Vegas epilogue during U.S. Open weekend

Here's a rundown of my stay in Vegas.

1) Having a rental car helped immensely, since I traveled a bit around the area. I was able to snag a Compact (White 4-door Saturn Ion) 3-day rental for $48.57 from Alamo by using a combination of the Costco membership discount, with the 15% American Express discount, and the $10 weekend coupon. And if I would have checked in online, I could have saved another 10%.

2) One drawback by checking in your baggage is it takes 45 minutes for it to arrive in baggage claim at McCarran International.

3 The one drawback to renting a car is the distance from the rental car lot to the terminals. While it's only 15-20 minutes away going to the lot via shuttle. Coming from the lot takes longer because the nearest refueling station is 3/4 mile away.

3) I should remember to bring $20 in one dollar bills for each day I'm there for tip money. Whether its waitresses, valet parking, housekeeping, bellhops, cage cashiers, pool attendents, it seems most of the money I spent was for tipping.

4) I stayed at the Signature Towers at MGM Grand. While the towers are pretty good, here are some pointers:

a) Do NOT ask for any special services from the front desk or from Conceirge. Tipping does NOT help. I made the mistake of tipping Tony, the evening shift's front desk clerk $20 to make sure housekeeping would arrive at 8:15a the next morning for a mid-morning gathering. Housekeeping never showed up. Also, when I asked a simple question on what are the best golf courses to play for a given handicap, the Concierge didn't have an answer.

b) Make sure there is only one key card that has access to your room. Upon checking out, the front desk attempted to charge $10 for a long distance call when valet parking has me on record of not being on the property at the time of the call.

c) There is no public parking at the Towers. While you can park in the main casino, it's a good 15-20 minute walk to get back to your room.

d) There are no fish poker players at the casinos on Sunday night. You have to catch them on either Friday or Saturday night.

e) Most of the MGM food court shops are not open until 11am.

f) Avoid eating at the Desire Deli Shop in Tower 2. I made the mistake of eating their $12 roast beef sandwich (the minimum for any sandwich is $10) and nearly threw up an hour later. Avoid this deli shop like the plague.

Now that the fluff stuff is out of the way, I recovered all but the airfare for my trip. There were a lot of fish at the MGM poker tables. Pretty much, the rest of the table singled out the fish and one by one, they were busted out. Eventually after around three hours of play, only the locals or sharks were left and I had to leave the table because I couldn't get a read on the experienced live table players. I did visit the Bellagio poker room, but didn't get to play because the waiting lists were consistently 15-20 names long for the 4-8 tables. Not to mention, for such a prestigous poker room, it has to be the only poker room that does not use an electronic waiting list which is either stupid or just plain cheap. It's clear I can hold my own on the 2-4, 3-6, and 4-8 limit tables at the MGM, but I don't have enough bankroll yet for no-limit or a 5-10 limit game. I think it's more to live table experience versus practicing in the comfortable surroundings of home.

The tables at the Palms on Fridays and Saturday's seems the place to be seen when associating with peers in their 20's and 30's. Ironically, I took a break from poker to play the $10 Pai Gow tables and had success with a female dealer named Youn as it seemed the table karma was just right with 5 people (I was in Seat 4), there was a couple to my left in Seats 5 and 6; and to my right in Seats 2 and 3, with Seat 1 empty. After a good rush of cards for 30 minutes, everyone started chatting it up and its always good when you can find such a table.

Ironically, I didn't get a chance to play Blackjack, Craps, or Baccarat. So perhaps the next time I visit, I'll make it a point to sit at a table to at least remember the feel of pressure just in case I go with a group.

It was a ghost town by Sunday night as all my peers had left town. This was the only night I had a negative overall session at the tables. So if I do it over again, I will make sure to take a Sunday afternoon flight instead of a Monday afternoon flight.

Now that I'm attempting to get back up to speed for the markets, I'm checking out whether I should start a Covestor portfolio and attempt to post weekly updates there. We'll see in the coming weeks.