So I am finding like many this gets progressively harder to write a trip report if you are not taking good notes along the way. This is my trip report to the best of my memory.

Day 1 December 30, 2011

Arrive in Vegas at about 3 pm. Man is this town crazy right before the New Year. My wife and are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary on the 31st so we have to go back to the airport around 8 pm to pick-up her family. We check-in at Harrahs and we get a nice room that has a pretty good view of TI. +EV for the coffee maker and the TV in the bathroom (not suppose to get either). Go down to play a session of Poker at Harrah’s. Get in on a new 1/2 NL table that took awhile to get seated due to no additional dealer available. We get it going and I think maybe two of us are from out of town. 3 young locals, two of which were beating up on the other one pretty bad, especially when he said that he played “pot odds poker”. Another young kid sits down and asks pot odds kid “what are you on?”. Pot odds kid “tilts” starts cussing and talking about how he has been sober for a year, but is steady knocking back the drinks… Sobriety has different meanings obviously! No real imaginative hands this session… run kings in 67s and she flops a 7 and turns another for trips. Down about $100. Wind up cashing out down about $145 but was pretty happy with the way I played and was ready for the next session.

-145

Come back after picking everybody up and back to Harrah’s (after all they did comp my first five nights) Poker room. Once again get seated right away at a short table 6-7 players. 2-3 locals and those of us from out of town. Buy in for $100 and second hand call in position with A5s. Flop comes 2,3,8 rainbow. BB checks, I check. Turn was J completing the rainbow. Check,Check. River is a 4. Big blind checks and I make it $10 to go. He shoves with a stack of about $700. I tank for a minute and really can’t put him on 56. So I call and he instantly mucks. I show my wheel and he just said he did not think I had it. Nice double up. So I am pretty happy again. Stay card dead for the next couple of hours and cash out at $185.

+85

Day 2 December 31, 2011
No poker today. 20th Wedding anniversary!! Went all the way out to North Las Vegas because my wife thought we could find some memorabilia at a flea market up there. No such luck, we were there about 1 hour and her 88 year old grandfather was getting tired so we left. Got back to the hotel traffic is crazy so her and I jump on the monorail down to NYNY to pick up show tickets. Back to the hotel to get ready and then the monorail back to MGM and then NYNY. Have heard mixed reviews about Zumanity but we both thought it was about what we expected and there was some amazing strength and talent showcased in it. Getting in and out of NYNY and MGM on NYE at 9:00 PM can be a little tricky. We get back to Harrah’s and are out on the strip for the countdown and Fireworks. Pretty surreal for my wife and it made the whole trip worth it no matter how anything else goes!!

Day 3 January 1, 2012
Up by 7 or 8. Get some coffee and meet up with the wife’s family. They are off for some Casino hopping and I get a pass. To the Venetian I go. Beautiful place and to poker room is more what I am used to in Oklahoma where I normally play. Get seated pretty quick, only to have the table broke up and collapsed onto two other tables. This is where I will set up residence for the next 7 hours. So I have one kid that moves with me who has about $700 behind. Super nice guy from Victorville, Ca and he has been up all night. Solid Player, who continues to chip up until I leave and he was around $1500 at that point. I have bought in light for $100 and I am down to about $45. Catch KK in SB and make $12 to go with about 4 limpers in the pot. Two callers. Flop AK4. I check V1 Bets $15, V2 folds. I shove and V1 calls. I flip my kings and he never shows. Was so wishing that I had re-bought when I thought about it, oh well. So that hand started my chipping up. Nice guy from LA shows up and starts spewing chips. He re-buys for $200 at least 3-4 times. Real talkative and is sitting on my right. Two to his right sits a dealer from the room playing on her off time. Thought that was interesting because the Dealers are not allowed to play in their own rooms in the rooms that I play-in in Oklahoma. I make a stupid shove on her . Thought I have two pair and she had been playing very loose and aggressive throughout. She had a flop straight with 68s I thought I had two pair when I raised all in with 200 behind. She catches the flush on the river so it really did not matter whether I had 1 pair or two pair, I was in trouble after the flop. Next hand I rebuy for $100 again and look down at KK again. LA guy tells the guy right next to him “lets party” after he raises to $ 8 and the LA guy makes it $20 to go. I shove again and the LA guy calls. My kings hold up and I double up.
So let me back up to the best hand of the day, I am not in it so it was cool to watch. V1 has about $120 back, V2 is the monster stack with say $1200 hard to tell as he had a lot of cash under his chips, and Hero is the LA guy with about $ 170 back. V2 is first to act pre flop and makes it $10 to go. H1 calls and so does V1. Flop is As Ks 4d. V1 checks, V2 makes it $20 to go, H1 calls. V1 shoves, V2 calls, H1 shoves and V2 calls him as well. While the dealer is sorting out the side pot V1 flips an Ac. A local grinder at the table asks if that is it? About the time the dealer gets it sorted out V1 rolls his other Ad. V2 shows pocket kings and H1 laughs and says “I am just on a Royal flush draw”. Turn is a blank but the river is a Qs giving the Hero a rivered Royal Flush. Several people take pics and the dealer gives the hero a card so that he can text him the pic for Facebook. I continue to play tight aggressive and chip up for the next several hours. Wind up cashing out right at $600.

+ 400

Day 4 January 2, 2012
My family comes in from California today for a Vows renewal ceremony. Vegas Weddings does a great job and it was a great ceremony. After the ceremony was suppose to meet up with my brother to play Blackjack but he does not answer his cell phone. Back to the Venetian for another session after dinner. Largely card dead but able to chip up a little bit. Table turns over completely within an hour of me sitting down, several folks from out of the country. One will not listen to the dealer when he is repeatedly told that he cannot play from a rack. One of the guys is really drunk and belligerent at times cussing about betting patterns, the cards etc… Not liking the feel of the table and the wife was ready to go so I cashed out about +115

+115
More to follow for next three days!