For the first time in years I headed out to Vegas last week. Everyone I know who has been recently has raved about the games and how much money there is to be made, so I had to check it out for myself. They were right!

My business partner Hatfield and I headed out Wednesday afternoon with a goal of paying for the trip, making a little profit, and taking a shot at some big tourneys. We did all three, and also found some awesome games. <READMORE>

The nicest cardroom award has to go to the MGM Grand, where the whole room is open air, with just a lattice roof far above your head while you play and the entire MGM open all around you. The staff was pleasant, the games were good, and the environment was great.

The most ridiculous shopping award has to go to Ceasar's, where the shopping area connected to the hotel was far beyond our budgets (and we of course bought some things there anyway). I actually asked about the price of a pretty rock in a gem shop and was told it could be had for as little as $300,000. What a deal. I walked around the to 10 or 15 different shops with $5k in cash on me and there was almost nothing I could afford.

The worst staff award goes to the Mirage, where we saw a dealer abused by a player and then by the floor people. You have to back up your dealers folks, they're usually right. The dealer actually walked out and the floor guy had to take over dealing for a few minutes. He didn't do a great job, and one angle shooter was able to short a pot. I mentioned it loudly to the floor guy twice before he pushed the pot but he looked confused and rather than sort the whole thing out he just said "It's right." and pushed it to the poor guy who was being shorted. Watching some big tourneys happen and seeing guys like Dan Harrington, Men the Master, and Michael Mizrachi play live was fun, but we didn't spend much money there after seeing how they treated their staff.

One the members on my site actually flew out to meet us, and happened to win his way into the WPT event on Sunday, but went out in the 4th blind level when his set of 8's ran into a set of 10's. Better luck next time Alan. Hatfield and I played a few tournaments, and I managed to chop one for just enough to pay for our other entry fees, but the real money was in cash games. Speaking of cash games...

The award for best cash games definitely goes to the Venetian. They just started up their poker room very recently and they are trying to do everything they can to get people into it. $2 an hour in comps, a pleasant and friendly staff, and most importantly an awesome supply of fish, made the games perfect for us. We spent our last two days playing cash games in the Venetian, and that managed to pay for our trip and then some. I highly recommend the 2/5 NL game, it was never a tough game, and I was often the only player spoiling a family pot by folding preflop. To a quality player I believe that game is worth close to $100 an hour.

The big game is also happening in the Venetian now, at least part of the time. I was lucky enough to meet (albeit very breifly) Jen Harmon and Barry Greenstein as they passed through to the backroom. Jen looked like she was having a tough night, but obliged anyway when a star strcuk tourist at our table asked for a picture with her. Our second night at the Venetian ythere was no big game, which was frustrating for two people in particular.

The first person was Amir Vahedi, who had just gotten into town and was hoping to find the Big Game at the Venetian. The second person who was saddened by this development was me, because Amir promptly sat down at my table on my immediate left. "That guy looks very familiar" I thought to myself for about ten minutes before finally placing a name with the face. He was pleasant and personable, and a friend of his who was playing at the table as well kept the game lively well after Amir got tired of "these little $400 pots". Amir is not only a nice guy, he's damn smart! He spoke the language of 3 different foreign players at the table, and knew as much about their homelands as they did. Luckily for my bankroll Amir didn't care much about the stakes and we were never involved in a big pot together.

Honestly if I didn't have a great girlfriend here in Minnesota I would move to Vegas this minute and make a living in that 2/5 NL while buidling up my bankroll. I hardly ever play live these days, so I'm sure my people reading skills could use some work, but even without my live game skills up to par I made a killing just from the terribly weak players. One weak opponent actually bet into me all the way in a raised pot with an ace on board and showed off KK at the end. My set of aces (which would have been obvious to a better palyer when I smooth called half my stack on the flop in a raised pot) won me a $1,200 pot and the guy had 3 or 4 chances to realize he was beat!

Another opponent told me about his winning craps system (yes he lost a ton of money at the table that night) and a third actually called my $100 bet on the river with K high. Knowing the guy was a calling station I was value betting my middle two pair all the way, but I was surprised that he didn't have at least a pair.

Because the Venetian is a fairly high end hotel (we stayed at the raggedy old Luxor ourselves to save money) everyone was happy and friendly because they weren't losing sums of money that were important to them. Except for the Big Game the 2/5 no-limit game was the biggest game they had, and losing a few hundred, or even a thousand, doesn't mean a whiole lot to most people who stay at a pricey hotel in Vegas. People were losing money to me and smiling while they did it! It doesn't get better than that.

Now that I know I can pay for the trip easily in a day or two of play I'll be returning frequently. Sure my lips were chapped and my eyes were sore (so dry in the desert) and that greasy film that gets on your soul in Vegas took a few days to wash off, but I'll be happy to endure those minor inconveniences as often as I possibly can in the future.

In other news I've really gotten more serious about switching my online focus to tournaments and played a few this morning. I won a seat in the $1M guaranteed on Stars in an $11 rebuy and just missed the money in the $22 rebuy this morning as well. Sadly I baited an overaggressive player into moving in on me preflop when I had queens and his A6 caught an ace. I'll get em tomorrow.

I'll see you at the final table,
Fox
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