Quick Thoughts - July 27th
Quick Thoughts while counting the days until I make my
triumphant return to Las Vegas…
n Last night’s (7/26/05) Red Sox game - wow. I mean, WOW. That was the first game in about 3 weeks that I’ve watched start to finish, and I couldn’t have picked a better one. Forget the injuries (Clement & Nixon) for a second. Just to be able to come back from giving up a 5-0 lead, and to claw back from down 8-6 in the 9th inning. This game was eerily reminiscent of last year’s July 24th comeback against the Yankees. That game was the one that turned around the 2004 season. I know that Tampa Bay isn’t the same as New York, but the intensity between the teams is just as high, and to win in the way that Boston did, well, maybe that’s the game that rights the 2005 ship.
n Now, as for those injuries… Clement is lucky to be alive with a ball coming that close to his right temple, let alone to just miss one start. The silence in Tampa was very telling... Trot’s oblique muscle worries me more, if in fact Clement is able to return to normal in a week or two. There are a handful starting pitchers that can be had at the trading deadline, with A.J. Burnett atop a very mediocre list. But there are only three or four names that pop out at me from among a weak outfield crop: Adam Dunn (STUD), Austin Kearns (pretty damned good), Matt Lawton (second or third tier), and Mike Cameron (ugh). That’s it. If the Sox can’t swing a deal for any of them (personally, I’d be willing to give up a Hanley Ramirez or Manny DelCarmen for Adam Dunn), then we might be looking at a half-season (plus possible playoffs) of Gabe Kapler and Adam Hyzdu roaming the vast expanse of right field in Fenway Park. That’s not a pleasant thought.
n Think about Adam Dunn in Fenway… Ted Williams’ red chair might be in danger. Besides, when Millar leaves town next season, Dunn could be plugged in at first with Trot returning to right field. I don’t see a problem here, aside from interleague play when David Ortiz would be forced into play at First and Trot would probably have to sit to keep Dunn in the lineup. Besides, this lineup was woefully behind on its strikeout quota with Mark Bellhorn on the DL. Dunn could easily make up for that…
n Two final notes from yesterday’s game. First, I must admit, I was wrong. Curt Schilling as a closer is just as scary as Keith Foulke (See “Quote of the Week”). Second - as soon as Johnny Damon made that catch in the 9th inning in deep center field, I turned to my dog, Tobey, (he was the only one in the room with me, and I needed someone to talk to) and said “Now watch, he’ll hit a homer on the first pitch next inning, because SportsCenter anchors love to say ‘And how many times have you seen it – a guy makes a great defensive play and then leads off with a big hit’”. Tobey, luckily, did not answer. I mean, he is just a dog…
Some other random thoughts…
n Did the cadaver that Dr. Bill Morgan practiced his infamous ankle sutures on get a World Series ring too? Or at least, did his family? I mean, the friggin’ mascot got one, why not this guy?
n How come the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting weren’t required to move to New Orleans when the NBA’s Hornets did? Doesn’t it seem strange that the city of Charlotte is home to the Sting and the Bobcats? Every other WNBA team was essentially named as a variation of their local NBA franchise, in order to capitalize of the then record-high popularity of the NBA. And, more importantly, why am I even mentioning the WNBA? I’ll stop now…
n Is anybody else excited about the return of the NHL? Wait a minute - let’s remove the word “else” from that first sentence…
n Had the opportunity to venture to Foxwoods last weekend for a little cash game poker. I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am that they started spreading a $2-4 NL Hold-‘Em cash game. The $1-2 games are almost useless, with a maximum buy-in of $100. But the $5-5 games are a little high, even for me, with a minimum buy-in of $200 and no maximum. The last time I went to Foxwoods I had intended to sit at a $5-5 table, until I looked and saw that every person there had at least $2500 in chips and I would have only had about $250. Not a very good position to start in. Anyway, $2-4 NL = great game. I know what I’ll be playing from now on…
And finally, the “Quote of the Week”
From the Dennis & Callahan morning show on WEEI radio last week:
John Dennis: “Curt Schilling blew the save but got the win in last night’s game against Tampa. That’s actually a new stat that the Boston brains have created. It’s called a Foulke.”
Sorry, but that’s funny.
Lata.
Quick Thoughts - Readjusting to Eastern Standard Time
Quick Thoughts while re-adjusting to Eastern Standard Time…
n After landing at 11:48PM on Saturday night and making it home at about 2AM Sunday morning, I slept. Until 4PM. Yeah. That makes it much, much harder to adjust to life back on the East Coast…
n Of course, the 90-degree temperatures with 88% relative humidity don’t help either…
n Just 3 more weeks until I’m back in Vegas. I really think this needs to become a bi-weekly trip.
n One last note from my “vacation” that I didn’t get to mention in my last post, because it happened about 6-hours after I wrote…
So, I got bored of just sitting in my room all day Friday. Luckily, I have direct deposit on my paychecks, and one had just cleared. Hello ATM… Anyway, I took out some cash and headed for the poker room. Almost as if it was meant to be, a $2-$5 No-limit game had just been spread. I’ve written before how much I prefer the $2-$5 format to a $1-$2. I took up a seat and didn’t move for almost 12 hours, recouping at least a little of the money that bad luck and worse play had taken from me.
The best moment of the night was at about 1AM, when I turned around to see Scotty Nguyen enter the poker room at Harrah’s to an overhead announcement and a loud round of applause. Apparently he was a dealer at Harrah’s before winning the WSOP Main Event. He walked around taking photos and shaking hands. I had just scooped a rather sizeable pot at my table, knocking out the person sitting directly to my right. Scotty walked over to our table, and I invited him to sit next to me. His response? “No, too much money there (pointing to my stack, which was 2-3x bigger than anyone else at the table), and I sit in bad position (to my right).” Brought a big smile to my face as he shook my hand, patted me on the shoulder, and walked on.
n OK, back to real sports… I know I’m just a little behind here, but I gotta say this – were they hitting Titelist baseballs in the Home Run Derby, or did Bobby Abreu just announce to the world that he’s one of the best left-handed hitters in all of baseball?
n The power of Red Sox Nation is far reaching… Sitting in the Harrah’s Poker Room last Thursday it was hard not to be amazed at just how many Red Sox fans were in the tiny room with me cheering on the 17-1 demolition of the Yankees.
n Hmm… so the Red Sox trade Jay Payton and designate Alan Embree, and acquire Chad Bradford, Tony Graffanino and Adam Hyzdu, all in the past week? Well, these are certainly the blockbuster moves that Red Sox fans were expecting out of our team. Glad to see the front office is really going all-out…
n Thank God – it’s time for NFL Training Camp! I’ll have my 2005 NFL Season Preview posted in about a month. I’m holding off as long as possible so I can avoid making predictions that fall apart as soon as one player blows out a knee, like I did with my MLB Preview (Example: “The San Francisco Giants will win the National League Pennant”)
n AJ Burnett will not end up as an Oriole. He very well may end up wearing a Sox’ uniform… White Sox.
n Billy Wagner will not be a Phillie when August comes around. Jim Thome will be (NO ONE is eating that contract, not even a New York team).
n Ricky Williams will not finish the year as a Dolphin. But can’t you just see him as a Raider? I mean, would that be too perfect? Am I asking too much here? Ricky Williams, Randy Moss, and absolutely no defense. I Know, they already signed their running back. But if you were Al Davis, and you had the choice of Lamont Jordan or Ricky Williams, I mean, who would you choose?
n Speaking of the Raiders, Tim Brown retiring as a Raider was good. He was as much of a face of the franchise as they’ve had in the last 20 years. He’s a first ballot Hall-of-Famer, or at least he should be.
n Speaking of Hall-of-Famers… is there any argument now that Rafael Palmeiro is worthy of a trip to Cooperstown, five years after whenever he hangs up his spikes?
n Speaking of hanging up the spikes… Barry Larkin retired for a reason. He didn’t have anything left to offer, and he wanted to be remembered as a Cincinnati Red. He really shouldn’t come out of retirement just because the Nationals made a HUGE mistake signing Cristian Guzman to a long-term deal…
Quote of the Week:
From an ESPN.com live chat session with professional poker player Phil Gordon earlier this week:
D (Boston)
As a first time Main Event player this year, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting directly across the table from Phil Ivey for the duration of Day One. Before play and during breaks, one thing struck me - every top level pro in that day's draw (Doyle, Lederer, Juanda, D'Agostino, Seed etc.) came over to him, rather than making him come to them. Is Phil really that highly respected in the poker world? I mean, he's still just a kid, no?
PHIL GORDON
Phil Ivey is the best player in the world, bar none. While it might have been an honor to sit across from him, I doubt it was a pleasure.
D (Boston)
Point well taken.
Yep. That about sums up my 2005 WSOP Main Event experience. At least I’ll probably get some air time in October when ESPN runs the coverage…
Lata.
As the lucky worm turns...
I can’t even explain what’s going on right now. Seriously. I have no words for how ridiculously bad my luck has swung over the last two days. Let me just give you this example:
As I walked out of the casino for food earlier today, a man stood up from the table I was just passing, grabbed the chair, and collapsed to the floor. He was in the middle of what I can only assume was a massive heart attack, judging by his size, age, and the ashtray with about 30 butts in it sitting in front of the chair he had been occupying. And somehow, I wasn’t even mildly fazed by all of this, except to avoid the EMT’s with their latex gloves rushing past me. I know how callous that sounds, but I’m just completely out of rhythm right now. Nothing seems right...
For the record, I’ve played more poker over the past three days than any previous two-week stretch in my life. Three straight 18+ hour days (23 hours on Tuesday, 20 hours on Wednesday, 19 hours with a 3 hour break on Thursday), and before yesterday, I was actually ahead for the sessions.
Let’s recap...
Tuesday:
I started the day with an entry into a $40 NL (1 re-buy) tournament in the morning. Let me sum up the entire tourney like this: Hand #3, I had Pocket Queens (yes, those pocket queens) with a raise to me. I re-raised, got one call (the button). The flop hit Q-6-K. The guy who made the first raise pre-flop muttered “Shit – I folded pocket sixes”. I checked, the other player went all-in, and I called. She had KK. That was that.
After sitting at a $1-$2 NL table for about six hours, I left to get some food (having a McDonalds with a full “Dollar Menu” directly next to my hotel is probably the worst thing that could have happened to me this week). I returned to find that a $2-$5 NL game had opened up in the Harrah’s poker room. $2-$5 is a much better game – faster paced, better pots, everything about it is nicer. Plus, when some schmuck spends 5 minutes deciding whether or not he wants to call your bet, it’s usually over a little more money – like, say, an $80 bet rather than $8.
This particular table happened to be absolutely insane. Any pre-flop raise of less than $30 was almost guaranteed to get 4 or more callers. I had pocket kings twice and was obligated to raise $50 immediately just to weed out the A-x hands that kept chasing every flop.
Anyway, after a reasonable run, my luck turned against me, and I dropped a couple of hundred dollars. I made it back after a re-buy, and finished the day at just about even.
Wednesday:
Yeah. Here’s where it went bad.
I played in the $40 NL tourney again, finishing just out of the money at #12. At one point, I got AA back-to-back and only got action on the first hand. Way too much respect for me.
I opened a $1-$2 NL table at 1:30PM with about 5 other guys. I caught a sick run of cards to start, building up a pretty nice stack of chips (about a rack and a half of red) and covering everyone else at the table. I caught cards left and right and really felt like my luck was changing back for the best. I mean, I have absolutely no problem playing any two cards to a flop for $2, but it certainly helps when I get KK three times in two hours.
Unfortunately, as is usually the case in no-limit hold-‘em, I made one mistake, and it absolutely killed me.
In the small blind, I had pocket deuces. Not a great hand, but certainly worth $1 to see a flop. Thing is, there was a raise to $10 and five callers before the action came back around to me.
Now, I know pot odds. I know that I was getting better than 5-1 on my $9 even before the Big Blind acted, and because I had a pair, if a deuce flopped I was golden. But for whatever reason (stupidity, mostly), I dumped the hand and sat back to watch.
The flop hit 6-2-7. I stood up in disbelief at my immense foolishness for not playing to at least a flop, especially since I had the table completely dominated in chips and a $9 bet shouldn’t have been enough to get me off any hand. There was a bet to $10, a raise to $25, and two callers. $146 in the pot.
The turn came down with the fourth deuce. I had the absolute nuts, and they were already in the muck. I mumbled to the dealer to take a look at my hand, which he did before shaking his head and looking at me like I was a total idiot. I, of course, already knew that I was a complete idiot. There was a $40 bet and a raise all-in for about $65, with a call from only one player. $276 in the pot.
The two players showed J-J and A-7 (A-7?!?!). The river was a blank, and I was out $276.
On the very next hand, I was the button. After I noticed a misdeal, we received new cards and I looked down to find.... QQ. Great.
I bet out $20 after a raise to $7 from the guy who had just won the last pot, a pot that should have gone to me. He never should have had a hand. Instead, he called.
The flop hit with 2 clubs and a 7 high (2c-4c-7d). He bet out $15, and I immediately put him on a club draw, probably with an Ace. I raised to $45. He thought it over, and finally pushed all-in for his remaining $241.
I said “call” before he finished saying “in”.
He simply hung his head and said “Nice call. I’m on a draw.” He flipped over Ac-5h (not even a club draw?!) and I showed my QQ, getting ready to scoop his $276 out of the pot. I was a 2-1 favorite.
The turn showed 7s, meaning that the only way he would take the pot was with a river ace for a better pair, or a river 3 for his gut-shot straight. I was about an 85%-15% favorite.
Well, they’re called “gut-shots” for a reason. Because, let me tell you, when you lose to one it feels like you’ve been squarely punched in the gut. His three hit the river and I came very close to unleashing a tirade the likes of which wouldn’t even be allowed on HBO (or, more appropriately, the likes of which you’ll probably see in October from Mike Matusow when ESPN airs Day One of the WSOP). Instead, I walked away from the table for almost 10 minutes, trying desperately to collect myself.
When I returned, he had already added another $150-ish to his stack. He went on a sick run with his newfound (and undeserved) wealth, before finally leaving to go to dinner. He cashed out $1300+ on his $100 buy-in.
There was only one other hand of note all night. A guy who was drunk continually pushed all-in under the gun before even getting his cards. I finally caught A-K suited on the button, and I had him covered. I called.
He didn’t turn over his cards right away, and the flop hit A-K-blank. He flipped up his cards: 10-10. Unreal. Anyway, the guy to my right said “Wow, I folded A-10 there. Great catch man.”
No, the great catch was the last 10 hitting the river and costing me another $300+.
He did the “blind all-in” thing about ten more times, doubling me up twice and assisting in quadrupling me up once (I got lucky and caught a straight with J-10. I was tilting just a little bit...)
I finally closed the table down at about 6AM. I ended the day with $30 less than I started.
Thursday:
Really, I haven’t gotten over this yet. I have never seen such a horrible run of cards (or plays). Every hand I got was cracked. I never saw Kings. I never saw Aces. I only saw Queens twice (I’m sure you can figure out how well that went). I had Jacks three times and scooped all three pots pre-flop.
The only hand that really broke me was 10-10. And it did it twice.
There was one guy at my late night table with about $800 in chips. When I sat down, the guy to my left warned me that he had been getting unbelievably lucky all night long. I had no idea.
Pre-flop, with 10-10, I raised to $12. I got 2 callers.
The flop hit 7d-7h-9d. I bet out $15, and on guy went all-in for about $40. The guy with the big chipstack called. I put him on A-9 or A-x flush draw, hoping for a suck-out. I re-raised all-in for about $90 more. He thought it over and finally called.
The turn brought the Jack of spades. The river brought the 7 of clubs.
“Well, I think I’ve got this one won fellas” he said, as he turned over his hand...
Q-7 off-suit.
The other guy just shook his head and flipped over 8-8. I showed my 10-10, and though fuming, I gave a patronizing “Nice hand. Great call pre-flop.”
I finally cracked out at about 5AM with 10-10 versus J-J, even though the board showed A-A-K. I’m still not sure how the guy made the call, but whatever.
So today is Friday (I think). I slept until 2PM, meaning that there’s no way I’m getting up in time to make my 11AM checkout tomorrow.
I fly home at 4PM PST tomorrow, landing back in Boston at midnight. Poker night is still on for Sunday, boys.
Quote of the Week
I have no choice but to award myself the quote of the week, because it’ll probably be the only time you’ll see me on ESPN.
After Phil Ivey scooped a rather large pot at my table, with roughly 17 cameras and 347 microphones capturing every second of the action...
Me: “Phil, say something man. They’re all waiting on you...”
Phil: (Nothing. Just a sheepish grin, and a bigger chipstack.)
OK, I’ll admit. That was a pretty lousy quote of the week. So let’s have a second one, shall we?
From a message that was left on my laptop via AIM last night (Yes, I removed the screen names for privacy’s sake). Words of encouragement from my buddy Tim:
Tim (9:35:49 PM): dave
Auto response from Dave (9:35:49 PM): Coming off of two straight 18+ hour poker sessions the last two days. If I'm alive, I'm either sleeping or at a table...
Tim (9:46:18 PM): you are an inspiration to us all, you went to vega$, By yourself I might add, didn't accomplish your actual goal, debated throwing in the towel, and coming home. Apparently you've said "fuck it, I'm staying, and i'm gonna take some moneY" shwoing the true gamer you are. LIfe threw you an inside curve, but you refuse to be brushed off the plate. Put him in coach, he's ready to play. And you've warded off that vile enemy in vegas, sleep. Good for you, thats how I'm gonna be
Tim (9:46:30 PM): In case you hadn't noticed....
Tim (9:46:33 PM): i've been drinking
Tim is away at 9:53:42 PM.
Dave (11:54:27 PM): This is absolutely my Quote of the Week...
Lata.
Seven hours and some lovely parting gifts...
(Nothing but poker today. It’s a good read. A little on the long side, but worth the time...)
Seven hours.
Four hours more than Daniel Negreanu.
Three and a half hours more than Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.
Two hours less than Phil Hellmuth.
Just under an hour more than Doyle Brunson (more on that later).
And yet, I still feel strangely empty.
Before I break into song and lament about today’s results in my first ever appearance in the World Series of Poker Main Event, let me catch you up on the past couple of days.
Thursday, I went to The Mirage hoping to play in a $230 NL Hold-‘Em tournament. Instead, I learned that they cancelled the tournament because they didn’t have enough space for all of the players. I ended up wasting space at a blackjack table for a few hours before heading home, tail tucked firmly between my legs.
Friday morning was a new day. I woke up (even after four days, I’m still stuck on East Coast time...) and after a quick trip to McDonalds for breakfast (whoops!) I returned to the Mirage, determined to claim a spot of dominance at a $1-2 NL cash game table.
At 7AM, I sat down with my $200 buy-in and began playing some of the best poker I’ve played in about two months. By 11AM, I had taken a staggering amount of money off of the drowsy players at my table, and only once on a bad beat (pocket 3’s that were behind three jacks until I caught a very bad flush on the river... for $175). Every hand I held hit. Every bluff I made paid off. It was ridiculous. Only once was I worried about a call, but I made it anyways (my pocket queens held up against pocket 10’s. Remember that for later.) I had two and a half racks of bright red $5 chips (you do the math), as well as a couple smaller stacks in front of me.
Then it happened.
QQ outdrawn to a 4-3 offsuit full house with a major raise (and 2 callers) pre-flop.
QQ outdrawn to a K-7 suited flush with a raise, re-raise, and call pre-flop.
QQ outdrawn to an A-K suited flush (on the river no less) with a raise, re-raise all-in, and a call pre-flop.
QQ outdrawn to a set of 3’s.
QQ outdrawn to a set of 6’s with a pre-flop all-in.
See a pattern yet? Good. It gets worse.
QQ behind all the way to an AA slowplay (first hand he had slowplayed all day)
Of course the hand that really started the free-fall came in between the A-K and the set of 3’s...
In late chip position, I got QQ. There was a raise from $2 to $12 from the man under the gun who had said only 30 seconds earlier that this was his last hand. Two seats down called the $12, and the next player raised to $25. I was one seat from the button, and pushed all-in (I had the table more than covered). The first raiser called without hesitation, making me worry that he had Kings or Aces. The other two players went away.
I showed my Queens. The other guy showed his stellar A-4 offsuit, and counted down the $600+ in front of him. A $600+ call on a bad ace, after a re-raise and an all-in from someone with more than double your chips is not a good idea.
Both of the other players said that they folded A-x, wisely deciding to get out of the hand, leaving only one ace in the deck, and the unlikely possibility of hitting 2-3-5 for a straight.
So naturally, the flop came 6-A-6.
One out left in the deck, and he hit it. True to his word, as soon as the turn and river brought blanks, he cashed out his newfound wealth and left me sitting with my jaw on the table.
9 hands in 10 hours gave me QQ. They held up once, and once I was behind AA the whole way. The other 7 hands were cracked by ridiculously bad luck. All told, between the money I put in the pot, the money I was up, and the money I was up on my second rush, QQ cost me almost $3000 yesterday. $800 came out of my pocket; the rest was profits gone down the drain.
Quickly, before I get into today’s Main Event debacle, one last hand. I had bee playing middle suited connectors (4-5, 6-7, 8-9, and almost always suited) for $2 or even $7 depending on position all day long. On one hand, I was third to act pre-flop, in fifth position. I had 4-5 suited hearts. The kid to my right (Corey something...), who was the only person on the table who could do serious damage to my chipstack at the time (he had about $900 in front of him) raised to $12. I decided to go away.
Three callers later (unbelievably loose table) the flop came out 6-3-7, all hearts. Yep – I threw away the stone cold nuts, a straight flush off the flop. The only way I could have lost would have been if someone had the hearts to make a better straight flush to the 10 (6-7-8-9-10).
Corey bet to $15. Three callers. Now I’m standing up, because I’m absolutely sick. I’m almost certain that Corey flopped an ace-high flush, meaning I would have taken every last chip from him.
The turn brought a blank spade. $25 more from Corey, a call from the next player, and a raise to $50. A fold and two calls from Corey and the other player. $251 in the pot
The river was a fourth heart, meaning now if Corey indeed did flop the ace-high flush, he had just lost his best chance to bust someone badly. He bet $50, but got no action as the player who had raised off the turn showed a King-high flush and complained about his bad luck (His bad luck?!?!).
Before he mucked his cards, I turned to Corey and told him he had no idea how lucky he was. He simply said “I had the nuts dude”, and showed me the A-J of hearts in his hand. I looked at him and said “No, you didn’t. Look at the board again.”
He looked, then looked back at me, and his eyes widened. “Damn. Did I bet you off of the straight flush pre-flop?”
I nodded. He racked his chips and ran to the cashier...
Onto the Main Event...
For the past two days, I’ve been very worried about the professionals that would be in my first day of play. I had seen or heard a pretty decent list of players that had participated in the first two days of action. Still, I had this nagging feeling that I was going to get stuck with a number of top tier professionals in my day of play.
I had no idea.
Two tables to my left sat Doyle Brunson.
One table away from him sat John Juanda.
In a separate section of play was Howard Lederer.
The table directly next to me had both Huck Seed and John D’Agostino.
I have no idea who the pro players were at the featured table.
And staring at me from directly across the table...
Phil Ivey, A.K.A. the man voted by fellow pro players as the best poker player in the world today.
And I’m supposed to advance to Day Two?
I’ll break this down for you nice and gentle. I lost. Badly. But I can take consolation in the following things:
1. Of the 7 hands in 7 hours in which Phil and I played heads-up, I won four, including two double-ups.
2. The hand that basically doomed me to a never-ending string of “All-In and a Prayer” was a bad beat. I had an overpair to the board (JJ with 9-high and 2 spades showing), and I was called all-in by someone who was 4-flush (not an amateur, either. Alan Colon – 9th place at last years U.S Poker Championship). 6000 of my 8300 remaining chips went the wrong way after I bet, he raised, and I pushed all-in to his call.
3. I outlasted Doyle. Not really something to be proud of, since we never played at the same table, but still...
Oh, speaking of that last one...
The action was to me with a J-Q off-suit on the button with four callers of the $200 big blind. Although I had position, I also had only about $2200 chips remaining. I was pondering my options when applause started pouring across the Rio Convention Center – Doyle had been eliminated. Every hand in the room stopped as players gave much deserved respect to one of the greatest ever. Once the noise died down, I decided to give up on the J-Q and folded. The small blind called and there was a free flop...
10-K-A rainbow. Not only would I have flopped the nut straight, but I would have had 6 other players in the hand betting to me. After the turn brought a blank, Colon won the pot and showed his A-K, meaning I probably would have doubled-up off of him. Perfect.
So now I sit in my hotel room, listening to music and wondering if I should just pay the trip cancellation fees, go home and save the vacation hours from work. Las Vegas is a great city, but it’s pretty boring and lonely with no money and no one to talk to. Thank God for cell phones and the Internet.
I’ll probably stay here for a few more days, at least. Maybe I’ll play in small-money tournaments and try to recover from my stupidity on Friday. Maybe I’ll just lay in the sun and turn into a lobster. Who knows.
I will try to post again before I leave with some lessons learned and maybe even a real sports update. Yes, I did hear about Johnny Damon and Curt Schilling. Yes, I have issues with the All-Star Game. No, I couldn't really care less about the NHL fighting about still not reaching a contract agreement. Yes, I have an opinion about all of it. Yes, you’ll read about it soon.
But not tonight.
Lata.
Vegas Update - Day 1
OK, so first things first. I will not be able to update EVERY day, only because my hotel charges $12 per day for Internet Access, and I'm here for 10 days. You do the math.
Second, I forgot how much I missed Vegas. The weather. The alcohol. The scantily clad women showing off all of their, ahem, assets. I love this city.
I spent yesterday working off of two hours of sleep on Tuesday night (I mean, could ya blame me for not being able to sleep?) and then flying to Vegas, adjusting to 104-degree heat, and getting to my hotel to nap. Didn't work out so well, as I got a phone call and two text messages within an hour of falling asleep, so I got up and prepared for my ParadisePoker.com pre-party at The Palms. I decided to represent Boston with my “Red Sox 2004 World Champions” shirt. I planned to go a little less subtle with a full blown Sox home jersey for Day one of the tournament, but I forgot to pack it.
The party was alright. It’s always a little disorienting to see people in real life that you only know by an Internet handle. Any presumptions I had about Internet poker players (fat, balding, socially challenged men... all but me of course) were blown away when I pulled up a chair next to a staggeringly beautiful women and what I presumed was her husband/boyfriend (turned out to be a fiancée). Much to my surprise, she was the player that had won the seat online. He was there as the guest. Shot my theory all to shit.
Luckily there was an open bar (sweetest two words in the English language after “nude beach”) and an abundance of beautiful women walking around the room, most of them there with a boyfriend/husband/random guy on the street, and most of them were clearly bored out of their minds.
Anyway, I made the mistake of drinking, albeit it a relatively small amount (only 8 beers – I went conservative), on a totally empty stomach. As such, I feel like crap today.
So that’s all that’s happened so far. Nothing amazing, nothing terrible. I’m going to go eat something before I spend the rest of the week sick.
I probably won’t update again until Sunday, after I play my first day in the WSOP on Saturday. If all goes well, I’ll update you with my status three days later, hopefully with the overall chip lead.
Lata.
Oh, P.S. Streaming WEEI is by far the greatest thing to come out of the Internet since The Dancing Baby.
