Cont'd

After all the initial high jinks, we got down to what we would be doing all day every day, playing cards. I will not bore you with a bunch of intricate hand details. I played a wide swath of games including single table satellites, multi-table tournaments and plenty of cash poker. We managed to get a mix game going on two separate occasions at the Venetian Poker Room. It was 6/12 HORSE on Saturday, 5/10 Mix on Sunday. There was 15/30 mix going at the Wynn on Monday, but the game looked too tough and too high for me so I didn't sit. I was also pretty much broke by then, but I will get to that later.

The central purpose of the trip was to participate in the Deep-Stack tournaments at the Venetian, most notably the $330 buy-in HORSE on Sunday Feb 15. I started out quite well in that tournament, jumping out to the chip lead over the 200+ player field pretty quickly. Starting with 12k, I was up to 28K within 3 hours, mostly just getting a great run of cards and getting action on every hand I played (people just seem to call me more often). As it turns out, if you want to be lucky in a tournament it better to be lucky late than early. I took a couple of bad beats just before the dinner break to knock me back to about 18k. After dinner I lost a huge razz pot that would prove to be my undoing. I made a really good hand... a 75432 low on 5th streeat and had been taking the betting lead the entire hand against what could only be a draw. I was being called by a player that had to wonder if his draw was even live, as he was showing a J763 on 6th street. On 7th I made an even better low, showing down a 65432. My opponent called me in the dark (obviously he had a made 7 to do so) and then took almost a full minute to squeeze out his river, which he then flicked with his hand and appeared to be mucking... prompting me to silently rejoice at the huge pot I had just won. Oh wait... he caught an A on 7th giving him 65431. "Winner Winner," he says and collects the massive pot. Nice slowroll dick. I never recovered. I got it all in about 30 minutes later in a stud 8 pot with a pair of fives and four cards to a 6 low, only to watch it come 9, T. I lost to rivered pair of Jacks and I was busted. I went from first to worst within 1 hour of play.

I played some cash games including the aforementioned mix game until about 6:30 am...swiping out with 17 hours of play time in one session. I guess I got about 4 or 5 hours of sleep, and crawled out of bed sometime after noon. I headed over to the Wynn and played in a tournament at 2 pm. I got busted with AA in that one (always fun) and then sat down to play cash with borrowed money, as I had managed to blow through my entire bankroll. I lost in the cash game as well, putting me into negative territory having lost everything I brought as well as the borrowed stake. I decided to take one last shot at a score and bought into the 7pm Wynn tournament. The structure appeared to be very player-friendly with 30 minute levels and 10k in starting chips. Matt entered as well, and we agreed that if we ended up 1st and 2nd in the tournament that we would chop it.

And that's exactly what happened. 7 hours later we eliminated the 3rd player and took about 1450 each. The win covered a large portion of my losses and and turned what would have been an extremely depressing Tuesday morning into a much happier one. After cashing in, we had enough time to get back to the hotel, pack, and get a 2 hour nap in before having to be at the airport in time for a 630 am flight home. I had to be at work by 9 am, and knew it was going to be a long day.

All told I put in 7 hours on Friday night. 15 hours on Saturday. 17 hours on Sunday. and 12 hours on Monday. 51 hours of poker in the span of less than 80 hours that I spent in Vegas... and posted a $300 loss. That works out to a little under $6 loss per hour.

But the hotel room was free.

Vegas, DSE 1

I left Friday evening for Vegas. Kyle K and Dana were on the same flight. We had a drink at the airport and a fun flight over to Sin City. Kent picked us up at the airport. He dropped off Kyle and Dana over at their hotel, and then we arrived at my hotel around 715. While checking in, it became apparent that my rouse to use my brother's VIP rates was not going to work. Basically, instead of pretending to be my brother this time around, I tried to check in as myself. This was not a good idea. Sean had assured me it was no problem, but having read the fine print of the special offer I really should have known better. The front desk agreed to let me check in for now.... so long as Sean arrived some time that night, otherwise I would be charged the full rate for the one night and my key would be de-activated the next day. Sigh, not a good start. I called Sean and he said that he would just have to find a way to get out to Vegas. "No way man," I said. "I will just pay for it and get another hotel tomorrow." He told me to sit tight while he made a few phone calls. He called back 15 minutes later to report that he spoke with a few people who know a few people and that the entire stay was now comped. How is that for awesome? The people at the front must have been pissed off something serious after the shenanigans I put them through...only to have the casino host come up to them 20 minutes later and tell them to comp the room for 4 nights! Thanks Sean.

Kent had to standby throughout the entire ordeal and had to be getting antsy. We were scheduled to go meet Matt S for dinner but decided to wait for Kevin P to arrive and we would all go eat together. After some bit of confusion with the elevators and the different towers, Kevin eventually found the room, and we all left for the Wynn. We found Matt, and then went off to the Cafe. The Cafe was very quiet and there was still another 30 minutes until closing, but the hostess told us that they were "fully committed" and had no available tables. We had no idea what that meant as it was clear that the place was 90% empty. Kent got frustrated with the hostess and after being told to sit on a bench and wait, I suggested that we simply leave. Kent, a Vegas local, said that this kind of thing is happening everywhere... prices rising, customer service totally absent, staff reductions to the point that businesses are running at such limited capacity that you can't get a table in an empty restaurant. Wow. Sign o' the times, I guess. Since the tension level had risen to unacceptable levels for what was supposed to be a fun time, we opted to just walk down the hall to the Deli, where I paid $17 for a BLT. Lol. I guess $1.99 prime rib dinners is a thing of the past!

After eating, we headed over to the Venetian to check out the tournament satellites for the next day and to play some cash poker. Kevin P left us to go to the MGM, his card room of choice. Matt, Kent and I stayed at the Venetian and played there. I played one satellite and busted out of the money and then sat in a cash game with Kent and grinded out a few bucks. On the way back to the hotel, we noticed that Kent's headlights weren't working. Rather than get pulled over, Kent crashed at the hotel with us. Sound exhausting? It hasn't even begun...

...more to come later.

wiped

I am going to take a short nap before attempting to drive home.

Exhausted

I am far too tired to write up anything resembling coherent thought right now, as I was up playing a tournament until about 2 this morning. The trip ended up being a loser for me, but only by a small amount, and that is only because of a last second score this morning.

More later after I get some rest.

Cards

I.m off to Vegas tonight. I will be there through Monday playing in The Venetian Deep Stack poker series, and the Caesar's Mega Stack series across the street. Unlike I will update from the road.

Really? I mean.... really?

Do you ever see people making lots of lane changes on the freeway while in heavy traffic? Most of the time they are just being impatient. Other times they are being downright reckless. Yesterday there was a guy driving a silver BMW 740 making all kinds of sudden lane changes and accelerating and braking violently. At one point, when he pulled up right beside me I couldn't help but to glance over and have a look at this guy. He appeared to be in his mid to late 30's, clean cut, well-dressed, and carrying a look on his face that suggested he has come too far in life to be inconvenienced by something as trivial as traffic. He just so happened to look right at me at the same time. That's when I saw him mouth the words, "What the fuck are you looking at?". Perception solidified. I laughed, shook my head and mouthed a single word "Why?"

It was funny to me...but only for a moment. He pulled away into another lane and was almost rear ended by the large truck that he cut in front of. Soon enough, he was trapped again and after a few more extremely dangerous and pointless lane changes, ended up directly behind me. That's when I saw the car seat in the middle back seat, and what looked like a 1 year-old sitting in it.

Lame.

Lol hipsters.

Great article that explains it all. Be sure to read all three pages.