Traveled from LA from 3/30 - 4/1 (and got to hear a BlackJack dealer say "I've got the Ace, only to smile and say April Fool's" -- once a year the guy has a joke)

Started off arriving in Vegas around 1:00, had lunch and registered for the 2:00 at PH. Probably the quickest I've ever driven to Vegas, no traffic. Rough start in tourney 1, getting bounced about midway through.

Returned that evening to the scene of a 3rd place finish last year- the Sahara. Same old story, dingy room good tourney, good dealers. Doing fairly well, working my way through about 50 starters, down to 25. Get a pair of 6s late and raise a fairly passive table, got reraised and pushed more out of chip size than confidence. Spiked a set of against QQ that kept me alive long enough to reach the final table. Paying 6 and at 7 several wanted to go home (this was the 11 pm. tourney). As the short stack I readily agreed to the proferred buyin rebate to the bubble. The only reticent one was of course the guy was MR QQ who while taking it well and bouncing back nicely had an understandable vendetta. (I'd compliment his politeness except that at the final table he obviously and deliberately thought about a hand he was clearly going to fold in order for me to be hit with the bigger blind that was about to happen. Nothing illegal but kind of cheap and I only remarked "nice move" so he knew that I knew. He ignored me.) He was shamed into the bubble rebate, and this action forced several quick all ins which I avoided and managed to limp my way all the way to 4th and $210.

Day 2 found us back at PH for a 2nd time and this time it was my 2nd cash in two days as I made it to 5th (paying 6). Again I barely survived as a short stack and this time benefited from the chip leader taking out finishers 8th and 9th in the same hand. This was the tourney where dealer Jenny was playing and boy is she a stone face. A pretty girl who would be so much prettier with a smile, she went from serious player to grouch in my mind when I paused for 2 seconds to watch Kosuke Fukudome's game tying 3 run homer in the ninth on opening day (Cubs lost in 10) by tapping in front of me and alerting me that it was my action (which I already knew). She also was extremely aggresive which I took note of and advantage of the following day although I was not as lucky. The aggresiveness, as it often does, helped then harmed her as her chip stack went up and then down and out quickly. 4th place netted me $165.

I played the other PH, an MGM and a Mandalay Bay tourney to no avail. At Mandalay Bay it was $40 no add-on or rebuy and only 13 starters, bluffed my way to a few chips at the most passive table I've seen. Of course it bit me when I bet top pair with K kicker big only to be knocked out by a guy who had KK preflop with no riase.

Also some 2-4 limit at TI (fun, but not profitable) and no sign of AVP Mike but as usual a great room. Also 2-4 at Monte Carlo with 3 guys (the boss and 2 others it appeared) and the boss kept giving $100 bills to the guy who was new at poker. My friend and I cleaned up leaving up over a rack but eventually tiring. The guy was a hoot, asking the waitress to get him some pretzels, she directed him to the snack shop, he asked if she'd go for him, she said she isn't supposed to, said she would, brought him the pretzels, he tipped her the rest of the $20 (pretzels were $5?). Was fun and I later wondered why I left when it was clearly an ATM table, but there's this voice that says take the money and run...

Anyhow, another fine trip, I netted over $100 and played poker poker poker as we all dream when we read these trip reports...