Wednesday evening – Flamingo 1-2NL
Played 1-2 NL at the Flamingo room (where I was staying) for a couple of hours early evening. There were a couple of locals playing loose aggressive, which was OK by me as I had position on them both. Rest of the table was mainly passive locals or tourists like me. I played solid/tight and had $40 profit when I decided for an early night, since I had had a long day and I was up since 5am.

The poker room at the Flamingo is a separate area, but not a separate room, hence you get the smoke and noise from the casino. The smoke really bothers me, so I wouldn’t play here again. Other than that though it appears to be a well run room, plus I heard from other players during my trip that it can be quite fishy on busy periods, such as Saturday night.

Thursday morning – Caesars 1-2NL and noon tourney
Arrived at Caesars poker room at around 11am, and it was quite dead. Only a handful of tables going, including one 1-2NL. I signed up for the noon tourney, and played 1-2NL for an hour. Got a couple of lucky hands and won $300 before the tourney started.

Apparently they’ve made a few changes to the room, which are all positive. Tables are nine-handed, plus you don’t have to post when you first sit down. Management, dealers, etc. all appeared customer-service focused.

Overall I like the Caesars room. My only complaint is that it is a bit well hidden and doesn’t get the traffic like Bellagio, Wynn, or MGM does. If they could fix this (e.g. more ads for the room, such as putting a banner ad for the poker room on the front of the main casino like the Venetian has) then this would become a really great room.

The noon tourney at Caesars is the best value low buy-in tourney you are going to find in Vegas. 40 min levels for an $80+$50 rebuy. Having said that, the later levels start becoming a crap shoot. I lasted to the last 3 tables from a field of over 70, but then got short stacked and my JJ ran into QQ all-in preflop.

Thursday early evening – Venetian 1-2NL and 8pm tourney
Venetian room is a very nice room. If you are a poker player visiting Vegas you need to check it out. I played 1-2NL for a couple of hours before the 8pm tourney. Table had a couple of good players, but some fish who were donking off their money. I couldn’t really get a good shot at the dead money and finished only $30 up.

The 8pm tourney at the Venetian is similar to Caesars except with 30 min levels. I didn’t last long as I ran into set over set in the early round and was crippled. I decided I wasn’t playing any more tourneys for the trip and just focus on cash games.

I played some more 1-2NL. I was playing OK, but then made a bad mistake and donked off most of my stack (that’s NL for you), then lost the rest when I went all-in preflop for $30 with AQ and called by K9 which outdrew me.

I went back the Caesars late evening (as it was walking distance of my hotel), and played a little more 1-2NL; nothing happened for me and I left with buy-in intact.

Friday afternoon – MGM 1-2NL
MGM is another good room worth checking out. It is not really a separate room, but part of the casino; you don’t get the smoke but you do get the noise, especially when the bar around the corner starts up.

Definitely a bit more fishy here, but there are also solid players to watch out for as well. I played a seven hour session here, but again could get anything going –every time I made progress I would then run into a cooler situation and get knocked back. Left with a $50 loss.

I ended the day back at Caesars again, playing 1-2NL; got AA early, but ran into two pair on flop and had to lay it down, costing me half my stack. I slowly was building it back up when I hit a monster hand – I had JJ in SB, my preflop raise gets two limpers to call. Flop was 9TJ rainbow, I put out pot sized bet, and still get two callers – uh oh, my set is gonna get beat by straight,… but then the turn is my money card – a beautiful T, I make another bet, first player goes all-in, second player calls his all-in, and then I put him all-in. My boat beats straight and two pair for a $450 pot. Nice. I leave a little while later with $270 profit.

Saturday afternoon – Wynn 1-3NL
The Wynn is not quite as comfortable as the Venetian or Caesars, but it gets a lot of traffic. I played an 8 hour session from 12pm, playing at 1-3NL. The Wynn uses $3 chips, which I think I prefer – the game plays more like 1-3 (whereas 1-2 with $5 chips tends to play more like 2-5 post flop), plus your stack and the pots “appear” to look bigger.

There were some obvious fish at the table, but the rest of the table was solid rocks and local sharks. You probably need to be beyond rookie status to hold your own here. Again I couldn’t get anything going, most likely because I was playing too tight, and left with only $30 profit.

I finished the evening with a couple of hours back at Caesars, where I managed to get another $100 profit, mostly through when I had AA on the button and had the SB go all in with 99 to my button raise.

Overall a good trip, my B&M play is improving, but I still got a long way to go. Up around $200 for the trip, but would have been $500 if not for the two tourneys. Next time I will avoid the cheap tourneys and just stick to the cash games. Caesars, Venetian, MGM, and Wynn rooms all worth checking out.