"Hey guys, lets tell ghost stories". This is the first thing I hear from Phil as my eyes open around 10 am. apparently, I flopped on the "cot" provided by the Quad, and see that Jeff and Phil beat me to each of the double beds provided in the room. I turned to Jeff and asked him what time Phil and I got in last night. He would be the only one of the three of us who would have known. If you remember from the last report, we played no/no at the Mirage the night before and there was some drinking involved. I am 100 percent sure that we were not quiet when we entered the room - not because I remembered - because Phil and I are NEVER quiet when drinking.

"You woke me up around 630, you wanted to know if I would rub your corns for $5.00". Ok mystery solved, but my corns didn't feel any better. Anyway, we showered and I had a smoke on the balcony. It was the smallest balcony I have ever been on, maybe 2 to 3 feet wide. I had a great view of the concrete below. There was a strange, small square in the middle of it that I think was a Jacuzzi, but am not sure.

We ate and decided to play in the Caesar's $110 at noon. My table was pretty predictable and very tight. Fairly solid but predictable player. I was way too tight as well, but didn't have many playable hands until round 5. I started off getting a lot of connectors and medium pairs. I won quite a few hands without showing my hand and was much better than chip average. I was moved to another table and didn't play for the first 10 minutes. Talk about aggressive and loose - mainly two guys that were in every hand. However, they both seemed to play very well after the flop. I finally entered by calling a raise from villain 1and call from villain 2 on the button with QsQh. Flop came AdQd2d. Check, check, and I bet 1/3 the pot - call, call. Hmm. Turn was 7h - villain 1 bets 1/2 pot, villain 2 CALLS. I tank for a minute to evaluate. Calling would be just over 1/3 my stack and both had me out-chipped. Lot in the pot so I called. Miracle 7s hits. Check, check, and I start wondering if they would call any size bet. I'm pretty sure villain 1 has diamond. I decide to try an look like the donkey I am and go all in. Villain 1 calls! He had KJ of diamonds and I pull in a huge pot.

After that it didn't go well. I made a bad, bad call on the river when I was pretty sure my AA was cracked against a weak player. I had a few other tough laydowns and then was knocked out about 6 out of the money when KK was cracked by all in 10s pre flop. Another one bites the dust. Phil cashes again!!!! Don't have any stats on Phil because he's a lucky bastard-person (but in a good way). We have a few drinks at the bar next to the Caesar's sport book and then decide to play in the 7 p.m. $110 tourney because I haven't lost in that one twice in one day before.

We had about three hours so we ate some dinner and had the privilege of listening to Phil's hand-by-hand analysis of his entire tournament. Usually Phil and I do this simultaneously, not listening to anything the other guy is saying, but I was feeling the effects of little sleep and the beers, so I shook my head and crinkled by brow pretending to listen. By the end of dinner we were back to fart jokes and making fun of each other.

We all busted out of the 7 pm fairly early and within 10 minutes of each other. Jeff decided to go back to the hotel. Phil and I decided to go to the Bellagio for 1/2 NL.

The Bellagio poker room was very full, but I go on a 1/2 NL within 20 minutes. For the first 30 minutes I watched a young English guy run the table, including my $300 buy-in. He liked to push his draws all in. I bought in again and waited a bit for a spot. I called his raise with two callers with 99 in cutoff. I hit my 9 and he hits his draw on turn. Predictably, he goes all in and I call. He doesn't hit and I make my buy-in back. He goes mega maniac after that and a few of us benefit. He's felted a while later and I leave a few hours after that with about $300 profit. Not bad but I didn't play well overall.

Because we want to drink a little more, we enter the Flamingo 12:30 am tourney. We see a lot of the same faces as the day before and become pretty friendly with two guys from Holland who are staying there. They both play pretty well and are pretty funny. I'm pretty drunk by the 2nd round and my play is very loose and aggressive. I'm in most hands and usually open. For a while, I'm pretty lucky with the flop but it all catches up to me when the table get's sick of calling every raise. It seemed that the whole table became "sheriff" when I got 7 callers after opening UTG with my Q4. I tried to slow down but the jig was up and so was my luck. Amazingly, Phil didn't cash in this one. I watched his few last hands and we headed to the Quad to crash. As usual, we were talking simultaneously about our tourney hands as we slumped on to the hotel. I'll finish the trip in the next post.