Vegas: Recap

Links:
Pre-Trip Report
The Long Road
Vegas House
MGM Mixed Games
Blogger Tourney
WSOP and Beerpong
The Long Ride Home

I had an amazing time in Vegas. I didn't play as much poker as I would have if I had stayed downtown, but I wouldn't change anything with the awesome setup I had at Brandon's pad.

One of the only things I really didn't do that I wanted to do, was play Chinese Poker. Brandon and I brought cards to the bowling thing on Thursday night with Chinese Poker intent, but Brandon left the cards in the car. He then left his ID at the bar. The left his cell phone at the bowling alley. Nice night, Brandon, nice.

I guess another thing on the list that I didn't end up doing was place a few sports bets. I had the chance to at MGM, but it just didn't really interest me that much at the time. There were some good, exciting games going on (I think the M's won in 10 or 11 innings that night), but I was more interested in socializing and playing poker.

I'm happy with the number of bloggers I met and had conversations with. Reading the various posts slowly trickling out, I wish I had made an effort to contact a few more bloggers, but like I said, I'm happy with who I did meet on my first blogger trip, and there will be more to come.

I had an amazing time on Friday night. I got there with high expectations, then those expectations took a bit of a hit when no HORSE game opened up. I resigned myself to drinking at the bar--which isn't terrible, but usually isn't my cup of tea. Then a HORSE interest list started up and BAM 10 minutes later the cards were flying! Thanks Gadzooks for starting that up, I too, got shot down when I requested it the first time.



Found that picture on Gadzooks site, it is her, me, and Poker Gnome on our end of the mixed games table.

On Saturday, I couldn't have asked for a better result in the blogger tourney. I had a great feeling going into the tourney, and I played a very controlled-aggressive game throughout the tourney. I think I witnessed a lot of people pushing with hands they didn't really need to push, but felt like the tournament justified a push in their situation. I didn't want to blind out either, and definitely got lucky along the way to score a 4th place finish. When the tourney gets down to such a crapshoot, it seems like stack size, cards, and position are the most important factors, in that order. Grubette played her stack near-perfectly, and bullied with reckless abandon. Mrs. Spaceman played position masterfully, and realized that although she didn't have the huge stack, she had the next-biggest stack, and she rarely missed a raise or a re-raise when she had a good shot to take down the pot. Waffles and I seemed to be playing a very similar game, we had similar stack sizes, and took advantage of our patience as well as our willingness to gamble--and finished 3rd and 4th within minutes of each other.

Saturday night was good fun, and I'm glad I got to hang out with Brandon and friends for more than just an hour in passing. It was also fun to take Brandon's world-championship beer pong belt with me back home. I accept all challenges.

If I had to pick something to change about the trip, I wish I would have had more time in Vegas. Maybe see a show, play another poker tourney or two, hang out at the house a bit more. Even though I took a pretty relaxed attitude the entire trip, I did feel like I was strapped for time the whole trip--and by choosing one thing, I was giving up doing another. I wish I had had time to do everything--but in Vegas that would probably take a year!

As I was getting ready for this trip, a big motivator for me was that this might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I wasn't sure if I'd ever have a chance to make it to a blogger gathering again. After the trip, I know I'll make time for another. I had an amazing time, and can't see having any less fun at any future blogger gatherings.

Until next time~

Vegas: Trip-Report Part 6: The Long Ride Home

For not having an alarm clock, I woke up surprisingly early on Sunday morning. Right around 5:30am, about 3 hours of quality sleep. I had done a bit of packing the night before, so I wouldn't have to roam around the house picking up stuff and shoving it my backpack.

I was out of the door by 6am, and actually didn't feel too exhausted from the lack of sleep. Under normal circumstances, if I don't have at least 7 hours of sleep, I'm a walking zombie the next day. I only had 12 hours of sleep over the three nights I was in Vegas, and I felt fine. To be completely honest though, I was a bit sick, and hopped up on Airborne about 23 hours a day.

I bungee-corded the backpack onto my bike, and only had to carry the camera, which felt 100x better on the drive than lugging the backpack along. I planned on driving out by Red Rocks Canyon on the way back up to Tahoe, but I got a few nice shots along Rainbow Blvd, so I just decided to make a bee-line for Tahoe.



I stormed through Indian Springs and Beatty, then stopped for lunch back in good ol' Tonopah. But, it was only 10am, and they didn't serve lunch until 11am, so I settled for some hashbrowns and eggs--which were yummy. Spent about 45 minutes there eating, relaxing and reading the newspaper before I rode on. I snapped a picture of the "Weird Beer Here" sign that I saw on the way down to Vegas. On one side weird is spelled correctly, then on this side it is spelled differently. Weird.



Between Tonopah and Hawthorne, I had been sort of buddied up with an SUV averaging about 85mph. I did that numerous times on the trip, and I like to have someone relatively close, just in case something goes wrong. Anyways, we were driving along a remarkably straight stretch of road when we come across an army convoy. The convoy had to be at least 25 trucks long, and we passed all of them in one go. It was crazy! I was in the oncoming traffic lane for a good two minutes, riding at about 85-90mph, zipping past humvee after humvee.

Hawthorne is located at the southern edge of Walker Lake, which on google maps is almost as large as Lake Tahoe. Not quite, but it is a pretty decent-sized lake:



At about this point is where Vegas finally started to catch up to me. I hit a wall about 15 minutes outside of Tonopah, and I felt like I could have just laid down in the grass and fallen asleep. I looked for a little cafe or library in any of the towns I went through, but didn't have any luck. The one library I stopped at was closed on Sundays. I was pretty dead, but when I got closer to Tahoe, and got to ride through the canyon to get back into Carson Valley, I was re-energized.

From now on, I hope to not ride more than 100, maybe 200 miles in any given day on the bike, but for this trip, it was definitely worth it :)

Vegas: Trip-Report Part 5: WSOP and Beerpong!

Once the blogger tourney finished up, I was having a hard time figuring out how to spend my last night in Vegas. The WSOP, the Strip, Bloggers, Brandon's House--and I had to leave at sunrise for a 500mi bike ride back to Tahoe. I wanted to have fun, but I also wanted to get some sleep, because I still wasn't feeling all that great, and I wasn't looking forward to the ride home.

Most of the bloggers were heading to various places to drink and play poker, and as much fun as that would have been, I decided that since it was my last chance this trip, I might as well head over to the Rio and catch some of the WSOP action. I bid farewell to the bloggers and zoomed over to the Rio, taking some squirrelly back-streets west of I-15.

When I made it to the Rio, I walked across the casino floor to the poker room, then saw a sign pointing me in the direction of the WSOP room. That walk was air-port length, easily the longest walk I've ever had in a casino. Finally got to the WSOP room, and it was packed. I think three or four events were going on, and the chips being shuffled all across the room was the most memorable noise. I hung to the right and waded through a see of people until I got close enough, yet out of the way enough, to see some poker action.

I looked around and saw the $5k pot limit game was still going on, the one Mr.Smokey1(housemate) was playing in. It started the day with 51 people, and he was one of them. I couldn't find him, and later learned that he busted out, but the rest of the competition in that tourney was amazing. Of the 30 or so people left, I saw Jesus, Joe Sebok, Allen Cunningham, Jeff Lisandro, Humberto and a slew of other "name" players. Behind Allen Cunningham's table, Greg Raymer was sitting with a stack of chips in front of him, playing a different event. I also saw Phil Helmuth among a sea of players in the 1.5k NLHE event.

I saw him get up and shake hands with everyone, assuming he bust out, but I later learned that it was a hand where he "dodged bullets." As an interesting side note, Phil is down to the final 3 players in that event now, and has a good chance to be the first player ever to 11 WSOP bracelets.

I recognized Flipchip from his photo-taking at the blogger tournament earlier in the day, so I stood behind him on the rail while he was seated at a table near the $5k pot limit action. I said, "So you have to work, and Pauly gets the day off? What gives?"

He smiled and turned around and we struck up a conversation. What a cool dude. We chatted for probably 20 minutes. He is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to Vegas and the WSOP, I think he said this is the 36th WSOP he's covered. I asked him if the PokerNews team was the funnest he's worked with so far, and he nodded in agreement. He is still amazed at how much the series has changed over the years. No outbursts, no guns, no chairs or cards being thrown. He first settled in Vegas fresh out of Vietnam, and it was the only place that came anywhere close to the adrenaline rushes he experienced in Vietnam.

We talked about motorcycles and he said he was big into motorcycles when he got back from his duty in Vietnam, in fact he rode around the United States, and at one point had the land-speed record on a 2-stroke. It didn't last long, but he had his picture on the front of a magazine. He told me that he eventually realized he would kill himself if he kept up his insane lifestyle, so he settled down in the only place that could hold his attention: Vegas.

We talked a bit about my possible teaching career, and he applauded me for choosing that path. The more I talk with people, the more it seems like the way to go--hopefully everything works out and I get started in Spring 08! The players got back from break and he had to go do his thing, and I got a chance to scout around a bit for people I might know. The 1.5k NLHE event went on break just after the 5k pot limit, and Phil Helmuth nudged into me as I was walking by. Somebody was handing him something to sign, asking to take a picture, as another person was talking to him about a hand--all while he was trying to get to the bathroom--not the life I'd wish on anyone.

Didn't see anyone I knew, so I left the Rio and headed for the strip to take some pictures while the sun set. I parked over by the MGM and planned on maybe playing a few hours of poker with the bloggers, but after taking a few pictures, I decided to head back to the house and take it easy if I wanted to make it back on Sunday in one piece. Here are some of the shots I took:















The pictures in the middle were taken while I was stopped at the light on Las Vegas Blvd. and Tropicana Way. I got to the left-turn light just as it turned red, so I had a good 5 minutes to snap pictures while I waited. The sunset pictures were taken while I was getting gas close to the house Brandon's renting for the WSOP.

I headed back to the house and found the gang chilling out at the hot tub:



From left to right: Ozzy, Roman, Brandon, Bushman, Lindsay, Jessica

Ozzy and Roman are the prodigies with zillion dollar bankrolls, Brandon is the beer-pong champ, Bushman is the kingpin of the house, Lindsay is the amazing chef, and Jessica is Brandon's friend in town from LA for the weekend (who can do a perfect 1080 spinning on a hardwood floor while sober, but can't come close after one drink).

Luckily for me, tonight would be the "break-in" night for beer-pong! I wasn't too excited to stay up late and drink, but I hadn't really hung out with the housemates all that much, so I'm glad I came back.

Round 1 involved Bushman and Ozzy vs. Roman and Brandon. Brandon and Bushman had to consume all the drinks, because Ozzy and Roman are underage, and underage drinking is illegal. The game went to triple over-time, and I was very, very glad I didn't play. Bushman sported the Asian shirt to taunt Brandon, which didn't work until Round 2!







Round 2 matched Brandon "Beer-Pong" Schaefer and his woman against the two Chrises. Bushman was a bit intimidated by Brandon's "King of Pong" title, but I knew better. Brandon would also be drinking all of the beers for their side, because Jessica doesn't particularly like beer. Oh Brandon, you chivalrous, foolish bastard! Chris and I utterly and completely dominated. I think they were down six cups before they sank a single shot in our rack of ten. One toss I put some arc on, and Bushman went for the bouncer, and we both hit. Three drinks for Brandon, and we get to shoot again! Ouch!

Jessica ended up carrying their team while Brandon drunkenly stumbled about, ricocheting his shots off the sink and the freezer. They both sunk their balls on one shot, to pull the game closer to even, but they were just too far behind to catch up. We hit the last cup and had four of ours left. Brandon sunk his first two shots, but couldn't pull off the miracle to end all miracles. He did save himself two drinks though, which could have possibly knocked him out for the rest of the night.

Don't worry Brandon, you'll have a chance to redeem yourself in Tahoe.

Lindsay made us some incredible pasta, and we devoured it like Garfield on a plate of lasagna. That girl can cook! Played a bit more beer pong, then watched as the game shifted to Mario Kart for the N64. Steve showed up and dominated Brandon for a while at Mario Kart, then Brandon must have sobered up, because he started his own reign, which lasted until I went to bed at around 2am.

Did I mention earlier that Lindsay makes a mean fruit margarita?

Vegas: Trip-Report Part 4: Blogger Tourney

In true Helmuthian style, I arrived fashionably late to the blogger tourney. It was still the first round, so it really wasn't a Helmuth mimic (nor was it on purpose!), but I'm not sure who else to plug? Speaking of Helmuth, I literally ran into him last night at the WSOP. He was yapping to someone as he raced to the bathrooms during a 15-minute break. Although closer to it than me, he is not the center of the universe, and nudged into me while looking the opposite direction. No "sorry," he just kept his conversation going. I bet he was thinking, "that kid will probably write about being nudged by Phil Helmuth in his blog, I don't have to say sorry! I can dodge bullets!"

You win, make-believe Phil Helmuth's thoughts, you win.

I plopped down $80 (most I've ever paid for a tourney), and took the 1 seat at a table with:

2: Empty
3: Mrs. Spaceman
4: Poker Gnome
5: Mr. Spaceman
6: Kram420
7: Miami Don
8: Blinders
9: ?
10: CC

The night before, I sat with Poker Gnome and made him my bitch at prop betting, so I knew he had some gamble. I didn't really know how any of the bloggers played at my table. Don and Blinders were chatting it up, and I knew they played lots of poker. I didn't who Mr. and Mrs. Spaceman were until after this table broke.

The first key hand for me had me involved in a large pot with Mrs. Spaceman. I'm dealt black tens in early position, raise it up and get called by Mrs. Spaceman and CC in the BB. Flop comes 7,7,4 with two hearts. CC checks, I check, Mrs. Spaceman fires 350 or so. CC Folds, I call, planning to fire the turn. Turn fills the flush, and I bet out 500. She considers calling, then folds. I'm pretty sure I had the best hand. And she saved herself some chips with a good fold.

Second key hand at my first table came in the third round, when the blinds were already starting to get pretty high. I look down at two red tens this time, and CC pushes before me. I go AI over the top and he flips over either AK or AQ and doesn't hit. I'm not really sure if getting into a coin-flip in this situation was smart of me, but I was putting him 50% on AK/AQ and 50% on JJ-77 or so.

Our table broke shortly thereafter, and I got moved over to a table with Grubette, a few other ladies, and Miami Don. Don was directly to my left. The blinds grew pretty quick, and the game turned into a push or fold game for all but the big stacks. There were probably 30 people left when I started at this table, and an hour later we broke for the final table of 10.

Third hand of note was getting involved in a 3-way pot with presto. I just played it because I wanted to show presto, but it turned out I was ahead preflop against the QJ of diamonds for Carmen and the JTs of someone down on the far end of the table. Not way ahead, mind you. But the flop brought a ten and two diamonds, which pretty much had me drawing to one non-diamond five, which didn't hit. Carmen's flush hit on the river, and we were all left alive (Carmen won, other guy won the side pot, and I had the most chips going in).

Fourth key hand I think I sucked out against Miami Don short-stacked with QhJh in the BB. He pushed from UTG with ATo, and I pretty much had to call with my 2 or 3 BB's. I would have played his hand the same way, and he said he would have played mine the same too, just a mild suckout. That pretty much summed up my day, I didn't deliver any mind-blowing suckouts, but I got into a lot of 60/40 and 40/60 situations, and won more than my fair share.

Fifth key hand would be mildly sucking out on Astin with Q5o against his Ax. I think I was in the hi-jack, and pretty much pushing with any two to steal the blinds if it got around to me. Astin was in the SB with a tiny stack, and he was definitely playing any ace. I had a tiny stack too, but just a bit bigger than Astin's. Hit my Q on the flop and Astin didn't re-suck.

Shortly thereafter, we broke for the final table, which had a star-studded line-up:

Seat 1: Iak (I think??)
Seat 2: Bayne
Seat 3: Miami Don
Seat 4: Grubette
Seat 5: ??
Seat 6: Brain_MC
Seat 7: Mrs. Spaceman
Seat 8: Me
Seat 9: ???
Seat 10: WAFFLES

Here are a few pics of the final table:

Seats 1 and 2 (I think Iak and Bayne?)



Waffles charming the ladies!



He is such a gentleman, his eyes aren't looking the same place Carmen's are! I'm pretty sure IG was showing her boobies?

The final table was a lot of fun. Seat 5 suggested that we take $80 from the each of the top 5 spots, and pay spots 6-10 back their buy-in. It was fine with me, because I didn't mind everyone getting paid in the crapshoot. I might have had the 5th or 6th biggest stack, so my place was pretty much in the hands of the poker gods.

Play at the final table was pretty tight for the most part. Grubette had a MONSTER stack, and was doing her part to bully the table around. Miami Don got knocked out first, on a pretty funny hand. He was the short stack at the table and moved all-in, to get called by two players (Iak and Bayne I think). The flop comes out and Don flips over his cards--pocket 2's. Iak and Bayne still had money behind, so Don quickly flipped back over his cards, and kept shouting, "TWO!... DUECE!...DUECE!" at the flop. He had me laughing pretty hard. Iak hit the flop and pushed Bayne out of the pot--no 2 spiked on the turn or river.

I pretty much just clung onto my chips at the final table. I didn't have many hard decisions. Stole a few blinds, and doubled up with JJ against Qx (or knocked someone out?), but for the most part was card-dead and just folding my cards.

Seats 5 and 6 got knocked out on the same hand, and we got down to four players relatively quickly. Waffles and I with short stacks, Grubette with a monster stack, and Mrs. Spaceman with a healthy stack. I got knocked out in 4th when I found Kh7h in the SB. Grubette folded and Mrs. Spaceman made a bet at the pot. She then drummed her hands on the felt a few times. For some reason I took the drumming to mean a weak hand. I'm not really sure why, but at the time it made sense. Waffles folded and Mrs. Spaceman quickly called with AdKd. She had me dominated, and even more so when the flop came with two diamonds, and the turn filled the flush.

Waffles finished in 3rd shortly thereafter with a Q on an A-Q-x board. He pushed on the flop and Mrs. Spaceman went into the tank. Mrs. Spaceman asked: "Do you have an Ace?" Waffles shrugged and Grubette (who wasn't in the hand) answered, "No!" Then quickly covered her mouth, but she got a roar of laughter from everyone observing. Mrs. Spaceman eventually called with JJ, and JJ was golden when one their brothers spiked on the turn. Ouch!

The tourney was down to Mrs. Spaceman and Grubette. Since Mrs. Spaceman knocked both me and Waffles out, she had close to, if not an equal stack to Grubette:

Mrs. Spaceman and her huge stack when it got down to heads up!





Mrs. Spaceman eventually took it down with some aggressive play heads up. Both Mrs. Spaceman and Grubette earned their place heads up, with very aggressive play throughout the entire tourney. Grubette was completely dominating the 2nd table I was at, and she even had her Aces cracked by KTo AI pre-flop.

The tourney was a lot of fun, but not because of the structure or the Tourney Director. Like many others have chimed in, that guy was a dick. "OK, everyone not playing, please leave." He rushed us when we didn't particularly want to be rushed. Lots of talk about going back to the IP next time. The bloggers definitely made the tourney what it was. At the final table, I saw lots of money being tossed around on prop-bets. Pauly had Mrs. Spaceman as his horse, and I caught some money being passed around on the videos I took after eliminations took place.

Up next: Saturday night, then a recap post of the entire trip

Vegas: Trip-Report Part 3: MGM

Where to begin... where TO begin?

Well, since I only got three hours of sleep, I'll make it easy on myself and start from where I left off yesterday.

After some pool-lounging, I went inside and laid down on the comfy couches in front of the TV. Entrapment (with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery) was on the tube, and I couldn't resist a heist movie.

I promptly fell asleep. When I awoken, Zeta-Jones and Sean were onto their last big heist in Malaysia. The best part about that whole scene is when the "special forces" are called in--they are basically ninjas with guns, which I found quite comical.

Brandon and his lady friend arrived a few minutes before Entrapment ended. I think I was the only other person in the house, Lindsay might have been upstairs in her room, but I was pretty much the only person within ear-shot if Brandon wanted to try anything with Jen (?). So I moved outside and tried to get some Z's suspended between two lawn chairs. That didn't work out too well. The only thing this place is missing is a hammock.

I headed back inside and Brandon and Jen were heading off for dinner. The rest of the night pre-MGM basically involved watching many many episodes of Arrested Development, and drinking Strawberry Margaritas. I'm not sure if I've actually had a strawberry margarita before. When I think margarita, I think lime-aid and salt. But the ones Lindsay made were filled with all sorts of fruit, and then the glass was lined with sugar. A bit different, but it still definitely hit the spot. It looked like the house was settling in for a very fun night, and I was a bit sad to leave--but I had been in Vegas for over a day and had yet to play a single hand of poker.

It was time.

I rolled out of our gated community (lolz), and eventually made my way onto I-15 Northbound into Vegas. It was right around 8:45pm, and the mountains to the West looked amazing. I decided not to bring my camera, because I would already be lugging around a motorcycle helmet with me everywhere I went, and I didn't really want to have to keep track of two things, let alone one. Luck was smiling on me, and as I walked into one of the many MGM entrances, I basically fell in line with Iron Girl, the Penners, and a few other bloggers I can't quite remember.

We shuffled over to the poker room, and were a bit disappointed to see a full room, with no available tables to play a $2/$4 mixed game. A few people sat down to play $1/$2 NL, and a few of us went to the bar. I went to the bar. My throat was still feeling a bit scratchy, so I ordered a Gin and Tonic. $9. Sweet Jeesus! I grumbled to myself a little bit, but then I tasted the GnT. Easily the strongest GnT I've ever tasted. I'm not even sure if he added tonic. The drink lasted me over an hour, so the $9 was money well spent. Had to be at least 3 or 4 shots in there.

We sat at the bar by the sports book and chummed it up good for quite a while. I had great talks with Iron Girl about poker and various other things; Alan Penner about sports and poker and what not; Astin about poker; Hoyazo about life and poker; and Brian_MC about motorcycles, poker and life. Fallstaff was doing a marvelous job as bar captain, and he picked out his chair and stayed put. He let people come to him, much like a Godfather, or a kingpin. You want a picture with him? Well, you better saddle up right next to him at the bar, because he ain't movin!

I got to meet a ton of bloggers for the first time. Most I met just briefly, but what at first seemed like a monumental task of meeting everyone, turned out to be extremely easy and tons of fun. In no particular order, I met: Carmen, Love Elf, Smokkee, Astin, Leah, Miami Don, Crackin' Aces, Hoyazo, Columbo, Surly Poker Gnome, Gadzooks, and most likely a bunch of others I'm forgetting (feel free to drill me). At one point or another, I saw Otis and Waffles, but each time it was a very brief sighting, and it looked like they had places to go, people to see.

I was ready to play some poker, even if it had to be $1/$2 NL. I asked a few people if they were interested, and Brian_MC and Leah were all for it. Falstaff, on the other hand, held strong and said, "I refuse to play No Limit drunk." Iron Girl, Columbo, Fallstaff and a few others stayed at the bar.

The highlight of my night was heading to the poker room to finally get some cards in, and seeing three people on the poker reader-board under the "$3/$6 HORSE (Interest)" heading. Oh. My. God. I inquired, and added my name to the interest list. I said, "I think I might be able to fill out that interest list, hold on one second."

I walked back to the sports book bar and said, "Falstaff, I think I solved your problem." He looked up at me with a big question mark on his face, most likely not remembering our conversation from two minutes prior. "You're playing HORSE with me, $3/$6 interest table is up."

Not only did Falstaff nearly jump out of his seat, Columbo, Alan, Poker Gnome and Bayne did as well!

"Sign me up!" I heard, in unison from Columbo and Falstaff. Alan, Poker Gnome and Bayne were actually excited enough to get off their asses and sign up themselves, but not the wiley veteran-duo of Falstaff and Columbo. I have much to learn from those two. They knew it would still be a good 15 minutes until the table got underway.

Since it was an "interest" table, that meant no game was currently going, but when they got 8 to 10 people, they'd start a game. The game would be 10-handed, with the first two to the left of the button getting dealt out for the two stud games each round. Columbo was the 11th person on the list, but luckily for him, one of the first three didn't show, so he got a seat from the beginning.

For most of the night, this is what the table looked like:

Summer Classic: MGM Mixed Game: Friday, June 8, 2007

Seat 1: BAYNE
Just when you thought he was only pushing the nuts, he gets BOTH Alan and the surly Poker Gnome to fold better hands in Stud. Probably the hand of the night, when Bayne flips over King-high after Alan folds his had on 7th street, with two 5's showing, and Poker Gnome claims to have folded a pair of 4s.

Seat 2: Columbo!
First time meeting him, and what a guy! He made the table great fun to be at, and didn't do so bad when it came to racking in my chips (along with just about everyone else at the table). He had some great one-liners, and when the mood was slowing down, he'd always be there to pick it right back up with a "STRADDLE?! WHAT'S THAT?!"

Seat 3: Zeem
Zeem got some roars of laughter from the table, and was the first to heckle any new "civilians" at our table. The most memorable belly-roar he induced was when his Razz or Stud hand bricked on multiple streets. I think he folded on 7th street... got up... cursed... and while he was walking away yelled, "That NEVER happens online!" The timing was perfect, and he said it loud enough so even though he was a table or two away by the time he yelled, we all roared--and quite a few of the other tables looked over towards us with smiles.

Seat 4: Alan Penner
Alan was ready and willing to gamble. He introduced "the rock", a stack of six-bound chips, that forced a straddle if you had it in your possession. It really wasn't a game-breaker, because we had a live-straddle going at every possible point, but amazingly, Alan held onto the rock almost the entire night (I think he lost it to Falstaff at about 3am). Alan was playing well, and had to be up for the night.

Seat 5: Falstaff
Ring-leader, Experienced one, Wiley Veteran... whatever you want to call him. First words out of his mouth as he sits down to the table: $500 blue! I guess he was carrying on a tradition from Drizz, because apparently Drizz bought in for $2000 to some limit game a while back. Falstaff made a remark to the tune of, "I've got to, because Drizz isn't here!" Falstaff ended up breaking the bank, and about an hour into our fiasco, the pit-boss came over and reluctantly requested Falstaff and a few others to color up some of their blues, because the poker room had run out of blue chips. We win! Falstaff was also dominating at the table. His big pyramid of blues turned into a big pyramid of reds (blue=$1, red=$5), I was not the least bit envious, nope, not in the least.

Seat 6: Mattazuma
Matt was having a good time... not doing so hot, but having a good time and lots of laughs. He was the first person to call it quits for the night, and eventually got replaced by some high-rolling blogger who ended up being the 2nd to last blogger to leave (I'll let you guess who stayed the longest!). I didn't catch the 2nd guys name, but I do remember him bricking a whole lot in razz and stud!

Seat 7: civilians
The seat was originally occupied by "Lurker Bono", an Asian guy who's name ended in Bono, but when Falstaff couldn't remember the first part of his name, just labeled him as Bono. He professed to be a lurker, not a blogger, hence the Lurker prefix. He eventually rode off into the sunset, to be replaced by "Civilian Gordon". Gordon liked to talk a lot, and I wasn't quite sure, but he might have gotten on a few people's nerves. I didn't mind him too much, but I could see why people would. He corrected the dealer 72 times while he sat and played (I counted), and 71 times Gordon was right (and the one time he was wrong he apologized prefusely). Still, a bit annoying.

Seat 8: Surly Poker Gnome aka Marc
My prop-betting brother for the night. He rode the rollercoaster most of the night, playing tons of hands, getting sucked out on, sucking out himself (ew), and generally just having an amazing, fun night. We had a few prop bets going, which lasted until he left in the early morning. We had a color of the flop bet, he had black and I had red. If there were two black cards on the flop, I gave him $1, if two red, he gave me $1. If the entire flop was black or red, the bet jumped to $3. We also had a "pick a number" bet going, and if the winner's number came on the flop, the loser paid the winner $1 for every winner's number out there. He picked 4s and I picked 3s. We tried to get a few other people in on the action, but nobody was interested. We were pretty even after the first round of Holdem and Omaha, but from the second round on, I just walloped him in the prop-betting. I think the most I got off him was $3 at a time, but that had to have happened at least 10 times. And he only got $3 off me once, at most. The flop would come all red, or two red cards, but two 3s... I was on fire. I don't think saying I was up $25 in $1 prop-betting would be out of line. And thank goodness I cleaned house in prop-betting, because...

Seat 9: Your Hero, Meanhappyguy!
I sucked! I was the sucker. I played the roll of ATM for everyone at the table. In fact, I made a trip to the ATM (which luckily I only had to dip into for $10). I was the big loser at the table, but I had a blast. I wasn't playing well, and the cards weren't hitting. I took a stand against Bayne in Razz during about hour four at the table, only to get rivered, or 7th streeted. I was behind all the way on the shown cards, but I had a feeling he was bluffing, and my read was right on. It just was not my night. Proudly, I was the last blogger to leave at 4:30am.

Seat 10: Gadzooks!
The only female at the table for much of the night. I hadn't heard of the name Gadzooks before, but many of my poker-blogging friends had. She is part of the Poker Sluts duo (which I slightly remember recalling). I guess she puts on a tourney Sunday nights on Full Tilt, that I'll definitely be checking out in the future. It is a HORSE-style tournament, with each week being a different tourney. So one week it'll be a holdem tourney, then the next week an O/8 tourney. I think the next season begins in early July, so I'll try and get a few in before then, to see if the season is something I want to try and play.

All-in-All, it was an amazing night of drinking, prop-betting, and live-straddling. We capped it preflop, we capped it post-flop (well, maybe not post-flop). Civilians got to our table and ran. More than once, did an unsuspecting civilian come in, only to leave before the blinds got to them after seeing how much gamble this $3/$6 game had. It played like a $6/$12 (not that I know what that plays like, I just overheard Civilian Gordon claim this). Before the Mixed Game got going, I was a bit sad to have left the sure-fire fun at the mansion. I really came for the Mixed Game--not to win money, but just to have a great time all night long. The Mixed Game happened, and I had an amazing time.

I actually had a lot more fun at the bar than I thought I would, usually the bar isn't my most comfortable setting (especially with people I don't really know). But when people like Hoyazo and Brian_MC walk up and introduce themselves, it makes for a very enjoyable experience.

Eight hours, the strongest GnT ever made, and six hefeweizens later, I was ready to leave. The bike-ride back down to SW Vegas was chilly at 4:30am in just a t-shirt and shorts going 70mph on the freeway, but I got treated to an amazing view of the sunrise behind the mountains to the west. I snapped a few photos once I got back to the house, but the pictures did not do the sunrise justice from the house. Along the freeway it was just amazing. The sunrise reminded me of the New York skyline from Shea Stadium--it just grabs your attention when the mountains get back-lit like a skyline, stretching out across the horizon.

Heading into Vegas with a sunset, and leaving with a sunrise? Priceless.

Vegas: Trip-Report Part 2: House Pictures!

Woke up around 9am this morning, feeling better--but still a little groggy. I had some english muffins, then hopped on my bike thinking of playing in the 11am Treasure Island tourney. I got about 5 minutes away, and realized I really didn't want to play poker, or be stuck downtown all day--so I did a 180, went to Smith's (like Safeway) and picked up some Airborne. Both day-time AND night-time airborne. I'm SET!

Lounged around a bit this morning, got to meet ZeeJustin and wish him luck. He's chipleader at the 2k NL Final Table that is starting this afternoon. His whole family flew in last night to watch, but there might be some weird internet podcast that shows hole-cards, so nobody would get to watch live (because they might be able to relay info to the players). That would suck!

Then, I took some pictures of the house!





















Lindsay, the extraordinary chef, and my jafro-friend Brandon.

I played a few games of pool with Justin's brother, and now I'm going to go lounge out by the pool and soak up some rays. Trying hard to prepare myself for MGM mixed games tonight!

Vegas: Trip-Report Part 1: The Long Road

I’m typing this up on MS Word from the Burger King in Tonopah, NV, which is just about halfway between Tahoe and Vegas. There are actually two wi-fi connections here, but one I have to pay for, and the other I can’t seem to pull up any websites with. I'm just having fun resting my sore buns, and watching a few little birdies play in the grill of a truck at the BK:



The ride has had its ups and downs so far. Some of the scenery has been breath-taking. I got to ride through a little canyon for a few miles, along side a river. The curves suggested 35mph, and I did just about that, soaking it all in.

I started out the ride at 7:45am, and it couldn’t have been much warmer than freezing. When I got down to Gardnerville, the temperature on the bank reader said 7 degrees Celsius. Even with sweatpants, jeans, a shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, and ski gloves, I was still freezing. I’m glad I brought the ski gloves—I hadn’t tried them out on the bike yet, but just knew my thin bike gloves weren’t going to cut it.

I stopped for breakfast to warm up, and I found a nice little restaurant right along Hwy 395. The forest fire had been only a few hundred feet from the restaurant earlier in the week, and I took a few pictures of the scorched earth.







It was kind of neat to see the helicopters all grouped up near the restaurant.

And of course, there was a witty sign at the restaurant:



Close call for the restaurant! Good thing it made it, because breakfast was amazing. I was still feeling a bit under the weather, and I hadn’t really eaten anything since breakfast the day before at Thai One On. I got the “Cowboy Scramble” which was a biscuit and two eggs covered in gravy with the other half of the plate covered in hash browns. It filled me up. On the way out, the lady asked me where I was headed (seeing me lugging around my backpack, camera and motorcycle helmet). I said Vegas, and asked her which way she suggested going. I hadn’t actually written out any directions, but I was pretty sure I was going the right way. She suggested turning back and taking 208, because it is a straight-shot to 95, which leads all the way to Vegas. And also, 395, the highway I was planning on taking, had much more deer and other wildlife that could prove problematic for me on my bike.

I took the wise sage’s advice and back-tracked about 5 miles to the 208 junction. It started going NorthEast, which isn’t really the direction I wanted to be going, but then the mile-marker sign had Las Vegas on it, and only 396 more miles! Ugh. I think I’m just under 200 miles from the motherland, here in Tonopah.

In the last 200 miles, I’ve seen a jackrabbit, numerous smaller rodents, a dust-devil tornado, a canyon, desert, mountains, and… buzzards. I’ve also been playing a cat and mouse game with a trucker for the last 150 miles (although he’s long past me by now). It started about 40 miles outside of Hawthorne, the last place I stopped for gas. Outside of Hawthorne, I merged onto 95 behind a semi, and marveled at its speed. It was cruising at 85mph in a 70mph speed-limit zone, so I decided to give it some room, but basically keep up with him. He’d be the bait for the cops, was my plan.

We pulled into Hawthorne, and both stopped at the Shell station. I filled up, and he just idled and grabbed a bite to eat at the mart. On his way out, as he passed me he shouted, “WOOO!!! VEGAS!!!” I laughed and nodded in agreement. He got a head start, and I caught up to him about 10 miles outside of Tonopah. It was a long uphill stretch, so I passed him not going too much over the speed limit. While I was passing, he blared something over his PA system to me, but I had no clue what he said, because the wind was whipping pretty good. I pulled over into the Chevron/BK, and he waved on his way by. I doubt I’ll catch him again—he looked pretty determined to get to Vegas.

Definitely wish I had gotten more sleep last night. I’m glad I brought my laptop, but my neck is killing me, holding up the 20lb backpack. Nikki seems to be holding up great though—200 more miles and six hours to do it in before bowling. A nice and relaxing ride ahead of me, although the sooner I get there, the sooner I get to hop into the pool!

Update from Beatty:
98.2 miles from Tonopah—They sure plan these towns darn near 100 miles apart every time. Found a healthy treat in… of all places… a candy store. The candy store also carried dried fruits in baggies of all sizes. I went with a modest-sized bag of Turkish Apricots, and a Sobe. Sobe usually treats me good in times of sickness, with its ginseng and taurine and what not.





I went to the bathroom at the candy shop / gas station and was amazed to see a "Toto" urinal. To-to is the word that Andrew's family used with their dog Nina (neen-ya) to go to the bathroom. "Go to-to!"



Silly.

The ride from Tonopah went quick. I put on my iPod and listened to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new CD—good stuff. The ride was very nice, with plateaus to the East, and jagged mountains to the West. And flat as far as I could see South. Some of the roads were ridiculous, like 20 miles of straight road, no turns at all. I’m making a point now to not ride back at night, because I can easily see myself hitting some critter darting out into the road.

Not many cops out on a Wednesday afternoon either, so that’s been nice.

I had something pretty gross happen though. My nose has been running pretty much non-stop since I left Tahoe (well, since yesterday, really). At home, I could counteract it by blowing my nose a ton. Riding a motorcycle however, leaves me powerless to stop the constant drizzle. It wasn’t a huge issue from Tahoe to Tonopah, it sucked, and it was basically an endless cycle of liquid rolling down from my nose, to my mouth, then back down from my nose again. (Feel free to skip ahead if this grosses you out) But about 20 minutes into my ride from Tonopah to Beatty, the cosmos aligned in such a way that at the *precise* moment a drop was starting to drip from my nose, a semi passed in the other direction, and the wind gust knocked the snot (basically just water) away from my face, and into my face shield.

*SPLATTER* Ewwww. At least it was all just liquid, since my nose has been running for an entire day now. Still, it wasn’t very pleasant.

Along with the Sobe and apricots, I bought a 10-pack of Kleenex. I’m almost out, argh! Uh oh, my iPod isn’t responding… it stopped playing about 10minutes outside of Beatty, and I thought the battery died. When I got it out, it still had 75% of its life left, so I plugged it into the computer anyways, but the computer didn’t recognize anything attached, and none of the buttons I push do anything on the iPod! ARRG! No music?!

Update:

At the mansion. OK, maybe not a mansion, but a pretty sweet house. Has to have at least 7 bedrooms, pool, hot tub, pool table--if only it were cheap and located on the WA coast, we'd be in heaven at the end of the month!

Brandon and I shot the shit for a bit, then he joined me for some blogger bowling at The Orleans. He didn't end up bowling, but we had a great time. I bowled two games, and did much better than I have in the past. Our team of three: Brdweb, one of the Panner(sp?) brothers, and me--against Irongirl, Falstaff, and the other Panner brother. We gave them 150 pins, and ended up winning by 10! They had to foot the $40 bill! I did lose $1 to Brandon on a side-bet of IG striking in the 10th frame. I bet she would. She striked in the 8th... on the lane she hated, but the one I picked her to strike on! Oh, cruel fate!

Very tired, but nose keeps drizzling--think I'm going to lie down for a bit and see if I can get to bed.

I'll add linkies and pictures tomorrow or sometime soon.

Tomorrow the plan is to play the 11am Treasure Island Tourney, then probably get some lounging/swimming in, then head to MGM for mixed games galore! If I feel sick, I might skip the TI tourney and the lounging, and just build up my immune system for the Mixed Games and sports betting.

Vegas: Pre-trip report

T-minus six hours.

Well, the get to sleep early and leave at 4am plan probably isn't going to happen.

*looks down at clock*

Yep, not going to happen. I got a bit carried away in the madness that is The Mookie, which precursed The Dookie, like usual. The unusual part is that I got 2nd in The Mookie for $100+ I blew a slight chip-lead Heads Up, which is always frustrating, but it felt good to finally get deep in one of these blogger tournies.

The funnest part of the night was definitely Buddy Dank and Instant Tragedy's live-iPod blogging of the two events. They DJ'd for the evening and played all sorts of awesome music, mostly at the request of Smokkee and I. Because we were the loudest chatters (if that is possible?). I lost a side-bet when the Dookie got down to three players. I chose HeffMike, the short-stack, and Smokkee picked Bayne, the large stack. He did give me 2:1 on the drink-bet, so no spamming him for picking the big-stack, but Heffmike went out shortly after.

I hereby owe Smokkee one drink on Friday at the MGM.

I'm planning to win a few drinks playing Chinese Poker at Bowling on Thursday.

I'm going to try and bring my laptop to get pictures up and blogging going while I still remember what happened!

Wish me luck on my bike ride tomorrow. Today it snowed in Tahoe. June 6th. Snow. It didn't stick, but I'll still be riding from 30 degrees in the morning to 110 degrees in Death Valley within about six hours. It is going to be quite the trip.

Eeee!