A trip report 6 months late ;) I hope you still find it informative...

For my 27th birthday last year, my girlfriend surprised me big time by enrolling me in the World Poker Tour's Boot Camp at the Mirage on November 12-13, 2005. Wow!

We've only been playing poker for a year up until then; quite casually I might add. I couldn't help but think this experience would elevate (to a higher level) how I look and play this game...

This was our first trip to Vegas. We arrived pretty late on Thursday night. Friday was spent wandering the Strip and trying to soak in what Vegas is all about.

The camp started with breakfast on Saturday morning. There were 60 people enrolled from all over and of all kinds. The camp ended with a student's only tournament at the Mirage - the winner of the tournament received entry (and an all expenses paid trip back to Vegas) into the Mirage's WPT event this May - I finished 3rd (which got me a very nice WPT poker chip set). I won't get into every else that happened in between; you can check that out for yourself on their website . What I will say is that it was an amazing experience. I learned so much from the qualified instructors. The mix of lectures, labs and tournaments is perfect for a novice/intermediate poker player to improve their tournament game. And for you advanced players, they have a 3 day champions event where they get even more in depth and challenging.

As the camp started early (8AM) and ended quite late (7PM) plus having to share what I learned with my girlfriend and having a good time during the Vegas nights (I love craps), it didn't look like I was going to have time to play poker.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on where you're coming from), our flight home was delayed by 7 hours. This opened up a window for me to play some poker!

I heard from my fellow students, that Bally's was holding satellite sit in go's 24 hours a day leading up to their WSOP Circuit Event. I decided to check it out...

The beauty of the satellites was that you could play for any amount you were comfortable with so long as they could fill up a table of 10. The downside of them was that the blind structures were very aggressive and fast; so one doesn't have the luxury of making any mistakes.

I sat down for $50 in my first satellite and finished 2nd. Not a bad performance but there was no money for 2nd. Winner took all (minus Bally's rake of course).

I played a few more without much luck. I found that some of the techniques from camp were applicable right away. On the flip side, it was obvious more work and practice would be needed to insure things would be instinctive. And despite not winning any money, as poker usually is, it was a really good time and experience.

Oh yeah, a few days after finally getting home, I played in a 90 person multiplayer tournament. I finished first and won just under $1000. Thank you WPT Boot Camp ;)