After reading the poker room reviews here, I decided to play (and stay) at the MGM Grand.

I sat down at the MGM Grand tables 3 times:

- $65 buy in, 80 person No Limit Hold'em tourney.
- 2/4 Limit Hold'em cash game.
- 1/2 No Limit Hold'em cash game.

Here are the details...

$65 buy in, 80 person No Limit Hold'em tourney:

The structure tourney was: $1200 in chips, 25/25 starting blinds, and 20 minute levels, top 6 paid. The tourney started with 6 tables, but they also allowed 20 "alternates" to re-buy $1200 chips for the same amount as people busted out.

This is a fast blind, short starting stack structure I don't really like (but all cheap tourneys are like this).

I ended up placing 4th out of 80, and took $600 in prize money!

Here are some highlights:

- A short stack moves all in, another short stack calls, and I move all in with TT. 1 short stack shows garbage, other short stack shows A8 suited, and he rivers a straight with his 8.

- 2 limpers, I limp with K8 off. Flop comes 852 with a flush draw on board. I bet the pot, and get a short stack calling me. Turn is a Q (no flush) and I put the short stack all in and he calls and turns over A8. His kicker holds up.

- 2 limpers, I check A8 off in the BB. Flop Q86 rainbow, everyone checks. Turn 4, short stack SB pushes all in, other limper folds. I thought about it for a while and realized I should have bet on the flop to see if I had the best hand at the time, so I called and my 8's held up.

- I raise with JJ, short stack goes all in, I call. Short stack has KJ and catches a K on the flop.

- Final table, UTG+1 raises, I'm short stacked and push all in with AJ suited. UTG+1 calls and shows QQ, I hit an Ace on the flop. I didn't feel too good about this...but in tourneys you have to get lucky at some point, and I hadn't been lucky until this hand.

When we got down to 5 players, 3 players had roughly equal medium sized stacks, and myself and another guy were short stacking. Everyone agreed to chop the prize pool. Myself and the other short stack got $600 each , and the other 3 players got about 900 each.

2/4 Limit Hold'em cash game:

I bought in with $100 for this game.

I played for about 5 hours and didn't get very good cards. Most of the hands I played I was drawing because of the great pot odds. Only two of my draws hit - a straight and a flush, and the majority of them didn't pay off. The only decent hand I had was QQ and these ladies held up all the way to the river!

My stack size fluctuated from $135 to $35 during the time I played, and I cashed out with $60.

1/2 No Limit Hold'em cash game:

It was the Thursday night before the Easter weekend, and the casino was PACKED! I planned to start playing late-night - I sat down at about midnight with $120 in chips.

What an entertaining table! It consisted of the following people:

- Two older guys that I thought may have been pro's. They were playing a tight game and neither of them were drinking. I had one on each side of me.
- 2 tourists that were drinking and talking a lot.
- A guy with an IPod. He was pretty serious, wasn't drinking, and had at least 300 in chips. May have been a pro too.
- A hot blonde with a HUGE rack, and about 150 in chips.
- A SMOKING hot brunette with about 400 in chips.
- A high-roller who was bank-rolling the two chicks. This guy is my hero ;) He said: "I'm in town on business," smiled, pointed to the hotties on his left and right and said: "And these ladies are my business, big business." They were all drinking and touchy-feely with each other, kissing and massaging each other. Definately strippers or escorts!

Here's how it went down:

- I play for about an hour, limped when I had the odds, caught no cards, and folded everything.
- Finally I get a hand - AK suited UTG. I end up tripling up after hitting a A on the turn, and King on the river. This was a weird hand with the two older guys - they were both in the hand with me until the river, and one of them had me beat with 2 pair until I hit the King on the river. The other one folded on the river.
- I play for another couple hours, get no cards, and limp when I can. I tried to make a couple moves at pots. It worked once, but I had to fold twice when I ran into people with hands.
- The guy with the IPod cashes out about $600 in chips (donated by the high roller and the hotties), the high-roller bank-rolls another hot blonde who's friends with the smokin hot brunette, the old guy to my right busts out, and a younger drunk guy replaces him...FISH!!
- I play for another hour, getting no cards but enjoying the high-roller/stripper gong show at the other end of the table. They did not care about money...sometimes they were raising and calling pre flop without looking at their cards.
- My friend comes up to my table and says: "Hey we're going to find some chicks with dicks, are you in?" He doesn't whisper this in my ear either...REAL FUNNY :) (luckily the hotties at the other end of the table couldn't hear). I explain to him I've had very few good cards, and only played about 4 hands all night.
- It's 4 in the morning and I sit back down to play my last hand. I get COWBOYS!!! UTG raises to 10, UTG+1 re-raises to 40. UTG+1 only has about $50 left, and I re-raise to $100. Everyone else folds, and UTG+1 calls with pocket 4's. My cowboys hold up, I cash out $385, and the 3 hotties ditched the high-roller to come back to my hotel room!

I didn't make any money from the high-roller and party girls...if only I had got some cards when they were involved in the pot :(

Summary:

I gambled a total of $285, cashed out $1045, and made a profit of $760!

I saw a couple of WPT champs too: Gus Hansen and Martin De knijff at the Bellagio. I asked both of them if they wanted to play heads up, but they declined, trembling with fear.

PS: I lied twice in this trip review...do u know where??