Went to Las Vegas 3/31-4/3 with my wife for a couple of friends’ wedding so I knew that poker would take a backseat to the partying and pit games.
WEDNESDAY 3/31/10: Flew Southwest Airlines from Phoenix – 45 minute flight, love it. Landed around 5:15pm Stayed at the Luxor for the first time since that’s where the wedding was and everyone else was staying there. I got tunneled because my wife and I were talking in the cab and I wasn’t paying attention. By the time I noticed where we were going, it was too late. $23.00 from McCarran to the Luxor. I should have seen this as the way the trip was going to be financially for me… 
Had a basic Pyramid Room reserved for the 3 nights we would be there. I did the $20 trick at the Check-in desk and it worked like a charm and got upgraded to a Tower Deluxe Room. It was a nice room, bigger than the Pyramid and 2 closets with plenty of drawers which my wife liked.
We changed and wandered over to NYNY to have dinner at the ESPNZone which is one of our traditions while we are in Vegas. After dinner, we decided to walk to Aria and then to Planet Hollywood which is always one of our favorite places to hang out. The Aria was very nice and the whole City Center is enormous. It is quite the walk back to the casino from the strip. We hung out for a while and the wife played the first of many Roulette sessions. Left pretty much even after almost an hour. The poker room looked nice but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to play right away… We made it to PH and decided to play some more Roulette… (It’s really the only game my wife plays… she’s a “Numbers” girl and every spot she plays means something.) I wind up playing along with her betting the thirds whenever we play. Lost about $150 in a couple hours there. Walked around some more and headed back to the Luxor when our friends called to say they were finished with the family commitments on the night before the wedding.
We made it back to the Luxor and then the pit games started… Let me start by saying that normally I am not much for the “pit” games except for the wife’s favorite but when your with a bunch of people from all over you want to be social. After a few hours of this, my wife decided that it was time to turn in. Once she was tucked away upstairs I returned to the casino and decided to hit the Poker Room finally. I liked the room, very comfortable and the dealers seemed pretty personable. Don was the best one I saw that short night I was there. Only a few hands to mention… I’m in seat 4 and get AQh and raise to $12 pretty early in the session. Flop AAx rainbow. Seat 2 bets, I raise and a bunch of money goes in the pot, he’s all in and I call. He shows AK. Next hand, seat 1 raises to 20 preflop and I look down at AA. Bingo. Time to get my money back from the prior hand…I go all in for my last $47 and he calls. We decide to show and he has 99. Board runs out: KQQ7…..9 I couldn’t believe he hit it. Oh well, REBUY!! I buy another $100 and within 15 minutes this happens: I get 45 suited and limp for the $2… along with several others. Flop 236 rainbow – NUTS!!! Seat 8 bets $7, I raise to $15, he re-raises others are folding and somehow all the money goes in the middle. I flip my cards over to show the NUTS… 3 on the turn and then he flips his over to show 23os for a boat…. Wow! Two times in 15 minutes… I’m starting to think that getting tunneled is now getting me screwed!!  Oh well, first night. I decided to meet up with my friends who were playing craps and drinking heavily so I figured what the hell and I joined them. Somehow I was even for the rest of the night. Went to bed at around 3:45am since we had to be up early (1:00pm ceremony) for the wedding.
THURSDAY 4/1/10: Wedding chapel at the Luxor was very nice and not what I expected for a Vegas wedding. Enough about that! I decided a nap was in order once the ceremony and lunch was over since I had such a hangover from the night before. (Note to self – STOP MIXING DRINKS!) Got up around 7pm, and we decided to walk over to Mandalay Bay. She dropped $150 at roulette in about 15 minutes and immediately said that was enough gambling for a while. We walked to NYNY and ate down by “The Bar at Times Square” Dueling Piano Bar. Those guys are great!! Time to head back and change for the 2nd reception which was at the “Cathouse” inside Luxor. There were about 16 of us so we went with a reserved table area and bottle service. At $400 split between all of us, it was worth it to have a place to sit all night if we wanted. It was a great time, even though it felt like we were the oldest ones in the place with our group averaging around 40. Stayed till about 3am and called it a night.
FRIDAY 4/2/10: Wife and I decided to sleep in and then just do our own thing for most of the day as did the rest of the group. Went to the Paris, played a little craps and then some roulette. The next table over there was an older gentleman who had about 50K in Yellow chips in front of him. He had the whole table to himself so I just had to watch for a while. He lost the 50K playing 5K a spin in about 30 minutes. Took a marker and kept going. My wife and I were talking about how crazy that was and our dealer informed us that he was a regular who usually goes through $1million in gambling when he comes to town. After about an hour, we left up $150. As we were leaving, our dealer whispered that the old guy was down over $135K. SICK! Lunch at “Le Burger Brasserie” which was awesome as usual! Walked around the strip just the two of us, enjoying the weather and trying not to run into all the damn kids!! The funniest, and saddest, thing I saw the whole time was this little girl walking by us holding her dads’ hand crying and saying “This is boring!” He answered “No it’s not, you’re just lazy!” The poor girl couldn’t be more than 9 years old…. One conclusion I have made is that people in Vegas walking the strip with their kids all look miserable!! We just hung out until my wife decided she had enough and left me downstairs with the boys….. I played a little while at Mandalay Bay – nothing really to speak of, sort of grinded down my $100 until the boys called me to meet them back at Luxor. Hung out and didn’t do much until I decided to play the 12am “Donkament” at the Luxor. $55 buy-in, 18 players. You know how these tournaments go – QUICK!! 2nd button around, we had already lost 3 players and I hadn’t won a chip. So card dead!! I finally look down on the button and see JJ. I raise to 800, get a caller. Flop comes Jxx all Hearts. I go all in to push him out if he has a high heart…. He calls with two. I’m out in the second level.
SATURDAY: Packed and checked out. Went to NYNY to eat breakfast at the “America” café’ - This is another tradition, awesome as usual!! Decided to play one last cash game at the Luxor until I had to leave for the airport in a few hours…. Still card dead, couldn’t hit anything!! Total drunk in the 6 seat got hit in the face with the deck and couldn’t miss! He would call with ATC and then the dealer would flop him sets/straights/etc. It was bad cause the guy was such an ass!! Met up with the happy couple for a quick drink at the bar and a quick goodbye before we caught our cab and left for the airport!!
In the 3+ days, I figured I lost about $450 in poker and then the wife and I lost about that much screwing around playing in the pit while drinking and such. Like I said at the beginning, it wasn’t about the poker but a fun time was had by all!! I am looking forward to my next trip, hopefully in June!!