Had my permission slip signed by the wife for my weekend in Vegas, as she was spending the weekend with her friends.

Spent 6 hours on a plane getting from DC to Vegas on Friday. Nice thing about the time zone change, I made it into Vegas around 8pm. This whole weekend, I didn't play a single hand of black jack, didn't shoot any craps, not a single pull of the slot machine, nor did I put any money on black at the Roulette wheel just because the sign was showing 10 reds had hit in a row.

This weekend was strictly about poker. Without wasting any time, I rented a car and headed straight to MGM Grand. I started off playing 2-5 no-limit poker from 10pm to 8:30 am the following morning. Played with a lot of patience, since I knew I had plenty of time on my hands. After being up a bit and down a bit, patience finally paid off 6 hours into playing, when I won my biggest pot of the trip of over $1k.

Unfortunately, a few hours after winnng that hand, took a bad-beat when someone drew-out on me when I had the best hand putting him all-in. Lost a little over $800 on that hand. Ended up netting about $300 for that 10 hour-session.

Decided to get something to eat and headed over to the Aladdin where there was a tournament at noon. The only cash no-limit game they had going was 1-2, so I played that until the noon tournament started. After playing 2-5 all night and then switching to 1-2 which is a lower stakes game was like watching paint dry... pretty unexciting, but most of the players were beginners and were horrible... I almost felt bad for taking their money (I said "almost"). I ended up netting $300 for about 3 hours of play which is pretty good considering the stakes were so low.

Had to stop since the tournament started at noon. Bought in for $110 and busted out, so rebought for another $110. Didn't make it very far as I wasn't catching any cards.

Decided to eat some lunch and headed to Wynn. Very nice casino, with a really large poker room. I could tell immediately that the caliber of players here were a lot higher (likewise for the cocktail waitresses). I sat down at a 2-5 no-limit table. The difference at Wynn is that they do not have a maximum on how much you can buy in for (unlike the MGM which had a max buy-in of $500). So basically I was surrounded by players that had $3k+ in play, as I bought in for a mere $300. Played pretty tight for 3 hours and ended up netting $200.

Decided to go back to the MGM and play there for the rest of Saturday evening through Sunday morning before catching my flight back to DC at 7am. Even after consuming 4 redbulls, I was really dragging ass and zoning in and out on Saturday night. However, I must say that the flight from Vegas connecting through Houston was the fastest flight I had ever taken.

All I remember is getting on the plane and leaning my head against the window, and all of a sudden we were already at the gate in Houston. After 48-hours of sleep deprivation, 12-hours of flight time, no hotel room, and 26-hours of being dealt two cards and all the excitement of winning and losing huge pots, I averaged a little over $40/hour in pay for all that. Poker definitely is a tough way to make an easy living.

Conclusion: not quite ready to quit my day-job yet, but this won't be the last time I pull an all weekender at the tables.