On my final day in Vegas playing the 2 p.m. daily tourney at Binion's (it'll always be Binion's to me), six tables are silent but for the sound of chips shuffling. Then someone yells, "He ain't got no flush, man!" and all six tables erupt in laughter.

I should have been playing this game every day. Not that it was terribly soft, but it was a very good mix, the buy-in was low but not too low ($60 + 10 dealers + one 40 rebuy), and there were just enough players (66 -- six 11-handed tables).

I saunter into the Binion's poker room only on my last day. It looked dead otherwise. Sit down at the $100 minimum NL ring game. That's minimum -- you could buy-in for as much as you wanted to. "Even a million," the dealer said. I stick with $100 for now, the small stack of reds made smaller when second at the table and the other player had $500. It was just getting started, with others who had played the game the past few days. At first I thought they were regulars, but they were tourists like me who got to know each other or already did know each other and were traveling together. I think you can tell the regulars by the white hair.

We start 3-handed (no rake) and gradually grow to a full table. I take off a small pot with a complete bluff after folding too much. Now 4-handed, any pair was good so I begin calling more (blinds were 1/2) to try outplaying post-flop. My skills after the flop are better in tournaments, as I'm still not as successful divorcing chips from their actual monetary value. I play QTo in the SB and the flop is Q97 (rainbow). I check, it's checked around. The turn is a 4. I bet $10, I'm raised $20 by the big stack, I call (bad move). River is a 6, I check, big stack goes all-in, I call (bad move, but I wanted to see). He has 69o. I lose and rebuy.

Table is 6-handed now. Big stack opens with $20 and is gloating from a previous hand against his friend where he turned a straight but big stack turned a flush. I see KQs. I suspect he's bluffing or has a big Ace and think I can move him off. I raise all-in. He shows KK. I lose and rebuy.

$200 down in 15 minutes and I'm not even drinking. It's just like blackjack.

I then win a small pot with a turned straight, though I think I could've gotten more money if I hadn't bet out on the river (the guy flopped a pair, checked it through, then rivered two pair).

I have a good vibe from this table and good reads from the players, but the tournament is about to begin so I cash out (about $180 down, which is what I won earlier at Golden Gate playing blackjack after eating the delicious shrimp and stuffed shells with meatballs). If I bust out of the tournament early, I'm headed right back to the NL. If not, I'll check out of Fitzgerald's and head to the Strip.

Nice to see dealers know what they're doing. The complete opposite of the new dealers still in need of training at Golden Nugget.

While in line to cash out, I discover a woman in front of me had won this tournament the past three days in a row. "Going for a fourth?" I ask. She smiles. She has more chips than I do.

I make it through the second break, where it's so cold inside that I gladly step outside in the 108-degree heat and pick up a mocha Funky Monkey (chocolate & banana flavor) on ice and do my best monkey impression as I trip on grate next to the cart. Back to Binion's, and I'm looking forward to a good bluff raise, as I had just posted the SB and am now the button. But our table breaks and we draw for seats. Too bad.

I'm at the final three tables with the threepeat woman to my right. Luckily I'm one from the button, and shorter stacks get in the way of the blinds. One by one they're picked off and replaced by players, albeit a little too slowly (at one point we had six players, and another table had nine).

Chip challenged, I can only push or fold, and no one calls my pushes (the first time a bluff, the next two times AKo), enabling me to build up a medium stack with blinds and antes. I also raised all-in when the threepeat woman raised the button. Raising all-in for me was just raising the minimum, which she put in anyway figuring she could knock me out. My AK beat her J7o with a K on the flop and a J on the river.

As people busted, they'd give the threepeat woman $20 and their raffle ticket (a drawing is held an hour after the tournament to give 5 percent of the pool to one of the ticket holders) as part of their last-longer bet from previous days playing with her. This happened twice, and the woman looked on her way to winning a fourth time.

UTG, I get 99 and push again. Blinds coming up, I would only last a few more orbits, and I didn't care about squeaking into the money. I needed to double up fast. Some apparently tough folds from the way people were hem-and-hawing, but they ultimately folded. Then SB asks how much I have. I immediately show my chips and count it down, wanting him to see my eagerness and fold. I want him to fold, but know that 99 is a good a hand as any and I should be good as long as no overcards fall or he doesn't have a bigger pair.

He counts out the chips and calls. He has a bigger pair (QQ). I lose, shake his hand, and wish the threepeat woman luck.

I head out of Binion's and see my old NL game full now. The big stack still has the biggest stack, and though I outlasted him in the tournament by a good hour, he's about $400 up, half of which was donated by me.



lunch:
2 slices of mushroom & feta pizza
1 slice of mushroom & red pepper pizza
1 slice of Hawaiian pizza
1 slice of pepperoni & tomato pizza
1/2 ginger cookie
Lay's Potato Chips
Tootsie Roll

3 Diet Cokes
1 Cherry Coke

dinner:
...