tilted behaviour

Waking up well after midday, I sat around the PokerNews Mansion doing absolutely nothing before Heath and I decided to continue our table tennis battle from the other day.

Although he proved victorious 3-2 on the last occasion, I finally hit my straps on this one and crushed his soul fairly easy before both of us, along with Kirsty, decided to make our way to the Premium Factory Outlets for some retail therapy.

My plan was to buy a few pairs of shoes and a nice jacket, but failed miserably at the shoes while finding two half-decent jackets at Calvin Klein. I decided to hold off on the purchases until after the series as Heath was the only one to buy anything as we all returned home; and me to the Hard Rock.

With it being Chad’s last night in Las Vegas, we decided that we should go and hit the strip and do some gambling and drinking.

Our first stop was at Casino Royale to play some $3 Craps and drink some fruity margaritas. This was bad choice numero uno . . . not for the margaritas, but for the choice of playing Craps as we both lost; mine hitting the wallet a little heavier for three bills!

What!?! How could you lose $300 on $3 Craps you may be asking . . . well the reason is I was playing it more like $30 Craps than $3 and the fact that the luck of the dice wasn’t rolling our way didn’t help either. While Chad tried to run up his last few dollars, I found my way to a $1 Roulette table where I was betting at a minimum $60 a hand. Only buying in for $100, it lasted me a dozen spins or so before I punted it off and we made our way to O’Shaes to play the midnight $45 tournament.

It was a turbo structure with only a 2,000-starting bank, and after check-raising all in with top pair in the third level and getting snapped off with a flush draw, I was out before Chad when he spiked another club on the river. I dumped another $100 on Craps there, before Chad bite the dust and we made our way back to the Hard Rock.

Chad decided to call it a night as he had an early flight the next day, but I decided to kick on and play some $1-2 NLH in the poker room.

I chipped up quickly when a guy limp-shoved over my three-bet (raise to $7, then to $18) with deuces and I called off his $104 with Queens as the board blanked out.

A few orbits later I made it $7 to go with A♠ Q♠ and found three callers before firing out $16 on a A♦ 10♠ 2♥ flop. It was called round before the big blind led for $60 when the turn landed the 2♠ with only me calling before the 5♥ on the river went check, check. He tabled his Q♣ 10♦ and I collected the pot to move to $428 before chipping up to $486 after cracking Queens with King-Jack when I flopped two-pair.

The switch was then flicked as I proceeded to lose every hand thereafter. I was two-outered twice, and rivered three-times by the same guy in virtual back-to-back-to-back hands before losing my last $85 in a straddle pot with Queens against the straddler’s Aces to finish down a buy-in at the Hard Rock and $900 overall for the day!

I wish I had worked today!

The day had finally arrived to see me vacate Las Vegas for another year.

I packed what was left of my belongings before heading to the Premium Factory Outlets for one final time (I think this makes it four or five visits). I picked up some BOSE headphones for Kirsty while getting two-pairs of American basketball shorts . . . American you may ask? Well basically all our shorts back home don’t have pockets, while the ones purchased here have pockets as they are more for casual wear than play (unless you’re allowed to play with pockets in the States).

I returned to the Golden Nugget and ordered a shuttle to the airport to arrive nice and early at the United check-in. I had to pay a baggage fee, but was quickly on my way to Los Angeles.

It took me a while to find the Virgin Australia terminal, and after they also slapped with a US$100 excess baggage fee I was finally through to our gate where I sat there twiddling my thumbs for several hours.

Like normal I fell asleep straight away after being granted my request of the centre row left aisle and was fortunate enough to have a spare seat between me and a striking 20-something brunette.

After snoring my way to Sydney I nearly (along with many others) nearly missed our connecting flight to Melbourne, but after packing a transfer bus and rushing through the terminal I was only one flight and one bus ride away from home.

I rushed through Melbourne airport as I knew I only had a slim chance of catching the bus down to Geelong – otherwise I would have to wait over an hour for the next one.

I made it on time and was on my way home after another enjoyable stay in Las Vegas (and partly Lebanon) that lasted one day shy of two months.

GG Las Vegas and Lebanon . . . see you both soon!

My day off considered of some shopping at the Premium Factory Outlets with my two mates from Australia; Brendan and James.

I purchased a few items including both an Armani and Tommy Hilfiger shirt, as well as a flat-brimmed Boston hat and a set of BOSE earphones to go in conjunction with the headphones that I already have.

The day was short, and we wrapped it up by getting some t-shirts made up for the PokerNews freeroll in a few days.

Like I mentioned in my last post, Day 1d of the Main Event was locked out due to full capacity, and if all that arrived to take to the felt had a chance to play there could have potentially been a further $10,000,000 added to the prizepool!

Either way, here is an interview with WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack by Gloria Balding about the issues and concerns that arose on Monday.

A beautiful Sunday in Las Vegas and it was time to hit the shops with Mat.

We caught a lift with Eric into the Rio and took a cab straight downtown to the Premium Factory Outlets. Once there we hit every store from Adidas to Nike to Polo Ralph Lauren to FCUK.

I picked up two US$39 Polo Ralph Lauren polo tops for Mum and Dad, while picking up a pair of FCUK patterned shorts, Adidas Samba’s and some cool glasses for myself before heading to lunch. After Mat ticked off a few items on his shopping list we ventured over to Fremont Street so that he could taste the Downtown experience first hand!

We walked round scoping a few of the casinos before taking a seat on a Pai Gow table at the Golden Nugget to fill in time before watching the Fremont Street light show after the sun went down.

Mat eventually called it quits to play a $65 tournament while I continued to grind Pai Gow. Two young ladies took up seats to my left while two Cougars took the empty ones on my right.

One Cougar left while the rest of us started to chat and get to know each other while winning a few hands here and there. Eventually one of the younger ladies had to return to her family while I decided to make way with my $130 profit for the long session.

However both Shay and the remaining Cougar wouldn’t let me leave as I was bringing them ‘good luck’ . . . consequently it would be three hours later before I actually left the table and a further $50-odd had been added to my profit tally thanks to a few bonuses I had picked up from both the girls.

Mat and I checked out the light show before I donked off $100 at Binion’s on a $1 roulette table in four spins before returning to the Golden Nugget and a $10 Craps table.

11 minutes later, following a hot roll, I had pocketed $205 profit and we were off home after a great day Downtown.