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Approaching the End
July 10, 2008Realising I only have a further 6 nights in Las Vegas, and with the main event at a point that haunted me for so long; the money bubble, I feel its time I tick off as many things I planned to do/purchase/visit before I leave to the cold of Melbourne.
My list to complete includes:
- Make a further 3k+ (inclusive of poker and work)
- Visit Frys
- Visit Premium Factory Outlets again
- Play heads-up against Garry
- Play at the Bellagio
- Buy a new poker bag
- Buy some new clothes (shirts, jeans, jocks - because everything is so much cheaper)
- Buy a voice-recorder
- Buy Joop Jump aftershaveI'll probably be adding to this list as each day gets knocked off, but it looks like I've got to focus on that first one as there are plenty of things in the buy column.
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PokerStars Players Party
July 09, 2008With the freeroll over and having a healthy $400 in pocket (as Heath and Guzzardi both had 10%) we were off to the PokerStars Players Party at Rain nightclub at the Palms. With Eric and Don ditching me as I was having a piss in the Rio carpark, I swung a lift via Garry along with Boncek and Schipis. On arrival we met up with some of the fellow PokerNews employees, grabbed our armbands for VIP access and headed inside.
The main bar and dancefloorAs me and Heath were asked for ID's, all the PokerStars pros were being snapped by the many cameras and intervied by our own Melissa Castello. Once into Rain we were greated with a burlesque-themed party and by a mass of people taking up all the dancefloor space on the bottom level. Losing Heath as I wondered past the main bar and up the stairs, I spotted Slippers and Dane high on the third level and headed straight there. As we headed down to the second level, directly above the main bar, we joined a booth filled with predominately Aussies. Joe Hachem and family, Tony Hachem and Shane Warne, Emad Tahtooh, Grant Levy, Billy the Croc, Gary Benson and many more filled the couch and standing space as a longed for a drink.
Grant Levy, myself and Tony HachemHeading up to the bar I bumped into Joy and her entourage which included Maria Ho , who everyone seems to be obsessed with apart from me. As the girls bought me a drink I found Donnie and we negotiated our way back into the 'Hachem' area as our VIP status of grey wristbands weren't as good as the black ones needed to have full VIP access. After Joe did his speech about how PokerStars are going in this years main event Emad let me have his black wristband and I tucked it under my black hair tie that was around my wrist from earlier.
Dita Von Teese in her second show of the nightAs the night progressed everyone was downing the free drinks as more and more fun was being had. With burlesque dancers on platforms and suspended above the air, a Dita Von Teese show on the front stage, a fight between PokerNews employees Eric Ramsey and Joe Schepis as well as a full on pash-fest put on by Dario Minieri and Isabelle Mercier it was definately a night not to miss!
Dario Minieri and Isabelle Mercier going at it on the bar
One of the burlesque dancersWe all headed to Maccas after the night was out, and just when you thought the night couldn't get any better, who do we see having maccas . . . Joe Hachem and his family. I always thought that Joe was so down to earth, but to see him taking a chunk out of a quarter pounder just proves it more. After eating our burgers I decided to crash with Don and Slippers as Christian was playing $1-2 and who knows how long he would be there!! Another night on a couch . . . its something I'm definately getting use to . . . ha ha ha.
P.S - I'm going to post some photos in this blog, but for the rest head to my facebook.
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Read more: PokerStars, Rain Nightclub, The Palms, Chris Boncek, Garry Gates, Joe Schepis, Heath Chick, Melissa Castello, Anthony Molinaro, Dane Jensen, Emad Tahtooh, Joe Ha
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USA vs the World and the PokerNews Freeroll
July 09, 2008With all of the day 1's from the 2008 WSOP Main Event being played there has been a planned break before the two day 2's are to begin. With reportable events on (because who cares about the Casino Employees event . . .) PokerNews planned a day out of fun for all their employees.
The day started nice and early at 1pm at the Las Vegas Indoor Soccer Centre where kick-off between the USA and the World in the inaugural PokerNews International Friendly began. With Garry captaining the USA team and Felipe (our photographer) captaining our World team, the fireworks soon began when USA captain Gates scored the first goal for the home team. It was quickly followed by USA-recruit Dustin Sitar when he scored soon after. Not only was he a non-PokerNews member (one was allowed per team) but he was also a successful poker player.
Scores were traded back and forth with the USA staying ahead at all times until half-time. We lost our star in Giovanni, and it would be left to me, Slippers, Thano, Felipe and some of the Dutch-PokerNews staff to gain the lead back. However this would be a really hard task as the USA team contained 4 semi-pro soccer players in Dustin, Garry (who has played indoor many times before this match), Don ( who played college soccer) and Neil.
Play during the first halfThe second half was all USA as the retained their lead until the final minute. With the scores at 11-9 in USA's favour, one of our dutch players put a ripper goal in to put us behind by 1, and with about 30 seconds to go, yours truly scored one to even the scores. As the USA players sunk to the ground, we lined up for peneltys, and being the shittest soccer player alive I sat back as the first reserve. As we shot first, the scores went 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 4-3, 4-4 until it was up to the captains. Felipe stepped up and shot deep into the top corner to put the scores to 5-4 and next it was up to Garry. As he lined up with all of the pressure on his shoulders he aimed to the far left, and as it hurled toward the back of the net it was saved by our goalie sending the World team to victory!!
Following the soccer match we played a game of bball and were joined by Christian, Dane and Guzz. With an intense match it was the USA's turn to take home the victory against the predominately Australian based world team.
Christian heading to the basketFollowing a quick trip home we would arrive back at the Rio for the PokerNews freeroll. Not before I left Guzzardi wanted a piece of the action and bought 10% of me for $10 - which I thought was a fair deal as the chance of cashing in a freeroll is always small when you're a great player like myself (ha ha ha) as there is so many banana plays occuring.
Slippers and Eric foldingThe freeroll began in the Amazon room at the same time the Casino employees event was being undertaken. Wearing my Nascar-inspired shirt with all the online poker company's logo's attached from Full Tilt to 888 to t6 and poker-affiliated company's such as PokerNews, Bluff, PokerRoad and WPA I sat down and played extremely tight until moving to my second table. I took down a few pots and built my stack to around 6000 (double starting) before again moving to my third table. Sitting with Don, Eric, Leon and some others time ticked away as we approached the starting time for the PokerStars party.
Me stealing some blindsWith only two tables remaining people really wanted to cash in this freeroll, but I was aiming high for the first prize of $2000. Having swapped 10% with Heath earlier, he was eventually eliminated and began to rail me hoping to make some money off me to cover his potential expenses later on. With Eric being the only one to pass on a deal with 13 remaining I limped to the final table of 10 in about 4th chip position. Deciding on a deal, we all took $500 and flipped for the remaining $300 - which I lost.
Getting changed out of my poker-shirt we were all on the way to enjoy what PokerStars could provide for not only their players and staff, but also their VIP's in us PokerNews guys.
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Read more: Thano Vasilakos, Neil Fray, Filipe Pacheco, Anthony Molinaro, Christian Vaughn, Dane Jensen, Donald Peters, Eric Ramsey, Garry Gates, Heath Chick, Michael Guzza
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2008 WSOP Main Event
July 04, 2008Today was the start of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, and with a starting field of 1297 it worked its way down to the 600 mark to end the first of the four day 1's.
One of the starting tablesWith everyone due to work, I was assigned with Heath as my blogger and Zeeks as my fellow reporter. With half the team leaving at dinner, everyone's workload was doubled and as we approached the 5th and final level of the night everyone was ready and done for the night. Finally with an early night (that being an exit from the Rio before 2am) I was on my way home for an early night.
As the major American public holiday being tomorrow, and an early exit due for me and Heath, plans are for fireworks, poker, some grub and who knows what else.
Details to follow . . .
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C-C-Crazy Pineapple and Stoney's
July 01, 2008With all of us having the day off, I decided NOT to go sky-diving but instead head into the strip to get outside for once. However that didn't last too long as I headed into Fashion Show Mall to check out some shops. With my only purchase being of a really bad haircut I was on my way to the Venetian to play some cards while I waited to recieve a call from the others to what our intended plan was for the night.
Getting stacked for my first buy-in on $1-2 I decided to move over to the $1-2 Crazy Pineapple game. Being only 6-handed the game was really fun, and I built my stack from $200 to over $300 within the hour taking down small pot after small pot. Getting the word that the guys had arrived at Stoney's I was on my way out to this western bar.
Stoney's Rockin Country bar was way out of town where Sunday night is ladies night as they drink for only a buck. Nearly everyone was there from the house plus Don, Slippers and Zeeks. With Corona's flowing freely, we all made it on the dancefloor dancing to some good old western tunes, and following that we soon enough hit the mechanical bull.
Videos to come soon . . .
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Players Lounge, Taser and HORSE
June 26, 2008Following the cash in the Caesars Palace mega-stack series I headed into work for the last 6 hours or so of my intended shift. Following that I was booked in for the PokerNews freeroll where the (as voted) top 6 reporters played off for a seat into the following day's WSOP $1,500 event. With me and Slippers quickly donking off our chips the remaining reporters got into a tasing war with Melissa's taser in the back alleys of the Amazon room.
Soon after we headed to the newly found players lounge. This lounge was awesome, it contained a virtual golf game where you get to smack the ball into a screen, a heads-up machine, Nintendo wii, putting green, pool and some arcade games. Garry, Mel, Slippers, Zeeks and I stayed there until the wee hours playing props and drinking until everyone decided that at 6am it was probably time to leave. Being the sick degen that I am, and having to work at 12 I decided I would sleep on the couch and not waste time or money in getting home.
Zeeks and Slippers playing heads-upWith a full day of work under my belt after the night on the couch at the Rio I decided that on my day off I would venture out to the Premium Factory Outlets for a day of shopping. Seeing Slippers on the way to the taxi stand I somehow convinced to come along. With my purchase of a nice Polo sweat for my dad and my BOSE headphones me and Slippers were on our to the Venetian to play some poker.
Sitting down on the $4-8 Omaha hi-lo game our stack fluctuated up and down several times before we colluded like Jozef Berec never could!! With Slippers in the small blind and myself in the big blind, we both checked preflop before slippers led for $4 on a flop of
with 
-x-x, I decided to try and sneak some extra value in there so i raised the action up to $8 with 
and we got two callers. When the 
hit the turn Slippers led for $8 and i called followed by the two other players. When Slippers checked the 
on the river, i bet, and it was called round to slippers who 2-bet, followed by my 3-bet and we got both of the remaining players to call and we scooped the pot. SHIP IT CRUCIAL!!! Collusion at its FINEST!!!Following a good old Aussie BBQ at Slippers house followed by some jacuzzi and poker action I was rostered on to cover the 50k HORSE. With a long day us reporters scored some free WSOP mugs, as well as me personally scoring Phil Ivey's main event ticket stub with negative 200k in prop bets written on the back as well as Durrr's HORSE ticket stub. Maybe they can take the event out and it will be worth HEAPS on ebay!!!
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Read more: Melissa Castello, Anthony Molinaro, Garry Gates, Zeeks Guza, Players Lounge, Premium Factory Outlets, BOSE, Venetian
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Event 22 at Caesars Palace - Part II
June 24, 2008Coming back at 2pm for the final table we were met with a huge problem as Caesars hadn't taken into consideration the mass 700+ field for the following mega stack event. After the idea of an 11 handed final table being thrown into the garbage we finally got things going at around 3pm.
With the payouts being very top heavy, everyone was aiming high:
1st - $22,129
2nd - $11,423
3rd - $5,711
4th - $4,997
5th - $4,284
6th - $3,570
7th - $2,856
8th - $2,142
9th - $1,428
10-12th - $857
13-15th - $714
16-18th - $571
19-27th - $428
28-36th - $286After losing the 11th player we were down to the final table and I re-drew for seat 1 having 120,00 in chips, meaning I was in the small blind for the first hand. With blinds at 5k-10k a middle position player made it 40k to go and was faced with a re-raise all-in for around 200k. Peeling my cards in the small I sweated
in the small blind and went POW and shoved my stack in there. With the middle postion player calling and tabling 
and the re-raiser tabling 
I did the old 'one time' chant as the the dealer was ready to spread the board. When the board ran out 
I tripled up to 396,000 and was back in the game.Play slowed for a while before I knocked out 9th and 8th when I called there all-ins with
vs 
and the board ran out 
, and vs 
on a 
board and was up to 680,000 as play reached seven-handed.I then eliminated 7th as well when I called his all-in from the small blind with
and flopped a 7 against his and was now on 742,000 as we were down to players. With a break on the horizon one of the players (who held the queens earlier on) came over and chatted to me, "look, you and me are going to go heads up, lets just get these guys out of the way and go from there", agreeing with his view we headed to break with chip stacks at:
1: Me - 870,000
2: Semi-donkey - 380,00
4: Fish - 165,000
6: Good player - 560,000
7: Unsure - 159,000
8: Good player - 530,000As we moved to 5 players I had a stack of 801,000 with blinds at 20k-40k with a 5k ante, and when we reached three-handed play I was short on around 430,000. However I managed to double against the good player (lets call him James) who I was going to chop with.
At a high point I moved up to around 1,131,000 in chips and had around half of the chips in play at one point, however it wouldn't last as I went on to do blow up like an Andy Block (WSOP Main Event 2005) or an Issac Haxton (2007 Pokerstars' Caribbean Poker Adventure). I called a 100k raise from the big blind with
from 'James' who was in the small blind, and when the action was checked to me on the flop of I led for 200,000. Now the reason I led for so much was because during most of the final table play whenever I led for full pot I would always show down a really strong hand, however when I would bet around 2/3 pot I was normally semi-bluffing/c-betting. However he proceeded to move all-in for an additional 250,000, and with the amount in the pot I was forced to call and was up against , with a great sweat of the on the turn, the river failed to deliver as it dropped the .The next hand I was left with around 460,000 in change and James raised the button to 100k. As I looked down at
I knew I was way ahead of his range from the button and 3-bet all-in for my whole stack. However when the big blind woke up with 
and proceeded to move in over the top I knew I was in trouble, and with James folding 
I was happy with my decision but not my fate as I couldn't out run the tight player in the 4-seat as the board ran out 6-high and I was eliminated in 3rd place out of 368 runners.3rd place netted me $5,711 for my $235 buy-in, but after being taxed for $1,640 (which is claimable once back home) and shipping 10% to Dane I will have netted around $3,400 in profit.
Looking back at the tourney I was extremely please on how I played as I wasn't blessed with cards as I only saw Aces once, Kings twice, AK twice and my next best hands being 9's and 7's. My only mistake was with the
as I should have checked back on the flop or 3-bet pre. However with 1 final table under my belt for a 6k collect, and our fellow housemate Michael Guzzardi shipping 90k for a 7th place finish in Event 34 - PLO with rebuys, us Aussie boys are ready to really hit the felt of Vegas. -
Event 22 at Caesars Palace - Part I
June 20, 2008So with a day off me and Dane decide to play a deep stack at Caesars Palace. Once Christian had arrived at work and we jumped into a cab to head over to Caesars me and Dane decided to swap 10% in each other - and after the way he had been running so far this trip; it was definately a worthy swap.
Buying into event 22 of the 2008 Mega Stack Series it cost $225 plus an additional $10 in staff bonus we started out with 5,000 + 2,500 in chips. As I found my seat down the back of the poker room on table 62 I slowly settled into the groove while Dane doubled early with Aces vs. AK on a king-high flop - blessed. My first major hand came up when I checked
in the big blind, following a button limp and a small blind completion. The flop ran out and I led for 250, with only the button calling. I checked both the 
and 
on the turn and river and was faced with a 300 bet from the button when the third spade fell. Pondering for a while there isn't alot that I beat, but decided it was more of an information gathering call and consequently got all the info I needed when he tabled 
for a flush and I was down to 7,500.A few hands later I was on the button and was dealt
. With a loose player limping under-the-gun for 100, a call in middle postion from a tight player, I decided to bump it to 425 (as you do with Jack-4 yeah . . .) and was met with only one call from the tight player in middle position. She led for 700 on the flop of 
and going into the tank for a little while I bumped it to 2100. Now the reason behind this was that I believed that this was the only way I could win the pot as I certainly wasn't ahead, also with my raise over a tight players limp it represented strength. My raise to 2100 left me with enough chips behind to shut down if she called and the bet was big enough to push her off the hand. As she folded I announced I had an overpair with a flush draw and scooped the pot and moved back up to 8,700.As the third level drew to a close I raised to 500 from late postion with blinds at 100-200 with
and was faced with a raise out of the small blind to 1000. Calling the min-raise, my opponent bet 2,000 on the flop of 
and I thought for a while before moving all-in for an additional 4,800 more. He folded his and I moved up to 11,000.My table broke and I moved to a knew table where my first impressions were that it was extremely limp happy. After limping I was going to 3-bet over a button raise with AQ but decided not to - and was pleased when the flop came down 4-high. Knowing I was at a limp happy table I decided I should try and open with a wider range of hands and woke up with
in middle postion and bumped it to 1,000 with blinds at 200-400. I was met with four callers including two big stacks with a loose image in late postion and both the blinds. The flop fell 
and after the action being checked to me I through out a bet of 4,000 and was met with only one caller out of the big blind. We both checked the turn of the and when the river of the I was faced with a 4,000 chip decision. Looking at the hand, a better jack either raises me on the flop or checks the river due to the King dropping, a bare 5 raises the flop or bets the turn at least, and there is no real reason why a king would be in there. So with my checklist satisfied I call the 4,000 as the big blind tables and I take the pot down and move up to 23,200.Having a good size stack of 20k and being amongst the chip leaders on the table I still wanted to remain fairly tight and just wait for my chances to take peoples stacks. However this hand came up that made me double think myself (which I never do, or should do). With a limp in early postion from a player that is equal in chips to me and is very loose I decide to just call from the small blind with
knowing that the big blind is short and may shove; now if she did I would call only if the ep player folded. With her checking I led for 2,100 on the flop of and was met with a call from the loose ep player. When the hit the turn I lead for another 2/3 pot bet of 4,500 but was met with an intant all-in raise for my tourament life (as it would have left me completely crippled). Pondering for ages, so many hands ran through my mind. This player couse easily have me beat with AQ or a set, but what was more likely (and more scary) was that a Q5 or Q4 was a distinct possibility. However I eventually made the call and he tabled 
and when the river bricked with the I jumped up to 41,700 in chips and was definately amongst the tournament chip leaders.A few hands later I made a raise under-the-gun to 2,100 with blinds at 400-800 with
and was met with a call from the button and the big blind. The action was checked to the button on the flop of , all the while I stared intently at the button player in seat 1 trying to gather information. Watching him closely I noticed that his eyes were darting everywhere over the board, looking left to right quickly, and with that I realised that this guy hadn't connected with the board at all; a flush draw, up and down, anything but a made hand. Once the big blind folded I snapped his 5,500 bet and checked the on the turn to him. As he lined up 10k or so in chips I knew that whatever he bet I was moving all-in - thats how confident I was. Once he checked behind, I just pleaded for know Ace, Queen, Jack or 9. BANG the 
on the river, quick to check, he followed to and tabled 
and I took the pot down and moved up to 50,900 as we headed into our third break.Once the break was over I moved to one of the final tables and knew that I really had to get use to the table as we were second last to break. Second hand back I raised with
from late position and was met with a re-raise all-in from the button for 2,700 more, with the action folding around to me I was priced in to call and was a long shot to out run his . However with our household being blessed of late the board ran out and I moved up to 58,000. Later on in the level with blinds at 800-1600, I called a 4,600 raise from the big blind with and check-raised all-in over a 8,000 bet on a board reading . With my opponent facing another 15k more he made a sick call with , but having a billion outs I hit one on the turn when the fell followed by the and consequently eliminated him and moved up to 89,000.Following that hand an interesting character moved to the table who placed a somewhat daunting card protector on the table. Being greeted with, "excuse me, but have you won a bracelet?", I peered up from under my sky blue full tilt cap, and sat up straight adjusting my un-ironed white shirt, replied with, "sorry mate, I think you have me confused with someone else" and went straight back to my music and the task at hand; shipping the tourney. With Dane recently eliminated after he made a move from the small blind I sat tight for a while not seeing any hands under I stared down at
under-the-gun and made it 4,000 to go. Getting four callers I bet 12,000 on a flop of and they all folded as I stacked my chips to 96,600.
Interesting card protectorWith a wierd payout structure of the top 36 players getting paid, and table re-draws every 10 players lost from 40 onwards we re-drew with only four players needing to be eliminated before we all made the first money payout of $286. As we re-drew I landed a table with a ton of chips, but still remained seconde in chips with 105,800. Learning alot since bubbling the WSOP main event last year I stepped up and played 12 of the 15 hand-for-hands on the bubble trying to accumulate chips knowing that everyone was playing fairly tight just to register a cash. My stack went up and down as I raised hands ranging from
, , , and , but eventually the bubble burst with me stuck on 113,500.
Stack on the bubble - very Vos likeHaving a nice stack with 30 players remaining I sat on around 150k and by 22 players were left it had slowly dwindled down to 120k. However I stepped it up a few gears and moved up to 204,000 with 19 remaining and a guarentee payout of $428. Then an interesting hand came up; with the under-the-gun moving all-in he was met with a call from the the big stack in middle position and I sweated 10's in the big blind. Flat calling and checking it down on the 9-high board, my hand was good and we lost another player. My only issue though is whether or not I should have re-raised pre or not . . .
With a final table to be drawn at 10 we were stuck on 11 players for nearly a full two levels before the 2am deadline came to a halt. With the only option to bag our chips and come back the next day, I was sitting bottom range with now only 138,000 in chips.
Once our chips were bagged, I met up with Slippers and the others as they played some cash games at Caesars. I made the dreaded phone call to Garry that I had a final table the next day and would be late for work. After he ok'd it, we headed home so I could get some rest for a potential $23,000 pay day the next day.
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A Palm Tree and a Desperate Boy
June 19, 2008So yesterday I had to cover the 7-card stud championship with Don, Eric, Joe and some of the other reporters. With a very strong field, it was a pro-heavy field that finished the day with a long way until they would reach the money.
As the day wound up, computers were bagged and pens were capped, Garry headed over and invited us all out to this place for some drinks. With only the Venetian on the cards for me and Joe we decided to join everyone else to steam off a little and neck a few cold ones along with Christian, Chris and Donald.
As we approached Tommy Rocker's we found out that it wasn't just a bar, but it was 'Tommy Rocker's Mojave Beach - a rock 'n' roll topless bar'! Once through the doors and past the 11 people crowding the bar we all took a booth for ourselves. As the first round of drinks came out, out came the deck of cards and we were all doing omaha flips.
Once Eric was stuck $200 to Garry doing $50 double flop omaha flips, I taught everyone how me and Shane do the 9-card omaha flips - discard 2 preflop, 2 on the flop and 1 on the turn. With everyone loving the idea that got going until the real action started to occur.
With a strip pole in front of us, and a reporter desperate for some extra cash we dared Joe 'Alf' Schepis to get up on stage, dance for 2 songs with his feet leaving the ground every 10 seconds for longer then 2 seconds or so; and if he could get a girl up there with him we would chuck in an extra $20 on top of the $85 he was already getting. However the boss didn't like the idea of a guy 'stripping' for the crowd as it might scare his 11 customers off. So we came up with another idea.
In the corner near the stripper stage there was a palm tree; for 80 bucks all Joe had to do was pretend to hump the tree for 2 songs and he would get paid. As he humped and grinded the tree for a the first 20 seconds of the next song a shout of, "WHAT THE HELL!!" came from the bar and Joe immediately deserted the tree. "You know I was thinking. I gotta do that for like 8 more minutes. Fuck that!! That ain't worth 80 bucks" said Joe as he sat back down to finish off his Budd light.
With Garry being up a billion in prop bets and flips for the night he shouted a lap dance for Joe with the 'stripper' - thats if you can call her that - no idea how to dance, pregnancy marks that represented 3 kids and not the best looking shiela either! With everything said and done, we were out of there after 3 rounds of drinks, some food, enough laughs to last us the rest of the trip and all it cost was $96 - and thanks to Garry; on him.
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Read more: Christian Vaughn, Eric Ramsey, Garry Gates, Joe Schepis, Chris Boncek, Donald Peters
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D-E-G-E-N-E-R-A-T-E Gambling
June 18, 2008Its been a few days since my last post, but my most recent expedition while here in Las Vegas was a night following a long day at the Rio. Dane, Lily (Van Marcus's missus) and I decided to head downtown to Binion's to play some poker. Once there Dane and Lily headed to the craps tables while I headed straight to the famous Binion's poker room.
With no room on the $1-2 NLH game, I put my name on the list and decided to play $2-4 limit holdem. With no idea how much to buy in for I asked for $200; with a puzzled look from the chip runner I gave him 3 $100 bills instead. As I sat down with 2 stacks of red $5 chips and 5 stacks of blue $1 chips, I had my nearest opponent outchipped by $100 and most of the table covered by $150 to $200. That puzzled look given to me by the chip runner was not in relation for buying in short, but for buying in for too much; oh well.
As I started to recieve cards, people started cracking jokes about my 7 stacks of red and blue chips. With chat revolving around Australia, why I'm here, the WSOP and many other things, I slowly started to chat to get to know the player on my right.
Her name was Michelle, and she was a 32 year old bartender of Spanish decent who had been in Vegas since she was 18. We got along like a house on fire with her having a wierd obsession with my accent and how I pronounce words like 'player' and the like. As our Corono's were delivered and our shots of Crown I took down my first pot with top top, and it wasn't the last as I played really tight and solid and grinded up a slow profit of around $50 by the end of the hour.
With Michelle taking down a nice pot and having to run to the bathroom after our 3rd shot of Crown and subsequential Corona I decided to stack her chips into a nice little design - the first (and hopefully not my last) of my trip so far.
Michelle's chip stack at Binion'sFinally her brother was upset as we were having way too much fun and consequentially decided to drag her out and leave me to defend against the now short-handed table as we approached 3am. Over the next 30 minutes I went on to drop $200 to pretty much the same guy; it was unbelievable - everytime I had AK to his AQ it would be a queen-high board, or I would have Jacks against his 8's and he would river a set. Over and over again this happened.
On super tilt and looking to rebuild so I was at least even I headed over to the $1-2 game to join Dane and Lily; who after a few drinks and a nice little profit from craps had finally decided to hit the felt. An hour into the NLH game, i had built from $100 to around $200 without ever getting a major hand. At that point we reached 4-handed play and decided to switch it up to $1-2 PLO. With everything going smoothly; back to even, and play reaching 3-handed, we all decided to do $10 omaha flips.
16 flips!! Yep thats right, I lost 16 flips in a row to both Lily and Dane and my whole stack bar $100!! Starting at $10 it got uped to $15 and then $20 and finally a few $50 ones where I would flop a straight and lose to runner runner flush or book!! Tilting to the max I headed to the $1 roulette tables to try and grind my back to even. With 20 minutes I eventually ran my remaining $100 back up to $300 and was somewhat square and on my way back to the Nugget for a now stressless night's rest.
