Other than some ridiculously bad beats at the tables, Sarah and I had an awesome time. We pretty much spent all of our waking hours at the poker tables, moving between tournaments and cash games each day. We ended up playing at Rio, Caesar’s, Wynn, MGM, Mirage, and Harrah’s… not bad for 5 days! Unfortunately, I still don’t have any real tournament winnings to report.
The closest I came was in a 60-person tournament at the Mirage on Sunday. I played the best I have all week, and built up a chip stack of ~25,000 (after starting with 4,000). I was then dealt pocket kings, and ended up all in preflop against the chip leader (I was probably 2nd in chips at the time), who was a very weak player and had AQ. Even though two other players at the table announced that they folded aces, the final ace hit the flop, and I was eliminated in 16th place. It was definitely the most frustrating beat I’ve taken thus far, as I knew I had a dominating hand (72% to win before factoring in the folded aces), and winning the hand would have made me the prohibitive chip leader and put me in an excellent position to win or finish right near the top of the tourney. Anyway, I took away the fact that I played correctly, got my money in the pot in a great spot, and just caught a bad break – such is poker.
Sarah and I also spent some time over at the Rio watching some of the World Series events and hanging out with a poker playing friend of hers. Here is a pic of the Rio poker pavilion fill of World Series players…
We ended up meeting Michael Binger (3rd place finisher in the 2006 World Series Main Event) and his brother Nick through Sarah’s friend, which was really cool. They are both spectacular players (Michael tied the all time record by cashing 8 times in last year’s World Series), and seemed to be really cool guys.
Besides poker, Sarah and I enjoyed some Vegas sunshine, had some nice meals – including the always popular Rio buffet – and hit up Voodoo (the nightclub at the Rio) on Saturday night. I had never been to Voodoo, and it is definitely one of my new favorite clubs in Vegas. It is at the top of the Rio – 50 stories up – and has both indoor and outdoor sections. The outdoor part has a wrap-around view of the Las Vegas valley, including an awesome view of the strip. Combine the height, the ridiculously strong winds, and the blaring hip hop music, and it was a pretty exciting place. Check out some of the pics we took (they don’t give a great feel for the place, but whatever)…
I'm planning to head back to the tables tomorrow for one more tourney before my next WSOP endeavor on Thursday, and I'll probably squeeze in a little golf on Wednesday to clear my head of poker for a few hours.
I hope you’re all surviving the sweltering heat out on the East Coast over the last couple of days. Vegas is hot, but dry and pleasant, so if you’re looking for a bit of a break, come on out!
1 comment:
Vegas I miss you!!!
(I miss you too Evan).
I folded ALL Of the Aces this time, so your Kings will hold up from now on.
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