Made it

Well I made a quick exit from Yuma Saturday morning after a haircut and a trip by the bike shop. I made record time to valet at the Venetian. 4 hours and 27 minutes (4 hours and 37 minutes being the old record). Of course I forgot I was staying at T.I. for the first four days and it took nearly another 20 minutes to make my way across the street. Typical really. There were approx 300 people trying to check in when I arrived and there were approx 3 people working the desk. The greatest sight ever was the casino invited guest line that had exactly one person in it. The one person just happened to be gorgeous as well so that wasn't too bad either. Well I almost wouldn't have minded sitting in the lobby for an hour just to watch the talent that was checking in but I was itching to get to the poker tables.

So I get checked in and got a room on the top floor with a pretty sick view of my next residence, The Palazzo starting in a couple days. As much as I wanted to lay down and take a nap after the drive I wanted to get downstairs and take some money from people even more. One pretty damn funny occurence on the way downstairs was when I got in the elevator on the 30th floor. It stopped on the 29th floor and an absolutely beautiful blonde got in. There was that usual uncomfortable silence as the elevator headed down. All of the sudden the door opens at the floor dedicated to Wedding Chapels. I looked at her and ask if we should go and we both broke into uncontrollable laughter. She said "Maybe later this week!" So she's saying I have a chance! After 31 years of being a single man that was officially the closest I have ever been to marraige!

Well I finally made it to the poker room and had to wait a little while for a seat. In poker this is a great thing because it gives you a chance to pay attention to the game from an outsiders perspective and get a good idea of who plays what kind of cards and how they play them. Taking the time to study the players prior to getting into the game is so important and people, including me, just don't do enough of it prior to taking a seat and putting their money at risk. What I observed in the 30 minutes waiting for a seat was that one player in particular was scared to death to see a flop and then play afterwards. Three times I saw him reraise all in for a huge stack with 10 10 and Q Q twice. A dream player to catch a hand against sometime. Well when I finally got a seat, ($1-$3 NL with $500 max buy-in by the way) with the second hand I was dealt was KK and I raised to $15. One half of a second later the same kid eating retard sandwhiches the whole night pushed all in for $600. I couldn't get my chips in fast enough based on what I had observed earlier and imagine that this was the one time he happened to have AA. Just like that I am in for $1000. Well we play for about 5 minutes when I get dealt AK of hearts and I raise again and was called by one person in the big blind. We see a flop of Ks 10h 2h. What a monster flop for me. first guy checks and I bet $30 and he insta pushes $500. I about fall out of my chair in disbelief that this could be happening to me yet again. Even if I am up against a set I still have the nut flush draw as well. I just can't fold this hand and I call. He tables AA and the board completely bricks. Boom! I am now in for $1,500. My stay in vegas is not getting off the start I was looking for! With my next $500 I grinded my way back up the ladder to about $800 over the next 10 hours or so but was having an absolute blast with some of the people I had met at the table. Lots of shots and people having fun. Now many of you may ask why I am playing in a $1-$3 NL game after my first couple of blogs talking about playing $5-$10 NL with $2,000 buy-ins. The truth is that you can almost ask anyone in the T.I. poker room where they are staying on the strip and 90% of them will say they are staying there. Real poker players do not come to vegas to play low stakes at T.I. , they go to places like I used to at the Bellagio and the Venetian. Well there are just too many ballers at those places and way to many people with $200 wanting to give poker a try at the good ol Treasure Island so that is my place of choice.

It was approaching 5am now and I was till stuck about $700. To my imediate left there was this completely crazy old man and I am talking OLD. He kept complaing about everything known to man.... Shit gotta go. Dinner break at the Venetian $1,000 tourney is about over, More to come later