Monday:1st half - Almost and Not at All - Then More Rude Casino Workers!

The Lovely wakes me up early as she is leaving for the Grand Canyon nice and early. She has to get a couple of "you should be going with me" shots in there before exiting. I am tired from the late night tourney last night (and blogging the results before turning in).

But I am up and what the heck. It's Vegas baby!

I hurry to the close by O'Shea's tourney ($45) - which gets group of twenty one entries.

I squeak into the final table when my all-in with (66) spikes a [6] with four callers!

They are paying three spots {$300, $175, $110) , and I stay around as my (JJ) outlasts an (AK).

Down to five as the short stack and I am in the BB with (Ks Qs). It folds around to the SB and chip leader, who limps in. I have some fold equity so I go all-in. After a long think, he calls with (55).

The good news is I flopped [KQ], but the lone spade is ...of course [5s]! Well, at least I didn't bubble. I got that going for me.

On to Bally's for a little bigger and classier tourney - $65 entry and 39 entries. Paying five places {$768, $480, $288, $211, $172}.

I don't make it past the second blind increase. My (JJ) gets caught by (AK) and my desperation all-in with (Ac 5h) never had a prayer.

But Bally's has a nice poker room. Real nice.

So I head over to Planet Hollywood for the next available tourney. It is a $70 buy-in. When I go to pay my entry an hour and a half early, the young poker manager says if I join the PH Player's Club, instead of $4000 starting chips, I will get $4500 - and of course no cost to join.

I state that I am not in Vegas enough to make use of it. But he is persistent and says, "The line is right over there and will only take like ten minutes."

I glance over at the line of - Oprah watching, 5-cent nickel slot and George Clooney loving Clinton voters - snaked around a roped off queuing line that appears a 1st glance will take at least a half hour to get thru.

I say, "Wow. I don't know," wondering if 500 more chips is worth the hassle as fast as blinds go up in this town.

He says in a real smart tone - remember, he is half my age if he is a day - "Listen pal, I'll sell you 4000 in chips right now. But if you don't want 12% more chips just for standing in line for a couple minutes, I can't help you."

I stare at him for a moment wondering if my hat says, "Be rude to me" instead of "Kimber" on it. I say, "You talked me into it," and walk right towards the line, then right past the line and out of Planet Hollywood probably for good.

I walk over to the MGM Grand (the place with some bad memories of I think poker cheating many years ago) and check it out.

The room is 1st class and the busiest of any of the rooms I have seen this trip. They hold a nightly $90 buy-in tourney at 7pm and the poker room manager says they usually have 90 to 110 players.

I may do that tomorrow for my last tourney. On to Caesar's Palace this evening I think.