WWTBAM Bored

We got to the airport about 7:00 AM for our 8:45 flight. Way too early for a Saturday. We got through security in about 10 minutes. Sat around reading poker books till it was time to board the plane. Our Southwest flight was to stop in Omaha, then go on to Vegas, for about a four hour flight.

As we started to line up for boarding, they made an announcement that they needed one person to give up their seat and take the next flight to Vegas (a direct flight). They said that it would land in Vegas about 15 minutes after this flight hit the ground. I jumped up like I had a spring in my butt. and gave up my seat. For my troubles, they gave me a $249 travel voucher for a future flight (sweeeeeet). I filled out the paper work and since I had an hour to kill, I thought, I decided to go get something to eat. I get half way to the food court, and they page me and have me come back to the counter. It seem that two people that checked in wern't there to board the flight on time, and if I wanted to, I could take this flight and keep the voucher (SWEEEEEETTT).

We get to Vegas, check in at Hooter's and it's all down hill from there. For the next five hours, I couldn't win a bet to save my life. Down a grand right off the bat and five days left in town. I quit for the day and we head to Ellis Island for the steak dinner. I use my $10 matchplay coupon and play some low limit blackjack till it's time to eat. I walk out of the casino up $80 and I call it a night.

Day 2 to follow.


Ray

rayxtwo wrote:I use my $10 matchplay coupon and play some low limit blackjack till it's time to eat. I walk out of the casino up $80 and I call it a night.

Ray

I haven't been to Vegas in about fifteen years. What is considered low level at the tables these days?

rayxtwo wrote: As we started to line up for boarding, they made an announcement that they needed one person to give up their seat and take the next flight to Vegas (a direct flight). They said that it would land in Vegas about 15 minutes after this flight hit the ground. I jumped up like I had a spring in my butt. and gave up my seat. For my troubles, they gave me a $249 travel voucher for a future flight (sweeeeeet). I filled out the paper work and since I had an hour to kill, I thought, I decided to go get something to eat. I get half way to the food court, and they page me and have me come back to the counter. It seem that two people that checked in wern't there to board the flight on time, and if I wanted to, I could take this flight and keep the voucher (SWEEEEEETTT).

Now that is nice!

I hope it didn't use up all your luck for this trip.

rayxtwo wrote:We get to Vegas, check in at Hooter's and it's all down hill from there.

For most people, it's all downhill once you get to Hooter's.

silverscreenselect wrote:

rayxtwo wrote:I use my $10 matchplay coupon and play some low limit blackjack till it's time to eat. I walk out of the casino up $80 and I call it a night.

Ray

I haven't been to Vegas in about fifteen years. What is considered low level at the tables these days?

$10

silverscreenselect wrote:

rayxtwo wrote:We get to Vegas, check in at Hooter's and it's all down hill from there.

For most people, it's all downhill once you get to Hooter's.

Not if you love steamed clams.

I get up early (my friends are just getting back to the room now), so I decide to go get something to eat. I never make it. The one and only guy that had a good roll on the craps table the day before is playing by himself, so I decide to buy in and join him. He's on fire. Throwing numbers left and right (I'm way down so I can't bet heavy, it figures), but he manages to turn the $180 I had from the night before into $750. If I could have had played like I did when I first got there, I might have made between $2,000 to $2,500, but I'm happy to get this back. I decide to take the bus downtown to find out the poker tournaments we will be playing the next day.

Binion's started their own set of tournaments to run the same time as the WSOP to try to get some of the players that didn't want to spend as much money to get in some tournaments. We were going to play in a $200 buy-in event on Monday, and the guy said that they expected between 175 to 200 players to show up (turns out 220 played).He said that first prize would be about $10,000 and they would pay 10% of the field.

I go back to the hotel about noon and my friends are getting up and they want to see the town. This was the first time in Vegas for Scott (He's about 25), and he was awstruck by everything. Free booze, free food, and all the good looking women.... he was like a kid in a candy store. we bounce from one casino to another, and along the way I'm making bombing runs at the craps tables. $25-30 on three numbers, when it hits, press, hits again, press, hits again, press, hits again, take all my money down except for minimum bets on all the numbers. this works in 7 out of the nine joints we stop in, and now I'm up $1,400 for the trip.

Now we really do the tourist thing.....we go shopping. Since my friends girlfriends were not too thrilled about them going to Vegas (ok, they were pissed), I decided to buy them gifts as kind of a peace offering when we got back. We stopped in a Bijou Turner (sp???) store in one casino, and they had a sale going where everything was only $15. Scott got his girlfriend a set of earrings and a neckless, and Shawn got a small purse ( my mom would have called it a "clutch bag") for his. I decided to get one for the gal that owns one of the bars I play at and one for the barmaid at another.

Now Scott's little girl was really upset that he was leaving, so he promised he would bring her back a pony (stuffed). We spent the rest of the night roaming through gift shops looking for a pony. We finally found one and it was two foot high and about a foot and a half long. Price tag $112 plus tax. A little out of the price range. the gal then said,"How about this?" and grabbed a white unicorn about half the size of the pony, and said it was on sale for twelve bucks. SOLD!!!!! He told her it was a "special" pony and she loved it.

We called it a day, and headed back to the hotel for some 25 cent wings, some beer, and a little TV beore bed.


Day 3.....

silverscreenselect wrote:

rayxtwo wrote:We get to Vegas, check in at Hooter's and it's all down hill from there.

For most people, it's all downhill once you get to Hooter's.

At Ellis Island, they have $5 blackjack at night and $2 during the day.

And BTW, I LOVE Hooter's!!!! They send me some great promotions and great tournaments (most of them I can't get to), and they comped my entrie stay this time along with everything we spent on food. The people that work there are really nice, and hope I get another offer from them real soon.

Ray

Tournament day. This is my first really big tournament entry wise, so I know I need to pay attention to my table and block out everyting elst going on around me. My friends draw seats on tables behind me so this makes it a little harder. The first dealer we get I get no cards to play at all. I maybe had one hand where I had two face cards, but a guy before me made a big raise in front of me, and I had to fold. The next dealer was better. Nothing but face cards and big pocket pairs so I get to play some hands and triple my stack over the next half hour. New dealer comes in and my cards go south again. I don't press the issue, so I don't lose that many chips.

I float around 7-8000 chips for the next two hours, then it comes...AA. I make a three bet raise and I keep two players in the game. Now the flop comes and an Ace and two junk cards hit the board. I make a half the pot bet, one guy folds and the other goes all in. I call. He turns over two pair, and my trips hold up, and he's out. I've got about 12-13,000 chips now. About a half an hour later we change tables and I get real bad draw. At least four players have 35-40,000 chips, and they're killing everybody that sits down. I know now it's time to really tighten up. I know I have to have a big pocket pair if I'm going to bet at all. Two more players get knocked out at the table by one guy before I get a hand to play. Then I get QQ delt to me. Two callers. Nothing his on the flop so I decide to go all in. The guy that was knocking out players calls me and has AK. Nothing comes up on the turn, but he catches a King on the river and I'm out.

I know I played it right so I feel pretty good about that. to last as long as I did in a big tournament like that I think it will help me later on

The rest of our friends got there that day, so we went casino hopping again for the rest of the day.

Day 4...

Ray

About 10 people we know are playing in another poker leagues championship tournament at Binion's at noon on Tuesday. I have coupons for the deli next to their tournament area, which in an open area of the casino. not a private room.. I do have one of my poker league poker shirts on because I'm going to play another tournament later that day, and that's what I wear when I play cards. I go over and talk to my friends and give them the coupons so the can eat during their break, and this guy comes over to me and says " I need to talk to you". He asks me my name and tells me that ".... I have to leave the tournament area or I'm going to get thrown out of the casino". FOR WHAT!!!???? He says I'm "Bothering his tournament players". I tell him that I'm just talking to my friends (and ONLY people I know personally). I go over and grab my coupon books off the table and I start to leave and my friends ask what going on. I tell them that they're making me leave. So I walk back past the guy and he says, " I know you play in Poker Pub tournaments back in St. Louis too. You're banned for life from any of our tournaments in the future". I tell him (and this really pisses him off) "I haven't played in any of your tournaments in about six months. I've been to busy running my own".

Now the gloves come off. He tells me that, " I better quit bothering Chrissy or there's going to be trouble". "OK, who in the world is Chrissy?" I tell him. He says I know who it is ( turns out she's the one that runs their tournaments here in St. Louis). I haven't said a word to her in two years. I guess the're scared of me because I'm getting just as big as they are here in town. Turns out the guy was the one that runs tournaments in Arizona and not the head guy for Poker Pub.

After my friends got knocked out of their tournament, they told me that everyone was talking about what happened, and most of the players that I didn't even know thought it was wrong for them to do that to me. Now here's the kicker. If you won their tournament, you were to get a $10,000 buy in for the Main Event for the WSOP. If you couldn't go, you could take a $5,000 buy out. If you took the $10,000 you had to sign a contract stating that if you cashed in the tournament, you had to give Poker Pub 10% of your winnings. This really made them mad.

Rest of the day we palyed some more tournaments and casion hopped. We all went to Ellis Island for the steak dinner, and took a bunch of pictures of us at the dinner table. We went and saw the things they wanted to see before spending most of the next day at the Rio for the WSOP. We did see Doyle Brunson at the Bellagio on his mobliityscooter heading for the bathroom leaving the poker room. When he came out he almost ran over Ron and kept right on moving on his way back. The water show was called off because of high winds so they missed that.


Day 5 The WSOP

Ray