Our annual ice hockey industry trade show was moved to October this past year. The show used to be held in January, so it was a nice change to go when it was not as cold. My wife and I recently started our second business. It is a casino party rental company. Luckily we can now go to Vegas to do "research" whenever we have enough time.

While planning for the trip I looked at the AVP web-site and noticed a tournament that they would be hosting at the MGM. Only problem was that the tourney started at 7 and my plane did not land until after 7. When we arrived in Vegas we did not have a lot of traffic while getting to the rental car, so we were at the MGM just after 8pm. My wife and I were both alternates. When we finally got our table assignments I was happy to recognize Vegas Michael sitting at my table in seat #3. I folded my first few hands then when Michael raised from early position he got a call from seat 6 and me in seat 9. I was in late position with J9 off. I know this is not a great hand but I liked my position on both players. The flop comes J 9 x double suited. I think Michael checked and seat 6 bets and I call, by that time Michael went away. On the turn was another 9 with third suited card. Seat 6 bets again and I call. River was a Queen. He bets and I raise all in. He insta calls and I am sure he has the flush and I show him 9s full. He then flips over QQ. Crap! a two outer. GG me. He says "you should have raised the turn". Well I thought I had a big fish on the line and did not want to scare him off.

I was then told I could re-enter the tourney so I did. Sat down at another table for a little while and lost a few big hands. WIth a very small stack I looked down at QQ on the BB. Small blind raises and I go over the top. With that much out there he calls with Q3 suited. He ends up catching a flush and I am now down two buy ins. My wife was still in the tourney, so I decided to go check in at the Hard Rock. An extra Jackson folded up with my credit card enabled me to upgrade to the Paradise tower. Very nice room, especially since it was comped.

I went back to the MGM around midnight to check in on my wife. Fortunately she was still in. I decided to play cash. I bought in with $500 on a $2/5 game that was 8 handed. I had to fold my BB and SB hands to raises. While OTB an UTG+1 throws in a $25 chip but did not announce raise. The next player raised to $25 one more caller then I look down at 44. One of the blinds calls and the original player that was going to raise just called. Flop T 4 3 rainbow. The blind checked and UTG+1 makes it $50 the next two players fold. I raise to $125, fold, back to UTC+1. He re-raises me to $250 and I announce all in. He insta calls me with a big smile on his face. I ask him if he has pocket Tens. He just flips over AA. I tell him I have middle set, so this more than doubles me up. The next hand I get K T diamonds so I call the $5. The button raises to $35 and gets three more callers, so I make the call as well. Flop A 2 J all diamonds. It gets checked all the way to the button who opens it up for $150 he gets two callers and me to the turn. Blank on the turn and checks around to the button again who fires out $225 there were two folds and the middle position goes all in for $325. I go all in covering the buttons stack. He immediately calls with 68 diamonds thinking that I had the ace. I then announce I have the nut flush with the royal redraw. I do not make the royal but scoop the pot. I am now at $2325. I have only been at the table for about 20 min. This is the largest cash win in a single sitting. After missing every other flop for the next hour I decide to go watch my wife in the tourney.

By this time they are down to 8 tables and she is hanging in with average chip stack. After several scary hands that I witnessed her dodging bullets she was now down to the final table. I watched in anticipation as a few more players busted out. It was passing 6am. We started our day at work in Houston at 10am so I was extremely tired by this time. I then hear the words All In by my wife and Call by the button player. She had AK off and he had AQ spades. I am happy at first to see this because a double up would put her in good position for the rest of the tourney. However the poker gods frowned on her an let her opponent flop the nut flush. Good tourney for my wife Maggie. 356 players and she finished in 6th for $1401.

We then took a two hour nap and went to our trade show to meet up with a few reps from the companies that we sell and place orders. We left early to go play golf. We just started playing golf this year and finally we could play in Vegas. We drove to Henderson to play at the Tuscany. We really enjoyed the course, but did not finish before the sun set. After a shower and dinner we met up with a pro shop manager from Houston to play downtown. We played craps at Gold Coast then hit the Golden Nuggett for some black jack. After several hours we decided to go back to the room for sleep. (well that was the intention) On the way to the room I decided to play some at the Hard Rock. I needed to give them some action since I had a comped room. I ended up playing until 9am, so I am completely exhausted and go to bed.

Monday we go back to the trade show to finish with our buying trip then head over to the MGM for their deep stack series. There were not a lot of players but we were still an alternate. After receiving a lunch comp from the poker room manager, (thank you) we were both seated. I did not play many hands. I was in the BB and looked down at 67 off suit with a 3x raise from a young girl OTB, SB calls and so do I. Flop K 6 7 rainbow. I check to make sure she has the K after her bet the SB folds and I call. Turn is a blank and I check raise her. She thinks about it for a while and calls. River T. I bet she calls. I say 7's up and she flips over K T for a better two pair. Lovely. I later get KQ in late position and decide to raise. The same girl calls me. The flop K 8 5 double suited. She checks to me and I shove the rest of my stack in. She thinks about it for about a second and calls with A 7 suited. She misses her flush but gets runner runner for the straight. GG me. Damn I hate poker! My wife lasts about three hours longer but gets drawn out on by someone.

We finished up the trip by playing black jack and craps at Hard Rock. Overall it was a good trip, but the black jack gods took all of our poker winnings back. I think we ended up -$300 including the golf, food, and rental car. Not bad. Hopefully we will be back in the summer of 2012 for some of the WSOP.