adding first poart that did not print.

Flight to Vegas from LA, as usual, easy and quick with SW. Checked in @ MGM @ the airport. That was nice, easy and convenmient. MGM is first stop on the shuttle. Checked into a west wing room as this blog told me it is closest to the poker room. At MGM that's important. The place is so huge that some employees get lost. Great package @ MGM. $178 in a west wing room for 2 nights. $35 in food credits, 2 continental breakfasts, 2 drinks and 2 inflated tubes @ the pool which I never got to.Coffee and croissonts in the room really good. Modern art decoish room with huge shower. Room smallish, but plenty for 2 people. I was alone. View of a brick wall, that should have been a message. Really don't care about a strip view and the room was very quiet. Ate 3 times @ Puck. Best turkey club in a long time, also a great sausage pizza. With a $25 comp from the MGM room my entire bill was under $200. End of the good news.

I'm a $4-8 limit player. Becoming an extinct game during the day. MGM had no limit games about 8 in the morning. So I walked over to Bellagio whose minimum game is $4-8 limit. One table where there are usually 2 or 3. 45 minute wait. I'm relatively card dead and after about 3 hours I'm down about $150. I always enjoyed the Bellagio, good dealers and management. A bit crowded and the $4-8 is in a dark corner, but no dunce caps. Go back to MGM. Good excercise, about a 25 minute walk one way. Vegas is going to be a great town if they ever finish it. This city center project is humongous. About 4 or 5 blocks between Bellagio and Monte Carlo. Oh, dropped into Monte Carlo because of this site about 9 AM. Just me and the counter guy were there. But it is a very pretty and comfortable looking room. Never got to play there. Back to MGM, where if I'm going to play. its $2-$4. I play for a few hours and drop a hundred bucks playing too aggressively to try and stay awake. I'm still relatively card dead. Little did I know that that was the good news. Finally about 6 PM we get a $4-8 game. Great group of people. One guy invited me to his barbecue in N. Carolina. 2 other guys from Calgary were great fun.

Anyway, Im still relatively card dead with those great hands that you should raise and must play. Pocket kings, jacks and others. four of a suit or an open ended straight. Well I must have had 4 of a suit 25-35 times, most of them on the flop. I made only one flush and lost to a higher flush. My best loser was a flop of a straight to the seven. I ,ve got a guy raising me even though I've got the nut. So I obliged by capping every bet. River brings a pair of 8s which of course does me in. Still it was great game and I do love my poker in spite of its infidelity. Last day I was there about a repeat of the first 2. Walk to the Bellagio in the morning. Back to MGM for the rest of the day. Ended up dropping $800. The town was very quiet on Sunday and Monday. Lots of people worried about their jobs in this economy. I can't recommend the MGM too highly. I was extremely comfortable and the price, for the hotel , was low. Already looking forward to my next deposit in Jan.

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