I came into town on Thursday, November 5th after work. It is a short flight from San Diego and of course the flight was delayed a little bit. I was staying at the Monte Carlo for this trip as everything was on the rather expensive side of things. Once I got in, I decided to play a short cash game session. I went down to the Monte Carlo poker room to see if the HORSE game was going. It was not, so I went over to MGM and got on the 2/5 NL list. I planned for the session to be short as I was playing in the Venetian deep stack event on Friday. FAMOUS LAST WORDS. I ended up playing until after 2:30am because I got down in the game. I ended up losing just under $200 for the session.
DOWN: $194
FRIDAY:
I got up about 9. I was not sleeping well while in Vegas. I got over to the Venetian about 10:30, registered for the tournament and grabbed breakfast at the Grand Lux Cafe. The tournament was a $350 buy-in, and it did not go well. I got short rather quickly. About 75 minutes in I found myself with just 4,000 in chips and I picked up JJ. I got it all-in pre-flop against a lady who had KK. I lost. Another Venetian disappointment for me. Anyway I take a quick walk, regain my focus and go sign up for a cash game at the Venetian. They are starting a 1/2 PLO game, and I get into the game. I buy-in for $300, and I quickly run it up to over $1,000. I ended up playing in the game for about 4 hours. I made a $936 profit. The game seems to suit me. They spread the game in the Salon and the room was away from everything and I could focus on the game, and I was dialed into that game. IF anyone plays PLO, I would recommend it.
After that game I walk down to Caesars as I have not played in that room in quite some time and I wanted to check it out. They had a seat open in the only 2-5 NL game they were running. I bought in for $500, and played for 90 minutes. It was a good session. I made $266. The WSOP Academy was going on and I could listen to Greg Raymer and the pros discussing their hands with the students as they were playing some tournaments in the same area as the 2-5 game. I racked up as I was meeting Alaska Gal, Minton, 24 Fanatics, and Phil for dinner. We ended up going to Tommy Rockers. We basically heckled the so-called talent most of the time. PENGUIN was the word of the day. The lady running the show found our act about as old as some of the comics acts. Some of the comics were really bad. I am not sure if I have ever seen a comic not get a laugh. Pretty said. After dinner and drinks we went back to IP to see if we could get the mix game going. We ended up going to TI since I was busy and TI seemed to be more willing to spread the game. I fully understand with how busy IP was as it was a FRiday night and their room was jumping. Ilikecheese joined us, and Alaska Gal stayed at IP. When we got to TI, 6 guys from Vancouver were trying to get a mix game going. It ended up being those 6 guys, Phil and myself. My only wishes were two things- one that game would have been spread at a higher limit, and to have those Canada guys in all my mix games. We ended up playing one rotation of 4 games. I ended up $56. One of the guys was confused in double flop omaha as he was trying to use 3 cards from his hand. The 2-7 triple draw game cut into my profits as I would have cleared over $100 if not for that game.
Friday's results- $898 profit.
Trip result- $704 profit

Saturday I got up early again. More trouble sleeping. I had to place college football bets anyway. I ended up eating at America's at NYNY. Good breakfast, and I was off to play some more 2-5NL at MGM. Another horrible session. On one hand I flopped top set on a 6,4,2 board. I was the pre-flop raiser and I bet out on the turn and got called. The turn brought a 3. The rest of the money got in as I was against a short stack- yep he had 4-5. The board could not pair and I lost. It was a hand after hand like this. I ended up losing $590 in the session. Horrible.
After watching some football I went over to Harrahs at about 5pm for the tournament later that night. I sat in cash game with OD, and on the second hand I believe I nearly stacked him. (I left him with $20). I had A-9 on a X-X-9-9-A board. He had A-K, so it was a pretty sick river. I ended up making a $250 profit in that quick session, and then I played in the AVP tournament. I made a deep run in the tournament. I finished 14th after 6 hrs of play. The first 2 hrs I was rather short, but after getting a table change to where I would be to the left of OD, he doubled me up. I was pretty happy with how I played the tournament. I got knocked out by Rakewell when I pushed with 2-2 and he called with K-K pre flop. I was not as lucky as Joe Cada as I did not hit a set and I was gone.
Now after getting knocked out of the tournament I should have went back to the Monte Carlo and get some sleep, but what happen was I went to Bellagio and played a 90 minute session of 2-5 NL I would rather forget. I dropped $400 in that game. I basically lost it in 2 hands,
Saturday poker results- $890 LOST
Trip- Down $186
Sunday- I actually want to play in a small tournament so I played in the MGM mourning tournament because it actually draws quite a big field despite the bad structure. IT had over 90 players, and I busted with 4 tables left when I pushed with A-7 and got called by 4-9. The flop included both the 4 and 9, and the river brought another 9. Who knew? I decided to play at Monte Carlo's 1-2 NL game. I had not played in the room before. I basically made a profit on 2 hands. It was the opposite from the night before. The first big hand was when I had AA on the second hand. I won a $550 pot against two other players when the obard paired on the river. The other hand was quite a bit later in the session, I raised with Ah-10h, and I got 2-3 callers. Flop came Jh-J-x. I c-bet it and got smooth called. I felt he had a jack. Turn was the Kh. He checked, and I checked behind him. River was the Qh. He bet $60 into the pot, and I raised him to $140. He had about $120 left and ended up folding his AJ. I flipped over my royal and collected my $393 ($357 went to me, $36 went to the dealer). It was my first royal in Vegas. I ended up making $500 for the 4-5 hour session. I enjoyed the Monte Carlo room. I thought it was well run, and the game had some good action. After I left I went over for one last session of 2-5 NL at MGM. FINALLY I had a good session. It was about 90 minutes, and I made a $306 profit.
Sunday Poker- $741 profit
Overall poker profit- $555 (Breakdown- Tournaments I lost $565, Royal Flush- $357 profit, Cash games- $763 profit)
NASCAR Race pick- $500 profit (Yes I picked the race winner- thank you Kurt Busch). I have a lot of success with NASCAR. I generally pick 4 drivers and try to get a 3-1 or 4-1 return on my investment. I think I have picked the winner in well 50% of the time using this method. You just need to do your homework.
Sports betting (Football)- Up Roughly $100. I had the best success at college football and Clemson beating Florida ST 40-24 helped a lot.

Overall it was a good trip, and it was good to see the other AVPers at the tournament. I look forward to the MARCH AVP tournament.