Was there for the new year, and decided to get into a tourney.

Played in the 11am Thursday tourney at Sahara's. Although the buy-in was cheap (62$ including add-on) and I placed 5th in the money, I do have several gripes and would advice players to NOT play in this one.

It seemed like there were lots of locals (whether that's good/bad - up to you to decide). The tourney started at 11am - I didn't finish (5th place out of 62 players) until 4-4:30pm. With the 20 minute blinds and no antes, this thing dragged on forever! The payout was also very low - 1st got $1100 - 5th (me) received $200. In my opinion, lots of work for very little pay-off. I do, however, appreciate gaining some tourney experience.

The second half of my poker playing took place at MGM. I like MGM, and the poker room is good, but I don't like the marble rim around the tables and I don't like the fact that the poker "room" is right next to the sports book and a very loud bar/lounge. Was very distracting, considering it was new years weekend with all the bowl games going on.

My Friday night sit-down was quick - only played 1hour. Bought in at $100 - left table with $320+. That night, I was catching good cards with solid players around. They knew when they were beat and laid down a lot. Saturday, I played again, bought in $160 - lost it all. Didn't catch any good cards. And the hands I did play - ended up with 2nd best by the river. All in all, the trip was good.

Learned a lot playing both tourney and 1/2 NL. I don't get to play too many tourneys and hardly play NL. The players at MGM are very good too - so I enjoyed playing with quality opponents.