After accidentally eating a pint of Dreamery strawberry cheesecake ice cream, I sat down to the PokerNow $5000 freeroll, ready to play good poker. For some reason the three-hour time difference in any of these multi-tourneys throws me, and I'm either never on time or miss them completely. Time was I'd be in four per night; now, I'm lucky to squeeze in one a week, if that. Probably because the majority of multis that crop up begin before dinnertime.

As expected in any freeroll, not many people showed. At my table, there were only four present. This takes on a different strategy, as most hands are stealing hands. I built up to T1500, but the next highest was at T2300. All the ghost players were in the T900 range.

My NETeller being empty, I attempted to request an email to re-verify their two small deposits so I could transfer via checking account, but I got an error, perhaps because the re-verification process expires after two years. IGM-Pay emailed that I'll need to send a copy of a voided check. I'm just about to scan a check, when...

I bust out. I have KQs, raise T125 preflop, and two people call. The flop is Kxx. Small blind overbets to 3/4 my stack and I put him on a steal by raising all-in. He calls and shows KJo and I don't feel good about this because, yep, there on the turn is his Jack and I'm out.

This was too big a bet to call and I should've folded. It wasn't worth a call just to see I read him correctly.

I curse loudly at him (never in chat, just at the monitor and his stupid likeness of a buxom blonde when I don't doubt for a fact that he isn't female) then go away for a couple hours. When I return, I see my lucky opponent wasn't lucky enough to cash: he busted at 62 and top 50 made the money.

And made my day. I get such enjoyment out of seeing people get their deserved just desserts.

Speaking of, when you're done bonus whoring PokerNow, don't forget that you can also use IGMPAY as a bonus code for a 10 percent (up to $100) reload bonus using IGM-Pay as a payment method.

That's what I'll be doing next week, and I'll be playing 25NL or 1/2 6max to work off the raked hands. Any raked hand counts, even if it's a few cents. My goal is to get PokerNow to not just lose the bonus on me but make barely any rake off me.

Such vindictiveness. I need to work off this aggression.

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Filled up one of my stomachs with a delicious, juicy steak that was sorely absent from my CA trip. It was very welcome, and I savored every bite.

Then hopped in the car and headed to the new Wynn casino to play some pokah!

Looks like it's officially called Wynn Las Vegas, as if Wynn is keen on adding other casinos to his trademarked name. What's up with these mogul's prophetic names? Wynn, Trump, Moneymaker. Why did I have to be named grubby?

Took the back way from Koval to Sands Ave., thinking there might be a side entrance. There is, but it's only valet. Had to exit to the Strip and then turn right (the second right, which I can see people missing every time) to get to self-parking (for future visits, it's probably better to go from 15 to Sahara and then south on the Strip).

A guy with a Secret Service-like earpiece said that even though the lower level stated it was full, there were still spaces. Electronic signs are posted at each parking level with a number telling you how many spaces remain. It'd be great to think it's technologically advanced enough to check the weight of each space and determine that way, but it probably just acts as a ticker for cars coming and going. I wonder how they account for the executive reserved spaces (a whole block of them are near the elevators) and handicapped spaces.

I grab a space on 1D and take the elevator to the second-floor entrance (on the way back, I took the stairs, which were faster).

The doors open to a Ferrari/Maserati showroom and, uh, gift shop housed in the casino. The poker room is directly across, which means poker access from the garage is extremely easy. A line formed to get into the showroom. Seems they only allow a certain number of people in at a time to ooh and ahh at the Batwinged vehicles. I pressed my nose against the glass, which many people must do because there were constant employees wiping down glass windows and doorknobs.

I'm hard-pressed to say the casino surpassed the huge build-up and anticipation I'd had for a $2.7 billion world premiere (vs. grand opening) and the first new Vegas casino since the new Aladdin five years ago. Sure, it's bright and elegant and colorful with lots of intense red and pastels, but really, how different can it be with all the same slots taking up the majority of space? I suspect much more of it would be unearthed if I stayed there (pictures of the rooms look great and so does the golf course), but for the moment I was in gambling uniform only.

Little things here and there reminded me of other Wynn-designed casinos like the atrium of orchids and big giant balls of flowers from Bellagio/Mirage and the directional signs from Bellagio where even the font looked the same. Overall, it felt like a cross between Bellagio and the Borgata.

I'd hoped to see water running throughout the casino in little streams (perhaps with a little boat containing your drink order), but was disappointed. There was what looked like a wall of water outside, where you can sit on the patio and watch their regular fusions of filmic scenes. The casino floor seemed smaller than I thought, and I didn't get the exercise I expected by looping around a couple times. Outside is also smaller. There the waterfall and lots of vegetation contributing to the eventual humidity and allergies I'd thought I'd escaped DC swampland for. Wynn must have saved the bulk of the 217 acres for his hotel guests on the other side.

Pedestrian bridges are under construction that will cross the Strip to the Fashion Show Mall (that recently finished their own $1 billion expansion, much of it in that 8 million pound steel contraption they call The Cloud that hovers over the mall providing protection from thunderstorms). Another walkway will cross Sands Ave. to The Venetian. A little north is the New Frontier, so after you absorb the sophistication of Picasso and Wynn you can take in some bikini bullriding.

The big Wynn electronic sign outside advertises golf, Le Reve (which looks spectacular), and restaurants, but I couldn't help being drawn to a dead pixel right in the center. Stevie must be fuming, but what can you do? Take the whole thing back and exchange it for another one?

WLV has a circular feel to it with many round curves. Even escalators that take you up and down at an angle. There's a connection to the outside and an airiness to it, as if someone opened curtains to floor-to-ceiling windows welcoming the sunrise. Probably the only casino where you can tell what time it is by the sun.

Tons of restaurants. When my DC friends arrive tonight, I'll recommend we go to one of them. We usually reserve Saturday night for a fine dining experience, and Wynn is all about the fine dining. Average cost of sandwiches at the deli is $10.

All the slot machines were a couple months' old. Saw hardly any new ones except for the $10 million penny slots (300 pennies per pull to qualify). They did have regular penny slots (unlike Venetian, which start at a nickel), and I parked myself at my favorite Millioniser game Wild Africa away from the table games. In general when hunting for a machine, pick the ones away from the tables: those are usually tighter because the noise disturbs the table players. A nice touch -- footrests beneath each slot machine. I usually put my feet up next to the machine, but I didn't have to because I could slide them dogs right underneath.

The player's cards are red and print your first name and the first initial of your last name. This is the first time I'd seen this, and now I wonder why all other casinos print your full last names. If you're a hotel guest, your room key doubles as your player's card. Quite a few times I've mixed the two up, and it's nice to see this option.

Each slot machine is tied into something called Bonus Bingo. At random times while you play and have your card inserted, you'll be eligible for the bingo game. Your bingo card displays on the little monitor and balls are called out and marked. "Played" maybe half a dozen Bonus Bingos but neither I nor my slot neighbors won anything off it.

Hit Millioniser twice for mini ($9) and minor ($34) jackpots and cashed out down $80. Actually, cashed out down $100, but I hopped to a snowball game and hit for $20.

Put in an hour of play, mostly to get logged into Wynn's system to show I exist and perhaps start getting offers (though I heard it's more difficult to get comps here than anywhere else with a minimum $90,000 playthrough per day for full room, food, and beverage).

Went to blackjack and recovered what I lost in slots. They had tables as low as $10, and one of the private tables didn't have a limit. Saw a guy betting $5000 to $10,000 per hand in two spots.

I stuck with the $10 limit. Tables games are the usual assortment with six-deck shoes and the dreaded automatic shuffler blackjack, which I avoid like liver because it's the same as playing online.

Cards and chips are handsome and simple with the W logo (if someone like Kerkorian takes over again, he'll have to remove Wynn's prominent signature that adorns practically everything). When cashing out, the cashier places the chips on a scanner that tells them instantly the dollar amount, thanks to the RFID microchips embedded.

Dealers wear a dressy black. Women wear gold necklaces spelling out their name; men wear gold pins spelling theirs. Cocktail waitresses are Borgata-type gorgeous and also look as if they're headed to a nightclub -- black short dress with slit and boob implant accessories.

Restrooms are roomy and contain a little lamp in each stall. Sinks are unique with individual faucets and one long trough-like basin. All doors seemed to be overly heavy, from the front entrance to the bathroom stalls.

I had zero cell reception throughout the casino. Not even one bar on the phone. I don't usually have a problem with reception, except for The Orleans and my apartment, and it may be isolated to my provider (Cingular).

My card having enough play, it was time for poker.

It recalls Borgata with a plasma screen displaying the waiting list, showing available games and names of players in line. The software looked like the same one in use at Borgata. Plasma screens are everywhere, though some are obscured by hanging lamps that are in front of them.

Tables are inexcusably shoved too close together. Not only are you crammed 10 to a table (nice having roomy 9-handed tables at the LA casinos), but you have to scoot in each time someone wants to walk by. Cocktail waitresses can barely maneuver between tables.

Automatic shufflers are installed at each table, and you clock-in and clock-out at the front to get $1 per hour and rated (play six hours per day and get the poker rate of $129 weekday and $199 weekend). 'Course, no one tells you any of this and you're just expected to know or ask when you see other people do it.

I sat at a loose 4/8, next to a drunk guy from Orange County who seemed to get drunker the more cappuccinos he drank. He was the sloppy, loud kind of drunk vs. the sloppy, loud, funny kind of drunk.

Worse, he still played well. If I'm playing a drunk, I'd prefer a drunk who raises and reraises every hand.

Played next to him for a couple hours before finally leaving. Won one pot early, then bled away to nothing. Folded most hands and never got past the flop on the others. At least no bad beats when you're getting dealt bad cards.

More annoying was being sardined into the table, not having room to stretch and being forced to breathe people's bad breath. And the drunk guy became increasingly loud, with none of the dealers or floorpeople doing anything about it despite being asked to.

I would visit Wynn again, but I wouldn't visit the poker room.

I left in protest without bothering to clock out, and sat at a blackjack table with a friendly dealer who really rooted for the player. This bit her in the ass because a player at the table, who had a jaw-droppingly hot girlfriend with hands all over him that I was getting turned on by proxy, kept asking, "how much is that," because he couldn't seem to add two cards together.

Suffered through other people's bad play, but the cards were good and I made up what I lost in poker.

Headed home with $80 taken from Stevie's pockets. I've lost money at every casino; with Wynn, I can say I'm a lifetime wynner. Maybe I shouldn't go back after all.