My wonderful wife took me to Vegas this past week for my birthday, God bless her! Only problem was that someone forgot to tell Vegas it was my birthday. I have never seen such a run of bad cards in my life. I was even down at Pai Gow! Who does that, especially when it’s a push game? Anyways there were some highlights to my trip that I thought I would share.

Flew in Sunday morning on Southwest and checked in at the Monte Carlo for the first of 3 nights. I like flying Southwest even more so now with their new boarding process. They also seem to be on time, certainly more so than United who is the dominant carrier from Denver. The Monte Carlo has been our home away from home more often than not when in Vegas as we usually get pretty good rates here. I know places like Hooters and IP can be cheaper, but when you travel with your wife your trip is a better trip if your wife has a comfortable room to relax in while you gamble. I am not sure if the $20 trick worked for us or not but we did get offered a spa room for an extra $60. What wife (and husband for that matter) is not excited by a hot tub in the room? Again, if you wife is happy, you are happy. $80 well spent I say!

As the title suggests, there was not much to write home about concerning poker. I played a lot this trip in the Monte Carlo poker room. For some reason I really like this room. It is friendly; the competition a mix of tourists/beginners and some older locals. The opportunity to make big money is not there like some of the bigger rooms but I like the fact that I can play there for 8-10 hours and be neither significantly up or down. I did play some ½ no limit here and had one memorable hand. Had been playing for about an hour when 2 new guys sit down and immediately start to try and run the table. At least the one guy (villain) was showing down decent hands but folks were getting tired of his raises on every pot. I had noticed that he was an Ace magnet and he tended to overplay Ace rag. This time around I was 2 off the button and there was a live straddle. I look down at QQ. 3 callers around to me and I raise it to $15. Cut off, button and small blind fold. Big Blind, straddle and villain and his buddy all call and the rest of the table folds. Flop comes A 9 Q all diamonds. Not what I wanted but everyone checks to me. I fire out $50 which is just over half the pot. BB folds, straddle calls and villain calls. Next card is a rag but not a diamond and the straddle checks and the villain bets out $50 which I think is odd, especially if he already had the flush. I ponder for a good 2 minutes and re-raise him all in. The straddle guy folds and villain goes into the tank. I have him covered and he finally calls. He tables A 9 of hearts and when the river is junk my set of Queens take the pot. I am feeling pretty good at this point until I give most of it back to him when he plays 7 9 suited and backs into a flush against my flopped straight. He was impossible to chase from a pot and I consoled myself in the fact that I played it right and got the money in with the best hand. This would be the first of many times I was rivered on this trip.

I had planned to play quite a few tournaments this trip and that is what had me down overall for the trip. I played tournaments at Planet Hollywood, Caesars, and Monte Carlo and I never last more than an hour at any one of them. I could not pick up any hands. The few I did pick up I was out of position and facing a raise and sometimes multiple reraises. Unless I have AA or KK I am not getting involved. When I did get a hand in position I would run into a bigger hand. That’s poker I guess. For example, at the 9am Caesars after being moved to a new table I pick up JJ. Not my favorite hand especially when I know nothing about the table. Everyone either folds or limps to me and I raise. I get two callers one of them is the BB. Flop comes X Q J. Check Check and I bet and the two remaining players call. Turn is the 10. BB bets and the second guy asks me what I have left which is not much, about $1300. He goes all in. I smell a rat and think and think and think before finally folding. BB who is also short stacked calls and tables J 10 and all in guy tables AK for the straight. Can’t tell you how hard it was to lay down trips but I am glad I did. It pays to listen to your guy sometimes. I replayed this hand quite a bit and thought that I should have pushed after the flop but I don’t think AK would have folded and I would have still lost. I figured I lost the minimum with the jacks and could try again with another hand. The other hand came up next hand when I got 10 10. I did push this time and ran into KK. See you next time everyone!

The rest of my time was spent just whittling away the hours playing 2/4 limit at the Monte Carlo. To me this is the best deal in the casino. You can waste 10 hours, drink all you want and not lose your shirt to the casino. The Monte Carlo has this promotion in May called splash the pot where at certain points in the day, they draw a table number and add money to the pot of the next hand. This is where the poker Gods really took it to me. As you can imagine these pots get pretty big because everyone will chase hoping to cash in. Well the first one I was involved in I picked up 6 4. I had just finished rolling my eyes when the flop came X 4 4. Jackpot! I bet everyone calls, turn is an Ace. I bet everyone calls. River is the 2 and I lose to the guy with 5 3 offsuit. Next time I am in the splash pot I have K 10 suited. Pretty nice start. Flop comes X 10 10. I am excited once again and properly bet my hand but again everyone calls. Turn is a rag and everyone calls. River is an 8 and the guy next to me takes the pot with his pocket 8’s. The guy on the other side of me tries to console me by saying that the problem with limit is that you can’t protect your hand but I told him that someone is not going to throw away pocket 8’s in a pot like that. I mean I am not math expert but I think they guys was actually getting the 22 to 1 or so odds on his one outer that he needed with a pot that size. That’s poker I guess. I just wish the gods had remembered it was my birthday.

The wife did take me to Prime steakhouse at the Bellagio for my birthday dinner. This place while very expensive was fantastic. I am a foodie so I don’t mind paying for service and good food and Prime delivers on both. I got a complimentary desert and we had a table overlooking the fountain show. If you like steak and fancy restaurants I highly recommend Prime.

That is about it for this report. I hadn’t planned on writing one since it is not very exciting to write about being card dead and coming home down but I figured what the heck, you can’t win everytime. Hope you enjoyed it and I hope to be back soon.