Some wild swings, and some great food.

On Tuesday afternoon, I played at the Wynn. In a city that specialises in super-luxury hotels and resorts, the Wynn is the most exclusive and luxurious of them all. It opened in 2005 and is reputed to be running at a monumental weekly loss, despite close to 100% room occupancy.

The poker room at the Wynn is only half the size of the rooms at Venetian or Caesars, but it is beautifully decorated and has great furniture. The lowest limit game they spread at the Wynn is 4/8, and so this (in theory) is where all the fish are to be found. This worked out very well for me on Tuesday, and I spiked my first 3-figure win of the week. One elderly lady of non-specific European origin is worthy of a mention, as she was by far the worst poker player that I have ever seen at a live table. She played any two cards, repeatedly played out of turn, and frequently asked the dealer how many more cards were still to come! She won several large pots (fortunately not at my expense) where her crappy hands completed on the river, but she lost about $500 in a couple of hours.

After a brief siesta, I headed back to the Venetian, and booked my second 3-figure win of the day. The Venetian has a promotion where poker players receive $2/hour in food credits (comps), so I had earned enough for dinner at the noodle bar when I had finished, which was very good. I retired at about 4.30am

On Wednesday morning, I again awoke after far too little sleep, at about 7.30am.

I decided to return to the Wynn for another early session, to see whether the previous day was representative of the general standard of play there or not.

Unfortunately, I proceeded to have a nightmare session, where everything that could possibly go wrong did so. The lowlight of the session was where I was deal pocket aces, in a hand where three of us were all raising before the flop. The board came Jack-high with no straights or flushes possible and we all continued to fire at the pot. At showdown, it turns out that one of the other guys also had pocket aces, and the winner had pocket 10’s and flopped the set! This pot cost me about $75, and the session saw me give back almost exactly what I had won the previous day.

I headed back to the IP at lunchtime to get my room changed to one on the other side of the hotel, that wasn’t overlooking the rock stage(!) After watching the France v Portugal World Cup semi-final, I actually managed to have a proper sleep for the first time on this trip.

I awoke after 4 hours sleep feeling much better and I decided to hit the Venetian again. This hotel is rapidly becoming my favourite in Vegas. The place is truly spectacular, the poker room is the nicest I have played, and the staff are consistently attentive and courteous. (This last point is just a matter of degrees, as staff are always attentive and courteous in the US service industries. It just seems that the Venetian do everything just a little bit better than elsewhere).

They have just begun construction on an adjacent hotel tower that will add another 3,500 rooms that will make the Venetian the World’s largest hotel at almost 8,000 rooms. It will really be quite something when this is completed.

I played for just over 3 hours, and I saw my fortunes reversed from the morning nightmare. I saw some good hands and some nice flops, and I won 3 figures for the second night running at the Venetian.

I quit at 11.30pm and decided to spend my comps on dinner in the Grand Lux Café. I had the BBQ Pork sandwich, which doesn’t sound like much, but might just have been the most delicious thing that I have eaten this year! Everything about it, from the crusty bread, to the crispy fries, to the amazing marinated salad, to the accompanying peanut coleslaw was just exquisite. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, which I am sure helped the experience!

Do you get the idea that I like the Venetian?!

Oh, by the way, a quick weather report. The first couple of days that I was here, there was clear skies at the temperature was 110 degrees. The last two days have been heavily overcast and a much more pleasant 90 degrees.

Tomorrow, I am playing in the World Series of Poker. I can’t wait!!!!