Worked a half day on got to Houston's airport about Friday at Lunch. At some wings and a beer at Buffalo Wild Wings and then hoped a flight to El Paso (Strange connection point if you ask me...). First flight left on time, and I land in El Paso only to find perfect weather and a delayed flight... The delay was bout an hour, and I got into Vegas 1 hour late.

I was staying at MGM for the trip since the AVP tournament was at MGM, and I checked in just a little after 5pm. As I was checking in I got a text from the OD. He was in the MGM poker room. I dropped my stuff off at the room, and met him at the poker room after making a nice bet on LSU -17 against Tennessee (Talk about FREE MONEY- LSU covered easily). The line had moved all week and I was worried the number was going to get larger. OD and I decided to play the 7pm tournament, so I only had 90 minutes to play cash so I decided to sit at a 1-2NL table. In the first orb I pick up pocket 6's and three of us took the flop A,6,x... I think the raise was $10 pre flop, 2 of us had $300, and one guy was short- about $75. Too my surprise and delight the guy with $75 pushes all-in. I call, other player folds. He had A, rag... Easy game.... In the 90 minutes I made a $155 profit which was perfect considering the tournament was $150... FREE ROLL...

OD and I got over to the tournament late as he was finishing up a few hands at the cash table... It took them a little bit to get our table going. Well I should have offered up that last longer bet with OD... He didn't last 10 hands... Of course I didn't fair that much better and was out maybe 60-90 minutes later. Nothing really sticks out about this tournament, and frankly I was ready to play cash anyway...

After a quick bit at the Deli at MGM, I decided to go over to Bellagio. I decided to play 2-5NL on Friday night. The room didn't have a 10-20NL game going and the 5-10 game looked like it had some 10-20 players waiting for a game to open up... No reason to jump into that game... Turned out to be a great choice. I bought in for $500, and turned a $2,200 profit in the game. I was in the 8 seat and had position on a player in the 6 seat who played every hand. And I mean every hand. And while this guy got lucky against other people it worked out quite well for me having position on him. The guy in the 5 seat was an interesting player who would rise to $95-100 every time he picked up a hand- AA, KK, QQ, and he finally got snapped by the guy in the 6 seat, who in turned gave the money to me. The profit could have been larger, but I ended up folding 2 pair in one spot. I had 7-5 of spades and raised to $20 on the button after one limper (Guy in the 6 seat). Blinds fold. Seat 6 calls. Flop comes 7-5-2. I make it $40. He makes it $140, I reraise to $440 rather quickly. He calls and has about $700-800 behind. I had him covered. Turn was an ACE. It went check check. River was a K, and he pushed all-in. I just felt like he had a A-7, K-7, A-2 type hand, and as it turns out he had 9-7. It was a nice play by him, but the money came my way all through the night. I was up at the time of the hand, and other player at the table who I knew said I should have called, as two pair was more than enough agaiunst that player. Still I am not going to complain by showing that type of profit. Day- $2,205 Poker Profit

Didn't get much sleep Friday night because I had to get up early and bet college football. Wish I slept in as the early games were really my only losers. Cincy only beat Louisville by 9, and I had one other close loser (Missisippi ST money line against South Carolina) and pushed the other. Of course the rest of the day was winner after winner capped by Arizona ST +14.5 against Oregon. Clemson covering against Maryland and covering in the second half. LSU covered and I had a few others as well.. Solid day.

After breakfest at America's at NYNY. I decided that since I was tired and I needed to play some hours at MGM since I had a poker rate, I sat in 1-2NL game. Played for about 3-4 hours and made a small $60 profit. I was down early and made a nice comeback.

I walked over to the lobby of the MGM as they were having some of the Indy Car drivers for a meet and greet Autograph session. The line was short and I watch the Indy 500 every year so I went through the line. The 5 Drivers were Will Power, Takuma Sato, Tony Kanaan, Heilo Castroneves, and Dan Wheldon. So sad what happen the next day. I was shocked to hear the news while playing poker. You meet someone one day and they die the next... I respect what these guys do.. 225 mph in those cars is no joke. They shouldn't be racing on tracks such as Vegas because they banking of the track is just too much...

After that I took a quick nap, which did cost me one college football bet- Boise ST. Not sure why I didn't bet the game earlier but money was left on the table... I signed up for the AVP tournament early... Glad I did considering the turnout and the lines later... After that I went back over to the poker room to play 2-5NL and watch the Clemson/Maryland game... Well the poker and the game were pretty bad at first... I got stuck early in the game and lost about $400 when I bluffed with K high. The lost another $300 or so on a A-9-9-K board with AK, he had J9 of hearts and actually hit a flush on the river. So I was stuck about $800 and had to reload, and this was the must-move table. Finally they moved me... Thank goodness.. Clemson was getting killed, and the main game was away from the Clemson game on TV. The main game also was a better game for me. I got about $450 of it back. I finished down about $360 for the 3 hours. I really felt a lot better about the second tble and if I had more time I think I could have grinded out another profitable session, but I had to play the AVP tournament.

I went over to the tournament area and it was a zoo. The line to sign up was so long. The tournament was the talk of the cash games I played at MGM on Friday night and Saturday so it had a lot of buzz... Ran into Alaska Gal, missingflops, LVMichael, OD, poker muffin, motocycle john and others and had some brief hellos.. MGM deserves a big thank you for putting a rake free tournament. It did create a huge buzz.

My table didn't have many AVPers. TurdFurgeson was sitting to my right in seat 8 and I was in 9. Minton was behind me talking college football (Clemson covered at this point and I was in a good mood). The table was fun.... We were a chatty bunch... We entertained the dealers and other players. It was a little strange to play in an AVP tournament where I really didn't know that many players at the table. Granted LVMichael was just one table over and I could give him some grief from time to time... Turd got short on a cooler where he had KK and ran into AA. When he was eliminated, Bryan Micon moved into his seat. Table was pretty aggressive on our end of it, and I think the largest my stack got was $13-14K. I lost most of my stack on a hand where I picked up AJ in the big blind. I called the raise of $1400, and the flop was A,10,x. I checked and he checked. Turn was a blank, and I bet $2,100 into $3,400. He calls. River is a king, and I check. He bets roughly $4,000. I have $6000 left. It smelled like pocket Kings and it was... Not my finest moment when I called. I was out in level 5 (Early for this tournament) when I pushed with an ACES, and my young friend in seat 10 reraised with KQ to give me protection. Micon had raised prior to me pushing so it got him out. Of course the paint hit and I was out. I am glad to see that someone from Clemson did well in the tournament. Congrats to Ilikecheese for his deep run. I did make it a point to say high to Vinny who made the trip after his fight with cancer... Good luck my friend hopefully better days are ahead, and I am glad you made the trip and were able to play.

I went over and played 4-8 mix game (Crazy Pinnapple with a Low, Omaha8, Stud8 RAZZ, and 2-7) with motocycle john and some other players. I think I lost $250 in the game. We played about 2 rotations. Pinnapple and RAZZ were my better games, and the other 3 I never won a hand. I was hungry and tired, and I ended up having a late dinner at Wolfgangs with OD, his wife, and some others and then we played Sigma Derbies for some cheap drinks.... PERFECT THING TO DO WHEN YOU WANT CHEAP DRINKS AT MGM. It isn't DelMar, but it was fun....

Day 2: Poker: Loss- 650, For the Trip- I am up $1555.

I got up on Sunday right before the NFL games and made a few bets. I went 2-2 and took a small loss on the NFL. Just don't have the same success rate with the NFL that I do with college. After breakfest at America's I went over to Bellagio and sat in a new 5-10 NL game (They had 10-20NL game going so I felt the 5-10 NL game was fine, although one player did have a WSOP bracelet).... I think I played about 6-7 hours in that game. I got stuck early and I made a huge comeback where I finished up about $450. Best hand was against a young kid from Europe who had a horrible session. He would load the gun and keep firing. On this key hand I had QJ and called his raise. Flop was Q high and he led out. I called. Turn was a King, he bet again, and I called. River was a J, he pushes, and I snap call. He says King, and I table the 2 pair for the pot.

Day 3: Profit $450, For the Trip: $2,005 profit for poker

After that session I had to get to the airport. Great trip for cash game poker and college football bets....

Really looking forward to the next trip in. And I am really thinking about coming in for about 10 days in June now that I am in Houston and don't get to play as much. I really need to make it over to Lake Charles.