Arrived 9:30pm local time on Monday Sept 29th, get to Bally¡¦s and give my friends who are already there a quick call on the cell phone to find out where they are playing and what room we are staying in. Find out they have left me a key at the front desk and they are playing at Planet Hollywood. I get the key and get a little freshened up and walk next door to PH to see what is going on. I get there and they decide that they have had enough at PH and need to get a little sustenance. Can¡¦t even remember the name of the place but I go grab a sub of some sort back at Bally¡¦s and we all get into a game at Bally¡¦s around midnight

I sit down at a 1-2NL game and quickly double up with my two pair against a player chasing a flush who spikes an ace on the river and shoves all in, I really didn¡¦t think he spiked a bigger two pair but I wasn¡¦t exactly happy about being in this spot less then an hour into playing in vegas turns out he had an ace high flush draw and spiked top pair. I play until 6am before I really start to hit a wall physically and I start playing very poorly and I give back some of the money I won early on, still not a terrible first day as I book +150 to the good in 6 hours of playing. My buddies who were there since early morning on Monday also both come out ahead on the day about 300 and 100 respectively.

I head to bed and get a solid 4 hours sleep wake at 11am or so and me and one buddy decide we want to play in the noon tourney at Venetian. I am out before the first break played extremely poorly being far to aggressive in such a slow paced tourney but my buddy is doing well so I decide to see what the V is offering for cash, I see a 4-8 limit Omaha Hi-lo game with just about enough players interested for them to be opening it. I wait about 20 minutes before they call the players to start the game. It was actually a nice relaxed game with everyone playing pretty tight for a limit game. I scoop a few pots early but end up being down about 50 bucks but the really cool thing was who was sitting two to my left at the game. None other then Tom Sexton, the older brother of the voice of the WPT ¡K Mike is a spitting image of Tom and they both have that soft spoken voice, he regales the table with some very interesting stories including what he thought of Scotty¡¦s antics at the HORSE championship as he was there for most of the final table and he says ESPN made Scotty look good compared to what he witnessed live. There were players at the table asking him to call their buddies pretending to be Mike and he graciously did so and even did a spot on impression of Mike calling action on the WPT with Vince, it was pretty damn cool.

After that I decide its time for some real drinking so we head to the IP for some beer pong after my buddy busts out around 20th spot in the nooner and proceed to tie one on pretty good, we decide that we again need something to eat or we won¡¦t make it past 10pm before we pass out so we pick up my other friend at Bally¡¦s and walk behind the casino to Ellis Island for some 7 dollar steak and some half decent micro brew. Finish up there around 9pm with some half decent food in my belly and lots of good beer. We walk back to Bally¡¦s where we once again split into two groups the one I was with most of the day wants to play some more poker and me and my other buddy decide we want to walk the strip with a few beers in hand and see what we can see. We head out around 10pm and just walk the strip every once in a while stopping at various casinos and seeing what they have to offer for some drunk low limit poker unfortunately most that we walked into only had one or two games going, even tried to hit the Harrahs 40 buy in with re-buys but was cancelled as there was only 3 people interested, walk down past Venetian across the road to TI who only has one game going which was 1-3NL, keep walking and making sure to keep drinking and finally decide we need to do some gambling, we walk into the Mirage and we had to decide if we wanted to play 3-6limit of 1-2NL, we decided on the 1-2NL and even though I was drunk I knew enough to set a stop loss on the night of just the one buy in, as we were really just looking to get off our feet have a couple of more drinks as we had plans for later in the night. We play for about 3 hours before I bust out when I river an under full with 44 on a flop of J77 that the original raiser slow plays to the river, should have really seen that one coming but what can I do. My friend wants to play one more orbit so I sit at 3 Card Poker with 100 bucks and quickly lose that before the orbit is finished, lol, so much for the stop loss. My friend leaves with a tiny profit and we walk downstairs to the nearest pay phone and call us the Sapphires limo to come get us. We are in luck as he is right around the corner and will be there in 4 minutes he says. We get a beer for the road and head over to watch some ballet. The women in vegas are some of the most beautiful in the world, I proceed to lose another 200 somewhere at Sapphires didn¡¦t even realize they spread poker but what can I say. Get back to the room around 9am and I am passed out before my head even hits the pillow (there is a legitmate reason for this as it turns out I passed out with my head at the foot of the bed). Tally on the day down 500, tally for the two days down 350. Even though a rough day in poker, had a lot of fun.

Day 3 we decided we are going to hit old vegas as this is my one buddies 4th time to vegas and has never been downtown. We get downtown around 3:30 and walk around check out Binions and the poker half of fame, not much going on there in terms of poker, I convince the guys that we need to try some Deep Friend Oreos or Twinkies as people on here say they are to die for and they didn¡¦t disappoint. We walk over to the Nugget and I take both the guys to see the pool as it is one of the coolest I have seen in vegas, we then head to the poker room were we each sit down at a 1-2NL game with the intention of playing for a few hours then checking out the Fremont Experience. I sit with 200 as there is only two people with any significant stacks even though it is an uncapped buy in. I catch some cards early getting lucky when I river two pair with my QQ against a player that turns bottom two, I get hit by the deck a bit and before I know it I have close to 800 in front of me until a regular sits down and proceeds to go runner runner for a flush with KJ against my AA on mono flop that was 9 high (posted this hand in the analysis forum), back down to 350. What really pisses me off isn¡¦t the fact he went runner runner as his intention was to float me on the flop as he didn¡¦t think I was strong and make a play on the turn but then he ended up with a flush draw so he smoothed the turn and rivered the flush what really put me on tilt was that the hand came up 5 hands into his play and then after taking me for more then 400 proceeds to ask for a table change and is gone with my money before he even makes an orbit of the table. As I hadn¡¦t really started drinking yet I decide to take a dinner break to try and calm down. My friends decide not to join which I am cool with, I grab a chicken sandwich from The Grille and a beer or two and start to calm down. I head back to the poker room with the intention of playing a good solid game and not try to push the action to get some of the money back unfortunately this plan just wasn¡¦t going to work as a couple of young extremely aggressive players are sitting at my table know with more then 1K in front of them. I have to make a decision am I going to gamble with these young guns or grab my small profit and find a game that is less apt to cost me a small fortune as I am still teetering on the edge of full blown tilt. I decide to sit down and mix it up with these guys. Standard pre-flop raise before I left was 12 it is now 16 with many being re-raised and tonnes of bluffs being shown, so I get right in there and start 3 and 4 betting. I actually bust a couple of times when I can¡¦t win a flips, I lose with AK soooted to 10-10 all in pre flop, I get cold decked when I have KK vs AA, before I know it my 600 profit from earlier in the afternoon has now turned into me being stuck 800 but I know this game is so juicy and actually so much fun I just couldn¡¦t leave. I buy in for another 500 as the average stack sizes have grown considerably. The time is now around 3am and when have been playing for about 11hours. We continue to play until 9am or so and some of the hands were just plain crazy. For instance I have around 600 in front of me, I raise from early position with KJ sooooted to 16 with every intention of 4 betting if the super aggro kid plays at me again, of course he does, he makes it 70, I in turn make it 240, leaving me about 300 behind, he gives a little speech and goes on about how he is going to really put me to the test and he announces all in and I snap call as he has been talkative all night but hasn¡¦t given a speech like there in the 7 hours of playing with him which screamed weakness to me and I¡¦ll be damned if I didn¡¦t catch him playing back at me with J5 sooooted, board blanks out but I win a 1200 pot with K high, pretty sweet. One tough looking dude sees this and decides he has had ¡¥enough of this shit¡¦ and pulls out a wad of 100¡¦s and puts it in play, was tough to get an answer out of him how much it was but he assured everyone that is was more then enough to cover the big stack at the table which was close to 1500. I win a few more big pots lose a few more big pots and end the 19 hours session with a profit of 30 bucks, which I am pleased with as I was in for 1300 ƒº. This was some of the most fun I have ever had at a poker table (except the AA vs KJ early on), the game had some huge action but everyone at the table for the most part was having fun with it. For the record you know you have put in a long session when the first dealer you had when you sit down has come back in for his next shift the morning the after and is dealing to you again

Tally for the day +30, tally for the trip down 320.

Once again we get back to the hotel around 10am and actually set the alarm for 2pm as this is my last day (plane leaves at 10:15 that night) and I don¡¦t want to spend it sleeping. Got up around 2pm went for some breakfast and proceeded to sit in the 1-2 game at Bally¡¦s and once again bust after I flop broadway with q10 soooted from late position, on a board of AKJ, with two clubs, EP bets 6 into 12 buck pot, gets one other caller, I make it 36 total, EP and MP both call. Turn is a 6, bringing two diamonds and two clubs on the board, EP checks, MP shoves for about 60, I over shove for about 200 more. EP thinks it over for about minute and finally calls, the river comes the 7 of diamonds. EP shows Q4 of diamonds, MP mucks, I had already showed my hand. He makes some comment about how he couldn¡¦t fold it, I make a comment about it being well played which gets a laugh out of the dealer, I actually had the EP player covered for 5 bucks, I take a quick look at my watch and see that it is after 7 and I have to leave for the airport around 830 and I still had to pack, I flip the 5 bucks to the dealer and leave. I go up to the room and pack, come back downstairs and walk across the street to the Bellagio to check out the room, see if any big games were going on, nothing to speak of. Come back to Bally¡¦s and decide to give 3 card one more try before leaving, very first hand with only a 5 on pair plus, I get dealt JJJ paying out 30 to 1 I just made a quick 150+ a little for the other payouts, I again flip the dealer a 5, notice he wants to play along with me (I was actually ready to leave), next hand I get AA, we both win he takes his money and I asked to be colored up and I leave. Pretty close to breaking even on the day and being down about 350 on the trip.

All in all a really fun trip not exactly profitable, could have been a lot better if I didn¡¦t have some bad luck and a little more good luck as the games were pretty juicy but then again I was stuck 1K at the nugget not even 48hours ago so it could have been a lot worse as well. Already trying to figure out when I am going to get back

Chris