My wife and I arrived on April 15 and stayed at The Mirage, nice room, much better than the MGM, which is where we stayed last trip. The MGM is just too big and too far down the Strip.

I hit Harrah's first for 3-6 and a guy at the table took a $366 jackpot for hitting a royal flush. I played limit here and at virtually every other casino on the Strip and what I learned is that unless you find some drunks or calling stations at your table, limit is a slow, tedious way to make a profit. Most limit players in Vegas are rocks, so you have to bide your time and hope to hit some good hands. Really, if all the players at the table are equally talented, limit becomes more like bingo than poker. What this means is that if you find yourself up by 30-70% of your original "stake" (which I often did), you should get up and go (which I often didn't) to another casino. If you don't, you'll inevitably see your stack diminish in the natural ebb and flow of good hands and bad beats.

I entered 3 tourneys at the MGM, two morning tourneys and one evening event. These were great fun and I took fourth in two of them for a grand total of $650. Be aware that the blind levels in the morning tourney are 20 mins, whereas in the evening tourney it's 30 mins. 30 mins sounds like a lot but the tourney I was in was still a festival of all-in calls. In fact, every third hand seemed to have all-in call. And if you find yourself short-stacked at the final table, be aggressive and creative in suggesting ways to chop the prize pool so more people share. The other players in my tourneys were quite happy to spread the wealth, although the negotiations sometimes sounded like something from "Survivor".

I also tried the 7 p.m. tourney at Caesars Palace. The 40 min blind levels are good, but there were still a lot of big pre-flop raises and all-in calls. Also, you don't see as many hands in the 40 mins as you might expect. Because not all the tables have autoshufflers, all the tournament tables have the dealers shuffling in order to keep things even. I finished middle of the pack out of 62 entrants after never gettng anything better than A-10o.

People in other posts complain about Caesars having a bland, big box atmosphere, but I liked the fact than it was quiet and roomy. MGM seems to have more people having fun at the tables, but the noise from Centrifuge bar next door can get tiresome at night.

If you're going to play limit, stick to Harrah's. The room is boring, but they pay out bonuses on all quads, straight flushes, and royal flushes. I hit two quads in Vegas, but unfortunately they weren't at Harrah's.

One final note: the players at the Mirage and Bellagio are often old, very old, even fossilized. CP and MGM attract a younger crowd. It was a great trip, and I'll be back soon.