Tonight was definitely not my night at the poker room. But I did have a good laugh before it was over.

Right now, it’s about 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, and I just returned from a six-hour poker session at the MGM Grand poker room. Now, ordinarily I LOVE the MGM poker room. It’s easily among my favorite Las Vegas poker rooms, and not just because the management there is kind enough to sponsor a really cool monthly promotion at All Vegas Poker. No, I love the MGM Grand poker room because the atmosphere is cool, and the action is generally juicy. But after tonight, I might need a little break.

At about midnight, I sat down at a $1/2 NL table, and I got taken for a really rough ride. The competition was average at the table, but I nevertheless got crushed! I took the following bad beats – I flopped a set of fives that got beat by a flopped flush. Next, my pocket queens got beat by pocket 9’s (heads up – my opponent flopped a set). And finally, on my last hand of the night, my pocket Aces were taken down by pocket Queens (heads up again, and this time my lucky-as-hell opponent turned a set).

Each of those hands were all-in hands for me. My set that got beat by the flush was all-in on the flop, and the other two hands were all-in pre-flop. All of those hands were monster suck-outs, and each time (except the last hand) I had my opponent covered, and I was way ahead pre-flop. I suppose with those sort of bad-beats I should count my lucky stars that I only managed to lose $200 for the night.

Despite the overall loss, and the aforementioned terrible beats, it was a fun session. Most of the players at my table were genuinely friendly, and there was one kid that was particularly entertaining.

This kid’s name was Mike. Mike was among the all-time craziest poker players I’ve ever seen. He is the sort of poker player that you pray for. When a guy like this takes a seat at your poker table, you are just waiting for your time to strike.

Mike joined my game at about 4:00 a.m. He was completely smashed, and he allegedly had just finished-up from a sexual encounter with two of Las Vegas’ finest working girls (at a cost of about $600, according to him).

Anyway, Mike sat down at my game with a full beer and $200 in cash (the maximum buy-in). Three hands later Mike was completely broke. This drunk-off-his-ass maniac went all-in without even looking at his cards. Unfortunately for Mike, he quickly ran into pocket Kings, and that was the end of him… for a little while…

After Mike got busted out by those pocket Kings, he stood up from the table, and claimed to be heading for the ATM. Now, the entire table was giving this kid directions to the ATM machine. In fact, one player offered to personally walk him over there and help him withdraw some cash. I think anyone at the table would’ve done this. Mike didn’t accept our help, and honestly we thought he was gone for the night. This kid definitely needed to go to bed (but who were we to tell him this?).

After about 15 minutes, and a lot of joking around about the angel that had previously descended upon our table, the unthinkable happened. Mike returned. He sat down at his same seat with two crisp $100 bills – fresh from the ATM machine. The players at the table could not have been happier, and it was only a question of who was going to get lucky enough to pick up the hand to bust this kid out again. That hand came quick.

This time, on Mike’s second hand at the table, my buddy picked up pocket Aces under the gun. Mike was in the big blind. My buddy slow-calls with his Aces, and when the action gets back around to Mike, as we expected, he went all-in. Yes, he did this without looking at his cards. My buddy calls, and flips up his rockets. The rest is history. Mike was gone, again (in case you’re wondering, I think he had K,8 off).

Unfortunately for me, I picked up pocket Aces a few hands later, and as you know, I was gone too when they didn’t hold up against my opponent’s pocket Queens (the lucky S.O.B. hit his 2-outer for a set on the turn).

Despite the loss, if you’re thinking about playing poker in Vegas, I still highly recommend the MGM Grand poker room. And, maybe if you’re lucky, Mike will sit down at your table.