Thursday, October 25th, 2007 - a day that will go down in history as one of the greatest days in the poker playing lives of 4 simple tourists from Canada.... okay maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but it was pretty cool what would happen today. Thursday morning came far too early, but our team of poker players Lucky OT, Big Al, Jason with no nickname and myself had a plan and we we’re sticking to it. After a hearty breakfast at Denny’s we jumped on the “Deuce” Double Decker Bus to take the ride downtown to the home of tournament poker, Binion’s. The plan was to play the 10:00 am tournament. We arrived in plenty of time to sign up for the tournament and check out the underwhelming wall of champions, take some pictures ... all the touristy stuff. I was half expecting more cash games to be running then the two that were on, since the Binion’s Poker Open was running at the same time but it was just 9:30 am on a Thursday after all.

While the Binion’s Poker Room is less of a room and more just a large open area at the back of the Casino it does have some nice features. Since it is away from the main casino it was relatively quiet and was not too smoky. It also looks like they have made some improvements in the past year, new flooring, paint etc. Soon as you get there though you know your not on the Strip anymore, this was a different type of crowd including the dealers. Keith, one of the dealers, picked us out before the tournament and regaled us with tales of the Binion’s Poker Room. His “Big” celebrity story involved Clint Howard, younger brother of Ron Howard of Happy Days fame, who occasionally plays at Binion’s. The players tended to be older in fact the 4 guys in our group aged 33-41 had to be among the 6 youngest players there. I’m seated at one the 5 tables going in seat 1 with an older lady on my left and Jason with no nickname to her left. She’s a friendly 70’ish Grandma who me and my friend are about to beat up on, how very dignifying.

As play starts, I’m feeling positive about this tournament and after a few hands I’m feeling even better. As expected the older players tend to chase their straights and over cards way too much and could be forced off under pairs with a solid bet. We steal the old ladies blinds when it folds around to us and build nice chips stacks early on. I do have some honor however, and do everything in my power to avoid seeing her cards which she is constantly flashing to me. Nothing too exciting happens early on but when a new dealer sits down a life changing moment is about to occur for Jason with no nickname.

Raven is a Big Boisterous Blond lady who brought a lot of life to the table. She had no problem giving players a friendly scolding when they acted improperly including Jason who was sitting in seat 3 at the end of the table. To picture Jason, he is your typical life of the party guy. Stocky and round faced wearing the mandatory ball cap he is the guy every home game has at least one of. After a few quiet requests for Jason to push his chips further onto the table, Raven stopped to explain to him that her arms were to short to reach that far. Jason jokingly complained that he heard Raven reprimanding a player at her previous table for reaching in for the chips from the pot and was worried if he reached to far he would end up with “stubs” for arms. Well Raven jumped all over that and from then on requested “Stubby” push his chips forward. A very appropriate nickname was born and like most nicknames will end up sticking to a guy like a booger on a moustache.

After the 2nd break I went card dead and went out in 14th place as the blinds rose. However, one of our team remained. True to his nickname, Lucky OT worked his short stack to our first final table. The one interesting feature of the Binion’s Poker room is that they actually move you to a roped off “Final Table” that even has the glass in it so your hole cards can be seen on TV. OT was able to outlast some of the other short stacks and ended up with a 4th place finish and the first cash of the trip. After some pictures of him with his prize chips in front of the Wall of Champions we headed over to Main Street Station for a celebratory $7.89 buffet. Man do we know how to live it up.

After catching the Deuce back down to the strip we had some time to kill before playing in the 7:00 pm tournament so we decided to wander around checking out the sights. This is where over the next 3 hours we would have more brushes with celebrity then I have ever had in Vegas. As we came out of the sports memorabilia store next to Smith & Wollensky we noticed a camera crew moving along the strip. As we stood there who other the Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari comes up to us and asks “Hey guys, do you know Frank?” somewhat surprised and not knowing Frank the most brilliant thing we could come up with is “No.” After he walked off in his search for Frank I recalled seeing a promo for his show on MOJO TV called “I Bet You” with Phil Laak where the two of them make silly prop bets with each other. So now I was kicking myself because I missed a good opportunity to get on his show by not saying something witty and memorable. Maybe the stupid looks on our faces will be show worthy. While that was cool I was prepared because if you meet one prop better there’s a good chance you are going to meet another. Sure enough just past the Hawaiian Market another camera crew is backing down the strip with the Unabomber in tow. Once again we are approached and Phil asks if we have seen Frank. Since I’m not the Frank type my plan was to point to Big Al and say “he’s Frank” too bad I didn’t tell Al, because all he did was say “no I’m not”. Maybe we’ll make the final cut anyway.

Next stop Planet Hollywood. We get there with plenty of time to spare so we can check out the changes to the Casino which are very cool. I really like what they have done and will spend more time here next time. The one thing I did notice was that it was very bright in the casino, in fact all around the perimeter of the main casino there were massive flood lights beaming down on the floor. Soon it became apparent why that was. As we got to the center of the casino we saw another camera crew set up, however this one was much larger and involved a great deal of equipment. A moderate crowd had assembled and just as we arrived it was apparent they were in the middle of filming a scene. The closer we got we could see a couple standing in front of a big jackpot sign being presented a massive check. The woman starts to scream and jump around and I realize that it’s Cameron Diaz and the guy holding the check is Ashton Kutcher. This is getting really cool. I tried to take a picture but security is all over the place and they quickly shut me down so of course all I did was move over 30 feet and took the picture more discreetly. Turns out they’re filming the movie “What Happens in Vegas” so I’ll have to watch that one too.

We star gaze for a while before getting to the Poker Room. The new PH Poker Room is very nice, the tables are a very nice tan color and the seats are height adjustable and rolling. Since it was Thursday we missed the Michael Mizrachi “The Grinder” Bounty Tournament which runs on Friday but just before the tournament starts the floor announces “the Grinder is in the house and will be playing the Tournament”, although he won’t have a bounty on his head. Sure enough he shows up and is playing in a cash game a the call to “shuffle up and deal” is made. This is the largest field we’ve been in, 64 with alternates but I end up with two others from the team at my table. I’m in seat 2 with Big Al next to me in seat 3 and Stubby to his left in 4, which turns out to be to my favour since I already know their style of play.

Early on the play is in our hands, while we don’t outwardly plan on working together it’s probably human nature not to attack your friends raises or we just know that we all play a tight aggressive style and we don’t want to get into any confrontations with each other. We all grab a few pots early then it happens ... toward the end of the first level The Grinder comes and sits down at our table in the empty seat 10. Most everyone knows who he is so there are adulating grins on a bunch of guys faces, mine included, as they envision their own heads up battle with one of the top pros in the game. There is not a lot of fanfare otherwise, just another guy coming and playing poker. He chats politely with everyone and certainly doesn’t show any bravado for a guy who has over $5.5 million in tournament winnings and who knows how much in cash games winnings. When asked why he would play in a $60 tournament other then the fact that PH pays him to show up. He says its always good practice especially when playing in big events like the WSOP where there are a lot of amateurs with loose play.

As play continues he wins a few pots and my cards seem to go dead. I try to make a play at a hand that the Grinder is in just to say I played him and end up loosing a few hundred chips, dumb move. Then the moment I’ve been waiting for occurs. I’m in the BB and get AQ suited with the Grinder on the button he raises 3x to $300, I know there is going to be a show down, what should I do? After a few seconds my shaky hand reaches for the chips and I just flat call. I could sense him looking at me but I just tried to hide behind the dealer and avoid eye contact since he could surely stare into my soul. The others fold and I’m headsup with the Grinder! The dealer annouces headsup, burns and deals out three cards for the flop. As he flips them over that fate of my poker manhood lies in the balance. Either way, win or loose, I will have a story to tell for the rest of my life. The cards come x Q x .... 2 diamonds ....

End Part 2 of 3