Final Vegas recap

You know what? If I recap every detail, I would have like a 5 part post... and I am starting to see other bloggers do their recaps in one post... so I'm just gonna make this my final version and cram a bunch of shit in. Apparently, I lack the ability to keep things short but I'm gonna try. And also, sorry for the lack of links but at this point you know who these people are.

On Friday, Schaubs, LJ, and I went to play poker at the Venetian since I wanted to be in the vicinity of the Palazzo when Bayne checked in. His flight was to arrive at 7 and since Schaubs and I were mooching off his comped room at the Palazzo (seriously, how good does this guy run!?), I just wanted to be around when he came so I could drop off my luggage and stuff before things got out of hand. Poker at the Venetian was like a joke... so many soft spots and people donating me money... even weirder was when our table broke, LJ, Schaubs and I were still able to be play at the same table... where I ran into a friend of mine from college that I hadn't seen in 11 years. That was completely random. This was also the table where Schaubs made an inexplicably, jaw-dropping fold after he check-raised the flop and bet-out the turn... I'll let him recap the hand if he wants to but after finding out what he had, I think I shat myself a little. Ha ha, ok, I'll stop, we gave enough shit to Schaubs about that hand already.

Well, as planned, when Bayne got in, we went up to the room for yet another awesome experience... I mean I knew that all the rooms were suites (I've stayed at the Venetian before) but still, when I walked in, I was amazed... Just check out the pics...





And check out this lame, poorly taken video. I should never do a video blog...

Nevermind... I tried uploading a video but it failed... ha ha ha, anyways, it was a pretty crappy video of the blinds automatically going up and down with the remote... yes, I'm easily entertained.

I missed all the action at Hard Rock and the MGM but Bayne, Schaubs, and I threw some dice at the Palazzo... the $15 minimum is pretty vicious. We played there for a few hrs and I think both Bayne and I took like a $500 hit... (and NOT because I threw poorly) - there goes my poker profit for the week. Thank god for the earlier session at the Venetian. We grabbed some late night munchies at the Grand Lux Cafe at the V and then went to bed... my god, the best sleep I had in a week. Love the Palazzo.

Saturday was the blogger tournament at Caesars. This year, I really haven't read up on the blogs... so, even when the winter gathering details came up, the only thing I knew was that it was the weekend of 12/11-12/13. Aside from that, I just assumed that there was another blogger tourney but like in other years, I thought it was at the Venetian. That's how clueless I was... I was also aware that there was some sort of a last longer side bet by teams... and the only reason I know that was because I was on a team... I didn't even ask to be on a team or look for interest by other bloggers. One day, Bayne pops up on my chat and asks if I want to be on the team with him and Gnome. Since I didn't really care, I accepted. I didn't know what the prize was or whatever but I figured it wasn't much since it was a side bet and I had no good reason to turn it down. My only concern (which I told LJ) was if I felt too lazy and didn't make it to the tournament... of course, that thought went away when Gnome told me about how psyched he was about our team when he saw me on Thursday. He was clearly our team captain, coming up with team names (even though he choked under pressure and told CJ that we were "Team Spewmonkeys"... we later corrected him as the appropriately named "Team Roach").

Well, little did I know that so many things had to go right for us to put together this solid team. Initially, it was Schaubs that apparently wanted to put a team together. He had asked around and so the team was initially going to be him, Gnome, and Bayne (clearly, a "B" level team). Schaubs then displayed his love for his country by opting to go with Team Canada which was supposed to be with himself, BamBam and Fag55. Sadly, Fuel bails on the trip and so the Canada team took a slight hit... of course, Fuel was replaced with Pebbles so in terms of number of team members that love men in team Canada, that was unchanged. (Clearly an inside joke, hopefully, none of this offends anyone reading this)

So, since Schaubs abandoned the then unnamed team, Bayne hit me up. Upon my acceptance, we went from an unnamed team to an "A" level ballah team (obviously). What? You want proof?



How bout them apples!?

Oh wait, what's this? An email from Stars?

Hello Dirty Vizzer,

Congratulations on your performance in the WPBT Winter Tour 09 Luckbox Last Longer Challenge, your account has been credited with your prize money.

Regards,

PokerStars Marketing


Ha ha ha, yeah, we won... the appropriately named Team Roach roached our way into the lowest combined total amongst three players with Bayne busting in 22nd-ish, me busting 17th, and Gnome final tabling at 5th for a combined 44 points which apparently was 22 (?) spots higher than the second place team. Damn we're good*.

*these are obviously written in jest as I've said numerous times that I suck at tournaments.

So, in total, each of us got $120 in cash, $500 in our PS accounts (as good as cash) and the kick ass trophy. Funny thing is, that side bet totals more than the 5th place cash that Gnome got which was like $512 or something like that. Good times. And before I forget, thanks to CJ for putting this together. You are the man.

Sunday, my flight left at 6:30am so I stayed up all night and left the Palazzo around 5am after finishing a late night/super early morning breakfast with Bayne and Schaubs. I missed out on what seemed like a great time at the Palazzo sportsbook on Sunday but at the time I booked my flight, I still had a job that I would have had to go back to on Monday. Wow, when I think of it that way, how things have changed so much in such a short time.

To all of you in Vegas, it was great seeing you again. It's always a pity that we don't get to spend more time together but nonetheless, I had a great time. It's amazing how little we know each other in person and yet whenever we get together, it's like old friends reconnecting. I look forward to seeing you all in the near future. Till then, I'll be basking in the sun... even in January.

Yours truly,
the Asian Floridian

I'm from Florida dammit! (part 2 of Vegas recap)

Now that I have unofficially transplanted to Tampa (I am in VA today surrounded by boxes that the movers packed - still have internet though!!), when I was asked "where are you from" by anyone in Vegas (usually the bartender/waitress/dealers), I answered "Tampa, FL" (like they wouldn't know that Tampa is in FL). And I will say... that gets a much nicer response than saying "Richmond, VA." Let's see... usually, when I say Tampa, I hear "ooooh, nice" followed by some variation of how nice the weather must be now or how they've been there before and loved it. When I say Richmond, it is usually followed by a polite "nice" with an automatic bobbing of the head up and down like they approve it (to clearly mask that they really know nothing about Richmond) or for those that actually are more familiar with Richmond would say something like "that's close to DC right?" It's so much nicer when you're associated to something nice as opposed to just some remote city near DC...

So, by Thursday, I didn't even hesitate to answer FL to the often asked question. I usually don't play table games aside from craps because the last thing I need is an addiction to more -EV games. Well, Thursday is when all the bloggers get in and since I pretty much never play poker with them anymore, I decided that I should at least sit at the same tables and enjoy games, drinks, and the conversations. It's year 3 of blogger gatherings for me and I still didn't know how to play Pai Gow or Let It Ride. And I'm still trying to shake off the "ice man" title that was unfairly given to me (such a small sample of throws - statistically irrelevant, yet reputation wise, devastating) from the craps table. But anyways... that is neither here nor there.

BamBam summons me over to the Let It Ride table, telling me that this is almost +EV because you don't really lose much money per hand and yet you get "free" drinks so you know, if you hit a few hands, and break even gambling, then it's obviously +EV because you're getting your "free" drinks. I roll my eyes at the "free" drinks because there were countless times in the past that my friends and I would opt to gamble for the "free drinks" and it would cost us like $100 per Miller Lite... Well, anyways, so I did get to learn how to play this game called "Let It Ride" which was basically BamBam's way to sucker me into yet another table game where the attempt to get "free drinks" turns into, in this case, something like 5 drinks for $100... unless you run like Drizz in which case you get paid to drink (quadzilla in LIR? Really!?). Freakin luckbox bloggers. At least the weather in Tampa is 75 degrees now. (yes, I realize I am sitting in my empty house in Richmond - details, details) What you got, Minnesota/Canada donks?

So anyways, we're playing this game and having a good time when at some point, the dealer asks all of us where we're from. So, each of us answer and when I say "Tampa, FL" BamBam wasted no time in calling me out asking me how long I've been there. Dude... Well, that's ok because I take this newfound FL fury and I take it out on bloggers at the blogger tourney on Saturday but that brag post will be for part 3.

I also did mingle at the Geisha Bar but as is the case in all these gatherings, you don't really get to talk with anyone for too long. I mean I talked to Gnome for a little while longer since I've known him now for a few years so that was cool but unfortunately I wasn't able to talk to Peaker as much as I had hoped we would. OhCaptain also came up to me and in my defense, he looked really different from how I remembered him from last year so I didn't immediately recognize him... and then he called me out on the fact that I no longer read his blog. (Hey, my bloglines now shows 2100+ unread posts total... and I only have like 80 feeds... so it's not just your blog that I haven't read) Well, anyways, he lost like 35lbs (sorry if I'm wrong, maybe more?) so yeah, I didn't quite recognize him. Apparently, he's on his way to losing more so good for him.

So Thursday was like just a mass chaos of people arriving. I write this like a total afterthought but I also did dinner with LJ and her friend Augie and then Schaubs came in and we... shit, I don't even remember what we did. Thursdays are always like a blur, not because of all the drinking/gambling but because that's the night you talk to so many people and see so many different people that in order to recap it accurately, I'd have to have this post written on Friday... I just know that I was in bed by the time Schaubs called it a night and then when I woke up, Schaubs was getting ready to go play golf... in shorts... in a 30 degree weather (yes, Vegas gets cold during the winter time). Fawkin Canadians. (apparently, later, he wussed out and put his rain pants on)

I'm gonna abruptly stop this post now because I realize this is starting to become long...

Winter report - brief poker summary

Ok, so my trip report is essentially done. I'm not even sure if anyone cares about the poker portion of the trip but I feel that I owe it to the title of my blog to talk about it. After all, if I don't talk about poker... hell, I don't know where I was going with that sentence. Alright, so I'm just gonna recap the sessions, not to the detail that maybe Jordan would do in his 5 part post about a hand or two where he recognized the twitch in his opponent and pwned him because he read it correctly as a weakness... :) I love your blog Jordan, just giving you shit cuz I know you can take it.

I started writing out this huge post about each of the sessions but I got bored as I was typing it up. And I didn't take nearly as good a notes as I should have on winning sessions... Just dollar amounts. So, instead of going into each of them, I'll just post by dollar amounts. On second thought, I'm not even gonna do that. Overall, in poker, I ended up about +$700. I started off the trip -$300 but from Friday night on, I would go on a mini heater. But again, no crazy hands, nothing too interesting. I think it was more that the players were loose so they were calling me down with worse hands. However, I know I was able to extract a lot of value based on that because of one consistent theme that I enjoyed through this trip.

My hand reading was on point.

There were numerous times that I would literally call out someone's hand in my head and sure enough, that's what they flip over. Earlier in the trip, I was watching the other players when I wasn't in the hand and I would try to make a read on them. Now, I hardly ever play live poker. So, I may not recognize the nervous twitch, the mannerism, etc etc, but one thing that is the same online or live is a player's betting pattern. And based on that, I was able to really narrow down the hand range and like I said, for several instances, I was able to exactly pinpoint what they had. One example was when BaconMary (this was Sunday night poker) got it all in against two other players... I whispered over to the guy who wasn't in the hand that she had top set, the other dude next to me had to have a set and the donkey in the other seat must be chasing a flush. They get it all in, flip over the cards and sure enough, Mary has top set with her JJ, guy to my right who was fairly tight shows his bottom set (I think 4s) and the donkey who stacked off earlier chasing was on a flush draw that never got there. Mary scooped up a nice pot. And I was proud of myself for literally calling out the hand. Sure, it could have been that I was lucky. But that wasn't the first or the last time during this trip that I felt I had a good feel for what the players were holding. And when that happens, it really helps, especially in extracting value. There were numerous times that I made a fairly thin value bet to get an extra $30-40 out of a person and again, this was one of those trips where that worked out.

None of it mattered though because my whole poker profit was given back to the local economy via craps. Probably no surprise to the readers out there. But remember... I am due!!!!

Things I missed in the recap

There are always things that happen during the trip that no amount of recap posts could cover. Astin had the same idea (but beat me to it since he posts like 5 times a day... seriously, wtf do you do!?)

- I never got to do dial a shots. I promised Schaubs and LJ over text messages that I would... I never followed through. I was too drunk and having too much fun to text/call people. I did notice that I talked some shit to Fuel during the Steelers-Ravens game. I didn't remember this until I looked through my text messages the next day.

- Bayne has a knack for creating a nemesis. At the craps table, he introduced me the concept of position. Poker lingo was frequently thrown around as he was "raising" my bets "in position." You really had to be there to appreciate it. Few "checkraises" by me were priceless. At least I got to exercise "pot control" when the shooter crapped out.

- I saw snow. In Vegas. The morning that I was flying out was when the snow started falling. I was in the cab towards the airport when I saw it. Bouncers at the Rhino were talking about it though.

- Pauly mentioned to me that this is still one of the few blogs he reads. I remember him saying that before too and it's such an honor to hear that. When he commented on my post about the stuff that my mom found that belonged to my grandpa, I remember feeling very honored.

- I'll recap poker part of the trip in another post so that people not interested in reading poker stuff won't have to be bothered during the trip recap. Poker turned out to be profitable... craps table, not so much.

- Bad beat on the luggage. I didn't get it in time so they had to deliver it to my house. I guess it's not a total bad beat. It's like winning the side pot after losing the main pot to a bad beat.

All in all, it was a blast. Like everyone mentioned in their recaps so far, it's never enough time. And really, it just leaves a lasting impression. I remember walking through Imperial palace in April when I went there for my friend's birthday and when I walked by the hooker bar, it just felt weird when it was completely empty. I feel like I should always be able to find bloggers there. Hopefully, it won't be a full year until I see most of you again.

Winter gathering trip report Part 3

After we were cleaned out by the sirens that is the craps table, we called it a night. We didn't want to stay up too late (read: we went back to the room around 3am) because we had to check out of the room by 11. We went back to the sandwich joint at Bally's to claim the breakfast sandwich that was not available at 2am or whatever it was when we went there the night before. Bayne of course has to rub in the fact that his plastic reads "Total Rewards" and is comped by the action he gives to the Harrah's property as opposed to mine that proudly displays my company logo. I'm already on card tilt. He tries to rub it in further by telling me about the points but is unsuccessful in putting me on points tilt since I'm not even in the game... it's like bragging to me about how many UB points you have... I couldn't care less since I don't play there.

Note: As of today, I am now officially a member of Total Rewards. I checked my points balance online. I am a degen...

After dropping our bags off at the IP luggage checkin, we went upstairs to the sportsbook to join the other bloggers. I was getting fired up since it was a big game for the Steelers... the game against the hated Ravens. But before that, there was the big blogger event. The Real Football Fan test of Dawn Summers. As part of the committee, I was very interested in how she would do. Quite frankly, I didn't think she would pass. I just didn't think she would be interested enough to really study. And believe me. This test was no joke. The list of questions were quite impressive and even those of you who think you are a football buff would still struggle with some of the questions.

Once the testing started, I was impressed. I stood by her as she filled out her answer sheet and realized that she clearly did her homework. She crushed the test by getting 23 of 25 (requirement for passing was 20 of 25) while CK got a lot less (though she was exempt from Patriots related question, I think she will admit that Dawn did her homework). This event turned out to be a win win situation. If she failed, we woulda ridiculed her and still had a good time with it. Instead, she passed and the Patriots have a new, real fan. Any time there's a new real football fan, even if it's the Patriots, I would consider that a win. (Bad beat would be if she were a Ravens fan).

Once the testing was done, Bayne and I were joined by Joanada, Buddy, and Joshua Carlson for the Steelers - Ravens game. We were surrounded by Ravens fans but strangely enough, they were all nice people. At one point, I had to encourage them to start talking shit because I warned them that if the Steelers scored, we would be going crazy. We had the shots of soco queued up for the touchdown celebration. Unfortunately, that did not happen in the first half so we did one for good luck at half time. I think we had more after that but between the buckets of beer and shots of soco, my memory is fuzzy. All I know that when the Santonio Holmes catch was ruled a touchdown, Buddy and I celebrated like a bunch of school girls jumping up and down, hugging, downing more shots of soco... My memory is extremely fuzzy after this but I barely recall chowing down on some meat loaf at the IP with Bayne. I remember it tasting pretty shitty but I was starving so I wasn't picky.

Afterwards, I went over to play at the 1-2NL table at IP, another incredibly soft poker game, and since my flight was at 6am, I decided to just stay up all night and not get a room. Once I started sobering up, I walked over to Caesars to get some more food... except I wasn't feeling pizza and that was all that was available so I went over to the Venetian to the Noodles bar... I crushed the food there and then proceeded to play 1-2NL at the Venetian. Another winning session and then I decided to celebrate the winning sessions at the Rhino to complete my trip. At 4:30am, I left the Rhino smelling like cigarette smoke and cotton candy and headed for the airport. I felt pretty ghetto changing in the airport bathroom but I really didn't want to fly the whole way home smelling like that.

Man, I am a filthy dirtbag.

And this concludes the trip report. All, it was great seeing/meeting you. There are plenty of you that were not mentioned in the trip recap but I was happy to see/meet you all. Especially smokkee and Tina since I didn't get to meet them in the previous gathering.

Winter gathering trip report Part 2

So I left off last time with the part about how we went to the Venetian to get some poker fix in. Friday, I played the part of Mr Unsocial and actually just hung out by myself, playing poker over at the Venetian and then at the Wynn for most of the day. It wasn't until the evening that I joined the rest of the bloggers over at MGM. That was also around time my roommate for the trip was arriving. By the time he arrives though, he's on airline tilt since his flight is delayed so he proceeds to start drinking... a lot. He describes it in his trip report but he's drinking out of this gigantic glass that he bought for $9 with $5 refills. At one point, he finishes the glass, goes for 2nds and then is like gone for like 15 minutes. I wonder what happened to him and then he comes back to tell me that he finished the second one while he was at the bar and he was already working on his 3rd. I made sure to get the room key and the room number before he was too far gone.

When I got back to the room, I was very impressed. We were staying at Bally's cuz he got comped and so the room was "free." But really, the room was awesome. Much better than the $40 room I had at the IP for Thursday night... I mean I'm not complaining. I love the IP. Cheap and great location and I really can't ask for more... esp since I only spend like 4-6 hrs in the room... tops...

Friday was really a poker day. And the action was starting to pick up. More tourists and cowboys were coming in town and so the tables were definitely starting to get juicier. Then, on Saturday, we had the winter poker blogger tournament. I bust out early when I reraise Doc's LP raise from the BB with AK and we see an ace high flop. I cbet, he calls so I immediately put him on a hand like AJ or AQ. Maybe a set but you really can't fear sets in situations like that... esp since my reraise was a good chunk, I killed whatever set mining odds that you would ordinarily need. Not that that matters but that's always my intention is to make sure that the person is paying the wrong price to make the call. Well, I took his call as a weak ace so I decided to value bet the turn... except when he raises, now I know I'm probably screwed. But I have 6k remaining and the pot is like $16k after he raises me so I'm not gonna fold there. Maybe I should but I'm really not interested in roaching in that tournament. So I shove, Doc calls with his two pair and just like that, I am out. I felt bad that I didn't have a bust out bounty to give him... esp since Doc showed me his before the tournament started which was a nice card protector coin from Iraq. Whoever busted Doc must be psyched to have that. And Doc, it was fun playing at the table with you sir!

Well, once I busted out of the tournament, I just played more cash games at the Venetian to kill time until Bayne busted. I was in the mood to redeem myself at the craps table so when Bayne went out in a sick but fairly standard situation, I felt a little bad for him but I got over it quickly. We immediately headed over in search of some low stakes craps table and we were rewarded by a table at O'Sheas. You know, the empty tables are usually an indication of a cold table. And sure enough, I lived up to my hype as Iceman on my first attempt at redemption. First time I get the dice, I roll. Point is set. I think I roll one number in between. Maybe not. In less than a minute, I crapped out. Hey, at least if you're the one that likes to go the come bet route, you wouldn't have lost much money. However, if you go the Bayne system, then... well... sorry dude, at least I lost just as much. Well, maybe he won. He had a don't pass bet at first... however, I did redeem myself somewhat and by the end of the night, he was betting the pass line and placing bets... probably hoping that my "I am due!" statement would translate into some fire bet wins. Alas, I don't run like Astin so no fire bet cherry was popped for me. Seriously, how much of a luckbox is he!?

The irony of the craps table was that it was really cold at first, then it got better and once we were leaving Oshea's I think I was about break even... or maybe down a hundred or two. Nothing crazy. So Bayne and I go to Bally's and we decide to get some late night grub. After we down our sandwiches, we start heading to the room... but of course, the casino knows Bayne... so they cleverly place the craps table right by the elevators. We CAN'T not play if we're passing the craps table, regardless of how empty it is. So, sure enough, we pull out our cash and start placing bets. Few rolls later, we're down a couple of hundy. I am ok to call it quits, regretting the decision to play at this obvious cooler of a game when they tell us that they are closing down the table. You know shit's not going for us when they actually choose to close down a cooler table. You also know Bayne is a degen when he takes another hundy to go place bets at the other table since ours got closed. It didn't take long before we were in the elevator heading up to our "free" room. Between me and Bayne, I think we lost a combined total of $500 (memory is a little fuzzy so I could be wrong).

Bally's 1 - 0 Bloggers

Note: LJ, no spooning or any inappropriate behaviors took place during my stay at Bally's with Bayne. For real.

Winter gathering trip report Part 1

So I see that some people have already started the trip reports. Hell, some even did trip reports during the trip itself. That's sick dude (no pun intended). Well, I guess I'll start at the very beginning.

This year, I haven't been as active in the blogging community as I have been last year. In hindsight, I do wonder if my shaky marriage had something to do with how involved I became with the bloggers last year. My exwife traveled for work a lot and was out of town during the week but since I was married, it wasn't like I was gonna go out and get drunk and try to pick up chicks on the weekdays. So, I turned to online poker and to blogging, and there, I met a bunch of people that I now refer to as friends (LJ, notice the lack of quotes please, tyvm). Fast forward a year and now, as my divorce gets finalized, I am going out a lot more, hanging out with my friends, unsuccessfully trying to pick up chicks, and all in all, having a great time. This meant less time for poker, less time for blogging, and definitely less blogger tourneys. And I am not gonna lie. I was ok with that. Sure, I miss gchatting with my usual unproductive counterparts but besides that, I was totally ok with it.

What all that meant was that to be honest with you, I wasn't really looking forward to this trip. Sure, it's Vegas. Sure, I will still get to see some of my friends and sure, I would be able to put more faces to names. But even then, I just wasn't so excited. I thought, hell, if I just wanna play poker, I could play online. And if I just wanted to get drunk, I can do that with my buddies here. So why was it that I was going there again? Most of the ones that I became really close with over the past year weren't gonna be able to make it. I mean it was just looking like a bad beat all around!

Having said all that, I wasn't gonna back out of a trip to Vegas. Afterall, it is Vegas. Funny thing is, now, I no longer feel the excitement when the plane lands or when I get off the plane and into the airport. I see the slot machines and it's kind of a "no big deal, been there, done that" mentality... which was kinda sad, only because I miss the excitement that I used to feel for Vegas before. So, with the nostalgia gone and the whole trip was something I wasn't eagerly looking forward to, I just hoped that I could still enjoy the break from the daily grind.

But you know what? I knew why I would make every effort to make it to the winter gathering every year the moment I stepped foot in the Imperial Palace and walked to the Geisha Bar. Initially, I checked in, got all my stuff to the room and then came back down. The moment I got there, all the familiar faces are there. Al, Pauly, Buddy were the first ones that I immediately recognized. Then I saw Gnome and Kuro. Finally got to meet OhCaptain whose blog I currently do not read (sorry! that will now change!) but is a friend on facebook. Joanada giving me countless hugs from the moment she met me and all that served as a reminder as to how cool and open this group is... and that even if you don't always email each other or chat online or play in the same tournaments, when we all get together, it's almost like a high school reunion (I just assume since I've never been to my high school reunion). So, we start hanging out, catching up, just chatting. I meet PirateLawyer for the first time and he doesn't disappoint... within 2 minutes of meeting him, he's already telling me a bad beat story. Dude, good thing you passed your bar exam... you must owe a lot of money to a lot of people for all the bad beat stories you tell!

Eventually, Gnome, Kuro, PL and I decide to walk over to the Venetian to play some poker. One other thing I noticed this year about Vegas was how dead it was. Sure, there are still people but man, the tables were tighter and all in all, the action was a lot less than what I remembered from last year. The economy must be affecting it because I can't think of any other reason why it would be so different from the same time last year. On the way to the Venetian, we ran into Astin who did the whole canyon dive thing that he described on his blog. Sounds like a freakin blast and maybe next year, I'll have enough balls to do it. Once we get to the Venetian, we all sit at different tables and I'm not gonna go into details because quite frankly, poker is a pretty minor part of this whole trip in relation to the fun factor of other things. I might eventually post some interesting hands but really, I don't want to make that a part of my trip report since I have a lot more to talk about. It's weird how a gathering of poker bloggers would lend itself to me posting about a bunch of nonpoker related stuff. But that's why it's fun.

Part 2 to come later.

I run so good! (not quite the trip report)

I just landed in Richmond... and as I sit here typing away at the airport, one might wonder why I'm not just picking up my luggage and going home... I mean afterall, I didn't sleep at all last night... In the past 24hrs, the only sleep I got was the 3 hr flight from Vegas to Atlanta. Well, that was cuz I got dealt a great turn card. Let me explain.

Preflop, my hand selection was perfect. Since CK pointed out while I was planning my trip that the Ravens - Steelers game would be on Sunday afternoon, I should get on the red eye Sunday night or take an early Monday morning flight. So, after weighing out my options, I chose to take the 6am flight out of Vegas on Monday. The only decision was whether I should get a hotel room for Sunday night but if I have to leave around 4-5am to get to the airport in time for my flight, I thought getting a room was pointless. I was already freerolling the hotel portion of this trip by staying with Bayne... well, maybe freerolling isn't quite the word since it was a very expensive free room... fawkin craps tables...

So, anyways, I stick to my plan preflop and stay up all night. The flop was just what I hoped for and I was able to catch my flight out of Vegas and pass out on the plane. Next thing I know, we are getting ready to land in Atlanta. As soon as I get there, I get off the plane and realize that the gate across from where I just got off the plane is boarding for a flight back to Richmond. My initial flight was supposed to be at 2:30pm but this one is also Delta and this one leaves at 1pm! I go across and ask the gate attendant if I could switch my flight. She says no problem! Nice turn! The only issue was that I checked my luggage in at Vegas so that will be coming back on the later flight. She asked if I still wanted to proceed. Hmmm, facing a raise I see. No problem. Free wi-fi in Richmond vs not free in ATL made it an easy decision. After all, that'll give me some time to write up the trip report!

So now, I just sit here typing away and hoping that the river doesn't fuck me. If my luggage somehow doesn't make it here at 4pm (my initial arrival time), then that would be a bad beat!!!

Huh? Oh yeah, I guess you guys will want the full trip report. That will be coming shortly.