My poker playing girlfriend and I left for Vegas on Saturday and came back Monday evening. We go get tickets to the shows we want to see while we are there and find out that Don Rickles show wasn’t sold out. So we got tickets and played some 3/6 at the Stardust. Their room was much nicer than I thought it would be. I was down about $30 when it was time for us to go to the show and just had my pocket aces cracked by the uber-talent that littered my table.

After the show, we went and played at the Caesar’s Palace poker room. While waiting for a table I went into their tournament room and caught Phil Gordon playing at one of the last two tables from Saturday’s tournament. We played some more 3/6 for a while. The room was comfortable and there was plenty of room between tables. The rooms looked like they were once meeting halls that were economically converted into a poker room. Personally, I am willing to sacrifice ambiance for plenty of space between tables.

Sunday, we played at the Aladdin after gorging ourselves at their buffet. Their regular room is being renovated and they have 6 or 7 tables set up in an area that is roped off from the rest of the casino. This isn’t the most conducive poker environment. We played there again for a little while on Monday but left because the table was overpopulated with lunatics and it seemed like every pot was a capped family affair. Generally, I like playing at the Aladdin and Monday was the only time I didn’t enjoy myself. I still don’t know why the Aladdin is remodeling; I really liked the old room.

We headed over to the Venetian for the grand opening and we weren’t disappointed. I saw a lot of the pros and wanted to tell David Sklansky that his books and the books published by 2 plus 2 have transformed me from a horrendous poker player into just a really bad one. But he was at one of the two remaining tables during a break and I didn’t think he would really want to be bothered during the break. One of the poker room managers asked if anyone wanted to play 2/5 No Limit and I nearly killed myself trying to jump over the ropes to play. If you saw some middle aged guy make a fool of himself trying to get into the room, that was me.

The Venetian has a great room. Neither space nor ambiance was sacrificed in this room. I played fairly well but there were some good players at my table and one of them made his gut shot straight on the river and got me to pay him off. I slow played AK and made an ace on the flop and tried to trap him. I was successful trapping him on the turn but the river card ended up trapping me. I also played some 4/8 while I was there. My girlfriend played some 4/8 and was at the same table as Cheryl Hines from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Ms. Hines was regularly approached by fans and decided not to stick around very long. I went back to the Poker room at Caesar’s Palace Sunday night/Monday morning and won some of my money back playing the 3/6 limit game. Tired drunks are actually worse poker players than I am.

Before leaving on Monday, we played at the Mirage where I was able to win back some more of my money playing 1/2 NL. The players were reasonable and one local pro sat down and made some dumb crack about fishing in Vegas so I spent some time needling him about the profitability of busting tourists at 1/2 NL. Based on his grooming, I would bet that he also spends time at the 2/5 NL games. He must make quite a nice living.

I can’t wait to go back in June. The Bellagio and Wynn Poker rooms look like there are way too many tables packed into the space and I would be surprised to find someone who would rather play in those rooms when they can go play in the spacious Venetian. I know that will be the high-end room I will play a few hours at. I think Caesar’s and the Mirage will probably get most of my time for cash games and hopefully I will get to play in some tournaments that I skipped this trip.