Vegas Recap

I had been meaning to keep everyone (well really no one cuz no one reads this blog) updated on a daily basis, but I just never got around to it. I ended up staying in Vegas for a total of 9ish days, which was a bit much for my first ever Vegas trip.

I only got ID'd a handful of times and never had a problem using my brother's ID (thanks Paul!). The day that I got down there, I pulled off a pretty sikkkk slowroll, and Derek was completely oblivious. We hung out by the pool for about 2 hours, ordered a couple pina coladas, and I babbled on about how lucky I was that poker had afforded me the opportunity to make a trip like this.

The second day (Tuesday), we headed over to the Ultimate Bet barracks at the Palms, checked Derek in, got some gear, and then played some pool and had some free drinks. It was a blast, and I was able to scoop $40 off Derek in a couple games. Later that night, we headed back to the Palms and attended the UB party, which was quite an experience. I felt like I was living in someone else's body. It was located on the 32nd floor of the Palms in a $25k/night suite. The indoor had two stories with a separate room with a sushi bar as well as a chocolate fountain, an open bar, and some pretty good-looking dancers. I obv worked my game and got a few pictures including one where I got some cheek-kissing action :) The outside part of the suite had an amazing view of the strip and one of those pools that extends over the edge. For those of you who have seen that Girls Next Door episode, yes - it was just like that.

After quite a few rum and cokes and a jag bomb to top it off, we headed over to the Rio to sweat Phil Hellmuth in his attempt at an astonishing 12th bracelet in the $1500 HORSE event. When we got there, they were 4-handed, and I recognized one of the players who was a young asian kid. I remember railing him at a small, local casino near my hometown in a $15-$25 limit game. In my intoxicated state, I started to become rowdy, telling him that I remember him from Midway. Somehow Derek and I managed our way back to the roped-off area where we hung out with JC Tran, Nam Le, Amnon Filipe, Victor Ramden, and Shawn Rice. We talked to JC, and I told him that I picked him in the 2nd round on my WSOP fantasy pool and that Derek had passed him up. This did not make him happy (lol) but he nonetheless ordered all of his drinks, and we obliged and drank them. FWIW, Phil took 3rd, and our Asian "friend" ran horribly heads up and took 2nd.

While we were railing, apparently Derek got in a conversation with Victor Ramden. Somehow Derek got Victor's number, and we made plans to play 4-8 HORSE at Caesars the next night. Derek texted Victor when we got the game going. We didn't receive a response that night, but the next morning, Victor amazingly texted Derek back and told him that he was sorry he couldn't make it, but he had taken a mini-vacation with his family to L.A. Victor was a very very nice guy, and he is making a nice little run in the main event. I wish him the best, and, although we never got the 4-8 game going, I am pulling hard for him to take this one down.

Another one of the highlights of the vacation was getting to meet a guy named Eric from Sweden. The first night there, we played some drunken (obv.) 4-8 HORSE at Caesars. One of the guys there was a guy named Eric, wearing capri pants and a poker stars track jacket. Eric was very loud, and we quickly became acquainted. It is hard to describe the hillarity of this guy, but I can honestly say that I have never laughed that hard in my entire life for that long. The following are a couple of his quotes (just visualize it in a Swedish accent):

"This douche from Texas capped it heads up with me in Razz with 15 kings"

"How unlucky am I to be human. I wish I was a cat...just eat, sleep, and s*** all day"

"My uncle changed his name to Jack Daniels at the age of 65...65!!"

He said that he would try to make it back to Vegas for our September trip, and I really hope he can make it. He also gave us an invitation to come visit him in Sweden, which I would seriously contemplate doing.

Derek's fiance game down on Wednesday night, and we all had fun hanging out. On Saturday, we went to the Cirque de Soleil Beatles show at the Mirage which was fantastic. The 4th of July was actually kind of awful, as we didn't even get a chance to see any fireworks for whatever reason.

As far as poker goes, I actually ended up playing almost every day. I had a couple bad sessions toward the end and probably ended down around $600, which I was totally okay with. We got to hang out with Don Cheadle, who eventually took my seat to play in our 4-8 HORSE game. He is also a really nice guy. Derek had an incredible slow-roll on a guy that was borderline evil. In Stud/8, Derek and this Australian guy were heads up, and, on the river, Derek raised, and the guy made an obvious crying call. Derek said that he had a low, and other guy flipped over 555. Derek had obviously been drinking and so he slowly flipped his cards up. He revealed something like 8-8-6-3-A-x and his last card was face down. The dealer told him he only had a 4-card low. He then flipped up a river-caught 8 for trip 8's to scoop. I am shocked that the other guy didn't throw punches, but he said he didn't mind because we were all having fun, and the pot wasn't very big.

I was also quite excited for my friend Adam who was down there and chopped for 1st in a Venetian DS tourney for 38k! Adam is a sick player who I have tons of respect for, and he completely deserves every dollar of that tournament. It is just a shame that the tournament ended the Monday after the 4th day one of the main event, or else he would have played in that.

As far as Derek goes, he survived a grueling day 1 where he was up to as high as 36k before ending the night with a below-average 23k. At one point, he had Dan Shak to his immediate left and a maniacal Layne Flack a couple seats to his left. He was super nervous in the first couple levels. The 3rd hand of the tournament, he raised QQ up front to 350 (100/200), cold-caller to his left, and then a guy made it 1300. Derek decided to muck, and the guy later told him he had 99 :/

I then decided to move my flight back and stay to watch Derek in day 2, which was Wednesday. Derek was extremely card dead the whole day, only picking up AK and 99 in about 5 hours of play. He never saw AA the entire tournament (over 15 hours!!). His bust hand, he moved in with A2 from the BB for 12bb's when only the SB limped, and he snapped him off with 10-10. Overall, he felt that it was a great experience and did not seem bitter at all. I have a feeling he will be back next year and in years to come.

I have rambled quite a bit in this blog, but I had an amazing experience in Vegas, and I am very glad that I went. Even though it might take some of the excitement away from our September trip, I think it will still be an epic weekend, as everyone and their mom will be in Las Vegas which will make it even more spectacular.

Today I played some online MTT's and bubbled 3 final tables!! The most heartbreaking was the $28k on FTP. There were 10 left with 1st place receiving $7k+. 5-handed, I ran QQ into KK for a 30bb pot against a super agro player. Oh well.

I decided to do the test drive on cardrunners.com, which is an excellent instructional site which allows members to watch videos and commentary from some of the world's top internet pros. Today I watched a few videos and am already thinking at a much higher level. I have sort of struggled with my confidence in online cash games, but I now feel more confident than ever and am hoping to do the whole move-up-in-limits things soon which would be super awesome.

I am heading up to Bellingham tomorrow and start classes on Monday :/

I am on a Vegas sleeping schedule (go to bed at 4am, wake up at 3pm), so it is almost my bedtime at 3:20.

Goodnight to all and God bless,

JG