Las Vegas

Last week was my 40th birthday. To celebrate (or mourn) my new decade in life, Penny booked a mystery holiday for us as a present. After many guesses, she finally told me we were going to Venice, so I duly packed my Euros and Italian dictionary. I was shocked to find we'd actually been booked into the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. (She claims this doesn't constitute a lie).

The actual itinery was 4 nights in the Venetian, then a couple of days staying at a ranch in Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, then back to Las Vegas and staying in the Bellagio for 2 more nights. What a fantastic holiday!

I didn't know if I'd like Las Vegas with it's excesses, tackiness and seediness, but in fact I loved it there. I certainly think it's somewhere you can only take in small doses at a time.

I was hoping to play a lot of poker there, but I was surprised how expensive a lot of the games and tournaments were there, especially on the Strip. Due to my budget, I was looking at maybe $50 tournaments max and limit ring games of $1/2. Most of the tournaments started at about $100 and the ring games were all $4/8 min. All too much for my meagre bankroll.

Another highlight for the week I should mention is that we managed to catch part of the WPT tournament that was being held at the Bellagio. We watched the final 7 play out until someone got knocked out before the televised final. It was quite amazing standing around the final table watching and rubbing shoulders with famous names like Mike Sexton, Martin DeKnjiff (sp??), Andrew Black and Harry Demetriou (and these were just the guys I recognised). We did try to watch the final 6 the next day, but the waiting list was too long. I'll just wait for it to be shown on TV. Then we wondered back to the main poker room in the Ballagio and saw Gus Hansen, Barnie Boatman and Donnacha O'Dhea playing (well, actually Gus was just wondering around).

What a great trip. Can't wait until I go back there again.