I was scheduled to depart Florida on Wednesday March 7th and arrive in Vegas that Wednesday night. Needless to say my buddy and I didn't arrive until Thursday night due to delayed and overbooked flights. Never flying Airtran again!

So I'm upset that I missed 1 full day of poker and once I checked into my room at the Imperial Palace (its a dumb, but it is in a good location and it was free!) I cleaned up and headed straight for the Venetian. I've heard such good things that I had to see it for myself. I must agree with everyone else that it is the nicest room in Vegas.

So I sit down with 2 buddies at a 1/2 NL table. Buy in for the $300 max and play from 11:30 PM till 3:15 AM. I never get involved with any big pots and I never flop great hands. I take down a few pots with bluffs, but try too many continuation bets with nothing and end up losing $200. The players were ok, but the later it got the worse they got. This one really drunk guy sat down with $300, but was able to take down some big pots somehow. He was so drunk he couldn't event stack his chips! He lost a couple hundred back to the table, but took more off me than I did off him. Very tired so I head back from some rest.

I wake up early Friday and while waiting for my buddies I play some craps, blackjack, and roulette at the IP. I lose less than $100 at craps, about $50 at roulette, but I turned $30 into $270 playing blackjack. Nice!

I meet my buddies at the Grand Lux Cafe in the Venetain. This place is awesome! Great food and the prices are resonable.

We sit down at a 1/2 NL table. Again I buy in for $300. I lose $200+ when I raise to $15 with AQo, two callers. flop Qh8h9s. I lead out with $50. One caller. Turn 6c. I bet $100, he calls. Turn 7d. I put the guy on a flush draw and he didn't have much left so I go allin, less than $100. he calls with 10h9h straight. He did have a flush draw, but got the straight instead. Looking back I played the hand horribly and deserve to lose! I was tired so headed back to the IP.

I think arriving late made me impatient and I wanted to get involved in pots when I shouldn't have been.

We head down to Binions for the $150 + $50 tournament. 60 players, top 7 paid. Good tournament for the price, but it was not fun. The players and dealers where all mutes. I hovered around the starting stack until the last break where you can rebuy. I rebought for $50 and had an average stack of about 5,000. Blinds increased fast and I went allin with 88 from the button trying to steal the blinds and antes but got called by 99. No 8, out in 33rd place.

Played some blackjack at Binions and lost $50.

Headed to MGM for some late night poker. One of m buddies and I sat down at a 1-2 NL table right on the rail. Bought in for the $200 max. All but 2 of the players were drunk and horrible. Some players were holding their cards up so high that friend on the rail could see them. Played for about 2 hours and ended up +100. My friend who was playing was up several hundred but lost some right before we left.

Saturday, one of my friends played in the $550 deep stack event at the Venetian. I watched some college hoops (won $50 on the Illini) then decided to play some. Sat down at 1-2 NL with $300 and quickly got down $100. Slowly built it back up and won a few pots and was up around $150. After busting from the tournament my friend joined me and we took control of the table. He raised to $15 almost every hand and when he wasn't raising I was. We both made a few hundred in a few hours. About seats kept busting and rebuying for a $100 or another fish would sit down with $100. I kept hearing "well I'm hear to gamble right? I call" and then watch another player sit down and do the same thing. Other players were just playing until they had to leave for a show or something. Best table we were on all week. I played for a total of 10 hours and still after making several mistakes I finished up $250+. Not great for 10 hours, but it was a lot of fun.

Slept in Sunday and went to the Wynn to check it out. Watched some of the final table of the Wynn Classic (Chan, Matusow, Mizrachai, & Fischman), didn't play any 1-3 because all the players had $1000+. Played some blackjack and made $128 in about 30 minutes. Headed over to Treasure Island to play some poker, but they didn't have any tables running. I couldn't believe it!

So with only about 8 hours left in Vegas we went to one place that we knew would have a game running - The Venetian. Played 1/2 NL again, but busted quickly (don't remember why). I forgot to cash in my Wynn chips (2 blackbirds and 1 greenbird), so I went to the Venetian cages, but they wouldn't take them because they said there was a hold on them (apparently there are lots of counterfeits going around). So we head back to the Wynn to cash the chips, but instead we sit down and play blackjack. In 2 hours we each lose around $200, but had a great time. The casino host asks if we'd like to eat the buffet...um... Hell Yes! So we head down to the buffet and pig out. Their buffet is awesome! Just what we needed before our 12 hour trip home.

Overall I lost in about every game I played, but had a good time considering the trip was cut short. Next time I will focus on playing poker late night against the drunks. During the day try to find a good game at a smaller room like TI or Excalibur or play touraments.