After a year's absence I was able to return to Vegas for another low-key, solo, low-rolling trip with all the $2/4 and $3/6 action my little heart could stand. I really enjoy the solo trip – a few days completely away and all to yourself. Three or four days seems about right. Anything longer would start to get a little boring and lonely.

I scored a great deal on airfare on Southwest that even allowed me to schedule a one day layover in Denver on my way back. Unfortunately I made the rookie mistake of booking airfare before checking lodging. A convergence of several mid-sized conferences drove up mid-week prices to some unpleasant levels. I'd hoped to stay at Casino Royale again, but they wouldn't even let me book a stay with a Saturday check-out. I wound up booking with Bill's for about $85/night, but at the last minute I stumbled across a deal at the Vdara for only about $10/night more (yes, even including those skeezy resort fees). I figured what the heck, for ten bucks I might as well. Anyhow, on with the adventure.

WEDNESDAY
Through some strange quirk my flight was actually on time. Even managed a window seat on the exit row and didn't have anybody sitting in the center seat. Score! It's a two hour flight crossing two time zones, so with an agreeable tailwind we actually landed before we took off. It was like freakin' magic. No line at the cab stand either. All and all, a pretty favorable beginning. The cab driver did ask if I wanted him to take the freeway. “Uh, no thank you. Surface streets will be fine.” As an added bonus, the car next to us all the way down Tropicana Avenue was blasting Eazy E. “The boyz in the hood are always hard, come talkin' that trash and we'll pull your card...” Ah, no school like the old school. Made me smile.

The check in line was quick at the Vdara, within ten minutes of getting out of the cab I was in my room on the 46th floor. While I didn't technically have a “Fountain View” room, I still had a pretty nice view of the fountains at the Bellagio. The room itself was also very nice – lots of space, incredibly comfortable bed, two big tvs, almost full kitchen, fast wifi, and very quiet. It was also nice and relaxing to come back to a smoke-free and casino-free hotel. Strip access was much easier than I expected – there's a covered walkway to the back corner of the Bellagio (near Sensei's). From there it's an easy enough walk through the Bellagio out to LVB, or you're also right at the tram to the Monte Carlo. The Vdara is also just across a little traffic circle from the Aria, though if there's decent walking access to the Strip from the Aria I haven't found it yet. And yes, I did recognize the irony of starting at the Vdara then walking through the Bellagio, all to be able to play $2/4 at the Imperial Palace. The staff at Vdara were all very friendly and helpful as well. Given the right circumstances, I could definitely see staying there again. My only real complaint is that they no longer have coffee makers in the rooms. At least they had pretty decent overpriced coffee in the little cafe/market. Speaking of coffee, Java Coast Fine Coffee at Caesar's does not serve fine coffee. I'm not even sure that it's coffee. But I guess the tag line “Friendly people serving scalding hot brown water” doesn't sound quite so appealling.

After getting settled and rested up a bit I headed out for some dinner. I considered Sea at Bally's, but eventually wound up at Le Burger Brasserie. It wasn't quite as tasty as I remembered – not sure if I had built up the anticipation too much, they were just having a slightly off night, or what. It was still plenty good, don't get me wrong, just not quite the transcendent experience I had remembered.

Fully sated and then some, I headed out for my first pokerz of the trip. I've about decided I shouldn't play on my first night, or at least set a pretty strict time or loss limit. I'm always pretty beat from the travel, but also so excited to finally be in Vegas that I can't quite help myself. Anyhow, I wandered up the street to the Flamingo for some $2/4 action. When I went to unload my chips from the rack all my stacks tumbled every which way. Not a great way to start! I hadn't noticed, but the padding under the felt tapered down really severely at my spot. I had to stack my chips about 4” in from the arm rail to get a flat surface. Pokerwise I did okay for the first two hours or so, but by then my brain was pretty much pudding. I wasn't following the action well and was playing even worse. Add in some tilt after a bad beat, and I managed to piss away about $80 over the next two hours before I caught myself and called it a night. I did have the pleasure of sitting next to a very friendly microchip designer from Canada for a good part of the evening who I saw a couple of more times throughout my visit.

All in all, the quality of the Flamingo dealers and management was better than I remembered from last year. The dealers in particular did a nice job of running the game and managing players. They were able to keep the more boisterous players in line while still keeping the mood fun and the action moving. Really the only bad service I encountered was the one time I had to cash out at the cage on the main floor. No hello, no thank you, not even any eye contact. I hesitated to take my money because I wasn't sure if she was done with all she needed to do (the kind of confusion that could be avoided with a “There you go, thank you for playing,” or heck, even just a smile), at which point she sighed heavily and made a big show of recounting my chips to indicate that she hadn't shorted me. “Uh, thanks.”

THURSDAY
Still being on Central Time, I was up and at 'em at a fairly reasonable hour. I wandered up to the IP for some some Hash House. There was already a bit of a wait for a table but plenty of seating at the bar, so I bellied on up. I was all set to order one of the Scrambles, but at the last second the Breakfast Quesadilla caught my eye – Sweet Mary, Joseph and Elvis, there's the transcendent dining experience I was looking for! I'd been to Hash House before and was familiar with their portions, but even so I did a triple take when the platter was laid in front of me. The guy next to me and the bartender both laughed a little. It was a tortilla at least 20” in diameter, folded over and stuffed with griddle-mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, onions, peppers, tomatoes and fresh jalapenos. The whole thing was covered in a queso cream sauce. For as heavy and starchy as it was it also tasted bright and fresh, if that makes any sense. I wish I'd thought to take a picture, but I guess that's a good reason to go back. I managed to eat about two-thirds of the thing before I rolled out the door and down the escalator.

Still with eyes a bit glazed over I made the arduous trek from the Hash House to the IP Poker Room for some aces cracked $2/4 promo chasing. The action was looser and faster than I was expecting for a morning game. It wasn't til later that somebody pointed out to me that it was because all the major league nits were next door cashing in their hours in the Beat the Boss Tournament. (I knew the tournament was going on, but just hadn't put two and two together. I blame the food coma.)

Within the first few hands I managed to grind the game to a screeching halt and get involved in my first action ever that involved calling the floor. We'd gone to the flop six-handed with me in position. I was a little careless in my card placement and had them on the far side of my chips where the dealer couldn't see them clearly (I was in the 2 seat). It checked to me, but before I could act the dealer had already put out the turn. Unfortunately she didn't have the authority to correct the action and a floor was nowhere to be found. Jake was next door in the Tournament and the floor on duty had gone “upstairs” and couldn't be reached by phone for some reason. I apologized profusely, as did the dealer. All the players were very understanding with the exception of the guy in the 5 seat. He just kept saying, “You need to keep your cards out where she can see them! Why didn't you have your cards in front of your chips?” Oh well, not much to do but say you're sorry and be sure you don't do it again. Eventually another floor came in to start his shift and the dealer flagged him down. He got us taken care of before he'd even had a chance to clock in or change into his uniform – just standing there in his undershirt.

The kicker of the whole situation was that I had aces. The replacement turn card gave the guy in the 4 seat a set, which eventually became a boat to soundly crack my aces. That seemed to piss off the 5 seat even more and he was gunning for me after that. I managed to chase him down once which got him steaming even more, plus I had a few good hands stand up. The final straw for him was when my bottom set turned quads to catch what was presumably a straight or a flush. (I was a little disappointed that quads had recently been hit and there wasn't a bonus, but really one can't ever be too disappointed about quads.) He switched tables after that and was replaced by a younger guy from Jerusalem. Every time somebody asked him where he was from he'd say, “Jerusalem, it's not near as bad as it looks on the news.” He really opened up the action – lots of straddles, blind raises, etc. By that point my cards had cooled off a bit, so I was mainly just folding and enjoying being at the table. After seven hours I cashed out, up about $80 on the poker and another $100 from the aces (less a few red birds to the dealer).

I really enjoy the IP room. The property's a bit down-rent, but then so am I. The dealers that I experienced were all quick, pleasant, and efficient, and there's just a generally homey and friendly vibe. Hell, I even get a kick out of the Dealertainers. The only thing I don't like is being at the one table that's sits out more or less on the casino floor – it always feels a little too crowded and exposed. But thankfully I was never at that table this trip.

After cashing out I wandered back to the room to rest up for a spell. Then I did a bit of exploring and eventually wandered down to The Pub at the Monte Carlo for dinner. It was early enough that business was pretty slow, but for some reason the service was even slower. After sitting for long enough that I was considering leaving, a manager finally came over, apologized for the wait, and took my order. I'm not much of a drinker anymore, but I do appreciate a nice quality beer every once in a while. The beer menu at The Pub certainly didn't disappoint - they stock over 300 varieties. I had a Goose Island Matilda - a Belgian-style strong pale ale. It was pretty fantastic. This was the second beer I've sampled from Goose Island Brewery, and I'm looking forward to my third. The food was your typical brewpub fare - pizzas, burgers, sandwiches. My sandwich was good, but nothing special.

During dinner I also got to watch the third period of a great hockey game - Vancouver at Detroit. There were four goals in the third, including Vancouver scoring the tying goal and forcing overtime with under twenty seconds left. Vancouver eventually won the the shootout, snapping a ridiculously long home winning streak for Detroit. The Pub did have a pretty nice set up for sports - lots of tvs with a good view of a couple of different games from any seat in the house.

After dinner I made my way to the Monte Carlo Poker Room. I'd really enjoyed it on my last trip and was looking forward to trying the spread limit. Sadly the room was pretty dead, so I made my way down to The Castle. I hadn't been in since before the whole HAL experiment. They had a few games going, but the room and really the whole casino didn't have a very comfortable vibe to it so I moved on. (Yeah, I know, the guy who camps out at the Flamingo and IP is suddenly putting on airs. What can I say?) I'd been wanting to check out the remodel at the Tropicana, so I headed on across the street. I was a bit surprised by how nice it was now, particularly with as depressing a place as it had been before. I was also amazed that even with as much white as they had used it still looked pretty bright and clean. The Poker Room was nice but only had one $1/2 game going so I crossed the street to the MGM.

Coming down the escalators at the MGM and not seeing the lions made me a little sad. That was one of those Vegas attractions that always sounded a bit cheesy when you described it, but was actually pretty cool to see in person. Oh well, part of the appeal of Vegas is how quickly things change, so hopefully something else nifty will come along soon enough. I circled the Poker Room and scouted the tables. They had a few low-limit games going, but for some reason they all looked overly serious - minimal drinking, no laughing or even talking, and way too much focus. Definitely not what I was looking for, so I headed on up the Strip and eventually found myself back at a the Flamingo for some more $2/4 action.

The table I wound up at the Flamingo was everything that the tables I'd scouted at MGM weren't - lots of drinking, joking, and general hilarity. The play was pretty wild, even by drunken $2/4 standards. There were was one guy two to my left driving a lot of the action. He'd recently returned to the table from a blackjack break, and for the first few orbits was betting and raising with any two hole cards that added up to 11. He'd also get very animated, calling for specific cards on the flop (usually a 2 or a 3) and then betting heavy if they came. And any time Black Jack had put a lot of money into the pot and lost, he'd insist the winner owed him a beer. There were a few other action players and a few folks who seemed a bit overwhelmed and on lock down mode. And there were a few of us somewhere in between. I called down a few hands fairly light, but usually in the right spots. Also, as might be expected, I had a few bigger hands cracked. Jack actually did tighten up his play a bit after a while, but he still made a lot of noise when he was in hands (both literally and figuratively). The general boisterousness of the table never really slowed the game much though, and all in all it was a very fun night of poker. I cashed out a few hours later up $25. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

On my way back to the hotel somebody had dropped a handful of Goldfish Crackers on the up escalator. They had ridden up to the top but didn't have quite enough momentum to clear the last step and make it up onto the landing, so they were just stuck there bouncing around at the end of the final step. It looked for all the world like little salmon swimming up stream to spawn. (Sorry, that's how my mind works. Thanks for bearing with me.) Then crossing the walkway back to Vdara I was following what I assumed to be a guy and his granddaughter. That is until he slid his hand across her back and cupped her left cheek. It was a bit icky, even by Vegas standards.

FRIDAY
I had breakfast at Max Brenner's ("Chocolate by the Bald Man") in the Forum Shops. As much as I enjoy the Hash House, this is probably my favorite place to eat on the Strip. The coffee and hot chocolate drinks are all fantastic. I eventually decided on a dark chocolate mocha, the best of both worlds. All their hot chocolate drinks come in your choice of milk, dark, or white chocolate. I had the Maxican omelet (see what they did there?) - black beans, avocado, and swiss with chipolte salsa. The potatoes had little bits of fresh jalapenos and red onions. And best of all, it came with a buttermilk biscuit crusted with sugar accompanied by one small bowl of butter and one of chocolate for dipping. Culinarily speaking, one of my favorite things is the contrasts of sweet and savory, so I was in heaven. The service was also spot on - friendly, knowledgeable, and attentive without hovering. Check 'em out.

I returned to the IP for some more AM ace-chasing fun. Here was the tight nitty game I had been expecting, particularly the guy to my right. He was pulling snacks from home out of his left [free promotional] jacket pocket while filling his right pocket with free cookies, all the while keeping a protective eye on the bottle of water he'd filled himself and asking for change so he could tip in silvers. Still a friendly and fun table, but not much action. A shockingly low number of hands went to showdown, at least by $2/4 standards. Not surprisingly, the table broke immediately after the last aces hit. I cashed out down $35.

I made my way back to the Flamingo where aces were still in full swing and the room was plenty busy. I got on the lists for $2/4 and $3/6. While waiting for a table, I had a chance to visit a little with fellow AVPer packbacker - a nice guy, solid limit player, and a fun person to have at the table. It was good to actually put a face to a screen name too. Before too long I was seated in one of the two $3/6 games they had going. It was a friendly and chatty table, particularly a nice Canadian woman to my left and a guy named alternately Aaron or Steve next to her. At some point I learned that Mel Gibson is rumored to have a hairy butt. File that one under things I wish I'd never heard (but now having heard will freely inflict on others). So it was that kind of table. Play wasn't much different from $2/4, and I recognized a decent number of faces from earlier $2/4 games. As we neared the end of promo time the table thinned out a bit and my Canadian neighbor asked for a rake reduction. The floor offered $2/1, she countered with $1/1, and he said okay. So the last half hour or so was about six-handed but at a good price. Our table broke at the proverbial strike of midnight, but there were enough players between the two $3/6 tables to keep a game going for those who wanted one. I cashed out up $40, swung back by the Forum Shops to buy a few gifts, and then back to the room for a bit.

I had a few hours before dinner at the Hash House, so I headed back to the Flamingo. That was probably a mistake. I was getting a little tired and a little burnt out, so I wasn't really quite there. That combined with a bit of boredom and frustration from dry run of cards led to some stupid play on my part (stupider than usual, I should say.) But I can't really blame the table - there was a pretty typical mix of daytime $2/4 players. For a while we were joined by a little old lady who didn't say anything the entire time she was at the table, even when folks addressed her directly. She just bought in for $40, slowly bled off her chips, and then walked away. Odd. Oh well. After two hours I cashed out down about $40.

For dinner I met up with AVPer Local Rock. His posts have always been entertaining and very helpful in my trip planning, so it was again nice to put a face to a screen name. We'd actually played together on my trip last year, but didn't realize it til I'd returned home and submitted my trip report. He was every bit the scholar and the gentleman in person that one might suspect from his posts, and dinner was a fine time. It was also good just to get away from the tables for a stretch. In the future I probably need to do a better job of that - schedule in some shows or sightseeing or whatever. With limited opportunities to get to Vegas it's hard not to gorge on the pokerz, but a little time away helps to keep it (and me!) fresh.

Rejuvenated and refocused I headed across the street for some $3/6 at The Mirage. It was a bit tighter and more locals-heavy game than I was expecting for a Friday night. Still, the two seats to my left were huge calling stations, a great situation to value bet your way to fame and riches. Unfortunately that stratagem requires a hand every once in a while, and I went through just a brutal run of cards. In four hours I saw AJs, A10o (twice), and a pair of threes. Mercifully I had the discipline to fold my junk (ouch, that sounds painful!), study my opponents, and just enjoy my time at the table. At the far end of the table were two locals, a guy and a girl. They were both clearly experienced thinking players. She had amassed a huge stack - it had to be at least $400. That's quite a feat at $3/6. He, on the other hand, was trying moves on the calling stations and then berating them for not folding to his bluffs. If your opponent calls your check-raise with their under pair when the turn brings the fourth card to a straight then sure, fine, they played it poorly. Still, no need to tell 'em about it. And when you try the same play against the same opponent again you really have no right to complain when the results are the same. Anyhow, after four hours I checked out down another $40. Que sera... The table was getting livelier and juicier, but I was also getting too tired to do much about it. Probably my best bit of decision making of the trip.

I really like The Mirage. Obviously, the physical facilities are a step up from the IP and Flamingo - nicer chairs, more space, cleaner felt, cleaner (and closer) restrooms. I also had some great dealers - Kristie, Julie, and Jeff were all standouts. Oddly though, a few of the slowest and least engaged dealers I experienced on my trip were also at the Mirage. Still, definitely a nice place to play.

SATURDAY
Just a fruit cup and a coffee from the market at the Vdara, then it was off to the airport. As I mentioned, I spent Saturday night and the better part of Sunday in Denver. Had a lot of fun there as well, but none of it involved Vegas or Poker . Since I've prattled on long enough already, I'll go ahead and leave that out.

There you go. A pretty low-key outing, but that's how I roll. All told, I finished up $50 (including my $100 aces cracked) and had a great time. Thanks for reading along. Keep your stick on the ice.