Vegas - Day 2

I did ok our first day in Vegas, but I woke up with the worst headache I've had in years. Punishment for making a few bucks......or maybe it was the shitty beers I had at the end of the previous night. I gobbled up some Ibuprofen and by the time I was showered I felt pretty good. We opted for breakfast at the Teahouse in IP. I've been there 6 or so times and I think I've had eggs benedict each time. Yummy. Although it's pretty sad that this was the best meal I had in Vegas this trip.

We all jumped in a 2/4 game at the IP after breakfast. The plan was to play this for awhile and then play the noon tourney. I don't remember much from this session, besides the fact that I had to excuse myself and drop a giant turd at some point. The "tourney" at IP was pretty lame, although it probably fit my style fairly well. We had about 20 runners and the structure was pretty quick. I busted on the last hand before the break when I reraised all in with 57 of diamonds on a 6d 8s jd flop. A dude called me with J2 after tanking for a bit. I missed my outs and I was back in the 2/4 game. We all played in that for several hours and I managed to drop over 100 bucks. It was good times though and we left to have dinner at the Victorian Room at Bill's. I had nachos (shared) and a ceasar salad. The salad was the most disgusting thing I've seen in a while. It was basically iceberg lettuce floating in 12 ounces of dressing.

We returned to the Flamingo, but I was seated at a table by myself. The table was the most passive, calling station filled game I've ever played at. Probably 8 players saw a flop on average. I was the one who didn't see it most of the time. I was never able to get anything going and I cashed out down 40 bucks or so. Before I did I got to hear the dude next to me say some pretty weird things to the awesome waitress (she brought me 5 budweisers in a few hours). The best was "too bad you're married, I would like to take you home and shave your legs."
I went back to Bill's and played some pai gow. I lost a few bets before johnny and shoeshiner showed up. We played for a while and then called it a night. All in all, I did pretty shitty on Day 2. Pretty much lost anything I played, but I never went on crazy tilt trying to get my money back on dollar slots or from a spin of the roulette wheel. It was a pretty uneventful end to an uneventful trip. I still haven't been able to get the monkey off my back and book a nice win in Vegas. Maybe my 5th trip (TBD) will be the one.

Vegas - Day 1

The flight from MKE to LAS was uneventful. Despite the fact that the flight was nearly full, I lucked out and the seat next to mine was empty. I was able to do a bit of work and then watch Dr. Strangelove on the laptop. Great movie. I arrived the same time as Johnny and we decided to have a shitty breakfast at some airport restaurant while waiting for the Shoeshiner. The juevos rancheros was to puke for, but we did catch a glimpse of Ervin Johnson while he was eating with his family. Not Magic, but the spazzy center who played for the Bucks and some other teams. I also swear Big Pussy from the Sopranos was there, but Johnny didn't think it was him.

The Shoeshiner arrived a short time later and we were on our way to Bill's. The rooms at Bill were a really good value at 49.99/night. It was decent sized, had a nice big 42" flat screen and was clean. We did waste much time and went to work stopping at the Flamingo poker room. We were all 3 seated at the same table immediately. An older Chinese man sat to my right and while he played okay, the dude had the hardest time staying awake.....at noon. One second he would be talking or drinking some coffee and then his head would be nodded down with his cards just sitting there. Apparently, it was my duty to take care of him because I had to rouse him no less than 3 times. He eventually left. Overall, it was a very beatable table, and I left up about 90 bucks when we cashed out despite losing a monster pot with a baby flush my final hand.

We ate at some shitty cafe in the Flamingo and went to the IP. There was no 2/4 game going, so we donked around at Pai Gow for a little while before making our way up to the Sahara for their 7pm tourney.

I completely treaded water in the tourney before raising all in with 78 suited and getting called by a limper with KJ off. I lost the hand and went and played $5 Mini Pai Gow while pounding Miller Lite's and smoking cigs. I play for a couple hours and then went back to the poker room where Johnny was at a 2/4 game and the Shoeshiner was busy getting 10th in the tourney for a small score. I took a seat at the 2/4 game and end up about 10 bets before we decide to leave. We headed back to Bill's to close out the night with some Pai Gow. We were all doing ok until they changed dealers and the dude beat us into submission with several huge hands in a row. We crashed around 3am despite my drunken threats to order a 6 pack and a pizza.

Las Vegas

Here I come for my 4th visit. I can already feel the excitement in anticipation of my arrival. 2 full days of poker, pai gow, booze, and very little sleep. On each of my previous 3 trips I have walked away a modest loser, but this time I feel my luck will change. No more getting aces cracked by queens. No more weak play in the latter stages of tournements. No dollar slot machines. No 20 dollar trick at the dumpiest hotel on the strip! No blackjack with Madonna or Elvis impersonators! Win, dammit!

Minny Win

I spent the 4th of July at the lakes with some family. The next day my dad and I hit up a $100 dollar tourney at the Shooting Star Casino on the White Earth Indian Reservation. The turnout was very low (14 runners) as we got started around 2pm. My dad and I get seated at the same table. The play was pretty weak for the first few levels - lots of limping and calling of small raises from poor position. A good table to be at. I win a decent number of chips during the 2nd level with a baby flush, but lose most of it when I lost with pocket jacks on consecutive hands. I am down to around 3k (started with 5k) after the first hour. Pops had about 6k or so. I upped the aggression during the 2nd hour. The table was still pretty passive and I was able to collect the blinds and bets of some limpers by moving in with AK and pocket 10s. At some point we got down to the final 10 and I had about 10k in chips and my dad was still hanging in with 7k. The top 3 paid.

I take out a short stacked older gentleman when my AA dominates his 78 offsuit. One time cheap leader totally donks off his stack in less that 1 orbit and I ended his misery when my AK beats his Q10. We were down to 6 and I was sitting pretty good with 18k in chips. My dad was on life support and went to battle against another shorty. My dad had QQ and he was against AJ. The flop came J high, turn rag, river A. Pretty sick beat for pops, especially since I had folded a weak ace. An older woman went out 5th when she called a reraise with QJ offsuit. When we got down to 4, we agreed that the bubble boy would get his money back. The other 3 guys were pretty solid and the chip leader was winning alot of pots uncontested. I was down to about 16k with blinds at 1/2k. I raised to 8k from the button with KJ offsuit and the small blind tanks for a few minutes. I figure him for a small pair or maybe AJ/A10. He decides to push and he had me covered by a few thousand chips. I was pretty much committed here and made the call. He shows QQ, but I get lucky when a King pops up on the flop and no queen is dealt. A few hands later and we decide to chop it up. After tipping the dealers I get out of there with 400 bucks. I've only played in maybe a half dozen live tourney's-and this one was pretty small, but it felt pretty good to go home a winner. Hopefully, this is a good omen for my 2 day donk-trip to Vegas starting this Sunday.

Also, best of luck to Iggy who is grinding away in Day 3 of the Main Event as I write this.

To home and back in pictures.

small car

rain storm

heart attack

bf orange moose

lunch

entering mn

metrodome

driving into the sun




100K



small car 2 - almost home




back to WI - stuck in traffic

the way back - storm 1

racing the storm - east of madison