Sold a four day poker trip to Vegas to my wife as a "chance to get to see some of the shows we've always wanted to see as well as a chance to do some hiking in Red Rock Canyon". We stayed at the MGM Grand because that is where KA is playing. The fact that the MGM Grand Poker room is my favorite place to play poker had nothing to do with it. The only thing I don't like is the marble rail because as you draw the cards toward you for a peek, the cards will often catch in the crack between the marble and the felt and semi expose your cards.

The first day was a disaster - a combination of bad cards and being too tired to concentrate bounced me out of my first tournament and led to further losses at the Limit table.

Played the 11:00 A.M. tournament the next day and came in 18th out of 100. My last hand I had a chance to quadruple up as several people called me until the Big Stack in the BB ran them out. I was all in against the big stack. I had pocket kings and he had pocket threes. Of course he got his third three on the river. Limit play the rest of the day brought me back to the plus column from the previous days losses.

The next day my wife and I went for a drive/hike in the Red Rock Canyon area. Originally, I had planned to spend 2-3 hours and get back to the tables. But, it turned out to be a very fun side trip - the weather was perfect-slightly overcast 75 degrees and we ended up spending the whole day there (highly recommended). After that we only had a few hours to clean up, eat, and get seated for KA (also highly recommended. After the show I went back to play 3-6 but the only table open was 2-4. When I sat down, I noticed three guys at the other end of the table with about three hundred dollars in chips in front of each of them. They were playing very loosely and it didn't take long to realize they already drunk and getting even more so as I sat there. I figured if I just sat there and played tight, it would only take to or three pots to get way up. I played until 2:30 in the morning with them and the hands never came and I ended up slightly down.

The next day, I played in the 11:00 tournament again and got fifth place. That was enough to put me in the plus column for the three tournaments. After the tournament, I went to the 3-6 table. My first hand I had to post. So I was in with the 3 and 5 of spades. The flop came 2 spades, four spades, and 8 diamonds. Everyone else seemed to be doing the betting, so I just kept checking and calling. The turn was 10 hearts. I checked and there was only one bet with everyone else calling. The river was the six of spades. I checked because I was sure there was going to be people who would bet. Sure enough, there was a bet and a couple of calls and I raised it on the end. Not bad - sit down and the first hand is a disguised straight flush. I got several other good hands and I ended way ahead on limit play for the trip. I was crying when I had to leave the table to go to the Celine Dion show (also highly recommended). All in all I was high on the plus side for poker although it was more than eaten up by the cost of the shows we went to.