Trip to Vegas… Crazy People… Lots of Great Poker!
(VERY LONG)

We flew out of Detroit at 6:45am on New Year’s morning. It was 9 degrees and we were so excited to arrive in Vegas. We checked into US Airways and they were having a computer malfunction and were checking people in without collecting baggage fees. We were told that they would collect the baggage fees on the way back. We had booked our flight home through Frontier and wouldn’t have to pay the baggage fees. Savings = $30. Great way to start the trip!

Our flight was smooth… we brought our portable DVD player along and watched Eagle Eye during the flight. Good movie.

We arrived in Vegas and collected our baggage pretty quickly. Walked up and got a cab without a wait. Things are going really well. I specifically asked our cabbie to take the cheapest route to TI. She said “Okay” and proceeded to take us through the tunnel. I was so mad! It was 8:45 in the morning… there was no traffic on the strip and she took us through the tunnel. My husband kept squeezing my hand because he knew that I was ready to let loose on her. The cab fare was $25 vs. the $16 or so it should have been. Next time, I will say do NOT take the tunnel. Ggggrrrr…. Initial baggage savings cut in half… oh well. 
We checked into our hotel, freshened up, went to the Venetian and grabbed some breakfast @ Grand Lux. We checked out the poker room and sat down at a $1/2 table that had just opened up. There was a really aggressive young Asian man sitting directly to my right. He was terrible. He donked off $500 in less than 2 hours. It was crazy. I was steering clear of his antics, but my husband profited quite nicely from his ridiculous play. Woohoo… 
After two hours play, I was up $28 and the hubby was up $235 or so. Lack of sleep started catching up with my hubby, so we headed back to TI and he took a nap. I ventured over to the Fashion Mall and hit the stores. There were some good sales and I picked up presents for my daughter and a few for me.

We ate dinner at Isla @ TI. Their food is wonderful, drinks are great and it’s very affordable.

Scott and I both signed up for Venetian’s 7pm tournament. Scott was out pretty quickly. I don’t think he made it to the 1st break. One notable hand happened in pretty early. I was the BB and there were four callers for the $50 BB. It got around to me with AQd and I raised it to $150 and everyone called my raise. Seriously… Flop was beautiful. A Q 10 rainbow I bet $250 into a $750 pot. Top two pair were looking pretty good to me. Two players folded… third lady re-raised me to $500 and small blind folded. I called her re-raise. Pot = $1750. Turn... blank. I bet $500… Lady called. Pot = $2750. River… blank. I bet $1000… and, the Lady re-raised me to $2500!!! Warning bells started going off. She had re-raised me after the flop. What could she possibly have? I just didn’t want to believe that she had the NUTS. I paid her off… I called her re-raise and guess what she showed?? You guessed it… the NUTS! She had flopped the straight with KJ in her hand. I suck! Oh well… I lasted until after the 2nd break… I went all in on the turn with a flush draw. It was a fun tournament. Scrappy and Yappy were playing at another table and were noisy and crazy. I didn’t realize who they were until Yappy Dave was moved to my table. Unfortunately, I busted out pretty quickly after he sat down.
Scott played cash after the tournament and was up apx. $520. He had a GREAT poker day. We were up for the day after all expenses (including shopping) $169. Woohoo…

On January 2nd, we ate breakfast at the Café @ TI and went to Harrahs to participate in the much heralded Nit fest. We played for a couple of hours. I think that Southpoint Perry was at my husband’s table when we first sat down. It was pretty to cool to recognize faces from the AVP boards. There was an older gentleman setting at my table who talked and talked and talked. I learned far too much about his medical conditions. What? Do I look like a Doctor? His Mother? I swear… he wouldn’t shut up. The table was pretty tight and the players were just OK. The people drove me a little crazy. There was this guy from “Persia?” who kept mouthing that he loved me across the table. Not kidding… it was the oddest thing I have ever experienced. I took a break to go to the bathroom and he followed me. It made me very uncomfortable and I signaled my hubby that it was time to GO. I finished up $98. My hubby was up almost $300. After we left, I told my husband what had happened and he got pretty mad. Glad, I waited to tell him and didn’t explain while we were in the poker room. LOL

We headed over to the Venetian and started playing $1/2 cash. Great fun… lots of funny people. We saw that guy from the 1st season of American Idol… William Hung. The guys at my table kept singing “She bang, She bang.” It was really funny! Then, one of the dealers brought up the “Blue Man” incident where the guy got arrested in Chicago for giving a lewd act in a public park. The female dealer proceeded to take a $1 chip that had a Blue Man on it and made a lewd action with it. I swear it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. All the men at the poker table were in shock. It was hilarious. Then one of the guys at the table… who we had been calling “BALLS” because he made several BIG calls and LOST… proceeded to put that same chip down his pants. He was then known as “BLUE BALLS”. I laughed so hard that I cried. OMG… Later, it wasn’t quite as funny when he went all in and proceeded to pull the $1 Blue Man chip from his pants and put it back into play. From that point on, I didn’t want to touch any Blue Man chips. LOL I ended the day down $180 but, all the laughter made it totally worth it. This was one of the funniest days I’ve ever had! We played poker for almost twelve hours this day. I was exhausted when we made it to bed around 1am.

On January 3rd, we ate at TI’s Café again and we headed over to Caesar’s for their Noon Deep Stack tourney. I was feeling pretty tired from the previous day’s activity and decided to shop a little while he played. It wasn’t two hours later that he called to tell me that he had busted out of the tournament. I actually didn’t believe him… I thought he was kidding. LOL
We met back at the Venetian Poker Room and got seated at the same $1/2 table and played for a few hours. There was a really beautiful woman at our table who was on a tear. She was hitting everything and being pretty rude. She called an all in for $75 with a flush draw and hit the flush runner, runner diamond… I thought the guy was going to smack her when she smirked and made some comment in a foreign language. We left after a little while… I was down $30 and my hubby was down apx. $50. We planned to go out to dinner and have a few cocktails during the evening so we went back to the room and got cleaned up. I just love getting dressed up.

We couldn’t decide where to go for dinner and ended up back at Isla. I had their chicken nachos. They were to die for. LOVE them. Huge portion for one person… but, so good. I had a classic margarita and was happily buzzing. Fun way to start the evening. We checked out a couple of clubs and had a few drinks. It was a GREAT evening! My husband kept saying that we should go play poker. But, I felt quite certain that I shouldn’t play while drunk. LOL

January 4th, we ordered room service for breakfast. We were suffering a little from the previous night’s drinking. Go figure. We headed over to the Venetian around 11am and started playing $1/2. Scott entered the Noon tournament. I wasn’t too happy at the 1st table I sat down at and requested a table change. I really enjoyed the table I was moved to and had a great afternoon and evening. Scott did really well in the tournament and became pretty disappointed when he busted out in 11th place, just one from the final table. Bummer! I finished the day down $100 or so and we headed back to the hotel around 10pm.

Time to go back to reality… our flight back to Detroit would leave at 6:45am.

Top 10 things I remember from our trip.

#1) Be specific when talking to taxi drivers.
#2) Poker is a good thing!
#3) Love, love, love the food at Isla Mexican restaurant.
#4) It doesn’t matter if you’re married in Vegas, people flirt like crazy anyway.
#5) I never want to touch a $1 Blue Man chip. LOL
#6) Four Redbull in an hour can make you jittery!!!! Seriously!
#7) I love poker almost as much as I love shopping. That could be bad for my husband!
#8) We should have stayed at Venetian instead of TI.
#9) One should never drink while playing Poker. LOL
#10) Thank you ALL Vegas Poker for all the information!!!!
Hope you enjoyed our story. Sorry so long!

We are going back February 17-21st. Woohoo!!!