Arrived on New Year's Day with my husband, who generally prefers blackjack. It's been over a year since our last Vegas trip. We stayed at Bally's as usual due to its excellent location. Not impressed with the Bally's poker "room" -- very loud and they didn't always have a $3-$6. I prefer $3-$6 to $2-$4 due to the rake (you max the rake more often on $3-$6 than $2-$4). I was really tired when we arrived so I decided poker probably wasn't a good idea.

The next day I sat down for my first poker run at MGM. That room is amazing. Great energy, great seating, quick service, and decent comp of $1 per hour. The $3-$6 game was passive in the afternoon (not much preflop raising), so I was able to limp in with marginal hands in late position and do well when they hit. The game got a little wilder as the evening wore on so I had to tighten up. Good dealers, though one was a little cranky -- still everyone teased her about being a grump and that kept the mood high. I was up, then down around dinner, and after using my $5 comp at the nearby Rainforest Cafe (sit in the bar to avoid the line) I went back and played until 3:30am (about 11 hours total, including the dinner break). I finished up about $30. I got rivered a few times, including flopping a very expensive set of jacks that lost against an inside straight draw and cost me about $60. That's poker. One woman showed up at 1am with her boyfriend, and she'd never played poker before. I ended up with a lot of her chips. Overall I liked how the computer system kept our table full of players. One BIG gripe: the restrooms near the sportsbar are incredibly inadequate. Only four stalls in the women's bathroom, and there was always a line. Normally I can go & be back in two hands' time but at the MGM I have to plan on missing an entire round. Please, MGM management, PLEASE find a way to give the ladies more bathrooms!!!

The next day I decided to try the Excalibur. Again this was around 3pm. What a let down after the MGM. No $3-$6, they had one $2-$4 game that struggled to stay filled. Only one player had more than a rack of chips in front of him -- not much money out there to be won. Lots of pre-flop callers, very little raising, but everyone would fold on a post-flop bet. That made draws not very profitable. Pots were small to medium, and I realized that with the rake, the extra buck removed for bad beat jackpots, and occasional bad beats (ie my pocket queens cracked by trip 7s on the river) I wasn't going to stay afloat. I decided to move on after about an hour of play. Happily, before I left my AQ suited turned into the nut flush on the turn, while the only guy with more than $100 in front of him insisted on capping the betting on the turn (when I'd already made my flush). I couldn't believe he raised my raise, but the poker gods were smiling on me. He was genuinely surprised to lose with KK. I was glad to leave up. It was by far the largest pot I'd seen in over 90 minutes of play.

I made my way to the Aladdin but they only had a $1-$2 NL going on, and that's not a game I know well. This was around 5pm, the host said there should be a $3-$6 game going on in half an hour or so. I put my name on the list and went to dinner with my husband (Firefly on Paradise, an awesome tapas restaurant with wickedly good mojitos). I decided to go on to the IP and skip the Aladdin.

Now the IP is a sentimental favorite. It's where I cut my poker teeth well over a year ago, back when I realized that I liked poker better than blackjack or slots. Yes, it's run down. Yes, it's overrun by newbies who see everything to the river. But boy is it fun. There were some dealer mistakes (the worst was the river card flipped before the last guy had a chance to bet on the turn) but the drink service was good and I like those cookies & sandwiches. And it was fun to just kick back and laugh and chat. After about six hours of the $2-$4 game I left down $1. I wasn't working hard at memorizing others' play and tells and such, instead I just played good cards when I had them and folded everything else. It felt like a home game.

The next day -- final day in Las Vegas -- I had three hours to play before leaving for the airport. I returned to MGM just after noon but they didn't have a $3-$6 going on. Just NL. I was disappointed and the host said that it was very rare for the place to be so dead. After about an hour they had enough people for a $4-$8 half-kill but it was short handed and looked like it was all young Internet boys who needed to test their cojones. No thanks. I like the occasional idiot college kid as much as anyone else but a table full of them promises too much variance.

One thing I learned is this: before trekking to a poker room, call first to make sure they are currently offering the game you want to play.

So now back to the cardrooms in Washington until my next Vegas trip. Thanks to all of you out there who post trip reports -- I appreciate it and I hope my report has been helpful or at least fun to read.