Friday, January 16, 5:00 am
Shower and finish packing, it's -7 degrees, -27 wind chill. My wife Audrey and I can't get to the airport fast enough for our 8:15 flight. It's been a few years since we had a getaway trip. Two former members from our poker group in Michigan who have moved away will be there and both are good friends and good poker players. I host a poker group which meets a few times a month, usually more in the winter and less during the summer. In our last 11 home games (tourneys) I have 5 wins, 5 second place, and one 3rd, and a week before this trip I went to the MGM in Detroit for a 1-2NL session and finished up $401. My confidence is high, I am solidly jacked for this trip.
My goal is to play to win. I have $400 per day budgeted for each of 4 days I will be playing but doubt I needed to bring that much. We'll see, I hear the best players in the world are in LV but I'm pretty sure I won't be running into any at the low-stakes cash games I'll be playing.

Arrived before 11:00 where now LV resident friend Mike picks us up for a drive down the strip. It's almost 60 degrees, probably cold to the LV natives but it feels GREAT to us! Another friend Gene is already on the road driving up from Phoenix area. This is going to be a great reunion for us. We park at Binion's and walk Fremont. Lunch at Mickie Finnz, then to Harrah's to drop the bags and freshen up. $20 Trick does not work and I'm told they actually received a memo about this and all room upgrades are available for $25 per night. No but thanks. We unpack, Audrey wants to lie down for 20 minutes and chill, so I hit the poker room so she can take her time. They have an empty seat at the 1-2NL table. Buy-in for $300, order a Patron/rocks for a buck, play some cards, damn I love this town. Really not much to speak of, bad cards and when I do come in it gets reraised faithfully. I'm quite sure most of these guys have played together regularly. That's okay, my limp-folds will reward me soon.
Memorable hand of first session: I wake up with A-A after 20 minutes of trash hands. First to act I limp in because most pots have been raised nicely, I know this one will also. A few good players at the table waiting for tourists, guy with position on me makes it $12 to go, my raise to $25 gets it down to 2 players. Mr. raise everything and the tourist (me). Flop is 5-9-9. Hmmm, tourist checks, he bets $25, I make it $50. He calls quickly, spidey senses tell me I don't want to see another connector here. Turn is an 6, I check, and he checks. River is an Ace, well isn't that precious! I bet out $50 (hey the tourist just paired his Ace!) He pushes all-in and has my stack covered. I show the full house and he just can't believe I hit a 4-outer against his turned straight with 7-8. Hey sorry, but you're the one who gave me the free card when you made your hand. I order another patron, loosen up and play another 40 minutes and listen to him gripe about how lucky I am. Cash out 1.25 hours in for $371.
Fun Meter says_6. Most of the players were fairly nice and I had some good conversation.
+$71.

Gene arrives from Arizona mid-afternoon, also staying at H's. The 4 of us head over to Rio to buy tickets for a Saturday show and hit the buffet. It's still early but I'm on Eastern time and hungry. The Carnival World Buffet at Rio is huge, we all find plenty to like. I could easily eat more but don't want to get sleepy, there's poker to play. We hit the Rio poker room and get seated at 3 different tables. Mike and I play NL and Gene takes a limit table. Lots of big stacks at my table, these guys have been here a while, I buy-in for $200. I feel sorry for the poor slob that just left this seat because not only do I get Aces on the first hand and flop another Ace against K-K, I win 5 of the first 7 hands I'm dealt and get action on all of them. I flopped a straight, I hit 2 flushes, one on the flop, a straight and 2 pair also win. What a start. I have about $520 in front of me in 10 minutes and nobody wants to challenge me anymore. Table image, check. Patron please, as long as I'm up I'm going to have fun and play looser than usual but not stupid.
Memorable hand of second session: (not all are mine...) This young asian gal sits down and buys in for a hundy. She comes in as the BB and is 2 seats to my right, her 2 sisters are standing behind her, they're whispering "we can't say anything". I smile, it's very cute. Guy to my right raises small, I fold, maybe a few calls and newbie girl calls. Flop contains and Ace and a few scattered rainbow cards, maybe 6-2. Newbie bets out $20, next guy to my right minimum raises. Uh-oh. I already know what's going to happen. Other players fold and newbie calls. Turn is not connected or suited, newbie checks then calls a $25 bet. River pairs the flop 2. Newbie checks then calls an all-in push for the rest of her chips. Guy shows 6-6 for a full house. We never see her cards but I put her on A-K. Just as the girls brother and mother show up to watch she is standing to leave. I'll never forget the look of confusion on their faces as they wonder how she could be leaving already. "What happen"? A while later I see her watching from the rail, poor thing. It's 10 p.m. exhausted, been up for 20 hours. Cash out for $439.
Fun meter says_8. Had a ball, nobody going nutty with the bets, was relaxing
and fun.
+239.
Day One Total +310.

We need sleep... if only. We're probably sleeping for 2 hours when the guy across the hall wakes us and everybody else up raising holy hell in the hallway. He's banging doors, kicking doors, yelling things to himself like "Pardon Me Sir ... Fuck You Sir". This goes on half the night on and off. Overserved kid. Security finally shows up at 3:30. They're banging on this guys door. Nobody answers. Knock-Knock-Pound-Pound, Open-Up Sir, Security. This goes on for a few minutes until the guys girlfriend comes to the door while he hides inside. I don't hear anything the next few hours and get another couple hours of sleep.

DAY TWO, Saturday, January 17
Next morning I drag my tired ass out to get some coffee and this jackass across the hall had the gall to put a Do Not Disturb sign on his door.
Unbelievable!
I bring some coffee back to the room for Audrey, freshen up a bit, and go to Harrah's poker room for coffee and poker. I realize this might be a mistake when I see some very large stacks in front of everyone. Minimum stack is $600, biggest about $1,200, some of these guys have been here all night. I'll just see how much I can "not lose" while I wait for Audrey to come down. An hour later Audrey shows up, I cash out.
Fun meter says_7. Although most hands were raised big on every street, it was fun listening to the tired ramblings of these guys, plenty of laughter.
-$49.
We head over to Caesar's Palace for breakfast, a short sunny walk. We eat at the Agustus Cafe, one of our favorite places for breakfast, the food was excellent, but neither of us could finish our plates. We wander over to Caesar's poker room. They have two NL tables going, one open seat at each. I examine the tables and have Audrey sit at one which only had one large stack, the rest average. I take the table with the big stacks and the ugly unshaven faces. Gentlemen. Seems like every place I go on this trip there is usually one guy, no more, that has to bet and raise every card that comes off. This will be true no matter where I play the next few days. I don't mind these guys, they prove to be a good source for my winnings.
Memorable hand of the session: An hour in, on the button, I pick up J-8 suited. Since I haven't been playing very many of the raised pots I limp in with one other guy. Mr table raiser guy two seats to my left in the BB pops it up to $17 to go as usual. I call and say "Whatever" which he repeats throughout the hand when he bets. Flop contains 2-4-8 rainbow, oh I check, he bets $25 "whatever", I call. Turn is a Jack, oh I check for sure, he bets $40 "whatever", I call. The board now has 2 diamonds, but I'm not worried, I've been watching this guy closely, if he had 2 diamonds he would have pushed right there. River is a Kd. I think my 2 pair is good and bet $75, he insta pushes "whatever" and I call. If I'm beat I'm beat. I turn my 2 pair and he mucks. We cash out after a few hours at most. Audrey is up $15. I cash out for $527.
Fun meter says_5. Although I don't mind playing with aggressive know-it-all's, it can be exhausting listening to their B.S. all game long.
+227.
11:45, back to room for shower, Audrey goes to the Forum Shops at Caesar's
for some window shopping. After I shower and change, it's back downstairs at Harrah's while I wait for my friends and wife to show up. Gene is apparently over at the Venetian, Mike is at home sleeping. I buy-in for $300.
Memorable hand of this session: I'm only playing for 15 minutes when I pick up Q-Q on the button, life is good! Guy in BB raises 3 limpers to $25, I'm the only caller. Flop is 8-4-Q two diamonds. Bingo for me so far. Guy checks, I bet $40 to see where he's at. He calls. Hmm, what is he drawing at, a wheel, a flush or does he have face cards. Turn is 10s. Guy bets $30, I raise to $75 and get called. I now put him on a flush draw with face cards. River brings 4d. What did I do to deserve this? I'm one lucky guy. He bets $75 into a much bigger pot, I raise all-in, he calls and proudly shows his nut flush. He was seriously bummed when I showed the full house and take down a pot that takes a while to stack. I'm 20 minutes in when Gene and Audrey show up, I cash out for $557.
Fun meter says_7. Not a very chatty table, but stacking chips is always fun.
+257.
Immediately across the street to Mirage's poker room. This was my first horribly card-dead session. Serious grind for 4 hours, managed to cash out ahead but I'm exhausted.
Fun meter says_3. Players were fine, literally ALL cards were muck worthy.
+99.
Left the Mirage, walked down to Treasure Island to meet the rest of the gang. No time to play, said hi to Danette and wait for my friends and wife. Back to the room to freshen up for dinner at a local out of the way place Mike like's. Excellent food and service and the price was nice. To the RIO for the 9:00 Penn & Teller show. That was great stuff! We got 2 for 1 tix, so $45 each was a good value. After the show we zip up to the 51st floor and get V.I.P. whisked into the Voodoo Lounge (Mike and his girl have connections). Fantastic view of the city.

By 11:30 we're down at the Rio poker room. Tonight I will play loose and have fun. I've made money nicely so far, so let's drink some beer, relax and play some stuff I normally wouldn't. There is a bit of a wait but the list grows long enough to open a new table. I'm about to buy for $300 when I notice most of the people at the table have bought for $80 to $100, so I put a hundy back in my pocket. I'm up immediately as I hit 3 of 4 pots in the first cycle. Guy across from me gets sick of my growing stack and we meet the temporary table captain. He's jacking up every pot pre-flop and showing bluff's whenever he can. After a couple of cycles of folding and paying attention, I decide to limp in with 10-6 suited spades. he of course raises it to $25 but I call. Flop comes A-K-Q all spades. (I know, can it get any better than this?) I already know what I'm going to do, but I stare at the flop for too long, then I check. He bets as expected and I come over his bet all-in. He stares me down for a few minutes and calls. Damned if he didn't have 8s-3s, he's drawing dead and digging in his pocket for more money. Literally a few hands later I lost a good portion of my stack when my full house gets beat by a bigger house. Nice hand sir, good for you. Our table breaks and we join a table in session. I come in as BB and get A-A. I have no idea how these people are playing so I play it straight. I raise it up to $25 and get 2 callers. Flop is a bunch of unconnected junk, so I bet $60 and both call. Oh boy, why are they calling? Turn is a Queen, so I go all-in. Finally the girl on my left folds, but the guy at the other end of the table (who I guess is very drunk and the source for much of this tables money) is taking forever to decide. He asks if I want action and I say absolutely, come on in. He turns over his cards and stands and stares into my eyes, I see he has Q-6 off suit, he has top pair, no kicker. Then another minute goes by and I just tell him to save his money and go home. He finally tanks after 4 minutes and leaves with his $200+ he would have just wasted. The table tells me he's been calling those all night and hitting, so maybe I was the lucky one that he folded. We get some real decent players shuffle in and my stack goes up and down. I'm having a ball with my friend Mike (who's drinking coffee all night) at other end of the table. 6 or 7 Sam Adam's later and it's 4:30 Vegas time. We have a tourney at noon so let's hit the road. (Mike's driving). Crawl in bed at 5:00 a.m. and I hear the guy across the hall is still partying it up in his room. Must work night-shift back at home.Fun meter says_9. Great night. Played a lot of cards and kept my shirt.
-46.
TWO DAY TOTAL +$798.

DAY THREE, Sunday, January 18, 9:00 a.m.
3.5 hours of sleep and I'm wide awake but feel good. We shower and head to the Venetian for some breakfast before the $150 Noon Tourney, 8,500 chips, half hour blinds. Gene is already there playing 3-6 limit cash. Mike shows up and we mingle for 20 minutes before we're all seated at different tables. We're hoping one of us can hit a high payout spot. We have a deal that we'll split the pot 5 ways with the extra cut going to the person who cashed, and if 2 of us make it we split 4 ways.
After 2 hours Gene and Mike have big stacks at their tables. I'm down a
small amount, so is Audrey.
About 3 hours in at the end of level 6, Audrey was first out when her all-in
overpair was outflopped by a smaller pair catching quads on the flop. Mike is out an hour later when his 26,000 chip stack is crippled holding K-K vs. A-A. The next hand he flops 2 pair and gets all the chips in good but he gets rivered by a flush.
Gene has an excellent stack to work with but has been moved to at least 4 tables now. I'm up to 18,000 only, but going the right direction. I take a huge river hit to my stack leaving me with a paultry 3,500. Don't remember the hand, but the guy apologizes. Hey, that's the way it goes sometimes. I manage to double up when a guy at the table with tons of chips just plays any two cards and tries to take me out. A few hands later a guy who has me outchipped by maybe 2,000 who knows really cool chips tricks makes a move from the button against my BB. He's all-in, I find a 9-9 and call. He shows 2-7o and I manage to get back to a playable stack of 17,000. I catch Aces a few hands later and I'm sitting on 35,000. The tables are being consolidated, down to 4 tables. Gene is out, he played very well but was crippled with Q-Q vs. A-A, and next hand pushed with 5-5 and ran into J-J. The smallest stacks are falling quickly but everyone is tightening up except the biggest stacks because they pay 18 places and we're suddenly down to 20. It takes almost an entire level to get to 19 and someone suggests taking $150 from the 1st place money for the bubble, we all agree and sign a release form to make it happen. Now we lose the 19th players quickly, then the next 3 or 4 are out. I continue folding my junk cards. We get to the final table and I'm short stack with 3 others close behind. I see some friendly faces that I sat with the entire game so far. There's "Chicago" a very good gal player from Chicago, she has a huge stack as I knew she would from sitting right next to her for the last 7 hours. There's "Jersey" a gal from Jersey that really knows cards who took Chicago's seat when she was moved earlier. She was very short stacked when I first met her but played good starting hands very skillfully and is now among the chip leaders. There's the guy who tried to take me out with 7-2, he's kinda short stacked. The guy from Oakland CA that originally doubled-up my crippled stack giving me life. A guy from Canada who is sitting on a decent stack and playing tight-aggressive. It's time to get to work.

Seriously, I start catching some great cards immediately and manage to fold some beauties also when more than 2 players are all-in on several hands. After only 15 minutes I am chip leader by quite a bit. My friends and wife are rooting for me and I continue to pick up the blinds and antes every third hand against the limpers. The stack is quite large now as I build 3 40-chip towers in from of me with another impressive stack of 5,000 chips capped off with a 25,000 chip. I have eliminated 2 of the 4 who just left. Jersey and Canada have picked off the others. Looks like it's going to be a nice payday after all. We're down to 6 players when we go on break.

Break is over, blinds are 6,000/12,000 with $300 ante I believe. I am card dead for this entire level as one short stack makes his move and is picked off by Canada. Down to 5 when to my right Jersey gets the all-in move from the short but still dangerous stack on her right. She finds Aces and it's looking dismal for the all-in pusher as he shows 6-2o. But wait, this is poker and we watch first a 6 come on the flop, then a 2 on the turn. WOW, Jersey is now damaged beyond repair. As the new small stack she pushes the next hand saying "I'm just steaming". Doesn't matter to me, I've picked up A-K in the BB and I take out the best player at the final table.

Down to 4, and the first mention of a chop is uttered. The guy who just doubled up with 6-2 wants to chop it. Canada says no, I say no, Chicago is silent. We play a few more hands and 6-2 asks them to stop the clock so we can talk about the chop. There is much arguing and discussion but we count up our stacks and have management run the numbers. Canada guy says because he is from Canada they will take 30% of his winnings at the casino so no way will he chop anything. As the 2nd biggest chip stack, I want a chop which reflects our current stacks. With blinds about to be 10,000/20,000 we count them up.
Canda has 450,000
DanO (me) 226,000
OaklandCA 225,000
Chicago has 180,000

We agree to let Canada take 1st place for $5,600 (after his 30% insta-tax, he'll get about 3,900 before tips, I didn’t fact check this, this is just what I was told)2nd and 3rd will get $2,200 each (no taxes under 2,500)
4th will pay $1,800.
We agree to tip at least $100 each with 1st place tipping a minimum of $200 hopefully more. I have no idea what the others did, but I covered my tip.

So I split the cash up at the cage 5x $420 for each of us with the extra cut for me.
Fun meter says_8. Long grind yes, but how can cashing in a 132 player tourney not be fun.
+2,200 -minus tips, buy-in and splits with my group, puts me at +690.

Sure I wanted to play it out, I certainly could have won. I don't have any misguided conceptions about being the best player there, I wasn't, I was probably 3rd best of the 4 left. But it was just a crap-shoot now. Any one of us could have won or lost and got paid less if we went out next. I was good with the cash our group got, after 9.5 hours we head off for some food at the Grand Lux Cafe inside the Venetian. The plates were huge! The food was superb and nobody could finish their meals.

Head back to Harrah's. Audrey goes straight to bed. I freshen up and head down to meet Mike and Gene. I have a headache setting in now from the long day, limited sleep and tension of the tourney grind. Mike orders shots and we toast as we play some craps. The table is stone cold dead and I'm down $65 when I say enough. My headache is getting stronger, so I say goodnight, find a BlackJack table on the way back and place one $35 bet. I get 9 and 5 with the dealer showing a K, LOL, hit me, I get another 5. Maybe I should hit my 19 but I stay and dealer has another 10 down. -$100 craps and blackjack. I get to my room and the guy across the hall is tearing it up again, LOL - he won't keep me up tonight, I crash pretty hard.

DAY THREE TOTAL +$590.

DAY FOUR, Monday, January 19
Mike got a comped room at H's for a couple of night's so hooking up for b'fast was easy. Gene was up early and is playing at the Venetian already. We eat at Denny's then take the monorail to the MGM. Audrey loves it there, tons of stores to shop at, but best of all the M&M Store of just down the street. Mike and I sit at different 1-2NL tables. We're both up $150 quickly. I walk over to Mike and tell him there's an open seat, come on over. It's our last day to hang, he does move and the next couple hours we're laughing it up. Gene showed up and after a short stint at another table I ask him to come over just to hang, he does. I realize this is probably a mistake, it's hard to pay attention and make proper reads and play your best when you're talking all game, but I just want to have some more time with my buds. I'm card dead for the duration of this table, so not much play by me. Mike gets felted when his 2 pair is thrashed by a well-disguised full house. He buys a couple hundy and builds it back a bit. Gene is up and down. Had a great time for 3 hours, I cash out for $401 and tip the cashier the loose buck.
Fun meter says_9. Game was pretty soft, lots of action with weak hands, huge room, lots of tourists taking interest from the rail and some of them sitting down to try it out. Wish I hadn't gone card dead, but I've had a pretty good run the last few days.
+100.

Audrey has window shopped her way all the back to Harrah's, so the 3 of us take the monorail back. Gene needs to hit the road back to AZ soon. We say goodbye and head to our room to change for our night downtown. We park at Binion's and walk Fremont Street. The light show is cool. There's a very talented spray paint can artist we watch, unbelievable what he can create in 10 minutes using spray paint. Each illustration is SOLD as soon as it's finished. We eat and end up at Binion's. Mike and Evelyn stop to play craps, not my game so I watch. They have Audrey throw the die, she has quite a nice run and makes a quick hundy for Mike and Evelyn is up nicely too. When the roll ends an asian gal takes over and has a similar run. Mike is happy.
They take their chips and we wander over to Binion's new (new to me) poker room. They start a fresh table but they use us as a feeder table whenever they need someone. I don't really care for this because I try to pay attention to players habits and betting patterns, and it's not easy when players are coming and going.
Memorable hand of this session: I have A-K in early position and raise it to $17 just so the BB doesn't catch with junk cards, only caller is a Chinese guy who just sat with 2 of his friends, all 3 next to each other. Flop comes K-rag-rag, I bet $25 and get called by the Chinese guy. Turn is nothing memorable, I bet $40 he calls, hmmm, me thinks I'm in trouble. River is blank. I just check and he bets $50, so I call just to see what he has. he shows Aces and start chanting "Chinese Connection" as he high-fives his buddies. LOL, nice hand sir. What's so amusing is 2 hands later he has K-K and pushes everything on the river with nothing higher than a Queen showing and manages to get felted when trip Queens take him down. What...? No "Chinese Connection" high-fives this time? He's pissed.
This game has NO buy-in limit and a couple of these guys are pulling out thick wads of 25 or 30 hundreds and counting them above the table rail to intimidate. I'm rolling my eyes, great, battle of the bankrolls. A couple guys are out to get each other and things are getting uncomfortable, so decide to leave for better times. I cash out for $119.
-$81.
Hours earlier, we said goodnight to Evelyn who has to work in the morning and Audrey and Mike headed over to the Golden Nugget. I join the GN room and sit at a different table. $300 please.
This is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen playing poker. These 2 guys from some overly sandy country origin are sitting next to each other - correction - they are hooked at the hip and shoulder leaning into each other. One guy is helping the other learn to play. hey have very thick accents but I believe they are American, at least they speak the language in a broken form. these guys both have cards, but when one mucks he shows the hand to the other guy who still has cards. Dealer has to turn the cards face up for all. Sorry, sorry. Then they both play the one guys hand deciding if they should play or fold or bet whispering into each others ears. Dealer has to tell them one player to a hand, no talking. "No-no, we are not talking about poker". Whenever the cards are shown the guy shouts out "I knew you had that" then turns to his friend and says I knew he had that, was very clear to me. They do not separate a bit, you'd need a crowbar to get them apart. I look over at the guy next to me and ask if this is a joke? No, been going on since they sat down an hour ago. I'm now laughing my ass off. I look at the dealer who catches my stare, he's biting his lip to keep from laughing. This has got to be a joke, I wish I could record this it would become a comedy routine of legendary proportions. These guys have baseball caps on sideways, they have perfectly groomed eighth-inch beards, gold chains, are in their early 20's, wearing T-shirts. When they bet or call they smack the chip(s) down on the table with a thud. Even when they're not in a hand they tell both the winner and the loser how bad they are. "You are bad player, very bad. How can you call, this card beat you, this card beat you, how can you call?" And when they win a pot they say "Ship It, Ship It, Ship It, Ship It, Ship It, Ship It" repeatedly until the dealer has every last chip in front of them. Then they tell the person they knew exactly what they had and how bad you are, you are terrible player. Then lean in and whisper to each other, did you see how I play the hand, that was very good, I win. Yes you are very good. I'm crying with laughter. Audrey is done playing and takes a seat behind me. I scoot over and tell her to pay attention to these guys, H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!! Next hand after a small raise, 3 see the flop, the pot gets very big and one of the Goat Boys is involved. I simply can't wait, this should be good. Turns out the weaker Goat Boy has plopped 2 pair with 4-6o and everybody is all-in, he takes down a huge pot and beats pocket Kings and pocket Jacks. Here we go... "Ship It, Ship, It, Ship It..." "you are very bad, I know you have bad hand, you should not play with me, you are terrible". Then he leans in still holding his cards and the other guy says "yes, 2 pair is good hand, you play it very good, you have 2 pair, it was good hand". "You stink, you are bad players". tears in my eyes from laughing.
After few hands of these two psychic poker players berating whoever wins and loses, I get Q-Q in the BB. I'm going to make this my last hand, Mike and Audrey are both watching and waiting. Couple of limpers including one of the "Goat Boys" I've now dubbed them. Guy at other end pops it up to $21, fold to me, I re-raise to $45. All fold except original raiser, best case scenario for my weak hand. Flop is J-7-3 rainbow. Excellent so far, I bet $60 and get called, hmmm, what does he have. The goat boys are deep in conversation all pressed up against each other, I'm laughing. Turn is an 8, I need to find out where I'm at, I bet $75 and get called. I do not put him on A-K or an over pair and there are no draws out there. I'm stumped. River is an A. I go all-in, what the hell. It was a good trip, if he wins I'm okay with it. He calls with not much left and shows 9-9, really... he took 9-9 all the way for his meager stack. So as I'm stacking my $400 chip pot I'm reminded over and over how bad I am. "You are bad player, terrible hand, if I play, you lose, I fold 7-7, you are terrible, you are very lucky I do not play". I'm laughing so hard I knock my chips over and agree that he is the best and thank him for not playing. The dealer announces they are breaking the table. I do not join them and cash out for $413. I see the Goat Boys are pressed up against each other at their new table, I tell the room manager they should not be seated next to each other and explain some of the shenanigans happening. He agrees to keep an eye on them. +113.
Fun meter says_10+. Never laughed so hard during a session, absolutely absurd.

DAY FOUR TOTAL +132.

FOUR DAY TRIP TOTAL $1,830. not bad, this pays for the entire trip charge and then some. I love visiting Vegas, be back asap. DanO