After months of anticipation, it was here, the thursday morning I'm set to go to Vegas with five of my friends. An hour before I'm to get in the car and head for the airport in Atlanta, my wife calls me from work to tell me that those tests they've been running on her dad for what they thought was an ulcer or something, ummm, stomach cancer. Naturally she was upset, so I figured I'd have to bail out of my trip. She wanted no part of that and insisted I go because there would still be several more days of tests etc... Not a good way to start the trip, but I was on my way.

John, Mike and I land and catch a cab to The Plaza on Fremont. ahhh, the Plaza, only $22 including tax on tripres.com for a five star resort ( by five star I mean one star from AAA, one from vegas.com, one from priceline, and two from Chuck in Wichita back in 1997. five stars baby...). Checking in I was thinking of doing the $20.00 tip trick to get one of the better rooms, perhaps one without bloodstains on the wall, but I held back. I wanted the full Plaza experience. John got a room on the 8th floor, me on the 18th. Mike was going to stay with a couple of the other guys at Monte Carlo who were to land later.
As for staying at the Plaza, it was only for one night, as my idea was to drink heavily on Fremont for a night, crash for a few hours, then get our real rooms at The Flamingo for the rest of the trip.

We head up to the rooms using one of the two elevators that work. The other four, from what we heard, have been out of order for a long time. We drop off our bags and we're off. We head to Tony Roma's (bbq ribs) at the Fremont casino. I place a bet on the Bronco's just in time which turns out to be a $100 win. The ribs are great (I'm biased, I used to work/manage a tony roma's) but the service was weak. No problem, on to gambling. John doesn't gamble, but he's English, so he likes to drink. Mike isn't much of a gambler either, but he has a system for roulette (yeah, I know. I just played along...).
After bouncing around from casino to casino, we end up playing some BJ at the golden gate. To my pleasent surprise, a girl in a bikini and fishnets gets up in the pit next to me and starts dancing. Bonus. Not a bad little joint. I was able to watch the broncos come back and win me my $100.00, but I dropped it at the BJ table.

We get into Binions, and I notice their nice new room that's enclosed and is a few steps lower than the main casino floor. Very cool looking. I tell Mike and John I gotta play for a bit, so they take off. I sit at a 1/2 must move game for a few hands with just a few players, then I'm moved. Within the first 20 minutes I'm down $300 when my flopped set lost to a guy who turned a straight. Exact details of how the hand played out I dont' remember. I play for a few more hours and bounce around. For the night I lost $340 in poker at binion's. Rough start for the trip, but it's early so it's cool. For the night there were 5 or 6 tables running, nothing higher than 1/2nl, not sure what the limit games were. All in all, I like the room.
Back to the Plaza for a few hours of sleep after popping some tylenol, praying I don't wake up with a hangover.

Friday
I wake up at about 9 feelin' pretty good and call John. His night sucked because after getting to his room, he noticed how bad it smelled. They couldn't give him another room because they were booked, so they sent up some guy who sprayed something that killed the smell. Now John was able to sleep, until the train woke him up. then the next one. then the next one. Tracks were right in back of the hotel.
Since the night before we paid $40 incl tip for the taxi, I'm thinking we should just rent a car, since four of the guys were going to the hoover dam on Saturday. I call my wife and she's able to get us a rental from Budget in the Golden Nugget, a compact for $80 from noon Friday until noon Monday, to be returned at the airport. Sold. Now we just have to wander aimlessly for a couple hours until noon. I remembered I had one of those match play coupons from The Plaza I have to use. Off to BJ, where I'm able to win $100.00 and walk away. At the table was a Mexican guy who had no clue what he was doing, but I was able to coach him and he won at least a few hundred. He was offering my some reds as reward, but I couldn't. It was reward enough to know that he thought I was some kind of card God, although I'm pretty sure I told him a couple wrong things.

We eventually get our bags and get the car at GN, then head for the Luxor to pick up my friend Vin, who arrived late Thursday and was able to get a free room for the night. Vin is a piece of work. I've known him since we were kids up in Connecticut. He is like no other human walking the planet, and I came away this weekend truly believing he is slipping into some sort of insanity, which runs in his family. I can best describe our friendship as Deniro and Pesci in Casino. I'm kind of the logical guy deniro and he's the complete whackjob Pesci from the movie (better yet, picture Pesci in My cousin Vinny). He's a good guy, but he never shuts up and he drives people around him completely nuts at times. One time in Atlantic City in 1993, a lady got so pissed at him while playing BJ, she picked up his hand and bit him, drawing blood. She got booted, and we got free rooms for the weekend.

Anyway, we listen to him babble all the way from the sphinx to the check in desk of the flamingo. Now I only have the room for Friday and Saturday, but no room yet for Sunday. Surprisingly they're sold out. ($165 per night fri and sat booked months ago. auto convention weekend=high rates) No tip trick, just a request for something close to the elevators which she came through with. Good room near the elevator, on the strip, looking at Caesars. There were some small ants running around in the bathroom. no biggie.
We all get dressed and we're off to the Monte Carlo to hook up with the other 3 guys, Mike, Dave and Fred. Fred and Mike are hanging out at the pool, and Dave is still sleeping in his room. We play some BJ there while waiting for Dave to come down so we could go to lunch. I drop $75 (gotta learn to stick to poker...). Lunch for the six of us was at Diablo's, the newer Mexican joint in the Monte Carlo right up front. It seems they marinade their steaks in a combination of jalepenos and molten lava. good stuff.

After we wandered over to Planet Hollywood, where Vin put his moves on some cougars playing the $1 wheel at the pleasure pit. He gave himself the nickname "The Pleasure King of Vegas" getting some weird laughs from the ladies. I had to walk away. We kept walking around, checking out the different casinos and crap, getting in a few shoes and spins of the wheel here and there. Dropped 150 at harrah's at the outside tables but won 300 at flamingo. Eventually we make it over to the venetian where Vin and I stay to play poker, and the other guys wander off to a strip bar. Played for a few hours, nothing interesting. Win $40.00.

Saturday
The plan for the day is to play the 550.00 deep stack tourney at the Venetian. I head downstairs to play some BJ while waiting for Vin. He's a woman who takes forever to get ready. The other guys took off earlier to head to the hoover dam. Play a few good shoes of BJ and win 275. Vin shows up and we start making our way over to the Venetian where Vin starts going through all his various ailments; head/neck/kidney. He's convinced he'll die soon of MS, which both his mother and father had, and now he says he has as well. He keeps talking about how bad he felt the last few days. I ask him how he feels today, and his answer may have been the dumbest thing ever uttured by man; "the sad part is I feel pretty good today."
After trying to figure out what the hell that meant, I ask him if he has his player's card for the V, it's required for the tourney. Not only did he not have his player's card, he left his license in the room safe. He then asks if I can run back to the room and get it. Of course I laugh at him and we keep walking. He took a beating the previous day, so he wasn't sure if he was going to enter (which he didn't).
At the sign in desk, DCarp is there to take my money and sign me up. I ask if I could get one of the swag t-shirts they're giving out. He tells me to take my pick, but the polos are gone. Vin, who didn't enter the tourney, walks over thinking the invite was for him as well and grabs a shirt and hat. Frankly I was shocked he only took one of each.
I grab a muffin at the grand lux then play some 2/5 until the tourney starts, winning 210.

POKER POKER POKER V DEEP STACK TOURNEY 11/08/08

285 entries, 43k first place. After 10 or so hours of play, I cash in 18th place for 1100 (27 paid). Great tourney. They laid out a great spread of salads and cold cuts for the players. Can't say enough about how great this tourney was.
As for the play, I'm writing this part 4 months later, so I can't remember much. I busted in 18th when I shoved in mp with 22 (m was about 4), but the bb had jj. Previous to that I was at the other table where I was BB. It folded around to SB who shoved. I had a8hh. I knew I had the better hand, but I still hesitated to call, knowing my luck was coming to an end. He had kj, which paired giving him the win. He let out a big yell like he was king, which I think was kind of d-bag thing to do.
Perhaps the best part of the tourney was that the table I was at for the vast majority of the time was a corner table out on the slot floor (out of the poker room). Just watching the women walk by, dressed up for a saturday night, was worth the price of admission. A lot of people railing out of curiousity, and there was an appearance by teddy iceman, who knew a few players at my table when it was down to the final 3 tables. they all gave him a little homie hug. cute.
One hand where there were several people looking on, I called a min raise from the bb with q6 suited. flopped 2pair. I checked, he bet. I did the hollywood thing for the benefit of the onlookers, looking at the monitor for the time left in the level, doing some massive calculations in my, then shoving. He insta called with a straight and flush draw. My hand held up, which was huge because it was around the bubble.
After the tourney I head back to the flamingo, hungry and spent. I find Vin at a BJ table, pissed off at the day he was having. He must have dropped a few thousand between yesterday and today (although he was killing it in football bets). I sit with him for a bit, trying to calm him down. He's bitching at the dealer and I'm telling him "lets go, I'll buy you dinner." He then goes on a rant about the shufflemaster machine and how it's rigged to give the dealer aces and the player "teaser" hands. I try to explain how it's impossible, the player cuts the deck etc.... He then utters the next dumbest thing I ever heard a human say; "Listen, if they can see you eating a cheeseburger from space, they sure as hell can fix a deck of cards." He loses a couple more hands then 1/2 jokingly threatens to jump the table and punch the shufflemaster machine. This alarms the dealer who is telling him she'll have to call security if he doesn't calm down. Finally I get him to walk away, where we head to the 24 hour restaurant at the flamingo. After we play some 1/2 at the flamingo at seperate tables. I win about $85.00 in just under an hour before I tell Vin I'm done for the night. He pulls the all nighter.

Sunday
I call my wife to have her find a room for me for sunday night. She gets me NYNY for about $80.00. John and I check in there. We watch football at monte carlo, where I make the mistake of betting against my falcons against the saints as well as a couple other bad bets. Later I get my ass handed to me in BJ at nyny, dropping 500.00. We hang out that night at excalibur, watching the sunday night game then watching some band and playing spot the hooker. We did the low roller dinner of getting some personal pan pizzas from the Hut at the food court, then bringing them to the lounge to watch the game.

It was time for me to leave the guys and get to mgm to play cards. Sat at a 2/5 table buying in for 500.00. Sitting two to my right was a huge bald dude wearing a baseball hat. I overheard him talking to another guy to his right about making movies. I asked him what he did in the movie business. He said he stars in the movies where you don't wear clothes. "wow, god bless ya" I said. The rest of the table was suddenly thrilled they were at a table with a porn actor, asking him if he worked with her, or her, or her. They all talked about the various talents of their favorite actresses. Funniest table I ever sat at. The porn dude said he has a blog about his life in the business for those interested, Christiansingstheblues.com. I checked it out when I got home, yup he was a porn star. I busted him of his last $100 or so (can't remember the hand). After he left, the table was kind of uncomfortably silent so I informed them I have some great accounting stories if they want to hear them. They weren't amused.
Anyway, I had a good night there until the table broke up after about 6 hours around 4 am, winning about 300. I like the mgm room, but hate the marble track around the tables.

Monday Morning
For breakfast, John and I wanted something cheap and easy so we walk over to the monte carlo food court from nyny. Huge line in front of mcdonalds. No line in front of Subway. Subway it is. We both order our footlongs and large cokes. Price? 32 DOLLARS!!!!! once again if you didn't catch it, 32 DOLLARS for a bmt and a tuna sub and two cokes.
Anyway, we have to head over to the flamingo to cash some football tickets before we hit the airport. I make a $100.00 bet on the Sharks to win the Stanley cup at 6:1.

overall I won a few hundred for the trip, more if the sharks come through.