I’m pumped to play at the B. Before this trip I was intimidated by the place and had never even thought of playing there. Also, before this trip I had never made a poker profit without hitting a jackpot. But I’m up $522 at this point and think it’s time to test myself.

Well, if I really had wanted to test myself, I’d have tried 8-16, but I’m not that ballsy yet, so it’s 4-8 again. I come in with $160 and hover between that and $200 for the first couple hours. It’s a fun table and I’m wishing I didn’t have a flight to catch (but really who doesn’t wish that in Vegas?). Two hands I’m proud of, but maybe I shouldn’t be:

I get 33 on the button. Two limpers and no one’s raised, so I bop it up and get four callers. Flop’s like a 9 7 4 rainbow, and everyone checks to me. I have a pretty tight table image and decide to see what I can do with it, so I insta-bet. Everyone calls. Turn’s a K. Check-check-check-check to me, and I have my 8-stack fingered and ready to fire, but I very slowly check. River’s a 2 and it’s checkville to me; I confidently fire 8; everyone folds.

A little later, I raise UTG with 77. Everyone folds except the BB, who re-raises, and I call. Flop’s 8 8 3. He bets; I raise; he calls, and I think he has AK, or else he would’ve re-raised me. Turn’s a 3. He checks; I bet; he calls. River’s an A. Hmm. He checks. I think he wouldn’t check-raise on the river if he hit that, so maybe he has KQ, and I bet. Oops, he does check-raise. I deliberate and know that you shouldn’t fold on the river, but I tell him “you have ace king” and muck. He flips over A K and apologizes for staying in the hand that long.

I play another orbit and leave +$8, the eight chips that I saved by folding on that hand. We fly back to Chicago that afternoon.

Steve, your turn.

---end of report---

Summary: 8am on a Monday = no limit games at TI or Venetian. Green tea intimidation at Mirage 3-6 = +$30. Free prime rib lunch at Venetian = +++EV. Aggro-playing Larry Bird and river folding at Bellagio 4-8 = +$8.

Whole trip all gambling (poker, Butler bet, slots, BJ, craps, bowling, frolf) = +$530
Whole trip all poker = +$462
Whole trip all limit poker = +$627
Whole trip winnings - expenses = +$198.

I’m about to pass out, but the other guys want to try to all play in the same 3-6 game at Bally’s, so I join in for a hundo. Stupid move on my part. The table’s loose and limber, but I’m donktastic. I lose an early hand to Alex when I have KK and he flops a flush that I check-call down to the river. I lose another hand to Steve when he calls my AT raise pre-flop with 9To, and the flop’s 9 T X. He re-raises me on the flop and I should’ve recognized. Later I end up all-in when my flush draw hits on the river, which gets me back to $55. I boost it up a bit more, then am about to leave, satisfied that I rebounded slightly, when I get QQ UTG. I raise, and everyone folds but Alex and the BB, who just call. Rag flop. BB checks; I bet; Alex raises; BB folds; I call. Turn and river are more rags – at least I remember it that way – and I’m check-calling Alex. He shows KK, and I’m pissed that he didn’t re-raise me pre-flop. Forget that I played stupid; it’s all his fault. I go to bed -$68 and get a whole SEVEN hours of sleep Sunday night.

It's Monday, late morning and I head to the V to meet Alex & Steve. I’ll play any limit up to 8-16 at this point, but of course there’s no game going at the V. Steve & I are on an interest list that never goes more than five deep. Alex sits down for NL, and Steve & I are about to head for the Bellagio, but then what to my wondrous eyes should appear but some workers setting up a lunch buffet in the poker room. It’s a free lunch for poker players that V offers MWF 11a-1p and 5-7pm all through March? Today’s prime rib sandwiches. Steve & I aren’t even playing though, so I ask the floor if it’s okay for interest-listers to partake and he says go right ahead. Ship it. While we eat lunch, Alex wins $200-something at the 1-2, then joins us and we go to Bellagio for one last session before the airport.

The seven whole hours of sleep does me good, and I’m looking for poker at 8am on my last day in town. Unfortunately it’s a Monday. I want to get some comp $$ for lunch and feel like I should play more at TI since they had set up the tournament for us, so I wander down that way, but there’s only NL. So I think “Venetian has that bigass room, they’ll have something”, but nada, and they tell me to come back at 11. Then I wander over to Mirage, and there’s one 3-6 going, with a NL in the back of the room from the night before. I’d never even thought of playing at Mirage before, oddly enough.

I sit down and am loudly welcomed to the table by a talkative guy on the other side of it. He announces that they’ve all been playing through the night, and asks “how much sleep you get last night?” I answer truthfully, and they’re all like “you better get to that table in the back of the room, we don’t want none of your kind here”. I stay. The first drink I order is a green tea and they flip their lids. There was a hot blond waitress there, by the way, the best looking one I’ve seen on the trip. She’s from Texas – anyone know her? Sorry no pic.

Anyway, I win some small pots, nothing spectac, and hover between $120 (my buy-in) and $150. It’s getting close to the supposed game time at Venetian, so I play one last hand, river a straight, and leave Mirage +$30 to go meet Alex & Steve at the V.

I’ve got a little itch to play NL, seeing as I’m +$511 from limit at this point, so Alex, Ubaldo, & I sit down at the famous Luxor $50max game. I play two hands, go all-in on both, and lose both to Alex, who has top-pair-higher-kicker both times. Well there goes my NL experiment.

A 3-6 game is about to start, so I join it, and find out it’s this “tournament” Luxor has where anyone with 15 hours the previous week qualifies for the jackpot. Whenever someone wins a pot that’s at least $40, they get a ticket from the dealer, and after three hours, whoever has the most tickets wins $375. But other than that, it’s just a 3-6 cash game. Anyone heard of that before?

It’s all 15-hr locals at the table except for me, and I recognize one guy in a wheelchair right away, who’s been at Luxor every time I’ve played there (last June, October, December). His name’s Tulio and seems tight-aggressive, the only one at the table that way.

The game starts and I figure out after an orbit that if no one flops the nuts and the pot isn’t $40, they don’t care about it. It’s like it doesn’t count since it’s not a jackpot qualifier. So, I loosen up, but avoid playing against Tulio, get a little aggro, and turn-bluff three $20 pots, and not just heads-up or position bluffs; there are like three to six people in the hand, and position doesn’t matter.

Shortly after that, another familiar face sits down: Angry Black Woman. She’s still mute and angry like at MGM, but now is wearing a sparkly hat. I text Steve to come see who’s at my table. He joins a little while later. I win a big pot when my flush hits on the turn, then do nothing for an hour until I get AA and five callers, and it holds up. Next hand, JJ with four callers that holds up. Two hands later I hit two-pair with an A4 that I shouldn’t have even played post-flop, but eff it. I stand up +$154 from that table, happy to make up that lost hundo from NL.