Day 1
My trip started when I boarded Frontier flight from Denver to Las Vegas back in March, about a 1 ½ hour flight, no biggie. I landed in Vegas ahead of time, got on the shuttle and headed over to the Hooters hotel (cheap!). I checked in, used the $20 trick (which worked!) and headed up to my room. Originally I was slotted for a “bungalow” room, but the $20 upgraded me to the 8th FL with a view of the strip, which would be much nicer than how bad I’ve heard the bungalow rooms to be.

Originally, my plan was to play a few of the tournaments mentioned here and playing cash games at MGM, TI and the Venetian. I had got up that morning at 5am for work, was extremely tired and instead of heading to bed to take a nap I headed down to the Hooters poker room. I figured this was my first night in Vegas and didn’t want to end up sleeping my first night through. I got down to the poker room to ask about their upcoming tournament, found out it was only pretty much a SNG and decided to play cash instead. Extremely tired, strike 1. Drinking heavily, strike 2. Smoking in the poker room, strike 3! I bought in for $100, lost that and bought in for another $100. I won a decent sized pot hitting a flush on the turn vs AA to double up but continued to steadily drop for the next 3 or 4 hours until I was felted. One big hand that I still remember and regret comes to mind. I have KQo in LP, UTG+1 raise to $10, I call and BB calls. UTG+1 seem to be a decent player, nothing special though. BB has been extremely active and using his stack to push players out of pots. Flop comes down Kxx, no straight or flush draws. UTG+1 bet $40, I call and BB pushes. UTG+1 folds and after deliberation, I fold. At this point I had maybe $100 behind and the pot was over $200. BB hadn’t shown many hands down which is a reason I folded. I regretted it because 1. size of the pot and strength of my hand and 2. later BB showed down a miserably weak hand. I head to bed around 4am.

Day 2

I wake up at 10am, grab some food from the Hooters café and walk over to Excalibur to try out their electronic tables. I wanted to try them out for an hour or 2 but instead end up spending all friggin day over there. I end up losing my $100 buy-in at the .5/1 table and enter a tournament they had going. Busted out of that when my KK
Day 3

Day 3 I wake up and decide today is gonna be the day I visit numerous casinos. I hit up the IP for their aces crack promotion, nothing eventful in the 2 hrs I spend there so I decide to head over to Bills to play in their aces cracked promotion. Again, nothing eventful happens here and I leave -$20. I walk over to PH, play in their tourney and bust out with 2 tables left. I made 1 bad laydown again the guy to my immediate left who I had been chatting up left. I raise UTG+2 w/ JJ, he pushes, folds around back to me and I decide to fold since I figured he’d only push w/ a big hand since he has been fairly tight and we had been chatting it up. He tells me I’m a nice guy and shows me TT. OUCH! It was a poor play on my part and I bust out an orbit late when my AQ
Before the tourney starts I have about an hour to kill and their 1/2NL list is pretty long so I decide to go play some more video poker. I hit quad aces on my last bed and cash out +$50. I head back over to the poker room and play in the HH. I bust 1 and end up busting myself after going pretty card dead and having to push my TT. I get called by QJ and a Q spikes the river. Busto! After busting I play in a 1/2NL game which is extremely juicy. I sit to the left of a crazy maniac who is extremely drunk. The second hand I sit down in has a pot +$1000, won by TPTK!! One guy was on a flush draw, the drunk dude sittin next to me tabled a mid-PP. After a few hours the drunk guy to my right (whose chips are not stacked, just a blob on the table) takes a scoop and scoops them into the pot. I have right around $200 and push. It gets back around the drunk guy who tables AA and I don’t catch. I buy-in for another $200. Another few hours go by when 2 limps, the drunk guy limps, and I limp on the button with Jh9h, SB folds and BB checks. Flop comes out J9x. Drunk guy scoops some chips into the middle, I push, everyone else folds and drunk guys calls w/ Q high. 2 pair hold up and I make my QQ loss back. Around 6am I take my chips and leave +$50 to get on the monorail. I get to the station and find out the monorail doesn’t run for another hour. F#*$! I thought for sure it started when I got there so I end up walking back to Hooters from TI. I get to sleep around 7am and wake up at 11am to check out.

Day 4

The last day I check out and head over to MGM. Only eventful hand is where I limp UTG with AQo get a few callers and see a flop Q high w/ flush draw. I bet pot, folds around to fishy lady who pushes for another $50. I call and she shows she’s on a flush draw. Flush hits the turn and I’m down around $80. I chip back up to even and head out to catch my flight. Overall, I’m down around $600 in poker and +$300 in video poker…something I definitely didn’t expect. I did learn a few lessons though on this trip. Don’t play when tired or extremely drunk and stick to your plan. I didn’t want to play at Hooters and only wanted to spend a little time at Excalibur but ended up doing both.