Who Can Show Me How to Switch My Luck at Poker?

I have run into a poker dilemma in 2023 and I am hoping that somewhere out there someone knows how to manipulate luck in poker. I am not selfishly asking for anything like running good 90% of the time a la Very Josie. I am simply looking to switch my luck in casinos and home games. Why this request?

I have had my poker ups and downs in 2023. A few times I have run good -- really good -- so good that I was almost embarrassed by it. Almost. But other times, and especially recently, I have run like absolute crap. My past two sessions at Talking Stick have been like that. I was completely card dead (last session I got either a 4, a 6 or both in  way too many hands) and/or rarely hit any draws. My opponents, however, seemed to hit every one. We've all been there before. It's not fun. You begin playing mind games with yourself, but you know that in reality there is little you can do beside continuing to play proper poker and not tilting off chips. I want to play tonight, but I find myself a bit fearful.

Contrast that with what happens at the home game I play in. Last night we only had a small group of four and ended up playing mostly Five Card Draw, Five Card Draw with a wild card, and Follow the Queen. In keeping with past home game sessions, it was almost like I ordered that cards I got. The session include hands like when the host, Bobby, told me that he had me beat. I think we got up to a Seven Bet before Bobby just called. He had quad 8s. That game, 7s were wild. I had been dealt a 7, a Queen and the rest uncoordinated lower cards. I kept the Queen and the 7 and drew three cards -- a 7, a Queen and a brick. Bobby was shocked to see that I beat him quads vs quads, but that is how I have been running at the home game. Almost every time we play, I run over the table. And obviously, playing games like Five Card Draw doesn't require an extensive knowledge of poker strategy. However, for whatever reason, I just keep catching big hands there.

So back to the dilemma I mentioned at the beginning of this post: Is there any possible way that I can flip flop my luck in home games with my luck in Casino poker games? Certainly someone must have a clue?

Thanks for reading.

Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight

 

Wednesday, July 19...the day the running stops. (apologies to The Fugitive)

I imagine that a pretty good percentage of people are aware of the blisteringly hot temperatures that the southwest has been having the past week or so. NormInVegas sent me this picture a couple of days ago:

Last Thursday around 5:00pm, I headed out to play some poker at Desert Diamond Casino. After playing and eating, I headed back home, only to hear from my wife that our air conditioning had gone out. We discussed options and decided that, with fans, we could probably hack it sleeping at home that night. I asked my wife "Did you check the fuse box?" She said she hadn't, so I checked in the darkness in our backyard. I saw nothing amiss in what appeared to be the circuit breaker for the A/C. My wife messaged the property manager (we rent a house in Phoenix) and we spent a rather difficult night trying to sleep as our house got increasingly warmer. The next day, an A/C worker came at about 9:30am. He looked at our unit and said the problem appeared to be a power source problem. He did not see anything in our circuit box that powered the A/C. After exploring, he discovered that the circuit breaker for the A/C had actually been labeled "pool lights" when the house was remodeled right before we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. The breaker was off, so he turned it back on. Moderately cool air began flowing through our vents and we thought the problem was solved. However, a short time later, the air turned warm and the temperature in the house began to rise. We contacted our property manager (the number of  people involved in this situation didn't help), who would let the A/C people know that we needed them to come back. Fortunately, my wife's best friend has an unoccupied casita, and we were able to head there on Friday to sleep. Fortunately, we were also able to take our two dogs. Our cat was going to have to rough it with some fans we set up at a cool spot in the house.

On Saturday,  the A/C guy came back and replaced a blown capacitor.  He directed my wife on gradually decreasing the temperature and left. But...similar to the day before, the cool air came on for a bit, and then the temperature started increasing again. Talk about frustration! More time at the casita.

We are unsure of exactly what happened next. Apparently a new fan had been put in, but seized up. We aren't sure if the fan was installed when he replaced the capacitor, or if it was Sunday morning while we were out. We had been instructed to turn the system off, so if it was working properly, we wouldn't know until we were back home.  Since the fan seized, we still had no A/C. Meanwhile, we had to go through the property manager, although we are friends with the owner, and she was kept apprised of what was happening. The whole process was frustrating since we were not dealing with the A/C guy unless he came to the house and we were there.  So another night at the casita.

Monday my wife let the property manager know that it still wasn't working.  No response from her or the A/C repair guy.  Back to the casita.

Tuesday afternoon we were told he would be coming in the afternoon while we were at the movie theater. After the movie let out, we went back to the house and started things up. Thankfully, the system appeared to be working properly again. We set the thermostat to gradually cool down and kept our fingers crossed that our house would be cooled down Wednesday morning. To our relief, it was. Thank goodness!  In the meantime, it was too hot yet that evening to stay in the house.  So, as you may have guessed, it was another night in the casita.

Now, reading this all ex post facto, it doesn't sound that bad, right? Well, we basically moved out of our house with very little on Friday, came back sporadically to check on things and get clean clothes, but didn't move back in until Wednesday morning. Five days and nights away, carting dogs back and forth since we could not leave them alone at the casita. Had we known that this problem would stretch out almost six days, and had we not been dealing with temperatures above 110 degrees each day, we might have done things a little differently. Our house reached a temperature of at least 96 degrees inside, so we minimized any time inside it, even if just to get clothes for the next day. In reality, it was like losing the good part of a week of our lives. If there are any positives that came out of our situation, they included an increased sensitivity to others that might have housing issues and not have a relatively cushy fall-back place like we did. To paraphrase Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Illinois anymore."

Thanks for reading.

Las Vegas Trip Report June 27 - July 4, 2023: Part 3 -- Heaters, Crashes, and a Great Evening with Friends

Sunday, July 2, 2023

After the long tournament day yesterday, I used the morning to get some much needed sleep and relaxation. I arranged to pick up Josie at the Horseshoe and take her a local ... ummm ... dispensary. Thanks to Chris Abramski and Alisia Chang for recommending places near the Strip. After all, some of us would have no idea where to go. #CleanLiving

I dropped off Josie at Aria and headed to the one Strip-area poker room where I hoped my waiting would be minimized: Westgate. Fortunately, I did had called in and was first on the list. I didn't have to wait too long. I got into a game where I felt uncomfortable as the players at the table had apparently been playing together for some time, so I moved when a new table opened up a bit later. A player at that table was dead set on donking off hundreds, and I was able to get a bit of it. It was a relatively fun game, and as best I remember. I was up a bit but making little progress. My old phone had again lost a lot of its charge, and I never documented this session in my cash game program on my phone. I do believe I cashed out for a small profit.

Meanwhile, while I was doing my usual grinding, Josie was having another big session playing $5/10 at Aria. I have invited her to do a guest post/trip report on my blog, but she has not yet consented. I wasn't at Aria and can't speak therefore of details as I was busy playing at Westgate, but I was amazed to see that she seemed to be on one heck of a heater. She told me that she Ubered it to Resorts after her victory and was drinking wine at one of the bars, so I headed to Aria to get some dinner with her, watch her play, and check out some of the mixed game action that was going on. While we were finishing our meal, she was alerted that her $5/10 seat was now open, so she headed to the restroom before grabbing her seat. Unfortunately, she didn't get there quickly enough and her seat was given away to someone else. She was put at the top of the $5/10 list, but only one table of $5/10 was running. It would be a long wait.

While Josie and I were waiting for seats, I started seeing familiar faces. My Ohio friend and mixed game fan Chris Minx was at a table playing mixed games, and Alisia Chang was passing out fresh watermelon as she waited for a seat. Later, Alisia was seated at the same table as Chris -- right next to her, in fact.

The classic rose between two thorns? 😝

I was also happy to finally meet someone I had never crossed paths with in poker before, Robbie Strazynski, owner of Cardplayer Lifestyle. Robbie was overseeing the mixed games.

Josie was getting antsy and desperate to play, so she offered some cashola to one of the short stacked players to give up his seat, which he shortly did. My frugal (cheap!) bones were horrified! I was concerned because earlier Josie had been talking about playing some drunk poker. I asked her if maybe it wasn't a good idea to play, and she turned away from the $5/10 table and told me "I'm making them think that I'm drunk, but I'm not." Of course, in my mind I was wondering, did she say that because she was drunk? 😃 The guys at the table seemed to be drooling with anticipation, and I don't mean at a Very Josie poker outfit. I found myself in an awkward position. I would have liked to have dragged her away from the table, but hey -- she has been stomping guys and it was her money, not mine. I reluctantly watched her take a seat.  I will spare you the gory details, but she got her money's worth of drunken poker. I had been seated at a $1/3 table in the meantime, and saw Josie get up from her table. She told me goodbye and was heading to take an Uber back to Horseshoe. I was getting slaughtered at the table, losing with some pretty good hands, including two pair vs a higher two pair when a player slow played K-K. I left in frustration and called it a night.

Monday, July 3, 2023

I again got back toward my normal Las Vegas routine, which means not stumbling out of bed until it was time for some lunch. I decided to eat at Baja Fresh in Excalibur. If you have never tried it before, you should give this Mexican fast food restaurant a try. As I sat down with my steak fajitas, a guy at the next table noticed the Cubs hat that I was wearing and started an extended one way conversation about a Cubs player he knows who grew up with his sun. As I began my meal, I called MGM to get on the lengthy $1/2 wait list. As I finished, the gentleman I mentioned began another conversation about the Cubs and his connection. Looking back, I should have just politely excused myself and headed out. However, he was being nice and enjoyed talking about his experiences, so, similar to letting a hooked fish run and tire himself out, I figured that I would do the same with this guy. After another lengthy conversation, I headed out to MGM, which was really packed. I got to the poker room to get myself upgraded from call in to waiting in person. To my horror, I found that I had taken too long to get there and my name had disappeared off the list. I got back n it and decided that I would watch and/or play some slots to kill time. All the other Strip poker rooms also had long wait lists, and I didn't want to hop in the car and drive down to South Point. I checked back several times and was about to just head back to Excalibur and take a nap before my evening dinner event, but I finally saw that my name surfaced at the bottom of the  first page of the wait list, so I stuck around. A few names were called, a new table opened, and when only two people who were called for the new table took their seats, I got seated. I caught some cards and was having a nice session when I saw that I needed to take off and head to Roma Restaurant & Deli to meet up with my group. Josie, Darren (who practically lives at Roma Deli when he is in town from the great white north), my friend Norm and his wife, MaryAnn, and Alisia and her brother Solomon were all scheduled to eat. Darren had also invited Norman Chad and had checked if Todd Brunson might be stopping by his restaurant that night.

Surprisingly, Norman Chad, who Darren thought might not appear, was wandering in the restaurant and came to our table. The wine was flowing, the food was, as always, excellent, and the company was the absolute best! Norman was really funny and appeared to have a great time before leaving. Later, Todd appeared and stopped by to say hi, sending Josie into a mini jumping fit jumping up and down. The dinner is just really hard to describe -- a group of people, some who knew each other and some who did not, came together and just had a great time. it was easily my favorite part of my trip. I was especially happy to meet Norm's wife, as I have thought that MaryAnn had been wondering who this guy from Illinois was that Norm had been heading out to see several times in the past year or two. 😀

Josie, Darren, me, Alisia, MaryAnn, Norm and Solomon

The only scarier Norman was Norman Bates

Josie stopped hopping up and down long enough to get this picture with Todd

People who know me would likely describe me as ... frugal? In truth, I try to be generous with my friends and people in need, but I watch my other spending carefully. Therefore, I give many thanks to Darren, who generously paid for the entire dinner! Josie said she was going to use her winnings to buy dinner (and I believe her), but Darren beat her to the punch. Absolutely nothing tastes better than free food ... especially when sharing your mean with such outstanding people. 💓

After dinner, Josie, Darren and I went to Venetian to play some poker together if we could, As luck would have it, a new table opened and we all were seated at it. Josie, our $5/10 queen, decided to raise most hands, and I hoped to trap her. I looked down at 9-9 and raised. Guess who called? The flop was K-rag-10 with two diamonds. I raised and Josie (the WHORE!) re-raised me. I did not believe for a second that she had a King. I called. The turn was a diamond. We both checked. I did not believe that she had two diamonds in her hand. The river was a low rag and she checked. I was pretty sure that I was ahead of whatever crap she had. I thought about how much of a raise I should make. I decided on $55. She tanked for a short time (always a good sign!), basically saying that she didn't have a King or the flush. She decided to call and turned over her cards: 10-8os. Arggggggggghhhhhhh!!!! The temptation to reach across the table and strangle her Sicilian neck was great, but I know that I would make a terrible prison bitch, so I just loudly grumbled. Even with a King and a flush possibility on the board ... I actually got more disgusted when I saw her calling the raises of another player with nothing but Ace high, then hit her four-outer straight on the river. The Lucksack Lady Supreme.

Josie was on the wait list for a $5/10 and as called, leaving Darren and I playing at the lowly $1/3 game. Darren was not getting many playable hands and decided to call it a night. I stayed at the table and decided to sneak a look at Josie's stack. wtf???? It looked like a developer was building a whole  subdivision of homes all at once! As I was starting to burn off my humble winnings, I asked her how much longer she planned to stay. I decided to cash out, charge up my phone and wait for her to finish her session. When she cashed out, I had to assist her in getting her racks to the counter. I am pretty sure that I got a hernia carrying them for her, and later attempted to enlist Pete P. Peters, Esq, to file my legal action against Josie because of my injury. He has not yet agreed to do so, so I will comment no further on the situation. Josie had smoked the other players so thoroughly that they were actually in awe of her session. The dealers loved her because she was generous with her tips. I was leary of someone following us to the parking garage, but no players were looking to get their chips back. I drove her back to Horseshoe and got ready for my final night at Excalibur.

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

This trip was much nice than my previous one in terms of hotels. Last trip, I had some free room offers and changed my trip twice, so I ended up staying at several places. This trip -- only Excalibur, which I now feel very at home at when staying there. I woke up, got the hotel to extend my check out time to noon, then went back to sleep. I woke back up with a little time to spare, hustled everything in my suitcase, and then headed out to Aria to say goodbye to Josie, who was on the $5/10 wait list there. We had lunch at Posh Burger, and then I headed out, feeling pretty tired. I was not looking forward to my almost 300 mile drive home. In fact, I took my first nap at a scenic view site shortly after I passed into Arizona. As I headed toward Kingman, I was pretty sure that I was going to have to stay overnight there and continue my trip home in the morning. I had even looked up potential places to stay when I got into a phone with a former colleague who is a good friend. We ended up talking for over an hour and a half. By the time we lost a signal, end the call, I was already well past Kingman and wide awake, so it looked like I would be sleeping in my own bed that night. The rest of the ride home was uneventful.

Epilogue

 

Having now been home almost a week, how would I evaluate the trip? The worst part was the long wait lists to play cash poker games on the Strip. The poker itself wasn't that great for me, but I got to see an amazing display of poker prowess (or an amazing heater, or both) from Josie. I got to see several friends and had that great dinner at Roma Restaurant & Deli. All in all, it was a different type of trip, but one that was certainly more interesting than most. I have no current plans for my next trip, but with Las Vegas only a short flight or drive away, ...

Thanks for reading!

Las Vegas Trip Report June 27 - July 4, 2023: Part 2 -- I've Run Away and Joined the Very Josie Circus!

Friday, June 30, 2023

This day was definitely going to get off to a great start at the Caesars Palace Bacchanal Regular Brunch with Josie. I had not been to this buffet for several years. My first plate, mixing some Italian, Mediterranean and Asian food.

And just for thundering36:

The buffet was just as great as I remembered. It is pricy, but still the value there is very good. So many different choices. I did not touch any of the traditional breakfast items as there were so many more interesting things to try. We probably exceeded our 90-minute time limit, but nobody came by to suggest that it was time to go, so had a great leisurely time.

We headed back to Josie's suite at Horseshoe to draw names for the first of her giveaways. She had a ton of sticky notes on a wall. They had identifying information on the back so that there was no way that I could see who I was picking. After picking two stickies and after Josie put out info to the lucky winners, Josie hit the highlight of her trip. No -- make that the highlight of her life as her ultimate fantasy was finally fulfilled: we slept together. 

Ummm ... well, to be totally truthful, we actually did sleep at the same time. We were both full from the brunch and fatigued, so we both actually fell asleep in separate comfy chairs in her suite. To all the smutty minded readers who immediately thought ... nevermind. 😃

It was then time for us to split up. Josie wanted to play some $5/10 at Aria, and I was planning on heading to South Point for their special quads promotion that day. I dropped Josie off at Aria and headed for the interstate.

I began with the SP $1/2 NL game. I was pretty much up and down and then lost a few pots. Great cards escaped me. Then I had the misfortune of thinking that I could use a scare card on the river to get my opponent to fold the two pair that were on the board. I did have either an Ace or a pair that was higher than one of the pairs on the board, so I thought I was good. He thought for several seconds, and then appeared to reluctantly call with ... a full house! I decided that the table was not for me and decided to get up and leave and lick my wounds on the slot machines. I headed to a machine that I knew had been hot in the past, and I was rewarded with a good run, winning back much of what I had lost in poker. Nothing like having to make up for poker losses with slot wins to make a poker player feel like crap! I decided to get back into a $2/3 game, and had some success. Meanwhile ...

Josie got to Aria on her mission to give away some money she might win, and in the first 30-minute segment for the first name pulled, she tweeted that a "Crazy Russian" woman pushed all in when VJ had K-K. She also had success in some other hands, and I believe the first winner got $2,900! She was also generous with some green chips to a few people who stopped by to see her. In a short time, she won a huge chunk of money. How the eff does she do it?

After playing a short session, I just was not feeling it anymore and cashed out a nice profit in the $2/3 game. Meanwhile, VJ was ready to cash out at Aria. She had never eaten at Peppermill before, so that was the plan. I drove to Aria to pick up up, but she went to a ride share pick up area that I could not find while battling the Las Vegas Blvd construction traffic and night lights. She instead got an Uber and met me at Peppermill. While we were eating, a woman came by to take our picture. She later reappeared with a post card for us to keep and the opportunity to purchase more pictures. We declined. However, Josie decided to post the card on Twitter and announced that we tied the knot!

I was thinking how great this would be if my Phoenix niece or nephew saw this and I would be hearing "Uncle John -- wtf?" Not to mention that many friends might be wondering what was going on. Only in Las Vegas!

It was late and we both needed to call it a night. I dropped Josie off at Horseshoe and headed back to Excalibur. She was thinking of playing the morning tournament at Resorts World, but I had no plans for waking up that early. However, things changed a bit the next morning.

Saturday, July 1, 2023

The morning did not start off great. I felt like crap. I had told Josie that the tournament was at 10:05am. She was going to Uber it to Resorts, and I just figured that I would spend the morning in bed and go from there. Then I heard from my buddy Norm, who asked me if I was going to play in the Resorts tournament that started at 12:05pm! Oops. Josie had already started toward Resorts to register late, so now she would be early. I started feeling better and decided to get myself in gear and play the tournament also. 

I got there and the three of us started the tournament. About 15 minutes later, Josie came by my table and told me that she already busted! She immediately bought back in. Little did I knw what a fortuitous decision that would be! She snuck up on Norm to meet him (he must have been wondering who came by to massage his back - certainly not me!) and shortly thereafter came by to tell me that her starting stack of 25,000 was up to 75,000, then 90,000. Meanwhile, I was totally card dead and struggling just to keep above 20,000. I made it to level eight, then finally was forced to push. I unbelievably beat K-K with 9-3sooted when I hit a flush, I finally went out when I jammed A-2os and was shocked to see that another shorty at the table had As-Js and didn't shove, but called my shove. I only had three outs, but no miracle this time. I checked and Norm was on life support. Meanwhile, Josie was running over her table. I decided to head out to the slot area and once again, feel the humiliation of trying to get slot money to cover my poker loss. Fortunately, I found a Cashman Bingo machine which had some really high amounts on it due to someone or someones investing a lot of money but not getting a bingo. This kind of machine wears you out, but I figured it was worth a try with all the large amounts already on the board. Fortunately, I did hit a great bingo and once again, assisted my sockroll with slot profits.

Feeling at least a little better, I headed back to the tournament area. Norm had messaged me that he tripled up and was seated at a table was Josie. I watched for a time as the original 200+ (almost 300) kept shrinking. 27 people were being paid, and it looked like Josie would easily cash and Norm would if he played smart poker. The bubble did burst and Norm did cash, then went out a short time later. He treated me to pizza, which soothed me a bit, as I really had nothing to eat the whole day since I wasn't feeling well in the morning. Thank you, Norm, for helping to heal my wounded soul once again. 😃

Norm eventually left and asked me to report how VJ finished. I had been on the list for cash games and was seated. I saw that 13 players still remained and figured things would go slowly. The exact opposite happened. The tournament was quickly down to 11, then before I knew it, it was down to the final four. I cashed out a small profit and decided to watch the end of the tournament. Josie and her nemesis at the table both had big stacks and were likely going to go at it heads up as soon as the smaller stacks were gone. However, the small stacks hung in like you wouldn't believe. Then came the big hand: I believe the other big stack jammed after the flop with a pair of 7s. Josie had a pair of Jacks and insta-called. Yowsa! The other player was really angry with himself at his bonehead move and threw his cards up in the air. Fortunately, he didn't get his two-outer on the turn or river and was out. The smaller stacks couldn't believe their good fortune. Josie owned almost all the tournament chips, and one of the players proposed a chop where Josie would get all the first place money and the other two would chop second and third place. So that was it. It was over and Josie won the tournament and won over $10,600! What a stunning performance that eclipsed her cash game success of the day before. 

It was great to see one friend cash and another win the tournament. As for me, I was treading water, hoping that my fortune would change the next day or two. As for Josie, I figured she had just had this amazing heater for a couple of days and would come back down to earth. When it comes to the future, I generally suck at predictions. How badly would this one suck? That will be the focus of part 3 of this trip report.

Thanks for reading!

Las Vegas Trip Report June 27 - July 4, 2023: Part 1 -- The Waiting

The waiting is the hardest part

Every day you see one more card

You take it on faith, you take it to the heart

The waiting is the hardest part

Tom Petty

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

I had just gotten back from my most recent Las Vegas trip on June 12. The next week, my sister-in-law and her family came to visit. Unfortunately, I caught a rather aggravating cold that week and felt pretty run down, I was looking forward to a week or two of relaxation and feeling back up to par. However, there was a complication:  old blogger friend Very Josie was making a trip to Las Vegas and needed a wingman. I hemmed and hawed about it for a few days, but then this retired guy decided to look at his busy schedule for the next week or so. The result: NOTHING! So ... what the heck. I made my reservation at my Las Vegas "home," which others sometimes call the "dirty castle." I told Josie that I would supply support for her WSOP venture (bring her snacks, iced coffee, etc) into the Ladies  Championship. But first I would pick her up Wednesday night at the airport.

My trip to Las Vegas was unremarkable. I checked into Excalibur and headed to MGM for some $1/2 NL action. I decided to stop for dinner at a favorite spot: Fulton Fish Frye in NYNY. My brother, thundering36, and I tried to eat there each trip. It was great, as usual.

I figured I would play some cash until it was time to pick Josie up around 9:30pm or so. Unfortunately, the plane was listed as "Late" very early, and as the evening wore on, the arrival time got deeper ... and deeper ... and deeper into the evening. It was beginning to look like it might get in around 4:00am, but then it was canceled. With the WSOP Main Event ready to start and with a holiday weekend coming up, I was afraid that Josie might not even make it. I started checking alternate flights, but they were hard to find as most flights leaving within the next 12 hours were filled. Josie was finally able to luckily get a flight and would be arriving around10:30 the next morning. I cashed out with a miniscule loss and headed back to Excalibur to get some sleep.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

I woke up and headed to a grocery story to buy some cheese for the VJ snack bag. I also grabbed some additional snacks for a Twitter friend I was hoping to meet in person: Malia Miranda. I saw that Josie's flight was actually getting in EARLY, so I headed toward the airport and waited in the cell phone lot. When she finally messaged me that she was ready for me to pick her up, I couldn't resist having a little fun:

I picked up Josie and dropped her off at Horseshoe so she could check into her room. I parked my car and burned some time around the WSOP area while Josie cleaned up and took a nap. I saw and finally met the Queen of Cardschat.com, Debi O'Neill. I had been heavily involved in Cardschat many moons ago. Debi is only one of three people I ever staked in poker. Unfortunately, as I was giving her a hug, a WSOP official came up to me and said, "I'm sorry sir. You'll have to leave the area." I guess my beard was a dead giveaway that I didn't belong in the players area of that particular tournament! 

Josie later came down we got her a Caesars card and got her enrolled in the Ladies Championship in somewhere around level four. My phone was almost dead, so Josie let me go to her suite to recharge it. It was a good thing I went up as the temperature in the room was was 81 degrees and the air was cranking out like a blast furnace. I was able to get a maintenance guy to come up in only 15 minutes. Fortunately, he had just begun his shift. He said that if she called when she got in later that evening, who knows how long she would have waited since they get an enormous amount of night maintenance requests. I asked him the chances of his fixing the problem, and he told me 50%. Luckily for Josie, things fell to the right side of the 50% and cold air came rushing in the room. I gave the guy a nice tip and headed to the WSOP. Josie was doing her usual thing and chipped up. She was cruising really well for some time. Meanwhile, I finally heard from Malia, who told me she wasn't checking Twitter. She found me despite my writing down the WRONG table number!

With Malia -- another Chicago connection

Later on, it was time to meet up with an old poker blogger friend: SmallBoatDrinks. He was in town for work but came over to say hi. He was also able to finally meet Josie.

Josie was bummed because her nice chip stack had been sliced in half when she lost a hand to a two-outer instead of having a great stack. Mike and I kept saying "Don't donk it off." She took a risk later on that did not go her way and was out. Actually, it was pretty amazing that she played so long and so well after all she put up with in getting to Las Vegas. She was certainly exhausted. She thought about skipping the tourney, but hey -- this is the World Series of Poker. Incidentally, I did get in some $1/3 NL action at the WSOP tables and doubled up when I dodged about 15 outs to win a Q-Q vs A-Ksooted all in pre-flop hand. gg me!

Josie headed up to her suite immediately after exiting the tournament, and we planned to meet the next morning at Caesars Palace for the Bacchanal Buffet. Afterward, the biggest cash game/tournament heater I had ever seen would begin. I mean, two of my friends, MemphisMOJO (RIP) and cmitch bough won tons while finishing third in the WSOP Seniors event, but I only witnessed cmitch's final table. The Josie run was amazing ... and will begin in Part 2.

Thanks for reading!