Day #1
This trip was my 1st vacation from work (wooo!). Left Wed. aft. after having to spend the morning at work (rrgg!). Flew american airlines from Toronto with a stop in Dallas. Plane is delayed three hours in Dallas, bad beat #2. Bad beat 1 was posted in an earlier thread "Vegas Today". At least I figure I will get my bad luck out before hitting Vegas. Finally arrive in vegas at 10pm and meet up with the other heroes on the trip for dinner at P.F. Chang's. Dinner was great I highly recommend. After dinner make our way over to Carnival Court for some drunken BJ. Grind away for a couple hours and quite a few red bull vodkas when the hand of the night comes up. With a 20 buck bet I get dealt 3's against the dealer's 5. Split, Split again when another 3 pops and I am forced to double on 2 of my 3's. Dealer goes busto and suddenly I almost have my DSE buy-in taken care of. Stay for a few more drinks and make my way over to the venetian to sign up for the thurs DSE. Its now about 6am my time so I go back to the P Ho to crash. Friends got a free upgrade to a resort room, much better than the regular room IMO.

Day #2
Wake up early, never sleep well in Vegas, and head down to the pool to finish the last few chapters of Kill Everyone, Lee Nelson's book on NL tourneys. I have decided this trip I am going to adopt a new LAG style as opposed to my usually tight passive game. After a nice breakfast in the Miracle Mile shops me and a buddy head to the Venetian to play in the DSE. Tourney starts and my table is 5 handed. Dealt KK first hand, min raise, one caller, ace in the window and I check fold. Have a feeling this is going to be a long day. Its been a year since I played live poker so I am a bit nervous and rusty, new job has been keeping me too busy. Win a few small pots in the 1st few levels and at the 1st break I am around my starting stack. Around level 7 I am faced with a raise from the button with an M of about 13 or 14 I push with 10's and get called by AKs. Flop comes K and I am left with about 9800 in chips. Battle back to about 14,000 in chips when I get lucky and nearly triple up. EP raises, young guy 3 bets on the button and I push in the BB with ladies. Young guy flips over k9o, I was a bit shocked. Turn is a queen and I finally have more than the chip average. Don't catch another playable hand until the dinner break. Come back from the dinner break and make 2 good lay downs with medium pocket pairs pre flop when I was drawing to 2 outs each time. Stack gets widdled down throughout the night and about 15 places from the money I am short stack at the table. The end comes for me when 1st position open shoves for about 42k, I had a good read on him and decided I am calling with any Ace. Since I was in the big blind I dwww.allvegaspoker.comard, wouldnt you know its an ace I call and flip over the other, queen. He shows A9s, of course the 9 of hearts hits on the river and I am busto. I run good. My buddy showed up on the rail just as I called and he does the good friend thing and gets me drunk at the TI BJ table in order to shake off my bad beat. Pound some shots for a couple hours and make my buy in back so dont feel too bad as I head to bed.

Day 3
Wake up with a terrible hangover that is instantly cured by the fish and chips platter at Joe's stone crab. Hit the shops at Caesars, got to get my girl something and debate whether the $90 dollar signed Pete Rose bobblehead is worth it. Head to the Wynn to play some $4-$8. Always have had great success there and really enjoy the room. Play quite poorly, still on tilt form the other night, and am down a c-note in about an hour. Decide to play 2-7 game with my table neighbor for 20 bucks. About 2 orbits later I am dealt JJ on the button. Neighbor opens for a raise, I 3 bet he calls. flop is 2, 4, 8 rainbow. He check calls. turn brick, river deuce. He flips over 2-7 to win my 20 plus a decent sized pot. God I hate the 2-7 game, only caused heartache. Get back close to even for the session and call it a day. Went to Nero's for dinner, steak was excellent but not a great value. Play some more table games and pound more drinks before heading to the Rhino with the boys, its a vegas tradition.

Day #4
Wake up next day with the goal of just chillin and enjoying some R&R. Have a great burger at Le Burger Brasserie while watching the soccer. Make some bets, take 4 Nascar drivers for the coke 400, Alabama and Boise to win the BCS and chill in the sportsbook for a bit. Have the going away dinner at California Pizza Kitchen as the other heroes are on an earlier flight. Run back to the sportsbook as the race comes down to the last few laps when both my drivers are running 1 and 2. They knock each other out of the race, damn I run good. before my friend leaves to catch his flight he gives me 50 bucks to put on both 9 and 18 on the roulette wheel for him. 9 hits and he makes a cool 1800. Here is my question whats a fair cut for me? Pick up a great Hangover movie themed T-shirt on my way to the airport, another vegas trip in the books.

Puckman