Arrived in Vegas on Monday and headed over to the MGM for some 1/2 no limit. The reports were correct -- this was a very good room in layout and staff was good. The level of play was fairly soft. Spent about seven hours playing and never really got any cards going and cashed out $7 ahead of where I started. We then went to the Sahara for the 7:00 pm tournament. It was a $42 + $20 rebuy (1) tourney. Good structure. Blinds moved slowly and it did not become a push fest until almost 3 hours into the tourney. This game was easily crushable. Of course variance is always a factor and I busted out about midway through the tourney when I lost a race.

We then hit the Venetian. Very nice room. Good ambiance. We played in a very rocky $1/2 no limit game. There was not any easy money to be had. With the exception of 2 players who dropped $200 a piece in about 15 minutes of fishy play, everyone else was very solid. Played about 3 hours and cashed out $15 behind. The Venetian was hosting an invitation-only satellite to the WSOP Main Event that night. Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly were there. There were other Hollywood types who I did not recognize, but others at the table did. Played until about 2.30 in the morning and called it a night.

My buddy and I were playing in the $1500 NL event in the WSOP the next day. So, we headed over to the Rio. This was my second WSOP event (played in one last year) and my buddy's first. 2805 participants. Through some bizarre twist of fate, we both ended up at the same table (the odds were about 1:200 against). Our starting table included James "KrazyKanuck" Worth who my buddy promptly got into a war with (and survived). A recent final table participant, Jerald "Reno" Williamson, was also at our table. KrazyKanuck knocked him out to make up for (only in part) Williamson busting Kanuck out just before the final table a few days earlier. Kanuck was funny as heck and it was a great experience to play with him. Our table stayed together for over 6 hours and my buddy and I survived all the way through.

After the dinner break our table broke and we were split up. I went to the next table with a very below average stack and after being card dead for about 90 minutes moved in with pocket 10's. Joe Awada called with a J-9 and my tournament was over when a J hit the flop. I busted out around 340 -- 70 spots out of the money. So close, but yet so far . . .

All was not lost as my buddy cashed (but just barely). After I busted out and while my buddy was still playing, I got to see Hellmuth win his 10th bracelet. A little bit of WSOP history. Also sweated the 2-7 lowball tournament which had 5-6 recognizable pros at every table. Stood on the rail for about 30 minutes next to Mike Sexton who was sweating someone at a table next to the one where my buddy was playing. He is very personable. He was continually taking pictures with fans and chatting them up. A nice guy.

The next day we hit the $125 noon tournament at Caesar's. Also a good structure and another field that is crushable if given enough opportunity. Assuming you take the immediate add-on (which everyone does) you start with $4500 in chips. The blind levels are 40 minutes. After about 5 hours, I got down to the final 6 tables (they were paying 20 spots) when my pair of queens was run down by a straight. Win the hand and I'm near the chip leader, lose the hand and I'm eating at The Cheesecake Factory talking about what might have been.

While at dinner, my buddy and I decided we had enough "high stress" poker over the last 2 days and decided to find a relaxed game where we could have a little fun. So, we hit the closest thing we could find to a college frat house game -- the Luxor.

Their game had a strange structure. It was a 1-1-2 no limit game (a blind structure I had never played before). Max buy-in was $50, but you could buy another $50 if you ever got below $50. So the trick was to take a blind and then buy another $50 so that you had $100 in your stack. The interesting part of the structure is that once you get $150-$200 in your stack you can really intimidate the other players who all generally have $50 or less in theirs.

Our table was an absolute dream. Four competent players (including my buddy and I)and five rotating seats of people who were regularly depositing $50 at a time into the game. After having the cards break the wrong way early and getting $150 behind, I cashed out $75 ahead after about 9 hours of play. Not extremely profitable, but a lot of fun and a nice break from the stressful games we had been playing.

The Luxor is a good room for a newby to get their feet wet.

It was then about 3.00 in the morning Las Vegas time (5.00 on our body clocks) and we decided to leave the Luxor when our game got down to 4 handed. We headed over to Hooter's to see what that was about. The room felt like your were playing in someone's garage. It felt weird and we looked around at the $1/2 NL table (along with the large chip stacks of the participants) and decided that we did not have the energy to start other session (nor did we particularly want to stay in that room which felt a little dingy). So, we just called it a night.

All in all, a wonderful experience (if not terribly profitable). The reports on this site were a big help. Two thumbs-up for the Sahara and Caesar's tournaments. Well run and good structure.