In town to work the Bull Riding Championship 10/29 thru 11/9. I have three days off in the middle of the trip so the wifey flies out to join me to celebrate my birthday (11/1) her birthday (11/20) our anniversary (11/21)...alot into three days. Check in at our crew hotel, Embassy Suites on Swenson (walking distance to T&M)10/29 and head over to Harrah's to play the 8pm deep stack. Sign up and look at my seat ticket, lucky 13th entry...hmmm. 10 minutes to 8 and only 13 entries. We start with 21 players, pay top three. First ten minutes I lose 1/3 of my stack with Kd10d. The flop comes 8d 10h 4c, it checks around. the turn is 5d, I bet 300 and get 1 caller. River is Kh, I bet 500, Villian raises to 1000...hmmm. OK I call. V shows 55 for a turned set. nice play. Can't get much going after that and at the first break, I have about 6500. This is where I think I have a problem (mentally) with tourneys. I have 6500 but I only have three chips in front of me. one 5000 chip, one 1000chip and a 500. everyone else has big stacks of green and white. It just feels like I am shortstacked and hanging on for dear life. besides, you can't riffle 3 chips! Anyway, after the break, I double up when I am all in with AQo against KQo. OK..I'm starting to get a good feel for the table, seat 6 will fold disgustedly when pushed. Seat 8 likes to push with over cards and seat 4 only plays the nuts. Then a tap on my shoulder and I'm being moved to the other table, rats! We are 6 handed at each table and now the blinds are starting to be an issue. The button raises my big blind every time and every time I look down at trash...83o, 42o, 92o. And when I'm in position, someone in front of me has either raised or gone all in and I have no hand to risk my chips with. Finally the button once again raises my BB and I look down at KdJd. Holy cow! A monster! I shove for 5500 total and he calls with JJ. No kings and no diamonds for me and I am out in 11th. just couldn't get any traction. Harrahs does have a nice room and the tourney was run well, only one mis-deal in 3 hours. Was surprised by having only 21 players and by midnight, only one cash table running.
Saturday morning (11/1), walk across the street to check out the Hard Rock's new poker lounge that I've read so much about. Walk in at 11am, and there is one table with 4 players...that's it? The 11am tourney is a no go and there are 4 guys at 1 table. No one at the podium to ask and so i walk into the rest of the room...crickets, ghost town. No one. Walk into the HR casino and it's dead as well, maybe the morning after Halloween is not a popular time to play. Oh well, back to work.
The wife comes in Sat. nite and for our Anniversary, our daughters got us tickets to see Love on Monday night. FYI, Sunday and Monday nights are pretty cheap hotel rooms in Vegas, so we check into our Suite at the Mirage on Sunday. Fabulous Hospitality Suite, 1100 sq.ft... our house is only 1200sq.ft. Only $160 a night. The wife loves the jetted tub, hell the bathroom was the size of a small beach house!
Part 2 later.