June 22/06, left Washington and rode straight thru to Vegas in 20 hours....what a rush...;-)

Arrived at the Orleans Hotel in Vegas at 12:30 am on the 23rd. After riding for 20 hours we were beat and headed to bed. Getting up Friday morning around 10 am, I made my way down to the Poker room. From all the reports I read on this site, the Orleans poker room was one of the better rooms in Vegas.

Not dissapointed at all, I sat down at the $1-2 No limit table with $200 in chips. I was nervous, excited and just a little intimidated at first until that first win.... After about a half hour I was only down about $25 bucks. This was normal as I am a fairly tight player but I dont mind mixing it up when I hit. I love playing any connectors, suited or not so I see a lot of flops. Blinds at $2 bucks, this is not a problem. I hit my first big hand when I flopped a straight while holding 4,5 suited. Ace, two, three rainbow on the flop with me in middle position. The BB had raised to $10 bucks preflop, and got 4 callers, me included. The flop hits and out fires the BB. I am cautious not to scare away the bettor. He bets the pot which was around $50 bucks. Everyone folds except for me, and I just smooth call. I read him as having an ace with a high kicker or a high pair. His bet swayed me more to the high pair as he would have slowplayed the Aces if he had them. Turn comes a Q. No flush possibilities, and he bets $100. I look at the board and think he has hit his trips and is looking to take the pot right there. There is now $200 in the pot so I decide to raise him all in. I bet my last $140 and he calls even before the words are out of my mouth. Now, up here in Canada I am used to the players who are all in, flipping over there cards, so I flipped mine over. The look on his face when he realized what I had will be forever emblazoned in my mind. I knew I had him beat as the color drained from his face, his shoulders slumped and he waitied for the river. I was still a little worried as the river was yet to show and he still hadnt shown his cards. The river then came up and it was a rag.

He stood up, slammed his cards on the table showing Ace, Queen. He had hit top 2 pair. I raked in a cool $175 in that hand. Tipping the dealer $10 bucks I was secretly doing a happy dance in my head...lol

Up $150 in the first hour.....this was to easy.

I played that first day for 5 1/2 hours but had to head off to the Airport to meet my wife and 14 friends that were flying in that day.

I was up $325 dollars for that first session, which was good because I had ordered a limo to pick them up and this cost me $150 bucks. Nice of the players at the table to pick up the tab...hehehe

After getting everyone registered at the hotel, we headed to the Prime rib loft for drinks and dinner. The prime rib loft is in the Orleans was ok but I have had better in Vegas. The Hard Rock Casino put on an incredible Prime Rib. I have yet to match it.

After feasting we headed back down to the Poker room. A couple of my friends played in the nightly tourney at the Orleans but didnt fair well, with an early exit.

Played till around 2 am and was up another $150. I am still amazed at some of the really bad players that I came across.

The wife was pretty tired from travelling all day and like the good husband I am I headed off to bed.

Poker profits = $475....not bad for the first day.

Saturday morning got up and headed back down to play some more. I was pretty pumped from the day before and was itching to get back to the tables. We only played for about 2 hours and a bunch of us headed off to play in the Ceasar's daily tourney. From reviews on here that seemed to be the best tourney structure. Best blinds, starting chips etc. We thought it started at 1:00 pm so we jumped on the shuttle and away we went.

Ceasars is an amazing casino with all of its grandeur. Very plush. The poker room was very nice with super comfy chairs and an extremely wonderful manager. We went to register for the tourney and found out that it had started at 12:00 pm. They put us on a waiting list to get when people dropped out without rebuying.

All five of us eventually got into the tourney, and I immediately payed the extra $50 bucks to get the chip addon. I didnt want to be behind the 8 ball in chips. After an hour I was down to less than half my chips. Was getting great starting cards but couldnt hit anything on the flops. This sucked as it kept spewing chips from my stack. At this point I reached down to get my phone to see the time and realized that it wasnt hanging on belt loop....damn. Looking around on the floor, I started to panic. This was not something that I needed while in the middle of the tourney. I got up and looked around the poker room, asked the manager if a phone had been turned in. No luck there I went out to the casino lost and found and had no luck there either. I figured that I had either dropped it on the shuttle or it was back at the Orleans somewhere. I was completely frazzled at this point.

I went back to the tourney and back to playing, but my mind wasnt in it. I got knocked out the very next hand when I hit my flush on the river and the other guy had a full house.

Poker profit = up $345. Tourney was $130.

I went out and found my wife and we headed back to the Orleans. I was pissed off, worried, but most of all I just wanted to get my phone back. I had played the last hand like a dummy and put my tourney on the line after calling an allin with just a flush. I could see the boat but was kind of tilting because of my missing phone. What an awful experience. Chalked it up to a lesson learned.

The rest of the day we played at the Orleans and by dinner I was playing very solid and had built up my chips to almost $500 profit....until...I ran into a nasty hand that afterwards, I should have taken more time to think about.

I was playing suited connectors, 6,7 and the flop comes up 8,5,5. Good for me as I have an open ender. Guy to my right bets only 20 bucks so I call. Turn comes up a 4. Woohoo I have my straight. I figure he has trips at best and he now bets $50 bucks. I raise him to $150 because I dont want him to see another card and he pushes all of his chips in for his last $300. I called him so fast that he didnt even have a chance to get the words out. I should have paused and thought about it, but I was too excited to think straight. River card, a blank. We flip over cards and he shows a full house. He stayed in preflop raise and all with an 8,5 offsuit. He flopped the boat. I was shocked and almost out of chips. that sucked. I went from $500 profit to being down. Oh well, that is poker and it turned out ok, as I built things up again in a couple of hours for a $150 profit.

Poker profit = $495 up

Good lesson. I was learning a lot playing down there. That night we went to see the Cirque de Soleil show Zumanity. It was amazing and well worth it. After coming back to the casino that night we hit the tables for a little while but crashed after a couple of hours.

Sunday was fun as we gambled all day. Played on the tables pretty much the whole day.

Again I was cruising and building my stack....until...yes again, I ran into a hand and made a bad decision.

I was sitting with about $700 and had Ace clubs, Jack hearts. Pre flop betting had the pot with about $200. Flop comes j, 7, 3 hearts. I have TP/TK. Guy in the BB bets $50. 3 people fold and I just call as does the asian girl on my left. He only has about $200 left. Asian girl on my left is still in and has about $400. Turn card comes the Ace of hearts. I now have Top 2 pair with a flush draw. Loose player bets $75 . With his $75 bet the pot is at $425. I go into the tank, and weigh all my options, not really paying attention to the asian girl. I decide then that I want to isolate this guy figuring he would call me because of the pot odds and I push all-in. Asian girl on my left then hesitates and she pushes all in. I have her covered but only by a couple of hundred. Loose player folds and I am looking at a rather large pot of about $1200. I am vibrating inside as I am praying for another ace or jack. I figured she had the q, or King of hearts so I needed the boat. It wasnt the card I needed and I knew in my heart that she had the king. I turned over my 2 pair and she shows a King, 5 hearts. I couldnt believe that she would call the preflop bets with that crap, but I had made a mental error pushing all in. I should have put out a value bet to see what she would have done. One more lesson learned. Damn, school is expensive.

I was now only up a little, but the night would prove to be amazing. I played till 5:30 in the morning on that table and proceeded to bust the loose player 3 times and by the time I cashed out I was up over $900 dollars.

Poker profit = $1495 up

The next day was different as we got up at 10 and headed down to Binion's to play in the daily tourney there. It started at 2:00 pm. I busted out in 2 hands. Didnt play a hand for the first hour and then got caught in a hand and lost to a boat. I had trips. I did the rebuy and got moved to a different table and the very first hand I lose to a guy calling my all in. He had 9,4 off and hit his 3rd four on the river. That was nasty, but oh well. I went over to where my wife was playing on the 2-4 limit table and she was on a rush that I have never seen. Over the course of 2 hours she had hit quad kings, quad 5's, flopped 3 flushes, two boats and a straight. It was amazing. She had this humungous chip stack and was wanting to go. She is a tight player and knows when to say stop. So she cashed out a cool $450 for 2 hours play. Very cool, as I always say, Happy Wife, Happy Life.....hehehe

All in all a great trip and in just 4 days I had made over $1500. The poker paid for the trip and I was ecstatic.

The Orleans is a great place to play poker. Lots of locals and tourists. I highly recommend it.

Thanks and kudos to this site for the reviews. I would never have gone to the Orleans if it wasnt for this site.