Arrived on Thursday the 18th. Went straight to the Imperial Palace and got checked in, 6th floor, overlooking the pool, by far the best room I have had there.

Proceed directly to Caesars to see about getting in a SNG, noone on the lists what so ever. Walk next door to Mirage pick up a pepperoni pizza from CPK, play some 4/8 with 1/2 kill and win a quick $70. This would not be a sign of things to come. Take the $70 and enter a SNG that plays two spots. We are down to 4 players, 3 small stacks and one big one. I am one of the small stacks, pick up JJ UTG push allin, get called by the big stack with AK and I lose the tossup, GG me. Left out that I played one hand of BJ for $15 to pay for my pizza, winner. Head back to the IP, lose a quick $60 at 2/4 and go to bed.

October 19th, day of horror.
Start at the Planet Hollywood 10am tourney. I last all of 15 minutes, first out I believe. I have QQ twice in the first level (of which I was unable to finish). First hand I lay it down to an Ace on the turn when I am check raised. Second hand I flop a set of queens, Ace rag player comes along, I am going to double up and the board ends up 4 flushed and his rag kicker makes his winning flush, GG me.

Proceed to the Bellagio for 4/8 hold em. Easily the most aggravating session for the year, if not my lifetime. I sit for 4.5 hours with $250 and win exactly one hand. And that hand only made it to the turn before my lone opponent folded. Left there in a huff and went back to the Mirage to place some sports bets.

End up sitting in a 1/2 NL game. Table starts out very wild with two players really going at each other for big pots almost every hand. I only buy in for $100 and am looking for a decent spot to gamble with these two guys, because they are both way out of line most of the time. They end up both leaving before I get the chance. Original stack left, get AA, raise it to $8 and get called in 4 spots. Flop comes A94 all clubs. I bet $25 (UTG) and only one player stays and he raises it to $75 total. I decide that the chance he doesn't have the flush added to the chance that I will make a boat, coupled with my remaining stack, I have to make the call. He has k8 of clubs for the flopped nuts. Guy had played maybe 2 hands in the last 45 minutes and decides to play K8 for a raise. Losing with sets would be a theme for this trip. I head back to the IP for the night.

A little angry and a little drunk turns very ugly as I donate $350 to their table games then go to bed.

Saturday the 20th, better, but not good.
Head to TI to play in the 11am tourney. Totally card dead the entire time, no significant hands, push with little left with qj, get called by aj that limped, gg me. Join the 1/3NL game that is just underway while waiting for my friends to finish. Actually caught some cards here,and won a big pot when I made a questionable call on a turn bet with the nut flush draw. Hit it on the river and the guy made a good laydown after betting a bit more as a blocking bet on the river.

We leave here and walk to the Wynn, have some lunch and play some 4/8. Card dead again for the first 2.5 hours. Original buyin of $100 is down to $9, but catch a bit of a heater and get back to even and cash out. The table is relatively tight and aggressive with quite a few locals, so I leave. My friends have a disease I like to call asstochairitis. Once in a spot, they just simply cannot get up. It is funny and annoying at the same time.

Walk back to the IP, lost an unknown amount at 2/4 and go to bed.

Sunday the 21st, bit of a comeback.
Go to TI again for the 11 tourney. On the way place some NFL bets at the Mirage. I finally catch some cards early in a tourney and fair well. I played some relatively smart poker, won one tossup, avoided all but one bad beat and ended up doing a 3 way chop with all of us taking third place money and splitting the rest according to chip count. I ended up with better than 2nd place money and had second place money, so pretty fair deal.

Decide to buy in late to the 2pm tourney and do pretty well again thru the break doubled up. Get myself in what I thought was a tough spot about 30 minutes after the break. I am in middle postion with AK, utg limps, I raise 4x the BB, button reraises allin for only a small amount more, blinds fold, then original limper goes allin, and has me covered. I can fold here and have a slightly below average stack or call and either be out or have a huge stack. I end up making the call and am in almost the best shape I could hope for and am picturing another finish in the money. The button reraised me with KQx and the utg player rereraised with A9 sooooooted. I have them both crushed. Final board reads 4488Q. So the turn made my kicker no good and the river gave the main pot to the idiot with kq. I am now a short stack, fight back and even get lucky with AJ vs KK allin preflop, but can't dodge another coin flip and go out in 16th place.

Head to Venetian and sit at a 1/2 table. Buy in for $200. A few hands in I am on the button with 22. It is raised to $12 preflop and I fold my 22. Flop comes 842 and I would have won a huge pot if I call preflop. Decide I am playing scared and move to a 4/8 table. Win $2 in 2 hours and head back to IP.

Head up to the room to watch the rest of the Red Sox game with my buddies, who are leaving in an hour to take the red eye home. Once they leave I head down to the IP poker room and join a 1/2 game. Hang around even for about 1 hour, and the fish at the table leave and it seems like a bad table, so I switch to another table. Four hands later on the buttone I have 1010 and raise to $12 preflop with two limpers in front of me. 2 callers to a flop of 10jq. Player in front of me puts in $25 and I push for $95 total. He calls with a slow played KK for an overpair and openended straight draw and of course hits it to bust my set again.

I move to a 2/4 game in disgust and get drunk and lost about $85 winning only one pot. On my way to bed I make my traditional $100 blackjack bet and see 19 to start. To continue the losing streak the dealer makes a 5 card 20 to send my to bed loser.

End up $850 loser for the trip not including room or airfare. Easily my worst trip especially since I ate no nice meals and only used a cab to go to and from the airport, walked everywhere else. Take away my tourney win and it would have been really bad. TY Treasure Island. Would seriously consider staying there if they would get rid of the 2/4 game and make it 3/6 or 4/8, but I certainly understand why the don't do that.

Next morning, wake up hungover and tired, get to airport in plenty of time and get to wait as the plane is delayed 2 hours. Par for the trip.

In summary, it is amazing how the turn of probably 3 cards made the difference between a breakeven trip, and a big losing trip. That's how the variance ball bounces I guess.