Woo! 5 posts in one day!

I've been told our blog is boring lately. I don't know if that's any better than laziness, but it puts less of the blame on me so I'll take it.

I'm really irritated with the World Poker Tour right now. Someone thought it would be a good idea to do their big tournament as usual this year (going on now actually) with one twist. The main event, the one event anyone cares about, is going to take 4 months to finish. Once they get down to the 9 players for the final table, everything is going to shut down and be finished in mid November. I'm guessing it's so they can edit the footage of the rest of the tournament and show it later with the final table being live. However, it's not like we won't know who makes the final table. They might as well just do the live event when it happens, and show the rest of the action later. Part of the excitement of the tournament is that these guys are playing from early morning to well past midnight every day and have to battle fatigue to keep a sharp mind and play smart poker.

Boys Weekend in Vegas

Yeah, I'm a lazy poster. This is actually from two weekends ago. My dad had his bowling weekend in Vegas, so Brad and I went with him. I was also a lazy photo taker that weekend so you aren't going to get much in the way of pictures either.

We drove up on Friday and came back Sunday morning before I had to be at work. We spent most of our time at Texas Station which is where we were staying. In fact, the only other casino we saw was when Brad and I drove over to a poker tournament at the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood. I did ok and was the chip leader at my table for quite a while before taking a late hit and just missing the final table. Brad came in 6th which paid $120. We were in another tournament later that night at Texas Station. We both made the final table in that one, but neither of us got paid. My dad did get to watch me take down a big pot though so that was cool.

The slots weren't good to me either so I didn't play much. However, seeing as how it was the day before the baseball season started, I did make my World Series bets which should pay off come October. I'll make money if the Red Sox or Dodgers win the World Series. I also put a bet on the Orioles. Job Tate keeps trying to say that they're good and I know he wouldn't lie to me. Plus at 50-1 odds Vegas must think they're a sure thing too.

Pokers

On Saturday afternoon Paul and Bradley drove down to the Eldridge home while Cyndi followed them. The boys were all meeting up to play some poker while Moe, Debbie and Cyndi headed out to do some grocery shopping and grab lunch. The boys had fun. Bradley came in second to Moe's brother Mark and Paul won all his money back by playing different card games after he was knocked out of the poker tourney. Paul and Cyndi were also excited to meet Kate for the first time. And as always it was great to see our buddy James. (The older kids were out with Grammy at Build-a-bear.)

Better late than never....

This actually happened two weekends ago now, but I've been lazy about posting. Brad won the Sports Jeopardy contest on 570am. The last time he won something from them it was Harlem Globetrotters tickets. This time he found out his prize was a lot better -- a trip for 2 to Vegas including 2 nights at the Stratosphere and 2 entries to a poker tournament with a $10,000 pot for the top 4 finishers.

We didn't trust either of our cars for that trip so we rented an Impala for $12 a day online. Friday after he got off work, we headed out and made it there at 11:30pm. At first we were disappointed that the check in line was long causing us to miss a midnight tournament, but later found out that the $20 entry fee didn't include about $100 in add-ons and fees. When we checked in, we got a bag of Stratosphere goodies from the radio station including a tote bag, shirt, hat, cards, dice, and bottle opener. We put the stuff in our room and then drove around to a few of the casinos, but didn't play much other than Brad playing some blackjack.

On Saturday they had a breakfast for us and we got our seat assignments for the first round. Luckily we both got the first session. We found out that 16 people from each of the 2 sessions would move on to a final tournament in the afternoon. In the first round, Brad said he was struggling to get good hands, but he managed to build up enough of a pot to make the finals. I dominated at my table early on and built up the biggest pot in the room when it got down to the 16.

We had a break during the second session, so we got something to eat and then used our free tickets to go to the top of the tower. Brad had never been up there before. It was scary just watching the people on the rides on top of the tower being dangled over the edge. Definitely not for us.



We went back for the finals at 3pm. They told us that everyone would go back to having the same amount of chips to start which didn't make me happy. Neither of us got many good hands, but we were both able to hold on for a while and knock people out. Brad finished in 18th place overall and I got 12th. If the pot was split up the way tournaments usually are, I would have been in the money so that gives me hope for the future.

We finished just after the USC game started so we watched that and then headed over to the Rio for the world's largest buffet. The line took forever, but the food was great once we got in. We followed the Noah's Ark rule of buffets: two of every animal. I had at least a taste of 8 different creatures. Mmm...creatures.

After dinner we acted like geeks by waiting for the Star Wars slot machines to open up. We had to go to bed early by Vegas standards because I had to work on Sunday afternoon so we had to leave at 7am to beat the traffic and make sure I got there on time.

Arizona Vegas

So Paul and I are each on a sort of Boys/Girls Weekend. Paul left yesterday with Bradley to go to Vegas Baby Vegas. And I left at the crack of dawn to drive out to Arizona to have some girl time with TK. Yea! I am looking to a good time, laughin and relaxin with my girl. So we will fill you in on all the excitement and fun once we are back.

Back on track

My plan to quit my job to be a professional poker player seems to be back on track. I lost a few tournaments so I hadn't played for a while. I've had to work a bunch of overnight shifts this week so that was the perfect opportunity to get back into it. My first game back I won the whole thing. That one dollar quickly became more than enough to pay for the frappuccinos to keep me awake this week. My account is at an all time high.

I'm all in!

Poker has been going good for me this week. I played 3 tournaments and got 3rd in one and 4th in another. I've now turned the $1.20 that Brad transfered me into $11.20. If I can repeat this level of sucess 4000 times by next May, I'll be able to quit my day job. Sweet.

First Ever Hutch Open Poker Tourney

Yeah, it didn't go so good. I was the second one out in the no limit tourney. Blied got his money back and Nick took all the rest.

Savages.

In the dealers choice games I came out a buck ahead. Plus I have a full pizza and some newly acquired beers here so I can't complain there.

Guess I need to go back online with people I know I can beat regularly.