Spent Thursday evening to early Sat. afternoon playing poker and blackjack. Stayed at the Flamingo, which I like because it's a quick and easy drive down to Terribles, which has pretty good $5 minimum double deck BJ with decent rules (but marginal penetration).

After the usual snails pace of bags and rental car buses and credit card hassles at Hertz, I discovered the fast way into the heart of the strip: cut over to the north from the exit of the rental car place, then turn right just past the freeway on Dean Martin drive, which runs right next to the freeway. That street rocks! No traffic at all, you zip up to your major cross street (mine was Flamingo), and bingo, a few lights and you are at your hotel. Sweet.

I headed out Thursday night later after some and skipped the Flamingo room with it's $5 rake and walked up to the Venetian. Settling into a $1-2NL game and was grinding out a profit of about $150 over several hours of slow play when I made my first and maybe only large mistake of my poker trip. I raise my KJs and the SB calls, and a flop of K-J-10 rainbow hits me pretty hard. Check, I bet, raise, I call. Turn innocuous, large bet into me from the SB...I call, debatable. River fails to fill me, large bet...FOLD FOLD FOLD...but no, I call, and I've thrown away $300 to Q-9 flopped straight (I can only hope he was suited, I didn't notice). Arrrggh. I end up in bed by 4:30am, down about $280 for the night. Oh well, Q-9 callers from the SB of my raises is what I play for...

Friday I hit Terribles twice for DD BJ, the first time to a small profit of $40, the second to a larger loss of $200. I see several but not a lot of high counts, and my larger bets don't score. Cards are definitely running cold.

Back at the Venetian I play and am as card dead as I've ever been, normally I average about 22% V$IP but I can tell I'm probably running about 10-12%, just few playable hands. I feel like a lump of rock! But somehow I grind out a $60 profit.

I hit the sack early (10pm!) Friday night, a beautiful 10 hours of sleep, I'm up at 8:00 and by 9:30am I'm playing solo BJ at Terrible's. I see hardly any positive counts but nonetheless I start hitting, dealer just keeps filling my stiff hands and busting out all the time, I stay with my minimum bets though through the rush (since there is no rush really, it's independent event after independent event, right?). I leave up $70, still down overall in BJ but now headed in the right direction.

Sat. afternoon my buddies show up at the Venetian where I continue to run ice cold re: catching playable hands and at 5pm we are off to Sam Woo's for a very good Chinese dinner (down the road that runs between the Venetian and the Wynn to the east about 1 mile is a "Chinatown" strip mall district with excellent Asian restaurants of all types, check it out for great eats, low prices, and NO WAIT!).

Back around 7:30pm and I join my bud Mark at the $2-5NL table. After I've sat for 5 minutes Mark gets into a giant multiway pot and takes it down with a set. And he then proceeds over the next 50 minutes to get 3 sets, 3 flushes, one straight and one full-house, he gets major sometimes multiway action with every hand, and only loses the full house (to a larger house). One hour has gone by and short buy-in Mark has gone from $300 in front of him to $2600. I'm drooling on my few chips next to him...

He leaves to play "the stupid games" (now that he's got spending money!) and I finally catch a few hands, including a flopped nut flush that someone goes to the felt with me on, no board pair by the river, and even with 4 of my suit on the board the guy pays me off on the push of my last $120! Nice. Reminds me of why I like to play poker in Vegas...I leave up about $320.

I find Mark and he tells me our other buddy (married but likes to flirt with the tourists) is holding court with some ladies by the bar. We go over. Yes, he's chatting up (from several feet away on the bar stools) a sexy blonde and as some kind of intros are being made she gives me a friendly eye and smile, and as I take her hand I instantly know "it's on", she's attracted, our hand squeezes turn to caresses, I'm quickly stroking her arm as we fluff, and soon I have my arm around her holding her close "I really like this girl!" as my buddy says "and that's the difference between me and Z, you see I'm a nice guy...". Well he may be a little impressed with my speed but I can also tell he's not exactly thrilled...so after they leave for a potty break I meander to stay out of trouble w/him (w/her would have been fine!), eventually heading back to the Flamingo and to bed by 3:30am.

The next morning I'm again at Terribles, again 1x1 with the dealer, and this time the cards are running hot. Fortunately the pit guy isn't always standing there staring at my action, and it seems like most times when it's time to pop the bet up to $20 or $30, he's not around. I get some double downs that score with my big bets, and I'm having that BJ moment! It slows when others arrive at the table, so I exit after about an hour of play, up about $240.

Sunday morning and early afternoon, back to the $1-2NL at the Venetian, but it's just not happening. I took the low risk (weak?) path on the following hand: UTG I checked AA, the table was tending to fold to early bets and I wanted some action. The flop came JJx, and the SB bet into me $30. I called. Turn was a blank, SB bet $70, and after getting a funny face when I asked if he had a jack, I mucked my AA's. Weak, or discretion the better part of valor? I think it was the right play...and yea, I should have raised PF. I end my final poker session down about $120.

Friday night I had dinner at an Indian restaurant in the little shopping mall on Tropicana where the CVS pharmacy is across from the Hard Rock (there's a Starbucks in there too). Fantastic Indian food! Sorry don't know the name of it but easy to find, I highly recommend it.

Overall, I can't complain with a net of just about $20 in roughly 15 hours of poker and 3-4 hours of BJ! Next time I'll be the one to catch fire and be able to play "the stupid games".

-zinc