I'm your average dude, making a trip a year, occasionally two, mainly to have some fun bumming around and playing 1-2 NL to cover expenses. I've been to Vegas 10 times now, though only the past five or so have included semi-serious poker playing. As stated in the summary, so far I've been successful, though this time I ran terribly, which doesn't surprise me as that's how my home games have been going as well.

Arrived from Mitchell Field Friday morning, November 20th. Got a cheap ($89) flight first thing in the AM, so we were truly going to get the most bang for our buck and be here an entire weekend. Got here, was able to check in at Harrah's early (I don't try the $20 thing, don't need anything more than a couple beds and a working shower), grab some grub at Cypress food court (Caesars) and head out in search of a good game.

Decided to hit Planet Hollywood for the 2pm tourney. We're not big tourney players here, as anything decent is a little pricey for us, other than an occasional Venetian DS. Didn't feel like the $540 this time, so settled on the only cheaper one that isn't a crap shoot from the gun. PH definitely turns out to be a crap shoot after the first few levels, but at least it lends to a couple standard raises before having to find a hand and stick with it. Needless to say after the break, with a slightly below average stack I shove 5-5 and get snap-called, and I mean snap-called, immediately from a comparable stack holding the hammer K-9. King in the door and I'm headed to a 1-2 table. Nothing crazy at the 1-2, but doubled my $200 buy in so I'm thinking this is going to be the typical profitable weekend, as I'm pretty much an ABC player but definitely will gamble my stack if the situation lends itself.

Do the Vegas thing that night and don't play any more poker until the next afternoon, stopping at my personal favorite, Flamingo. Obviously not the flashiest of rooms, but decent enough to attract plenty of players to grab some chips from. No different this time, as a hyper-aggressive player sat down two to my left at about the same time I did. He tried to buy in for more than the table max. He was the type who raised to $12 pretty much every hand. Really no problem with that, I can adjust. A couple orbits later I'm dealt AKs, limp since I know he's going to raise - which he obliges then calls my over-shove of about $160. He doesn't show his 10-8 until after the river on a board of A-x-10-8-x. Reload, I'm not leaving this table. An orbit or two later I pick up QQ, limp-shove $125, this time getting two callers. Of course the board runs x-x-x-x-A, and hyper dudes AK gets there on the river. Reload, I still ain't going anywhere. Maybe 10 hands later I limp with 2-2 and see a flop of 9-5-2. Seasoned lady aged roughly 80 bets out, I call. Blank on the turn, I check raise all in. She snaps and flips 9-9. Not my day, better just call it.

Not many more bloody details to bore you with, but I didn't have another profitable poker session the rest of the trip. At least the Blackhawks paid me off on back to back nights.

Until next time Vegas, until next time...