First off, thanks to all the people that have posted on this site. While not
a Vegas virgin, I had never played poker in a vegas casino. The tournament
link was especially helpful.

Sorry that this will be long. A summary - Tourney's at Stardust, Harrahs,
and Mirage. NL at Mirage, and limit at MGM, Stardust and luxor. Read on if
you like....

Arrived Christmas night having lost three hours, and feeling like I could
fall asleep at any given time. Got a buy one get one free from Allegiant Air
(highly reccommended if you live near a "minor league" airport), so round
trip and three nights at Stardust was $190 total. Nice. Checked into
stardust, and the very stressed out manager gave me an "upgrade" after
telling the person in front of me they were booked. Room was huge, view was
great. I am a youngin, so the mass amounts of very old slot players was
deterring, but didnt spend much time there anyways. Its a really refreshing
walk to the actual strip in the morning when the temp was as nice as it was,
so that was no problem.

Played the Stardust 10am tourney. 45 bucks for 1500 chips, 20 minute
levels....good structure. 50 people plus alternates (so about 70 total),
with top 4 getting paid...which will prove to suck later on. 1st was $800,
2nd was $600, 3rd was 400 4th was 200. I am a little nervous when i sit down
at a live tourney for the first time, but when I get highcarded the button
and pick up KK first hand, im a little mor at ease. Raised before the flop
by middle aged tool with sunglasses, so i reraised and got three callers.
Flop is 3-K-A. Nice. end up knocking out young guy who thought he was a Gap
model with his AJ (why?), and nearly tripled up first hand. Go on quite the
dead streak for about an hour, until a guy checks his flopped two pair and
lets me hit my straight on the river to knock him out. After that I got
aggressive and breezed to the final table...was the 2nd short stack though.
fought back to 4th with 5 players left, UTG (2nd in chips) raises all in for
the 4th time in 5 hands. I am getting blinded down, and assume the chip
leader behind me will fold as he has done. So i call with my 55, guy behind
calls and I get knocked out in 5th. Was against Q-J and K-10, and both hit
on the flop. If I would have folded, it would have been $, but I dont think
I could fold that hand ever in that situation. Final table wasnt that good
either. The chip leader hit every hand, and was more stressed out when he
played a hand than anyone I have ever seen. Wasn't too hard to grind back
into the game. Only one player really worried me, and he was gone early.

With the exeptions of the payout structure, I reccommend this tournament.
Tables were overall weak with a mixture of uber conservative older players
and very arrogant young players.

Go play 1-2 NL at mirage a little frustrated, but pleased with the first
performance. Played very tight for about a half hour, and picked up 33, and
was able to limp in. flop is Q-5-3. Left of me bets out, i put in a big
reraise with 2 hearts on the board. She reraises all in. I look in disgust
just knowing she has 55, but have to call. She flips over 55, and I lose
$100. As Harrington says in his book, if you flop a set verses a higher
flopped set, you are destined to lose all your chips. So far, 5-5 has cost
me about $300 (in theory). Bought in again, called a standard $10 raise with
A-Q as does very agressive english dude behind me. flop is Q-J-9, and i bet
out 15. Guy reraises me, as he has done multiple times on draws (including a
weak flush draw 20 minutes before.) I think for a minute and put him on
either Q-10 or q-j based on just calling. As probably a frustrated move, I
reraised all in and he actually thought for a few minutes making me think my
read was correct, until he announced "well if you have k-10, you got me)"
and flipped over 10-8o. Ugh. Poor play on my part, and I am now down $245 by
3pm. So I am done for the day.

Played the 11am Harrahs tournament the next morning. I dont think it is on
the AVP tourney listing. $50 buy in, with one rebuy. Didnt get crap for
cards and lasted only til the first break. With rebuys, this tourney is very
lucritive. Pays top 10 percent (best payout structure in Vegas, IMO) with
first place running between $1200 and $1500 pretty much every day the prior
week. Plus you get a cheesy shirt if you win. Play was very solid here, a
lot of tight agressive play. At my table, I only felt one player played
poorly, and his 2 chances were gone very quickly. Otherwise good play, which
surprised me given the name brand. I dont let myself rebuy because the
increased blinds kill you, but this is a good challenging tourney

Next day to keep myself at ease, just played 2-4 at MGM...very loose at
first, very tight at the end. My purpose was to grind out a few bucks and
take advantage of the fast MGM drink service, while getting over my losses.
Finished up about 60 and relatively drunk, so my goals were accomplished

Went out to Studio 54 that night, and decided playing poker at Stardust 4am
to kill off my drunkeness. Surprisingly, the drink service was fast here as
well, so I just kept drinking. Somehow, I was winning. Loosened up a tad
bit, and finished up about $110. Would have been more until my 55 set hit a
straight. My new favorite hand! The tables dwindled from 3 to 2 to 1 by the
time i was done. Solid play here too, with people having a very good ability
to read when they are beat. One hand that comes to mind is I flop and open
ended straight draw, against a solid hand. Tight guy to my left bets out,
and Its a pretty big pot so i call down the turn and river (maybe the
alcohol). A check raise got everyone to fold, when pot odds were very high
with a solid hand.

Played the Mirage $70 sit and go the last day. Only pays top 2 ($420, $180),
but it was a good thing to play. If you are a solid online Sit and go
player, you should do well. Went out in 4th with 77 against eights. Still
dont know about my play on that one, but oh well.

Made it over to Luxor so the lady friend could try the game out. The have
daily lessons at 2pm, followed by a $1/2 game (which isnt really 1/2, but
its close). If you have been ditching the wife to play and she has even a
small inkling to see what youre spending your money on, take her here. The
lesson is average, so a slight amount of understanding is neccessary, but
not much. Its really boring to watch though, so be prepared. I was actually
going to play the 1/2 game just for fun, but it was full, and i would have
felt kind of bad if I had used the beginners. So I just sat there and
watched and quietly whispered what she should do when she was unsure. The
usually have a $50 buy in NL game going, but not when I was there. I imagine
you can clean up on that pretty easily.

After that went to MGM and bought into 3-6 for $100. Everytime I hit a solid
hand, I lost. Until the last hand when I was down to only $5 with AK, and
hit a straight. Should have bought more chips....the complaint here is that
the dealer awarded the full pot to a guy with two pair, and I had to argue
to walk out with $20. My witnesses held up though.

Thats about it. Won more money on Slots than poker, which is an absolute
first. Really liked Mirage and MGM, despite posting losses at both. And the
Harrahs tourney was the favorite, even though I did crappy. Fun trip and ill
be back soon.

Hope you found this useful and not too long.