Hello!
Have read lots of trip reports over the last 18 months, so decided it was time to give it a go. 
Seem to have picked the busiest time of year, so this could sink to page 10 in record time.
Wall of text / TLDR…

Background:
I’m from England and in my early thirties.

Played home games at university (~10 years ago). When I left, I had no job and no idea what to do, so I spent a few months on Ultimate Bet and managed to roll $10 up to $2000 played cash games, then a few $k more playing SnGs/MTTS on 888/Pacific.
...I probably had more than my fair share of luck.
I played only occasionally online since then until 2012 when I gave it a proper go again and was lucky enough to make ~$10k during 6 months grinding SnGs after work.
I have also played a few £1/£2 cash games in casinos but frankly I am not great at cash (it's harder than it was in 2005!) and have lost something just under £1000 (offset by a slight profit in casino tournaments).

Even so, my focus in Vegas was cash as it's just more flexible. My cash style is probably not going to win any fans though...
I tend to start off with shortstacks of 50-100 BB buy-ins, play quite tight and play short sessions (e.g. 2 hours). I put in the odd bluff when I see a spot, but mostly I play pretty unadventurously.

TR 14/06/2014 to 24/06/2014*:
Been to Vegas a couple of times (2011 and 2013), but spent most of the time getting drunk with friends rather than playing poker. This time round I went for 5 days with my girlfriend and then another 5 days with friends who had tickets for EDC. EDC is not my cup of tea so mostly spent the time playing poker and left them to it!

Bankroll:

$4100 total – vague plan is to tolerate up to $2000 of poker losses and up to $1000 of overpriced tat for my girlfriend.
Shoes:



*UK >> US date syntax

GL run goood

Have a strange sense of dread that my thread title has been done before… picked it in a hurry – who knows how the mind works?
Also just realising how long it takes to upload photos!

…anyways, here’s day 1 part 1 (photo heavy):

Supplies for the holiday:


Supplies for the flight (stole this <100ml idea off another 2p2 TR recently):


Movie 1:

12 years a slave - I'd give it an 8/10.

Nice view of Canada / Greenland / North Pole?


Movie 2:

Short Term 12: had good reviews and sounded more upbeat after the previous movie. I'll go 7/10 for this one...

My best photo of the descent into Vegas (great isn't it?):

Nice photos from the plane

your gonna need mor moniez!

River Flush, Natamus, MSchu, thanks for your support!

Day 1 – part 2:
Flight got in early afternoon US time.
Please would someone explain why - after queuing to go through customs to inspect our landing card and pick up bags - we need to queue again for 40 minutes to give our landing card back to someone else? Bizarre system – can only think it gives them a chance to stop people they let through customs by mistake. Presumably the people flying internally do not have to do this?

Staying here:


Stayed Venetian last year, really like it so it was an easy decision.
Went to check-in and finally summoned up the courage to try the $20 trick for the first time. As an Englishman, I normally do anything I can to avoid awkward situations like this.
I put my wallet, my passport and a $20 note on the counter and said “Do you have any complementary upgrades available?” The man said something like “Yes, I think I have a nice room for you. Something on the 33rd floor with a good view of the strip”.
Whether he would have done this anyway I have no idea. At the end of the conversation I picked up the wallet, passport and room keys and he asked “Do you need any change?” I said “No, it’s for you.” and acted a bit surprised but took it. Probably means I should have given it to him earlier with more subtlety...

This is the room:



By now it was about 5pm, and my girlfriend was knackered so she decided to go straight to sleep.
This left me with some free time to pick up some snacks from Walgreens and then do a short poker session at the Venetian. Bought in for a massive $120 and had lots of good starting hands, to chip up to this:


Then I had two big hands against a loose player sitting two places to my right.
Hand 1:
Dealt AKo in the BB.
One caller in MP, then button raises to $12. I call (should I have raised?) and MP folds.
Flop is A35 rainbow.
I bet $15 and button calls.
Turn brings an 8.
I bet $30 and button raises all-in for another $65 or so. I call and river comes a 10 of spades (no flush).
I show my top pair and button shows pocket red tens to hit his 2-outer and scoop a $250 pot and wipe out my profit.

Hand 2:
2 hands later I get AK again (on the button) and play another hand against the same player.
Flop is KT7r and he bets, I call.
Turn is another King and eventually we get all the chips in.
River is the same damn 10 of spades and this time he flips over KQ for the chop.

I cash out shortly after (exactly break-even) and go back to the room to crash.

Frustrating that the same card rivered me twice in dominant positions, but I still finished even and realistically the second hand would have played the same way if we had each other’s hands.
By the way – I will talk through hands I badly misplayed later on in this TR, just happens that the first night I had lots of great starting hands and a couple of big bad rivers! 

running tab of BR?

Hand 1 I probably would have re-raised it up from $12 if they guy is playing loose. On the turn he's going to go all in regardless so I think your bet is fine there. I don't think you played it poorly though, guy just got lucky on the river. Live and learn.

Good TR.

I'm writing this in hindsight and I can't keep track of all the outgoings (e.g. booze, shopping), but I'll add some graphs of the running poker profit and loss.

Thanks. Keep the responses coming. I think I should raise, but I do play a bit too tight.
What is your plan though? Raise to X? C-bet flop? Reaction to a re-raise pre-flop?

Day 2:

From last year I know that I absolutely love the buffet breakfast at Grand Lux (Venetian and Palazzo). Unlimited tea/coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice.
Here was round 1 of the food:

So hungry eating the omelette that I forgot to take a picture at the start...

Rounds 2 and 3:



Really sets you up for the day (typically I skip lunch after this).

My girlfriend was really enthusiastic about playing some poker so I thought we should stroll down to play the 11am $65 donkament at Bally's (safer than cash for her?). The structure was pretty bad. I think you started with 50 BBs and 20minute levels...
On the other hand the players were pretty bad and you could steal lots of pots pre-flop by raising limpers.
I managed to lose 80% of my chips early on when I flopped a set with pocket jacks and couldn't let go when someone turned a flush. It was fairly clear what he had but on the other hand you never know against poor players.

I'm not sure my girlfriend will still believe me when I offer her advice!

I rebought soon after (silly but she was still playing so it seemed the right thing). She got knocked out and I eventually finished 5th with top 3 paying (from about 25). Here is some rather underwhelming chip porn:


So a solid -$130 for me and -$65 for her.

Afterwards we went for a walk down the strip and I watched while she did shopping in the Miracle Mile.
I found drinking made this much more bearable:


The we headed over to Bellagio and tried the food at Noodles (based on recommendations on 2p2, naturally).
Good food, my girlfriend really liked it - and she's Chinese!

Headed back to the Venetian and took in the sunset:


She crashed early again and so I headed down to the poker room.
While waiting I tried the heads up poker machine. I didn't really know what I was doing - bought in for $20 and played two hands before cashing out. I think I rivered the computer in the second hand for a small profit



Cash session thereafter was solid enough - don't remember any particular hands and cashed out a $55 profit.

Graph to date:

Nice start with the data tracking.

Day 3, part 1:

Popped over to TI for lunch at the Vietnamese place there (always solid and cheap).

Then played the TI 2pm $65 tournament while my GF went to Fashion Show Mall for a while.
The structure was surprisingly good.
You started with 200 BBs and 20 minute levels.
The players were not great. There was one guy to my left who kept getting really upset whenever he lost a pot. Not aggressively to anyone, but quietly saying things like "How the **** can he call with king-six there?!".
As a result of the good structure and bad players I managed to progress my stack:



When we got to the last table (from 33 starting players), we played for quite a while without losing anyone, even though by now we all had 10 BB stacks.
Since we were fairly even someone suggested a 9-way chop and everyone agreed! (I had just less than average at that point and my GF was waiting for me so it was a no-brainer.)
So I made my first Vegas tournament cash , $175 for a +$110.

The only mistake* I can remember making at the table was ordering an old fashioned with scotch. It was not drinkable. Found out they had Johnny Walker Red in it, which may explain it as that is dreadful.

*Clearly I made lots though.

solid TR and nice username, gotta love mad men.
are you still gonna be in vegas on friday? i'm going for the first time, it would be cool to meet some 2+2ers.

I tried taking them out the window...stewardess came by and shut it down...neither of us knew why, standard!

pictures out the window on my flight meant to say

Yeah I'm a Johnny Walker Black man myself, but i have to admit that I like red too. I know that makes me a non-baller, but then again everything else about me makes me a non-baller lol

Thanks. I'm afraid I am back in London now. Next time!

Strange. Did you ask why?
Normally they tell you to open the blinds when taking off or landing (presumably in case of crash and poor viability).

Sorry, I'm a bit of a snob sometimes.
Big fan of single malts from islay. Lagavulin is my favourite.

Day 3, part 2:

For dinner we went to Otto's pizzeria in the fake St. Mark's square (at the Venetian).
I've been here on my previous two trips to Vegas.
I like the atmosphere and food is solid - not too expensive and has lots of non-pizza options.

By now, my girlfriend kept insisting that she wanted to play some cash.
To be honest I was pretty worried that she'd lose a lot of money quickly in cash games (she has only played a handful of times before, although she is a fast learner).
I told her to play very few hands and get a feel for it first.
We managed to sit next to each other on a table at the Venetian ($1/$2 as with the previous sessions).
She bought in for $100 and I slammed down $140 in cold hard cash (baller).

GF proceeded to play every other hand.
In her first BB hand, all players folded to the SB, who asked if she wanted to chop.
I didn't really explain this to her so not totally sure whether she understood the offer, but she said "no" and SB called the extra dollar.
GF then raised to $7...
She bet on every street and on showdown the SB showed pocket kings to scoop the pot of about $75 vs. her ace high.
She is certainly a fearless player.

As the evening progressed she won and lost plenty of pots and her stack was erratic to say the least.
Quite frankly I was very nervous for her, and desperate for her to not get stacked.
My own hands were far less exciting.

The most interesting thing was when a lady who had been sitting to my right for about an hour suddenly produced this from under the table when the waitress came round with her bottle of water:



Another player asked if the dog was in play and Doglady (DL) said "Yes, value $1000".
DL was very nice and played very loose.
After the following hand I started playing a lot of pots with her...

On the river there are two players: DL and one other.
Board reads KT88T.
Pot is ~$45.
Both players check. Other player shows 33 for the 3-pair and DL sighs then mucks.
I wanted to say something before she mucked, but I think I'm not allowed?
I'm sure the other player would not have thanked me!
What would others do?

After about two hours we ended our session for a rather pleasing +$37 for me and +$48 for her!

Graphs below:

Nice job op

Day 4 - part 1:

Room service was 50% off for the duration, so decided to enjoy the view over breakfast:



Then we went to Battlefield Vegas for some shooting.
I chose it based on the reviews, and I have to say it was very good.
Advantages over previous shooting experience elsewhere:
1) Only 5-10 minute drive from Palazzo (just behind Circus Circus)
2) Free Humvee ride there and back (although we got a taxi there as they didn't answer the phone)
3) Better selection of guns
4) Showed you how to load and disarm safety - and allowed you to do it yourself

I went for the D-day package ($129):
http://www.battlefieldvegas.com/coll...944-experience






You have 2 clips on the pistol, followed by 3 clips on the garand and then 2 magazines on the tommy gun.

My girlfriend tried the German grease gun and completely destroyed me even though she was wearing 6 inch heels...





Then we headed back to the Venetian and I sat down for a quick $1/$2 cash session.
I managed to chip up from $150 to $160 by the time my GF came over to meet me for lunch.
However, there was time for one more hand:

I'm in mid-late position with 7cTc.
We have 3 limpers when it gets to me.
I call and button calls.
Blinds complete and we see a flop of 67Tdds.
Checked to me and I bet $11 (into $14).
Button raises to $25.
Others fold and I call.
Turn is Kh.
I check and button raises to $45.
I hate this spot. Button is a solid player, not noticeably loose or tight and he has me covered.
I call and the river brings Ks.
I check and button bets $75.
I think for a while and fold.
Then cash out for a $53 loss.

I was pretty pissed at this hand. I think I should either fold turn or call turn and river.
The second king only pushes him ahead if he has:
a) King-high diamond draw on the flop - possible
b) AT, QT, JT, 9T, 8T - unlikely
Otherwise he could have a made hand on the flop:
c) 8,9 for the flopped straight - very possible
d) 66, 77, TT - 66 is certainly possible
Or he has a draw that missed - likely a combo draw like A9dd or A8dd.

I think fold turn > call turn and river > call turn fold river?
I also signposted my hand a bit by taking a while to call turn.

He didn't show so still don't know.

Had lunch in Noodle Asia:



Have to say neither of us were very impressed - Noodles in the Bellagio was much better.

I don't understand your analysis on the 7T hand. The river changes a lot as your 2 pair got counterfeited, Also I'm not sure why you think

AT, QT, JT, 9T, 8T - unlikely

but

King-high diamond draw on the flop - possible
8,9 for the flopped straight - very possible

The odds of him having a hand in the first group is much higher than the odds of him having a K high diamond draw. I would have also slightly discounted a set due to you having top 2 and also no button raise PF.

I think turn and river are fine as played though I would have considered checkraise turn all in. Fold turn would be terrible against anybody except the nittiest of nits. But if that was the case, why even call flop if you are folding that turn?



Why no 3bet on the flop? Is this guy so tight that you think hes just raising with sets and straights on the flop?

Thanks for your thoughts. I can't see him betting $75 with a counterfeiting two pair (because of the action so far), but perhaps that's because I typically don't go for thin enough value bets myself. Hence I see him as very "polarised" and my bluff catch is the same on turn and river.

The above may just show I'm too tight!