Thanks to some killer room rates at the MGM Grand, I decided to take my quarterly solo weekend poker trip to Vegas a little early this time. Last time I went was early November. I've always stayed at MGM because their promotions seem to always be the cheapest. This one was especially appealing: $69 Thurs, $99 Friday and Saturday. It was made even better when they later added the third night free to the promotion. A three-night weekend in Vegas at a pretty nice strip hotel for $200? That just doesn't come around that often, so I took full advantage.

Flew in from Denver on Thursday afternoon, January 10th at about 5:30 PM. The airport was pretty much dead. I walked over and checked in to my room at the airport counter with no wait, walked right up to a cab, and was at the hotel within about 20 minutes of landing. I threw my bag in my 10th floor room with a decent view of Excalibur, and headed straight down to the poker room.

After my last trip, where I'd done very well at limit and really poorly at no-limit, I decided I was going to play only 4-8 limit this trip. I'm just no good at no-limit at this point, and though I've been studying, I just don't seem to get a lot better. So, I was happy to see a solid 4-8 table going, and I took a seat. No hands really jump out at me, but I finished the session ahead around $140 at around 2:00 AM.

I'm awakened at about 7:15 AM on Friday morning by the family in the adjoining room. I was a bit groggy, but they had several kids, and they were talking really loudly. I could hear them as though they were in the same room. I dozed on and off until about 9:15 and finally got up. I knew on a Friday morning, there wouldn't be much limit action at the MGM other than 2-4, so I hopped the monorail down to Harrah's and walked over to the Venetian. They didn't have any 4-8 going either, so I headed to Wynn. They had a single 4-8 table going and one person on the list in front of me. Not bad I thought. I waited about 20 minutes and no one had left, so I added myself to the 8-16 interest list. I waited another half hour and still no one had left. I think the locals park themselves there early in the day and don't leave all day. I decided I was tired of sitting there doing nothing, so I left.

Since it was about 11:30 and I hadn't eaten anything since lunch time the previous day, I decided to hit up the Treasure Island buffet, which is probably the best buffet I've ever had. I make it a point to go there every time I go to Vegas. Granted, I haven't tried some of the bigger buffets around town, but I'm not into all that fancy stuff anyway. I stopped by the poker room and cashed out my comps from the previous trip, and went for lunch. I came back and reluctantly got on the 2-4 list as that was the only game they had going at the time (other than the tournament). I sat in there a while, and they called the interest list for the 1-3 NL game. A few players came over, so I abandoned my desire to avoid NL and took a seat. Hey, my trip was wasting away and I wanted to play. Bad move, very bad move.

I bought in for $200 and we played 4-5 handed for a little while. We shoved the money around the table a little bit until more people came. I believe I was ahead about $50 when the table filled up. I saw Danette there, who's helped me with some poker room rate inquiries in the past, but I've yet to introduce myself. Her husband or fiance (I believe) came and sat at our table. He will now be referred to as DH. By this time, my stack had dwindled to around $90 from general poor and overly tentative play on my part. I limped in middle position with J-9os (first mistake) and flopped an OESD. DH bet around $20 into a fairly small pot, and I should've just let it go. Instead, I decided to semi-bluff and go all in (second mistake). He had infinitely more chips than I did, and I'd seen him call reasonable bets seemingly just to get more information about what people were playing, so I should've known he'd call. The turn and river were blanks, and he said "show me anything." He ended up winning the hand with Queen high vs. my Jack high.

For reasons unknown, I decided to buy in again for another $200 (third mistake). I limped in a few pots, but was just not getting anything to play. I got down to around $120 when I was dealt my favorite hand J-10s. I decided to limp in EP and about four of us saw a flop of J-4-2 rainbow. First to act, I bet only $10 (fourth mistake), only DH called and we were heads-up. Turn came a 5. I bet about $30, and he immediately went all in. I insta-called (fifth mistake) and he flipped up A-3 for the wheel straight. In the end, he was a great player, and I'm a fish, so I shouldn't have tangled with him. I left in a rather somber mood. This was the first time I was ever more than $100 or so down on a trip to Vegas. As bad as I played though, I lamented the fact that never once did I ever have a hand better than top pair with a middle kicker. Patience, I must teach myself patience!

I grabbed the monorail and headed back to MGM at around 5:00 or so feeling rather depressed. No matter though, it was Friday evening, the best time for a non-drinker with nothing else to do to be playing poker in Vegas. I get back to the poker room and bah! No 4-8 game going. Ah well, I'll buy into the 3-6 and play here until they get a game going. Finally, a decision that works out! I have an unbelievable run of cards at this game. All my big pairs were holding up against large fields, I was flopping straights, sets, and even had quads once. I just couldn't seem to miss early in the session. By about 10:00, I'd turned my $100 buy in into over $600, nearly unthinkable for a 3-6 limit game. Unfortunately, my lack of sleep from the night before caught up with me, and I had a splitting headache. Despite the juicy table and my good fortune, I staggered up to my room and went to bed shortly after midnight. I was feeling pretty good though, as I was now up about $340 for the trip.

Saturday begin much the same as Friday had. I was again awoken by rowdy kids in the next room around 7:00, and I again dozed on and off until about 9:30. Luckily, I went to bed earlier the night before, so I wasn't in too bad of shape. I went downstairs and joined the lone 3-6 table they had going. The table was filled with older guys, including one grumpy middle-eastern gentlemen who kept winning pots with junk hands and thought he was a lot better than he was. He was also raising and re-raising a lot of pots. At one point, he got into a pre-flop raising war with another player and after the other player four-bet, he mumbled "cap." The dealer thought he said "call" and dealt the cards. He became really upset at the dealer, who later told him there was no cap when it's heads up. He ended up having aces and won the pot, but this did nothing to lighten his mood. Anyway, nothing much happened until I was dealt QcQd and raised. Several people called, and the flop came Qh4h8s. Checked to me, I bet, and everyone called. Turn was an 8h, the absolute best card for me. I was bet into, raised, and the grumpy guy and one other player called. The river was another heart, the other guy bet, the grumpy guy raised, I re-raised, the other guy called, and the grumpy guy raised again. Again, I re-raised, the other guy reluctantly called, and the grumpy guy mumbled something about his flush being no good and folded! I couldn't believe it. He was right of course, but after pouring that much money in, you fold? Anyway, I scooped a huge pot and cashed out an hour later for $170. Not a hugely profitable session, but considering that was about the only pot I won, it wasn't bad.

The trip was pretty much all downhill from here. I headed over to NY NY to get something to eat since I can't seem to find anything I like at MGM. I grabbed a slice of pizza (which was really tasty) and took the tram over to Mandalay Bay. The football games were getting started, and the poker room is right near the sports book. It was quite crowded, and there were about 7 people on the list for the 4-8 game with a half-kill. I got my name on the list and hung out. Eventually, they opened a new 4-8 game in the back of the room. I sat down and we began with about five players. I was thoroughly confused by the $1 and $2 blinds, but I guess that's how they do it there. Eventually, the floor person came around and asked if anyone wanted to move to the other 4-8 table. I volunteered because I wanted to play with a full table. This drew a lot of dirty looks from the other players. I guess that wasn't cool of me, but I had limited time and don't enjoy playing short-handed limit games. Unfortunately, the other table was full of local rocks, and, since I was completely card dead, got bored, and started playing more hands than I should thanks to the lower blinds, I lost $140 in this session and cashed out around 3:30.

I went to church across from the Luxor, and then headed back to MGM for my last night. I had a $25 food and beverage credit that was included with my stay at MGM, so I went to the cafe and ended up having a chicken club sandwich and Diet Coke while I watched the Patriots/Jags game. The meal was decent, but certainly not worth the $18 I paid for it before tip. Ah well, it was free. At this point, I headed back to the MGM poker room for some more 4-8 action. I was completely card dead for about four hours, again got bored, and started playing more hands than I should. This is obviously the biggest leak in my game. I dropped $200 into the game and went back up to the room at about 9:30 in a sulky mood. After a few meals and miscellaneous expenditures, I was now about even for the trip. I've been to Vegas for poker weekends about four times now, and I've never had anything close to a losing session at MGM on a Friday or Saturday night. I got to my room, flipped on the TV, and thought of just calling it a trip. When the only thing on TV was Titanic, I decided I'd try another $100, and if I lost that, I was done.

I headed back down and saw a long waiting list for the 4-8 game. I decided to get on it, the 3-6, and the 2-4. The 2-4 seat naturally opened up first, and I sat there playing no fold'em for about an hour and a half before a seat at 4-8 opened up. I left the 2-4 table with a $1 profit. This turned out to be a pretty fun table, although it was still a huge grind. It seemed like the whole table was full of pretty solid players, which I'm not used to seeing on weekend nights. My chips dwindled until I was dealt 10-10. The flop was Q 10 4, but all clubs. There was a lot of action, but I wasn't going to fold. I ended up getting all my money in on the turn, which was another glorious 4. Hurrah! The river, another Queen (sigh). Miraculously though, no one had a Queen and I scooped the $150 main pot. I ended up playing until about 3:30, and cashed out with around $150. That extra $50 turned out to be my winnings for the trip.

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip, but it definitely opened my eyes to leaks in my game. I must learn patience! I'll be back in April to try again...