The reports and reviews were great so I'll limp in with my own report. Stayed at the Mirage from the 14-17th with my wife, and we were meeting up with her aunt and uncle, so it was a mix of sight-seeing, gambling, and poker. If you're going to Vegas for the first time, you might be worried about how your game stacks up. Don't worry! If you're reading this site, you are probably serious enough about your game that you would be a winner over the long run in the fishy low limit hold'em games. Unfortunately for me, the long run did not balance itself out over the course of a 3 day visit!

For the first night, I wanted to get warmed up somewhere besides the Mirage since many posts rated the competition pretty tough. Harrah's was dead and I was not excited by the room, so I figured I would dive into the deep end back at the Mirage. Played 3-6 limit and the competition was pretty weak with 4 to 6 people seeing the flop, usually going to a showdown. Jet lag caught up with me early, so I finished the night after about 2hrs up $42.

Next day I entered the 9:30 tournament at Paris. It had 22 players that morning and the structure allowed for some play early on, instead of being an all-in fest from the get go. The competition was solid. I got some chips early, but went out in 5th when my now short-stack went in on pocket 10s against 88s and AAs. Jumped into a 2-4 game looking to win my tournament buy-in back and move on to somewhere else. 6 people on the flop was standard and raises seemed to attract more people rather than force them out! The river was unkind and my $100 buy-in got wittled down to $30. I became determined not to lose money here and played for a total of 4 hrs, cashing out up $38. I liked Paris, and the table was more relaxed and social than at the Mirage.

Last night in Vegas, finished up the trip with a 6hr session at the Mirage. Out of the gate I tried to bully my way to a good start, spewing chips until I slowed down and remembered that the 3-6 game was not a good place to bluff and I needed to be patient. It was Friday night and the table had more of a mix good players and poor players, so 4-6 in a flop was normal, but you needed to be more conscious of who you were up against. The fish would call you down with 3rd pair and catch his set on the river. The shark would check-raise you on the turn with top set or str8 in hand. My bad start and some bad breaks on the river had me end the night at 4am down $120.

Had lots of fun and met some great people. For example, one guy was a real talker, but always shut up when he had a monster hand. He could not figure out why he was getting calls on his bluffs and none on his winners. Another guy got married the day before and was off to a great start by playing poker for 6 hours while his new wife kept swinging by to give him hell for playing all day! The low limits were very fishy at both places. Enjoy!

Random tips: If you like the outdoors at all and have a car, make the short trip to Red Rocks and hike the trails a little. Do the weekday lunch buffet at Bellagio, great food and a good value compared to other buffets at the lunch time price.