I visit Vegas ever year with the wife and her parents. We always stay in a different hotel, and this time the choice was Mirage, where most of my poker was played.

Ate at a number of nice restaurants, and played a number of sessions of poker. On the 15th of September 2011 I played golf in the morning and began playing poker at around 1.30pm. This was to be an incredible 4 hours.

I was seated at table 19, seat 7, and bought in for my usual $250. The other players at the table were as follows:

Seat 1 : Francis, Elderly US male
Seat 2 : Young indian male
Seat 3 : Lance, around 35 years, Canadian investment fund manager. It was confirmed that he visits Vegas around 5 times a year and his flights, accommodation, etc is comped by the casinos. He was playing $1 $2 for a bit of a laugh while his wife was shopping. He had around $2,500 in front of him on the table.
Seat 4 : Young indian female
Seat 5 : Young US male
Seat 6 : Robert, Elderly US male
Seat 7 : Me
Seat 8 : Young US male, dealer at one of the Station casinos.
Seat 9 : German male called Michael
Seat 10 : Luis, Mexican male

Other than Lance there were a number of large stacks around the table, $400 - $700 and it was a loud game in high spirits. The dealer is an older female called Nikki.

On the first hand I see I pick up 88. I call a $20 pre-flop raise from Lance in seat 3, only to immediately be informed that he was raising blind. I am somewhat shocked, and after missing the flop totally, he puts in a big continuation bet and I fold. For some reason I have a smile on my face and a thought that there has to be money made at this table. Luis in seat 10 is laughing and informs me that Lance has been playing like that all the time, and he has been catching hands with trash, and busting lots of players. (This clearly explains the large stacks). The young male in seat 8 informs Luis that he shouldn't be sharing this information, but Luis ignores him.

On my very next hand I pick up AsJs, and Lance raises to $30 blind. There is a caller between us. I figure that my hand is massively ahead of a blind range and a call and pop it up to $100. Lance looks at his cards and is the only caller. The flop comes 983 rainbow, and Lance checks. I move all-in and Lance calls. Turn is a 10 and river a 4. I turn over my cards, expecting to rebuy and he shows Q2. I have been at the table for around 90 seconds and I have doubled up. Lance is really ok about losing the hand, and we are lauging about it.

At this point the dealer, Nikki, and I start recalling an incident 4 days previously, which goes as follows. 2 US guys come to the table and begin playing. After a while one wins a couple of hands and I notice that he doesn't tip Nikki. They seem like nice guys, but obviously the dealer cannot say anything, so for some reason I decide to bring up the subject. I say "You're doing ok, is this your first time playing?", to which he replies "Yeah, just decided to give it a try, and try to understand the customs." I say "I don't mean to be rude but one of the customs is that if you win a nice pot, the players show their appreciation to the dealer with a tip." The guy is shocked and he says to Nikki "Is it ok for me to tip you?", and she says "It's up to you, but you should listen to my manager" pointing at me. Everyone at the table breaks out laughing and the guy throws her $10. The next hand I win a pit and throw Nikki $1, and the guy says "I guess my tip was a bit on the high side" causing more laughter at the table. While I was playing my winning hand I didn't realise that the waitress had brought my drink and put it at the side of me. To save face I had to run after her to tip her. When this story was relayed to the table I got a lot of appreciation and a few hand shakes, especially from the player in seat 8 who is a dealer.

The following notable hands take place.

1. Lance has busted Michael in seat 9 twice, by outdrawing with trash hands. Lance then raises pre-flop around $20 and Michael calls. Flop comes Q,10,2. Michael moves all-in for around $75 and Lance calls. Michael shows Q, 10, and Lance shows 33!! At this point Robert in seat 6, who is a very quiet, nice old man, announces that he folded a 3, to which I say "It doesn't matter, we all know what's coming". Turn card 3!!! River bricks. When the 3 lands the whole table screams, with f-bombs and blasphemy the order of the day. Michael looks like he has been punched in the head. He gets to his feet and walks around the poker room talking to himself. He returns and sits in seat 5 which has been vacated.
2. Lance raises pre-flop to around $30, and the table folds. I then say to him "Lance, are you raising blind again?" and he replies "Yes". I then do an impression of a magician, hold my head and say in a deep scary voice "You have 9 3". At this, Lance and the female in seat 4 pick up his cards and start going crazy. They are turned over and he has 9 3! The table goes even more crazy, shouting about it. Lance has won the blinds and throws me $1 and says "Can you do it every time?" and cause laughter at the table by replying "If I could I'd be playing Keno."
3. Lance raises to $30 pre-flop (By this time a pretty standard raise) and receives 4 callers!! Flop AsKsJc. Robert bets $100 and Lance calls (You could have guessed that part) Turn card is 9s and both check. River is the 4s. At this point Lance shows Qc7s for a runner runner flush, and Robert shows AA for flopped set. Neither have said a word, and the dealer who is new to the table is totally confused. She is saying in a shocked manner "But neither of you have said anything." The entire table then tries to explain to the dealer that it is a fun game. She is still unsure what to do when Lance says that he likes Robert and didn't want to bust him with a bet on the river. I'm not sure that the dealer had ever had the situation before, but went along with the sentiment and pushed the pot to Lance. Robert was gutted and told me that he knew he should of reraised pre-flop or pushed on the turn, but he sort of knew it wouldn't have made any difference.
4. Seat 4 is replaced with a Mexican male, who had doubled up through Lance on his first hand. Lance then makes another large pre-flop raise and seat 4 and Robert both call. There is $100 in the pot. Flop is K 9 4. Turn is a K. Lance bets $100. Seat 4 moves all-in and Robert calls. Lance thinks for a while (a first) and then folds. Seat 4 shows 99 and Robert shows K9 for the higher full house. Robert also wins $75 for the high hand of the hour.
5. At around 4.15pm I pick up 88. Lance is in the big blind. I call the $2 as do several other players, but when it gets round to Lance he raises to £29. Seat 4 calls and I call. Flop comes 5s8sQh. Lance first to act moves all-in, and seat 4 folds. I think only for a couple of seconds and call for another $457. Lance shows KsKc. Turn is As. At this time the whole table has got to its feet. River is 7h. I've avoided the spade or K, and won my first ever pot over $1000.
I win a couple of other hands including around $80 from Francis when I play AcQc and both an A and Q flop. I also win another $100 from Lance when I have AsKs on a K high flop.
I miss a pot when I have 10 10, and the board runs out JJ944. I put out a pointless $5 bet on the river, and I still don't know what the purpose of the bet was. Francis, who had earlier moved to seat 8 on my left raises to $25. It had been checked down to the river in a family pot, and I put him on the J, so folded. He told me that he had A 9. He was a nice older guy who had shared information with me throughout the entire game so I believed him.

I finished at around 5.30pm. At this time Lance, Michael, Robert, Francis and I all left within moments of each other. We all had dinner arrangements and it seemed a good time to finish. I left the game +$952.

One strange moment at the table was when a dealer arrived and Lance won a good size pot. The dealer threw (I mean literally hurled) the cards in to the automatic shuffler, and they went everywhere. The dealer told me the following day that he was dealing when Lance won all the big hands initially that allowed him to build up the big stack and bust other players. He said that Lance had not been tipping him. I had mixed feelings, such that players should tip the dealers however there is no room for such unprofessional behaviour by a dealer at the table. The dealer was fine whenever I was at his table in the next few days, but the thought was still there.

I played 8 sessions at the Mirage of which 2 were of several hours duration and ended up +$1461 in total. I played 2 hours at Bellagio and lost $9. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Had a great time and can't wait to return.