Like every other gambler in this country, I made my trip to Vegas for the kickoff of one the biggest sporting weekends in the U.S. I managed to hit up 5 rooms, some small and some large, and played a few tournaments. So I guess I'll kick this report off with Friday...

After checking into the Sahara, late Friday morning, I made my way to the strip for a quick bite to eat then tried getting into Harrah's but they didn't have any 1/2 going, so I decided to make my way to the Venetian and I'm glad I did. Heard good things about this room, both from this board and from people I play with here in Detroit. I found all type of players here. There were some loose/bad players and some tight/aggressive players. Lots of people raising/reraising with second pair and draws. So I just played my big hands, most of which held up and walked away with 480 bucks after 3 hours of play. I really liked the room, very spacious, the staff was nice, dealers were good and drink service was pretty good. Except for when I ordered a Miller Lite and they said they were out. The table sort of laughed, how can a casino be out of Miller Lite. I questioned it and about 10 minutes later I got a Miller Lite. I guess the truck was just unloading.

I met up with my brother at the Sahara when he go into town then we played the 7pm tournament with the others from the AVP. Didn't get there in time to get into the last man standing pool, but did met a few of them and had a lot of fun. Met some others from Michigan/Detroit and talked some Tigers talk. I played pretty good, finished 20th, just shy of the money. Pretty solid tournament for the money. I really liked some of the dealers there but the others weren't anything special. I played a little 1/2 later that night when my other friends got into town and took about 200 off this English lady. I was going to leave while just up 75 cause I was tired but she started talking smack to me so I stuck around for three more hands and it got ugly for her. She wasn't happy when I hit my flush against her top 2 pair. Walked away up $275.

Did some sports betting on Saturday, that Ohio State game was crazy. Played Caesars for a while in the afternoon. I really like the room, for the most party some good players, lots of action pre-flop, people going all in with A-K when there is a raise infront of them. Happened to me twice when I had K-Ks and Q-Qs, both held up. Lost just over 100 bucks after playing for 3 hours (made a dumb call, I even knew it was dumb when I was making it, lost about 200 on that hand). Would play there again, drink service was fast, the dealers pretty good and the management was on the ball.

Since it was St. Patty's Day and all I hit up the party at O'Shea's and did my fair share of drinking that night.

This in turn made for a long Sunday, however, I managed to make my mark on the IP poker room. I wouldn't recommend this room unless you are there just killing a few hours, like myself. I played for 2 hours and other than a few limped in pots, I only played 3 large pots, won 2 and lost the other, managed to walk away up 170. The players were all bad, they seemed amazed when I called a guy with just a pair when the board was paired, I said the exact hand the other guy was betting (a busted straight) then called. Everyone acted like they have never seen that happen before. Sort a made me feel like I was good, but then I remembered some of those bad hands at Caesars and was instantly brought back down to earth.

After dinner and lots of free wine. There is a resturant next to Bally's across Flamingo called Batista, they have free all you can drink wine with your meal. The prices for dinner are about average for Vegas, the wine isn't anything great but its all you can drink for free, what more can you ask for. Anyways... we went to the MGM and they had Sit-n-Go's. Now let the record show, I hate sit-n-go's, always have and always will. However, some of my friends like them so we played a few. I got sucked out on twice then had to go all in on very weak hands cause just ran out of time. The dealers at MGM were pretty decent, didn't care for the room much, the stone on the edge of the tables suck and I'm not a fan. Does anyone know the reasoning for that? So I sat in 2 sit-n-go's and lost 120 bucks.

All in all, it was a great trip and played some good rooms, I would play the Venetian and Caesars again along with the Sahara tournament. Wouldn't go back to IP or MGM, I don't like the $200 max buyin. I like the higher buy-ins. Didn't do all that great with my sports bets, broke even at blackjack and those other crazy games, and lost some money on those stupid slot machines.