I had a business conference in Scottsdale Arizona and decided to combine my son’s spring break for a family vacation to Scottsdale, Grand Canyon and of course Las Vegas.

I’ll start this trip report from Scottsdale since I stayed at the Fort McDowell Casino Resort and I played limit poker for the first time. What a difference it is to the no-limit tournament poker that I’m used to playing at our friendly neighborhood bar in Atlanta (of course for no money). Apparently, no-limit poker is not allowed in Arizona (they allow 5 – 150 poker), so I decided to try my luck at limit poker. I knew from reading other trip reports that I would open with a broader choice of hands and that I would be chasing straights and flushes, so I wasn’t completely clueless. I played at the lowest limits which were 3-6. I did fairly well and at the end of three days, I was up $200. Good start for the trip. An interesting hand was the following one: I hold A 9 and the flop shows A 9 9 for the flopped full house. I bet and got called by 3 other players. The turn is a 10, and I bet out 6 and was raised to 12, which I reraised to 18 and it was capped at 24 with one other player still remaining. I’m thinking that he had A 10 for the top two pair. The turn is a Q and I led out for 6. It was raised to 12 and I reraised to 18. The other player called, and I turned over my full house only to find that he had a pocket pair of 10’s for the better full house. I didn’t see that one coming. Lesson learned.

After Scottsdale, we went through Sedona (my wife thought it was great…I liked it, but think it’s overrated) and stayed in Flagstaff. The next day, we visited the Grand Canyon (South Rim). WOW. That is something to see. I can’t believe that it is 10 miles from rim to rim! Left the Grand Canyon at around 4pm and made the 4.5 hour drive to Las Vegas. We valet parked the rental car at Bally’s and checked in to our super discounted standard room for the two nights that we were staying in Vegas (Thursday-$47 and Friday-$107). I used the $20 trick, but the young man behind the counter told me that he can give me an upgrade but it would only have a king size bed. I declined since we were traveling with our 10 year old son and wanted two queen size beds. He did give us a great room with a view of the strip without the need of the $20. That would mean an extra $20 for some poker fun or food.

At about 10pm, after the wife had her 30 minutes to freshen up, we decided to get a quick bite to eat. Since we still had the rental car, I decided to take the family downtown to also see the light show. We parked at Binions and got the parking ticket validated in the casino and got some pizza and saw the light show while eating the overpriced greasy pizza. I remember the light showwas better the last time I saw it than what it was this time. I asked my wife whether she was tired and wanted to go to the hotel and she said yes, so off we went back to Bally’s. As soon as we got there, I bade goodnight to the family and headed to the Poker Room. I asked for the first available table (either no limit or limit) and was seated at the 3-6 limit table. I had a 3 hour session at which time, my exhaustion from the drive and the hiking at the Grand Canyon caught up with me. Nothing memorable at this session other than the feeling that I have this limit holdem poker figured out. I did make a $75 gain, so I’m up $275 for the trip. I don’t drink all that much so I just drank some coffee to keep me awake. At 4am, I hit the sack.

The next morning (Friday), I woke up at 9am (you don’t sleep a lot in Vegas) and after showering and eating a quick chocolate croissant, I returned the rental car to the off-airport rental car facility. For those of you that have returned a rental car in Vegas, you know what I mean. I was going to go back to the airport and then take a shuttle to the Venetian for the 12noon tournament, but seeing that it was almost 11:20, I took a taxi and got there in time to register have some coffee and gamble at the craps table for 15 minutes until the tourney started. Nothing lost-nothing gained at the craps table, I headed to my seat, and the best structured tournament that I know of in Vegas gets started. I was up and down for the first three blind sessions with nothing of interest. After the break, with the blinds at 100-200 with a 25 ante, I get pocket 7’s in the small blind. I have about 6000 in chips. Middle position raises to 400 and I reraise to 1200. Middle position calls. The flop is 7 9 Q, and I bet 1000. Middle position reraises to 2500 and at this point, I’m committed, so I go all-in. Middle position doesn’t waste too much time calling my all-in and flips over pocket Q’s for a higher set to beat my set of 7’s. Maybe I was too aggressive pre-flop, but no matter how I played this hand, I was going to lose big. Also, I wasn’t too focused since I was thinking of wife and son and whether it was inconsiderate to leave them to fend for themselves. A quick call to them found that they were enjoying themselves at Circus Circus. Nevertheless, lesson learned….leave the family at home so you are not distracted when playing a long tournament. Since I was there, I decided to play some 1-2 no limit and bought in for $200. It lasted about an hour! Another lesson learned….going from a limit holdem cash game to a no-limit tourney to a no-limit cash game is crazy. You start playing suited one-off connectors from UTG hoping to catch your flush or your straight and when the flop doesn’t help, you go into tournament no-limit mode and try to scare the others off the pot…only this is a cash game and their “tournament life” doesn’t depend on whether they win or lose this particular hand.

So far, with the $150 tourney, I’m still up $25 for the trip. Next poker room to visit is the one at TI. I like this poker room. They had a 1-3 no-limit and a 2-4 limit game going on. I decided to stick with my newly found greatness in limit holdem poker and sat down at the 2-4 limit table and bought in for $60. I asked all the dealers at the table whether they wrote in AVP, but they all said no. One said that the AVP people are on a different shift. I also asked about Las Vegas Michael and they said that he hasn’t been there in about a week. During the session, I did catch quad K’s, but I didn’t have the pocket K’s so I didn’t get the jackpot. In another hand, I had pocket Q’s and was in with two others. On the flop, the small stack put in the last four of his chips for an all-in and I was heads up against the guy to my right. We 4-bet the turn with 4 spades showing on the board (I wasn’t holding a spade) and checked the river when another spade put a J 9 5 K 3 flush on the board. I flipped over my pocket Q’s and announced that I would play the board, the guy to my right flipped over pocket 9’s for a set, but the board still played and the all-in guy flipped over pocket 4’s (one of them a spade). The dealer gives the guy who had gone all-in the main pot for his highest flush (LOL) and then starts pushing the side pot over to the guy on my right saying that the trips beat the pair. I told him that we are both playing the board and the side pot should be chopped. It took him a few seconds to realize that I was right and then he chopped the side pot. Around 6pm, I decided to cash in and head back to Bally’s to get ready for dinner at the Paris buffet. I was up $50 for the session, so my running total up-$75 for the trip. I get to Bally’s and call my wife who said that she needed some time to freshen up so I decided to try my luck at the 1-2 no-limit table. I bought in for $200 and in less than an hour, I had lost all of it. Some stupid no-limit playing on my part was the cause of it, so I can’t blame anyone but myself. BTW, the Poker Room at Bally’s is not bad at all. The running total is now down-$125 for the trip.

After a great 1-2 hour buffet at Paris with the family (highly recommended), I again bade them goodnight and headed off to the Bellagio. I had never played at this room before, so I had to try it and decided to put my name down on the waiting list for the 4-8 limit game. There was no way I wanted to play the 2-5 no limit after the no-limit beatings I had taken. While waiting, I walked around the Bellagio and while I was in front of the nouveau restaurant by the Poker Room (I think it’s called Fix), I saw a familiar face having some dinner. I approached him and told him that he looked familiar and asked him whether he played poker and he told me he was Jared Hamby (“The Waco Kid”). I’m sure many of you have heard of him. Afterwards, I walked around the floor of the Poker Room and saw Phil Laak playing some 25-50 no-limit towards the back of the room. I looked in Bobby’s Room and saw Johnny Chan playing against 3 others at one table and Sam Farha playing heads up against a younger looking guy at another table. I then walked towards the front to see how I was doing in the list (I was second), and I started watching the play at a 10-20 no limit table in the front. I saw a $250 bet after a check on the river, and then the guy that checked showed the A 10 and wondered aloud whether his cards were good enough to call. The other guy went into a deadly silent mode and finally the guy that had the A 10 called the $250 bet. There was approximately $300 already in the pot so it was a $800 pot. The other guy quickly mucked his cards and told the guy “nice call”. WOW!

I was finally seated at the 4-8 limit table and bought in for $200. I quickly realized that there is $100 in each pot, sometimes that amount is pre-flop. I caught some cards early on and was up $80 and then went up and down until it was 1am and I decided to call it a night since my flight was at 8am. I racked up and told the dealer to give me one more hand. The cards were dealt and I got pocket Q’s. I had learned that this is not such a good hand in limit poker, but decided to raise as much as I could and if I lost all my money on this last hand, so be it. I got two others to see the flop and the turn and then one stayed with me all the way to the river without a made flush possible or a straight and everything on the board less than a Q. I worried about a possible set when the lady I was up against reraised my bet so I just called and she showed top pair with an A kicker. I showed my pocket Q’s and took down a $100 pot. I racked up and cashed in a total of $350 for a $150 gain. Running total is now up-$25 for the trip.

I then went to the Flamingo since I couldn’t shake the poker bug off of me yet, and bought into a 2-4 limit game with $60. The other players were lame and I quickly got up to $80 in appx. 20 minutes and then I found myself with pocket K’s and started playing aggressive against 3 other players. We bet 4 (bet and raise) on the pre-flop, capped after the flop (lost one guy) and the turn, and then on the river, small blind checks, the second to act bets 4, I called since I was now worried about a possible straight or a set, and the small blind reraises to 8. The second to act reraises to 12 and I call (stupid call), and then the small blind (after getting frustrated that the second to act reraised his reraise) called. I still had only the pocket K’s and so when the second to act showed his straight, I mucked my cards (I was sitting in the No. 1 spot so it was easy to muck them into the pile of cards that the dealer had in front of him). The small blind showed trips and then he asked me what I had. I didn’t say anything, but then to my surprise, the dealer separates the cards I mucked and flips them over for all to see. I asked him why he did that, and he said that any person in the hand has the right to request to see the cards. I told him that I wasn’t the aggressor and I was the one that called them. Furthermore, this wasn’t a tournament where there could be collusion and his showing my cards was totally uncalled for. He didn’t say anything so I figured I was going to stay for one big win and then stiff the bum, and that is what I did two hands later. I then racked my chips and headed out to Bally’s and a good night’s sleep (all 4 hours of it). The rack gave me $55, so I was down $5 for the session and a running total of up-$20 for the trip.

Well….that is my first trip report. I would like to hear what you think, especially on the dealer showing my hand.