I figured I would post this here since most of the people I associate with on a regular basis ar WW players.
SUNDAY
Me and MollyMurphy ( who will now be known as MM) arrive in vegas around 2:00PM. We take a cab to our hotle, called The Polo Towers which is a timeshare right on the strip. Very nice 2 bedroom suite. We are the first to arrive, my SIL is flying in from England later that night and Captain2711 ( an infrequent poster who has been one of my bestfriends for years) will also be flying in later that night.
Cartman is also flying in that night and St. Cronin and his girlfriend are already there, we are meeting up with them in a while.
We come to find out shortly my SIL's plane hade mechanical problems and had to go back to England so she won't be arriving until tomorrow, oddly enough, Cartman encounters the same problem.
Me and MM decide to head over to the Rio so I can register for the WSOP. We decide to walk since it looked close on the map. Bad, bad idea. Turns out it is 1 1/2 away and it was 108 outside.
Once at the Rio I register for the event and we stargaze for a while and see alot of well known poker player. I see Jennifer Harmon heading to her seat in a tournament and wish her luck. My wife then calls me a dork.
We then come to our senses and take a cab to the MGM Grand to meat up with Cronin and his girlfriend. My first impression is he is shorter then I expected.
After exchanging greetings we head over to this table top quarter fake horseracing game and proceded to drink cheaply. At that pont I had been in Vegas for 5 hours and hand't had booze or gambled and that needed to be fixed.
We hung there for a while then had dinner ( which Cronin picked up the tab) then went to the Tropicana and played some $5.00 blackdrank and drank a decent amout more. The girls were getting along great and it was like we had all known each other for years, I knew it was going to be a good week.
We each won about $50 so we were off to a good start. We headed back to our place for more drinks and to wait for Captain2711 to show up.
Once he did he and I went to get him some food. Cronin and his GF left while we were away and word on the street is Cronin was pretty drunk. Well Captain and I get back about 10 minutes after they left and lo and behold I find $140 in the hallway. "This has to be Cronins" I say. I call him and sure enough in his drunken, brandy old fasioned stuper he dropped it.
We head off to bed with thoughts of a week in Vegas ahead of us.
MONDAY
Me, Captain, and MM wake up and shortly my SIL arrives. We all exchange hugs, etc... then grab some breakfast. The girls decide they are gonna hit the spa and sushi and me, Captain and Cronin decide we are going to play in the noon tournament at the Luxor. We meet up with Cronin and all register. The tournament has about 30 poeple in it and most aren't very good card players. People were calling all ins with K3, folding their unraised big blinds, etc... I thought at one point if I can't win this thing I have no buisness playing in the WSOP tomorrow.
Well drinking lots of Vodka and Red Bull must be the key to winning poker tournaments because I mowed down the field and won a staggering $350. Slill not bad for a $35 fee.
The thrill of victory
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and me making it official
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Obviously returning Cronins money bought me good Karma.we then went to the Hooters Hotel and Casino ( Cronin and Captain made me) for lunch, where I bought of course. I dropped some money playing craps before we headed back but all in all a good time.
Monday night we went to the Venetian for dinner and saw Blue Man Group. Excellent show, if not a bit to long. We were all pretty wore out still being on east coast tme so we headed back.
TUESDAY
This was the big day. My first WSOP. I woke up at 5:45 unable to sleep, my tournament started at noon.
I prepared by drinking a mimosa
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while waiting for the cab I was very nervous but MM was there to settle me down.
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We meet up with Cronin and his GF and the six of us head down to the tournament area. IT is a total madhouse with almost 3K poker players and their entourages waiting to head in.
I can't stress how special it was to have them all with me. 3 of the people closest in the world to me and 2 great new friends there to share it. I nervously took my seat as the tournament began.
My only concern was going broke on the first hand. I get dealt QJ in early position and fold. Flop comes A K 4 then on the turn 10! I would have made the stone cold nuts and a guy had Ace-10, but I feel pretty good.
I eventualy take in my first pot
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I have a pretty good read on my table and when my table breaks and I get moved to a new one I am up to $3700 chips ( started with 3000). Moving tables would prove very bad for me. I ended up at a table with Roland DeWolf and another pro I recognized.
I went about 2 hours and saw 4 playable hands, eventualy busting with 44 and ending my WSOP dream.
I gathered my things up and walked the walk of shame. MM and SIL were eating and Cronin and GF had left, but Captain was there for me being the great friend he is. He took a cigar from his pocket, handed it to me and congradulated me for living one of my dreams. He truley is a great friend.
I found MM and we had a bite but I wasn't much in the mood to eat.
the face says it all
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I eventualy pepped up at MM's urging and the thought I am so lucky to have such a supportive wife.
Later that night we had mexican food the met Cronin and GF at Fremont Street where I drowned my sorrows
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WEDNESDAY
I decided I needed to get back up on the poker horse so while the ladies went shopping me and Captain played in the Planet Hollywood 2:00 PM tournament
This tournament has a great structure with deep stacks and alot of play. We both played for a while but fell short of the money. We decided to head over to the MGM and meet up with Sean. We did some sports betting and enjoyed our cigars.
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That night we had dinner at NYNY as a group where I drank a giant beeer in a statue of liberty cup. 2 actually. We finally met up with Cartman who was done with his conference.
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Later that night we went to a dueling piano bar and it was really cool.
Group picture
From left to right- Captain2711, My SIL, MM, Lathum, Cartman, and St. Cronin
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THURSDAY
Tattoo day!!
Captain went to play cards and my SIL went to the spa so MM and I spent a nice morning together. We went to MAndalay bay to check out the Tattoo studio there. The owner is a world famous artist. We met an artist Joey Hamilton who was awesome and sent out a great vibe. We told him what we wanted and he made it come to life, he drew the tattoo's for us and we made an apointment to come back in an hour.
We went and had a nice breakfast at the House of Blues just the 2 of us which was nice.
We went back to the Tattoo studio which was really neat, it had a huge glass window and passerbyes stopped and watched. Just as I was about to start Cartman and my SIL showed up. As soon as Cartman heard the needle buzz he couldn't take it and bailed out.
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Anyone who is wondering it is intertwined rings with today, tomorrow, forever wrapped around my shin which is the engraving on our wedding rings.
Now it's MM's turn and she is ready to go!!
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in the chair
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She got the same design on her back.
Thursday night we had dinner at House of Blues ( thanks Cartman!!) and drinks at the lounge.
FRIDAY
Sadly my SIL had to head back to England so we said farewell and she was off. MM decided to shop so I met up with Cartman at the MGM grand for a tournament at noon. Captain came by and said farewell as he was also headed home, as did St. Cronin. We had a great time with them all and I hope we can do it again.
I started the tournament on fire. 2K chips to start I was over 17K at the break. To make a long story short we got to the final table and chopped 9 ways for $550 each. When we got to the final 9 one guy didn't want to chop, but he lost a big pot on the first hand and changed his mind quickly.
We had a quick lunch at Wolfgang Pucks ( me, cartman and MM) then headed home. We were going to see Ray Romano and Kevin James that night.
We met up with Cartman that night and had a great dinner at the Venetian and some gelato. The three of us went to the show and it was awesome. They were really funny. After the show we headed home.
SATURDAY
MM had some work to do so I met up with Cartman tackle the planet hollywood tournament again. I finished early when my set ran into a flopped straight but Cartman went pretty deep. MM met up with us and went shopping, she then decided she wanted to gamble.
It was at that point I discovered Fat Tuesdays. I drank 4 of those huge drinks and was very drunk. We had a great day and too about $600 from Planet Hollywood, Cartman took about $200. MM and I bid farewell to Cartman, ordered room service, changed, went back to PH and won about $200 more.
SUNDAY
we met up with Cartman basicly to say goodbye, gave a little back playing blackjack and headed home.
IT was a great trip.