Vegas- Operating Inefficiencies

LAS VEGAS -- Sometimes I don't do a shift efficiently here.

I woke up at 10 a.m. and was a little hungry. Normally I'll just forage for food wherever I'm at, but this time I had a specific hankering for the great buffet at Main Street Station, which is back downtown.

So I drive there. On the way back, I stop by the Gambler's General Store to see if they have Matt Matros' new book. They don't.

I was headed to the Wynn along Las Vegas Boulevard (traffic still was pretty light) but at the last moment, I swing out to Interstate 15 to go around the Strip hotels to the far southern end to go to the Excalibur.

The Ex has what I consider to be a beginner's poker room but it is large and heavily populated. I barely missed getting onto a NL 1-3 game and rather than wait on the list, I walked over the pedestrian overpass to New York, New York and then to MGM Grand.

There, I was third on the waiting list for a NL game. $3/6 was their highest limit.

So I ended up walking back to the Excalibur and then driving down to Bally's.

I played in a $2/4 game for six minutes before finally getting in a new NL table.

"The Emory Game is more skill-based," I joke to Mark.

There are just these inexperienced people mixing it up. First was this old guy who quickly went through two $100 buy-ins.

Then this girl kept on raising people on the river with the second-best hand. She raised this guy with a king, only to lose to his three deuces.

Whoops.

Then the same guy pushed all-in when I reraised a guy who made it $15 to go under the gun -- that guy had 66. I had KK and the all-in guy had KQs.

Whoops.

After those people busted out, there wasn't much left for me to do. So I left, up $165 now, but only from three hours of play.

I walked to the nearly-next-door Flamingo, couldn't get in a NL game there. Then back over past Bally's and Paris Las Vegas in the other direction to the Aladdin. There they had all kinds of NL action. But I couldn't get in.

So I ambled across the street to the Bellagio. Just being back here made me extremely happy. As I rounded the corner on my way to the poker room, there was this asian guy playing with what I thought were $500 chips.

They were actually $1,000 chips. He had four of them on one blackjack bet.

The Bellagio's room was crowded. Humongous lines for $4/8. The $15/30 line was smaller but I didn't want to wait and I didn't want to risk my bankroll even though I'm nearly there. Those people playing it didn't seem so tough, though.

I walked back over to Bally's, got my car and then went to the Wynn.

They also were crowded. No chance of getting into $4/8 or NL $1-3. They had an open seat in the $15/30 and it really looked tempting. But I moved on.

Finally I came back to the Sahara. I deposited money in a Pacific Poker account to hopefully get a $20 bonus they offered me to return and play. I upgraded the new Party Poker version and put money there to play (I got this warning that if I don't play in a week, all of my player's club points will be lost).

And then I had to nap.

So it's 7 p.m., nearly a full day since I've been in Vegas and I've only played 3 hours.

At least I'm up, but that's ridiculous!

I guess a Vegas trip is not always poker, as the guy in seat 8 at Bally's told me.

"Have you ever been here for Halloween?" he asked.

No, I haven't.

"I was here last Halloween and I've never seen so many thongs in my life," he says, explaining all the "costumes" he saw. "My girlfriend said, 'Go ahead and look, since it's unavoidable.'"

Something to look forward to, I guess!