Las Vegas trip report Part II - Dec 2009

As the WPBT Winter Championship was about to begin, there was only one problem: Luckbox Challenge team member pokerpeaker was at my table. I was hoping that we would seldom be in the same hand.

As we started the action, Jordan made a comment about the fish at the table. Now, as for me, I love some friendly table banter. And seeing that I was aware of Jordan's performance in blogger events earlier in the year, I guess he might not have been totally innaccurate. However, shortly after he made his remark, I was dealt a big hand. He folded to my raise after the flop. My response: "Glub glub." Yesss -- we are having fun.

Unfortunately, my teammates pokerpeaker and OhCaptain went out relatively early. With the team challenge in the gutter, I just had to win for myself.

I got mostly garbage cards and played few hands. Jordan, on the other hand, was pretty aggressive and seemed to be playing well. As I got short stacked, I was desperate to make a move. I looked down to see A-Qsooted. The non-blogger on my right raised, and I knew that I was ahead of him. I pushed all in. Another shortie, Schaubs, also went all in. We turned the cards over and I was way ahead of the non-blogger. Unfortunately, Schaubs tabled A-K. But, being a blogger tournament, so you can guess what happened next. I spiked a Queen and faded the remaining Kings in the deck. I knocked out Schaubs (sorry buddy) and hurt the non-blogger. This would keep me around for a little longer. Others who came to our table after bustouts included AlCantHang and Bam-Bam.

A-Q was my hand. I went all in with it two more times and stayed alive. However, my run ended when I was forced to push my shortie stack with A-5. Poker Gnome calculated the odds out loud (pretty interesting) and called. His Q-7, I believe, caught a Queen on the flop and another on the turn. I was out in about 20th place.

The real fun then began. I discovered that I lost my phone during the tournament, and now it was time to find it. Not in the poker room. Not in the bathroom. Not at the cashier. Good guy yestbay lent me his phone and I called my cell phone. No answer. As I headed toward the security desk, yestbay caught me to tell me that someone had called his phone to say that mine would be delivered to the security desk. Yessss.

Yestbay and I were deciding how long to stay before heading to dinner. He was getting hungry but I decided to stay for the end of the tournament. Sorry I kept you there longer , buddy.

As the final table was winding down and AlCantHang couldn't get cocktail service, I rushed out to a bar and bought him a shot of SoCo. It must have been SoCo Gold or something because Caesars charged me $10 for it. Yowsa!

After the tournament was over (big congrats to Astin -- hell of a job), I headed back for some more poker at Ballys, then finished up at Imperial Palace before hitting the sheets.

I slept late on Sunday and checked out of my hotel room at IP. I wanted to stay there for the blogger events, but I would go to Ballys for my final two nights. So nice to just head up to your room after finishing at the poker tables.

I caught the second half of the early football games and watched the fun at the Palazzo's excellent LaGasse's Stadium luxury box that was reserved for the bloggers. What a great way to watch the games. After skipping out to give the Venetian poker room a try, I came back for the second half of the late games. Had a great time, including discussing Troy Aikman's sexuality with Dr. Pauly (loudly in front of StB, you understand), crappy football teams with bayne, and the Bolts with smokkee. I decided to pass up the evening football game and headed back to my home, Ballys.

I was seated at a table with a guy who proclaimed "I control this table." Well, Mr. douche bag didn't control it for very long because this loud, drunk, Latino guy sat down and pissed off the dealer and everyone at the table ... except for me. I ate his act up. A classic line (to the guy who controlled the table): " Hey maaaaan, why don't you take off your sunglasses so that I can see your pretty eyes?" After he blew through his chips, he left but came back less than an hour later. He was seated at another table, and I bought him a massage. He were giving the sign of the horns back and forth to each other. Funny stuff. I eventually changed tables and sat next to him. Damn, was that fun! I played long into the night and had a great time.

On Tuesday I decided to head to Excalibur and try the poker room since they finally got out those blasted electronic poker tables. However, a tournament was going on and there was not a NL game, so I went to MGM. I got seated at a table just as Penner was also. It seemed like we won virtually every hand we were in. He busted some jackass who went all in for $200 with Q-10 sooted. Good stuff. I was dealt rockets and hit a set on the flop. Unfortunate dude in seat 6 hit a set of Kings. Yep -- I got it all. Great session.

I returned to Ballys and played deep into the night. I just couldn't dig out of a hole I put myself into at the start of the session. Ah well ...

The flight back home on Tuesday was uncomfortable but uneventful. An end to a pretty good trip.

I now have one official blogger gathering under my belt. It was not the emotional trip that others had since it wasn't a big reunion of friends for me. However, it was a good start. Also, I can't remember a time I went to Las Vegas feeling so burnt out from work. I didn't feel like myself until Saturday -- with half the weekend over!

Funny thing -- most people were pretty much the way that I had imagined they would be. The people who always seemed to be nice people were. There were a lot of bloggers I only briefly met or didn't meet at all. Next gathering, perhaps?

A special shout out to OhCaptain, who was looking out for this newbie. Without OhCaptain and twitter, I would not have known half of what was going on. Thanks, bro.