Here's a separate entry to reflect on my trip to Vegas last month, which was my FIRST trip to the city sin. I had a FABULOUS time. Because it was my first trip to Vegas and also because I had my girlfriend and one of her friends, I didn't just play poker. But, I put in several hours each day for 4 days and was fortunate to play decent and capitalize on a few opportunities and have some decent luck, too.

My hotel was @ Bally's which was great BTW so I started there. It started on a bad note as I raised QQ in early position and a short-stacked lady re-raised all-in for ~$50 and an older Asian gentlemen 4bet all-in. He wasn't fully stacked, but it was still like $140 more or so. In hindsight, I should have folded since I know there's a stereotype that older men only push with the nuts, but I rationalized that there was a lot of money out there and he might do it with TT, JJ, or AK. The AK was probably optimistic and he DID have KK and it held up against my QQ and the lady's AK. But, I was afforded a gift later when a guy gave me his stack and I just had one card to make a straight. I guess he didn't see it. I was expecting at least a chop and was a little afraid that he might have the two cards to beat me. That QQ hand was the only one of the weekend I thought I played badly. This session started me up with $219 profit.

The next day I went to MGM which I think was my favorite because it was just really nice, lots of tables, and the monorail took me straight from my hotel to there in one stop. I only won 3 pots that session but one of them was the biggest pot I've ever had in a live game @ ~$900. With pocket 9's I flop AA9 and slow played it in position with a calling station and an aggressive player who had played KK like the nuts in a JJ2 pot earlier and lost to a Jack. Long story short, I was able to get my stack in against both of them and it held up against trip aces from the aggressive player and against who knows what from the calling station who mucked but called the rest of his stack off because there was "just too much money out there". I suspect he was drawing dead for a flush or straight. This session gave me $536 profit total.

I went to the Venetian the next day and I probably would have played there the entire time if it was as close to my hotel. I liked it because there were a LOT of games running so you have that feeling that you can find a better table if you need to. I still didn't win many pots this day either, but was fortunate to cooler someone when my JJ flopped J4x versus pocket 4's. The case 4 didn't come and I doubled up a $300 stack. After this session, I had $319 profit.

The last day I played was @ the MGM and grinded out just $5 profit which I was happy with.

In about 12 hours of play, I made ~$1100 total playing $1/$2 which is more than fine with me. I toyed with the idea of playing $2/$5 at the Rio where the WSOP was being played, but I've only logged 40 hours live in casinos and don't even have the bankroll to really be playing $1/$2 by my 30 buy-in rule. So, I'm going to just keep grinding $1/$2 live for a while until I have a lot more hours under my belt and I'd say at least $10k or so before I take a shot @ $2/$5. As expected, the play wasn't very good overall @ $1/$2, but even still, there's a learning curve to anything even with bad players and the variance with poker can get a little crazy, so I don't want to risk moving up to $2/$5 until I'm ready as you could easily and quickly lose a few grand if bad luck or a few bad plays go against you.

I'm going back to Vegas in December to run the 1/2 marathon. I'm really looking forward to going back to play again.

Other things I did in Vegas: ate @ the Stratosphere, saw Beatles Love, saw Showgirls Jubilee, went on a 5 mile run down the strip, viewed the Titanic exhibit, took in the Fremont Street experience, tasted Cokes from around the world, and lots of sight seeing.

It's an amazing town and so much fun, but to be honest, just like NYC, I would have trouble imagining living there. It seems more like a place I'd want to visit at least once a year.

The hotel cost $296.27, plane ticket $360.40, nice dinner with the girls $95.00, $120 for Jubilee tickets, and ~$100 for other incidentals. I made $1079 @ the tables, so that leaves me with $107.33 profit THIS trip at least ... but in all actuality, I keep those bankrolls separate. I knew I was spending about a grand for a vacation and the grand I made @ the tables goes into the banrkoll.

See some select pictures below and click for larger resolution: