My wife and I got to Vegas on Sunday June 25 and we first started out playing 1-3 Limit poker at the Excalibur. We each bought in for $50. I had some ups and downs and ended up losing it all. My wife ended up cashing out $35. So it wasn't a total loss. I thought that the Excalibur staff was very friendly and made us feel welcome. We are a young couple and sometime casinos will make us feel uncomfortable by staring at us like we are too young to be there, but they just check ID's and get over it. I would recommend the Excalibur for beginners, but not the nicest room by far.

Next we played at the Monte Carlo. This was the hotel that we were staying at. I asked if they had a 1-2 NL table going on, and they didn't, so we each bought in for $100 in the 2-4 game. My experience at the table was so bad that I vowed to never play limit holdem again. People would play with the worst cards I have ever seen, and get so lucky. I lost my $100 and my wife came out with $70. The Monte Carlo poker room was really nice, not very big but nice. The staff was really nice, and didn't have a bad dealer all night. I would highly recommend this poker room. All of the jackpots are nice as well.

That was all the poker for that night.

Next day we got up and went to the WSOP at the Rio. We walked in and a dealer was calling out need just one more to start. My wife said go ahead, so I paid the $50 and finished 5th. I can't remember how many chips we started out with
but I couldn't catch any good cards. It was fun, but I wish I had done better.

Later that night we headed over to the Sahara to play in the 11 pm tourney for $42 with a $20 rebuy. Before the tourney started we sat at the 1-2 no limit table and we each bought in for $100. I actually cashed out $80 ahead this time and my wife cashed out $60 ahead. The tourney started and ended up having 90 players. I finished around 20th place and my wife finished in 11th. They only payed the top 8, so we did not finish in the money, but at least we made some at the tables before the tourney.
We came back the next night to play in the 7 pm tourney and neither one of us cashed, but my wife lasted a lot longer than I did. While she was still playing I decided to buy in for $200 in the 1-2 NL game. I had only played about 10 hands when my wife got out of the tourney. She was walking over and told me she was going to the bathroom, and I told her that I would quit when she got back. Well I could see her coming back when I looked down at 9 10 diamonds in the BB. A guy in the 3 position raised up to $7. Three other people called so I threw in another $5 to see the flop. The flop came 8s Qh Jc. I flop a straight, and the guy that raised bet out $15. The other two previous callers folded and I raised him to $30. He thought for a bit and called. The turn came 2h. At this point I thought he might have AQ, KQ, or QJ, so I bet out $60 hoping he would just fold and not catch something on the river to beat me. He thought forever and finally called the $60 bet. The river comes 8d, I go all in and he calls flips over his pocket 8's and wins with his quads. At that point I lost another $200 and I was not feeling to happy.

I liked the Sahara poker room, good dealers besides one old grouchy lady, but the smoke that comes in is terrible. It is not a very nice room at all, and the tables are bad, but for some reason I liked playing there, plus they have good sandwiches during the 7 pm tourney.

The next morning I tried a $40 tourney at the Aladdin while my wife got ready. I had no luck there either. Blind went up too fast and I could catch anything. The room at the Aladdin was nice, and I liked the free donuts in the morning. We were going to play 1-2 NL there but it was a long wait.

Later that night we played in a tourney at the Imperial Palace. It was a $55 buy in with a $25 rebuy option. We were unaware that it was a rebuy tourney that you could rebuy as many times as you want as long as you have under $1000 in chips. We had a crazy guy on our table that rebought 5 times because he wanted to make sure that there were plenty of chips at our table. Luckily he never sucked out on his all in with crappy cards, and once the rebuy period was up he was out in no time. My wife and I were at the same table, which I didn't really like but oh well. We were fairly deep into the tourney and a guy in front of me raised to $500 I had pocket 8's and reraised him up to $2500 and the next guy folded, then it is up to my wife and she goes all in. I was like crap one of us is going to be out. I only had her covered by $400. Well it got back to the original raiser and he called as well. We flip over the cards and I have the 8's, my wife has pocket Q's, and the raiser has AQ. No ace or queen comes so my wife won the main pot and I won the side pot of $800. I was out soon after but she held on and finished in 6th place and got $325. I was very happy for her, but she is embarassing me by beating me in every tourney. The next night when we play at the IP it was no different. This time the tourney was a one time rebuy only. I was unlucky when my AK tied AJ due to a 5 high straight. We were both all in before the flop $4000 each early in the tourney, and that would have set me up good, but I was unlucky. I went out in 14th place with pocket queens. A guy with AJ called my $4000 raise and caught a A on the flop. That was it for me, but my wife finished in 9th and got $70.

I like the IP poker room. It has expanded since last year when we were there. They serve sandwiches which were good. The staff was friendly, but there were a couple of terrible dealers. We had fun there overall.

Our last day there I wanted to play at the MGM since I had heard so much about it. I went and put my name on the list for the $1-2 NL. I didn't have to wait too long and got in with $150. I got down to $70 at one point when I got pocket 5's guy to my left raised to $10 I called as did to others. The flop came 6 5 2 rainbow. I check guy to my left bets $10 other two players folded and I raised him $20. He goes all in for $80 and I called. He had AA and didn't catch another. That brought me back up to $200, but I had no luck from then on getting back down to $50 and I stopped.

The MGM room was very nice and I will definitely be playing there my next trip to Vegas. There were a lot of locals there and one guy even knew more about checking players in with their players card than one of the dealers, so that was scary that this guy has been there enough to know how to run the machine at the table that clocks players in, but oh well I still had fun.

Overall it was a losing trip for me. I am just glad that my wife did so well.