I don’t really have the spare cycles needed to properly recap this past weekend in Las Vegas with the bloggers, so I will try to publish a recap in bite size pieces. Crunch time at work didn’t exactly stop just because this weekend had been planned for months. Leading up to the weekend, I spent some sleepless nights in front of the computer at the office trying to push hard enough to get to a point where I could go on the trip and actually enjoy myself. This culminated with a 30+ hour session on Wednesday/Thursday that got me over the hump, sort of.
Thursday night also happened to be one of the more unique office games - the first after a big software release - and it came complete with a surprise - personalized hockey jerseys for folks who went through the struggle of the latest push. Much as I wanted to play in the game and take a shot at busting a pro or two for a bounty, I was wiped out and had to get home for some rest before flying out to Vegas on Friday morning, where rest would presumably not be on the schedule. Somehow I drove the 35 miles from office to home with a minimum of nod-offs and exhaustion-induced hallucinations. I will admit to once seeing a couple of giant redwoods in the middle of the freeway out in the distance, but I was able to snap out of it before swerving to avoid them and ending up going off an overpass like every chips episode ever.
Facty and I did the Friday morning rush-hour crawl to LAX and had an uneventful flight that landed at 11am. I had told Joe Speaker I would try to play in the noon $100 tourney at Alladin, so we landed and went to grab a cab. We ended up at cab stand 7, which I immediately took to mean that my luck was now used up for the weekend.
We hit the Alladin right at noon and Speaker found me right as I was starting to have second thoughts. While he was busy convincing me to play, I spotted Bad Blood, CJ, and Otis. I buy in and the tourney director gives me the card with my seating assignment: table 2, seat 7. That’s right, I was dealt the hammer even before the tourney started. I took this to mean that my luck was now used up for the weekend. Facty bought in to a cash game.
CJ was in seat 6 and we caught up a bit while I folded for the first two orbits. We started with 1500 in chips (I think) and the blinds were 25/50. 15 minutes into the tourney I posted my second big blind. There were three limpers, including CJ in the small blind, and I looked down at Hiltons. I say “raise” and push out 300 more before counting the pot, which was 200. the first limper, in the 2s, is the only caller. Flop is jack high with 2 hearts and i like my hand. Again, I don’t count the pot carefully and bet 1000 into an 800 pot. the 2s pushes in for 600 more and he has me covered by 25. What do you put him on here? I thought that a set, while possible, was no more likely than ace-jack or a nut flush draw. I thought about it and called. He turned over … ace-king, no hearts. I’m 77/23 here but the turn is an ace and I wish CJ luck before heading straight to the closest bar.
Lets check the scoreboard, shall we:
- Time in las vegas: 75 minutes
- Bankroll: -$110
- Drinks consumed: 1
- Tiltometer: 9.4
