Trip Started Monday 8/15/05. The first three days I was with my brother who doesn't play poker. Consequently I threw away about $300 playing slots with him during that time. The first day in Vegas we decided to walk down the strip (from the Tropicana) and gather information about each of the hotels Tournament structures.

The first poker play I got in was on Monday night at the Tropicana. Their room is small with only 6 tables. The play there was extremely loose. I had several good starting hands in a 2/4 limit holdem game but got sucked out on everytime. If your in that section of town, I would highly recommend going acrossed the street to Excalibur. The play isn't quite as loose and the room is much nicer.

Tuesday morning I played the 10:00am NL Holdem tournament at the Aladdin. I really like the look of this room. It's well lit and offered free coffee & doughnuts to the morning players. The buy in was $35 w/$5 AO (which I believe got you $1500 in chips). I didn't catch any hands early on and became short stacked very quickly. I had to go all in (just before the first break) with KJ offsuit and was called by QJ offsuit and rivered with a Queen. I got about an hours play in and still had fun.

No Poker on Wednesday (Visited with relatives).

Next was the Thursday 11:00am NL Holdem tournament at Harrah's. I really like this room. It's right off of the bandshell entrance which makes it easy to get in and out of. It's completely enclosed so the noise level is kept to a minimum. Their tournament was a $35 buy-in with a $5 AO which got you $1500 in chips. They allow alternates and 1 re-buy during the first hour. I managed to work my stack up to about $5500 in the first hour and eliminated one player from my table twice. The first big hand I had was pocket Jacks in late position. The flop came J 10 4 rainbow. UTG bets, I smooth call. Turn and River were rags and UTG goes all in. I call and she shows pocket Queens. A few hands later I take her out again with trip Jacks and she shows a pair of twos? I manage to hold on in this tournament and land a 4th place finish (out of 65) to cash for about $381.00. I enjoyed this tournament so much that I went back and played it again on Friday morning. This time there were 95 players and I finished in 14th just five places out of the money.

Even though I finished my trip behind, I was very happy with my play and pleased that each time I had my money all in, I always started out ahead. I can't wait to go back again!