Day 1 and 2 of Vegas...rollercoaster ride. Whee!

Wow, what a first trip to Las Vegas. So, let me start at the beginning.

My flight seems simple enough, Toronto to Chicago to Las Vegas, departing at 5:30pm EST. I get to the airport at 2:00pm leaving myself oodles of time to get through Customs. Bruno arrives shortly thereafter, where we're told that the flight to Chicago is delayed because of rainstorms in Chicago, and we won't make our connection. So they'll book us a different flight, Toronto to Denver to Las Vegas. Unforuntately, that one's delayed too, so that's a no go. Finally we get an 8:40 departure on Air Canada, direct to Vegas. Then my name pops up on a Terrorist Watchlist and I get questioned, the Bruno gets held up also. Flight itself was not bad, Air Canada has on board movies and TV shows(Arrested Developement, The Office, Austin Powers and Shooter comprise my trip's entertainment)...and finally we get to Las Vegas.

Bruno and I head over to the hotel, check in, and then head to the Rio to register for the $1500 WSOP event starting on Saturday(I decided to play that instead of the $2000 one so I can play the $540 Venetian DSE event on the 29th).

Anyway...we get there and I notice something bad, my cell phone isn't in my pocket, it fell out during one of the cab rides. I don't know what one, so I'm basically screwed. Bad beat and I haven't even seen a card room yet.

Eventually I go back to Binions dead tired from a pretty hectic day, and sit at a 1/2 table and walk out up $300. Bonus, nice little comfort to go to sleep with.

Day 2 we wake up, grab some breakfast and go off to the Venetian to play the $330 Venetian DSE event. I start off in cruise control until right before the first break when I lose a huge pot getting it all in on a Q/5/3 flop with AQ vs JJ and he catches a J on the turn. From there, I'm grinding the SS the entire time, and can't really get anything going, eventually I bust out a long time later, but still a ways from the money. 594 players, I finished 220th or somewhere, while being card dead and short stacked. I felt I played really well though, I maximized what I could get out of the event.

Bruno, on the other hand, was simply in cruise control, having one of the big stacks from nearly the onset, right down into the final 100 players, before he lost an enormous pot getting it in with AK vs someone's AQ and the player drew out a Q on the flop. In the meantime I win another $120 dollars in a cash game, and presto, Sonny arrives.

I had this plan about getting a phone down to me, but it involved Sonny's phonebook, and as a nice little bonus, his blackberry is dead, and neither of us have a phone now. So ya, that's pleasent.

Anyway, I know what you want is hand andecdotes so I'll give you one, before I go because I'm lazy, from now on in this blog will be all poker, but today and yesterday have been kind of weird, hectic days so far.

The hand is from the Venetian DSE. I raise from the cut-off with Kh/6h, and get a caller from the SB, which struck me because the guy was push poker, he had no other move I had seen yet. Flop was gin, Qh/7h/2h. He checks to me, and I check, wanting to give him one card on the off chance he has the A high draw, because I don't have enough chips to push him unless I can make his hand worse by letting him see his outs not get there on the turn. Sure enough, the turn is a brick, and he leads at the pot. I shove back, he tanks and I try and look as nervous as I can, and then finally says, "Well, the pot odds are right", and calls. I automatically assume he has the Ah, he doesn't, he has Q/9 off. So much for pot odds, he's drawing dead so the pot could be infinite money and he could need to call 3 cents into it and it's still not laying him the odds to call.

Apparantly the Venetian DSE is really popular, although I didn't see them, JC Tran and Joe Hachem apparantly played the event. TJ Cloutier was at the Venetian but didn't sit, although I did meet him. We also met Marcel Luske, Barry Greenstein and John Juanda later when the three of us went to the Rio to grab some food.

Overall it's been fun if a little hectic, hopefully we're at a point now where things normalize and the next post tomorrow can be all about poker hands from my 2nd shot at the Venetian DSE.

To Tom, if you're reading this, my phone isn't with me obviously, and now I'll deffinitely be at the Rio on June 30th when you get in, because it's now Day 1 of my event, so stop on by and see if you can find me around.