It Happened Too Fast

The vacationers lined up at Gate H4 at the Hubert H. Humphrey terminal for their trip out of reality. A large Native American with a gaudy dream catcher charm and hat too small for his head and long braided hair spilling out the back from a local mechanist union stood with a wide smile across his face as if lady luck was going to pay him an extended visit while visiting the local casinos along Freemont Street. Heidi, according to her extensive back tattoo laced with thorns and a rose, emitted the body language that her boarding the Sun Country Airlines flight to Las Vegas was for business and someone elses pleasure.

Crossing the two Vegas clichés was your hero, as I left Terminal D upon touching down at McCarran International. This was the first time going to Vegas that I didn’t join in the camaraderie of the captain exclaiming GOOD LUCK to the gamblers fifteen minutes before touching down with a bounce better left on a racquetball court versus a multi-million dollar plane hitting a runway.

This was business.

Of course with business one must network out to those with similar interest and expertise in order to gain knowledge within their field. Late night Six Sigma planned strategy sessions were crucial to success of this trip. The meeting’s facilitator Ken was from China as the name badge read. Cropped hair with crisply ironed Christmas green tint, his shirt shouted POWER PLAYER as he dealt to the wary receivers of his slung cards along the half mooned shaped table. Ken would show his crafty dealing ways by having your hero set his PAI GOW hands incorrectly so the house would win repetitively.

Maybe we should have staked him for the WSOP instead.

The World Series of Poker’s ambiance to a casual fanboi like myself second to none as I entered the Rio’s massive orgy of card players and $10 foot long margarita souvineer glass holding tourist craning their overly burnt necks to see Barry Greenstein pull off a bluff to remain in the hunt of the $50,000 HORSE tourney. Personally my first taste of the tourney was degenerate enabler Joe Speaker’s suggestion to try out an SnG satellite as we waited for some hard working media types to lay down their notepads for the evening as stories needed to be told across from overpriced bottles of beers and Jack-high PAI GOW hands.

Speed poker was the name of the game for the $1500 in lammers, despite the $175 price tag on the postcard sized entry slip into the nine seat. One false play by yours truly after getting desperately short like running top pair into a flopped set, and it was time to nurse some beers at the All American Bar and Grill until our blogging brethren dropped by. Mean Gene, Otis, and Spaceman would gather for a spell as around the Bass bottles and juicy cheeseburgers lined table, we represented five of the United States regions.

Later on we’d meet up with Ken once again back at the Gold Coast in a late night strategy session to discuss the pros and cons of pushing top set off the flop when your opponent has a low wrap plus flush draw and you are facing elimination.

Before I leave today’s post hanging for the start of the WSOP event recap tomorrow (pending upon work), I’d like to thank once again all the bloggers who made this possible as I sit down today back in reality, my smile which seemed permanent (except for about an hour after the event) for the whole four days still hasn’t left my face. It was a experience of a lifetime and highly recommended to anyone who hasn’t “taken their shot” and feels as if they have an edge on the field.

Tomorrow we’ll get into wrap draws, valant defeat, warthog redux, and taking a shot at the bigger cash games.

Thanks for dropping by, now a beleated happy birthday to Change100, as I forgot to bring this fabulous pair of neon pink Crocs I had my eyes on to go with a John Deere "I Love Farming" t-shirt from Fleet Farm, but I’m sure she won’t miss em :)

And thanks to CC, Pauly, Otis, Spaceman, Gene, Speaker, and Change100 for checking up on me before, during, and after the tourney. I wouldn’t be here or there or anywhere without these folks. Keep up the great work you all do.