So, after two days of sight seeing, superbowl parties, shows and other gambling I finally get to play my first poker on Monday in Las Vegas. 9:00 a.m. tourney at the Monte Carlo. Its a $40 buy in freezeout. You start with 1000 in chips blinds start at 25/25 and go up every 20 minutes. Antes kick in at the 100/200 level. The pay out is rather steep for a 55 person tournament paying only the top 3. 1st pays 990, second 470 (I think) third pays 320.

I actually pull a Hellmuth and arrive 2 hands late as I was at the craps table when a really hot roll was happening. I didn't even color up, I just jammed the chips into my pockets and hear to the poker room. I actually had won the button so I didn't miss paying a blind. I sit down and say "sorry I'm late, just call me Phil Hellmuth." That gets a good laugh and shows me the table is in a good mood.

Not much happens in the first lap. On my BB I get a free look and flop top pair weak kicker with a field of three or so limpers. I bet 1/2 the pot, everyone but one person fold. I turn two pair and bet again and my last opponent folds.

Next lap with blinds of 25/50 one limper to me in the SB. I have K9s and complete, the flop comes 942 with two hearts. I bet 150 into the pot and get raised to 450. by the MP limper. Huh? Did he hit a set? I call and the turn brings a 7. I check he bets 300 into the pot of over 1K and I call. The river brings the wonderful Q of my hearts I move in for my remaining 300 or so chips and he calls with KK. Way to slow play it stallion. Thanks for letting me in cheap.

Not much happens after that. I flop a set of 6's and take a whole stack. I'm up to about 3500. I do make a steal attempt against a good player in the blind and am forced to fold when he comes over the top of me. He sort of announced there that "Hey I know what you're doing don't mess with me" Like thats gonna stop me. I flop a set of nines and milk a decent player who flopped top pair for a nice bit of chips. A few steals here and there with no cards and I work my stack up to 8500 when we go to the brake. My stack is well above average. With 55000 chips in play and 12 left I'm crusing along just fine but I'd love to double up before we get to the final table so I can cruise to the money. We get back from the break and I get moved to a new table with only 12 left.

Blinds 400/800 50 antes In the SB I get 88. The table is still pretty new to me and I don't have any great reads. After two limpers I just move in. The BB now stews about it for like 3 minutes and folds saying I'll truthfully tell you what I had if you tell me truthfully what you had. I say OK. The limpers both fold and I take a nice pot. The BB tells me he had AQo I turn over my 88. The first limper says I had AQ too. DAMN Why didnt they both call!?

No long thereafter we go to the final table with blinds of 500/1K/100 I have a monster stack two to my right but other than that I'm in decent chape. Actually when I look around the table I realize Im in thrid chip position. The final table starts and let the monkey play begin! I see some aweful poker. On a flop of A83 a baby stack moves allin and the big stack calls with KJo after opening for a minimum raise. Nice call big fella. Of course the baby stack had an ace. He continues to call off his stack nicely and he goes out 8th after being the massive chip leader when the final table starts. I'm assuming he got those chips on bad calls and miracle cards .His Budweiser drinking buddies just didn't understand how that could have happened. He had so many chips. I say "It's rigged" which gets a good laugh.

Players begin to bust out and when we are down to five the Tourney director comes over and says "guys if you want a deal just let me know and I can recalculate it." We decide to pay 4th and 5th their buy in back. since I'm currently second in chips I'm fine with that. I get all in with my first group one hand of the tourney with KK against an all in call of a short stack who has AJ. I hold up and bust him out. I then double the next short stack through when I get in my AK vs his AQ and he hits his Q. The big stack busts him out two hands later. The big stack is a good player the next guy is pretty weak. Earlier at the final table the guy who is now the big stack and I joke that we'll chop when we get to heads up. It never happened with blinds of 2K/4K/ 400 and only 55K chips in play, I only have like 12K and move in with KQ, I get called by ATs and I don't improve. I'm out in third.

Overall I'm really happy with my play. I made a lot out of nothing, got lucky a few times, wheathered some beats/mistakes and made the cash in a steep payout tourney. Overall the level of play was just horrible. Lots of limping, lots of minimum raising and minimum rerasing, lots of tiny bets into huge pots, lots of folding in must call situations etc. It made my head spin at times.

One of my goals for the trip was to play three sessions in at least two new poker rooms. Having taken third in the tourney the previous day I figured I'd give another tourney a shot. A friend of Jodie's was in Las Vegas a month or so back and played the Aladdin tourney and said the structure was pretty good. I took said friends advice (which was wrong by the way) and signed up for it.

Like the previous days tourney I played some craps just before it and I ended up going on a heater of a roll and winning just under $600. Today I wasn't late to the tourney though. I got there just as the dealer was counting the decks.

This tourney was a $40 freezeout, starting with 1500 chips blinds starting at 25/50 and 15 minute rounds. What this tourney didn't have was antes, not ever. This allows you to sit around and wait for a hand later in the tourney. 80 players start and 8 pay. One thing they do at this tourney that I didn't like was remove a dealer tip prior to payout and the rake seemed to be higher than the rake at the Monte Carlo tourney, but I didn't do the math. 1st paid out $740 down to $90 for 8th.

The room at Aladdin is nice and not overly big. They have those tables with the outer ring of wood. The tournament information is easily visible at all times on several 50" plasma TV's which is nice.

The tourney starts and we've got a young Gus Hansen wannabe at our table, he's raised 5 of the first 6 hands when he finally busts out on hand 8....so so hot when he tries to run KK over with his Q8o on the Q high flop. After that the table settles down, I begin to occasionally take my shots. The player on my left loves his weak aces and I'll be sure to take advantage of that. A few rounds in I catch big slick, pop it up, Mr. weak ace calls, we flop the ace and we both flop two pair on a board of AK6, I milk him along and we get all in on the river....Buh bye. I double up and am sitting with about 4K now with blinds at 100/200. I relieve two players of their stacks a few hands later when I hit a nut flush and my two opponents have a smaller flush and hit a straight on the river. Nice chase on a flushed board.

In general the play was pretty awful. Lots of minimum raising and small bets into giant pots, people leaving themselves pot committed then folding to a small river bet etc. A few hands into the tourney I even asked, after a minimum raise and a reminimum raise, then a minimum bet on the flop if this was a a limit tourney. The dealer took about 3 minutes to explain to me why this was a no limit tourney. Yeah, yeah I got it big man. I was making a joke.

The whole while I build my image as the fun loving guy. I'm telling stories, jokes, etc., and have the table in a loose fun loving mood. A while later I make a mistake. A tight player on my right limps and I raise up AJs in the CO, figuring he'll fold but he calls. The flop comes down Q high and he fires away at me. I stew for a bit and fold showing my ace. He says, yeah I figured you had AK and shows me AQ. That cost me a bit but I still have about 25 BB with blinds at 300/600. At the break, 2 hours in, there are three tables left.

We come back and a lot of short stacks are going to be busting soon. Finally I look down to AA. A fairly tight player limps, I'm two off the button and the CO, Button and both blinds are small stacked. The BB has been steaming for a while and was the guy who was looking to go broke. He moves in for like 1300, blinds are at 400/800 and the limper calls. I decide to call and not reraise hoping the limper catches part of the flop. It comes K high the limper checks and I bet 1000 into the pot of 4100, the limper folds we show our cards and my aces hold up. Im getting good action because of my friendly chit chat, it seems like Im giving action too.

Finally my table breaks, we're down to less than two tables, I make a few steals from Eli like positions and the play tightens up significantly as the final table approaches. I take advantage of this stealing 2 and as many as 3 times per lap. The table seems content to let me do this. I bust out another short stack with AK against his A8s. Not long there after we go final.

We get to the final table and I'm in about 5th or so chip position but am above the average stack size according to the tourney board. There are several very short stacks a few monster stacks and the group of 2 or 3 of us in the middle. The big stacks don't seem to assert any dominance and soon we're down to 9 when a baby stack runs into KK. We cut a deal to pay 9th his money back. I call the Tourney director over and ask him if he can recalculate the payout based on the deal and he says no, but the best way to do it is everyone who's' left pays the next guy out $5 cash. Not the greatest service, its not like thy are filing any tax pappers and have the prewritten just awaitng names to go in. I mean yesterday at the Monte Carlo the TD was happy to recalculate the payouts based on any deal we chose to cut. It sounds good to us all though and we agree.

I grow my stack without any real confrontation as players bust, I bust a smallish stack with my QQ against his 99. I go for a steal with AJs from EP with 7 left and the SB who's the big stack stews about it for like 3 minutes and folds AQ face up. I say good fold and muck my AJ, telling him he was dominated, "That's what I figured" he says.

I limp in the SB with K3o and the BB raps. Flop comes KQJ, I bet out 4K into the 4K pot and he pops it to 8K...huh? Is this a milking bet? he'd likely have raise two big cards PF so It can't be that. I'm definitely in a push or fold situation here. All of a sudden I don't love my kicker so much. I show my 3 and say "I don't like my kicker" and he shows Q6o....DOH!

When we're down to 5, I'm second in chips, with about 28K, one stack is very small with 8K, two stacks are at around 18-20K and one big stack over 60K. OTB I raise it up to 12K (blinds 2K/4K) with A3o. The SB folds and the BB moves in for like 8K more. I've seen him resteal with the all in move a few times now and get tricky with big cards so I put him on a resteal. I know my ace is good and I call. He gulps and turns over 85o. BOO YAH I read him perfectly. I flop my ace but he hits his 8 as well. The turn bricks and the river gives the moron his 5 outer when a 5 hits. I'm on life support now with 8K, but wait!, there's good news, the other small stack has the exact same chip count as I do and the blinds will hit him first. Two hands later he's in the BB and the idiots big stacks OTB and in the SB give him a walk...gee thanks you dorks. In the BB half my stack in the pot already I'm forced all in with 97o when and ep player min raises PF, he shows KJs and I fail to improve. Out in 5th with a win of $209.

Once again, in general the play was just horrible and with tight play and a bit, just a bit of gamble you can go far in these fats structured tourneys. All in all I'd say the dealers were much friendlier at the Aladdin than at the Monte Carlo. I also learned what the fun loving guy image can do for you in a tourney full of strangers. At the final table I had two guys from Texas (both of whom I had busted) cheering for me. You get action big time too since you seem to be involved in more pots that you actually are.