Vegas Baby!! Vegas trip report

[Lathum]

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.

[Lathum]

I know it's kind of long.

If anyone wants to add anything feel free!

[oliegirl]

Sounds like an awesome trip Lathum - and I love the tattoos! Get a pic of MM's and post it please I want another one (have 3 so far) but haven't figured out what I want or where.

[hoopsguy]

Congrats on the strong tournament showings. Sorry to hear that the WSOP event didn't run a little longer or provide more memories.

I'm on the other end of the spectrum on the tats (have 0 so far, want my wife to remove her one).

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

I'm on the other end of the spectrum on the tats (have 0 so far, want my wife to remove her one).

Same here

[Lathum]

I can't stress how nice Cronin and his GF were. They are truly awesome people.

And it was great to see cartman again.

[Poli]

Did cronin re-enact one of his commercials? When I meet him, I'm going to demand that.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Poli

Did cronin re-enact one of his commercials? When I meet him, I'm going to demand that.

commercial?

[cartman]

Nice trip report. I had a great time out there. I ended up not entering the $1500 NLHE event last Saturday. I was worn out from the convention (took six HP certification tests) and having to do regular work as well. Shortly after the group picture at NYNY was taken, I got a message from my boss that I needed to move up to the next morning a demo we had planned to do the following week. So I had to cut the night short, and head back to the hotel to get the demo set up remotely. Hotel networks are horrible for trying to do any sustained connections to a remote site. I finally finished sometime between 2am and 3am, and had to wake up to give the presenation at 6am local time. The fatigue, coupled with a lack of confidence lately in my poker play, led me to believe I would just be donating $1500 to the prize pool if I did enter. I'll have to prepare better next year, because I'll be out there the same week in 2009. If we sell the company before then, I'll be set!

The last two days were very good at the BlackJack table. I ended up about $150 on the final day where Lathum and MM broke even. After they left, I hit a few more casinos, basically with the intent to get as much free play as possible by signing up for every player's card. I made another $200 off of free slot play at O'Shea's on the $1 Deal or No Deal slot game.

Probably the biggest disappointment was that I wasn't able to get everyone in to see Matchbox20 play the private concert at the end of the HP conference. In years past, it was never an issue getting passes for people to come in. But this year they really tightened down the screws, and it was impossible to try to get 6 people in. It wasn't for a lack of trying, though. However, I was down at the bar in Mandalay Bay around 1:30am with some of my buddies, and the band came to have a few drinks. I did a tequila shot with Rob Thomas before people recognized who they were, and their security guys shuffled them away. It was at the same bar earlier in the week where we also saw Mike Holmgren. Funny thing was, we saw him there in the same bar during the same week last year.

[mccollins]

WOW! Great read!!
Awesome soul patch!

[Poli]

Originally Posted by Lathum

commercial?

Come on now, "Frosted Lucky Charms"?

[Neon_Chaos]

I wondered what the heck that was on lathum's chin.

[Narcizo]

You look almost exactly unlike how I thought you would. For some reason.

[claphamsa]

the mimosa pic is very disturbing...... and your wife is WAAAY to hot for you!

[st.cronin]

I'm not that short. Thanks for the kind words, the feelings are returned. I was really impressed with how friendly and fun everybody was, as was my gf - she commented the other day that she wants to meet more fofcers, a total 180 from her previous stance.

[Passacaglia]

Sounds like it was fun! You guys missed my shout-out to you in Post 8 of this thread: http://75.126.153.96/fofc/showthread.php?t=65878 -- but it looks like you guys were up to no good on your own!

[st.cronin]

Awesome, Pass.

Originally Posted by Narcizo

You look almost exactly unlike how I thought you would. For some reason.

He talks and acts exactly the way I imagined too - except he's a better speller in person.

[Danny]

I probably missed it, but did your wife get a matching tattoo to yours?

[cartman]

I was VERY tempted to show up to the first meeting wearing a red coat, yellow gloves, and a blue hat with yellow ball on top. But then I realized it was freaking 114 degree Las Vegas, and decided on wearing shorts.

[jeheinz72]

Killer story guys, someday I'll have to make it out there with you folks

[st.cronin]

I just have a couple of things to add:

I almost got run over by Phil Hellmuth on his way to his table at the WSOP. He was the one guy I would have wanted to see, and was really the only person I recognized. Supposedly Jennifer Tilly was seated one table away from Brian at one point, but she sure didn't look like Jennifer Tilly to me. There were tons of people at the Rio, but the atmosphere wasn't quite as crazy as I expected. Its not much of a spectator experience, to be honest. I was able to get pretty much right on top of Brian's last table to watch for a while, and to my amateur eye it looked like a very tough table.

Apart from the tourney at the luxor, I played a tourney at the Golden Nugget, which was a lot of fun - it was a good structure, and was pretty big. I made it to the final table, but was about 3 spots away from the money.

Kelly and I stayed at three different places - Monte Carlo, Golden Nugget, and MGM. The Golden Nugget was easily the nicest of the 3, although the Monte Carlo was quite nice, if a bit sleepy. The MGM is too big for my taste - it was an EXTREMELY long trek from our bed to the pool.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

the mimosa pic is very disturbing...... and your wife is WAAAY to hot for you!

thanks!

i think

[Lathum]

dola-

one more neat thing. We actually ran into Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak in the airport. They were really cool and accomidating to talk poker for a bit, especially her.

[Lorena]

Very cool, glad you all had fun.

Lathum, grats on living one of your dreams, few people can do that. And cronin looks different, but I can't put my finger on what it is.

[Lathum]

what;s disturbing about the Mimosa pic?

[mccollins]

Originally Posted by Danny

I probably missed it, but did your wife get a matching tattoo to yours?

Yeah, he said she got it on her back somewhere.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Danny

I probably missed it, but did your wife get a matching tattoo to yours?

she did, on her upper back

[Subby]

Best trip report ever.

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by Lathum

what;s disturbing about the Mimosa pic?

u look like jack nicholson on crack


REDRUM MRS Schmidty REDRUM!

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Subby

Best trip report ever.

All it is missing are pics of jailbait latinas.

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by Lathum

she did, on her upper back

I'm guessing that pic of MM was taken either before, or right after the guy started working. I can't imagine she was that happy and smiling after he'd been working for a while...

[claphamsa]

tatoos dont hurt THAT bad.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

I'm guessing that pic of MM was taken either before, or right after the guy started working. I can't imagine she was that happy and smiling after he'd been working for a while...

She was still really drunk from the night before.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

tatoos dont hurt THAT bad.

Don't mess with him or he'll hurt you bad

[claphamsa]

dont mess with who? he wasnt complaining about the pain

[oliegirl]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

tatoos dont hurt THAT bad.

No they don't, but it's not a pleasant experience either. After 10 or 15 minutes of that sound and the little bee sting sensation, it certianly isn't something that brings on a smile like MM had...

[claphamsa]

give it 4-5 hours, then the endorphins kick in

[Passacaglia]

So did you convince cartman to play some werewolf or what?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

So did you convince cartman to play some werewolf or what?

I think a return is possible

[st.cronin]

Cartman is very good at avoiding questions. At one point somebody asked him "why DO you have a blood pressure monitor?" and he gave several non-answers before we gave up.

He's a cagey dude.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

Cartman is very good at avoiding questions. At one point somebody asked him "why DO you have a blood pressure monitor?" and he gave several non-answers before we gave up.

He's a cagey dude.

It was even more fun evading the "why do you have an enema attachment for a hot water bottle" question.

[Poli]

Barkeep showed up at The Silo with a pitchfork. That was impressive.

[Lathum]

Update-

I just won an online tournament for $1400 so I made back my WSOP buy in

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Poli

Barkeep showed up at The Silo with a pitchfork. That was impressive.

Knew who I was, right?

[Poli]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Knew who I was, right?

But I, uh, met you previously.

[saldana]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

the mimosa pic is very disturbing...... and your wife is WAAAY to hot for you!

she would have to be for him to have left me.

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Update-

I just won an online tournament for $1400 so I made my WSOP buy in for next year.

fixed

[PackerFanatic]

That sounds like a damn awesome time

[Lorena]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Update-

I just won an online tournament for $1400 so I made back my WSOP buy in

nice

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by oliegirl

I'm guessing that pic of MM was taken either before, or right after the guy started working. I can't imagine she was that happy and smiling after he'd been working for a while...

it was but she's a tough cookie and handled it like a champ.