LV Trip Report (verbose)

[Los Feliz Slim]

Cliff notes: Long and boring, but I think I've got a pretty fluid style so it shouldn't be agonizing. I make no apologies for lack of content.

I'm posting this in OOT b/c of how many of y'all have expressed a desire to meet Aloysius in real life, and this TR includes some hot Al action (it's all at the bottom if you just need to get your rocks off). But if it gets moved elsewhere, c'est la vie.

The occasion for this trip was ostensibly my brother-in-law's 40th birthday, but he and I really just needed to get away from life's responsibilities. He was the perfect person to go to LV with: common interests, enjoy spending time together, but completely independent and in no need of any babysitting whatsoever. If events dictated that one of us disappeared for a day, it was going to be no problem.

We stay at Bally's because we're planning on participating in some WSOP Circuit stuff at Caesar's across the street, and Bally's is cheaper. I also recall the NL at Bally's being super soft.

We arrive Thursday night, and are already well on our way on a mixture of alcohol, vicodin, Xanax, and excitement. We drop our bags and sit at the $100NL. I am already drunk and super LAG and push the table around for a couple of hours until some better players sit and I get absolutely toasted. They realize that I need to be looked up on ANY raise from the blinds, and I give back my winnings plus $100. Considering how wasted I was, a $100 loss is a huge, huge, win. We eat something somewhere and sleep around 5AM.

Friday I am very hungover. We had heard that the $550 Circuit event across the street was getting full, so we head over to Caesar's to register. I had never been to the Caesar's room, and I was extremely impressed: great lighting, really high ceiling, lots of space. Very excited for the tournament. Have a nice chat with Allen Cunningham while getting our player's cards, coupon book, and hilarious free medallion. I've played with him once before and he seemed to remember, what a nice guy.

From there, we go downtown to the Golden Nugget for their 2PM tournament. It sucked IMO: cramped room, crabby dealers, etc. I don't recommend it. But Jesus, the pool scene down there is incredible. Lots and lots of eye candy. So I did some ogling and that was nice.

Played some more NL at Bally's, but went to bed early because I was getting prepared for the tournament Saturday. Eyes on the prize, baby. Spent Saturday morning getting psyched, getting room service, and watching a documentary on the History Channel on the Hoover Dam. What an enormous accomplishment that was. I took from that the lesson that anything is possible with enough will. Rested and inspired, the tournament begins at Noon.

I play my game and chip up nice and steady. One notable early hand has me with KK in the BB with a big stack on the button. There's some limping, I pop it to something like 8x the BB, everyone folds to the button, she calls. The pot is now only a little smaller than my stack. Flop is Q63r. I open push, she calls with A6. Thanks lady!

Things go this way for many hours to come. I play with an iPod for the first time and absolutely love it, will never play without music again. My brother-in-law and I have 8PM reservations at BOA which we miss because I'm still playing. So, on dinner break we manage to sit at the bar at Spago. I drink Lagavulin 16 on the rocks, he goes with Laphroaig 15. I get the bone in filet, he gets the non-bone-in filet. It was a great dinner break, and I was stoked to get back to the cards.

Long story short (too late), I bust 27th out of 630 for a $1500ish cash. Other notable hands: I bust black Q's with AJd with an A on the flop, and three hands later bust AQs with JJ when he gets it all in preflop and fails to improve. Good performance, but when it feels like the $80K+ of first place is within reach, it was a huge disappointment. When we hit the money at 63 they took our iPod's away, which would appear to be a (new?) WSOP rule, so those of you who are addicted to them like I now am, be aware they're going away after the money. I was surprised and it sucked, and left me a little off balance. Lesson learned.

So I'm steaming hard when Aloysius and his boy Justin show up. They are drunk and were intending on going to Pure, but it's such an enormous clusterfukc their friends bail and go to the titty bars. Al and Justin and I sit at $1-$3 NL and they quickly unsteam me with praise for my finish. Al is exactly the nice, funny, guy you all know him to be, except taller. He lives to tilt his bro Justin, and shows him a couple bluffs that make Justin swear and pace around. Justin is wound up pretty tight under any circumstances, I'm guessing, and getting toyed with by Al makes him very, very, mad. It was awesome. To Al's right sits a man who has a seemingly unlimited supply of $100s in his left pocket, he's playing with them instead of chips. He's a retired internet millionaire, started a site and sold it to a big company. He's nice, and rich, and not great at poker, so we love him. Seat 1 is a young guy who gets married to his KT on a board of T26T when I have 22 and gives me a wad of money. I am at that point drunk and just shooting the [censored] with Al so it's hard to put me on any hand (although the entire table EXCEPT the other player in the hand apparently had me on 66). Anyway, very good times and I think Al and I are officially friends at this point. He's good people.

Went back to Bally's around 4:00AM or so and my bro-in-law was sitting at $100NL with $700 behind. He gets up to $1100 and gets it all in on a 578r flop with a BB special 96 only to have a woman river another 7 with her 78. Ouch.

After a couple hours of sleep, it's off to the airport and back to LA. Al and his friend DROVE from LA to LV, which is an error I put on par with starting a land war in Asia. In any event, Las Vegas continues to be heaven on earth, and I am counting the moments until I return.

One final note: this past weekend marks my official retirement from online poker. Live is just too much more fun and profitable. I feel as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, and I'm looking forward to my life as a one-or-twice a month live player instead of an everyday online player.

[renodoc]

No P*ker in OOT.

nice report though.

[samjjones]

Good TR. I might be living under a rock, but WTF is a bone-in filet?

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]
Good TR. I might be living under a rock, but WTF is a bone-in filet?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's more of a bone-on filet, I guess:



Another note: the steaks were sixty bucks apiece!

[Kneel B4 Zod]

I heard Aloysius is a little, "funny", if you know what I mean. can you confirm?

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]
I heard Aloysius is a little, "funny", if you know what I mean. can you confirm?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sure I'm going to be able to do better than this, but for now I'm going with:

"A lady never tells."

[MrWookie]

Nice report, and congrats on the finish.

[skunkworks]

The next LA OOT meetup should be at that bathhouse, the one with the neon rainbow sign. Nice TR.

[samjjones]

Ahh, I see. For sixty bucks, I would've asked for the other half of the porterhouse as well.

[firstyearclay]

[ QUOTE ]


One final note: this past weekend marks my official retirement from online poker. Live is just too much more fun and profitable. I feel as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, and I'm looking forward to my life as a one-or-twice a month live player instead of an everyday online player.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dont get me wrong LFS, live poker is fun, but after the toking, high rake, non-rakeback, max of 40 hands an hour after 8 deck changes and smelly rude people; live poker sucks. One less pro online just makes life easier.

Good TR though!

fyc