Finally a Chance...

to "Make it Happen". Years and years ago I had a dream of someday having a shot at making some real money in the poker world. I was able to play in a tournament on television back in 2006 and after failing to win the $500,000 first place I had no choice but to return back to my career in the military (not that I'm complaining about an amazing 12 years in the Marine Corps). I have had small chances here and there to play the game I love but never on poker's grandest stage, the World Series of Poker.

It cracks me up reading back 4-5 years ago on this thing and reliving some crazy trips to Las Vegas to play in cash games and poker tournaments. I have met some amazing people over the years at poker tables from Atlantic City, NJ to Sydney, Australia to Singapore to Las Vegas, NV. I have even had a few offers of sponsorship but have never been able to fully take advantage of them and "take a shot". The time has finally come where I have received yet another offer and I'm at a place in my career where I am able to take a couple weeks off to head out to Las Vegas.

While I will avoid the exact financial arrangements of this poker trip, I will say that I am extremely excited to get this started and finally have a shot at making some life changing money. I am also well aware how difficult it will be to make any meaningful money.

I tried to get this blog going again when I lived in Washington DC back in 2009/2010 and was starting to play a little more online poker but I just never got around to doing it. Now this opportunity has arisen and here I am. Other than some status updates on Facebook I figured this would be the best way to keep people informed of how things are going at the tables.

Like I said above, I lived in DC for a year while I was at Expeditionary Warfare School and never really got the chance to play any live poker. When I was able to, I played some online tournaments here and there on Pokerstars. For those of you who don't know, "Black Friday" occurred last spring and online poker has become a thing of the past for the time being. There wasn't really any poker to write about for the rest of 2010. I also met someone that was competing for a larger and larger portion of my time. About 6 months prior I met an amazingly gorgeous young lady named Jennifer Pitu.

While she still lives in DC and I now live in Texas we are never more than a short 13 hours of plane rides and rental cars apart (sense sarcasm) I am currently an Instructor Pilot at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas with the VT-22 Golden Eagles. We fly the T-45C Goshawk and train the next generation of America's finest Naval Aviators.

I have been stationed here for two years now and with one more year left I have begun to explore options that will get me back to DC next summer (I know Jenn has her fingers crossed)

Other than the flying, I have rediscovered my love for playing poker since arriving here in Texas. I have met scores of people that have local home games and have been lucky enough to have a game I can play in 7 days a week if I desired to. It was after nearly two years that I received a couple phones calls from friends trying to get my email address for a friend of a friend that I played poker with back in the day. I received an email a couple days later with an offer that will finally give me a shot out in Las Vegas. In 5 days, on June 29th, I am flying out to Vegas for 16 days of craziness at the poker tables. I am starting out with some small tournaments between the World Series ($1,000 and $1,500 No Limit Holdem Events) and the Venetian Deepstack Series ($600, $1,100, $1,600, and $2,500 NL Holdem Events) and will fill in the rest of my time with various cash games. My backer has paid for my plane ticket and hotel room for the two weeks but has given me the ability make my own schedule throughout so that I can maximize my playing time, and hopefully, success.

Be sure to check out the blog and on Facebook regularly starting next week for updates.

Last year first place in the $10,000 Main Event of the World Series of Poker was $8.7 million dollars!

The 2012 Main Event starts on July 7th and I will be there...

Poker...

I have been on hiatus from both the blog and the online poker world for a little while. I started playing a little more after New Years. Not a lot of great results. In addition to getting serious about getting in shape I have also began to focus a little more on poker when I get the chance to play it. I KNOW I have what it takes to make some money in this game but have never had any luck online. I have played great in live cash games and tournaments but online I have struggled. Hopefully things are changing! Yesterday made my first final table of 2010 at the $22 6-Max and finished 5th for $555. I was a little disappointed but should know by now that K6 suited always loses to K4 offsuit when it really matters (Dreaded 4 on the River). LOL oh well felt good to outlast 495 of them I guess. Well later today I saw that David "TheMaven" Chicotsky posted that his student, Orel Hershiser, took down last nights $22 Big Ante tourney. Well that was motivation to give it a try tonight and I made my second final table in less than 24 hours. The big difference was this time I was able to outlast the entire field for my first ever online win. I have certainly had bigger cashes but this was the first time I have ever "Closed the Deal". Hears to many many many more of them this year.

I will try and get a "Life" blog out when I get the chance. A LOT has happened since my last posts before Key West in April of 2009. Wow a long time. Till then...

The Pokerstars Monkey Competition

Ok here it is...

Back in January I logged in to play a little poker on Pokerstars.com. Every time you log in there is a quick pop-up letting you know what's new on the site. Well there was a pop-up talking about a promotion that stars was running that involved purchasing a stuffed monkey for 1,000 FPPs. (For those that don't know. These are Frequent Player Point not unlike VIP clubs at casinos. Points are earned for certain amounts of gameplay which in turn can be turned in for merchandise. To this day I have bought 2 Ipods, 13 Poker books, a Bose Sound Dock, Poker Chips, and a $1,000 Cannon Digital Rebel EOS camera.)

This promotion was that if you bought one of these 1,000 pt monkeys you were to go out across the world and take pictures with it. The most creative photo would win 100,000 FPPs. 50K to second and 25K to third. I had been saving up points for nearly 7 months and was up to 96,000 FPPs. My goal was eventually to get the LG 50" Plasma TV for 150,000. I was getting very close when this promotion came up.

I ordered the monkey and received it in late January. As most of you know I was still not flying due to my snowboarding accident at Big Bear the day after Christmas. The deadline for the photo competition was March 1st so I was running out of time. Fortunately I flew the third week of Feb and took the stuffed Monkey along for a ride with me. I took a couple pictures with the damn thing and then took one last one on the deck outside the jet so they knew it was me that took them.

I honestly forgot about it but saw that they were announcing the winners shortly after I got back from my marathon trip to Key West. Here was how I found out initially.

http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/store/promotions/monkey/



Absolutely ridiculous that I won after 4,800 entries from all over the world. So... now I had almost 200,000 points in my account and it was time to get a badass TV. Well I looked into the TV that was being offered for 150,000 points. Turns out that was a 2007 TV from LG and was only a $1,700 Plasma. I remember seeing that there was a way to get certificates and looked into it. There were $1,000 certificates available for 62,500 FPPs a piece so in the end I got three of them with my points and bought a Samsung 63" Plasma. It just came out on the 1st of June and is being delivered to my pad in DC. Yes I will have to write more on that soon. Very excited to say the least on that topic.

Well to wrap this up.... I was contacted by someone from Pokerstars and he wanted to interview me for an article on the Pokerstars website. I was really happy with how it turned out. Check it out.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2009/maverick-monkey-nets-pilot-100000-fpps-040010.html

Finally getting back...

Well I finally made it back to Key West on the first of April. We ended up being drunk late into the second of April as it turns out. Turns out the entire month of April was much of the same once the entire squadron made it down to the keys. We were scheduled to complete 144 sorties over the following 18 days but we only ended up getting about 70 max I think. I was only scheduled to fly like two times but ended up getting to fly six times. All six times I took a young wingman up to West Palm beach down through Miami where we jumped on the IR 053. The 053 is a low level route where we get to drop down to 500 feet and 500 mph and fly the length of the Florida Keys. Each and every time it got more and more fun as we got to buzz over fleets of fishing boats. I have always wondered what it looks like from their perspective. I imagine most of them are used to it and it is no longer cool to them. Here is a look at the shallow, clear water of the keys from above.



Most of the jets ended up leaving around the 22nd of April except for 2 that were having major maintenance done on them. I was picked to stay behind and bring one of them back as well as our XO, Maj Tre "Cheez" DelPizzo. At this point the last thing I needed was another week down there but I knew there would be a couple more fun times to be had. I really wish I was able to recap some of the more fun moments from the trip but those who know me know that I black out after about 3 drinks. Key West was no different. This picture defined our trip to Key West that is for sure!




Well it was finally time to get out of FL. One of jets were ready to be flown to make sure it was good to fly back to AZ. I took the jet up to Tampa and across to Miami and back to Key West and it performed as planned. Cheez took the other jet up and it was ready to take back as well. We left on the 29th after a solid 35 days in Key West and I could feel my liver rejoicing as I left the ground. I think my Iphone was as well after I lost the first one on April 5th and had to fork over another $500 for a new one. (Thank God ITunes saves all of your contacts!) We flew one leg and decided to stop in Pensacola for the night. When I was a student in flight school there was a place called The Fish House downtown that was an ok place for dinner but not much nightlife. Turns out this is now an amazing place. Wednesday night at The Fish House will be a night I hope to experience many more times.

We left the next morning and planned to make a stop in Midland, TX for gas and lunch and then we would finish the trip to Yuma. After a quick trip to TX we ate some lunch and were getting ready to make the final leg. About 8 minutes after takeoff I realized I proved once again I was an absolute idiot! I left my Iphone (Less than 25 days old) on the fuel tank of the jet when I took off. Though this was not the first time I had lost a phone (obviously) it was the first time I had lost a phone completely sober. Turns out I dont need a drop of alcohol in my system to be a complete moron. My phone was found 4 days later. At least half of the screen was on the runways anyways. Apple will officially never go out of business as long as I own an Iphone.

Well we made it back to Yuma at last and I couldn't wait to finally sleep in my own bed. I got home, took a shower, and laid down on the couch to catch up on TV. WAIT.... remember I am a complete moron. I never paid my cable bill while I was in Key West so my cable was turned off. Yes this means internet as well! So here I am laying on my couch with NO phone, NO cable, NO internet... I thought to myself this is a good chance to get caught up on my prereq reading for Expeditionary Warfare School. I grabbed the book Landscape Turned Red about the Battle of Antietam and turned to page I. Wait a second no page one? I haven't read a book in like... maybe 3rd grade. What is with page I, II, III... to damn XIVX or some shit??? Apparently at some point since gradeschool it became important to write a 600 page preface to the book thanking everyone from your Grandma to your pet toad. Needless to say I never even made it to the "actual" page 1. I only made it to like XII before I passed out on the couch. I woke up about 9 hours later at 4am and was able to get 30 min of sleep in my bed before going to the rifle range. Yes I am a Marine Captain going back to the rifle range so I can get one last Expert Rifle Award for my uniform. I would have to wait until Friday night before I would get to sleep in my bed finally.

I spent the next week of work with 3am alarm clocks so that I could be at the armory by 4am everyday to draw my weapon. The idea of trying for a 4th Expert Award seemed worse and worse everyday. At least now I had yet another Iphone and cable coming once again. Amazing how relaxing that weekend was though without any modern technology whatsoever except for running with my IPod. It was a ridiculously long week but worth it in the end as I secured my final Expert Rifleman award of my career.


On May 6th I received an email from Pokerstars that I will talk about in my next blog. This one has been ridiculous enough as it is. I guess that happens when you wait two months in between posts.

Now I am sitting in Raleigh visiting two old roomies from college, Greg and Lindsay. Tomorrow I will be heading up to DC to start the search for a place to stay for the next year while I attend school in Quantico and party it up at Jon Schaafsma's wedding in VA on Saturday. I only have about 3 more weeks left in Yuma when I get back and prob about 1 or 2 more flights left as well. It has been a great time but I am SOOOO ready to get out of Yuma.

Much overdue!

Ok a new blog is coming very soon. I am back from my month long booze coma in Key West and have a lot going on these days. More soon....

Spring Break Retirement Party

Ok, am I officially too freaking old for Spring Break? Nate Lie you are most certainly right "As I get older..." Lake Havasu was an absolute blast that I will never forget. Details will be saved for drunken nights with my friends but it was pretty crazy. Four days there had my liver screaming at me to stop.

Did I listen....

Of Course not. It got back to Yuma at 7pm Sunday night with my alarm set at 4am for a 6am flight to Key West. This time for another 4 days. Hands down one of my favorite cities on the face of the earth. This was like my 6th time back and one of the best for sure. Couldn't have been a better time to be down there either as it was St Patty's Day on the second day in town. Irish Kevin's and Finnigan's Wake were rockin a little harder than usual. Lots of Green and Lots of hours of blackout. It is a shame I have to go back for 26 days starting on April 1st. (My Liver will pray I am saying April fools that day as I board my flight)

To keep this short.... I am absolutely NOT too old for Spring Break just too old to start drinking from noon to 3am for 6 of 7 consecutive days. jesus

Cant wait to tell you all about it sometime... out

Lake Havasu

Am I too old for Spring Break? I will find out this weekend!

So much for that....

Well that 5-0 streak came to a crashing halt tonight when I dropped $1,500 in less than 3 hours at the casino. A mix of bad plays and unlucky scenarios meant time for me to get the hell out of there before it became worse... A minor setback but not too bad at all.

Been a while...

It has been nearly two damn months since my last entry. A lot has certainly happened since then though. Unfortunately there haven't been any crazy trips to Las Vegas but I am working on that. Things didn't go to well at Viejas back in January. I played great poker in the tourney but things just didn't go my way. All I can ask is that I play my best game and let the cards falls how they may. Fortunately I was able to clean up in the cash games that followed rather nicely. After gas, food, hotel, and two full days of poker (including a $1,050 buy-in), I left San Diego down about $300. Very successful trip believe it or not.

My life in Yuma has changed quite a bit lately as well. A couple months ago I found out I was selected to attend Expeditionary Warfare School in DC this summer. I have been looking for a place to live so if anyone has friends in DC looking for roommates hook a brother up. It is going to be an amazing break from everyday squadron life and give me a chance to think about what path I want to take with my career. I really have two options. 1. Come back to the fleet in the spring of 2010 for another 3 years. 2. I could go to Meridian, MS as a flight instructor for 3 years and basically have a jet at my disposal every weekend I want to use one. We shall see on that one. Just looking forward to getting to the East Coast for a little while.

Another reason I am ready to get away from Yuma is that some of my best friends, Greg and Suzanne York, have left Yuma and now live in Corpus Christi, TX where Greg is now a flight instructor. Yuma just isn't the same without them.

As of about two weeks ago I was able to get back in the cockpit and have been loving it ever since. I took Brian "Buck/Oprah" Mahoney on the road to Phoenix. We did some training flights that day but later landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. Rob Bowen, the catch from the Oakland A's, came out to meet us and we took some pictures with the jet. He is a great freaking guy. We went out and partied all night long which made for a very rough Saturday of flying but Buck and I made it through. Rob picked us up once we landed back in Phoenix that night and treated us to an absolutely amazing steak dinner in Scottsdale at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Highly recommend it for anyone who has never eaten there. Good luck to Rob as spring training gets going and thanks for the Jersey brother!



I came back and flew 4 of the 5 days the next week and am finally very comfortable being back in the cockpit. We will continue to fly quite a bit as we prepare for our Air-to-Air combat training detachment to Key West for the month of April. Even sooner than that, a couple of us are looking forward to partying it up on Lake Havasu for spring break in two weeks. I think Eddy is going to join us so it is going to be a great time. It's crazy to think about Spring Break since the good ol days with the boys from Miami. Panama City, Vail, and the Cruise. Great times.

As for poker, I am slowly getting back to playing after a small time off while I was getting started back in the cockpit. I have come out of the gates very strong and have put up a couple big wins. The new casino, Quechan Casino, that just opened up last month has a pretty impressive poker room. Fortunately for me, a much improved poker room doesn't mean improved players. I went by opening night and pocketed $900, went back the next day for a quick $450. Since then I have cleaned up rather nicely. Wins of $300, $1,100, and $2,500 without a losing session have made me come to love playing there as bad as the management is at times. I hope to improve on my 5-0 record there this weekend. (If I don't go to Vegas that is). Sunday I had decided to take the day off from poker so I hung out at the pool. Let me tell you that falling asleep poolside for someone as white as me was not a good thing. I have been in moderate pain since then. Better now than Lake Havasu I guess. Well I ran some errands after the pool and made it back to the house around 6pm. I couldn't resist and decided to play a tourney or two online. My play online has fluctuated madly with my account reaching $6,000 at its peak and was now back down to $1,200. Trying to stay within my means I played only two tourneys. One was a $100 ten man sit n go where the top five double there money and are done. They usually take about 30 minutes to complete one. Well I got knocked in 7th place in that one and pretty much just wanted to quit playing the other tourney I entered. It was a $27.50 buy in with 2,030 entrants. I ended up doubling up early and decided to give it my full concentration. 6 hours later, we were down to 15 players and I was the chip leader with $966,000. I had my eye on the first place prize of $8,600 but came up short when I finished 6th for $1,932. Although it may seem like small potatoes at this point, it was a huge accomplishment seeing what it takes to outlast a huge field like that for the the first time. Chalk it up to more experience.

Viejas Poker Classic

So not a whole lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. I have been laying pretty low trying to get my knee to start the healing process. Fortunately it didn't tear all the way through. I barely avoided surgery once again! Still not sure how long I will be out of the cockpit but hopefully I will be back sometime in Feb.

I have been putting in a lot of time into tournaments lately on Pokerstars. In 2009 I have already had more success than ever before. Not money wise but my results have been absolutely stellar. I have went very very deep in about 8 tourneys. Unfortunately I haven't been able to close the deal and score the big money in some of these. I have outlasted nearly 4000 entrants the last two Sundays to finish 35th and 44th for nearly $2,600 total between the two. The total buy in the for the two was $121 so not too bad. It pain me to think that if I had won both of them there would be over $200,000 in my account. I promise it is going to happen in 2009.

Maybe even this weekend! The first ever Viejas Poker Classic is this weekend Viejas Casino outside of San Diego. It is a $1,050 dollar buy in tourney that will pay $100,000 to first place. If I can get the cards to fall my way a couple times I feel I have a very good shot at this thing. A cash and possibly even a Final Table in this event would validate how well I have been playing lately and continue to push me to improve even further.

http://viejas.com/promo/images/ViejasPokerClassic.pdf

Any day now I am expecting to get the phone call to hear that I am a new uncle! My sister is due in the next couple of weeks so it is pretty exciting for the whole family. Especially considering my parents know there are probably no kids coming from me anytime soon. (Unless one knocks on my door one of these days and calls me daddy!) I never rule anything out.

Once more chance this weekend to live up to the name of this so called blog!

Happy New Years

Yes I am posting this from the couch just a couple minutes before 2009. I am somewhat tipsy on Vicodin and a couple bottles of Samuel Adams... For those that don't know I took a trip to Big Bear Mountain east of LA last weekend and after two days of snowboarding I took a nasty spill on the final run of the trip. I think I tore my MCL again but won't know for sure until the swelling goes down and I can get an MRI on Monday. Here's to wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2009!

Las Vegas City Life

One of the things I love about the game of poker is the social aspect of it. During what seemed like a year in Las Vegas on my trip I met an amazing amount of people. What is also crazy is the amount of extremely anti-social people you run into. Fortunately there are fewer and fewer of them every time I go up there. Those who know me surely know I never shy away from a good conversation (That way it's less awkward when you take their money) One of the players I met was Bob Shemeligian, writer for the New York Post as well as Las Vegas City Life. Over quite a few hours we talked about all the latest happenings in poker including the cheating scandal on Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. He asked if he could publish a few quotes from me and I said "cool" (How's that for a quote). Here is the article he posted in Las Vegas City Life newspaper. I will be expecting a call from my commanding officer on Monday morning.

http://lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2008/12/11/news/local_news/iq_25625422.txt

You just never know who you are going to meet in the craziness of a poker room.

Craziness in Vegas and Pokerstars

So since my last post back in November a lot has happened. I went home over Thanksgiving and got to see a lot of family and friends back in the good ol OH-IO. Great times partying with the old crew from Miami and Bucyrus.

I wanted to try and keep this thing going while in OH but there just isn't as much going on when I'm not in that ridiculous city 5 hours to the North. Fortunately ( or unfortunately as my liver is screaming at me "For God's sake stop") my squadron had a formal dinner at New York New York the weekend of the 12th-15th. The Venetian was nice enough to put me up for another 3 nights this time around so I was looking forward to the poker room and my favorite playgrounds (Tryst and Tao)

Mark "Turd" Ferguson was going to crash in my suite so we rolled up there on Friday morning and started drinking after posting a quick $300 win in the poker room. Everyone was going to Tryst where a friend had a sick table for us right next to the dance floor. The goal was to take it easy Friday night so that we Saturday night would be epic in our dress blues. Does this ever work? Of course not and I crawled back to the hotel at around 4am. This is where the story took a weird turn. Usually my drunk ass walks up to a BJ table to drop a quick G, not this time. I actually won a quick 2 G's and passed out a somewhat happy man that morning at around 6am.

Saturday I got up around noon and worked my way down to get my standard Turkey Bagel at the Food Court Deli downstairs. I have eaten lunch at the Venetian Deli more than anywhere else I think since I got back from deployment. I hit up the poker room and made another small profit of just under $500. I was on a good roll gambling and was ready for an insane night of partying in our blues. Turd and I got our uniforms on and cocktail hour started at 7pm but I told him we had to run by the Bellagio because the %15,000 WPT 5 Diamond World Poker Classic was starting that day. We got there and walked over to the famous Fontana Bar overlooking the Bellagio Fountain and walked through checking out the pros in action. We were checking out all the players when out of nowhere we hear someone yell "Gotta love men in uniform". We looked over to see Phil Helmuth getting up from his table to come over and shake our hands. Certainly had nothing to do with him actually wanting to shake our hands as much as it meant everyone would be looking at him again. lol After a couple minutes talking with Phil, Turd thought it was way more important to get to the bar for a bud light so we left. I think Phil was in pure shock that we didn't want to stay and talk to him... funny stuff

We grabbed a taxi to New York squared and attend the Dining Out. It was an ok time with some good dinner and a great video made of our deployment with 100's of pictures. You coudl tell the night wasn't going to be anything special when all you heard throughout the room was how bad people were hurting from the night before at Tryst. After dinner we headed downstairs and people started dropping like flys. It was a pretty nasty effort considering how often we are in LAS VEGAS in our dress uniform. It didn't help much that half of the squadron was either married or dating someone that was 16 (or so it seemed). Well Rhino and his wife finally ponied up and said let's go party. I knew some of the doormen at Tao through Eddy so we rolled over there and walked right past a line of no more than 500-600 people and were on the dance floor in less than 5 minutes. I have never had so many people says thanks and shove shots in our face than we did that night at Tao. What a great time made even better when P Diddy and Jamie Foxx took the stage and worked the crowd for a couple hours for Jamie's B-Day party. After a couple hours Bob and Kristi left and I was just hanging when this dude shook my hand and invited me up to their VIP booth for a drink. Little did I know at the time that is was 2006 AL MVP Just Morneau of the Minnesota Twins. There were just a couple ladies up there! I had a few drinks up there and did a shot with Rob Bowen (Catcher for the Oakland A's) We hung out for the next couple hours until two girls dragged us over to Tryst to end the night. The place was nuts and Rob saw Joe Rogan and Chuck Lidell over at a table. My drunk ass told him I knew them both (kind of true.lol.... Chuck from Costa Rica and Joe from the Playboy Mansion Party) We walked over to their table and I introduced them. The next thing you know we were sitting at their table and doing what seemed like shots #60 through 80. You guys will never believe this but I have ZERO idea how the night ended. I know I came back to the room at around 6:30 and that is only becuase Turd told me the next morning. Little did I know that I gave my cell number to Rob and texted me the next day and said I have to bring a crew out to Scottsdale for spring training this Feb and hang with the guys. Should be interesting. I got an email from him yesterday and we are trying to work out a fly by for one of their games. We'll see about that though. Here is a picture of Joe Rogan, Me, and Rob Bowen...


And Jamie Foxx and P Diddy on stage....




My god what a book. Not even going to bother telling the whole story of yesterday in one of the Sunday Majors online. Bottom line was there were 3,857 entries into the $215 buy-in $750,000 guaranteed tourney on Pokerstars. After 7 hours of play I busted in 35th for just about $1,500 with 1st paying $99,000.. ONE TIME PLEASE! I promise it is coming one of these days!

ZERO plans for New Years. No Eddy I am not coming to Vegas if you are reading this! My liver just can't take it....... Talk to all of you over the holidays though.

Vegas

Randy Couture, Me, and Bas Rutten

Made it home....

Where to begin since my last post? Friday afternoon Eddy made it to the poker room at The Venetian and we played some 2-5 for a couple hours and both made some decent money. We headed back to our rooms to get ready for the night and planned to meet at the VIP Salon for some drinks at 10:00. I was down to the Salon at 10:00 and no Eddy so I played craps for exactly 20 minutes and won a quick $750. Eddy got there and we proceeded to knock down 3 glasses of Johnny Walker Blue Label ($50 a glass) each. Of course you don't pay for anything back there so that was nice. Eddy insisted we try this pot of tea called 403. No idea what the 403 stands for but it was like 403 horsepower running through my body after that shit. Jesus was it crazy. Like 12 redbulls in two glasses. Wow. Eddy downed like 12 roast beef sandwiches at the Palazzo VIP lounge trying to get under control! lol Hilarious We rolled through Lavo at the Venetian for a little while and that was a pretty sick place but we were both ready to get over to Tao and tear it up. Eddy was boys with Jamie Fox so he wanted to roll over there and meet up with him.

Of course Eddy knows everyone in Vegas so we just walk up to Tao and 14 people say "Eddy what's up" and we walk right in. I got to meet Jamie Fox for a whole 3 seconds flat before the DJ was yelling Jamie Muthaf@&*#( Fox is in the house and he had to get on stage. I got a quick picture of him during a little freestyle. There was a chance to hang with him later in the night but you are never going to believe this, I lost my cell phone battery yet again sometime earlier in the night. JESUS! I lost Eddy and obviously couldn't get a hold of him so I left Tao at like 4am. In my state it was deadly for me to walk through the casino to get back to my room at The Palazzo. I unfortunately stopped by a blackjack table and dropped $1,300 in what couldn't have been longer than 20 minutes. Just makes me sick thinking about it after avoiding BJ tables for over a week already. It happens I guess.

I woke up Saturday morning and got a call, on the hotel phone obviously, from Eddy saying lets meet at the Canyon Ranch Spa to get rid of the hangovers. We met down there and got signed up for a pass and I signed up for a 80 minute massage. The place is amazing and worth every penny we spent there. The massage was exactly what I needed and I felt great a coupe hours later when I left. The plan was that Eddy was going to go play poker and I was going to go try and find a battery for my phone. After 2 hours of driving around Vegas I found a radio shack that had a phone for me. I made it back to the poker room where Eddy was playing some $5-$10 NL. This game is much different than the $2-5 NL I had been playing all week long. The big difference is that there is no cap on the buy-in. In $2-5 it is $1,000. People buy in for $10,000 in the $5-10 game so your money is always at risk in that game. Of course the potential is always there to win big too. Just have to be more careful is all. This is not what I did. I made two huge errors and dropped $1,500 in the first half hour at the table and was furious. I added more money to my stack and started to slowly tear away at the deficit. We played for about 4 more hours and I grinded it all back until I was a $28 dollar winner on the night. What a huge comeback!

We left the tables and planned on meeting back in the VIP room to get things started again. Who do we run into? None other than Bas Rutten and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture and his wife. Wow were they amazing guys. Eddy has known Bas for many years. We were going to try and meet up with them later in the night for more drinks but never got to. I will try and post a picture on this if I can. If not I will have it on Facebook and Myspace for sure. While in the VIP salon we all drank a glass of Don Julio Real. ($400 a bottle) and then later had a glass of Louis XIII. ($2,000 a bottle). Probably only time in my life I will ever drink all of this stuff. Well until my next trip to Vegas anyways. lol

Randy and Bas left and we headed over to a roulette table where I proceeded to drop $400. We did manage to down about 5 shots of Patron in the meantime though so we were ready for Tao once again for some more debauchery. We again just walked right in and headed straight to the VIP tables beside the dance floor. We met a couple of fighters that he had worked with in the past and continued to drown ourselves with the bottles in front of us. We got absolutely wasted and I'll leave it at that... Jamie was there again but I didn't get to talk to him this time. My favorite part of the night is that I didn't lose a penny on the way back to my room that night. Or should I say morning. The sun was definitely out when I made it back.

After waking up around 12pm when the front desk called to make me check out. I was experiencing a Top 3 hangover of all time! Eddy was hurting just as bad apparently as he was driving to San Diego with 50 yard line seats for the Sunday Night Football game vs the Colts. He recommended me rolling to the Spa again so I did and sat there for over 7 hours (about 2 of which I spent praying to the porcelain god). It was huge though since it allowed me to get some much needed sleep. After showering and leaving there I decided to try and make it down to the poker room for a couple hours before leaving for my 1am flight home. I sat down, bought my $1,000 in chips, and then immediately felt like I was going to pass out. As I tried to run for the bathroom. I didn't quite make it and stopped at a trash can by one of the tables. I hear "Wes, Wes are you ok?" in the background and I turn around to see JJ Liu 1/2 concerned 1/2 laughing at me. Wow was that ever embarrassing. Not the first and certainly not the last I am sure so I laughed it off and finished the deed in the men's room. Once I got back to my table I played the only mistake free session of my entire trip to Vegas and was able to pocket one last win of $420.

The next 12 hours were some of the most miserable of my life as I took the red eye back to Ohio. (Nate and Joe I do not know how you guys do it and then work the next day! Truly amazing). I tried to sleep on the flight to Minnesota but that worked like it does when I am the one flying the jet. I had a terrible 3 1/2 hour lay over in the twin cities and got another 7 1/2 minutes of sleep there. Now I am finally back in the good ol city of Bucyrus OH and you would never believe it but I am playing two tables of online poker as I type this. Anyone know that phone number for the gambler's help line?

I will stay away from exact spending numbers (jeans are expensive in vegas. lol) but after all of the craziness that is a single man's 8 day vacation to Vegas. I came out a slight winner. One day I may be able to cut out the needless spending and drunk blackjack losses but that will mean I have to grow up! If anyone sees that happening please slap me....

Vegas, my favorite city on Earth to hate!

Wow

Eddy + Jamie Fox + Tao + Johnny Walker Blue = Fun Times

Playing with JJ Liu

Today was a fun day at the tables. They started a new $2-5 NL table at the Venetian and we headed back to the same place I spent 14 hours yesterday. I grabbed the same seat and settled in for the long haul. The table filled up rather rapidly and I recognized a couple of the players from the past couple of days. The seat to my immediate right was reserved for someone that was coming and about 30 minutes later JJ Liu came and sat down. She was runner up to Ted Forrest in the 2007 Bay 101 Shooting Stars World Poker Tour event for a cool $600,000. She has career winnings of over $1.7 million. So sick. Well I played with her for nearly 10 hours tonight and actually got to know her quite well. Very Very nice lady to say the least. She took a couple rough beats but is a very tough player. I was happy to be on her left the whole night.

The second hand I played I had two red kings in middle position. A lady in front of me raised to $25 and I reraised her $75. She called. We saw a 10 high flop with two spades and I bet out $120. She called. The turn was another spade, she checked and I had to protect my hand. She only bought in for $500 and only had $300 left after the flop bet. I bet $700 and after thinking about it for .2 sec she called with QhQs. Boom a sapde on the river and she wins a $800 pot. Disgusting way to start the night. I was a little pissed so I went on a quick restroom break and dropped a $100 into a slot machine on the way back. Yet another wasted $100 away from poker. lol. I am still up about $700 or so in the pit due the craps table a few days ago though. I am up on craps, down on slots and roulette. Not a dime on Blackjack yet but that is sure to change the next two days with some friends coming into town.

I had a great time tonight and called it a night kind of early at 2:30am and finished up $1,072. No complaints... just made a couple of crucial errors that cost me about $1,000 total over the night. If I can cut out those types of mistakes then I can start making some real amounts of cash.

Maybe a tourney tomorrow, we'll see what Eddy wants to do. Time for some sleep

THE GRIND....

Didn't get out of bed until like noon yesterday and then headed out to the pool for a little while. Being at the pool alone is relaxing and all but just not the same as taking shots with the Miami Crew at Tao Beach. (September isn't that far away boys!)

Finally made it over to the Venetian Poker Room at around 3:30 and got a seat by 4:00. I tried two different tables and virtually no one wanted to doing any gambling. Finally two business men, who quite obviously had no shortage of cash in their checking account, sat at our table. They managed to drop a couple grand rather quickly and then left. One of the guys bought in for a second thousand and asked for a massage from one of the Canyon Ranch girls (steep at $2 a min but soooo worth every penny.) Well she asked how long he wanted and he said 30 minutes. It quite funny that he got the last 15 minutes of his massage at an empty table behind ours because he had lost his $1,000 already.

I can honestly say I am playing the best poker I have ever played right now. About five hours into the session yesterday I had KK and raised rather large preflop. I got three callers and we saw a flop of Qs 8s 2h. It was checked to me and I bet $70. One pretty solid player raised me to $170 and I just had an absolutely terible feeling on this one. We were both pretty deep at that point with nearly $1,300 a piece. After tanking for what seemed like 15 minutes I finally folded face up and he got this miserable look in his face and showed 88. Even a year ago I go broke with that hand or at least lose $500-$800. That gave me instant respect at the table and I was able to chop up the table for quite a while. Eventually the table broke and I was moved to another table. First hand I sit down and see two red Queens. I raised to $25 and the button makes it $100 to go. Once again I tank and then fold face up and he shows AA. SICK! But it wasn't over. 10 minutes later I find QQ again. Kid in front of me raised to $30 and I reraise to $100 from the big blind. He comes over top for $300 and I fold face up again and he shows me KK. WTF!!!?!? 2 yes 2 hands later I look down at JJ on the button and call a middle position raise for $30. We see a flop of 10 10 6. He bet out $80 and I called. turn was another 6 and it went check check. River another 10 and it went check check again and he flipped over KK AGAIN. Holy shit I dropped $300 on these three hand and I am lucky I didn't lose $3,000. I got up from the table to take a breather and grabbed a bottle of water and went for a walk. I need to cool off for a couple minutes. By cool off I mean drop a quick $100 at the roulette table and become even more furious with the situation. Lol it happens I guess.

It was a tough stretch starting at 4pm and ending at 6am. 14 hours of poker and ended up with a profit of $968 minus the $100 loss at the roulette table. I was exhausted and finally got to bed at around 7am this morning. I left T.I. and got moved into my suite at The Palazzo for the rest of the week. Wow the room are off the hook. I can see the Venetian Poker room from here so it's time to get it going and start chuggin water to prepare for the weekend!

Mt boy Eddy Millis, one of the premier MMA Trainers in the world, will be coming out to party it up this weekend so today will most likely be my last "serious" day of poker. I met Eddy playing in the Bodog Poker Tournament in Costa Rica and we watched him fight at the Playboy Mansion last October. Check out his website at http://www.sharktankusa.com/index.htm

Screw posting wins and losses for now. I am up! lol

Good finish

Just finished the game at the Venetian. I should've left 10 minutes earlier but that's the way things usually workout right? Saw a guy overvalue big pocket pairs severely multiple times throughout the night so when he raised in early position I decided I would play any two cards and see if I could catch him. I looked down at 2h 4d. Yeah a pathetic until the flop comes 10h 4h 2c. He bet $74 I raised to $175 and he raised to $400. I asked how much he had behind and he said "$900, What are you going to do push me all in?" I told him I was thinking about it and he got scared shitless. I pushed all in and he instantly called me with the hand I knew he had. AA. I just had to fade a couple of his outs and I won a $2,200 pot. This put me up about $1,200 for the night at this point and he was devastated and of course went on to tell me how I don't know how to play and why would I ever play 2 4 offsuit against his raise. I told him I would play any two cards against him and he didn't like that too much.

About an hour later I was sitting on the same size stack and I raised under the gun with QQ Folded all the way around to the big blind and he was considering calling. I asked if he was seriously considering playing heads up and he asked what I had and I told him pocket 8's and he called preflop. Flop came Kh Qh Jd. I flopped middle set but wanted to protect my hand from flush and straight draws. He checked and I bet $100 and he called. Turn was a 4s and he bet into me for $250. I was sure this was a blocking bet so he could still try and catch his draw. Once again I thought I had to protect my hand though it was certainly possible he flopped a bigger hand. I raised to $500 and he immediately went all in for his last $250. I had to call in this situation. Not to mention if the board pairs I am going to win. He showed a flopped broadway straight with A 10. Just plain sick. I needed a Queen, King, Jack or 4 to win and didn't hit. I was so pissed I played the hand this way in retrospect but mark it up to experience once again. Finished up the session +$507 after about 6 hours so can't complain too badly. I did manage to drop $100 at the roulette table on the way to the room though. LOL I am such a shithead. Enough of that shit I say!

I will do all the math at a later date. I am doing pretty well overall though considering I have played in $2,140 worth of tournaments. hasta la pasta

Out in 88th out of 200

Well I hung in there for quite a while before finally getting the swift kick in the ass. Yet another 7 hours of my life that I will never get back. Fortunately I stopped by a craps table on the way home and won a quick $1,125. Jesus that is a whole story by itself but I won't both right now. I am sitting at the Venetian playing in the $2-5 NL game right now and up about $200 or so. Just thought I would drop a quick line to inform anyone bored enough to actually read these things that I failed miserable in the Main Event at Caesars. To my defense I was at a table with two WSOP braclet winners and Michael Binger. I just so happened to knock him out as well so I've got that going for me...lol Till next time.