In August 2005 myself and 6 of my friends checked into the Excalibur for a weekend. The game was easy however the players would play any 2 cards infront of them.... To get to the better card rooms like the MGM and Ballagio was quite a walk so after spending a crap load of money partying, which was paid for through poker I decided, after breaking even that we needed to come back again and stay somewhere that had a little bit more action.

In November 2005 just me and a good friend who i play lots of poker with at local casinos and card rooms in toronto checked into the MGM. Right away we went over to the Ballagio to check out the 2-5NL game and see if we could spot any pros playin 4000$-8000$ in Bobbys room. We saw Greenstein,Cloutier, Min Ly, Todd Brunson... was pretty cool.

The 2-5NL game was well doug in though. Everyone had well over 800$ infront of them, and since the buy in is only 200$ right away ur on a short stack. I ended up having to re-buy 3 times and eventually got my set of 8's out drawn buy J 9 to a gut shot on the river... so down 600$ my first night really seemed depressing. I consider myself a good player. I have been playin for close to 3 yers now, and play just about eveyweekend at local casinos and through the week in local games. Just bad luck i figured.

After sleeping it off we decided to play the tournament at the MGM in the afternoon. 60$ buy in 60$ re-buy for the first hour with 15 min blinds. This becomes a test to see who can win the most all ins. So i didnt place but thought the 6pm tourney would offer a better chance to sit and play as it offered 30min blinds. I played and came 2nd winning 1400$. That tounrey wasnt a shootout, the blind structure allowed you to play your cards, not just go all in because the blinds are getting to high. I played some 1-2NL at the MGM and won 180$ so i was getting my confidence back after taking a beating at Ballagio.

The next moring we went back over to the Ballagio and they we opening tables so i figured i would be ok since everyone buys in the the same amout of money. I was 11 on the list of 10 for the next table so they put me on a table that seemed worse then the day before. I played really tight for about 45 min. There were some very weak, very wealthy people in the game blind rasing 30$. Luckly they were to my left. i picked up pocket AA and to my delight the pot was re-raised so with 100$ in the pot i moved all in for 190$ more and got 2 callers. They held up. I picked up a flush draw to hands later and nailed it on the river with tons of action and made another 350. So in about 1 1/2 hors i was up 600. I left the table and went to the buffet which was great. My friend was down a couple hundred on poker, and was taking some bad beats in the 1-2 NL games at the MGM. He didnt want to invest the money in the 6:00pm tourney at the MGM(125$). I convinced him to play the last night we were there.The second time I played this tourney with 40+ players each time with a re-buy, I came 2nd again and my friend came 3rd. We had agreed to chop the prize before so we both walked away with 1100$ each.

I would highly recommend this tourney for anyone who plays a tight and aggressive game. It seemed as though the majority of the people playing were very week, even one instance i recall because it was crazy was a guy CALLED an all in with just the river to come with an inside straight draw.

Im going back next week for the weekend hopefully there will be people blind rasinf and calling my all ins with gutshots and stuff. I recommend Ballagio for anyone who likes some crazy but good action, just dont get unlucky.