I forgot to mention a couple of games we were in earlier in the week. We played the 10 AM tourney at Planet Hollywood and were so quick about getting in and out that we also played the noon tourney at the IP. Planet Hollywood has a nice poker room and things were well run. Neither one of us got the seat warmed up so there's not much to report. We both drifted down to the IP via O'Sheas to take a quick look. O'Sheas was nutty as always but we didn't yield to the temptation to play BJ with no 10's or anthing like that. We got to the IP just before the start of their noon tourney so we gave that a shot. What can you say about the IP? The poker room is tucked into a corner with a few tables and it's nothing special. They were nice there and the dealers we had for the tourney were as good as we saw on the whole trip. Again nothing to note, I crashed and burned on pocket K's when I ran up against pocket A's. Not too hard to predict the outcome of that train wreck. My son Chris didn't do squat either.

After the IP, we headed downtown to Binions for the 2PM $10k guarantee tourney. We got a chance to play a cash game beforehand and Chris won enough to cover the entry fee. Some young gunslinger couldn't give away his money fast enough and since nobody else seemed to want it, my son said thank you very much and took it off his hands. No tricky plays, just crazy calls.

The 2 PM tourney found us both on the sidelines after a couple of hours. Chris got great cards but couldn't draw a thing. I just slowly melted away until my last hand. Down to about $600 in chips and nowhere to turn I decided to go all in since the blinds were fast approaching me. I looked down to find AA and even got 2 callers. Gee maybe a triple up coming?? No dice, one guy called with a 7,9 suited and caught the flush. At least it put me out of my misery.

Since we'd read all the great reports about Treasure Island we decided to head that way to play in their cash game and then the Headhunter Tournament that evening. We had a great time playing there, the day-shift manager lovely Danette stopped by to say hi on her way home and she was just as pleasant in person as her emails reflect. I told her that we had been looking forward to playing there and weren't disappointed.

The cash game went fine and we played until the tourney started at 7. I was seated at a table with a couple of young guns that knew their stuff and as well as an Asian girl who played a great game. Quickly realizing that I was outclassed, I laid very low and stuck to quality hands. If you made a bet you had to be ready for some pretty strong raises coming back at you. Luckily I caught enough cards to hang in there without seeing my stack slip away. The chips were flying between the Asian girl and the two youngsters and wouldn't you know it, she felted both of them on one hand. WOW. Just about that time the guy to my right goes all in and I look down to see K,K. HMMM, don't think he's got a pair, bet it's an A rag so I go all in too. Bingo, no Ace and I get his chips. Shortly thereafter I catch another guy that's short and felt him as well. Wow that's 2 bounties-I'm almost even. A little later we make it to the final table. My stack is good enough to play with anyone and I'm catching some playing hands. I catch another bounty on the river against a guy and now I'm the chip leader! How did that happen-who cares, I'm enjoying the moment. Now the guy from Germany sitting to my right goes all in and I've got 88. I put him on an A-rag and go all in again. The dealer counts out 3 cards and spreads them out-ooops only 2 cards, where's the other one? Oh here it is stuck under the #2 card and it's an A. Nuts, now I'm down. 8 on the turn so I've got a set of 8's. An A comes on the river and the German guy starts rejoicing until the chips get pushed to me--what happened?? 3 Aces- sorry sir he has a full house. Another bounty. Now there's 3 of us left and it's break time. During the break we work out a chop and I end up with 8 bounties and my share of the pot so the total was about $900. Hey that pays for all the tourneys, the food and about 100 beers, not bad. Add to that my sons $1800 cash at Binions and I call that a roaring good trip. Can't say enough about how well we were treated everywhere we played, and we just didn't have the time to make it to all the places we planned, but there's only 24 hours in a day. Only solution, plan another trip and finish the circut.