It was the best of times

It was the worst of times. Saturday was both. I was supposed to meet my buddy Chad for some recreational blowing off of steam achieved by the firing of large and small pieces of lead at paper silhouettes. I got over there at 10am when the range opened. Chad called me while I was driving over to let me know he was running late and would be there about 10:15. When I walked into the range building there were people in all the lanes and the lady behind the counter let me know it would be at least 2 hours before we could get a firing lane as they had a class going and the students would be on the range for a good while. So that killed that idea. Chad told me he and his wife would go to the range Sunday instead but I had to go to my nephew's birthday and then take the daughter back to Orlando so that was out for me. We agreed to go sometime this week instead.

So I went home, lost a couple of SNGs and then went to Chick Fil A with the wife and daughter. After we got back, the gals decided they wanted a nap. So I decided to go back by the range myself and see if I could shoot some holes in paper man. I didn't have to wait long before they put me out on a firing lane. Unfortunately I was on the rifle side of the range. This was unfortunate from my point of view because I don't shoot very often and some of those rifles are LOUD. Even with ear protection, the guy firing the big gun next to me made me jump a little every time he started firing. At first my aim was not so good, I was hitting the torso on the silhouette but not that close to where I aimed it. Then I remembered a couple of tips Chad gave me about aiming the .38 and started putting the shots within a small area.

It's amazing how quickly you can go through a box of shells even with a gun that fired only 5 shots before reloading. Before I knew it, I was completely empty but I did have a big smile on my face. Which is how I wanted to feel. I kept the smile most of the rest of the day until I played poker at Derby Lane for the 8pm tourney that night.

Seems my bad luck from Vegas is still hanging over my head like a black cloud. I thought it may have changed when early on I found KK in the small blind. 3 people had called the 50 chip big blind when it came to me and I raised to 250. Amazingly the big blind and the other 3 all called. So with 1250 in the pot the flop comes out K74 with 2 spades. I lead out for about half the pot with 650 expecting at least one caller and maybe all of them to call but surprisingly all of them folded. A little later on I get JJ and get called just by the gal directly to my left. Flop is a nice KJ8. I bet out 2/3 of the pot and she calls me making me wonder if she has a king. Turn is perfect, another 8. I check and she checks behind which makes me wonder what the hell she has now. River is UGLY, another K. Now if she does have a king, I'm screwed. I bet about 1/3 of the pot and she calls and flips over AQ for 2 pair with the Ace kicker. I breathe a sigh of relief with my boat and collect my winnings which is the last winnings I get for the rest of the tourney.

The lady to my left proceeds to go on a major rush where every hand hits her. She is playing 2/3 of the pots, calling raises with any ace, etc. No matter what she has, she wins the hand just about every time. I just keep folding shit hands like 8-4 and waiting. Finally I get QQ in early position. I raise 4x and get 2 callers including the lady to my left. Flop of course has an ace. I raise and she calls so I know she has one. The other guy folds. Turn is a low card and I bet again and she calls again. River pairs the board. I just couldn't bet again knowing she had an ace. So I check and she checks back and I show my QQ while she shows A10. She said she thought I had AK. Didn't stop her from calling though. I wonder if I put in a good bet on the river if she calls. I think so as she called everything else but maybe I take it down if I do. After that the rest of my night went crappy. Eventually I get moved to another table. Bluff preflop only to get called by 2 guys with JJ and QQ. They get into a raising war and I drop out but more chips are gone. Blinds keep going up and eventually I am all in with A9 in late position. Get reraised by the button with QQ. I don't get an ace and it's the walk of shame for me.

I play some 1-1 no limit for a while. Why I don't know since I figure my luck will probably carry over. It does. My draws don't hit, my opponents do. I lose with AJ to 62. I'm getting a bit short and call with A10. Flop is 10-9-2 rainbow. Aggro to my right in a $5 bet in a $6 pot. He pushes a lot so I don't put him on anything more than a 9 or 10 with not much behind it. So I push in for my last 22 bucks. Old dude to my left agonizes for awhile and finally pushes all in for $23 and the Aggro guy calls us both. Turn is a 3 river is a 7 and I lose to the old guy who had J8 for an open ended straight draw that of course hit the river. Screwed again. Calls an all in with just that. Shocking he hit. NOT

I rebuy some and keep losing. Finally i'm short again and call with 45 of hearts. Flop is Q-10-4 with one heart. One guy bets, the other calls and I call with my low pair. Turn is the 8 of hearts and I am in business for a possible suckout. Guy one jams, guy two thinks for a while and calls and there is just too much money in the pot for me not to call for the last of my chips. River is a black K which makes guy 2 happy with his open ended straight draw. Jammer had AQ for TPTK and my flush draw falls by the wayside. The only time my draws hit it seems is when they're second best. I called it quits then and hoped the next day would bring a better turn to my luck.

Sunday I went to my nephews birthday brunch in the morning and had a good time talking eating and conversing with my wifes relatives. We had to leave too soon as we had to take the college girl back to school. I remember when I went to school, 1800 miles from home, and I went home at the end of each semester only. She is home every other week it seems. I know my wife misses her and my girl misses all the relatives and the goings on here at home but my word, I thought you went to college to get away from the home and live a bit on your own. I gotta talk to the wife about this as I don't think she gets it. Then again, maybe I'm not the one who gets it.

Drive to Orlando and back was tiring as I haven't been sleeping well lately. The time change didn't help, I would have loved to sleep in but the familial obligation meant I was up before I wanted to be. After we got back we settled in and I decided to play the Donkament that night. That turned out to be a mistake. It was a multientry tourney which I don't care for but I signed up for two entries. Entry number one went down in flames early as Miami Luckbox err Don tried to steal a pot. I raised in mid position with 66 and he called from the big blind. Flop was Q-3-2 with 2 diamonds. I bet 3/4 of the pot and he put in a substantial raise. I thought for a while and put him on a draw so I pushed all in over the top. He called with AK of diamonds which rivered a king to beat me down. So my first entry went down 71 out of 72.

My other entry did better until I called a raise with 77 in late position. We saw a flop of 10-7-6 with 2 spades. I bet and was raised. I didn't put him on 8-9 and figured he probably had a big pair or maybe AK or AQ of spades. So I pushed in only to find my worst fear, 10-10 and I lose in a set over set confrontation. That hurt but was unavoidable. The other one hurt a lot more. Either way, my vegas luck continued. I don't think I should play poker for a while and maybe my luck will sort it self out. I know this stuff runs in cycles but damn, this cycle is getting old. Especially watching all of the flush and straight draws hit against me. And the only time my pairs make sets is when they are either beat or about to be beaten. And yet I can't complain, I got my family, I got most of my health, and I'm not completely insane (yet), what more can I want? So if you see me around on tables, take pity on me, fold a draw or 2. Or take advantage and know you'll hit your draw. Till then stay lucky you nuts.

Was it something I said?

We got back from Vegas late Friday night. It was a long flight but not a bad one and I do like those Airbus planes for long flights much better than the 737s that Southwest flies. We were pretty tired, not the least because we walked everywhere on Thursday. We went from Ballys down to the MGM, walked over to NYNY then hopped the monorail up to the Las Vegas Hilton. Neither of us had ever been there and I wanted to check out their Sportsbook as I hear its the best one around. And it is one impressive sportsbook for sure.

After spending some time and some cash there we trooped over to Treasure Island for dinner. I had picked up tix for the Bill Engvall concert that night. We ate a pretty good meal in their coffee shop, goofed around on some games for awhile and then went to the concert. I actually made a couple of hands playing Video Poker at both TI and LVH though nothing too huge. Still it was a nice change considering how the rest of the week hand gone.

Bill Engvall was a riot. He is a little bit older than I am but we're pretty close in age. He talked a lot about getting older, losing patience with things, etc and the whole time while I'm laughing my ass off, my wife is pointing at me and saying "that's YOU!" And she was right. One of the things that was so funny is I can imagine myself doing and saying some of the same things he talked about.

It was a nice night so we walked back from TI to Ballys. A very pleasant night out though I almost put down one of those porn slappers near the Mirage after he entered my personal space. One warning was apparently enough. By then I was tired and a little cranky from a very full day. We got back to Ballys and gambled a bit more but had no luck to speak of. We didn't get a lot of sleep that night as we had to get started early to get ready to fly out. We used our players club points to pay for breakfast and most of the souvenirs we picked up including the snow globe that almost got me arrested at the airport. Whoda thunk a simple snow globe would be found on the banned substances list. Next time I'll bring some loose bullets or something to really make it worth getting arrested.

Saturday the Poker Queen wanted to play in the Saturday night tourney at Derby Lane. My bad luck continued there and I ran a J10 into KJ on a JJ5 flop for the rest of my chips. I played some no limit holdem but again I kept running into bad stuff. It seems like I can't shake the Vegas luck from my head yet. PQ lasted a good bit longer than I did but eventually succumbed when they got down under 2 tables left. We left right after that as we were both tired and I had a gun show to attend on Sunday Morning.

The gun show was good. Bigger than I expected and very busy. There were a couple of good deals I saw - almost picked up a Ruger 9mm or a Smith & Wesson .40 cal while I was there but wanted to look around a bit more. There's another gun show next month so I may buy then instead. Guy I was with picked up a nice little .380 automatic to use as a concealed weapon as he is taking the concealed weapons class next month. I may take that class, I haven't decided yet. Now I know a lot of people, including the PQ, are against guns in the house. I don't necessarily disagree. If you have children and cannot safely store your weapons so that they cannot access them while you are not home, you shouldn't have a gun. You are endangering your family and friends a lot more than you are protecting them from someone else. Just telling kids not to touch a gun is exactly what you shouldn't do. However if you do handle the weapons safely and teach your kids how to handle weapons and the rules for doing so, there is no reason why you can't have weapons in the home. I never felt confident enough to keep a gun in the home when the kids were young and I knew how much the PQ hated them. So I never got one.

Now with the kids gone, I feel it would be safer to get a gun. I know many people are anti gun and that's ok as we all have a right to our opinion. But I feel it is worse to need a weapon and not have one than to have a weapon and not need one. And when you need a gun, you really need a gun. So I am sure at some point in the not to distant future I will be buying a pistol and maybe even taking a concealed permit class. I don't want to be one of those guys who buys a gun and sticks it in a closet and forgets about it. I want to become practiced with it and feel comfortable enough so that I can not embarass myself with it and if I have to use it, to hit what I aim at.

Since Sunday I've played a little online poker, still mostly getting hosed there. Just missed the money in one tourney when my KK lost to 88 right before the bubble. What killed me was I raised preflop and got called by the 8s. Then I pushed all in after the flop of 10-4-2 rainbow and he called me for most of his chips. 8 on the turn sunk me. Vegas is still following me. Otherwise its a lot of work and I'm still kinda tired. Then again I could be sick like the PQ is now. She had a pretty bad cold before Vegas but she was fine there. Then she comes back and gets another cold. Anyway it's bed time for bonzo. Stay lucky you nuts.

The Vegas Postscript

Wednesday was my last day for the rental car, it was also Lightning's last day in Vegas. He texted me that he was meeting for a bit of poker with Lucki Duck at the Lightning36 memorial poker room otherwise known as the poker room at Ballys. The PQ and I got back from breakfast and dropping the car off at McCarran about 1pm and while I headed over to the poker room, the PQ decided to take a nap as she didn't sleep too well the night before.

The poker room was jumping for early afternoon. They had four $1-2 no limit tables going with a waiting list along with 1 or 2 limit tables as well. I signed up and then saw Lightning sitting at a table. He introduced me to the lean cardsharp next to him who turned out to be the one and only Lucki Duck. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately for my wallet I was not able to join their table and was moved to one of the other tables to play for a while. My lack of luck mostly continued there as I lost a big chunk to a flush draw (again) but I did manage to get half of it back when I got all in with KK and it actually held up. Not too much later Lightning came by the table and said he was going to grab some lunch with Lucki Duck and Ms Lucki Duck. Though I was not particularly hungry I pulled myself away from the tables to join them. I was introduced to Ms Lucki Duck and now I know why he is named Lucki Duck. We went to the cafe there at Ballys for lunch and were immediately seated. They asked me where the poker queen was and I gave her a call. Which woke her up. But I told her there were some people who wanted to meet the legendary poker queen so she asked for a few minutes to put herself together and she'd be right down.

We had a nice lunch, the queen and I split a salad which was really good and would have filled the both of us up if we had been starving, and shared some good conversation. We are all about the same ages, all with kids (and their attendant problems) and we all had our share of stories about that. It was nice. If I had to give my impressions of my fellow bloggers I would say Lightning is like your next door neighbor, the guy you have weekend cookouts with while you drink beers and play cards. Or in his case, Jagerbombs. The best words I can put to Lucki Duck and Ms Lucki Duck are down to earth and gracious. I went to college in Texas and lived there for 9 years. I met a lot of truly fine people there. The Ducks are Texans with all of the good connotations that implies and none of the JR Ewing "Dallas" view that many people associate with Texas.

After lunch Lightning was off to sunny and not so warm Chicago while Lucki Duck went in search of a poker tourney to beat up on. The PQ and I went up to the Casino Royale to gamble a bit and see what we had in comps that we could use. We played some Video Poker, not very successfully on my part and while the Poker Queen was ringing up more comps if not more massive victories. I wandered off to play some craps as I do enjoy rolling the dice though I did not enjoy great success with that either. Yes I know you're shocked too. After leaving the dice pit I decided to play a bit of 3 card poker for a while. I was doing well, hitting a flush and a straight pretty early. I was up about 50 bucks when the APQ comes by and decides to sit in. Of course the very first hand she is dealt, which would have been my hand if she hadn't sat down or had sat down on my other side, gave her a straight flush. WTF, I have never gotten anything higher than a straight and her first hand is another straight flush?? That just typified my week, watching everyone else hit their hands while my draws all missed. At least it was my wife and she shared with me. Of course she should have after stealing my hand. After that my hands went into the crapper but she did pretty well and left the table up about $250. Of course she did.

We checked our comps out and decided to hit the Outback upstairs from the Casino Royale for dinner. It was a good dinner, and it only cost us $14 after deducting for PQs comps. After dinner we didn't do much, played a little more and headed back to Ballys as we were both tired. Went to bed relatively early and got a good nights sleep at least. It was a full day.

Time to wrap it up

Well my Vegas Vacation is at an end. The APQ and I are sitting in the airport lounge minus one snowglobe. Yes you heard me right. I packed a snowglobe in my carry on luggage and apparently snow globes are on the list of banned substances right between hand grenades and assault weapons. The TSA was about to lead me off in chains when the APQ stepped in and in a regal tone commanded "Only We (note the royal we) get to lay hands on that man" Two highly chastised bodybuilders let me go as if they were burned and we were able to proceed into the airport lounge. Minus one snowglobe.

So now I have a bit of time where I am not falling asleep at the keyboard to try to catch up on the merriment of Vegas. On Tuesday morning the APQ and I went out to Hoover Dam. Lightning told us his idea of early morning in Vegas started about noon so we told him we would let him know when we were heading back that day so that we could maybe go over to Green Valley Ranch. Anyway we decided that we would grab breakfast at a local place rather than somewhere on the strip. You may remember on Sunday we walked up to Hash House A Go Go for bfast and I didn't mention but on Monday we made our triumphant return to the Peppermill. Anyone who stays on the strip must breakfast at both of those places for both the food and in the case of the Peppermill, the ambience. Since we were still kind of on Eastern time we hit the Peppermill about 6:30 monday morning.

Since we stayed up kinda late on Monday we were much more acclimated to the western time zone and managed to get up at a reasonable hour of 7:30 am instead of 5. I started driving west on Flamingo toward I215 hoping to find a decent place to eat when we happened upon Blueberry Hill. It's a chain of restaurants but kind of a local chain. So we stopped in for a leisurely breakfast which was pretty good and very filling then headed out to the Dam. It really was a nice drive through Hendertucky and out to the edge of Lake Mead. The Dam was a sight to see. The APQ had already toured the dam previously and I just wanted to walk around it and not go inside it so we spent about an hour and a half or so out there wandering the place and reading the memorials and stuff. After leaving the dam we went back to the main road and drove across the new bridge to the Arizona side and then came back. You can't see much from the new bridge as there are high concrete side walls, probably to prevent Winnebagos from being blown off the bridge and plunging 900 feet down into the canyon below.

On the way back I made the APQ stop at this little dive of a casino named the Hacienda between the dam and Henderson. It was like a step back in time to the Vegas casinos of old. We played a bit of low limit black jack and 3 card poker for about an hour. Then headed back to Vegas. Lightning texted me on the way back that he was in his accustomed position in Vegas, the Ballys poker room with someone elses chips in front of him, so I told him we should be there in about an hour and that we were definitely heading to GVR that night as the APQ and I wanted to play in their tourney at 6.

The 3 of us headed out around 5pm for GVR. On the way we decided to stop at an In N Out burger restaurant to try them out as that was to be another first for all of us to do this trip. We all enjoyed the burgers very much but are not sure what the big fuss is about them. I mean they are good and all and kick the living crap out of McD, BK, and Wendy's for fast food burgers but next to say 5 Guys, they are just a decent burger. Still a good burger was had by all and that's never a bad thing. We got to GVR a little after 6 and got a primo parking place right next to the elevator to the casino. We found the Players Club so Lightning could get a stations casino card. The APQ and I didn't need one as Monday after leaving the Peppermill we decided to explore a bit and ended up going to the Red Rock Station casino. That is a nice casino, as nice as most of the Strip properties. GVR is a bit nicer though.

We headed to the Poker room only to find that the tourney had been cancelled for lack of interest. I was surprised as I thought GVR had a pretty decent amount of people who played there but apparently, not that night. Lightning and I decided to play some 1-2 no limit while the APQ decided to try her hand at the Video Poker machines. She texted me not long after that she had hit quad Aces for a $500 score.

Play was pretty choppy for us in the no limit game. Lightning managed to hold on to his starting stack while I was up and down like a yo yo. I lost a chunk with AK on a king high board when I couldn't get the maniac from down the table to lay down his draw and I think he hit it on the turn. He made a big bet on the river and I was debating a call when I notice his legs moving a mile a minute. I read in Joe Navarro's book that the feet are a major tell if you can see what they're doing and that made up my mind for me. I dumped it and considered myself lucky to be down 50 bucks.

A bit later on I raised in early position with AA. I got 2 callers, the guy 2 seats to my left and the guy next to him. Flop was J10x with 2 spades. I bet 2/3 of the pot and got called by the guy 2 seats to my left. The other guy thought seriously of calling but folded. The turn was the 10 of spades which did not make me very happy. I bet about half the pot and was called again. The river was the 8 of spades making my Ace of spades top flush but putting a lot of good draws out there. I checked hoping he would check behind but he pushed all in for almost all of my stack. Then it was think tank time. If he had been Josie I would have had to lay this down as he would have been sitting with the J10 boat in his hand. I considered that and also if he would have called with 10-8 perhaps but thinking he didn't I decided I had to call with the top flush so I did and he table KK including the K of spades. He was quite unhappy with my A of spades. That was about the best result I had all week playing poker.

Things went downhill for us all from there. I went completely card dead and every decent hand was met by a lousy board. Lightning kept it together but lost a chunk on one hand and the APQ gave back all she won on the machines. It wasn't too long before we all decided to head back to Ballys where we seem to be doing so much better. Ballys did not treat me any better but Lightning was doing pretty damned well. I did take some chips from him when I chased a flush and made it but he took more from me when I finally got AA and raised him. We saw the flop 3 handed of KJ10. Now that's a bad flop for AA. Lightning immediately leads out which made me suspect 2 things, either he had a hand like KQ which I can see him playing that way, or he had AQ and had flopped the straight. I called his bet and then saw even worse news when the A of spades hit the board. Now I've got top set but if he has Q anything he has me. I decided to call his next bet hoping the board would pair and I could take it down but the 9 of spades hit instead. Now any 2 spades or a queen beats me. He made what to me was a smallish please call me bet and I obliged by tossing my hand. He later told me he had it which I pretty much surmised. I was really thinking he had AQ during the hand but afterward decided he had KQ. Hopefully it wasn't 7-2 off.

Time to board. be back later.

Well we made it home. Flights were a bit bumpy but nothing to write home about and no problems outside of the TSA. It's good to be home but I'll miss Vegas and all the action all the time. And yet I came to realize a couple of times that maybe there is a soul numbing quality to spending too much time in a place that is as unreal as Vegas can be. I think any place that is so detached from reality, that sells the dream that everyone can strike it rich, that we all can be somebody important based on the turn of a card or the pull of a lever, is selling a falseness that can lead a person to despair. I don't wonder now why some people commit suicide. I wonder sometimes why more people don't do it.

Anyway after losing that hand, the first hand the entire trip where I started with a pocket pair and made trips, things continued on a downhill bent. I lost in poker, video poker and 3 card poker completing the losing trifecta. Even the APQ had a losing day, fortunately her only one of the trip.

Well I guess the rest of the wrap up will have to wait, I am beat. Time for bed, my own bed for the first time in a week. Talk to you tomorrow. Stay lucky you nuts.

I guess I'm just not very good

Or very lucky this trip. On the gambling front that is. On the blogger front I have been very lucky as I have met and spent time with Lightning36 and Lucki Duck (not to mention Ms Lucki Duck) who have all been terrific. But more on that later.

It's been a frustrating last few days at the poker tables for me, not to mention at every other table when you come right down to it. I was hoping to keep blogging everyday so that I can keep up to date on things but everytime I hit the room for any downtime I'm so tired I start to fall asleep in front of the keyboard. We are staying very busy and really the room in a hotel for me is where I lay my head and keep my water cold. Anyway when I left off I said that it got better for APQ and boy howdy did it ever.

The next day Lightning and I both played poker again. I had some bad luck as people kept making hands against me, especially flushes, but I also have to take the blame on one beat as I didn't bet high enough on the turn to push the guy out. Of course the way he was chasing, he probably calls my all in bet that I should have made anyway and then I am even broker. I had not gotten great cards in my first day at the tables which may have kept me out of some bad situations but I was able to bluff a bit more than I usually do. I have gotten more aggressive as of late when I enter pots to make sure I am telling a consistent story and be able to take down hands I don't hit. It is mostly working with a couple of bad exceptions (I truly screwed up one hand 2 nights ago when I was tired and it was late) and again I bet sized poorly but think I still take the hand down if I remain consistent.

Anway the cards rewarded me this day preflop. Early on I get KK in mid position. I raise 5x the big blind and of course 4 people call. I noticed at Ballys poker room that people routinely call good raises with just about any suited connector type hand. Flop is nothing, no help to me but with 2 hearts. I bet 25 which knocks out maybe one player. Turn is a black card, queen maybe. Now there is about $130 in the pot. I have about $160 in front of me. I should have pushed in and made this guy put all his chips in the pot but instead I only bet $65 which gave him just the right odds to call as everyone else folded. Heart on the river sinks me. He checks but I don't bet so I don't give him any more money as he shows AJ of hearts. Now he had most of his stack in the pot so he called my second raise for most of his chips on a draw but its still my fault for not pushing harder on the turn.

I get JJ and get whacked by another flush, this time I pushed hard on the flop by going all in. The same flushing donk called with a K-10 after he made a pair of tens with a flush draw and of course hit. This time I didn't give him odds but that was the way it went that day. Later I hit a broadway straight with Q-10 but of course three clubs were on the board and not one but 2 people had club flushes. I gave up poker for the day when my next all in preflop with KK gets sunk by some guy hitting two pair with 63.

I went to the 3 card poker table where the All Poker Queen was busy adding to her kingdom (queendom?). She had already hit 3 of a kind and a straight flush by then but had given some back in her attempt to annex Ballyville. Maybe it would be my time. Nope. But I did get to see the Queen in all her glory. The dealers changed right when I got there and Dewayne started dealing. The queen said to me, "Dewayne already dealt me a straight flush today". About 4 hands later he did it again. I was surprised Ballys security wasn't called to the table to escort her from the room after that one. She had this stack of black and green chips for over $1000 in front of her by then. She fed me some chips to keep me playing while she tried to add more to her queendom. We went on for a while, her keeping about even but feeding me some more chips. We decided to cash out when I finally hit something which was the 6 card bonus. I was playing a hand with 77J hoping to at least win the hand. I knew i would get a few bucks from the Pairs Plus bonus. The dealer flips over his hand and unfortunately beats me with JJ. But amazingly we made a full boat with our hands together and that was a nice $125 payout for the neophyte, my first decent one of the trip. We cashed out not long after that with APQ grabbing a little over a grand from the cage and me taking about $150.

More later, till then stay lucky you nuts.

She is the queen of all poker

And I am just her slave destined to do her bidding.

I left off at the end of our first long day getting to Vegas and the bit of gambling we did do. Sine we both crashed kind of early we of course woke up kinda early, at least for Vegas. I believe it was about 6am or so. We got ready and hit the ground running. One of the reasons I wanted to rent a car in Vegas was to go to this restaurant for breakfast that is a ways off the strip called Hash House A Go Go. They advertise themselves as having Twisted Farm Food. That is definitely true. If you have ever watched a show called "Man Vs Food" on the Travel Channel and you saw his Vegas show (the one where he tries to eat a 6lb burrito at the Nascar Cafe in the Sahara) you may remember him going to this place. Ever since we saw it we have wanted to go.

Well much to my surprise I found out just before we left for Vegas that they had opened in another location and this one was located in the Imperial Palace Casino just up the street. Off we marched up the Strip at about 7:30 am to the IP. Met some interesting people, one couple who had obviously not been to bed (or at least to sleep) wandering up the strip. Another guy still drunk who was hiding from Harrah's security. You get to meet all kinds early on a Sunday morning in Vegas believe me. We got to the IP and headed upstairs to the restaurant

There was no line at all (of course not, most of Vegas was still asleep on a Sunday morning) so we were seated right away. The waiter comes by and gives us a bit of a description of the menu items and you can see right away something is a little different. You've got your normal breakfast fare - eggs, meat, potatoes, fruit, pancakes, french toast, etc - but they're all put together in meals a bit differently. I got their original Hash House benedict which was the following. Two basted eggs on top of tomatoes, fresh spinach, smoked bacon, a large biscuit, and griddled mashed potatoes all covered by a red pepper cream sauce. Not your typical eggs benedict by a long shot. The potatoes are actual mashed potatoes that they then put on the grill and cook up kinda like hash browns. A little different take on breakfast taters but very good. Anyway they bring this out to me and meal is on this huge plate and has to stand 6 inches high at least. Just a massive pile of food. Now that's what I call breakfast. No wonder it's my favorite meal. VPQ had the tractor driver which was eggs, bacon, potatoes, fried banana and she got the pecan french toast instead of the big as a plate pancake they usually put with this meal. Two huge Texas toast slices of french toast. Needless to say neither of us finished breakfast but I gave it a pretty good run. We didn't leave hungry that's for sure.

After breakfast we had some time to kill so we headed over to Casino Royale just up the Strip a little more. We needed to walk off our breakfast a bit and we enjoyed gambling there so much and did so well that we wanted to try our hands there again. Unfortunately VPQ did not score big on their machines this time and I didn't either but we had fun and racked up some impressive players club points in the process. About noon we caught a cab to the car rental site and picked up our car. We were heading back and were gonna stop at Wal Mart to pick up some essentials - a small cooler, some water we can keep cold in our room, and some other things. On the way to Wal Mart I get a text from Lightning that he has arrived and is sitting in Ballys poker room as we speak so I replied I would be there within the hour and we finished up our shopping. We get to check out and I remember I had a couple of Wal Mart gift cards in my wallet so we got out of there for 5 bucks and headed to Ballys.

We settled everything back in our room and I went downstairs to the poker room. I signed up for 1-2 no limit while VPQ heads over to her fave machines. I see Lightning already sitting there playing and introduce myself. He looks just like his blog pic, but of course he doesn't recognize me till I walk up and introduce myself as there are very few pics of me floating around. I like to stay incognito so I'm not mobbed by the paparazzi. I am soon sitting at his table playing poker as well. Nothing memorable to speak of as I didn't hit much but didn't lose much either. Lightning wasn't getting much either so we weren't playing many hands but he had already whacked the same guy twice for all his chips so he was doing just fine. After a few hours VPQ walks up with some cash out tickets from the machines and she tells me she's hungry. We hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at 7:30 am so by 5 or so the hunger pangs start gnawing. And it's Vegas, there's lots of places to eat. Then VPQ shows me the tickets, one for over $200 from hitting quad Aces and one for over $1000 for hitting a royal flush!! Dinner is on her. Lightning still wants to stack up some more tourista cash so he declines dinner but we head over to Le Burger Brasserie in the corridor to Paris.

A bit of a pricey French take on a sports bar/tavern but we both get terrific sandwiches with VPQ getting a French dip cheesesteak and I got a bacon cheeseburger with brie cheese. Very very tasty but as I said a bit pricey. $11 for a burger may be a Vegas strip staple now but it still rankles me a bit. Still it was a good burger and almost worth that price. We also had a few celebratory drinks as well. When we were done we walked around a bit and I headed over to the poker room but Lightning had headed out for some food and I was pokered out for a bit. The wife wanted to play some more 3 card poker to see if she could become the mistress of all forms of poker around. Needless to say she did it.

We start playing and I'm not doing too well but not long after we started VPQ draws 8-8-8. She is playing both the pairs bonus for $10 and the 6 card bonus (where your cards are matched with the dealer cards and if you can form a winning hand of trips or better you get paid off) for $5. So she is already getting $300 for her set on the pairs bonus and another $25 minimum for the 6 card bonus. If the dealer has a pair in his hand she has a full house for 25-1 on the 6 card bonus. No pair for the dealer though. Instead he turns over the other 8 and she gets 50-1 for the four of a kind. $600 on that hand alone. It wasn't her only one. A bit later she gets trips again!!! I don't play as much 3 card poker as she does as for me it is generally a losing proposition but I have also never gotten 3 of a kind or a straight flush any time I have played. She is getting them left and right. This time unfortunately the dealer did not have the other card for the quads but he did have a pair and she got the full house bonus as well. Even paying for my losses she still walked away from the table with almost $1000.

We're getting kinda tired so we go play some video poker to kill a little time before going to bed to hopefully sleep the night and get on western time. We lose a bit but head upstairs still quite profitable day. VPQ is now APQ as she is obvious Queen of All Poker. Its surprising Ballys hasn't banned her from the 3 card poker game - especially after what she does the next day. But that is for another post as again this is carrying on a bit long. Till then stay lucky you nuts.

The Eagle Has Landed

and is glad he finally did. The flight out from Tampa to Phoenix where we changed planes was pretty good though I was ready to get off the plane when we did land. We were on an Airbus A320 which is a pretty comfortable plane all in all, much better than the 737 we took last time. Phoenix was a mess of course, not surprising as everytime I go through Phoenix it seems there are problems. This time though I didn't want to fly through cities like Denver, Detroit, Chicago or even St Louis as the opportunity to be weather delayed in February is always there when you go through those cities.

We were delayed over an hour in Phoenix. The flight from Phoenix to LV was totally packed but we were in an Airbus A321 which was even nicer than the 320. Needless to say however we were ready to get off the plane an hour later when we landed. Baggage claim was ok and the shuttle to Ballys was a piece of cake. Check in had a little line but after we got there it got packed. We got there and the gal at check in was great. She upgraded us to a North Tower room without us even asking. For Free. This room is nice! Huge king bed, nice desk where I am typing this missive, roomy, etc. Only thing the room needs is a coffee maker and a fridge. Anyway we got in and settled and tried to take a nap but though we were tired, we couldn't get to sleep. So the Poker Queen, PQ for short - alias my wife, decided she wanted to play some Video Poker. Down we went down to the casino and played some for awhile. We were able to make some cash, well she did anyway, but nothing to write home about.

After a while we got hungry so we started walking around looking at different food places. There is a connecting corridor between Ballys and Paris and she wanted to check out the places there so we headed that way. We were a little way up the corridor lookiing at the Frenchy burger place when a guy asks us what we are doing that night. Before I can say anything my wife says nothing. I immediately chimed in that we were planning on playing a poker tourney but the guy asks us if we want to go to that night's Barry Manilow concert. He had 2 tix for free as comps and wasn't going and saw us walking holding hands and figured we were both old enough to remember Barry's hits and wouldn't be fighting in 3 hours when the concert started. And he just gave us the tickets. PQ was thrilled. Barry was the one show she wanted to see but it didn't look like we would be able to as he only was playing Saturday and Sunday night.

With some time to kill we end up eating at this Southwestern/Mexican place in Ballys. Nothing special but it was a decent meal and not too expensive. After dinner PQ decides whe wants to play more Video Poker but I was wanting to play some regular poker so I pointed out these machines that she might like as I played on them a little bit and did well and then headed over to the Ballys poker room. We're only going to play for a little over an hour because we have to head over to Paris for the show I get on the list to play 1-2 no limit and in a short time I'm in seat 5 with $150 in chips in front of me. I watched for a bit before sitting down and I had no hands to speak of for a while so I took stock of the players around me. The guy directly to my right was young and pretty loose aggressive. I watched him raise one pot in early position and when everyone folded get this disgusted look and fold like he had a monster pair. When he folded he flashed his cards up and I could see he was playing J-10 off so I put him down as a guy who would push preflop with near anything and if I had a decent hand, I was gonna push back hard. His buddy was few more seats to the right in seat 1. He was just crazy. He was willing to push and call on hands with less than premium holdings, like 3rd pair, even going so far as to call reraises with this crap. I guess he felt he was not gonna be bluffed. There was also one older guy in seat 10 who I thought had a big tell and I kept watching him. I have been reading a book of tells from Joe Navarro and he mentioned how people move their mouths and tongues when their weak. Now I'm not the most observant guy but I could see this exact thing in this guy. And everytime his mouth told me he was weak he ended up folding to bets. Unfortunately I never got to put this into use as we never got into hands together.

I played for about an hour and was doing well taking my chip stack from 150 to a little over 200. No major hands or anything but I was feeling good and the table was pretty loose so that even though I didn't have great hands, I was making people respect my raises. I don't think I showed down one hand. Then came my slight downfall. I called from the button with a 4-6 suited along with 2 other guys and the blinds. Flop is J64 rainbow. Checked around to the guy in seat 1 who puts out a pot sized bet of $10. It comes to me and I reraise him to $25. I am maybe putting him on air, maybe on a jack or draw. He calls. Turn is a 5 and he checks so I put him all in for his last 50 bucks or so and he calls and flips over a 75 for an open end straight and a pair of 5s. Of course a 3 rivers and I lose my profits plus about $25. I maybe played it wrong by not raising the flop bigger but seeing the way he played, I think he calls a bigger raise to like $40 so maybe this was one of those hands I was fated to lose. I didn't feel too bad as I got it in good as a pretty big favorite, it was just one of those poker breaks. But I hated losing that hand because winning it puts me up to about $300 and I would have liked that.

PQ comes by a few minutes later and I have to leave to see Barry Manilow with her. Now many of you are probably laughing hysterically but those of you who are a bit older can probably remember that in the late 70s there were really 3 singers/bands that dominated pop music - Billy Joel, the Bee Gees, and Barry. So even though I am not a huge fan of his, I remember all of his big hits and many of them I still like. My wife really likes to hear him sing as well. Yes we are old apparently but I'll take Barry Manilow over Lady Goo Goo all day long. When PQ walks up she is holding 3 tickets from the Video Poker machines totalling about $500 in winnings. DAMN. She is no longer the Poker Queen, she is the Video Poker Queen. And it gets better later.

Anyway the concert was really nice. Barry Manilow is a good entertainer and VPQ had a great time. I enjoyed it myself. After the concert we wanted to stay up a bit later and get into the western time zone way of life so we decided to sit down and play some 3 card poker for a while. VPQ really likes this game but outside of the first time she played it (she hit a straight flush on her 2nd hand) the game has not been kind to her so we usually avoid it. But it was a good way to kill some time so we sat a while and played. She started off badly but I did ok and then she got hot and we both made some cash while we killed some time. The dealer was nice too so we had some fun and placed some bets for her as well.

By the time we went to bed after that we were pretty beat. It was a long day but a very full one and we had a lot we wanted to do the next day so we headed up to bed a little before 11. Though I was down a couple of hundred for the day, VPQ was up well over that so we felt pretty good. A lot happened the next day but this post is long enough as it is so I'll leave off here. Stay lucky you nuts, luckier than me at least.

Trois Tres Drei Tre Trzy San

In other words THREE as in the number of days until PQ and I will be winging our way to the Holyland. We haven't been since November 2009 (our 25th anniversary) and I am so ready to go. Work has truly been a bear lately and if I didn't take some time off someone was going to pay. Do you hear me? SOMEONE WOULD PAY!! People have been walking very softly around my cube. Possibly with good reason too. I have not been the most laid back sort of late. But I am working on it. By leaving for a week.

I finally signed up for Full Tilt today so that I could play the Mookie and especially the VJ. Unfortunately I will probably miss next week's VJ, unless of course I go busto in Vegas. I will have a computer with me but I am expecting to be a mite bit busy next Wednesday. Mookie just started and I am at a table with Lightning and Very Josie. The funny thing is the 2 people Josie has been trashing lately are at the table too. Both HeffMike and JamyHawk are there but not for long as Jamy got moved pretty quickly. Then I got moved as well. I saw later that Josie was gone pretty quick. Lightning though had the misfortune of running his QQ into AA. All in preflop and he was first to bust. Sorry Light, we can have a beer next week and talk about it.

Made it to first break and haven't embarassed myself completely yet. Actually in 10th. Didn't get much cards early but made the ones I got pay ok. Late in the round I got AA twice. First time I raised in early position and everyone folded. 2nd I was in the big blind and got a walk. Yuck.

Cards have been pretty crappy since the break. I've picked up a couple of pots with nice flops and raised some pots preflop to take them down. Then I got lucky. Raised in middle position with 77. Julius Goat next to me pushed all in for about half my stack. I called expecting a big ace but was unhappy to see QQ in his hand. Flop was nice for me 658. Turn was an A but the river was my third 7 knocking Julius out. Apparently I won a bounty on Julius as well so I'm basically freerolling the rest of the tourney. I hit a couple of other hands, nothing major and found myself with a little over 11000 chips at the 2nd break, good for 3rd place at the time. 17 were left with 5 places paid.

Getting lucky with some hands after the break. Raised with AK and got 1 caller. Flop was Queen high. Bet the flop and he called, bet the turn and he called. River was an Ace and I took it down for a nice score. Then I called a small raise with 10-9. Flop was QJx and I called a 1/3 pot bet then the turn was another low card. I called a somewhat larger raise but still small in relation to the pot. I still had the straight draw along with a flush draw as well. River is a 10 of hearts. Didn't make me happy but gave me a pair. It was checked to me and I just checked as I didn't know if he was playing me with an AK or had nothing. He flips over A7 and I take it down with a pair of 10s.

Made it to the final table and moved up to 3rd place before it all came crashing down. Lost a race with AK against JJ. Then gave a few more chips away when nothing flopped on my AQ. Finally went out when I reraised all in with 44 and was called by Numbnuts errr Numbono with AK. Flop and turn missed him but the river filled a Broadway straight for him and I was out in 7th. I had some good luck, had some bad luck but mostly just played tight aggressive and picked my spots. It was fun but lasted too late for a weeknight. I got a lot to do tomorrow. So I bid good night to all and hope all you nuts stay lucky. Except Numbono. He got lucky enough with that broadway. By the way, its 2 days to Vegas.

It's the Final Countdown

T Minus 5 everyone until we blast off to Sin City for some fun and games. Checked the weather today and they seem to be 10 - 15 degrees cooler. Guess I have to pack a bit of cooler weather gear like long sleeved shirts and at least one jacket. I won't be outdoors too much but with 6 days of fun and games to experience, I expect to travel a little. I got my hair cut yesterday and my barber said I need to go out I-15 to Utah through the Virgin River Gorge just to see it so I might.

Damn I'm getting excited just thinking about it. Its only been about a year and 4 months since I last went there but every trip to Vegas just brings so much fun. In 2009 when the wife, who shall be now called Poker Queen or PQ from now on, (her demand errr request) and I last were there we suffered a lot of losses early on but it all turned when we went downtown and played there for awhile. We went to Fitzgeralds and signed up for their Players Club. They had a bank of Video Poker machines that had a sign over them saying they would give a free steak dinner if you hit quads. So we sat down. These machines were a lot bigger than the ones we were used to playing on. No matter, we both sat down and started playing Double Double Bonus. Before long she hits a nice quads for $200. I tell her to cash out and now we find out why these machines are so big. They pay out in Quarters. There is nothing like the sound of 800 quarters being distributed to get your heart racing. I think Vegas made a mistake going to all these machines that pay out with tickets. The sound of coins hitting the pay slot just makes you feel all warm inside. We play for a good while hitting quads 5 times between us. We never hit the biggest paying quads but we each walked out with about $400 more than we went in with plus free steak dinners to boot.

After that our luck turned for the remainder of the trip. We hit more quads on other Video Poker machines, mostly at Casino Royale where we enjoyed playing the most. I played a good bit of craps and made some nice cash off this guys monster roll. Fooled around on the roulette wheel for a little while and noticed the dealer had a bias in the way she was spinning it. I noticed a bit late in her shift unfortunately but this other guy also saw and he cleaned up. I made a bit of cash for the short time I played. Went back to Video Poker with PQ and was doing nicely while she wasn't making much. The she grabbed my leg and said "Oh honey look at this" and I look over to see the club royal flush on her machine. Bingo! $1,000 here we come. We had a great time for the rest of our trip and it was nice for both of us to come back with more money then we left with.

This trip I think we'll play more poker than we did. We'll play more tourneys for sure as I think we only played one or two and I think we'll play a bit at the cash tables as well. I am definitely going to play craps again as I really enjoyed it last time. PQ and I have been checking out different daily tourneys to see what's going on. This is gonna be fun.

I'm all booked up

Got my tickets, my hotel reservation and 9 days to countdown. Cuz Vegas is CALLIN and I aim to answer. Flights are gonna be a pain but thats to be expected in this day and age. Still we got a sweet deal on the hotel. 6 days at Ballys for a grand total of $78.40 including tax. Yep gotta pay for 1 night and got comped for 5. I thought that was a pretty fair deal. Now I'm not living it up in some penthouse suite but a hotel room in Vegas is simply where I lay my head. I don't need much in that regard.

We were originally planning to spend a little time downtown and some on the strip but when we talked about the wife said she didn't want to stay downtown at all. So I redid the hotel reservations and presto. We haven't made any plans to do anything specific but we are gonna rent a car for 2 or 3 days maybe go to Red Rocks Canyon, hit the hills outside of Vegas, maybe Hoover Dam and definitely hit some of the big offstrip properties like Green Valley Ranch, maybe South Point or some of the locals casinos. Anyway I can't hardly wait.

"I'm so excited

That I'll never be able to go to sleep. This has been the 2nd best Valentine's Day every"

That was the exact quote my wife said to me tonight on our way home. Home from where you may ask? Well the 2 or 3 readers I do have would probably remember that the wife and I were playing in a Valentine's Day couples poker tourney. I would say I have performed better in tournaments before. I was out in 45 minutes when I ran J8 into AJ on a JJ5 flop. That sucked. I wasn't getting much to work with and really thought the guy was trying a massive steal. One thing I have learned lately is to trust my reads and it's worked out pretty well for me. But some days I don't read as well as others it seems.

So I slunk off to the $1-1 no limit tables trying to salve my conscience. Saturday night I went out to play $1-1 and I had a good night turning my $60 buy in into $170 but this time it was a real struggle. Couldn't get much going hand wise and I couldn't draw out either. Made a couple of good pushes and had a decent read on the 2 maniacs at the table so that I was able to get back close to even after a couple of bad breaks early. I'm sitting there minding my own business when my phone buzzes. My wife sent me a text message saying she had just made a 7 high straight flush in the Valentines tourney. Now besides the money for the top 5 places, the best hand of the night wins a choice of these large diamond earrings or a diamond Tag Heuer watch. Well at that point, her hand was numero uno. Of course she had to sweat for the next hour and a half.

I kept playing and losing a bit then getting it back and decided to watch the wife for a while and see if she won. I got there in the nick of time. About 2 hours into the tourney they called one last hand for the high hand and she was still leading. One hand later and boom, she won. She chose the the big ass diamond earrings which was cool. I wouldn't have minded a new watch though. She was thrilled. I watched her for a while more but she wasn't getting anything going and her stack was down to about 7K. After winning the earrings which were worth more than 1st place in the tourney, she was not overly concerned with placing in the tourney. So I went back to play only to have my table break and have to go to a new table. I was just getting it going too. So I end up at this other table where there was this couple who were brand new to live poker. These people are calling down and betting with near anything. At first I had no read on them but after watching some of the calls, I new any decent hand like top pair would probably take them down. Of course, to get there I had to have something worth playing And that wasn't happening. Finally I get 77 UTG. I called a small raise along with 5 others. The flop was nice, Q 7 9 with 2 hearts. The newbie guy leads out for $2 and I raise him up to 8. Everyone else folds around to the newbie who calls. I put him on a flush draw or maybe a queen.

Turn is another heart, the 9 making a beautiful boat for me. He checks and I only bet out $5 which he calls again. Now I'm definitely putting him on the flush. River is the ace of clubs. He leads out $8 and I raise him to $20. He looks at me and I figure I might have lost him but he calls. I show him my boat and he flips over A8 off, no flush, no nothing till he rivered that Ace. Wow was I surprised. Not long after this I get a text from the wife. I'm figuring she's telling me she's out but instead I read "Come look at my big stack" So I head over to the tourney and it's getting down to the end of the last level. I look at my wife and she's sitting with this massive pile of chips, about 70K I figure. Looked like she had more than anyone at her table and there was only 2 tables left. The tourney ends and they count up all the stacks and put the teams together. Only one couple had both made it all the way to the end. They ended up in first. Our team, aka my wife, placed 4th. So on top of the earrings she walks out with almost $500 as well. Now that's quite a day.

Well that's enough for now. I gotta get some sleep. Good night all and stay lucky you nuts.

Channeling my inner donkey

Haven't posted in a while so a quick recap is in order. Played last Saturday in the 8 pm tourney. For the most part I played well I thought. Got very little going early but stayed patient and by the time of the first break I had doubled up when I flopped a straight with J10 and took out a guy with QQ. He raised 3x preflop and with other callers I felt compelled to call from the Big Blind.

Later on it got interesting. Two guys got moved to the table. I was sitting on a better than average stack but they had about as many chips as I did. Blinds were 200/400 and I was UTG with 66. I limped in as I didn't feel like raising that in 1st position. 4 others limped to the big blind who raised to 1500. I had seen him raise a previous hand on what I felt was BS and I just didn't put him on much there, so I reraised to 4K. The other new guy in seat 10 called as did the Big Blind. I wasn't that concerned about the big blind but was unhappy about seat 10 calling. Flop is K22. I did not put either of them on AK, seat 10 never raised and the big blind didn't bet the flop so I pushed 6K in after the flop. Maybe I should push all in there but I was a little leery. Guy in seat 10 folded and the guy in the big blind agonized for a while. I was wondering if he had KQ and was putting me on AK or AA. That is the great thing about being the aggressor, they have to make that decision. we had about equal stacks and more than half my stack was in the pot not so if he pushes, I'm not sure what I do next. But I didn't have to as he folded. Just to let the table know I would push hard with less than a premium holding (as all they had seen me play was big pairs and made hands) I flipped over the 66. Big blind was happy as he folded 55 which surprised me a little but not much. I can see him moving like that preflop with 55. And figuring me for a king on that flop. Seat 10 was another story. He was very unhappy as he tossed QQ figuring I had AA or AK. See what I mean? It has taken me a while to learn to be aggressive like that when I don't hit. But it is helping.

Unfortunately I lost it all later. Got moved to another table next to a big stack. He played LOOSE as I saw the first hand he raised preflop and then raised after the flop. He had 52 suited though he didn't know I saw his cards when he folded. I don't get much for awhile and steal a couple of small pots but then get QQ under the gun. I raise 4x and he is the only caller. Flop is 10 8 2. I make a bet of 2/3 the pot and he calls. Turn is a J. He checks and I bet again. He pushes all in and I don't think long enough. If it was Josie next to me, I know I fold but it wasn't. However he did play that shitty J10 into mean. I called for all my chips just to get no help on the river. Now we were down to 3 tables less a few players at this point and he had a big stack then. Should have walked to the final table. He was out before they got to 15 players. Play like a dimbulb, lose like a dimbulb. And calling big raises with J10 then calling with top pair shitty kicker will do that to ya.

I played some 1-1 no limit after that with my wife at the same table. She was getting whacked. I earned back my tourney entry. If I hadn't been supporting her too, I would have raked. I hit a number of draws, made straights a lot of times. People would not raise enough to get me out of pots when I had good draws. Never had a day like that. I busted some good hands too. Hint people, raise preflop and raise good after the flop. These crappy little raises of 5 or 6 bucks into a 25 buck pot is not gonna get me out when I have 10-9 on a J-8-4 flop. I had a really good read on the table too. So it was an ok night though I busted my wifes AA with 35 when she didn't follow this rule either. Also got people to lay down better hands when I pushed straighty boards when all I had was top pair and not a great kicker. You show down a few straights and everyone believes you for some reason.

Thursday the wife and I headed back to sign up for the Valentine's day tourney. Its a tradition for us as we have played 5 or 6 times. I have done well in the tourney cashing 2 or 3 times. She has managed to make it to the end of the tourney exactly once, last year. It's a timed tourney and the end of 6 levels or so they add up the total of each couple's chips and the top 5 couples get paid. Tourney is limited to 50 couples. We took 2nd one year I know of (I did as she went out early that year) and last year we got third as I did decently and she made it to the end and had enough chips left to push me from 4th or 5th up to third for us. Its a fun tourney for sure. And it's what she likes for Valentine's Day so a win/win from my perspective.

Just played a 180 person sit n go online. Played pretty well I thought and made the money. Again was aggressive once I got some chips though it took a while to get there. Luckily right before 2nd break I raised 4x with 77 and got one caller, the big stack on the button. Flop was beautiful KJ7. I C bet 1500 into a 2600 chip pot and the big stack raises me to 4000. I had about 7500 left so if I call him I'm committed. I didn't put him on KK as he would have reraised me. Maybe JJ but more probably I figured he had a big K, KJ or Q10. Hoped he just had a big K and pushed all in. He called with AK and I turned quads to bring double my stack up and put me in 2nd of 35 at the 2nd break. Top 18 get paid.

After the break the cards dried up. I managed to steal a couple of pots to but also had to give up some raises to reraises. By the time we got to 22 I was down to 13th with a slightly below average stack. I couldn't catch a decent hand it seemed and every raise was into people with bigger hands. Last raise was A9 in middle position. Got called by button with a big stack and then the small blind pushed all in for about half me stack. He was playing very tight so I put him on better than A9, besides I didn't want to get middled here and get reraised all in by the big stack if I called. So I dumped and was happy when the big stack called with 10-10. Small blind had AA and I blew a sigh of relief as he doubled up.

I picked up a couple of small pots to stay viable and was 13 of 18 when the bubble broke. Blinds and ante's increased and I had to dump my blinds to big raises a couple of times. Before long I am small stack with 16 left. Blinds are 300-600 when I wake up UTG with AA. Figure my best bet is to push there so I go all in for 5600. I get called by the former big stack - no surprise there and by a pretty big stack next to him. Flop is K43 and the ex big stack pushes in and is called by the guy next to him and he shows 99. The biggie shows A7 of clubs. There is one club on the board and nothing else for him. of course the turn and river are a 5 and 6 and he makes a straight to knock us both out. That sucked as I should have tripled up there which would have put me right back into things. But I cashed and I was fairly happy with my play. I saw the big stack who was now a bigger big stack managed to go out 10th. He lost all the chips he got from that hand plus some after about 10 minutes. A bad player can't wait to give his chips away it seems, especially if he is gonna put a fair amount in the pot with nothing and no real draw as well. Some stats for the Hoyazo - Played in 163 hands, saw the flop in 35 or about 21%. 17 of those were from the blinds so I saw 18 of 123 non blind hands or 14.6%. Probably a little high for me. I won 20 without a showdown and 5 of 7 showdowns. I think that's a fair percentage 25 of 35 hands won that I entered. Too bad I didn't win that last showdown. Well that's enough for now. Hope all you nuts are staying lucky, luckier than me at least.