This was my first trip to Vegas in about three years. I live in northern Ill. , play in Milwaukee just about every weekend. Generally I play 3-6 limit with full kill. I play a weekly homegame with about six to ten guys.

We flew out of Milwaukee Monday afternoon got to Vegas about 9:30 p.m. We had reserved a car through firefly car rental. DO NOT USE THEM. Did not have have a car for us. Should have been named fly-by -night.
My wife plays slots so we generally get compted off her play. We have always stayed at Flamingo in the past , but did not have the best service last time. So we called Total Rewards and they put us at the Paris for 4 nights free , pay for one. Check in went quickly . $20 trick worked well , we got a nice upgrade facing the strip, with a great veiw of the Eiffle tower and Ballegio fountains.

session one: Flamingo tues. morning , only open seat was 2-4 limit. uneventful , i missed all my draws and was second best a few times.
- $100

session two: Venetian 4-8 limit . Short wait to get seated , they were just starting the game. nice dealers short table. Several of the players got called to other games and the table broke up in less than an hour.
+24

session three: Bally's 1-2 nl first evening session of the trip . Pretty much what everyone has said about Ballys. there where a couple grinders at the table, and a fair amount of tourists moving through the room. It was pretty easy to pick out the grinders, generally tight ,aggresive solid players ,with the better sized chip stacks. I dont remember any big hands. I generally try to give the solid players a little more room and try to stay away from getting involved in any hands, unless i've got a made hand. It does not take them long to figure that out , so I did not get myself into any trouble.
+ 74

session four: Planet Hollywood late night [Tuesday] short wait to get on a table , they where just opening up a new one. I found out later they had a good sized tournement going somewhere else in the casino. So as people where busting out they came to the cash games. Had a good time playing with some of these people , couple of guys had just moved to Vegas and where easy to strike up a conversation with them . I find once you can get people talking at a table it gets easier to get better idea how they play. Plus it just makes things more entertianing. Again no real memerable hands but all in all a pretty nice place to play.
+47

session five: Gold Nugget [Wed.afternoon] 2-4 limit nice room , whatwould you expect from a 2-4 game in the afternoon? deaf old men noding off to sleep between hands. In the past ,when I've played downtown , I did not like it much . This time was better, people where decent to talk with. Dealers and floor people where all good , no complaints ,but nothing special.
-76

session six : Binnions , early evening , 3-6 limit , pretty much the same as the nugget . Old guys falling asleep , when they weren't giving each other a hard time. It's always fun to listen to a bunch of grumpy old men screw with each other . I had played here a few years ago on my last trip and absolutly hated this place. I will have to say this was much better then last time . I sure its a whole different place at night .
+40

session seven : Bellagio ,Took quit a while to get a seat, but what should i excpect, I did not call in and I'm trying to get on the lowest stake table . late Wed. night 4-8 limit . This was a real reality check for any low stakes player. It's hard to take yourself real serious when your playing 4-8 limit , and at the other end of the room , there is a 3000 -6000 no limit game going. There is more money in every blind , then there is in some of the largest pots i've ever seen at the indian casinos in wisconsin. room was very crowded and noisey . Kind of exciting just to be there. I would have to say it was one of the better tables I had been at so far.
-55

session eight : Rio / WSOP sit and go $175 buy-in 1000 in starting chips . everyone threw in an extra 20 winner take all side bet. This was kind of a crazy little sit and go. I got lucky a few times and caught my flush draws and sets. never thought I would do well against this bunch , but by pure luck I took out about four of them. got down to the last two of us, chip leader had about 2.5 times my stack and I asked if he wanted a chop and after a little negoiating ,we chopped .
+525 [cashed for 700]

session nine : Sam's Town $45 tourney. talk about from one extreme to another. Friendly bunch of locals very nice staff. Suprisingly good bunch of tight players. Not what you would expect in a 45 dollar tourney. Caught a few big hands at real good times. flopped a set of aces, slow played them and a few people went all in before me . Board paired and I went into the second break as pretty solid chip leader. Got caught being a bully with a marginal hand and got brought back down . Blinds got real high , real fast towards the end. One guy wanted to have a five way chop a little early on and I was the only one that did not want to, really upset the guy that I didn't want to chop. He got knocked out a few minutes later and he stormed off. Almost felt bad for not chopping , until he acted like an ass . I suggested everyone throw in 10 bucks each at this point for the bubble. Everyone agreed , couple hands later someone suggested a chop again . We all agreed , I didn't want another local getting all bent out of shape again . The poker room manager came over to me after the tourney and thanked me several times for the bubble boy offer . I thought this was a pretty common thing , especially in small friendly games. They had never heard of it before .
+132 [cashed 177]

session ten MGM 1-2 nl [thurs night] very busy , hectic place. poker room right next to the mian walkway thru the casino. I don't mind this . I enjoy people watching ,and the location in such a busy area, brought a lot of people in who wanted to try this game once. had a super agressive guy to my left . He played almost every hand ,and was about as reckless as you could hope for. But of course when I finnaly get a hand he crushes me . I dont remember the details but "just my luck". had To rebuy for 200 more. I took a few small pots ,recovered a little and left soon after that.
-129

session eleven Mandalay bay 1-2 nl[friday morning] Ran into a some pretty good play . Very nice dealers and nice place. Couple of real rocks playing . I was playing poorly at first , I know I was being pushed off good hands by the big stack . Then tried to stay clear of his play. I had a real whimpy table image . thought about that and decided to use it to my advantage. So I intentionally got in a few hands with garbage , sat and thought for a long time and folded a few hands. re-inforced my weak image. Woke up to K-K under the gun . called. Raised by big stack . Call . flop gives me my set . check to the better . He puts me all in , thanks for the double up. Couple more hands and I leave the table.
+101

session twelve : Ballys early evening . sorry dont remember this session other than a couple note on my phone as follows . short time to play . buy in 200 cash out 235. 1/2 hour play / just dont remember.
+35

session thirteen : Marage 10:00 pm . room seemed kind of busy . short wait to get on 1 -2 nl table . almost all tourists. One young guy sleeping at the table . But he never missed any of his action and never slowed the game down. Maybe it just me ,but it irritates me when someone lays there head down at the table. I dont play cards in your room , don't sleep in the card room.
-58

session fourteen : O'sheas 2:00 am friday night . my worst game. the table was all full of young agressive players that got knocked of of all there w.s.o.p. dreams . super agressive kids . This could have been a great table , but I played there game and not mine. After a while I realized that I was playing way to many hands , missing flops and trying to push hyper-aggressive nuts off there hands. my mistake. So at that point ,after adding on [now 300. total] . I tightened up like I should have from the start. played 10-k from my bb to flop 2 pair . got it all in just to run into a striaght . left down and mentally hurt .
-300

session fifteen : Ballys late night friday . A chance to redeem myself from o'sheas or is it the Quad now or linq ? Anyhow , very easy room to pick out the tourists from the locals . dealers as always where decent , but talking with the regulars. big stacks where all locals . Maybe the ass kicking I took at O'sheas really helped get my head where it needed to be. I could do no wrong , caught my draws , laid em down when I was second best . bullied the ones that I needed to . best hand of the session was pocket fives . saw the flop cheap and caught my set. got all of them in and big stack went into the tank. He called and the set held up. Raked about a $700 pot . 4:00 a.m. time to go to bed .
+471

session sixteen : Flamingo 1-2 nl just one last game before the airport .
-196

Shows : Tues. night Donny and Marie . I was not thrilled about seeing them , however I was wrong . Very entertianing show , and I have a new respect for there talent.

Wed. night Celine Dion at Ceasars. Increadable artist , great show. Ceasaer's is pretty out of line with there concert. Metal detectors , searched my wifes purse , then had the nerve to charge $45.00 for three drinks.Just a little over the top guys.

total for trip +535 and had a great time.