The trip was from saurday nite 11/7 until thursday afternoon 11/11. Myself (J), Eric (E), and Shawn (S). began at the Mirage on saturday nite. after sitting for a while and having a few adult beverages, i noticed i was up about $228 at the 3-6 table and it was getting to be football time (gotta love my steelers!!) on sunday morning... looking over to the left i saw S was about even, and E, who was playing no limit was up about $700. we decided to leave and head to the sportsbook. My over all impression of the mirage was very good... lower limits not really that bad, and no real "fishing for cards" going on from what i saw at the lower limits... No Limit game was good per E and he said the players were all pretty strong.

Sunday nite we decided to play in the luxor NL tournament at 8pm. the tournament had 60 players and was atrocious... each of us was out early as too many bad players and the phrase anyone can win was in full effect!! couldnt bluff or hope my aces would hold up and they didnt of course!!

Monday I started off to the Excalibur to see what i had heard about their monday nite football promotion. seemed really cool and i satyed to play a bit of the 2-6 spread game they had, it was ok, players were good (but tight) for the most part and took a couple big pots off a big mouth at the table that smelled like liquor (it is a shame to let a fool keep hios money!!)

Left and met up the E and S to play int he Imperial Palace tournament... about 70-80 people and a 40 buy in with 1 $20 RB. tournament was good, and competition wasnt all that great but in the end S finished 6th and got his money back, me and E out early on bad beats with pocket Ks and Qs respectively.

Later that nite we went to the Orleans for their $40 buy-in with unlimited $20 RB for the first hour... i like this tournament... it is well run and there are a lot of decent players...the rebuys can get crazy though!!! there ended up being 205 players, and the prize pool was tremendous. I was the only on of my friends to get to the thrid break and was chip leading at my table... which got broken up and i ended up at the table that had 83 rebuys in the first hour. Average stack int he tournament was $5050 per the TV and i had $12500, but was the smallest stack at their table... i finished 32nd after pocket 10s were called all in by A-K and got riverd by the K. i was bummed cause i was 8 spots from getting paid and if i wouldnt have drawn that table wuld have made the final table for sure.

Tuesday we went to teh legendary Horseshoe and played all afternoon. E lost a bit at 4-8, S ended up $300 playing 2-4 as i ended up $200 at the same table... it was a really bad game lots of bluehairs saying they have a str8 when they are missing a card. Beware, no raise goes uncalled here, lots of fishing, but over all a fun place to play... must be the tradition cause i know it wasnt the speed of the drink service!!!

Later that evening we went to the Sahara for theor NL tournament ($40+ 1 $20 RB) it was well organized, play was very good and it was a lot of fun... out of 65 player E and S finished in the top 11 and i was knocked out after calling a bluff and getting riverd by a 6 when no card post flop helped my opponent... right call, just bad luck!!
I played in the 4-8 game for a while, level of play was ok, players were very friendly...

played later that nite at the luxor int he $50 max buy-in NL live game. game was soft and moey was flowing in the beginning.. then some good young players came in and the game becane fun.. when they got there the level rose and all bad players weeded out. I enjoyed this game and ended up about 50 at the end... if those guys were there all the time that game would be a constant for me just for level of play expectations.

Wednesday we went to Monte Carlo and played a bit, E played NL, S and I stayed small at 2-4... great room, lots of newbies and dead money... i was told i was the worstr player ever for limping in on the big blind with 8-3 offsuit and having 8-8-3 hit the flop.. i just laughed at the guy cause he kings were no good from the flop!! should have raised preflop and i may have gone away!!! anyway ended up a few bucks there as did S and E.

The final nite i decided the bar was more important seeing as i met a young lass from Monte Carlo and wanted to hang out with her!! we ended up at Mirage around 8am and saw E playing NL up about $2000!! too bad its time to go home...looking forward to the next trip and higher stakes thats for sure!!

Overall, i think that Vegas poker is pretty good, players are less weak than here in Detroit, and good low-limit game can be found... i played low this time due to S being there for the first time, but i will definitely be back for more next time and playing more NL and higher stakes limit. Tournament play is pretty good (except luxor) but i think unlimited RBs are a thing in the past for me...bad players with a lot of chips can be a bad mix!!

any questions feel free to contact me via email at [email protected]

thanx for reading
JIM