Two Plus Two Newer Archives - Trip Report 1/2NL and smal tourneys MGM, MB, WYNN

I apologize that this is as long as it is but it was originally written for some friends who couldn't make the trip with us.

Tuesday, Oct 2nd - The 23.75 Hour Day:

Off to Vegas today to attend the Vision Expo trade show and since I won’t be seeing the kids for a few days I woke up early to take them to school. I couldn’t sleep too sound anyway last night from thinking of being back in Vegas after about 3 years. What I remember most from that trip was that it was the first time I ever played poker and I only played because the guys I was with were playing. Those were the days when I didn’t realize KK should be raised pre-flop and you can guess how that session turned out. Today I still have that last $1 chip from my $100 buy-in at Mirage. The other $99 lasted me all of about an hour or so. But I was hooked.

Had to work ¾ day today before our 5:30 pm flight. Park N Fly driver takes me on an unwanted tour of all DFW terminals after he tries to convince me my flight is at Terminal A. I arrive at my real terminal and gate just in time and Dale is already there with his half filled backpack and I instantly realize I’m packed like Imelda Marcos compared to him even though I just have a full backpack with wheels and a laptop case. I’ve known Dale for 21 years now since optometry school and we’ve always had a penchant for small stakes gambling whether it be on the golf course or casino and mostly just for the sport of it. My first trip ever to Vegas was in 1990 with Dale and we used to only play Blackjack. The 3 hour flight today was nicely uneventful. Left on time and arrived on time. I spent my time on plance watching some episodes of The Office and then started to watch The Illusionist for about 20 minutes but then it was time to land.

Dale and I made the long walk/ monorail ride from terminal to the ultra-convenient full service check-in desk MGM Grand has set up in the airport itself right near baggae claim In all of about 10 min we had our room keys, were able to take the $5 shuttle to the hotel and were in our room. Record time. I love efficiency. Cursory evaluation of the room was that it’s spacious enough with a desk in the corner and the standard TV armoire with mind-numbing remote and TV menu. Bathroom not big or small but it has that small sized vanity which I don’t like. The room is near elevator as requested and on ground floor as not requested. Why would I even want a ground floor room near the elevator?! But I have to say it was EZ in and EZ out. Efficiency. Now in exchange for this was the fact that our view from the room window consisted of an MGM service alley and not much else. No view of strip, no view of a pool or grounds, nary even a glint of sunlight. By the way the check-in girl told us we managed to get the last non-smoking room in the entire 5000 room hotel. Man, this is my lucky day! Roll eyes. Oh well, for $69/night plus $25 food/beverage credit I had zero complaints. So no prob as I just need a sleep and shower. I'll get to the beds and shower later.

It’s now after 7PM Vegas time ( 9pm CST) by now and we’re starving since there weren't even pretzels on the plane. But I heard buffet here at MGM is not so good so we hoof it over to Mandalay bay via the over-the-street walkways and the tram that runs from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay. Shankar (my cousin) is over there for his SAP conference and we figured we’d ambush him and have dinner with him before playing any cards. I call him from the buffet cashier line and he says he’s just finishing up his keynote speaker event and he says we should go meet him at the SAP exhibit hall where they have open bar and lot’s of food. Um, OK. At this point we just paid our $30 each to the cashier and are really just ready to chow down. But instead we ask for a refund for which they kindly oblige and as soon as the nice girl at the buffet gives me my refund I get a call from Shankman saying we might need a badge to get in. Thanks for the timely info bro.

Anyway he’s going to try and get us in so we make the long trek from casino floor to the convention center while each thinking to ourselves “I just got $30 of free bluff money!” and sneak past the 2 Mandalay employees watching the escalator to make sure people have badges. I pull my best James Bond and pretend to talk on my phone while half turning my back to them. Dale meanwhile literally does a meet and greet with them as we get to the top of the escalator. We get through anyway. Me and Dale look like IT geeks anyway, right? Then we get to the door of the massive exhibit hall where we then find out there’s a security guard there and Shanks can’t get us both in. Did I mention we’re starving? I grab his badge, go in and check out the scene. The place is teeming with SAP attendees all with their free SAP backpack on. Shanks says there are 6000 people at this thing. I grab 2 Sam Adams from the full service open bar and hatch a plan. I finally decide it’s going to be the old exit door strategy. So I head back to the front entrance area, open exit door, yell to dale to get in and then toss shank’s badge back to him. By the time we get to the back of the hall they are wrapping up food service and taking away all the chafing dishes. We manage to attack the carving station and get a healthy serving of roast beef and turkey. as well as a bunch of very fancy Italian herb marinated baby vegetables and mucho chocolatey desserts. The Shankster brings us some nice wine and we inhale grub at one of those stand up kind of round bar tables with no chairs. No matter. I don’t really like roast turkey that much because it’s just so…..uninteresting. But this one was superb and it didn’t hurt that they had this sun dried cherry and leek compote to go along with it as well as brown sage gravy. Even if I don’t find a better dish than this the rest of the trip it’s all good.

After eating I grab my glass of wine and we all head down to the casino floor to find the poker room. Shanks seems to know the brush at the poker room desk and she gets him seated at a 1/2 NL table (small blind is $1 and big blind is $2) immediately. Me and Dale want to play that game too and she types our names in and we show up on the big plasma under the 1/2 NL header. We head to the bathroom and not feeling very confident I ask dale if he wants to split wins/losses for the session figuring it will cut down on the variance no limit can have. He agrees and we head back to the room and they call us to take our seats. But we’re given seat assignments at different tables. So much for our plan. The chiprunner asks how much and I decide I’m going to buy in for the max as recommended by many cash players and I hand over $200. Even though there’s no chips in front of me the dealer lets me play a hand while announcing to the rest of the table “new player - two hundred behind”. Is this some kind of code meaning “sucker in seat 8” I wonder? The brush scoots a small table with wheels behind me for my wine glass. I’m the only one drinking wine here. Can I look any more donkish?

I scan the room and surroundings….very nice. It’s very open, right near the sportsbook and very tastefully appointed. There’s about 10-12 tables maybe and they all have autoshufflers. I had read on www.allvegaspoker.com that Mandalay Bay’s poker room is ice cold and if you see a player wearing a sweater or dressed warmly then it’s an experienced local rounder whom you might want to watch carefully and avoid playing big pots with. 2 seats to my left is a youngish guy wearing a parka. Shanks is at my table too and is 2 to my right. Between us is a clean cut guy in his 40s who looks like an SAP geek too. To shank’s right is a smug looking guy in a ballcap who looks Persian or Indian. he keeps twisting this cherry stem between his teeth and I already dislike him. To my left is this older guy with thick glasses who seems to have a perpetual scowl on his face and he sounds Turkish or something. In seats 2 and 3 are a couple of young asian guys. I settle in with my chips which are a bunch of red $5 chips and some white $1 chips. I sit by, order some coffee and watch the action for a bit without mixing it up.

standard raises seem to be about $10-12 preflop which is much more than the usual 3X the BB I'm used to. And no preflop raise ever takes the pot down. There's at least 2 callers to a raise. Gambling. I attempt to see a cheap flop with pocket 4s and 7s but to no avail. I have to fold to oversize raises and am losing chips. Finally I get to see a flop with a hand where I flop an open ended str8 draw out of the blind. I think the board is K,8,6. It' s just me and SAP Philly guy to my right. He bets the flop and I call. He checks the turn and I check. I don't hit my straight. He checks the river and I figure there's no way he can have much. I throw in four $5 red chips on a stone bluff and he ponders for a short while and calls. He turns over an 8 (middle pair) to claim the pot. It's gonna be like that, huh? Now I have to go into a shell for a bit and I end up spending some time befriending philly guy. I've given up on the wine and am now drinking bottled water. Evetually I pick up QJ and see a cheap flop. I flop top pair and Asian #2 bets about $12 and I call. Turn is a J and he bets $20. I think and min raise him to $45. He seems to make a reluctant call of my raise and I figure I'm good. He checks the river and I bet in the $30-$40 range and he folds. I toke the dealer (tipping ensures good hands, right?) and feel better. Just like that I'm back in the black. Breathing room.

I win a small pot with QQ later. Parka pushes all-in on a hand and is called by someone with a pair. Parka's been caught bluffing a bad player and makes his exit. Good. Soon Dale walks by and I'm not sure why he's walking around but I'm hoping it's not what I'm thinking. He returns and relates his tough beat where he flops a set of kings and even though he raised preflop to $20 he ends up busting to a lady who made a straight on river with the monster hole card combo of 5,7 offsuit! Ugh. I soon pick up the venerable AA and I'm in a blind so I get to see all the action before I act. There's a limper then it's raised to $15 by cherry stem. Shanks calls the $15 and so does a newer player at the table who's bought in short and who seemed more interested in joining a 4/8 game they're trying to spread. By the time it gets too me my heart rate has started to accelerate. You know that feeling. Reminds me of when I first took up poker. I decide I don't want this much action with my hand and I bump it up to $40 preflop. Cherry stem says I must have aces or kings and mucks. Shanks is short stacked and puts in the rest of his chips and new guy calls. Flop hits and I bet about half of what new guy has left. He calls. Hmmm. Turn looks like a brick and I put him all in. He insta-calls and dealer flips over the river card. At this point adrenaline is flowing and the board is an absolute blur to me. I just want the dealer to call out the winning hand. Shanks has KJ I think and new guy has what I'm told later to be a busted flush draw. Nice pot there and it loosens me up enough to where I flag down our jiggly (in a very nice way) cocktail waitress and tell her to ask the bartender to start pouring the Glenmorangie. Her name is Yvonne and she doesn't hesitate to ask if that will be straight up or on the rocks. She returns soon and life is good.

I pick up QQ again and isolate a guy who's a bit short stacked by re-raising preflop. He calls with a smaller pair and my hand holds up. My hand range loosens up significantly and in 1 hand I limp with J9 and get into a pot with my Philly friend who's held steady and seems to play solid. The flop is a beautiful KQT and he leads out like he has something. I call. He bets the turn and I raise him. Now he's on edge a bit but calls my raise. River looks harmless and I have the nut hand. he checks the river and I bet enough to where he almost has to call but doesn't want to but he calls and I scoop another good pot. He doesn't say another word to me for the rest of the night it seems. What a baby...just becasue I've been friendly to him he thinks I'm not going to go after his stack?

By this time I've switched to drinking Rusty Nails (Chivas and Drambuie) and am feeling alright. What time is it? Who cares? Shanks runs into an ugly hand where Asian #1 check/calls the flop bet as well as a very substantial $50 bet on the turn and the river was an awful card that had flush or straight written all over the board. Asian shoves and shanks calls with 2 pair. Asian shows a flush. Shakns tried hard to protect his hand but you can't get some players to fold there. Philly guy leaves and a guy Shanks knows from the night before sits down. Sam is his name. I call [censored] and ask him what his real name is. "Surindaram" he says laughing. He works for Intel and is supposedly a wild player. We have a good time playing and after my next rusty nail he orders one too. We get into a hand where I think he's bluffing and I have no pair but I do have an ace. He bets $35 on the river and I make a prop bet with him that if I call and lose he buys dinner the next night. He agrees. I donk off the $35 and he turns over bottom pair or something. We both just laugh.

I'm now jawing it up with Yvonne every time she comes around for drink orders and eventually challenge her into telling us something about her we would never guess. She's a good sport about it and it's all big fun. By now cherry stem is our friend too and says his name is Chris. [censored]. I press and he reveals himself to be "Chirag". Chirag loves to do a live straddle (making the big blind double while you are under the gun and haven't looked at your hole cards) and I loving giving him a hard time about it because he's never won a single pot doing this. But he made a nice comeback after busting when his flopped straight lost to a boat after being all in on flop. We play more and I’ve run well. I can’t recall any other hands here due to state of mind. I eventually rack up and cash out my chips for about $600.

I'm beat and don't want to take the tram back because there is some walking involved so we make the walk to the parking garage to catch a cab back to MGM. In the parking garage we see a very attractive young lady in a black cocktail dress with her hands behind her back in cuffs and standing in front of a police car. Vegas. I snap quick photo and jump in cab. We get back to our hotel quick in the cab and make the walk to the room. I shut my phone off, take an Aleve, pull the heavy drapes shut and hit the sack at 4:45am. My body argues that it's really 6:45 am CST.

Day 2A - Free Buffet at Wynn?

I think I sleep pretty well and when I wake up I’m almost hoping the clock says noon or something. It reads 9:30am and I can’t fall back asleep after trying to. At some point while sleeping I’ve put in some ear plugs and it was a good move. Dale later said it was noisy in the hallway. I guess the walls or doors there are thin. What a bed this was. This had to be the best bed in the history of beds. And the sheets and pillows were perfect too. I usually hate the extra thick pillows in hotels but this down pillow was something else. I yank the sheets off from the foot of the bed and eventually find the tag and write down all the info. I’m buying one of these I’ve decided. http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/3622/cimg1730cc8.jpg
I hit the shower and am impressed with the water pressure. I’m not so impressed when I step into the tub and realize the shower head is blasting me right at chest level. WTF? So all the construction boo boos were made on early floors and I’m sure they improved the build quality as worked their way up this behemoth hotel. After having my unintended squats workout/shower I get dressed and call Wife to make sure everything is OK on the homefront.

Dale has been missing since I got up and he finally returns my call from the blackjack pits and he's about to head back to the room. We’re ready to eat and our strategy is to eat a heavy brunch and then big dinner. We love the to eat our dinners at the best buffets in town. Bellagio’s our favorite. Even though the MGM buffet doesn't rank high we need convenience and bulk right now. We burn our $25 food credit plus another $8 of our own money at the MGM buffet and we’re pleased. I start with an egg white omelet with ham, spinach and mushrooms, corned beef hash and 1 link of turkey sausage. They’re just now starting lunch service too and I have some brocollini and grilled pork chops I really thought I’d eat more but I’m not a big eater right after waking up. I finish up with some french toast and coffee. Goood french toast. Dale has the blueberry blintz.

Dale wants to play a tournament and after scanning the listings we decide to try the noon tourney at Excalibur since it’s close and is only $35. As we’re leaving MGM we see their lion habitat and there’s a bunch of people milling around. It’s an enclosed structure made of crystal clear think glass. There’s a couple of trainers in there just sitting down with these lions in there and I whip out my camera half thinking my kids are going to love this and half wondering if I’ll be filming the next Faces of Death video. The lions look too tired to harm anyone.

We walk on and out of MGM towards the skybridge that connects MGM to Tropicana across the street and then over another skybridge that connects to Excalibur. This lets you walk right over the Las Vegas strip. It’s a pristine day in LasVegas and it’s almost a shame we’re going to be spending it all indoors. The inside of the Ex is the opposite of outdoors. We register for the tourney and laugh when we see the structure. We start with 300 chips and I think it’s 15 minute levels. Oh well, let’s try and get lucky. There’s about 3 tables and before dealing the dealer fans out all the cards face up for inspection. I ask why there’s 2 cards in the spades suit that are out of order and he ignores me. I’m not liking the vibe in here and I go card dead in a bad way. No way can I afford to just see flops even early on with this starting stack. Dale busts out and at my table maybe 1 guy is gone. I eventually get A8 and decide to call the BB. Then a shortie goes all in and is called by the tables big stack. I’m not deep in chips at all and could have gone all in but it’s just a bad tourney situation. I fold and big stak wins with same hand I had, A8. On very next hand I get A7 under the gun and am short enough to where I shove. I can’t even remember the 2 guys who called me but I hit mid piar on flop and they check down to river. One guy had top pair and I’m out. Seriously, I’ve never been more relieved to bust out of a tourney. I’m tired enough to where I want to go back to the room and lay down. Dale joined 1/3 cash game and I tell him I’m going back to the room.

I walk back to MGM still marveling again at the weather and on the way back to room. The MGM is a huge hotel and really takes up one whole city block. During our whole stay we never come close to exploring even a quarter of it. I stop at the Centrifuge bar in MGM just to check it out. It’s a high tech looking roundish bar area that buffers the poker room from Studio 54. I’m watching this guy play a video poker game that’s built into the bar. I watch him play a few $5 hands and he hits a flush or something that pays him like $400. This looks easy. Before I can give it a try Dale calls me and he's back in the room already. I get back and Dale has just completed a hit-and-run at the Ex. But it wasn't easy. After flopping a set his opp hit a flush but then Dale filled up on the river to double up. We plot out a plan for the rest of the day. We'll rest up, have dinner with Shanks at Wynn after he get out of seminar, and then play a tourney at Treasure Island. I tell Dale I've figured out a way to eat free at the Wynn buffet, now considered the best buffet in Vegas. It's about 3pm and I'm going to try to take a nap. There's no way I'm staying up late tonight because we want to get to our trade show in the morning. I get up around 4:20pm but I've probably napped about 20 minutes really. Dale's up and gone so I call him and he's at a 1/2 NL table at the poker room.

The MGM poker room is more of a poker area and is large compared to any other I've seen. It sits in an area that has a lot of foot traffic unlike other rooms and is located near the lion habitat, Centrifuge bar and Studio 54. There are 22 tables and they spread many different games. Even wit that many tables it is spacious enough to walk easily between tables. I'm only interested in 1/2 NL and I get my name up on the plasma screen so I can play a bit before Shanks join us. I duck out to use the restroom and when I get back my name is gone. I ask what's up and the lady says she called me and then gave away my seat. No matter because a seat comes open and she tells me the table #. I go over there and it's Dale's table. I'm sitting between an older asian guy and a younger one. After guaging the table I’m ready to order a drink. A waitress with a British accent asks what I wan and I decide to try and push the limits. Last night I was able to get a Glenmorangie single malt so this time I ask for a McCallan 18 and she politely says "I'm sorry sir there's no way I can comp you that drink. What other scotch can I get you?" I ask for any other single malt and she says they only offer a couple of blended scotches, Red Label and Dewars. I tell her I'm good for now. She returns about 10 minutes later and says they have Chivas available and I order one on the rocks with club soda. My stack is dwindling until I win a moderate pot and I can tell I'm just going to be killing time until we leave. Shanks calls and says he can't join us till 7 or 7:30 so I tell Dale we should just go to Wynn and have him meet us there. I cash out for an $8 loss and ask what the easiest and cheapest way for us to get to Wynn. The cashier says to take the Deuce. It's a bus he says and tells us where to go catch one. It's a nice short walk to the strip and there is a bus stop with several people waiting.

The Deuce is a double decker bus that runs up and down the strip and for $5 you can ride all you want for a 24 hour period. We stand in line and soon notice this crowd is like a mini UN tourism group. There's people from many countries waiting to catch a cheap ride. Some look like they've learned the hard way that you can't walk the whole strip. It's deceptive the way 2 hotels look like they're near each other and then you try and walk between them and realize your folly. We wait longer than we expect but we’re able to exchange some good hand histories on certain hands, how we played them and how they could have been played better. Finally we board the bus and it’s standing room only so we opt to go to the upper deck. Mistake realized when we find out it has a munchkin ceiling and we end up holding the pole in a half crouch.

I unveil my plan of how we’re going to eat free at the Wynn. I found out that if you get a player’s card (It’s called the Red Card at Wynn) there and just earn 50 points you can get a free buffet. Wynn is the latest in ultra luxury resort/hotels on the strip and many tourists go there just to walk through it and look around at all it's finery. It's competeing head on with Bellagio and now controls most of the high limit baccarat play in town. But we’re there on a mission and I’ve heard it’s not hard to get 50 points. The Deuce is not the most efficient mode of transport we find and after several stops we finally get there. We head to the Red Card booth and sign up. They inform us that it now only takes 25 points for the buffet AND they are giving us $10 in free play! Ha! Not only will this be a free meal but Wynn will be paying me to eat at it’s lavish spread. The guy tells us we can build points faster by playing slots instead of video poker but I blow him off and tell Dale that video poker looks easy and I’ve heard the machines pay back 99% of what’s put into them if just play a very basic strategy. I just saw a guy earlier at MGM get paid off big without doing anything real special. Slots are for pure gambling. We are men of skill who play no limit hold’em. 5 card draw will be childs play.
We get seated at a bank of video poker machines and find out that in order to activate the free $$ we have to put in some of our own $$. Fine. In no time we’ve burned through the free $10 and dip into the $20 of our own money. We each have about 2-3 points by now I think. Hmm, just a bad run of cards really. We’re now getting the hang of it and hitting 3 of kind, 2 pair and an occasional straight. If you don’t get a pair of Jacks or better you have a losing hand. However we get some hands though where we’re totally clueless as to what to do e.g. when we get a pair of sixes and there are 2 face cards too. What do we hold and try to draw to? Eventually we start asking people around us and their answers aren’t that comforting. One guy I ask who is sitting next to me has his card in and I see he has about 3200 points. I’m at 8 points. Damn, can you just transfer me a few points here or something?

By now Shankar’s cab has arrived and he’s watching us and chuckling at our predicament. He’s wondering why we don’t just go pay for the buffet. Well we don’t all have an expense account like you Mr. Shankbags. Did you even have to pay for your cab here? We rode the Deuce. Just be quiet and watch. After I’m down to about $2.50 I cry uncle and my balance reads 11 points. I’m hungry and so is Dale. He has 12 points and has burned through his $20 plus the “free” $10. We look at the time and realize there’s not even enough time to eat a big buffet and be able to make it to TI in time for the 10 PM tourney. The Wynn has won this round, but I might be back. We yank our red cards out of the machines and foot it over to TI across the street.

We find the poker room and pay our $65 to register for the tourney and they hand us each a printed piece of paper giving us our table and seat assignments. We ask where we can get a quick bite to eat and the girl who registered us recommends we go over to Canter’s deli. It’s supposed to be a legendary landmark from Los Angeles and I think I saw it in a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. I have a $13 reuben sandwich and the rye bread is over-toasted to where it scrapes the inside of my mouth all over and I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy another meal on this trip. Dale’s pastrami on rye looks like a better choice. Even Shank’s $12 gardenburger would have been better. We finish eating in time to get seated at our tables. The TI poker room is set away from the main casino and is along a hallway that leads to the specially built theatre that hosts Mystere, the famed Cirque du Soleil show that has won many awards.

The poker room is cozy and I’m guessing drink service here is going to be slow as it's far from the main casino floor. Dale gets seated at my table but in seat 7. I’m in seat 2 which is just to dealers left. Shanks is at next table over. I think there’s about 40 entrants. I get nothing in level 1 and in level 2 I get AQ and raise 3X BB and it all folds to me. Better than losing with it I guess. They have a good structure here in that you start with 3500 chips and levels are 20 min. The dealers keep the pace brisk and enough hands are dealt. A far cry from our regular guys game where it’s a snails pace the whole way through. But it’s a cold deck for me and Dale. There’s these 2 guys to the left of Dale in the last 2 seats who look like players. 1 is a short Japanese guy who is very comfy riffling his chips with his right hand and his friend his a very large guy who loves to stare down those in a hand with him. When he’s played pots he’s played aggressive. I’ve seen the Japanese guy start 2 hands strong, flop good but then slow play it the rest of the way. An Asian guy to my right orders green tea and I order coffee. Green tea, huh? I get the feeling he’s trying to slow down oxidation and preserve bodily cells and the life they give and I’m here shaving some time off of mine.

At the break he tells me he’s played this a few times and the Japanese kid makes it to final table 80% of the time. Shankar is doing well and has more than doubled his stack. After the break my stack has gotten into the red zone and I need to get some chips. I pick up AJ and am about to shove but there’s a big raise before me and my hand shrinks up. After that I capture enough blinds to stay above water. There’s a hand that’s raised by the guy to my left who has raised a few hands preflop lately. Dale re-raises all in and it’s heads up. Dale turns over JJ and other guy has QQ. Ouch. I win some more blinds and an empty seat 2 to my left gets filled with a short, slightly chunky blond girl with shortish hair. There’s still a fair amount of players left because they allow rebuys if there’s room. This is good for the prize pool but tough on me since my stack isn’t getting to avg. stack size like I want it to. I’ve gotten a little more aggressive lately and need to tone down so on this orbit when I am the SB and it has folded to me I just folded to the BB and let him take the pot.

On the next hand I have Q-4 and it folds to me on the button. I need those blinds and I move all in. The small blind folds quick and the blond girl counts out what’s needed to call me. She looks at what her stack would be like if she loses and it looks like she’s going to fold but she calls me. She turns over 3,3 and instead of watching the flop roll off I’m just staring at her small pair. I hear a small moan from the table and I look to the center to see that I have paired up on the flop and am in command of this hand as a 92 % favorite. No sooner do I see this than I see a nasty 3 hit the turn. I hear her say “that’s the way it should be”. I end up making 2 pair on the river but it can’t beat a set and I’ve busted out. That’s the way it should be? I look at her and tell her she was not really a big favorite there and she gives some weak answer. What I really wanted to say is “listen you stupid little ___, how many hands did you really think you were very far ahead of pre-flop with your pocket 3s? Just take the chips and STFU or just say 'good game' or something”. But I just get up and even though I’m slightly steaming I say “good hand” not at all meaning it.

Shankar is still going strong and I put my name on the list for a 1/3 NL cash game. I walk over and watch Dale who has been sitting in a 1/3 limit cash game and has made a few chips but he says it feels weird playing limit. Even though I’m about to be called for a seat I have the sudden need to get out of this place as the coziness is now feeling slightly claustrophobic. Dale’s ready to cash out and we wish Shankar good luck. We tell him we’re taking the bus back to MGM and to call us when he’s done. We may or may not play some more since we have our show to go to in the morning. The outside exit is close by and it puts us right out onto the strip again. Breathing in the cool desert air lifts me a bit. We walk down past the Mirage’s famed volcano and catch the good old Deuce again. It’s a lot less crowded and we grab a seat in the back. We’re back at MGM quickly and as we stroll in we can hear the thumping music from Studio 54 and it sounds inviting. The poker room is close to the MGM entrance and we go check it out. The list for 1/2 NL is not too long and I figure I’ll play a bit before hitting the sack. Dale gets seated first and just as I get on a table soon after.

...To be continued on Day 2B