Where to begin? Well, let’s begin this account of the trip with the night before I actually left. I had finished packing but wasn’t tired yet. I decided that as I planned ot play in quite a few of the tourneys, I may as well get some practice in and jumped into the $10 Turbo MTT on Bodog at 11:45 PM PST. 98 players, so, more than I would likely see in the daily tournies, but I had a feeling the structure would be the closest that I could get online. At one point with 16 players left I get knocked to 700 chips with blinds at 300/600 with I believe a 50 ante and I am UTG. I get 9-10 suited, push and hold up against two opponents. I then went on to win the whole tourney. I am hoping this will be a sign of things to come for the trip, but, either way my poker vacation is off to a good start and I haven’t even left the house yet.

Get to the airport in Orange County and get through security with no problem. At the gate they announce they will give anyone willing to fly out two hours later a guaranteed first class seat on that flight plus a free roundtrip ticket for later use. I seriously debate taking that offer, but as I am meeting my Dad at the airport and we are landing within 15 minutes of each other I decline. Get in, can’t check in yet at the Desert Rose (a small non-casino property right by the Tropicana and Hooters casino) so we drop off our bags and as we are both hungry we head over to the Luxor/Mandalay Bay area to get lunch and a couple beers at Burger Bar. While waiting the 20 minutes for our seat I drop $20 in a video poker machine.

Lunch is good. On the way back to check in we mosey through the Tropicana and I win $35 at 3 Card poker. Get checked in and cleaned up. We are going to have dinner at about 7pm at the Steakhouse in Excalibur. Order a Glen Livet each, and the bartender is VERY generous in the amount he poured. We toast my grandfather, who passed away in April, which delayed our trip from June during the WSOP to this weekend (my Dad stayed out in England for about 6 weeks managing arrangements and making sure his mom was okay). Dinner was good (steak and lobster, yum).

The plan for this trip was to maximize the poker playing time, but through in some table games as my dad really likes those and hey, they are mindless fun. Idea was to hit a tourney Saturday night, either TI or Planet Hollywood, then the Venetian noon on Sunday, the TI Headhunter Sunday Night and play Monday by ear as we had to be to the airport at about 3pm for my return flight.

Well, we decide on TI as I really wanted to check it out, especially as Danette and Chris had been so helpful on the message boards with some of my questions. But, you know how when something gets really built up in your mind because everyone raves about how good it is, like a movie or a show or a …..poker room, it never lives up to the expectations you have set in your mind. Well, that didn’t happen with the TI. My expectations were met and then some.

We arrive at about 9pm and both register for the 10pm tourney. To kill the time, we head out to the floor and play some Let It Ride. I drop $130 waiting for 10pm to roll around. We head back to the poker room, and as there seems to be a lull in the action I take the time to notice that the person that registered me for the tourney was Perry, so I introduce myself. He is quite nice, says hello, but then it gets busy and he has work to do. I really didn’t get much time beyond that initial greeting to say anything to him. In the tourney I got great cards that never panned out. Had JJ about 4 times in the first hour, folding preflop once, winning preflop once and having to laydown on bad flops twice. My final hand has an EP short stack min raiser who had been doing that with marginal hands, so I push all in with AQ suited and the player to my left calls as does the original raiser. The original raiser had QT, but the player to my left has AK. Flop is 10 high, turn is a K so I am drawing to a J. River is a blank and I am out 2 minutes before the break. I opt to not buy back in right before the break and instead get seated in the 1/3 NL game with $300 (plus the $70 I had from my Let It Ride pre tourney period for a total of $370). My dad went on to finish in 4th and pocket about $125 I believe, maybe $150.

My first hand at the 1/3 NL game I get JJ under the gun, raise to $10 and it folds around. I show the hand as one of the players in the game was seated at my tourney table and made a comment about me getting jacks right before I got dealt in, so I found it quite ironic that I did. I pick up a couple pots here and there and slowly grow my stack to just under $500 when the following hand comes up. I have Q8 diamonds and am in the cutoff. 3 limpers to me so I call. SB and BB limp along as well. Flop comes down AT4 all diamonds. SB leads for $10, fold to the player to my right (PTR) he calls the $10 so I pop it to $35 I believe. SB and the player to my right call. Turn is not pretty, a ten paring the board. SB checks, PTR leads for $50, so I pop it to $150. SB folds and PTR pushes all in for $67 more. I stop to think for a while to figure out what I could possibly beat where he would play it that way. I finally come to my senses realizing that I am getting about 6 to 1 on the last $67 and call. He flips up a lower flush and I drag the relatively large (just over $500 I believe) pot. A $20 toke to the dealer for that one and I can still feel my heart pounding in my chest.

It is shortly after this that we are shorthanded and the players at the table that LasVegasMichael (whom I have not yet introduced myself to) is at come to our table, making us 6 handed I believe. I ask one of the players that LVM appears to know if his name is Michael when LVM is away from the table, just to confirm it is him. I get the affirmative, so I decide that I will wait to introduce myself. Partly because I am shy, and partly because I may be able to use it as a fun way to introduce myself later on. About 3 or 4 hands later, LVM and I get heads up post flop. All I recall is it was an uncoordinated ace high flop and I hit middle pair and not much else. LVM lead out for about 2/3rds of the pot and I said that I was laying down because of his reputation. Once he questioned that comment I introduced myself.

At this point we were down to 4 players, and there were 3 seats on the one other NL table. I volunteered to cash out as I wanted to book a nice win (Up to just under $750) and also wanted to get some rest for the next day. It was about 2:30 AM or so.

This is when I had a Vegas first. Never before have I had this happen. For the first time in all of my trips to Vegas, a beautiful young lady was peeling off 100 dollar bills …….. and giving them to me. I thought I must have been in opposite world, and I liked it.

On to day two (Sunday).
I get up early enough to go put down a few football parlays and drop about $50 at Tropicana at a 3 card table. I get back to the room and my Dad is still slowly waking up. I don’t mind as Ia m watching the football games, and in addition to the parlays, I have a vested interest in the players performance as I have a team in WCOFF (World Championship of Fantasy Football) and a win guarantees our team at least $2500 and a shot at $7000 in the league championship game, which if we win also puts us into the playoff round where first place is $300,000.

Well, my Dad is finally up and ready to go at about noon, so we obviously scrap the Venetian tourney. Besides, I had such a good time at TI that I decide that I have no desire to play anywhere else. We decide to head to TI, grab some breakfast/lunch at the coffee shop and play in the 2pm tourney. We get to the poker room just in time to register before the start of the tourney and we are off. I notice that Danette is working, but, being shy like I am again hold off on introducing myself until later on. She had been so helpful on the message boards here, so I knew I would, but, I wanted to wait for a less busy time for her (see, I was thinking of her). Anyway, make it to the break with just above my starting stack. Shortly after the break I get it all in with KQ on a king high flop, and found myself up against slowplayed aces and I am out. My Dad made the final table but was out in 8th place I believe.

So, up from the table, head to the desk and finally get up the nerve to introduce myself to the riveting Danette. She introduces me to Michelle (I hope that is her name, otherwise I really blew it, but admittedly I am terrible with names) who is very friendly. I get seated at a 1/3 NL table (bought in for $300 again). No real memorable hands, just a lot of players willing to call down or bet with just about any two cards. I work my way up to just under $500 and cash out when my Dad asks if I want to grab some dinner before the Headhunter tourney, which sounds good to me. I get a simple BLT in the coffee shop at TI, and they should call it a BBBBBBBLT, it was that loaded with bacon, and it was good.

Headhunter tournament. What a great structure, lots of play. I nearly collect the bounty on TI Dealer Nam when he is all in on the BB when they were at 50/100. I knew I was raising UTG with any two cards just to play for the bounty. I make it 500 to play and only the SB calls. I hit top and bottom with A4, make a bet on the flop and get the SB to fold. Nam makes a flush on the turn to stay alive, and I miss out on what would be the only legitimate shot at a bounty I got. At the break, I am fairly certain there was a mistake when they colored up the black 100s to 500s for some of the players as I am 99% certain that I lost 2K in chips, where the blacks that were pulled out were not replaced by the appropriate 500 chips. It’s completely my fault as once they pulled the chips they were going to color up, I left on break instead of staying to make sure it happened right. Then on the way back I got stuck in the Mystere crowd and missed the first couple minutes of the level, so that it was a little late to question. I did, was assured my count was right and I decided not to push it as I was not 100% positive (though was 99% positive as the stack was exactly 2K less than I had counted me a having when I left, and they were coloring up 2000 in black chips, but I suppose I could have made a mistake). Anyway, get knocked down to about 5 BBs when I pick up 99 UTG and push. One caller. He had aces, I don’t hit and I am out, running into aces for the second consecutive tourney. I end up talking to one player that I had seen quite a bit (the guy that made the jacks comment above) and I was about to buy in to the 1/3 game when he says he’ll buy in to the 10pm tourney if I do. I decide what the heck and buy in to the tourney. Some time in the middle of the 2nd level, I had taken a hit earlier so am down a bit already, and then I hit top pair and get it all in, only to find out I am up against slow played aces yet again. I don’t improve and now I am 0 for 3 on Sunday in tournies, getting knocked out by aces all 3 times. At least I am consistent.

SO I buy in to the 1/3 NL game and it is juicy. There are 4 guys that are seriously calling just about any raise preflop and calling down if they have any piece of the flop. Unfortunately I take about a $150 hit when my rivered flush also gives one of these players a full house. The only card in the deck where I payoff without winning the hand. Oh well, they can’t all be winner. The bigger sting was that I had no doubt that I would get it back from one of these guys, until they all racked up within 5 minutes of each other. We combine with the other NL table that was going on.

Nothing very memorable for me while full handed, but there was one spectacular hand. The player in the wo seat is racking up and announces that it will be his last hand. He pops it to $15 preflop, and gets I believe 3 callers, including TI Poker Dealer Brad (I believe that was his name) in the SB and the BB who was a very weak player. Flop comes down KKQ. Check, Check, bet $25, call, call. River is something like a 7. Check, BB pushes all in for approx $75, UTG shows neighbor his hand and folds, and Brad calls, flipping up the KQ for the flopped nuts. UTG player is excited as he says he laid down aces. River…..ace. Brad gets the pot, but easily would have been stacked for his $250 behind had the UTG player called with his aces (though it was a clear fold situation, IMO). The BB never showed but claimed he had KJ.

Eventually we get to four handed and a girl comes in that claims she has hardly played and wants to watch for a while. The girl watches for a bit then finally sits down with $100. She starts talking to Kalin, who was dealing. First question – Do you have a boyfriend? Answer is No. Follow up question – Do you have a girlfriend? Answer- Hell no. This girl then started asking a few other questions (she was quite drunk I believe) of Jessica, who has joined the table as an observer (the player to my left was not in the best of moods, more on him in the next paragraph). She then asks me if I have a room at TI, and when I say no, she says too bad. I’ll go ahead and take the ego boost that in her alcohol induced stupor she wanted a piece of Big Country. I mean, really, for those of you that met me, can you blame her? ;-) Just kidding, please don’t answer that. Anyway, she busts rather quickly to the guy to her right who is probably the only one still taking the game seriously. Once she leaves, he leaves and the guy to my left goes to take a smoke break. I tell Jessica that I don’t plan to play heads up (he only had about $30 left), but when he comes back he asks me if I want to keep playing. I agree.

Now for the background of this character. As soon as I sat down at the table, he goes on and on to me about how he has had aces five times that night and they haven’t held up once, and he’s had kings once and they only one once. Oh great I thought, I get to sit next to “that guy”. Well, he claims to be a high end alcohol distributor and says that the best beer is some form of Belgian Ale, but in his state it is coming out sounding much more like “Belgian Male”. I start asking him how he likes the Belgian Males and get a couple laughs out of the table, but I think I went to the well one too many times over the next 30-45 minutes as I eventually got that look of okay, that was one joke too many. Anyway, I was listening to this for several hours, he had been cut off from alcohol by Jessica once after he got all upset about getting some hand cracked. Anyway, we agree to play heads up for a bit, I’m figuring that at least if I do pick up his stack it offsets the loss a bit as I am down about $250, mainly due to the earlier flush vs. full house hand. Sabrina is dealing at this point and I have introduced myself, and Jessica is at the table watching (the other dealers had a riveting game of spades going that I didn’t get invited in to.. j/k)

On about the 10th hand of heads up, I’m on the button and see the king of clubs so I call without looking at the other card. He raises to $8 so I call without looking at card #2. Flop is 974. He pushes for his last $14 or so, so I look at my 2nd card and it is a 7, so I figure what the heck and called. He flips up aces. Turn is a 4. River is the oh so beautiful and poetic 7 of diamonds. He walks off, I start laughing. Jessica is kind enough to get me a rack, and she goes and cashed in my chips. It’s about 4am or so. I start chatting with Sabrina as Jessica joins the other dealers. Turns out Sabrina has a background in biology and has done some really interesting stuff with things like SARS and Avian flu and what not. We end up just chatting until about 6am. Thankfully she had nothing better to do, as I found the conversation quite interesting, plus I really was too tired to be bothered to find my way back to my hotel.

Day 3- Monday

I sleep until about 11am. My Dad and I check out of the room and head over to TI. Give our bags to the bellhop and I go straight to the poker room, my dad goes to get a coffee and a snack then he hits the table games. I get the lowdown from Danette on when I really need to leave to get to the airport in time for my flight. 3pm to be safe. 3:30 would be pushing it. LVM is there playing the 11 pm tourney (which he went on to win). I get on the list for the 1/3 as there isn’t a game going, and they let us start up a game 3 handed with no rake. The two other players at the table were decent, well, the one to my immediate right was actually fairly good, and the other player was just plain unlucky in the first hour and a half, running through 3 buying of 100-150 each. Funny incident with a player in the tourney. They get to a break and are 5 handed I believe. He jumps into the cash game, and is not very good. He doesn’t make it back to the tourney, which is one table away, in time to get his cards so his hand is folded in his BB, which had put him all in. He is upset, comes to te cash game and tilts away the first buy in. He leaves and comes back a couple times, losing each time. It was beautiful. The table starts to fill up and I am rolling nicely, but it getting closer and closer to 3pm. I am in what I felt was a perfect situation. The two biggest fish at the table were in the two seats immediately to my right. To their right was the solid player noted above. To his right were a couple weaker players including Mr. Unlucky. The two to my left leading to Mr. Unlucky were decent but uncreative players that I felt I had a good handle on. Only problem was that I need to be leaving for the airport. Danette reminds me a couple times that I really should be going, and I have the racks out, starting to rack up. Nothing memorable, it just felt real bad having to leave all that potential dead money there. Then it happened for a second time…. A beautiful young lady counts out a stack of 100 dollar bills and gives them to me. Now that is the way to end the trip.

Net result of trip:
Table Games - -$250
Video Poker - - $20
Tournies - $-320
Cash Games - +$550

As you can see, once I made it to TI, I never had a desire to leave, and I will definitely be back, hopefully sooner than later, wife permitting. I really felt comfortable there, felt welcomed and will have to live vicariously through the stories they post to get my carefree poker playing lifestyle fix.