Beautiful weather. Good weight workout. Long bicycle ride. Cashed in first place in a l35 player poker tournament. Not a bad day so far!

Fleecing the drunks (trip report)

I landed in Las Vegas on a Sunday afternoon with a game plan in mind: Stay on Indiana time.

I stuck with that game plan and woke up at my usual 7 a.m. get-my-butt-out-of-bed-so-I-don't-miss-anything time and walked across the street to the MGM and was sitting at a table, three days in a row, by 4 in the morning Las Vegas time.

*Side-bar: I was staying at the Hooters Casino because they had an $18 room rate! I won more in one pot than my room cost!

I usually sit down with $300 in my pocket and buy in to the $1/$2 NLHE table for $200, keeping a short buy-in in reserve in the event that I've somehow offended the poker gods.

The first day I was up and down and ended with a nice little profit. On Monday I won my buy-in to the 11 o'clock tournament literally the hand before the tournament started. I've been limping a lot with jacks lately and it paid off again. My tournament play has been fraught with the dark side of variance lately and this one was no exception when I flopped the nut straight and lost to runner-runner spades.

Day two I ended up a buy-in and then trotted over to Hooters very lovely pool area, all before 10 o'clock. Day three however was the score you patiently wait for.

At 4:20 in the morning I'd been playing for 20 minutes. I'm was sitting in the one seat in the small blind and I called a $5 raise, along with four others, with 22. The flop brought 9-10-2, with two diamonds. I checked my set and the original raiser bet $10 into a $25 pot. He had two callers before the action came to me and with a draw-heavy board I tried to take it down right there with a $31 raise (I like prime number bets).

The original raiser calls and everyone else folded.

The turn brought an off-suit four and the villain bet $25. I raise $100 on top and he went into the tank, talking about what I could have out loud. Nothing he mentioned was even close to my set of ducks. He announced, "I call," AND TURNS OVER HIS HAND to show A10 with no flush draw.

Let me do the math for you... He was drawing dead! There was not a card he could catch! The dealer informed him that I'm not all-in yet and he said, "I call anyway."

Yikes.

The river card landed and he said, "I'm all-in."

Thank you sir, may I have another?

I more than double up and it's not even 4:30 in then morning.

Bloody Mary anyone?

One for the good guys

This is my fifth cash in a RUSH tournament, but so far third has been my best placing. Until today. Item of note: I entered the final table 8th in chips :-)

Viva Las Vegas!

Had a great time on my trip to Vegas.... I think my trip report will be called "Fleecing the Drunks!"

Report to follow...

Optimistic

op·ti·mis·tic: ɒptəˈmɪstɪk –adjective

1. disposed to take a favorable view of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.

2. reflecting optimism: an optimistic plan.

3. of or pertaining to optimism.

4. booking a Christmas trip to Cozumel on June 13th!!!

Jack of all trades

I was the consummate renaissance man today. I cleaned all my ceiling fans, steamed my tile floors, vacuumed the entire house, picked up and delivered a new box spring, and finished third in a 135 player poker tournament. Tonight I travel to Zoo-bilation in downtown Indianapolis.

The first Friday of summer break has been a good one!

Summer in Belize

Being on the international advisory committee for the King's Home (www.kingschildrenshome.org) has been a fantastic experience and it is so wonderful to see the money raised being put into action. The new volunteer home is nearing completion and construction on the new children's home will begin soon. I can't wait to get back down to Belize and visit the children this summer!