post flop. Down $36 for the session, but again, it could be worse. I wanted to see the free sandwich parade, but it wasn't meant to be.

The next day, we had a late breakfast, and my wife wanted to play at Bellagio, so we sat down for some 4/8. Now, I know the Bellagio is a top rated room, and the remodel is real nice and all, but I hated the room, the action, and the management. My hours of frustration from the night before continued, but only for an hour. We had another jerk who kept posting live straddle every fourth hand or so, and didn't let anything go without a reraise. Ordinarily, I LOVE this, but not when I'm running cold. After an hour, I was down to $48 of my original $100, but couldn't do a short buy of $20...I've never yet been in a cardroom that won't let you buy on with anything I wanted if I'm not felted, and certainly never been in one that won't allow one short buy, but to not permit it in these circumstances? I picked up, as I was already pretty ticked, and this really did my brain in.

The wife went on a twilight hike at Red Rock Canyon (and I recommend Red Rock to all you degenerates who need a break), but my LA friend and I went down to Mandalay Bay. One of the good locals at our table was singing the praises of Mandalay Bay, and man was he right. A 4/8 half kill game with $1 and $2 blinds, so I could see a lot more flops, and they have very nice high hand jackpots for quads and straight flushes. The room is small, about 18 tables, with some very soft players, a few good players, and some incredibly bad players (calling into a straight and flush board with pocket 88, which didn't connect with the board, you have to love it!). Very good dealers, on the hole, but some misconception about no flop no kill that we had to call the floorman to correct the dealer. The drink service excelled, the servers were gorgeous, and my Virgin Mary was so hot it brought tears to my eyes, just what I love. I kept catching cards, and they kept holding up, so I exited five hours later up $128.

Dinner bell and then on to the Mirage, after a pit stop at the Venetian for mango rasberry gelato. No wait for a 3/6 game, and very soft players. I played about three hours, chatted with the dealers, who were getting to remember me by then, and again, my hands held up and got completed. The most embarassing hand, I was on the small blind with 5-7 unsuited, and took the very passive action when I only called seven players on the end with my one card to the flush. No other clubs, so I took a decent pot with absolute junk. Thankfully, I've learned to say "Good for you!" when someone else does this, so no one was able to dish out the irony. One guy thought he knew the game, though, so kept riding me and paying me off until he left an hour later. We also had a couple off shift dealers at the table, and one woman who had been to Howard Lederer's poker camp, but I did fine. I left after about five hours, up $118, and irony of irony, my wife had passed me on the way over from Harrah's and got my old seat. So she got to hear critique of my play...which she shared with me. My favorite, "Well, he didn't play enough hands, but he did pretty well despite that."

All in all, a very good trip (hey, despite ten hours ice cold, still up $310 at the tables). As I said, I'll be back at Wynn and Mandalay Bay, but Bellagio is off my list (or at the tip top of it?) for ever. Best comps are still at Imperial Palace, but it is one of the smallest rooms around. The Mirage, too, will always be on my list of good rooms, especially if there is a tournament on.