I'm a Fool for the City: Las Vegas Trip Report: June 9-13, 2026 -- Part I

Prologue

Many years ago I lost count of the number of trips I've taken to Las Vegas. For quite some time, I have been saying that I've taken over 100. They started back in the 1980s, then tremendously accelerated beginning in 2000 when my brother, thundering36, moved back to the United States from Australia. Las Vegas was our get away playground. We stayed at soooo many Strip hotels, from dives like the Circus Circus Manor and Westward Ho, to nice places like Bellagio, Encore, and Cosmopolitan. I used to be a solid Caesars guy, often staying at Bally's, Harrah's, and Flamingo, but after getting my great offers yanked, I switched over to MGM properties. Although I've stayed at MGM, NYNY, Park MGM, and other properties, I've taken a weird liking to the so-called "Dirty Castle" -- Excalibur. It's my usual base of operations unless Mrs. Lightning accompanies me, a pretty rare occurrence. She doesn't like Las Vegas. Imagine.

Although I drove (from the Phoenix metro area) on my last trip here, I decided to fly this time. With flight credits and special deals, it was actually cheaper to fly than to pay inflated gasoline prices. I usually fly Frontier round trip, but this time I flew in on American and then back home on Frontier. There is quite a difference. Despite the bad rap Frontier gets, everything seems to go smoother because, with a fee for carry-on bags, Frontier largely has people checking bags and carrying on personal items. American, however, does not charge for a carry on, thus many people carry on bulky suitcases that quickly fill up the overhead bins. A great number of people were struggling with these bags, making the boarding process quite arduous. As for me -- I pack everything in a small backpack. No checked luggage. No "technical" carry on. Easy ... and cheap!

Leading up to this trip, I had actually been feeling under the weather for a few days. I was hoping to fling some cards with poker buddy, Mr Subliminal, at Talking Stick in Scottsdale last Sunday night, but I was too fatigued to meet him for a late night session. On Monday, still feeling tired and unwell, I had to drive someone to a medical appointment (volunteer work), head to my audiologist's office, drive my daughter to work, do some grocery shopping -- all before going to a Rod Steward/Richard Marx concert in the evening. Needless to say, that fatigue wouldn't be going away soon.

Tuesday, June 8

After getting a few hours of sleep and quickly packing, I was off to the airport as my wife graciously drove me there. I used to just park in off-airport parking, but now I prefer to be catered to a bit -- getting dropped off and picked up.

The American flight was uneventful. I had a 50% off Lyft offer, so I headed to the Harry Reid Uber/Lyft area. For the first time EVER, I had a driver grab my ride immediately. I had not even gotten to the pick-up area when I reserved, so I had to hustle. The driver told me that he had been waiting almost ten minutes for someone to look for a ride. The area was pretty much deserted.

Thanks to the MGM properties app and check-in procedures, my room was ready for me as I got in around noon. However, it was much more important for me to burn up my freeplay at the Excalibur slots. Having won a little and lost a little, I headed to my room. I had lunch at Buca di Beppo (Creamy Pesto Penne, salad and garlic bread for $10.99 -- a steal, even though I had a food and beverage credit). I eventually decided to meet up with Luke Johnston at the WSOP and play some cash games there. Upon arriving at WSOP, I spotted Chris Abramski already there. Unfortunately, Chris, Luke and I were seated at different tables. Whereas Luke said that his table was fun, mine wasn't. Nobody talked. Everyone seemed too serious for $1/3 NL poker. I had some bad luck and made a stupid play, so chips were flying away from me. I was feeling dead tired and just left in a hurry, planning to go to bed early. However, I played some of those fun Excalibur slots and ended up winning back all that I had lost at WSOP, plus was even a little bit ahead. A very uneventful first day in Las Vegas, but hey -- at least the ledger was in the black even though I had a short, horrible first session of poker. I've had worse first days. Onward and upward.

Wednesday, June 9

I used more of my food and beverage credit to eat brunch at the Excalibur buffet. Unfortunately, since the MGM buffet is now closed, my other options would have been Wicked Spoon in Cosmopolitan or Bellagio. I wasn't overly impressed with either the last times I had been there, so Excalibur it was. Would I pay the regular price to eat there? No. Would I eat there for free? Yes! It was actually fairly busy. The food was okay.

Afterward, I headed to play poker at MGM. Now, years ago, MGM used to be a primo place to play poker. Management kept moving the room from place to place, and it never seemed to regain the momentum it once had. But ... I still like playing there, even though it has not been very good to me the past few years.

The session started out rough. Then change finally came. I turned the nut straight and was all in with that and a flush draw, and was called. The river gave my opponent a higher straight, and I almost missed that I hit the flush on the river. Thank goodness that I didn't muck my cards when I initially thought that I had lost the hand.

I then hit a really good streak. A calling station stayed in hands too long and must have thought that I always bluffed. He was wrong! I won some great pots and some bomb pots, but after a few players left and the table chemistry changed, I thought it best to lock down my sweet session and head north to Venetian to meet up with Chris Abramski. That day was one of the days that I was thankful for the monorail.

At Venetian, I got off to a quick start. I was pretty satisfied with my play, except for one huge mistake on a bomb pot when I was thinking of leaving. Chris and I were the last two players in the hand. I hit the nut flush on one board and should have potted. I didn't and just made a good raise, and Chris called. The river paired the board on the nut flush hand, which unfortunately gave Chris a boat.

Why poker is so weird: Chris took a nasty beat when he had a guy crushed with a flush. Unfortunately, the guy got lucky on the river and hit a straight flush, costing Chris dearly. Seeing that, I couldn't be too upset since I had made an error in bet sizing that opened the door for him. Would he have called my shove with a set on the crucial hand and with three spades on the board? I guess we'll never know. When I felt my focus waning, I decided to leave. I told Chris that I was reminded of the roulette scene in the movie Casablanca. Rick asks the croupier, "How we doing tonight?" after Rick had the wheel rigged for a young Bulgarian man to win. The croupier replied, "Well, a couple thousand less than I thought there would be." I left with a respectable profit -- but a little less than I thought there would be. 

I took the monorail back to MGM, but decided to play one more session there. After about an hour and a half and losing money, I decided to end poker for the night. Thanks to my earlier sessions (and a little slot play), I headed back to my room having had a very profitable second day. Things had been working out so far. Amazing!

Part II is coming. Thanks for reading. Comments are welcomed.

"It was 20 years ago today - Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play": The 20th anniversary of my lightning strikes! blog

Believe it or not, March 12, 2026 marks exactly 20 years since I made my first blog post in lightning strikes! The masthead disappeared several years ago when ... never mind -- nobody really cares. 😃

The blog was started during the heyday of poker in the years after Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event. I was playing a lot of online poker at the time, and began this blog as a way to potentially qualify for a tournament that had a WSOP Main Event ticket as its top prize. There were several preliminary tournaments to play to try to qualify, but as I recall, a player had to win the tournament in order to get a seat at the finals. However, in the last qualifier, the first TEN finishers would get a seat. I was fortunate to sneak in at 8th place, qualifying me for the biggie. I had done it: the bloggerpokertour.com Grand Final. I would face off against 43 other bloggers.

Although I do not remember who my fellow qualifiers were, many were my unofficial mentors or players who I totally respected and admired. I was honored to be in the same tournament with them. I was scared silly! I played so tight that I was squeaking in my chair. Then, as I recall (remember - this was 20 years ago), I got AA and QQ in back-to-back hands. I won a ton of chips and actually became the chip leader for a bit! I made it to the final three, but lost a crucial hand and finished in third place. I believe that I won an iPod for my efforts. A bit of a comedown from a $10,000 top prize, but hey -- I was stoked.

The early years of the blog were mostly stories of my online poker exploits. Looking back and reading a few posts, I'm surprised that I really did quite well in a number of online tournaments. Of course, I was playing every night after work and on weekends. Why my wife didn't boot me to the curb during this time in my life is still a mystery to me. I guess she really has loved me all this time!

As time when on, I began infusing more stories about my life into the blog. I wrote about all kinds of personal things: health scares (cancer, heart issues), family, deaths, music ... I always contemplated taking my best selections from these posts and making a book with them. Ahhh ... but who would actually buy/read it?

More recently, the number of posts I publish has slowed down, almost creeping to a halt. Few people read my blog, as writing seems to have gone to the wayside, instead being replaced with videos, vlogs, and podcasts. Sometimes it is just difficult to get motivated to write, knowing that the work is really more for myself now. I do appreciate the people who do still read my blog and even occasionally comment on it!

A funny thing is that my brother in Australia, thundering36, is the only family member to have ever shown any interest in the blog. My secret hope has always been that my kids will one day become interested and find this amazing treasure of their father's thoughts -- perhaps sides of me they never knew existed. I wouldn't bet the farm on that, though.

I could go on and on, but I won't. I have lots of great memories in my posts. I have met a lot of great people in my life via poker, work, and general activities. I consider myself an extremely fortunate person and am thankful that, for whatever reason, I was granted a wonderful life. I've always felt like I was given some great gifts -- a good head on my shoulders, a capacity for understanding and caring, the ability to (mostly) make good choices. I was born into a good family and married into another good one. I've worked hard and have been fortunate in a few areas. I feel really blessed.

What does the future hold? Who knows. I hope to be around for some time and hope that I stay healthy. As the saying goes, the rest is gravy.

Thanks for reading. Comments in the blog's comment section are always welcomed. 😎

The Poker Gods: Friends or Foes? Heck -- I Don't Know

Whereas most people who know anything about poker will tell you that it is a game of skill, the inevitable luck component also remains a factor in varying degrees. Take my 2025 poker results as an example.

I had a horrible losing streak in 2025. Between May 11 and June 28, I lost money in 15 consecutive poker sessions. From what I remember, at the beginning of the streak, I took some unreal losses. I had my money in good before the river, and then ... This scenario happened time and time again. I'm pretty sure that I started stressing, leading to some suboptimal playing. Fortunately, most of the losses were not that great, ranging from $34 to $550. Most losses were between $150 and $300, or about one buy-in at the regular levels I play: $1/2NL and $1/3NL. To lose that many sessions in a row really sucks the fun out of poker. The streak began at Phoenix-area poker rooms, continued in Las Vegas, then finished at the Phoenix-area rooms.

I decided that I needed to invest more time in training, so I watched many videos and decided that I needed to tighten my game up. Soon afterward, I was winning pretty regularly again. However, I had dug myself quite a hole during the bad streak. Afterward, I suddenly was not losing every flip or even hands where before I had lost to three or four outers.

My Las Vegas December trip report posts chronicled some good winning sessions, some solid poker play, and some degree of luck. Had the poker gods decided to give me a break? Would they be back with a vengeance when I returned home? Well ...

The December holidays provided area poker rooms incentives to host some decent promo days. I went to Talking Stick in Scottsdale on Dec 14 to play in a special promo day that included a football match- the-score ticket promo, and $1,000 high hands every 30 minutes. The session started out badly as I had one of those days when I had second best hand several times. I moved to a different table, and the magic began.

I hit on the football promo for a $150 bonus. Shortly afterward, I turned a 9-high straight flush and had to hang on for over 20 minutes. Luckily, nobody else had a higher straight flush during that time (all/most of the 70 or so poker tables were full), giving me an additional $1,000 bonus.

On New Year's Eve, I had hoped to go to Desert Diamond in Glendale for the room's hot seat promo, but the wait list was extremely long. I learned long ago that few players leave when big promos go on there. I decided to instead go to Lone Butte in Chandler. I played three separate sessions there that afternoon and evening from 3:00pm until 1:15am. My first session saw me lose $30. The funny thing is that I remember almost nothing of the session! After taking a break to play some slots, I went back to the poker room for session #2. The $1/2 table was absolutely wild! It was not unusual to see guys shoving with marginal hands. I thought one guy was bluffing me off a hand when an Ace appeared, but he played me well and took half my stack. I called a raise with KsJs and saw my opportunity when the flop had two spades and gave me a gutshot straight draw. I shoved all in after a raise and got one caller -- a guy who flopped two pair. He called. The turn completed my straight, more than doubling me up and putting me with a $142 profit. I cashed out as there was no way to go promo hunting for the $1,000 high hands every half hour without risking my stack virtually every hand.

I took a dinner break and decided to play one more session. There were gift card drawings, hot seats drawings, and splash pots along with the high hand promo, but I never sniffed any of them. For hours, my cards were so bad I couldn't even limp into hands, Then at 11:30pm, some magic happened. I was in a hand with Ac5c. The flop was 2c3c4s. I had flopped a wheel straight and had straight flush and nut flush draws. The turn was the magic card: 4c! Unfortunately for one regular player, he had Qc9c. He bet and I hollywooded about whether or not to call his $100 bet. "Reluctantly," I called. My opponent shoved on the river, and I tabled my straight flush. I had just won a big pot and now had to wait out the final 22 minutes of the high hand period. As the clock ticked down the final seconds to the new year, people were blowing horns and making lots of noise. I was hoping not to hear the dreaded "high hand on table ..." right before the half hour expired. When midnight hit, everyone was celebrating the new year. I was celebrating that the first second of the new year provided me with a $1,000 high hand bonus!

There was a final hot seat giveaway for $2026 at 1:00am. Would my mojo continue? I was at table 31, seat 4. The winner: table 32, seat 4! It was time to head home.

I went to two promo days hoping to hit $1,000 high hand bonuses. I hit one at each day with turned straight flushes, with an extra $150 at the first promo day. Quite different from the luck  -- or lack of it -- that experienced earlier in the year. Were the poker gods asleep in December? Did they feel sorry for me and see a need to even the score for me? I dunno. Promos seem to come and go in streaks. Over the past couple years, I had individual sessions where I won two promos: one with two $500 high hands (Quad Aces twice in one session), and one when I got a straight flush for $200 and flopped quad deuces for $1,200. Poker can sometimes be sweet!

I look forward to another year of low-level NL poker. All my best to my readers for 2026!

Blog comments are welcomed and encouraged. Thanks for reading.

Las Vegas Trip Report: December 8-12, 2025 - Part II

 Wednesday, December 10

I got myself in the shower early (for me - in Las Vegas) and began the familiar trip to Caesars Palace to meet Twitter/X follower @oldmaninvegas. We had messaged each other several times over the past year or so, but never had a chance to meet. Today would be the day.

I gave myself 45 minutes to get to Caesars: Through Excalibur, through NYNY, into Park MGM to catch the tram, exiting the tram at Bellagio, then heading outdoor to enter the main entrance to Caesars Palace and the Cafe Americano. I made it with a few minutes to spare. My new friend was waiting for me.

As I expected, @oldmaninvegas is a great guy. His wife used to work in the poker industry in several capacities, including dealer. Therefore I knew that there would be at least one person that I know that his wife would know. 😁For me, meeting Twitter/X/poker people for the first time is always a thrill. It is amazing how small the poker world really is. Fortunately, the great majority of people I have met have been quality people.

@oldmaninvegas had invited me to breakfast and said that he would treat me using his comps. Sweet, as free food ALWAYS tastes the best! However, at the end of our breakfast, he found out that Cafe Americano would not accept his Caesars Rewards comps. Although I offered to pay for my breakfast (about $31 for an omelet and coffee!), he grabbed the bill. These kind of friends I like! Anyway, we soon parted company, and I was off to play my first session of poker in the reopened Caesars poker room.

The room was just where it had been previously - next to the sportsbook. The one big difference that I noted was that the chairs were new and very  comfortable. I got seated at a new table. After getting involved in some hands and having little success, I was doubled up by an aggro player who raised most hands. I was in the big blind and he was on the button. He raised to $25, and I jammed my remaining $90. I never found out what he had. Later, his girlfriend showed up and he proclaimed that he always does well when she is with him. True to form, he started building  up his stack. I didn't particularly like my table, so I cashed out a bit later with a small profit. Next stop: Venetian.

This afternoon session at Venetian was once again successful. NormInVegas was again able to join me and got seated at my table. I felted one guy when I had J-J. I'm not sure what he had or what he was thinking. He said that he had made a mistake in the hand, which I think my calling my big post-flop bet. I did okay on a few bomb pot hands and overall played solid poker.

I took a break for dinner, and afterward, decided to go back to Venetian since I had been doing well there and having fun. Unfortunately, the magic wasn't there this session. I cashed out after more than two hours, but fortunately, lost less than $100.

I wasn't ready to call it a night, so I headed to Horseshoe, getting there about 11:30pm. I was quickly seated and only stayed for a half hour, erasing the loss I had just had at Venetian. I was getting tired and decided to return to Excalibur, play some slots, and get to bed. Things seemed to be moving in the right direction -- much different than my first day of the trip. I was looking forward to a big day on Thursday.

Thursday, December 11

After a leisurely morning, I headed for my first session at Bellagio. Earlier in the year, I was dominating play almost every session I played there. During my last trip last August, I won a whole $11 in almost three hours of play in the only Bellagio session that trip.

I didn't like my table. I wasn't getting anything in the way of starting hands, so I looked like an OMC at the table. When I did get cards and bet, everyone folded. It was time to take my small loss and head out. Next stop: where else but Venetian!

There were big tournaments going on at Venetian and Wynn, and the wait lists were very long. At Venetian, there were eight tables of $1/3 and 50+ people on the wait list. I got on the list via PokerAtlas and headed north.

My name got on the wait list just after 3:00pm. I was seated and playing less than two hours later, which didn't seem too bad, considering the crowds everywhere. 

The atmosphere in the Venetian poker room was absolutely electric. Tables full of people playing cash games. Tables full of people playing a deep stack event. People standing all around, carefully watching the electronic wait lists, hoping that their name would, at some point, be visible as they came closer to the top of the list. Chris Abramski was at a different table, having been playing since noon. He had a nice stack of chips in front of him. It was time for me to do the same.

I started chipping up, and then got into a hand that solidified the direction I was moving. A guy who claimed to regularly play $5/10 NL had been making regular to high raises all session. In the crucial hand, he only raised to $7. I looked down to see Qs9s. I was in the big blind and already had $3 in the pot. I decided to call. The flop was rag-Q-rag. I checked. He bet. I called. The turn was a rag. I checked. He made a sizable bet. I called. The river was another rag. I checked. He bet $175. I had a feeling the entire time that he had nothing. And since he only raised to $7 initially, I wasn't willing to give him credit for having anything decent. What would he have only bet $7 on initially that would beat top pair, middle kicker? It felt like a bluff to me, so I called. He tabled pocket 4s. Ding!

I stayed at that table for more than five hours. I started to feel my attention slipping and some new players were getting seated, changing the table dynamics. I was getting hungry and decided to book my nice win and give up my seat to one of the many waiting players. Chalk up another good session at Venetian, which, based on many factors, is my favorite Las Vegas poker room.

I got dinner and thought that I might head toward Planet Hollywood to see if the poker vlogger/dealer El Diesel/Rice was there. However, I checked on Bravo to find there was only one table (maybe two) going, so I instead decided to play at Horseshoe. It was almost 10:30pm, and I knew this would likely be my last poker session of the night.

I was seated at a table with unique players. The aggro guy to my immediate right started winning, then spewing. The woman at the table who joined shortly after I did was making big raises with crap hands. After winning and losing some hands, I was feeling the need to make a move. A new player joined the table, and he put a terrible beat on the woman, hitting a four outer. He started making $25 blind raises. I looked down at 10-10. Since I know that the guy wanted to bet $25, I beat him to it. He called. The flop was not coordinated and was 9 high. I decided to jam all in. The opponent called. I thought that I was a goner when two overcards came on the turn and river, but my 10s held. He didn't show his cards.

A bit later, my table broke. My new table had a couple of players with big stacks. I had a streak when I was dealt great hole cards or crushed the flop. I felted two players, then got into a huge hand. I called a small raise in the big blind with Jd9d. The flop had a 9 and two diamonds. I checked. the initial raiser made a pot sized bet. I called. The turn was a beautiful diamond -- as long as he didn't have a bigg flush. I checked. He mad a big bet. I called. The river was a blank. I again checked. My opponent bet all in. I called, hoping that he was trying to get me to fold. He turned his cards over, one on top of the other. The top card was the Ace of diamonds. Underneath? The deuce of hearts! He bluffed off his whole stack!

One guy at the table (a reg, I assumed) was drunk or acted like he was drunk. He appeared sober enough to felt one player when he had the nuts. I took a bunch of money off him, including when he tried a big bluff when I had a good hand. I finally decided to call it quits after 3 1/2hours of play. It was an exceptional cash session.

I cashed out and headed to Planet Hollywood in search of El Diesel/Rice as I had something I wanted to tell him. He was still there and was getting ready to leave. We had a brief discussion, and I caught an Uber/Lyft back to the dirty castle. Time for bed.

Friday, December 12

I had thoughts of sneaking in a final poker session at MGM, but instead I hit the slots. A machine I won at the night before hit again. In fact, after a rough beginning at slots, I was winning on them almost everywhere between poker sessions. I grabbed lunch at Buca di Beppo in Excalibur (picture below), then headed to the airport.

My flight home was unremarkable except that it took off and landed late due to a delay in the plane's previous flight.

How did I do overall? It was the most profitable trip to Las Vegas that I have had in a long time -- maybe the most profitable ever. Most things seemed to go right after a disastrous first day. A Las Vegas trip where I got to play poker with friends, won at slots, and had several excellent poker sessions? Pure gold -- and a welcome distraction from playing the same old poker rooms around Phoenix. The poker gods were actually rooting for me this trip. Imagine that!

Thanks for reading. Comments on the blog are encouraged and welcomed.

Las Vegas Trip Report: December 8-12, 2025 - Part I

The beginning of December had, for many years, been a special time for me. I'm talking about Christmas, right? Ummm ... no. The beginning of December used to be the time when, back in the "good ol' days (I'm slightly past my 36th birthday, so I can say that now), a group of poker bloggers used to meet in Las Vegas for the World Poker Bloggers Tournament (WPBT), mixed games, and general gambling, eating and drinking in Las Vegas degenerate style. It was a great time: playing against, and sometimes meeting in person for the first time, a group of dedicated bloggers who played against each other in regular online poker tournaments. The biggie was The Mookie, which I tried to play every Wednesday night.

Along with the WPBT magic, the beginning of December also meant that Las Vegas would be flooded with cowboys. The cowboys that I played against at the low level No Limit games were usually fun, drank a lot, provided much entertainment, and appeared to be pretty fishy. This was long before the opening of many of the Texas card houses that are now all the rage. Memories.

Monday, December 8

I originally planned to drive to Las Vegas from greater Phoenix, but Frontier Airlines had a Black Friday sale. I was able to get a round trip ticket for the same price I used to pay a few years ago: $38. My poker buddy @ZetusLarry regularly takes Spirit and clued me on on getting the perfect size backpack that will fit as a free personal item. I am able to fit four days worth of clothes in it. So ... with my cheap plane ticket and four nights at the Dirty Castle, I was ready to go.

When I arrived in Las Vegas, the airport was really dead. The ride share area was sparse, allowing me to get an Uber in only a few minutes. The online check in at MGM properties has always been good for me, and I was already checked into my room that morning as my Uber delivered me to Excalibur. I thought that it was pretty exceptional to be in my hotel room (no early check in charge) less than two hours after my flight departed from Phoenix. Was this run good a sample of what was to come?

I considered eating at the Excalibur buffet (MGM buffet, where I sometimes go, was closed for a few days), but when I saw that the price of the buffet had gone up, totaling over $40 with tax and before tip, I decided to save my $50 food comp for another day at the Wicked Spoon. Fortunately, the Excalibur food court has a Jimmy John's, a favorite of mine since the franchise started in central Illinois (I used to live a couple of miles from Jimmy John Liautaud). After a sammich, it was time to head to my traditional first poker session at MGM.

Now, in the past, MGM used to be one of my favorite places to play. I did well, and was a close personal friend of the King of MGM poker, @Robvegaspoker. I still like playing there, but my results there over the past three years have been terrible. In fact, of all the casinos where I've played poker the past three years, MGM Las Vegas is the one at which I've lost the most money. After this trip, it finally surpassed the downtown Golden Nugget, where I just give money away.

MGM stayed true to form. I wasn't getting any cards at all and decided to leave after an 1 1/2 hours. I donked off some money on the MGM Megabucks slots. Yeah - I could use the $10,000,000. Later on, I decided to buy back into the MGM game. I hit the nut flush on a very wet board (board was paired any had straight possibilities), and of course, my turn bet didn't force out my opponent. The river double paired the board, so that ship sank fast. I eventually lost my shortie buy in (MGM is now $1/3 NL with a $1K max buy in), got some dinner, and headed back to Excalibur to degen some slot action and call it a day. The day started out so promising, but I had hopes that things would improve one way or another on Tuesday night since I would be meeting up with some friends to play poker at Venetian.

Tuesday, December 9

As planned from yesterday, I headed to Cosmopolitan in the late morning to have brunch at the Wicked Spoon buffet. Many years ago, I had gone to the Wicked Spoon at least  two times. Years ago, it had a well-deserved great reputation. I had heard that it had gone downhill after COVID-19 and since Cosmopolitan had become part of the MGM empire. I would find out for myself. The $49.99 price seemed a much better deal than the Excalibur buffet.

The buffet was pretty busy, but fortunately, I was seated almost immediately. The picture below was my first plate of food, highlighted by crab legs peach french toast, angry mac 'n' cheese, and my favorite, a bagel with cream cheese, lox, and capers. 

It was a decent start. Later, I had some really good tri-tip. The dessert was really the star, with wonderful gluten free chocolate chip cookies, cheesecakes, gelato, and many other great looking desserts that I did not sample. My verdict: perhaps Wicked Spoon is the best of the lower/middle tier buffets. It is clearly not in the same ball park at Caesars  Bacchanal Buffet or the The Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas. For a buffet with a better price point, I would go to the Garden Buffet at South Point.

After brunch, I decided to resume my poker at the Horseshoe. Years ago, when Horseshoe was Bally's and seemed to have a different location for the poker room every few years, I used to rule there. It was my honey hole where I rarely lost. Over the past several years, I have struggled to win there. Funny how things like that happen in poker. Well, true to form, I did not have a good session there. A doofus called a huge bet with a flush draw and hit it. A few hands later. I lost two pair to a bigger two pair. It was time to say goodbye to Horseshoe.

One thing for sure about Las Vegas: it is always interesting. On my way to Venetian for our meet up game, I saw the following:

Once inside Venetian and about a half hour early for the meet up game, I saw one of the players, Chris Abramski, already seated. At table 36! I checked in from my online sign up, and was able to immediately get seated at table 36. Along the way, the others in the game found their way there: NormInVegas, Flynn & Ollie (Erin), and @Onechiquita (Alysia). Let the games begin!

Norm, me, Alysia, Erin, and Chris

For whatever reason, I tend to run white hot at meet up games that I have arranged. Early on, in, I believe, the first hand Alysia played, she had A-A and I had 8-8. I called Alysia's raise to $21, as did another player. And guess what: the flop had an 8! Major props to Alysia for losing the minimum on the hand (about $100). However, the other player, with A-K, hit top top on the flop and called my all in raise. Ding!

As the session went on, I kept building up my chip stack. It was a combination of good play, luck, and pretty good bluffs. I cashed out a pretty tidy sum once it seemed that my momentum had stopped and some of the other players at the table were replaced by seemingly better players. Shortly thereafter Norm cashed out and drove me back to Excalibur to end the night. The sweet win at Venetian more than covered my previous losses at MGM, Horseshoe, and my degen slot activity, so after a rough start to the trip money-wise, I was feeling pretty good. At Excalibur, I won at slots before heading to bed. Perhaps this trip was going to be pretty good now that I seemed to shift my momentum. Little did I know what the poker gods had in store for me the rest of the trip. But the important point was that I was back ahead, and was looking forward to meeting a Twitter/X friend in person for the first time in the morning for breakfast.

Part II coming soon. 

Thanks for reading. Comments on the blog are encouraged and welcomed.

Cheating and Other Possibilities in Home Poker Games: Highway to the Danger Zone

One thing that always seems to be true about poker is that once a good scandal fades away, another will soon pop up in its place. In the not-too-distant past, we had the alleged cheating situation at Stones Gambling Hall. More recently, we were mesmerized by the "unique" way J-4os was played at Hustler Casino Live. However, the new poker scandal involving Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and ... shhhhhh ... the Mafia? While the previous incidents I mentioned made headlines in poker and other venues, this new scandal is HUGE! Things will likely get even uglier as this story unfolds.

When I lived in Illinois and worked at a community college, I found out that one of my department's student workers (a woman in her 20's) was a poker player. When she found out that I played poker, she invited me to a private poker game that was in town. Since the nearest legal poker venue was 90 miles away, I jumped at the chance. My wife had made me an excellent poker table that I used for my home games with friends, but this offer exposed me to a whole new group of people. The worker played in what I called my International Poker Game. It consisted of several Iranian students, a few other students from other countries (I had no idea which ones), some regular in-town residents, and the guy who ran things -- a computer educator from India. The majority of the players were college students. We played in a conference room of a nearby public university.

We usually started out with a tournament, then headed into cash games, which were much more popular. Once I had a few sessions under my belt, figuring out the players was pretty easy. There was the tight guy and the engineering PhD student who famously said "All hands have potential." He was terrible at poker, but sometimes got lucky. My student worker was pretty shrewd. There were a few other assorted characters. One Iranian guy, I suspect, was filthy rich and loved to raise, chase, and spew. it was quite a group.

I never had any thoughts that the game was anything but honest. The players were all good people. However, as we played more and more sessions, the amount of money in play started getting bigger. Since we were doing this activity in a conference room at a public university, I had two fears: we might get busted, or we might get robbed. I had already understood that if the game was busted, it was possible that my job would be in peril. I finally decided that the risk was too great and was hesitant to play. Others also faded away, and soon the game was pretty much over. It was fun while it lasted.

An industrious player from the group decided to start his own home game. It was held in the basement of the guy's rented university house. The pot was minimally raked, but pizza, snacks, beer, and soft drinks were provided, so I didn't mind if he made a modest profit on the game. The first potential sign of trouble was that either I miscounted my stack, or someone at the game had pilfered one or two of my green chips. To this day, I don't know if I was ripped off or not. I like to think that I just miscounted.

The guy who ran that game (who I knew was a good guy) stopped at some point, and some other guys who I didn't know very well took over the game. They had names and cell numbers of the players. They called me and I went to a few of their new home games. However, at these games, I was not winning at the same rate as the others. I had not been a total crusher, but I had done okay previously. Things had now shifted, and winning almost any significant hands seemed difficult. Either one of two things happened: I was now the fish at the table, or there was cheating going on. I had a really bad feeling that there was some collusion going on and that I was targeted. I decided that I couldn't trust the game as being on the up and up, and never returned. I was texted several times to recruit me to play, but I held firm. Finally, they stopped texting. Strangely enough, A year or two later, I got a random text, inviting me to a game. I just ignored it.

In looking back now, I think I was pretty foolish to have played in the International Poker Game once the money started getting big. The university police would have had a field day breaking up the game, but I began to worry more that someone would get greedy and conspire to rob the game, or that someone else would catch on to what we were doing and decide to pull off a heist. It was a fun game with great people, but the risk became too big. It certainly wasn't worth the possibility of getting injured or even ... yeah.

Once the game moved and was run by people I didn't really know, the fun stopped. Was I the big fish or was I getting cheated? To this day, I do not know. My gut tells me that I was a mark and was losing to collusion. I guess I'll never know.

When I heard that one of my poker friends got invited to a home game by people he didn't really know, I urged him to say no. There are always straight games at casinos. And outside of some private games with friends, casinos are now the only places that I will play. I am fine with that as I have three good poker rooms that I can drive to in 30-55 minutes. At least if I lose, I know that it is legit.

Comments are welcomed. Thanks for reading!

Dealing with a Bruised Heart

Today is just one of those shitty days you have when you have children. And no -- I'm not complaining about anything terrible that happened. Today is just one of those days where I feel like my heart is bruised. To explain ...

I have three adult children -- two girls and a boy. The middle child is my son, Rick, who recently turned 31. Rick has had many challenges in life. A major one was 15 years ago when we found out that he had a rare form of salivary gland cancer. Thankfully, he was treated by a specialist at the Mayo Clinic. He has been cancer free ever since. After high school graduation, he went to the community college where I worked for his first year in college. He also had some AP credit from high school and had even taken a college course in Russian while in high school. After one year, he transferred to the University of Illinois as a Math & Computer Science major, moving out of our house to live in an apartment near campus. What was never medically diagnosed but was evident to me was that he was dealing with PTSD from his cancer incident. Although he was gifted with a brilliant mind (likely genius or near-genius level), he messed up tremendously at UIUC. To the credit of UIUC decision makers, he was allowed to continue several times. To this day, I do not know how badly and have never seen his Illinois transcript, which I'm sure would horrify me as I graduated summa cum laude and went on to receive a Master's degree before I burned out on school.

When he finished at UIUC, his programming knowledge meant there were no shortage of places interested in him.  He accepted a job at a small company in Seattle and moved there -- a mere 2000+ miles away. He worked for a few different places, then settled in working as a programming engineer for Best Buy. Unfortunately, the company was cutting back and began laying off people. Rick survived to the final cut, but had to leave. At about the same time, he broke up with the woman he had been living with for eight years. He was devastated and started spiraling downward, hiding how bad he was from his parents. When we realized how badly he was hurting, we begged him to move in with us. Last year at the end of November, my wife flew to Seattle and moved him and a van full of possessions to Phoenix. He got a job at a local business to put a few dollars in his pocket. However, the unfortunate part is that he hates Phoenix! He has been trying to get a professional job in Seattle, a task made more difficult while living 1,400 miles away. Despite a ton of support form myself and my wife, he was miserable here. The three of us had a meeting and established a plan to move him back to Seattle. He will live with one friend, and has another friend who owns a business and will hire him part time while he continues to look for a full-time professional job.

This all sounds good, but there is one part that is terribly unsettling: he is again leaving us, living a good distance away. Except for a few random weeks, Rick had not lived with us for over 12 years. We had been empty nesters for four years before he moved to Phoenix. It was truly a blessing to have the past eight months with an adult child living with us. We all actually got along pretty well as my wife and I bent over backwards to help him to heal and feel comfortable. But man, he just hated living in Phoenix. He hated the hot weather, lack of green landscape, lack of an ocean, ...

Well, today is moving day. My wife, our resident moving expert, based on dozens of moves in her lifetime, headed out with Rick this morning to make the long drive to Seattle. And while I am extremely thankful that I got this time to reconnect in a great way, I feel pretty frigging devastated right now. However, I keep in mind that two friends in town have had to deal with much worse things. One had an adult son who passed away earlier this year from cancer, and another whose son took his own life two years ago. I can't even begin to imagine the pain they felt.

One nice thing about the past eight months was that Rick and I were able to do many things together. We went to a cactus league game (Seattle Mariners - his team), a Cubs/Diamondbacks game, and three Phoenix Suns games, along with numerous restaurant trips since he is a foodie. We shot hoops together, kicked around a soccer ball -- lots of things that the retired dad could do vs the guy who worked a lot when Rick last lived with us.

So right now, the house feels very empty and lonely. Thank goodness that we have two dogs and a cat to keep me company this week. I'll busy myself with volunteer work the next few days to pass the time. I imagine that my mistress, poker, will sooth me me a couple of nights until my wife returns at the end of the week. And in ten days, I will be heading to Las Vegas to play some poker with friends, which I am really looking forward to. In the meantime, I'll deal with some hurt, but remember to be thankful for the gift my wife and I were given for the past eight months.

Comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading!