Arrived in Vegas on Monday the 13th and started the 1/2 n/l cash game that night. The Hilton no longer has daily tourney's, so make sure and update that in your notes for your next trip.

The room at the Hilton is easy access and has a very friendly staff, but the room is EXTREMELY serious when there is not a convention next door. The room was very quiet on Monday, and the cash game had some very experienced locals, myself, and a totally drunk calling station from whom we all profited very nicely. When I say quiet, I mean three tables going and the only noise was the dealers (and drunk guy). The locals were young guns who were pulling every advanced technique out of the book, so I had to play very well to keep up. Dealers were fine, on the young side but no mistakes when I was there. Total net profit after 1 hour of play was $125, and I was happy with that considering the competition.

Tuesday night's cash game was a tourist bonanza with one local, so that proved to be more tricky to read. One really aggressive calling station was incredibly lucky chasing and catching the most ridiculous hands. There were three extremely weak players at the table, two of us were expereinced, and the rest were people who watched WPT too much and had just enough info to be stupidly dangerous. I lost $60 on a ridiculous suck out and left with a net loss of $5 for the session, so be careful in choosing to play at the Hilton. Monday night seems to be more of a competitive game, and the rest of the week and weekends seems to be luck of the draw.

Waitress service was fine, especially if you tipped up front and indicated your preferences. I have found that giving the waitress one red up front and telling her to keep an eye on your drink worked better than getting interrupted all of the time. Chairs were OK, but really could be a little better quality.

About the tables: as other reviews have stated, the 5-6-7 seats are not very private at all - I couldn't even watch my left checking his cards because I could see the suits in my peripheral vision. Being honorable was more important to me than trying to take advantage of that, so I let my left know to please cover up better for both our benefits. I still took money off him, but fairly. BE AWARE OF THIS!!!!!!

On Tuesday, I played in the Bally's morning tournament and did pretty well but did not finish in the money. This tourney was a mix of about 20% good expereinced players and the rest tourists giving it a shot to see how they do. I watched the cash game before the tourney started, and this was a social game that had another drunk calling station (I'm seeing a pattern here), three expereinced players, and five young scared beginners who were quickly finding out that live poker and online poker are two VERY different things. Great game to play in, both fun and easy to read. Played for about 20 minutes to get warmed up for the tourney, won enough to cover my tourney entry fee, and left to prep for the tourney. I will definitely play at the cash game at Bally's next time I go back.

The tourney was very well run, the dealers were very strong, and Jeffery the manager was a wonderful director who quickly settleed any disputed hands very professionally. He was also very encouraging to the tentative novice players considering playing in the tournament, and sold out the tourney 20 minutes before it started. Finally, all of the players at my table were very kind, respectful, and respectful of the game. One other table had a guy who thought he was playing the WSOP final table and was making way too much noise for the first level of blinds, but it was an entertaining tell that came in useful later on.

I recommend all of the Bally's morning tournaments to anyone from beginning to intermediate. It is a waste of time for advanced players unless you play very carefully, because I was busted out with on the button with pocket aces by a 4-5 off in an early position with a full table. Suck out luck seemed to prevail, but it was a friendly and comfortable tourney. Lots of ladies as well, so don't be shy if you're female and are thinking about it.

Called the Riviera after getting knocked out at Bally's to find out about their daily tourney's, and they told me registration was not a problem. When I got there for the 8pm tourney to register, the poker room manager said it was questionable if they had enough people to have a tournament that night. Well, crap! The poker area (it wasn't a room) had poor circulation and was reflective of the cheesy end of the strip, and didn't want to wait around for an hour to find out if I could play. So I went back to the Hilton where I was staying and played in the cash game. Disappointing to say the least - the Riviera is trying to build a daily tourney following, yet they make absolutely no effort to market the information to draw players. The only reason I knew about their tourney's was because of this site. Word of mouth is not going to make these tourney's successful, so I suggest you don't bother and let that idea die a natural death for the Riviera. I'm all for everyone having daily's, but don't waste my time if it's not going to happen.

Next time I go in June, I'll be staying at Bally's so I can have more flexibilty with cash games, tourney's, and watching the pros at Bellagio. Had a great time, total net profit of $170 for the trip, and learned a great deal about what to do next time to make it an extremely profitable trip.