VEGAS BABY!

[Butter]

Very, very impressive. Nicely done. Congrats.

[flere-imsaho]

Congrats!!!

[MacroGuru]

Awesome! Just plain old awesome!

[Comey]

Congrats Quik! Great job!

[wade moore]

Congrats!

[Neuqua]

That's awesome!

Feel free to share the good kharma for my Vegas trip in mid-August.

[GoldenEagle]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

That's awesome!

Feel free to share the good kharma for my Vegas trip in mid-August.

Is Riley going with you?

[gkb]

Congrats Quik! Nice job man.

[ctmason]

I have to tell you Michael, this is pretty trippy reading this, remember that three years ago or so you had advised someone else not to play poker in a casino and I asked you to reconsider and you may want to give it a try yourself.

Here we are, I've long since quit playing poker, right before in exploded in popularity, story of my life.

[Honolulu Blue]

Nice job, QS. Now go back to fleecing the tourists out of their money.

[Bee]

Congrats Quiksand!

[John Galt]

Congrats! Great Job.

Any predictions on how much of QS's Vegas winnings he blows (pun intended) on strippers?

Of course the over/under is set at 2/3 of his winnings.

[Barkeep49]

I don't believe I've added my hearty congradulations to the list here.

[Lathum]

Great job quik! I would love to hear the other guys stories as well. Did anyone play with any well known pro's?

[Vegas Vic]

I just got back from meeting these guys over at The Aladdin for lunch. Chris (“Subby”) graciously picked up my tab, and Michael (“QuikSand”) left the tip for the group. I also got to meet Rick (“Primelord”) and Andy (“Malificent”). We had a great discussion about poker, FOF and numerous other things. I’ll let one of the other guys fill you in on their humorous jailbait buffet encounter.

You all know about Michael’s outstanding performance in the $1K NL tournament. Also, congratulations to Rick (“Primelord”), who cashed last night in a WSOP 2nd chance tourney. I was really impressed with all of these guys’ knowledge of the game. I’m not a tournament player, and I learned a thing or two from listening to them.

They had a couple of hours to kill before heading back, and they decided to fleece the donkeys one last time at the poker room before heading out on their flights. Chris and Michael will be flying out to Washington D.C., Rick to St. Louis, and Andy to Raleigh. I’m sure they’ll have some exciting trip reports to file when they get back.

[Dutch]

I’ll let one of the other guys fill you in on their humorous jailbait buffet encounter.

Does anyone travel with a digital camera anymore???

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Does anyone travel with a digital camera anymore???

Umm... why are you interested in pictures of jailbait???

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by cartman

Umm... why are you interested in pictures of jailbait???

Good point.

However, I saw a girl the other day at the gym and was floored, then the dude standing next to me says, "Dude, do you know how old she is???" I say 21, he shakes his head, no-no, the girl was 17.

Ouch...

EDIT: So in MY MIND, the chick is 21 and that's final.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Good point.

However, I saw a girl the other day at the gym and was floored, then the dude standing next to me says, "Dude, do you know how old she is???" I say 21, he shakes his head, no-no, the girl was 17.

Ouch...

EDIT: So in MY MIND, the chick is 21 and that's final.

There are no statutory rape laws in the realm of imagination.


Quick question, what's a "2nd chance tourney". I can pretty much guess as to what it means, but just thought I'd ask to be sure.

[primelord]

Originally Posted by sabotai

There are no statutory rape laws in the realm of imagination.


Quick question, what's a "2nd chance tourney". I can pretty much guess as to what it means, but just thought I'd ask to be sure.

The second chance tourney is probably waht you are thinking it is. Everyday at 5 p.m. and I believe again at 11:30 p.m. the Rio was running a $540 buy in tournament. The thinking I guess obviously being anyone busted in the main events could get into another somewhat big dollar multi table tournament. It of course isn;t restricted to just WSOP event participants though. Anyone can get in.

I finished in 15th place (out of 138) and cashed in the 5 p.m. 2nd chance on Tuesday. It certainly wasn't as nice as if I had managed to cash in the 1k, but overall the field was fairly tough (especially late) and I was pretty happy with the results overall. I was going to attempt a trip report tonight since I am styill on Vegas time, but I think it will have to wait until tomorrow.

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by primelord

The second chance tourney is probably waht you are thinking it is. Everyday at 5 p.m. and I believe again at 11:30 p.m. the Rio was running a $540 buy in tournament. The thinking I guess obviously being anyone busted in the main events could get into another somewhat big dollar multi table tournament. It of course isn;t restricted to just WSOP event participants though. Anyone can get in.

I finished in 15th place (out of 138) and cashed in the 5 p.m. 2nd chance on Tuesday. It certainly wasn't as nice as if I had managed to cash in the 1k, but overall the field was fairly tough (especially late) and I was pretty happy with the results overall. I was going to attempt a trip report tonight since I am styill on Vegas time, but I think it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Congrats Primlord - sounds like you guys had an awesome (and profitable) time.

[dixieflatline]

Originally Posted by primelord

I was going to attempt a trip report tonight since I am styill on Vegas time, but I think it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Excellent work. Please don't forget to add something about the ring games going on there. I'm real curious to hear just how juicy they were.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by primelord

The second chance tourney is probably waht you are thinking it is. Everyday at 5 p.m. and I believe again at 11:30 p.m. the Rio was running a $540 buy in tournament. The thinking I guess obviously being anyone busted in the main events could get into another somewhat big dollar multi table tournament. It of course isn;t restricted to just WSOP event participants though. Anyone can get in.

Ah. I was thinking they were only open to those who busted out the day before or something (hence "2nd chance"). I guess with everyone paying a lot of attention to the WSOP events, and playing in ring games, they don't get a lot of action? (138 sounds kind of small. I'd think there'd be more entries.)

[digamma]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Ah. I was thinking they were only open to those who busted out the day before or something (hence "2nd chance"). I guess with everyone paying a lot of attention to the WSOP events, and playing in ring games, they don't get a lot of action? (138 sounds kind of small. I'd think there'd be more entries.)

I think it's due to a couple of factors. First, a lot of the tournament players will find cash games more profitable than grinding through another tournament. Second, a number of tournament players may be playing in the tournament the next day and the second chance tournaments may go well into the night (particularly, of course, the 11 PM'er).

By comparison, I played in an 11PM second chance tournament over 4th of July weekend on a Saturday night that drew just over 200 entrants.

[Subby]

I'll write up a long and detailed trip report once I wake up, but here's a teaser:

Rick is in the food tent at a little stand and eat table and Amir Vahedi wanders over with his food wanting to share the table.

Amir Vahedi: How's it going?

Primelord: Good. How you doing?

Amir Vahedi: Good, thanks.

Silence....

Primelord: So...Shannon Elizabeth. You tap that?

[SirFozzie]

Hey Quik! got your own cardplayer page:

http://www.cardplayer.com/players/re...anderson/42519

Hope you add to it in the future!

[Vegas Vic]

QuikSand is also on the Hendon database now:

Michael Sanderson

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Subby

I'll write up a long and detailed trip report once I wake up, but here's a teaser:

Rick is in the food tent at a little stand and eat table and Amir Vahedi wanders over with his food wanting to share the table.

Amir Vahedi: How's it going?

Primelord: Good. How you doing?

Amir Vahedi: Good, thanks.

Silence....

Primelord: So...Shannon Elizabeth. You tap that?

LOL. Can't wait to read about your trip.

[Subby]

Trip Report

Saturday Night

So I roll into Reagan National and check in and wait for Quik to show up since we are flying out to Vegas together. Even though he lives relatively near me, we have never met. When he does show up and we meet, I am struck by two things. One...he is a really nice, outgoing, personable guy. Pretty much the opposite of a mainframe computer. Secondly, he is a big guy...tall and broad with big meathooks for hands. Any thoughts I had of randomly attacking him are pretty much a distant memory now.

The trip starts off right as the lady at the counter says something very hot and sexy and unexpected to us.

"Would you like to upgrade your direct flight to Las Vegas to First Class for just $150?"

She obviously recognized us as BALLERZ, YO! and knew that we wouldn't even think twice. $300 and a few airport sportsbar beers later and we are in the second row of the aircraft heading to SIN CITY.

While we initially planned to pay for our upgrade by drinking $300 worth of onboard alcohol, I thought it would be a better idea to play a series of heads up $20 freeze outs instead (okay, so we drank a lot anyway). Things were going as expected when our sexy stewd came up and asked if she could get in on the action. Of course you can, honey! So we dealt her in for like, ten dollars and I took her money in five hands. And then she left.

So we go back to playing heads up freeze outs and end up splitting 4 games and still need to drink about $179 worth of alcohol to pay for our upgrade. I think they might have stepped on the gas a little to keep this from happening though because we get to Las Vegas like thirty minutes early. Hmmm.

So we get to the airport and I swear to GOD the first person I see is international stud and father of the year, STEVE GARVEY. I don't know if this is foreshadowing, but it has to be good, right? Anyway, we meet up with Malificent (Andy) - a member of FOFC, but more of a central fixture in the FOBL/FOFL communites. He, too, is a nice guy and I am thinking - wow, unless this Primelord guy is a major A1 douchebag (totally possible - I mean, that guy is ALWAYS starting trouble on here) we are in good shape for the personalites for this trip. So we head over to the car rental place and in the spirit of being BALLERZ, YO! I ask the guy for an upgrade. Unfortunately they don't carry H2s, so we are stuck with an SUV. Still money, yo.

So the three of us get in touch with Primelord (Rick) and he is over at The Mirage, pwning the hell out of locals and tourists in some low limit hold em game. We decide just to head over there (it's around midnight) and after valet parking (hi, did I mention we are ballerz?) we roll into the Mirage cardroom. Now, I have no idea what Primelord looks like - despite borrowing money from him on-line and chatting with him on a fairly regular basis. Then we see some guy in a Tory Holt jersey and St. Louis Cardinlas hat and I am thinking, yeah, there is probably at least a 100% chance that is him.

So we all get in the game and play 3/6 limit for about 4 hours. My street cred takes a serious hit as I start visibly napping at the table. Yeah, hi. I'm old. So we decide to call it a night and head over to our hotel room at Palace Station. Nice place, if you are like an AARP gold member or something. But they had BINGO and lots of motorized scooters and portable oxygen tanks, so I knew we were in the right place.

Unfortunately, while we were going to have two room for the other three nights, we only had one room that night. One room, two beds, four adult males. While that might read like the pitch for a new and exciting supergay latenight drama, we decided to take things slow, and Rick and I grabbed floor while Michael and Andy took the beds.

Yes, we were fucking owning this town.

[John Galt]

Wonderful start to the trip report. I feel like it belongs in the dynasty forum.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Subby

One room, two beds, four adult males. While that might read like the pitch for a new and exciting supergay latenight drama, we decided to take things slow, and Rick and I grabbed floor while Michael and Andy took the beds.

I've heard of "grabbing the floor," But "taking the beds" is something new. Is that in the Kama Sutra?

[digamma]

You had me at BALLERZ.

[dixieflatline]

Originally Posted by Subby

Things were going as expected when our sexy stewd came up and asked if she could get in on the action. Of course you can, honey! So we dealt her in for like, ten dollars and I took her money in five hands. And then she left.

Subby pwns a stewardess. Nice start to the trip.

[Barkeep49]

I think you should call this Adventures of a Semi-Retarded Frat Boy... ooh wait that title's already taken.

[kingfc22]

Sick. I want to read more about the FOFC BALLERZ, YO!

[Subby]

Sunday

In the most heterosexual way possible, we take showers and get ready to head out to the Palace Station buffet and then the Rio. Well, except for me of course, as I exit the bathroom SANS PANTS. But that's just how I roll, baby. I decide to go with the fashionable combination of jeans, thermal underwear longsleeve undershirt, brown Timberland polo shirt, and sandals. Rick politely reminds me that we are in Las Vegas and that I look like a fucking tourist idiot. So I take off my pants and put on shorts. The long sleeve undershirt stays of course, because hey - the Rio might be cold and the idiot vibe might work to my advantage in cash games.

We hit the $9 Palace Station brunch buffet and I am fairly disappointed with how NOT MONEY this place is. It's like a cross between Shoney's and a hospital cafeteria. Still, the price is right and we load up on protein and cannolis. Since you can't really go wrong eating sweet cream in a fried dough envelope, we leave the buffet happy and sated and head over to the Rio.

The World Series is being held in the Rio convetion center and I have to be honest - I wasn't at all prepared for how cool it was going to be. If you are a poker junkie by any measure, the Rio during the World Series is absolute poker heaven, filled with hundreds of tables, never-ending cash games, satelites, tournaments, poker celebrities, generous hospitality suites and jaw-droppingly hawt women.

The room where everything takes place has over 200 poker tables, cashier cages, and the ESPN main stage. One half of the room was dedicated to cash games and satelites. Cash games are running at 25 to 30 tables and have everything from 4-8 limit to 20/40 Omaha. By far the most popular game was the 2/5 NL game with $500 max buyin. Satelites were running non-stop at a group of tables in one of the back corners of the room and the line was really long - they had everything from $125 buyin to $1000 buyin games running regularly. The other half of the room was dedicated to tourneys and when we got there, the $1000 rebuy event and the ladies $1000 event were both running. It was all just so overwhelming, we decided to just walk around the toom and take everything in.

We probably saw 25 or more name pros right off that bat - either just wandering around the room or playing in the rebuy event. The neat thing was that you could railbird really close to the tables on the outer edge, and some of those tables were stacked. We saw Hellmuth, Raymer, Lederer, Greenstein, Jen Harman, Doyle Brunson, and a bunch of others. After stargazing for a bit we checked out the satelites, but the line was so ridiculous that we decided instead to get on the cash game lists. Quik and Mali hopped in some limit games while Rick and I were able to get on the same 2/5 NL table.

While I'll try and keep the poker hand descriptiions to a minimum, I will mention that the defining hand of my trip came during this time. I had about $550 in front of me and caught JJ in MP. I raise it up to $20 and get a few callers and see a flop of J55. One of the callers had been a fairly aggressive, very tricky swedish player to my left and I figured he would call a bet here of $25 on this kind of board with the intention of trying to steal later. He did call and we went heads up to the turn, which was the nine of hearts. I bet out $60 and he calls again. Interesting - of course the alarms start going off because I am so awesome and I put him on EXACTLY 55 and figure in his tricky Swedish way he is slowplaying my flopped boat with his quad fives and I am about to get stacked. The river brings a 7 of spades and I suck it up and bet out $100. He thinks for a bit a raises to $200.

Fuck.

My massively impressive hand reading skills must have been correct! He must have 55! I decide to punish myself for going this far by calling ALL IN! This is what they do on television, so I figure it is the expert play here. He starts frowning and playing with his chips and calls. I assume he is slowrolling me and I ask him if he has 55. A collective gasp goes up as I turn over JJ and he turns over 75 for the rivered boat. MY BOAT CRUSHES YOUR BOAT YOU LOWLY SCANDINAVIAN - this is what I roar as I rake in his chips and drive him before me and hear the lamentation of his women.

Actually I really say "tough hand" and add his $500 to my stack. And tip my dealer. After selling chips to a few new players, I now have a stack of 140 red chips and six benjamins tucked into my stack so now in case there was ever a doubt everyone knows...OMFG THAT GUY IS A BALLER! HE HAS CHIPS AND A STACK OF HUNDREDS ON THE TABLE. Of course it is lost on me that pretty much everyone there has a combination of chips and hundreds, but I am pretty sure Rick looks over at me at this point and says "'Sup Baller?"

So after cashing out, we head over to the satelite area and Mali, Rick and me are quickly seated in a $175 one table, winner take all tourney. The structure is ridiculous, as you get 1,000 in chips and 15 minute blind levels and you pretty much down to a bad M really quickly. On the plus side, Steve Danneman (the runner up in last years main event) was playing at a satelite at the table next to us. The tool chipleader at our table thought since he knew Danneman from television that he could start making fun of him and all the kind of stuff that guys who have known each other for a really long time like to do. Fortunately, Danneman was really cool and called us donkeys and that almost made my trip right there. Unfortunately Rick and Mali got knocked out quickly and we got down to three when the massive chipleader started talking about making a deal. I thought that was kind of strange and told him I would rather wait until we were heads up. Well it got heads up and he was still hot for a deal even though he had a 4 to 1 chip lead. If he won, he got three $500 tourney chips and $120 in cash. I suggested he give me one of the chips, keep everything else, and we call it a deal. He agreed to what I thought was a great deal for me and just like that I had made enough in cash games and satelites to pay for my 1K NL tourney entry on Monday.

At one point I went to use the bathroom out in the hall and encountered a completely surreal scene. The Rio bathroom attendant wouldn't let anyone in the bathroom. Doyle, Mike Sextion, Daniel Alaei, and me, all waiting to get in. Jean Robert Bellande screaming at this bathroom attendant to let us in, calling her supervisor, telling her that he said supervisor on phone, and he wants to talk to her. Security shows up. Me and Doyle and Mikey Sexton look at each other and shrug. I offer to give Doyle a piggyback ride to the port-a-johns set up out back.

Okay, I made the last sentence up, but it was all very strange to me. Hard to believe poker celebrites go to the bathroom with regular guys like me. They are supposed to be using the special secret poker celebrity bathrooms.

We took a dinner break and drove to In and Out Burger over on Sahara. We don't have those on the east coast that I know of and it's really too bad because they are freaking awesome. We have a nice casual dinner just shooting the shit and getting to know each other. I am struck by how funny Rick is and how outgoing Michael is. I always have the preconceived notion that folks I know from the Internet are going to be serial anti-social nerds when I meet them in person, but once again, that prejudice was completely eclipsed by reality.

Now one might ask what a couple of Ballerz were doing at an in and out burger and why we weren't eating King Crab legs over at the Bellagio. We aren't above hanging out with the local flavor, Yo. Plus they had vanilla milkshakes.

We head back to the Rio and hop back in some cash games and I make another dollar. Literally. But I do see Jennifer Tilly and her booty and I decide that she might have one of the finest booties I have ever seen. Mike Matusow also accidently plows into Mali and we see Jesus and Phil Gordon and decide to make a new game called Poker Celebrity Bingo. We are going to market and sell it at next year's world series and it is going to be huge. HUGE.

At around 2am we decide to pick up and head back to Palace Station because for the love of god, we are playing in Event #17 tomorrow! And it is completely full!

We get back to Palace Station and get our second room and I drift off to sleep with visions of check-raising Phil Ivey...

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by Subby

I always have the preconceived notion that folks I know from the Internet are going to be serial anti-social nerds when I meet them in person, but once again, that prejudice was completely eclipsed by reality.

You need to come to the A-T-L for a visit...I'll show you how anti-social us nerds can be.

[biological warrior]

If you guys want to hang out with me Im at UNLV from 9 am - 11 pm TWR. Oh and Im recommending a great bar off the strip called ''The Freakin' Frog on Maryland Parkway across from UNLV, it has over 500 different types of beer. If you guys want more info just ask.

[GoldenEagle]

Awesome so far Subby, keep it up!

[John Galt]

Gold! Absolute, supergay, totally brilliant gold!

[digamma]

Originally Posted by Subby

I am struck by how funny Rick is and how outgoing Michael is.

So, Mali is a big tool, huh?

[Vince]

Amazing

[Malificent]

Originally Posted by digamma

So, Mali is a big tool, huh?

Well, duh.

[Neuqua]

I'm loving it.

[Neuqua]

Btw, were are the pictures?!?!

[Maple Leafs]

Please tell me one of you pwned Phil Gordon at paper-rock-scissors.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Subby

A collective gasp goes up as I turn over JJ and he turns over 75 for the rivered boat. MY BOAT CRUSHES YOUR BOAT YOU LOWLY SCANDINAVIAN - this is what I roar as I rake in his chips and drive him before me and hear the lamentation of his women.

CLASSIC

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Subby

I always have the preconceived notion that folks I know from the Internet are going to be serial anti-social nerds when I meet them in person

Not to worry. If I go next year and we meet, I will not let you down.

[Neuqua]

Originally Posted by GoldenEagle

Is Riley going with you?

Due to some dishonesty involving the other party, Riley never ended up coming home with me.

[Subby]

Steve Garvey sighting added to Saturday trip report...can't believe I forgot that.