Before I arrived at Vegas or MGM, that being the hotel I was staying at, I told myself most of my time would be playing poker. If I had stuck to my original plan I would have left there a pretty big winner... but as my plan failed me so did my finances.
I did most of my playing at the MGM at either the 4/8 limit hold em or 2/5 no limit hold em tables. The room was the classiest Ive been to date with marble slabs on the tables to massages for 2 dollars a minute.
The 2/5 no limit table most often was filled with locals and a few maniacs that altered the game on two of the 3 nights... and on one of the nights ( my last one ) it was all locals. Luckly for me, I was able to pick of the drunk maniacs a few times on both days to be a $275 winner combined on both nights ( this was a combined 6 hour session as both days half of the time was spent playing limit ). On the last night of no limit I ran into a bigger hand when I had a big one also and got slammed for a 300 dollar loss, making my total of -$25 for the trip at the MGM.
The 4/8 table on my first night was filled with what seemed to be almost all locals, as the tourists seemed to be all playing 2/4. I was up quite a bit and then ended the day after a 30 hour time frame where my trips with better kicker got smoked on the river for made full houses with a -$30 margin. The second time I played ( Firday night ) it seemed to be almost all toursits at the table and despite playing on tilt for a good hour I still made $50 bucks. The last time I played 4/8 was on Saturday night and the table I was playing at was the loosest id been in, but unfortunately I played even more loose as I always do when Im really tired and falling asleep at the table and I lost the $200 I bought in for. So my total in 4/8 was $-180 in about 10 hours of play.
So my total in the MGM poker room was -$205. Id rate the poker room very high and the competiton at a middle of the field for the 4/8 and upper middle tier on the 2/5 no-limit ( at least the was the way on a combined persecptvie of Thursday morning, Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday night ).
I also played at the Bellagio where its prestigous name had me intimidated at the start and boosting with confidence in the end. The poker seats itself had me never wanting to leave, and its high limit games had me wondering who would walk in through the door next.
I played 4/8 limit for a half hour session before I got called to my $240 satellite to the $1000+60 Friday tournament. The 4/8 game that day seemed to be prime for picking... since the 4/8 game was the smallest limit game at the Bellagio mostly all weak players seemed to be filling up seats. While I took about $50 in the half hour my friend Jake took about $200 or so in about 3 hours.
The early rounds of the Bellagio satellite had me along with a lot more people playing reckless and loose... but I believe everyone else that was probably had the money to as they seemed to be higher limit local players. My steal attempts early on failed almost everytime time and my big hands never got paid off a cent. Luckly later on I was fortunate enough to double up a few times on some coin flips and last all the way to 4th which was further than I actually anticipated, since the later rounds brought out some fantastic playing by most of the field including myself.
We went back to the Bellagio our final day and I again played 4/8 limit hold em to start and this time only played for about an hour. I got great run of excellent pre-flop hands but unfortunately lost with all of them at the loose table I was at. So I was down $100 after that and then got called the the 2/5 no limit game. So I bought in for my $200 which is the min/max and played my heart out making great plays and laydowns which brought me up to about $700 at one point. Unfortunately after two big pots, one where I put my opponent all in with a big pocket pair against a bigger one and the other where I put my opponent all-in with top pair and nut-flush draw against two pair with no improvement after, I was at about -$75. Then again luck started coming back to my side and I won two big pots in a row to go back to +$120. I then had to cash out and left the room +$70 for the trip on cash games and -$240 on satellites... leaving me with -$170.
My rank is probably lower quality of players in both limit and no-limit at the small limits at the Bellagio then that of the MGM. But im sure as you move up limits the quality of players would probably shift. The room was excellent and the water for some reason was the best ive had ( i know its water they all taste the same, but not to me ).
The only other room I played poker at was the Rio. I played their Saturday tournament with a 100 person cap and a $40 entry free with one rebuy of also $40.
I started the tournament with using up my rebuy immediattely and thankfully... because the second hand I played I made a re-raise with pocket Queens and got called; after a bet by my opponent on a 9 high flop I put him in since he had yet to rebuy and he called quickly with a set of 9's. The rest of the tournament I played short stacked as the blinds went up kind of quick. I managed to stay around 10x BB for most of the time and put all my money in on a steal from the BB after the was one limper... got called off and was gone after about an hour and a half of play.
Since my friends were all still playing I decided to play their 2/5 no limit game. Immediatelly it seemed to be the weakest and loosest... I dont know if that is the way it is regularly or only on tournament days, but it paid me off either way. I was up about $60 after buying in for $400 after about 15 minutes and managed to do a lot better the next 15 by winning a $1360 dollar pot with two loose calls when I hit a set of kings. I got up and left not much later with +$1K. So after felling bad about a quick out of the tournament I felt great leaving there +$920.
The Rio was definetly the worst room and quality of players out of the 3 rooms I played in. Besides the room being too crowded due to the tournament the dealers didnt seem too friendly either ( though I will say the clerk and room managers were very friendly after they saw how much I was leaving with ). I would still recommend going down there due to the quality of play, but not for comfort.
So the trip despite up and down situations saw me leaving there winning $570 which is less than I was expecting I could make but a lot more than I expected I could lose.
Unfortunately all of the winning meant nothing as I lost about $700 plus on table games. The night after I won big playing at the Rio I managed to give it almost all back as I lost $200 on one spin of roulette, $200 on limit hold em, and $250 on 3 card poker.
So what I recommend all poker players to do is to go there with a poker limit for each day they are there and a table game limit for each day, and put all those limits on seperate envelopes. Whatever amount you end the day with on either table games or poker put all of, including profits, back into the same envelope and dont touch it again until you come back.
Oh and along with that HAVE SOME SELF-CONTROL.

+$570