Worst Trip Report Ever !

Going to Vegas is always great, right? Well, there are expectations and there is reality. Thursday, I am already sick before we leave with a head cold. Nasty one. After we checked in, I had a associate who lives in Vegas pick us up and we headed to check out Frankie's Tiki Room.

I REALLY wanted to love Frankie's, as I love tiki and want to support it. But I was sorta let down.

First the good. Nice decor, great music selection, drink mugs are first rate.

The Bad?
I felt like correcting some of the drink recipes (ingredients), air circulation is terrible so its really smokey, small place, was not greeted with the attention I figure I warrant and covet, so dark I could not read the drink menus.

Now its off to the IP to meet and greet. It's great connecting with so many great people again. But just when the tables games started, my body gave out and I had to bow out by midnight. Sad really.

Friday was spent sleeping and it was not until 2pm until I got going again. I played some MGM poker and later transferred to the infamous "table 16". It was a riotous time, with Mark really creating alot of the hilarity. Still, I bowed out after about 2 hours for dinner. I roped the penners and Garth & company into going to Hoffbraus House.

We only had an hour for my favorite beer hall in the world, before walking over to Hard Rock for Pokeratti's famous rotation game, NL/PLO. I won my first PLO hand and spent the next hour donking away 80% of my profits. The game got a bit stale, so we headed back to MGM, where I played HORSE until 1:30 am. I won $25. (Did you like my poker bowling shirt!?)

Saturday was the big tournament and here I will digress a bit. When you play a tournament, you need to understand how fast to play. This was 20 min level. Now I am getting about 3 rotations a level and after two hours the level will be 400/800/100. With $7k in starting chips, what does this tell you?

Answer: To have an M over 10, you need at least 16k. You prefer to have over 30k, obviously. You want to double once per hour. This is not a recipe for deep stack play. It's longball all the way and you certainly need to win a race along the way.

I am down to $4k at 300/600, so my range is big. UtG raises, I shove. F-Train thinks for a while and somehow comes over the top with 55. I dont like his play, as in order to win this hand, he has to be right that the squeeze would work on a UTG raise and that I did not have a pair, and ever if right on both, he is only a small favorite. But KNOWING that he is a larger stack and given what I just said above, who can blame him? My AJ goes nowhere and I am out.

I spent the rest of the evening playing $1/2 at the Venetian. Again, F-Train was right. This is the softest game in the history of poker. Later, I was joined by Chad and Smokee which made it even more fun. Watching Chad roll over the table had me amused, bemused, and envious. I still won over $300. I did let Smokee bluff me out of a hand where the situation and my hand both said call. Yet somehow I folded. I played WAY too tight the entire weekend, and I paid for it. I lost $120 Thursday, Won about $50 on Friday, and Won $300 on Saturday minus $100 for the MTT. So I finish with a marginal profit, far below expectations. Of course, you cant measure fun and if I was there for money, I would have eat and slept at the V $1/2.

Sunday I was mercifully on a plane during the Lions debacle. Perhaps you all understand why the Lions are drafting FOUR d-lineman in the draft.