My time had come. I’m playing headsup against Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi at Planet Hollywood, 2006 Cardplayer Player of the Year, over $5.8 million in career tournament winnings and 2 time WPT winner. I’ve called his button raise from the Big Blind with my AQ and the flop brings another Queen and two rags with two diamonds which I have don’t have. What does he have? He’s been playing fairly tight, taking down small pots with continuation bets but also isn’t afraid to let it go when he’s beat. So he’s probably got a pair or a couple over cards AK or AQ also so I bet out to get some information. Pot is around $750 and I bet $300 ... he calls. Another rag comes and now I’m worried he might have hit a set. I make a weak bet of $150 which he flat calls which is interesting maybe he is just on a flush draw. River card comes another rag no flush or straights out there. I can be beat by AA KK a set or two pair. Two pair is unlikely because he would have had to have been playing crap. AA or KK he would have played stronger to prevent the suckout by me. So he probably has a pair and possibly hit a set. The amazing thing about this hand is that I must have been quite focused, because these thoughts actually went through my mind while playing it. Normally I’m a daydreaming fool at the table.

Now what do I do? The pot is around $1600. If I bet out and he raises or puts me all in I’m probably beat. If he has an under pair or was on a draw he probably won’t pay me off. Suddenly a moment of brilliance comes to me. The weak way I bet toward the end looks just like a tourist chasing a draw, this is it, my moment of glory, I’m going to trap the Grinder .... I hope. After thinking for a few seconds, I check. The Grinder goes for his chips and bets $600. This is where I panicked, I was pretty sure I had the pot won but was too scared to test him by check raising so as fast as I could I just called. I show my Queens and the Grinder flips over pocket 10’s. I’ve beat him! The pot is close to $3000 and I’m now the table chip leader! The icing on the cake is the Grinder actually leans back so he can see around the dealer, looks at me and with what looks like a certain amount of sincerity says to me “Good hand.”

The Grinder just said “Good hand” to me, I’m sure he meant it, I’m sure it ranks up there with one of the greatest all time moves he’s ever seen, I’m sure he is in total awe of my skill as a poker player .... I’m sure he was just being polite. Oh well what ever the case I just got a story I can tell for the rest of my life. After the punishing beat he just took from me the Grinder goes out a few hands later when some English guy next to me who had no idea who he was suckouts and takes down my new best buddy. I take revenge just before the break and take out the English dude. How dare he make plays against top players like me and the Grinder.

The rest of the night is actually a bit of a blur. I’ve got a big stack and play it well. I’m getting cards and before I know it I’m at the final table in about 3rd or 4th place. The rest of the team is doing good too. 3 of 4 us make it to the last 10. Big Al is the chip leader and Stubby is the short stack (how appropriate for a guy named Stubby). 6 places pay but Stubby goes out within a few hands, fortunately I take him out and get his chips. There’s no friends at the final table. We get down to 4 players and I’m in 2nd place when I loose half my stack when my Queens loose to a guy who calls my raise with A6 gets a 6 on the flop and another on the turn. A little while later I get it all-in with Big Al and he takes me out in 4th, what did I say about no friends at the final table? Al is a monster chip leader and cruises to the win.

What a night it has been. Al cashes 1st for around $750, I cash 4th for $290, three of us make the final table and I outplay The Grinder. If nothing else happens on this trip we can call it a success, but now we have the confidence that we can play here and win. After our big win we celebrate by eating at the Coffee Shop at the Imperial Palace. Man are we high rollers or what? We’re tired after a long and exciting day so we head to bed with a pound of meatloaf in our bellies and looking forward to tomorrow.

Friday’s circuit has us starting at Ceasar’s Palace and the 9:00 am tournament. It’s a little early but like a said earlier we had a plan and wanted to stick to it. Another greasy breakfast at Denny’s and we’re off. It was quiet when we got to the Ceasar’s poker room, just a couple cash games going. This is by far the nicest and largest room we had been to so far this trip. The sign up is very professional if not a little drawn out and the management is very efficient at getting us seated and the tournament going, but then I guess it’s not tough to do in a quiet empty room with only 24 players or so. The tables were in great shape and the chairs very comfortable, adjustable rolling chairs which was nice since most of the players were either still half asleep or ready to go to sleep. The one complaint I do have about the room is that the tournament chips were absolutely filthy. Early on I went to make a call and two chips stuck together so I ended up raising since I didn’t declare what I was doing. I had to actually scratch the crud off the chips so they wouldn’t stick and I wasn’t the only one I saw it happen to. It’s a small but important issue I think they need to address. The room was almost too quiet. We played an entire rotation and I’m sure the only words spoken were from the dealer and players declaring their bets. Also this was the most male room I saw. I don’t recall seeing a single woman playing here, maybe because of it’s secluded location or the time of day but for some reason the ladies were absent.

My play was uninspired partly due to fatigue and partly due to a lack of cards. I managed to stick around to the 3rd level after loosing most of my chips while trying to make a move on the guy to my left. The play here was also the best of any of the rooms. I really didn’t see any loose play and you know the old saying if you can’t see the fish then you’re probably it. Stubby busted out shortly after me and we hung around for awhile watching Big Al and Lucky OT build their stacks, but after a couple hours we decided to take off as it didn’t look like they were heading any where fast. By the time we left there were more cash games going and there was another tournament about to start. I would have to give the Ceasar’s Poker Room high marks for comfort, set up and atmosphere, medium marks for drink service and low marks for those gross chips.

Stubby and I were just getting our 2nd wind so we thought we would play a quick tournament while we waited for the others to catch up so we headed to the Excalibur to play the 1:00 pm $35 buy in. Compared to Ceasar’s this “room” is the opposite end of the spectrum. Noisy, smoky and in poor condition but still a place you can have fun. This game was pretty much filled with tourists some who had literally NO CLUE how to play. One guy essentially had to be asked by the dealer each hand what he wanted to do and would have to have the dealer place his bet. I felt like Daniel Negraneau in this crowd making reads and bluffing guys off pots. However, it didn’t take long for the really bad players to get eliminated and soon it became an all in fest with the small amount of starting chips (30 BB’s as opposed to 70 or 80 BB at TI or PH). I had doubled my chip stack by the start of the 3rd level but with the rapidly rising blinds it meant I only had about 6xBB so I pushed from early position with an Ace and of course got 3 or 4 callers and I was out. Stubby held on to take 5th and $107. Which meant we had all cashed on our trip and as I waited for him to finish Big Al and Lucky OT showed up celebrating Big Al’s win at Ceasar’s for another $550. For just 24 players it was a marathon run for Big Al lasting 4 ½ hours.

After his 2nd win in a day it was up to Al to buy lunch so we headed over to the Luxor for another buffet - strap on the feed bag affair. While on the way there we had another brush with celebrity. At Criss Angel - MINDFREAKS store and office just inside the Luxor we stopped to take a peek and again they were just starting to video a segment for the show. So as I stand there a video crew comes backing up the escalator with The Mindfreak himself following him. They walk right past me and as they go by I step in behind him so I should be in the shot if they use it. If you see an episode where he stops outside his office and talks about “this is where we do our production meetings” thats me behind him after he comes up the escalator. My wife is definitely going to be jealous now ... Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz and Criss Angel (she could care less about the poker players).

Friday night Stubby and I decide to play the TI tournament again while OT and Al take a break, I guess he’s got to much cash in his wallet now. Now I don’t know if it was because it was Friday night or I my perspective had changed but the crowd at TI was some of the loosest players I’d seen all trip. Maybe because it was busy but the room seem to be disorganized. One table had already played a couple hands before we started. The first dealer we had was a young guy who seemed more interested in what was going on at the other tables and some of other players at my table didn’t seem to realize we were even playing. They would wander in and out of the game, talking on cell phones when it’s their turn to act (which I thought was frowned upon), calling a $100 bet by throwing in two $500 chips THREE TIMES and discussing hands still in play just like a bad home game. It didn’t help that I didn’t play very well and busted out the first hand after the break when I pushed from the BB and ran into Aces. In general this tournament was the least enjoyable so far but I’ll chalk that up to being tired on a Friday night and one not great dealer. I will say the floor did handle one situation well when a@#hole at Stubby’s table came back after the first two breaks and went on a rant both times about how he was missing chips.

After this tournament however I sort of lost my desire to play anymore and it ended up being the last one we played on this trip but it seemed liked a good bookend. Started at TI on Wednesday and lost with Aces on my very first hand, ended at TI and lost to Aces on my last hand.

Saturday we just toured around to some of the Casinos we hadn’t seen before, Rio, Palms, Gold Coast, Orleans and Hooters and other then the nice remodelling job they’re doing in the large Orleans Poker room there isn’t much to report. No more celebrities and no more cashes. One more buffet at the MGM Grand and at $22 it was no better then the $7.89 at Main Street Station and almost identical to the $11(after discount) one at the Luxor. Hint: go just before 3:00 and get the lunch rate but if you wait a bit they’ll have the supper items out.

SUMMARY:
- TI Poker Room - Nice setting, staff was okay and the competition was 2 out of 5.
- Binion’s - Classic room (read old and worn), staff was entertaining, competition 2 out of 5
- Planet Hollywood- Very nice room, staff okay, competition 3 out of 5.
- Ceasar’s - Excellent room, staff professional, competition 4 of 5
- Excalibur - Bad room, bad staff, competiton 1 out of 5.
- The Imperial Palace is a great location, the staff were nice, the rooms were fine for the price but it’s just too dingy and it stinks of a greasy spoon.
- 6 tournaments 1 cash down about $40 - as a group 20 tournaments 5 cashes up about $800
- 3 TV/Movie stars, 3 poker pros, and 3 buffets.

That’s it, a long report but a lot can happen in Vegas in 3 days. Thanks to everyone who posted before me, it made it easier for us to plan and I hope this gives you some ideas on what to do on your next trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.