Arrived 2/17 around noon and went straight to O'sheas for some 1-5 spread limit. We actually enjoyed it, having never played spread limit before here on the East Coast. It was a fun and easy game to get our feet wet. The players were terrible of course and we dominated. Left slightly up. Hard to make a lot of money in a game with so many suck outs.

Headed back to Bill's (where we were staying) and got into their 1/2 NL game. The game was a mix of locals and tourists and the play was fairly predictable. Not a lot of strong raisers and a few players who saw any two cards. The interesting thing was that despite were we played the next day, the best player we saw all trip was at Bill's. He was a master. He simply looked and acted like a tourist, but played everyone differently and did a lot of little sneaky things that the others at the table weren't picking up on. Later when we called him on it he admitted that he used to live in Vegas and play for a living. He even showed up pix on his IPhone of him and a lot of the pros. In the endn he took a little money off us and I was now slightly down for the day.

After a little rest we ended up back at O'Sheas with a mix of locals and tourist and played until about 11. Again, we dominated and made a little money. Decided to go to bed and play for "real" at the Venetian in the morning (1/2 NL).

After a great breakfast at the Victorian Room at Bill's, we hit the Venetian around 8am. What an amazing place: professional and comfortable, with solid, but not unbeatable competion. I didn't have too many memorable hands, but I did double up with trip 8's at one point. I left around noon $100 up. My brother decided to stay to try to come back from the major bad beats he was taking (he was down $600). I headed to the Hard Rock for some more 1/2 NL.

Long story short, I killed for a while at the Hard Rock. The players were awful. I was up a lot until I got too loose and started joining in on the BSing, drinking, and name calling at this table. I saw one due literally drink 10 red bulls during my 3 hour session. I ended up losing everything I made at O'Sheas and Venetian by calling all-in's by very, very bad players. I simply didn't believe them and learned a valuable lesson about 2nd pair on the board and playing the player too much and not the cards.

In the end, I played more at O'Sheas for shits and giggles (even in a couple of their tourneys) and overall had a great time. I feel good about my time at the Venetian and do not regret the fun I had at the Hard Rock. Next time, I will play more seriously and try to make money (I did end up making money at craps during the trip). So overall, I still made out and had a great time.

By the way, my brother ended up getting out of his hole, moving up to 2/5 NL and walking away with $1500. Not a bad trip at all.

Happy playing! Good luck to all of you and thanks for reading!