Well,

I'm off to Vegas again, I'm leaving tomorrow Monday Sept 30/08. I'm there until Saturday. Shirley is coming down on Thursday with her family. The reason being, I have the whole week off and they only have Thursday through Sunday off work. I was only going to go for the 3 days with them but there flight home was too late for me as I have to work early Monday morning. It was also cheaper for me to leave on Monday, so I'm there for 3 days solo!

The plan for this trip is to play tourneys. I'm looking at the $100-$200 range tourneys at Ceasers and the Venetian. Looks like there are 3 a day at Ceasers, and a couple at the Venetian.

Anyway, I off tomorrow morning at 8:30am ... I'll be there at 10:30am Vegas time. I think I might play in the 12:00pm $150 at Ceasers, if I get there in time... If not I'll find something:) I'll write a BLOG for all those interested tomorrow.

-Eric

Well here we go,

This is going to be a poker entry so those of you reading for trip info there won't be much. So I was up early yesterday around 9:00am, the poker tourney started at noon. Left the MGM at around 10:00am thinking that I would get some food at the RIO. Shirley was not playing in the tourney and decided that she would not come over unless I made the second day. The RIO was nuts, there were so many people everywhere line ups for food, for EVERYTHING. I just decided to have some star bucks and try and find my seat. I was at table 46 seat 8. I was happy to be on the end, that way I could see everyone without have to look one way to the other. I found my seat and with in 10 minutes of that they cleared out the room, so they could start setting up. When they cleared out the room it was even more nuts. There must have been 5000 people standing around, and the line up for the buy-in was CRAZY long. I'm glad that I bought in the day before late in the afternoon.

Well eventually the doors open and the masses poor into the room. I make my way to my seat, and slowly my tables fills. As the guys are sitting down I'm not overly happy with my tables composition. I have all mid-aged men, I mean guys ranging from 29 to 39 and they all handle themselves well. They all look very comfortable, they all handled there chips with confidence, no stupid questions, like,"what are the green ones worth?" or "how many chip do we have?". It seem clear that all 9 other guys had some clue. I tried not to make too many assumptions until I saw there play.

The last guy to sit down in the ONE seat, was a guy named Chris, I played with him at least 10 times previously in New York at Turning Stone. Big guy that moved out here last year. Very solid "crazy" poker player, someone who I didn't really welcome at my table so early.

So we started with 3000 chip, and the levels were 60 minutes long. The blinds started 25-50, the button started in seat 10, good for me! I folded that first 10-15 hands before I played a hand. I'm going to write out most of my hands. I took notes so that I wouldn't forget. I actually wrote out every hand I played. Here we go

1) I was in late position with AQ there was one raiser in MP, I called. both blinds fold. to this point we had not seen a river. The board came 558. He checked I bet 3/4 of the pot and he folded. Winner! I was happy to win a pot, first one out of the way!

2) I was UTG and found KdQd. I limp, MPs calls, LP raises to 250. BB calls, I call, MP calls. Four people call. The board comes Qs 7d 4d. I fire out 800 and everyone folds!

3) In the small blind everyone folds to me I have A7, I raise to 200 and scoop the Big Blind. I really did write out every hand I played

4) This was a big hand, I have AsJs in late position, one caller who I now know is not very strong at all, I raise to 250. I get a caller behind me on the button. The "not so strong guy" folds the board comes Qs 9c 4s. I check, button checks turn comes 7c. I bet 800, button calls. river comes 8s and the button starts putting on an acting job. Before I even do anything he sighs, slumps his shoulders. I look at him and he spreads his chips out to try and show me how many he has. I had him covered but just barely. I have the NUTS, but I'm now also 100% positive that this guy has a flush too. so I think and think, how do I get him to put in all his chips? he has 1700 or so left. so I decided to bet 800. sure enough he comes over top all-in. I insta-call. WINNER. I now have 6200 chips

5) I pick up JJ in MP I raise to 250 everyone folds, I have a great image at this point

6) I have 89s on the button, there are three callers, I call sb calls BB checks. 6 way action to the flop 4c 6h7d. SB Checks, BB Checks, Check, MP bets 200, fold, I call. We end-up heads-up. Turn come Ts. I make the NUTS! He bet 400, I raise to 1200, and he pushes! I call we have that same hand. Chop chop

7) This is a hand that I need some help with. I think I make a mistake. We are now playing 50-100. I have 6000 chips. A new guy (2850 in chips) at the table in LP raises to 300. I call in the big blind with Kd Qd. heads up to the flop. Flop comes Td 4c 9d. He bets 675 out of turn. I haven't acted yet. I think and think. I just call. Turn comes 3h I check he pushes for 1875. I fold. Should I have pushed on the folp?

8) I folded for along time between hand 7 and 8. Almost a full level. well I did limp twice with KQ and 99 but folded on the flop. Anyway I pick-up 22 in late position, I limp hoping to hit big. But the Big Blind raises to 400. Three people fold to me. I call hoping to hit, and maybe out play him after the flop. Heads-up and the flop comes 8h 8d 6d. Once I see the flop, I know he has NONE of it and he is going to be scared. he leads out 600. I raise to 1800 and he folds.

9) We are getting close to the break. I pick up 88 in LP. A guy in EP (short stacked 1800 chips or so) raises to 350. I call. Board comes Qc 7h 3d, he leads out 350. I saw this guy continuation bet twice before and lay down to a flop raise. So I go into the tank for abit, and I decided to push him all in for 1500 or so. He calls right away and shows AQ. I lose. I'm happy with the move.

10) They announce that we are on the last hand before break and I look down and see JJ. YIKES!! I was thinking here we go! anyway I over bet 600 and everyone fold! THANK GOD!

I make the break with 5125 in chips. I was at a high of 6400 but all in all I was happy with the way things were going. After the break things turned. Turned ugly! in fact that is the end of my notes! LOL I have to recall everything from the top of my head now.

Well, the next level was 100-200, and I went card dead! I think played 4 hands this level.

11)I called a raise with 99 and had to fold on the flop

12)I raised with AQ and had to fold on the flop.

13)I re-raise with TT and had to fold to a AQ4 flop.

The next level was 100-200 with a 25 chip ante.

14) This was a defining hand for me in the tourney and I need no comments on the hand, just shake your heads in the comfort of your homes!. I was in the BB with AJ and chip leader at our table raises to 600, I have 4600 I call. board comes 862 chip leader bets out 600 I call hope to steal it on the turn. Turn comes 2, and I fire 1200. Chip leader pushes all in. I fold! I'm down to 2200.

15) With the Blinds and ante eating away at me I have 1675, I push when everyone folds to me in LP with 87s everyone folds

16) 2 orbits later everyone folds to me in LP I push with Q7s. the big blind calls with AJ I lose and am out!

What can ya do?

I have more poker stories event stories but my fingers are tired so that's it that's all I'm done, there will always be next year!

Eric

OK... I know I said I would write everyday... but this has to be short... I just got out of bed and I'm getting ready to go to the RIO the event starts in 2 hours!! I'm pretty pumped. We have to get some food then I have to get a cab then... I have to find Table 46 seat 8!!!! boo-yeah!!!

Yep KA was CRAZY COOL, oh yeah David Copperfield is in town and we went and saw him last night he was soooooo good!!! I got to go up on stage... I'll write more later buy I have to go to breakfast right now!!!

Eric

OK... lets see

Where to start... We woke yesterday, Monday, and I wrote the blog below. After that we headed to the pool. WOW I have never been to the pool here it is CRAZY cool, I have some pictures... lets see if I can get them on the Blog.... I have been have some trouble....

OK so after we hung out at the pool for awhile we headed inside for some lunch and drinks, I had some pizza and a couple corona! We then went and got 2 tickets for KA! It is a show here at the MGM. We got good ticket 3 rows back off the balcony, they still ran us almost 300 bucks, but that is OK. The shows starts at 9:30pm on Tuesday, good for us as we really have nothing planned. A Buddie of mine told me that we had to go the last time we were here in Vegas but never went! So Niel we are going!

So After the ticket booking we headed to the poker room to see what was going on. We found a poker tourney that started at 6:00pm, we decided that we would both play in it, good practice for the WSOP. It was a $125, good starting chips, long blind levels, but bad blind increases. It was only 2:00pm so we had sometime to kill so I played a little 1-2NL. There were 2 hands of note.

I have AA under the gun raise to $10 everyone fold to the BB he calls, Flop comes Qh 8s 4d. He checks I bet $25, he calls. Turn comes Ts, he checks I bet $55, he pushes for 105 total. I call he has J9. I lose.

I have Ac7d on the button, 3 limpers, I call. Board comes 7h7c4c, Check, check, bet $15, I raise to $45, fold, fold. Then the raiser pushes for $170, I think and think and call. he has 6c8c. TURN comes 5c, he makes straight flush

The max buy in at the 1-2NL is $200, at this point I was in for $500 and only had $125 in front of me. I did manage to grind it back to $500, but it wasn't fun! :)

So it was tourney time, I was at table 5 and Shirley was at table 2. I liked the look of my table, we had some loose players that were going to make it fun. About ten hands in I have 55 in middle position I limp with 2 other limpers. The button a bit of a crazy man raises it 3 times the BB. I call with 3 others... 5 way to the Flop, Ah Tc 5d I flop a set (who can tell me where this is going?) first spot bets out 1/4 of the pot I call and the button raises to 3/4 the pot, first spot folds I call. Turn 7h I check looking to check-raise-push. Button checks. River comes Ks I bet 1000. button raises to 2k. I call he has QJ... I have $225 chips left.

I go out 5 hands later AhJh vs. KhTh all-in PF

What a fun 20minutes!!! LOL Here is Shirley to talk about her tourney experience:

I didn't get any hands for the first 3 orbits, which was good because I like to have that image. Anyways, the fourth orbit: I'm the big blind. Under the gun raises to $200, and there are 4 callers. I look down at pocket kings, and re-reraise to $1000. Everyone fold except for middle position. Flop is 5s, 9s, and 5h. I think this is a pretty good flop for me, and to avoid any potential hazards, I push for the rest of my chips which is about $2200. He immediately calls, and shows 5d and 7h. I don't improve on the turn or river, and am out in the first hand I play.

So we were down and out!!! We went and grabed another bite to eat. Had some more drinks, played some low limit holdem and then went to bed at 3:00 am.

We woke up today at noon and decided that we had to head over to the RIO and sign up for the WSOP event 35. This year I did not bring large sums of money with me thinking that I could just buy-in to the tourneys with the old VISA card, well they don't except VISA buy-ins. Luckily I had enough for the buy in so there was no big worry. But it could have been a deserter! Shirley then chickened out, she has informed me that she does not want to play in the event. That is OK, it is probably better that she doesn't, I think she would just be too worried about the money and not play here game! So I'm all signed up and ready to go

The Rio is packed right now. They are running the Heads-up tourney to day and there are a lot of big name in this tourney. The only pro I didn't see today was Daniel. Phill Hellmuth was at the final table of the 3k event, he is going for bracelet #12. I watched that event for awhile. I left after they were down to 6 handed. it was pretty exciting here are some pictures

Here is one of the First round Heads-up matches that I found very interesting... It is Howard Leader VS Dan Harrington

Harrington WON...

Anyway we are now back to the MGM Grand now. I'm writing this blog and Shirley is downstairs playing the piggies. We have the KA! show tonight in about 2 hours or so then maybe some poker. we have nothing planned for tomorrow but I'm sure we'll find something!! LOL there is shopping that has to be done, I'm told! Then the Big tourney on Thursday. I'll probably write more tomorrow and give a show update and poker update. Anyway I'm outta here TTYL

Eric

Hello all, (Janet, Shirley says Hi Mom)

Weeeeee.... we are here!!! it was a great flight. Shirley had no problems, it was her best flight ever. I was seated beside a very interesting man, he was a Nero-surgeon. Very intelligent, he specialized in MS. I had a lot to talk about as my grand father had MS. Apparently they believe that Vitiam D is the key. He told me that I should be taking them, so I think that I will start.

We arrived at the MGM Hotel just after 11:00pm Vegas time but it was like 2:00am my time. I was dead tired. We got some McDee's and headed out on the floor of the MGM. Shirley found a nice penny slot machine so that we could get free Corona. After 2 beer I found myself quite bored with the slot machines, so I told her that I was going to play some cheap poker and drink some more. So off I went to the poker room. I was tired, and a little loopy, so I showed up at the poker desk and told them that I wanted a seat at the smallest limit table they had. I sat down at 1-2NL... 200 max buy-in.... I only play for like 45minutes. No interesting hands, I flopped a set of kings and got no action. The poker room was busy! they had a pretty good spread. 1-2NL, 2-5NL 5/10NL, 2/4, 3/6, 4-8, 6/12 limit

Anyway we made it to bed at 2:00am, the plans for today include, pool, food and signing up for our poker tourney on Thursday. I have run right now, Shirley is waiting I hope to write more tonight.

-Eric

Hey all!

It is Blog time again as we are headed back to Vegas for yet another run at stardom! This time it will be a much shorter trip as we are only staying for a week. As most of you know it is WSOP (world series of poker) time in Vegas and we are going to play in event #35. Event # 35 is a $1500 NL buy-in event and starts on Thursday June 21st. It will be played over 3 days, the final day being played on Saturday. My guess is that there will be close to 3000 people playing in it and first place should be around a juicy $700,000. I would have to think that the top 300 will get paid as well. I'm playing in it for sure and Shirley is still undecided. It would be her largest buy-in tournament, so she is a little unsure.

We are actually flying out tonight at 8:45pm and we arrive in Vegas at 10:29pm Vegas time. We have a room at the MGM grand, Very nice Hotel, with a nice low limit poker room. I'm actually interested in seeing what the action is going to be like during this time, WSOP time. The trip plans this time are probably going to be a bit different, more vacationing less poker playing. Well that is what I say now but... It is Las Vegas, baby! LOL

Anyway I have to start to pack and get ready. I will be bring my Lap Top so I will be updating the BLOG nightly/daily when ever time allows for it. Feel free to comment, or drop us a line!

Second attempt at WSOP bracelet,

-Eric

Just a Test.....

Heading to vegas in 9 days!

I'm Home... Oct 30th

Poker Sucks...

Eric

Day: Thursday Oct 26th

Total Cash: VERY LITTLE

Eric's Play: Not good

Shirley's Play: Not much better

We are alive!! Everyone and there Uncle has been writing asking if we are ok and why we are not updating the BLOG and when are we going to update the BLOG. Well here it goes!! :)

Well where did we leave off? hmmm... Has it really been a week? Holy! Well I here are the poker stats: (I know Joe I didn't follow your advice)

Friday Oct 20th - Mirage - 10/20: -1000

Friday Oct 20th - Bellagio- 30/60: -2800

Sunday Oct 22nd - Orleans- Tourney: -105

Sunday Oct 22nd - Orleans - 1/2NL: -300

Sunday Oct 22nd - Mandalay Bay - 4/8: +65

Monday Oct 23rd - Wynn - 8/16: -600

Tuesday Oct 23rd - Wynn - 4/8: -173

Tuesday Oct 23rd - Orleans - 4/8: +350

Wednesday Oct 24th - MGM - 4/8: +100

Yep it is Ugly! I don't know what to say. Well it is a no brainer, we might be heading home soon. What to say, what to say. We have decided to do up Vegas, and play a little less poker. We went to THE PRICE IS RIGHT on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun, we didn't get called up on stage, kind of good I guess cause we would have had to pay the 30% withholding tax on any prizes we won. I have no idea how we would have gotten a washer and dryer home?? LOL. The guy that hosts "BLIND DATE", Roger Lodge, was the guy that hosted the price is right. He did a good job. I would have some pictures for ya, but they didn't allow cameras in the show! On Wednesday, we went to the Ballys show, Jubilee.

Jubilee is an old time Vegas show, big color, big costumes, lots of dancing and singing and the best part of all, the show was TOPLESS. LOL To be honest I really didn't enjoy it that much. Shirley loved it. I found there to be a lack of story. It seemed like they were doing the same thing over and over, I don't know, I probably just didn't get it.

OK, Poker talk.

On Friday we went to the Mirage and played 10/20. I got stuck really quick, I bought in for a second time and shot off another 500. I was stuck 1000 and not happy about it. We left and I though how am I going to get that 1K back? That is when I had the GREAT idea of going to the Bellagio and playing 30/60 to get it back! Boy-o-boy was that a mistake! I went card dead! I played for 10 hours and only had KK once and I ran into AA . Then a couple hours later I picked up QQ and ran into AA. I never had AA, AQ. I had AK twice lost both times. I won 4 hands in 10 hours. The real kicker was 20 minutes after the KK vs AA. I'm in the small blind with J7 of clubs, there is 5 way action to me. I call. The board comes 89T. I flop a straight. I lead out and got 3 callers. Turn A. I lead out again. One caller and a raiser. I re-raise. The raiser, 4 bets. I call. River comes 2. I check. The guy bets. I call. He shows QJ. I lose. YUCK!!! I played until 10:00am. I knew that I was just going to have to take a big loss and move on. That day was the single biggest mistake I have made. It wasn't the way I played. I probably didn't play my best, but I didn't poorly. It was the conditions under which I played. I played over my bankroll. I played in a bigger game to try and save a loss. Big mistakes! I good friend of mine just reminded me that we all get the nuts an equal number of times. But good players don't shoot off there bankrolls when they are running bad!!! So true!

I then took Saturday off. I didn't do anything. But I did find a place that serves PUMPKIN icecream!!!! I'm addicted now. It is the BEST!!!!

On Sunday, I play in a tourney at the Orleans. More mistakes. But Poker Mistakes. There was 26 people left in a 100 man tourney. Avg stack is 9700. I have 21,000. Blinds are 500/1500 with a 200 ante. (500/1500 is an Orleans trade mark) Anyway, I'm one off the button and everyone folds to me. I raise to 4000 with 98s. I get called by the big blind. We have equal stacks. The board comes Ad 9c 3s. The BB bets out 3000. I think for awhile. I believe that my 9 might be good. So I call.... Man is that bad.... Turn comes 7d. The BB now checks. I bet out 3000..... Nice bet?!?!? Into a 15,000 chip pot. The big blind just calls! I'm sure he doesn't have an ace. River comes deuce. He checks..... and what do I do.... Check.... Nice check! He shows 9T. I'm out kicked and I lose 11,000 chips. If I had of put in a proper raise or pushed on the turn or later I would have had over 30,000 and cruised to the final table. Instead, I'm crippled.

We played some more over the next 3 days, you can see the stats. There are really no great stories to tell.

Poker Sucks!

Not really, I don't think that we are going to goto L.A. anymore. We are probably going to stay here for awhile. See if we can grind out a couple more weeks. Heading home is probably going to happening sooner then later. There is at least one more show in the near future.

The plan for tonight is to go find a good low limit game. Lots of drunks playing at 11:00pm. Hopefully be able to win a couple hundred. Then who knows.

-Eric

Day: Friday Oct 20th

Total Cash: 8154

Eric's Play: -819

Last 5 sessions:

Wed Oct 18 - Bellagio - 15/30: +616

Wed Oct 18 - Orleans - 4/8: +112

Thurs Oct 19 - Orleans - 1/2NL: +460

Thurs Oct 19 - Orleans - 6/12: +372

Thurs Oct 19 - Orleans - 6/12: +62

Well Finally I'm putting a little run together I have profited the last 6 times I have sat at the poker table. I've take the advice of one of my poker father figures and have decided to not put so much strain on my bankroll, Thanks JOE!

On Wednesday night after I wrote the last BLOG, I though I was going to crash. I couldn't sleep so I decided to play some cards. I didn't play long but I managed to make $112 in the 4/8 game here at the Orleans. Nothing interesting to talk about really. I made it back to the room around 12:00am and went to sleep

Thursday morning we woke up early 9:00am, I forgot that Thursday is "play at the ORLEANS day" for Shirley and I. They have a draw here every Thursday where they just give away free money. You collect these little ticket through out the week and they go in a barrel and they do a drawing of 20 names through out the day. If you get called you spin a wheel and can win between 1000 and 10,000. We had a lot of tickets, Shirley can really sweet talk the casino guys into giving her a whole lot of tickets.

During the day I played 3 poker sessions of 4 hours or so. In the morning when I got to the poker room the only game going was 1/2 no-limit. So I sat in, these guys were pretty bad. The table consisted of 3 old timers, 2 guys that had been there 24hrs and were still drinking beer. Two fresh guys that had just woken up (Both were in town on business but had no clue) and there was one lady at the table. It was an EXECELLENT table. They were all pretty weak. I have no Big hands to talk about I really made the 460, with well timed raises, and re-raises. I did have AA run into JJ and I won $230 pot on a Q high board.

After that session, Shirley got me and we headed to the buffet for dinner, I'm sure that I have talked about the buffet here at the Orleans before. It is probably the best value we have come across. After that we waited for the 2:00pm ticket drawing, 10 names were drawn and we didn't get called!! O-well back to work for an afternoon session.

In the afternoon I sat down 4-8 the biggest limit game they have going. I noticed that they had a 6/12 interest list going as well and it had 6 people on it. I went to the floor boss and ask him if he would start it short handed. Of course like EVERY floor guy in EVERY casino, he said no. I then proceeded to find all the people on the list and asked them if they would play short handed. Three of the six said yes. Three people plus me makes four!! LOL And I knew I could get Shirley to play in it, that makes 5. So I continued to bug the Floor man and finally he gave in and called the list. Well I thought that it was going to be 5 handed, but 8 people showed up. We played 8 handed on and off for the afternoon. I managed to scoop $372, After 4 hours I was starting to get hungry again, and it was getting close to the 8:00pm drawing. So Shirley and I went to get some food and wait for the drawing. NO LUCK again, they didn't call our names.

Anyway, we headed back to the hotel room. Shirley wanted to take a nap. I wanted to go pay the bill for the week. So I headed to the front desk, there was a long line but I had nothing going on. When standing in line there were these to young ladys standing at the front desk and one of of them was going off on the hotel staff. I guess that the company that they booked there hotel reservations through had messed-up the dates. She was sooooo pissed off. She was swearing F-this and F-that. It might have been the funniest thing I have seen in awhile! After that show I paid our bill, It is costing us $550 bucks a week to stay here. Not the best but I'm really not complaining about it either.

It was 8:30pm or so and Shirley was napping, so what is a guy to do? Night session! LOL, When I arrived to the poker room the 6/12 game was still going! So I sat in it. I got stuck quickly! I was in for $500 and I had $21 dollars left at one point. Anyway after 6 hours I crawled out of the hole and made a profit of $62, I was happy!

I didn't get to bed until like 5am. We slept in until 3:30 in the afternoon and here I am writing this BLOG. The plan for the rest of the day is to go to Balleys and get tickets for "THE PRICE IS RIGHT" they have the TV show there. It is Vegases own show. It doesn't have BOB, but it is the same thing. Shirley really wants to go. Then we are going to head over to the Mirage and buy some "LOVE" tickets for next week. At the Mirage I'm sure we will play poker. After that who knows!

-Eric