Are we there yet?
No?
Can I pass out now?
No?
Sigh.
Saturday morning started with the downtown troops making their way to the poker tournament we all came to Vegas to play in (some others might argue the WSOP was more important pffffff).
AlCantSleep, EvaCANHang, Dr. Pauly, Derek, and myself piled into a minivan/taxi to make our way to land of Genies, Harems, and bouncy waitresses. Yes, I looked at the drink attendants, I may be married but I'm not dead.
We got there a little early and chatted it up with World Famous Poker Pro Chris Halverson who was there extra early for the missus spa treatment. Also chatted it up several other bloggers who's names allude me due to the consumpion of alcoholic beverages that these casinos serve at the poker tables.
I'm whining about forgetting the names, not the free booze.
At 10am and after several announcements by our gracious and seemingly sober host, CJ announced to the poker director we were ready to put the cards in the air! Shortly after, a certain famous blogger and Full Tilt team member Richard "Quiet Lion" Brodie took time to drop by our humble tourney. Thanks again Richard!
I drew a tough table, with Otis' brother, BG, Human Head, Derek, and EvaWillCrackYourAces (absolutely no foreshadowing used here folks). Unfortunately due to the rapid escalating blinds the only "moves" you could make were in the early rounds. And after folding almost an hour's worth of 73o and K3 sOOOOOOted, I was getting blinded down. I made one check-raise bluff on a A J J board with 33 that got me back to my starting stack. Meanwhile people starting dropping like flies, having to pick a less then great hand to bust on. EvaCanRock's KTs snapped off Derek's AA with a flOOsh. I picked up the hilton sisters with only T900 of the original T1500 given to us with blinds at 300/600 and they held up vs. Derek's 78s.
I played three hands total in the tourney. Worth $65 of poker, no. Worth $65 to play with 70+ bloggers, most definitely.
The tournament director moved me to Otis' table where he recently tripled up with the hammer. What I didn't agree with, is that he moved me UTG + 2 when I had just paid both blinds on the other table. There were two other open seats and I was basically forced to push with any two cards in the next two hands. Turbo tourneys at Party have more play then this. Granted we weren't looking to play a 12 hour tourney, but a push-fest took any skill out of the tourney (not that I have any skill, but I can rifle poker chips!).
But let me state that the tournament WAS professionally ran, the tournament staff was courtious, the venue was awesome, and the people there made it memoriable. The poker room is one of better places to play in Vegas, so if you're in town and want to try your hand at $3/$6 limit or $1/$2 and $2/$5 no limit hold em', definitely check on the Aladdin. I just wish we could have played poker instead of Let It Ride.
Professional Craps Shooter Bill Rini pulled off a similar feat to the 1987 Minnesota Twins in his worst-to-first finish. Congrats Bill!!! I'm sure he didn't miss getting Gigli again.
The after party set up by AlCanParty at LaCantina features too many shots of tequila and some rather disturbing karoke. Unfortunately I couldn't stay long due to my parent's being in town and I wanted to hang with them for at least one afternoon.
So, me and the wife headed back to Freemont Street via the 301 bus instead of a cab.
Great choice.
For the next hour we were on the bus to go from MGM Grand to downtown Vegas. I fell asleep due to the mix of overheatedness, lack of rest, and yeah I drank a little too. Unfortunately there were no crack whores hitting on me to keep me awake unlike certain metrosexual bloggers. Maybe I need a frilly shirt to attract these saucy (or is it sauced?) ladies.
Finally getting back to Fremont Street, we checked out a nice car show being displayed up and down the street. My mom pointed out a Chevy that my dad's parents once used to haul all seven boys on road trips. Stopped off to get a couple of 99 cent drinks that only downtown can provide. The maragarita was tasty from the Fremont Casino. However... the fruity drink from the casino with the seductive deep fried twinkie eater above it, sucked about as hard as she was working the pastry. I'm known for drinking just about anything and not caring, but that drink ruined my buzz. Bleh.
After a decent wings and pizza deal back at the Plaza, I watch mom play some more slots and continue to amaze me with her luck on these things. She gets a lot of comps from Mystic Lake back home, and if her play is any indicator of how much she plays through, I can understand how she's able to do it and get piles of comps without spend a grand or two per trip.
Night time fell and the family went back up to their respective rooms while I got attracted to the one place I wanted to spend my last night in Vegas.
The poker room.
Seeing the mixed blogger game was filled up, I joined in a 2-4 game that featured a guy who gave money like a NBA basketball player at a strip bar. I'll only post one hand history because I used my psychic powers to read his hand blind. If you want to know your future love life and potential wealth call 1-976-Drizz-99.
Pre-flop: 4 limpers and a maniac/calling station/fish value raises in the big blind.
Flop: K J 9 (9 and Jack are spades)
Maniac leads out, all call minus one limper
Turn: J
Manaic leads out, gets raised by grandpa-plays-any-two-like-its-going-out-of-style, re-raised by another limper, cold-called by the fourth limper, manaic makes it four bets, all call
River: K (of Spades)
Manaic leads out, at this time I make my prediction out loud (shouldn't have done it, I know, I know, the drinks made me cocky for a little bit) that he had a small pocket pair probably 4s. Grandpa raises, next guy re-raises, manaic 4 bets, Grandpa caps, next guy caps, manaic caps.
Manaic does turn over his pair of fours (are people REALLY this bad?)
Grandpa turns over J2o for the ass-end of the boat
The other guy flips up KTo for the winner
I thought for sure someone would nail the straight flush with all the betting but there's proof that if you wanted to grind these low limit games your risk would be near nil. I lost $40 at that table due to zero cards but it was educational and not to mention eye-opening as to how bad live players truly can be.
Ended the night with a couple of orbits at the mixed game blogger table and Al mentioned there's some SnGs going on in Pauly's room. Greeted by the Doc's thousand watt smile I settled in to watch the internet poker scribes at work. The only memoriable hand was Iggy's A7 took down Pauly's big slick all-in pre-flop when two 7's flopped.
Since there was still 7 people left in the SnG I started getting the itch.
"Pauly, what poker sites do you have on here?" me pointing to his laptop.
I'm horrible, I know. I came to Vegas to play LIVE poker not the online variety. But I needed some action.
Loaded up Full Tilt (BONUS CODE: Drizz99) and sat down at a $100 max no limit hold em' table. With one table up I was able to make some moves instead of playing ABC poker and push some people off their hands except.... as Pauly quoted
The best part was having Drizz hang out and play Full Tilt on my laptop! During a rare lull in the conversation during the game, I heard Drizz bark at the computer screen, "Why the fuck are you calling my raise?"
Yes, I yelled at a computer monitor. I rule. :D
I ended up around $10, but it should have been more when I flopped a boat with 88 and someone with AQ caught running aces. In the past, I would have lost my stack from pushing on the turn when the ace came out. Luckily the suckout didn't hurt that much due to the fine bloggers cheering me on.
Best. Vegas trip. Ever. You guys rock, can't wait to meet up again.
Thanks for dropping by, now go play some online poker and yell at Fuzzi_Nutz69 for calling your semi-bluff re-raise :)
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