[TxSteve]

Hey all,

Just got back from Vegas. Only got to put in one session as I was on vacation with my Dad and didn't want to leave him to fend for himself.

We stayed at the Venetian; so the closest room was Harrah's, more or less. I was within walking distance of Bellagio, Mirage, Imperial Palace, Bally's, etc. but chose to give Harrah's a shot.

Ok..first off, it's a pretty small room. I think they've only got about 8-10 tables. The room is non smoking; there are plenty of TVs and the floor man and dealers were all pretty nice.

I showed up at about 10pm on Saturday night and they had:
1 table of 4/8 with a 1/2 kill
5 tables of 2/4
an interest list for a 2/5 200NL game.

All in all the room was pretty full of beginners as you would guess by the stakes.

I got a spot in the 4/8 pretty quickly (I have been playing 5/10 6 max and some 10/20 on line for the last month or so).

The players on this night were pretty bad. It was very common to see 7 to the flop, even for 2 bets.

I had my first experience with a guy who LOVED to live straddle every chance he got.

I saw a guy go to the felt (utg in my hand below) on the river with K J on a 9 9 K 6 9 board. On the river, he re-raised the woman who had the case 9, 6 times.

The room allowed 5 bets in a multi way pot; unlimited raises heads up.

The table was pretty great. Probably only 2-3 people (including me) who were seeing less than 50% of the flops.

I didn't have great cards; in 6 hours I never had a pair bigger than 99. I had AK 1 time; AJ 2 times.

I noticed that live I turned into an even bigger wuss than I am on line. I was ultra passive, unfortunately.

Here was the biggest pot I won of the night:

I'm in the BB with QJo

Called in 5 places; back to me; I check my option.
(6 players, 6 sb)
Flop:
9d 10d 4s

I check; UTG bets; utg+1 raises; MP2 cold calls; fold; button cold calls; I cold call; UTG calls
(5 players; 8 bb)
Turn: 6c

I check; UTG bets; UTG+1 raises; MP2 folds; button cold calls; I cold call
(4 players; 16bb)
River: Kc

I check; UTG bets; UTG+1 calls; Button Folds
I raise; UTG re-raises; UTG+1 calls;
I raise; UTG caps; UTG+1 calls;
I call.

3 players; 31bb

Amazingly; UTG shows AA for 1 pair of aces
UTG+1 shows 99 for a flopped set
I show the nut straight for a rivered beauty.

I played for 6 hours and left up 32 bb's or so. I had a lot of fun. Player interaction; and actually hearing the dialogue of the maniacs as they are throwing money around is highly entertaining.

I wish I'd had time to put in a session or two at some other casino's; but it didn't work out.

At harrah's there was no type of jackpot; no type of gimmick at all. The max rake was 4$ (that kind of surprised me; I'd assumed it would be 3$ like empire.

There were some great lines spoken as well:
"the kicker; I always lose to the kicker" (from a south american "any two will do" guy)

"UP!" (meaning raise; from a japanese maniac, live straddler who LOVED action. He loved to cap including capping once preflop with 2-3 offsuit. I'm certain he would have capped preflop with anything if he had someone to raise with.

That's all.