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WEDNESDAY
Got in around 9pm. Checked in to the hotel (Imperial Palace). Sat down at the 2/4 table with Tonya while waiting for our friends to arrive. Ended up playing a few hours. Hung out with our friends until 4am. Contemplated walking over to the new poker room at the Venetian but decided to hit the sack instead. Bummer, as we would later find out that the BIG GAME (4k/8k blinds, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Jen Harmon, Johnny Chan, Barry Greenstein, etc.) was playing at the Venetian that night. D'oh! THURSDAY Woke up in the early afternoon. Hit the hotel's buffet. Crappy food, but it was free. Walked across the street to the new poker room at Caesar's. Tried to get a seat at a limit table but the only thing they were offering was no-limit cash games. I think that's the first time I've ever been to a card room that didn't have any limit games going. Wandered around a bit and Tonya pointed out Shawn Sheikhan and Chau Giang playing on a table in the corner. It took only five minutes or so for us to witness one of Sheiky's tantrums and we would continue to hear his sporadic yelling the whole time we were at Caesar's. I guess he doesn't just turn it on for the cameras. Walked to the other side of the room--the tournament area--and watched the final table of a WSOP Circuit Event that was in progress. There were four or five guys left and we watched for 20 minutes or so. We were sitting next to a twenty-something poker pro's family and watched as he got busted when he went all-in on a flush draw, hit the flush on the turn, and the board paired to make his opponent a full house on the river. Ouch! Headed next door to the Mirage. Played 3/6 for a couple hours. As we were playing, we could hear a tournament going on nearby with occasional announcements such as "Paul Darden was just eliminated in fifth place". After we got up from the 3/6 table, we walked over to the tournament area and saw Gavin Smith and Jerry Buss (owner of the Lakers) watching Dan Harrington and Eli Elezra play in a heads-up match. Thursday night we headed back to the Imperial Palace and watched a couple of our friends (Ketchum, Mitch) play in a no-limit tourney. There were forty-something entrants and it was a rebuy tournament. They both made the final table. Ketchum was knocked out in eighth--two out of the money--and Mitch took fifth for $180 or so. After the tourney, we all went out to dinner and Eric caught up with us. Went to the karaoke bar at the Imperial Palace and our friend Jeff (New Century) rocked the house with a Bon Jovi song. Later we walked over to the Venetian and heckled a medium-stakes no-limit game. The big stack at the table was a guy drunk or coked out of his head who talked without stopping. As we were watching from the rail, he would flash us his cards and ask what we thought he should do. We said "Raise it!", he raised, and ended up winning the pot. This happened on multiple pots and each time he tossed $5 chips to us. I ended up doing shots with him and a few other guys on the table. It was a total party, although half the players on the table were thinking "Get me outta here!" Walked to Treasure Island to check out the cardroom there, it was dead, and we hit Crazy Horse Too (a strip club). [The rest of the evening's story has been omitted to protect the not-so-innocent.] FRIDAY Woke up mid-afternoon hungover, got room service, rescued Eric who was smoked out and physically unable to leave his room, and headed over to the Bellagio. Sat down in a reasonably soft 4/8 game. A cute LA girl in a cocktail dress sat down next to me at the poker table, ordered shot after shot of top-shelf liquor, and proceeded to get hammered and make out with a guy at our table before rushing off at 7:30pm to catch her 8:30pm flight home. Saw Chau Giang and a few other guys that I didn't recognize playing in the big game in "Bobby's Room" right behind our table. Headed back to the Imperial Palace, grabbed dinner with the gang, and sat in the 2/4 game while waiting for Jerm and Paul to arrive. Played for a few hours and managed to finish in the positive despite losing a massive pot when my full house was beaten on the river by a straight flush. Fortunately the guy announced that he had a straight flush after I had raised and re-raised a few times on the river so I didn't drop my whole stack in a heads-up raise-fest. Eric hit a straight-flush shortly after that. I had just cashed out and was grabbing my beer from the table when Eric whispered "Stick around". I watched as he took a couple people at our table for a wild ride and dragged a huge pot. Hung out with the gang for the rest of the night. Hopped into a game at 5am and drunkenly donked off a stack to Paul and a stack to Jerm before calling it a night and going to bed. SATURDAY Woke up late, hit the free buffet again, and headed over to the Venetian to check out their new room. We put our names on the list and were seated in 4/8 games. I proceeded to get schooled as I have never been schooled before. Our table was the toughest game I've ever played in. Had only a handful of good starters and each hand I played was crushed either by dumb luck (in the case of the one fish at the table who called my preflop raise with K4 offsuit) or by superior play. Dropped a hundred fairly quickly and got up with my tail between my legs. Tonya took a massive $100+ pot off from the K4o fish when she raised with AA, flopped a set, turned a full house, and was led into on every betting round. We later saw one of the people from our table playing in a $10k buy-in WPT event. Yikes! Headed across the street to Treasure Island. They offered to start the Tangerine mixed game (Hold'em, Omaha Hi, Crazy Pineapple) for us but we didn't want to all be at the same table so we sat into the 2/4 games they had running. I was seated at the same table as Tonya and Eric. It was probably the softest game I've ever played in, especially coming right after the tough game at the Venetian. It was mostly aggressive new players who couldn't understand why we wouldn't fold the nuts to their raises and re-raises with ace-high. I did well but Tonya and Eric were card-dead and got frustrated not being able to take money from the fish. While we were at the Treasure Island, we heard an announcement "If anyone wants to move up in limits, we're offering a $50k minimum buy-in game with Minh Li (WPT event winner) at table 5". We were all thinking "Ha ha, yeah right..." but looked over and there was Minh Li, a couple tables over, playing a heads-up match with over $100k on the table. Grabbed a quick dinner at Imperial Palace and headed over to the Palms. Checked out the card room but didn't play. A couple of our friends were on the list at Rain and Ghost Bar so they split. We hung out, pooled our money and played high-limit slots for a while, and walked across the street to the Gold Coast for some late-night/early-morning bowling. Headed back to the Imperial Palace and jumped into a 5:30am card game. It was a mix of people up from the night before with an early-riser or two sprinkled in. And there was a guy who had been playing continuously since the late-night/early-morning game that I had played there the night before. Had my biggest win of the trip in this game. Played until 7:15am or so when Jeremy and Paul left for the airport, Eric headed back to his room, and I headed back to my room to hit the sack. SUNDAY We extended our checkout to 4pm, woke up late, ordered room service, said goodbye to the Michigan crew, and headed over to the Mirage to watch a little bit of the opening day of the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown. Saw a gazillion poker pros playing in the tournament and milling about including Daniel Negreanu, Dan Harrington, Eli Elezra, Erick Lindgren, Michael Mizrachi, Huck Seed, John Juanda, Phil Ivey, Freddy Deeb, Scotty Nguyen, Ted Forrest, Amir Vahedi, T.J. Cloutier, James McManus, Chau Giang, Minh Li, Todd Brunson, Gavin Smith, John D'Agostino, Allen Cunningham, Cindy Violette, Kathy Liebert, Kristy Gazes, Antonio Esfandiari, etc. as well as one of the players from our 4/8 table at the Venetian on Saturday. Our friend Mitch talked to Freddy Deeb right after he busted out of the tournament. Freddy was pretty cordial despite our friend's poor timing in trying to chat him up. Cruised back to the Imperial Palace, grabbed our bags, and hit the airport. Overall, I'd really like to spend more time playing at the Bellagio and Treasure Island, the new room at Caesar's was disappointing, and I have some studying to do before I play at the Venetian again. Results: date location stakes buy-in cash-out total
5/10 Imperial Palace 2/4 $100.00 $113.00 $13.00
5/11 Mirage 3/6 $100.00 $70.00 -$30.00
5/12 Bellagio 4/8 $200.00 $203.00 $3.00
5/12 Imperial Palace 2/4 $100.00 $110.00 $10.00
5/13 Imperial Palace 2/4 $100.00 $58.00 -$42.00
5/13 Venetian 4/8 $200.00 $90.00 -$110.00
5/13 Treasure Island 2/4 $100.00 $121.00 $21.00
5/14 Imperial Palace 2/4 $110.00 $160.00 $50.00
overall: -$85.00
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