This is super long... sorry!

The trip started with me, my Mom, and my Dad going to Vegas for my Dad's 58th birthday. My cousin (who's my age) joined us and wanted to go out in the evenings... so I invited a couple buddies to join in too and we ended up with a motley, but fun, crew. (Moreless everyone did their own thing during the day and we met up in the evenings).

Wednesday: I arrived around 11am and went to MGM to check in. $20 tip got me Strip view rooms on the 27th floor for both me and my parents... score! The room wasn't ready yet so I decided to dump my bags with the bell desk and just walk around... was a little too tired to play poker. I wanted to check out the "lower end" casinos in the center strip that I had never ventured into in any of my past visits: Bill's, O'Shea's, Casino Royale, IP, Flamingo. Was most shocked by Bill's... it seems pretty nice actually. (Might even stay there... are their beds comfortable??) Wandered up to the Venetian and checked out the action in its room, and wow it was going strong -- especially compared to how little was going on in the MGM about 1.5 hours earlier when I walked past.

Still no phone call about the room being ready, so I figured what the heck, I'll do the TI 2pm tournament. It's at most $65. Ended up the tournament had 23 players on 2 tables. I wouldn't recommend this tournament if it only has 2 tables... its blind structure just doesn't work with that few players in my opinion. Just after we went to the final table, the average stack size was 8k and the blinds were 2k/4k. (Playing 6-handed for a while at each table with 1k/2k blinds equilibrated the stacks pretty well it seemed). I've played in TI $65 tournaments before with 3 or 4 tables, and liked them much better. I'll say this much about TI: out of all the rooms I've played in, as a whole the dealers at TI definitely just enjoy themselves more and have more fun doing their job than in any other room I've been in, by far.

I went out of the tournament in 6th or so, and monorail'ed it back to MGM. Unpacked, took a short nap, and met my buddy who was getting in around 8pm. Shortly thereafter my parents and cousin landed and we all met up. My Dad and I were the only Vegas "regulars" so I wanted to take everyone to Voodoo Lounge to give them a view of the Strip at night. I figured Voodoo would be the most "approachable" option for our group. We got to Rio and the lounge was closed for a private event. Sad face. We took a cab back to the Strip and walked around a bit and called it a night.

Thursday: while the Vegas "newbies" were walking around, I decided to play poker with my dad. I managed to peel him away from MGM's 2/5 NL game (it's his game of choice) and we went to the Venetian. I wanted him to try some other rooms out -- we always stay at MGM and he always plays there. Like I said above, the V was hopping. My dad got into a new 2/5 NL game, and shortly thereafter I got into a new 1/2 NL game. After about five hands at my table, my dad joined it. He said he couldn't handle the amount of money being thrown around at his 2/5 table. Notable hand: I played pretty tight and was hovering around my $150 buy-in when I picked up 99 UTG. An older gentleman (my dad) in the SB raised it to $15 preflop. I called and a few limpers in MP folded. The flop comes 977. Bingo! Heads up against my old man and I've got a monster! He checks, either because he just plain wanted to be friendly or he thought he had me beat and was being nice (not sure if he'll say which one). I thought for a second and said screw it, I'm all in. I wouldn't have done that normally, but I thought that actually might have the best chance of getting a call from him, and either way it'd make a good story. He was up about $300 so I wouldn't feel so bad about taking his money. He said "You're gonna do that to your old man?"... to which I responded "Yeah...". If he was playing against any other player that was playing as tight as I was, I think he'd have folded his JJ -- but I think he called me for the fun factor. My hand held up and everyone at the table got a kick out of it once they found out we were related.

For dinner Thursday we went to Binion's steakhouse. We walked around downtown beforehand, and I have to say... downtown is nowhere near as bad (at least at dinner time) as I had expected it to be from what people had said to me. Nothing exceptional downtown, but I'm glad I saw it. The steakhouse at Binion's was awesome. Great cuts of meat, old school steakhouse vibe, reasonable prices, great service. Definitely recommend it. (Oh, and over dinner there was some talk about how if you sit down with your son at a poker table he'll forget all the money you spend raising him, sending him to college, etc, etc.)

After dinner, my friend, cousin and I got ready to go out. Destination: Tao. I'd been there once before and it was by far the most amazing nightclub I'd ever been to. A few friends of friends joined us, and I have to say it was a fantastic time. We got there early and managed to get in shortly after they opened. I'll say this about Tao: the staff were all cool, unpretentious, and kept things running very smoothly -- very fun, very well done and very professional. And the crowd, at least this particular night, was just really fun.

Friday: Woke up slightly hungover, but unable to sleep anymore (I'm on east coast time). Made my way down to the MGM poker room and tried to get my dad to check out another room with me. No dice. I decided to play the MGM 11am tournament. I'd play it several times in the past on a Friday and it was super soft, but the big drawback is that you are uber short-stacked initially. Me being tired and hungover didn't help much: as BB I got pot-committed trying to semi-bluff the SB off his hand, initially just trying to steal the 100/200 blinds. I had A9s and he had TT. The flop was something like T42 rainbow. He checks, I make a continuation bet and realize that I've only got 700 chips left after making the bet... uh oh, looks like we might be riding this horse as far as it can take us. Turn was garbage, he was SUPER nervous (should have realized that was not good!) and he checked. I push all-in, lose, and decide it'd be best to just go rest at the pool.

For dinner we ate at the Wynn buffet. Granted it was a couple years ago that I ate at the Bellagio, but I'd recommend the Bellagio buffet over the Wynn. The Bellagio food was a little more "exotic" and different in my recollection, whereas the Wynn was sorta plain. After dinner we saw "The Price is Right - LIVE" at Bally's. It was alright for a mid-priced show, maybe a little cheesey but in a fun way.

My friends and I were planning on going to Tryst at night. As well-run as Tao was, Tryst was the exact opposite. Horrendous. We lasted about 20 minutes in the line. The doormen were messing around text messaging or otherwise being completely incompetent while a group of guys bull-rushed the line and squeezed past everyone and four different people were trolling the line trying to sell us discounted door passes. Plus the whole thing had a very pretentious feel about it... so we bailed. We headed over to the sushi bar at the Mirage and had some *killer* mojitos. They were so good we had a few rounds and decided not to go to a club. We had a great time just hanging out, though I do wish we would have done some dancing and meeting new people.

Saturday: Once again, my dad won't leave the MGM... I decide to play some 1/2 NL at MGM. Some players were blitzed and/or had been up for 24+ hours, and I caught some cards. At one point was up to $450 from my $150 buy-in. The drunk/tired guys were really friendly and fun... and one of them had the idea that the whole table should get mimosas. I figured what the heck, I'll get one. Mistake? Yes and no. I hit the fast lane to blitzed and leaked chips like nobody's business, but let me tell you this was definitely the most fun I've had playing poker since I was a kid playing poker with my family after holiday gatherings. One highlight: I was on the button with two "fun" guys to my right, and one said if it gets folded around to him he's going all-in preflop without looking at his cards. His table-buddy said he'd do the same... and it was in fact folded around and they both shoved. I couldn't muster the kahones to call, but watching them flip their cards over one at a time at the river was hilarious. The table got "old" eventually -- in more ways than one -- and the fun evaporated and I somehow managed to escape with my $150 buy-in.

Saturday night we went to Mystere, which was awesome in my opinion. My family wasn't as keen on it compared to other Cirque shows they've seen. (I take gymnastics classes and really enjoyed the gymnastic feats the performers in Mystere did, so maybe I'm biased.) Before the show I tried unsuccessfully to get into a 1/3 NL game at TI. They had 2 tables of 1/3 NL going and 4 limit tables. For some reason I thought they'd have more NL going. After the show I met up with my buddies and they decided they wanted to go back to the hotel room and chill for a little bit before going out... mistake. We all ended up crashing and the bright idea of taking a short nap turned into us all sleeping through the night. Last night in Vegas and we didn't do anything... shoulda just kept going strong when we were out!

Sunday: did the Paris breakfast buffet based on recommendations other people made in the forums. It was awesome. Then it was off to the airport for my 1pm flight.

So all in all a great trip, but too short! Wish I would have partied a little harder, and I wish I would have played more poker! As fun as it was, I think in the future I have to either do a poker trip or a party trip, but not both together. All the concentration and energy required for playing poker makes socializing and partying later on in the day really hard!

One last random note: one of my buddies rented a car and it was shockingly cheap. It came out to about $25/day including gas... about the same as a roundtrip cab ride from MGM to the center Strip.

THE END