Arrangements had been made for me and the future Mrs George to get wed at that little local's dive in the middle of the strip with the silly water feature out front. We came from England with her parents on the 9th of May. They were invited for 2 reasons. 1st, her dad plays poker and that allows me to play while she is off shopping with her mum. 2nd, her parents paid for everything, so it only seemed fair.

Flew direct from Gatwick, landing at McCarran around 2pm. Not happy with self that I forgot to take on board the AVP advice regarding telling the taxi driver to avoid the tunnel. In fair it's the 3rd annual visit and it's the first time it has happened. I guess some taxi drivers are just hell bent on giving others a bad name. Booked in quickly at that Bellagio thing. Spent a tired evening having a drink at the bar in the centre of the casino in Paris, followed by the usual excellent meal at Mon Ami Gabi (which I always recommend to people I meet). Finished with a drink at the Fontana Bar in Bellagio before bed.

Sunday 10th

No poker. Got taken by stretch limo to the court house to collect the marriage licence prior to the wedding. Had another excellent meal (which becomes a norm) at Gallaghers at NY NY, before crazy drinks at the Bar at Times Square. Although the bar was full and we had travelled 5500 miles, we were apparently the only people in there not from some remote outcrop called Delaware. Just thought I'd ask as an ignorant Englishman, is there nothing to do in Delaware that forces everyone to travel to Vegas every weekend?

Monday 11th

Stag do! Or translated more accurately, 16 hours playing poker!
Played in the 10am tournie at Planet Hollywood, which from experience is a better game than others around that time. Started with 4500 in chips due to having a players card. Played tight early on, before donking off a load of chips with a straight, when it was clearly obvious not only to me, everyone else at the table, and anybody who has never seen a game of poker in their life that the other guy had a full house. Managed to recover well when a player UTG pushes all in pre flop with 20 big blinds while I am sat trying to work out how to play my AA. Isn't it nice when people take the difficult decisions away from you in life. He turns over QQ. Unlucky!
I make the final table with about 12000 in chips which is about average, although a Canadian guy turns up with 40000, and it looks an impressive stack. My god was he going to turn out to be disappointed. Future father-in-law (FFIL) also final tables, finishing 7th. Big stack and this crazy lady from Austria stick it all in preflop and of course she has AA when he turns over KK. Next hand she has him covered when he sticks it all in again (looking a bit tilty it must be said) with AK. And she shows AA again! He wasn't happy!
Down to the final 3 and all that remains are me, another English guy and the Austrian Lady (AL). I am just the short stack, with the blinds at an enormous level, when AL puts out a big raise, right in the face of my AA. I push, she calls with A5, and flops and rivers a 5. Goodnight in 3rd for $230. As a sidenote the English guy wins, and it turns out he is getting ready for the WSOP. He offers me online backing while we are sat playing, which doesn't turn out to be a false offer. Nice eh?

I take my winnings to the cash game, where I proceed to lose the lot with A8, on a board of 88J, when V1 shows 8J. And he had called a substantial preflop raise with that rubbish. Oh well.

FFIL and I stroll down to MGM (my favourite room) where I get seated at seat 7 a 1/2 NL table. This becomes weird. I buy in for the regulation $200, and even recognise dealers from my last visit in Sept 08.

In seat 8 is a guy called John. In seat 2 a very drunk guy call Phil wearing a bright red cap with USC on. Now Phil had an arrangement with the waitress that she would bring him a new Bud every 10 minutes on the dot, and he was drinking every drop of them, but somehow had run up a stack around $700. I wasn't aware of the attitude at the table at firt, but it appears that not everyone at my end of the table was happy with Phil. Probably because he had a lot of their money I suppose, but doesn't it always seem to be the way that players get friendly with the players near them, and the other end of the table becomes the enemy.

I play extremely tight early on, due to the combination of bad cards and the fact that's how I play. However, drunk Phil has a very novel approach to raising preflop. He either min raises to $4 or raises to $400. I am NOT joking! There was no raise inbetween. Other people may have a different view but he was just the kind of person I wanted to play against. However other players clearly wanted to limp in and see cheap flops, for less than $400 presumably, and tempers were getting slightly frayed. I didn't have much simpathy with anybody because it was 3pm, in one of the biggest poker rooms around and they didn't ask for a table change even if they wanted one. But I kept chatting and being friendly with all. John called for a string bet ruling on Phil when he wanted to raise to $4 and this kept everyone on edge.

I was down to about $160 when Phil again raised to $400 and I called with 88, which crushed his not very impressive 44. 10 minutes later Phil was down to about $150 when he shoved and I called with JJ which yet again crushed his 56o.

Phil left the table but returned visibly upset about 2 minutes later, having been told that he would have to walk to the cashier in the middle of the casino to change his traveller's cheques. The mercenary in me (and another player) offered to walk him there, because he was a bit disorientated, but he wasn't interested. Part of me was a bit sad for him blowing off a load of cash with no real idea of what he was doing, but I would be interested in the views of others as to whether there is anything you should do other than be civil to people during a game and take their money when the opportunity arises.

I went for a steak at the Victorian room in Bill's and returned to MGM about 10pm for another 4 hour session. When I took my place in seat 1, the guys in seats 2 and 3 were laughing between themselves, and one of them said to me "I can't believe him". I was interested and decided to get involved in the chat, and was informed that the played in seat 5 had played every flop. This is the kind of information that interests me, and I decided to watch seat 5 for a while. And god were they correct. There literally were no 2 hold cards that this guy did not like. Even to a raise! An hour later I raise to $10 with AJ, and seat 5 raises all in for another $75. Under normal circumstances I would have folded, but called and he showed the thoroughly dominated KJ, to help boost my stack. Made a profit on the session before going to bed.

Tuesday 12th

No poker. But I highly recommend the duck and pork combination at Noodles, Bellagio.

Wednesday 13th Wedding day.

Play 1/2 NL at MGM from 10am to 2.15pm when I have to leave and get married. Slight annoyance to my day given how well I was running, but took down a $148 profit. One hand of note, was when I raised to $10 pre flop with AK, and got a caller whose girlfriend had just approached the table. She asks him if they can go for lunch and he says Yes. Flop came A84, I bet out and get raised all in for $100. Make the call and before I can turn over my cards he says I know you have AK but I've got to leave and I wanted to give you a wedding present. He turns over AJ, and no J to help him. He shakes my hand and wishes me well. Now thats how the game should be played.

The wedding at Bellagio was very nice, and funny to note that the Minister was called Phil King, so technically I went to Vegas and got married by The King. Before the service The King and I are having a chat about my earlier poker game when he imparts a piece of wisdom that I thought I would pass on. He asked me "Do you know the difference between people who pray in church and people who pray at the poker table?". I reply "No" and he said "People who pray at the poker table really really mean it" Made me laugh.

Wedding meal was at Prime Steakhouse at Bellagio. Superb!

Thursday 14th

No poker. Had dinner at P.F.Changs at Planet Hollywood. Not as good as Noodles.

Friday 15th

Played 1/2 NL morning and afternoon at MGM. I am seated at a new game in seat 7, and manage to lose my 1st $200 buy-in within 5 minutes with AcJc, when the flop comes Qc3c2h. Three of us stick the money in and the turn comes another A, but that makes a straight for the guy playing 4c5c. No club on the river, and I'm rebuying. Within 5 minutes I have won my losses back with of all hands 4c5c when I river a flush. Who would have thought that 4c5c would be the most profitable hand in NLHE. Shortly after, a huge guy sits down in seat 2. Within a few minutes he raises to $16 preflop and I reraise to $55 with AK. He pushes, I call (probably expecting the worse if truth be told), and he wants to see the board come out without showing his cards. Turn brings an A, and he throws down his QQ. While the $200 is being pushed my way, I say "Unlucky" and I swear it was meant the right way. He says "What do you mean unlucky?" and he is clearly annoyed so I leave it. I've been chatting at my end of the table and the other players say that I said nothing wrong. The big guy rebuys and within a short time has lost it all when he picks up KK twice and they both get busted by vastly inferior hands. When he leaves somebody says "Thats what you get for having a bad attitude." Anybody still reading?? If you are, any thoughts on saying unlucky as opposed to sorry, which I don't try to say because in truth I don't mean sorry.

Had another great meal at Joe's at Caesars.

No more poker as I then went to Hawaii for a wonderful honeymoon week, before returning to Vegas for a couple of days before going home.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and I would appreciate any suitable feedback. I'm English, so I apologise if some of my spelling isn't quite in keeping with yours.