First real poker of the trip was a 10 am tourney at Binions on the second day after arrival. Of course I entered the tourney alone because sleeping beauty was still in bed. I went to bed around midnite, the son came in around 12:30- slept till 2 am then decided he just had to get some more poker on (because we all know there are hardly any games in Vegas)

Anyways, $60 entry for me..14 runners. We end up down to two of us. I am first loser but cash for $185. I decide to play some 1/2 nl while waiting for a seat in a 2/4 LLH game. First couple hands fold. Then I'm next to the button with A/Q O. Raise to $10. Button calls..(mid-aged lady), seat 4 calls. Flop A/2/5 rainbow. Lady leads out $15 out of turn, seat 4 folds and I'm thinking hhhmmm..I 'm pretty sure I'm good in a normal situation here but this is too strange and I have no line on her yet. I flat-call. I check, she bets $20 I call on a turn blank...I know I need a card. She bets $30 I call again wit a river blank (against my best judgement) and of course she shows me the 2/5 off for bottom 2pair and a winnah!! After a few more hands that I fold , I put my tail between my legs and head off to the guppie game.

Playing 2/4 end up making about $30 bucks and get a few of those football draw tickets for making hands of flush or better. Son eventually arrives, plays some 1/2 and drops a hundy or so after a couple hrs. I FINALLY talk him into playing the guppie game. He doesn't want to as all he has ever played is NL EVER. I mention we're here for 2 weeks and he needs to limit the losses. We are both pretty bad players. I play ive maybe once a month or 2 months and mostly penny games online a couple times a week.

Poker Day 2)

I enter the Binions $100 buyin tourney-27 runners. The difference in play between the $60 entry and the $100 entry seems to be quite a bit different to this newbie. Much better players. It takes me about 20 mins. to figure out I am way out-classed in this one. By some miracle I make it to the final table with the 2nd lowest stack. Eventually two strange things happen. The first is a hand with 4 or 5 players all-in. They all eventually turn over their cards and the best hand is 6/6, which by the grace of GOD fades everybody elses overcards. One lady was actually all-in with A/8 O. A couple get knocked out. Now there are 3 big stacks at the table 2 mids and guess who? Two of the big stacks end up getting it all-in after flop. Flop was 9 x x. All-in..call. The leader shows pocket 9's, the other guy tables QQ. Trip 9 guy is looking pretty good till the Q turn river blank. Down to 3 plus Mr Ihavenobusinessgettingthisclose.

This is where it gets interesting. To my right is the chip-leader, he has about 197k of the 405k total chips. The other 4 of us about the same between us. Mr 6/6 pocket pair from earlier suggests a chop to make the bubble-boy (probalby me) whole. I jump on that and say hell-ya I'll do it. The chip-leader (who is on my right) says no and his wife (who is on my left) won't say anything nor will the other lady who is short stacked. Off to the races we go. The short stack lady eventually gets knocked out and by some miracle I find myself in the money. Myself and the other guy also find ourselves getting raised everytime we have the blinds. Of course the chip-leader is soft-playing wifey. Eventually Mr 6/6 goes out and I find myself sandwiched between the happy couple. Eventually I'm all-in w A/8 O vs the leader A/7 O and of course wifey folds. Flop 3/4/Q..turn 9 river, you guessed it 7 and I'm out.

A couple things pissed me off 1) between the 2 0f them (hubby/wife) they stood to make $1500 or so. For the bubble-girl not to be taken care of really bugged me. I know it's poker and its not my money but still pretty lame I'd say. The second thing was getting squeezed the whole time. I would say about 18 times out of around 20 I had a deuce /mid O. I didn't chance playing back at him or the wife but a few times.

End result- 3rd cash $380. Two tourneys two cashes.

College football Saturday--

Penn Sate -29
Va Tech - 20.5
I only mention those because I had them in most parlays either together or separately. I had 3/4 or 2/3 or 1/2 on every parlay ticket. Lost em all. Down $500. Can anyone please tell me how a team down by 31 points with under 7 minutes to play kicks a filed goal instead of going for the TD to try to save some semblance of dignity after getting their azz-kicked all day???

Bottom line- those 2 games and a total of 1.5 points stopped me from cashin in excess of $1500.

NFL-Sunday

THANK-YOU Tom (GET A HAIRCUT AND STOP GIVING ME ONE) Brady /Michael (DOG-KILLER..who played like a pussy) Vick and Philip (CRY ME A) Rivers!!!

Down $1000

Back to the hotel to lick my wounds. We moved this morning to the Tropicana. What a NICE job they've done on this hotel. Staying 9 nights. I got rates of $42/night weekdays I think $90ish weekends.

Monday it's back downtown for the Binions Monday Night Football playing poker and hoping to get a ticket drawn. As mentioned earlier for any play during the week for any hand flush or better you get a ticket. One half goes in the drum, the other half you keep. They have a draw for one ticket per qtr and the winner gets paid $100 for the 1st qtr..$200 for 2nd, $300 for 3rd and $500 for the 4th qtr.

Take the Deuce down to Fremont. Get to the room. 2 of us are first 2 on the guppie game waiting list. Sit down and my son says the "F" word. Dad I forgot my draw tickets back at the Trop. After some more expletitives and going back and forth I finally say, look, if you don't wanna go get em, I'll go for you. He finally says, F-it..I'm goin. Takes the deuce back to the Trop. 1 hr and 1 draw down. (no winner present so the $100 gets added to the second qtr draw) He cabs it back from the Trop. and is back in the room just before the end of the 2nd qtr, gets seated, draw is called, winner is there.

Did I mention I bet the WE CAN KICK 6 FG AND SCORE NO TD COWGIRLS?? Cowgirls win by 2, of course I had them at -3. Down another hundy on football.

Up and down a small amount in the guppie game. Third qtr draw..B-I-N-G-O Son cashes for $300!!!!!! I walk over and tell him NO-ONE has ever worked harder to cash a draw ticket ever in the history of the world. Good on the kid. We both blank the 4th qtr draw ticket but just before that I misread my hand , get into a re-raise war with a nice swedish guy to my left. He eventually tables and calls 2 pair!!! I table and proudly proclaim STRAIGHT!!!!! uuuuuuummmmmmm Or NOT!!!!!! Once again I tuck my tail between my legs and slink-off into the Vegas night.

Off to find something to eat. Mainstreet Station. Now whatever possessed me to order SUSHI in the brewpub I can't imagine. This was without a doubt the WORST sushi I have ever had in my life. That's really saying something believe me. I have travelled extensively in past jobs logging as many as over 200 hotel nights a yr. Thats a lot of eating out and a lot of sushi. This was inedible. I mentioned to the waitress (who I had previously asked how the sushi was, she answered "really good") that if anyone else should ask how the sushi is she should probably just pretend not to speak english OR spanish for that matter. She suddenly remembered that she had NEVER tried it and to add insult to injury mentioned she doesn't eat fish. Another I feel better about knowing that moment west of Chicago!!!!! The saga continues......