Las Vegas - Day 2 Part 1

Saturday, December 11, 2004
The Morning

Paul and I stumbled out of bed after a long night of gambling and partying. With little sleep, we got ready for the tourney. The sleep deprivation during this trip wasn't hard for me to handle since I usually don't sleep much anyway. I normally get 4 hours of sleep a night so this was nothing out of the ordinary for me. My only worry was not getting to Sam's Town on time. I wanted to chat with everyone before the tourney started. Plus I was expecting a midget to be there. We met up with Maudie and helped her carry the WPBT t-shirts down.

As soon as we got off the elevator we saw Iggy coming out of the bathroom by the slot machines. It was right next to the bar. He, SnailTrax and Big Mike were still pounding Guinness and Car Bombs. Nothing had changed in the 3 hours since we last saw them. They were still having a good time hanging out. We all hung out at the bar waiting for the troops to gather. Everyone was excited and ready to go. Maybe a little too ready. Paul has been calling it the Al Can't Hang factor. Everyone was getting hammered by 9am. Alot of us were doing double shots and some of us were still a little wasted from last night (well, for some . . . it was only a few hours earlier and others . . . a few mintues ago). Me, Paul, Al, Eva, Iggy, Daddy, Otis, Badblood, and G-Rob downed some shots. I don't think any of us really planned for the day to start like this. It just kind of happened.

Most of us were ready to leave by 9:30am but Al informed us that Big Mike ordered a stretch limo for the ride over to Sam's Town. While we were waiting for the stretch limo to arrive, we had a few more drinks. Soon enough we boarded the big ass limo. Al and Badblood were rocking out to some metal music. Badblood had his hammer t-shirt on. Later in the night, HDouble would say that BB's t-shirt was the best and worst shirt he's ever seen. Iggy, Daddy, and Big Mike were still going strong. Otis looked pretty tired. Even G-Rob was shocked at how beat up Otis looked. I think he made some commet about there being a high probability of Otis puking. Shortly after that, Otis passed out for a few minutes (or closed his eyes as he puts it). Unfortunately for him, Paul and I have it on videotape!! No worries guys, it will be destroyed.

The limo was rocking and Badblood was offering money to anyone who could name any of the songs. No one could and BB kept his bankroll in tact. We finally arrived at the casino around 10:30am. We were a little late. As we got out of the limo, there was a bunch of kids loading up a bus. They thought AlCan'tHang was a rock star. They asked him for his autograph!! How funny is that!

We met up with the Poker Prof outside the banquet hall. He escorted us into the room. I met Dick Gatewood, FlipChip, and Foiled Coup right away. Charlie Shoten, Ron Rose, Marcel Luske, Tom McEvoy and Kirill Gerasimov were all there waiting for everyone to arrive so we could start the show. I introduced myself to Grubby, Linda, and a few other bloggers. The funny thing about this trip is that I flew all the way out to Las Vegas to meet some bloggers and poker players from New York. I'd never met Mas, FTrain, Ferrari, or Julie until this trip. How weird is that? They all live in NYC and this was the first time we met. I've never played at the Blue Parrot before so it was nice to finally meet all the people I hear Paul talk about.


Ron Rose, CJ (back), and Me & Maudie chat with Marcel Luske
I mingled with some of the pros and got into a long conversation with Maudie and Marcel. He gave Paul his business card. He talked to Maudie and me about trying to get universal poker rules. It was great to meet Marcel. I was dying to ask him if he liked his flush. But I didn't. He was very gracious and easy to talk to. I was most excited about meeting him and Tom McEvoy. Ron Rose gave away free copies of his book, Poker Aces. He even autographed Paul's copy. Charlie was a nice guy. He gave a speech and shared some of his poker and life experiences with us. His upcoming book is called No Limit Life. He talked about his Ten Commitments and how you can approach life and poker in the same way. He also handed out some excerpts of his book.

Evelyn Ng showed up during his speech with Max Pescatori. Max stayed the whole time and even played with us in the 1pm tourney. Evelyn was there for a very short time and left to go back to the Bellagio tourney. I think CJ was the only one to say hi to her. She was drinking Red Bull and smoking cigs in the back of the banquet room during Charlie's speech. After Charlie spoke, Jeff from Check n Raise Poker introduced himself. Check n Raise is an online poker site. He flew in from Canada to help sponsor the event. Jeff also gave away some cool prizes including an awesome jacket. Then Tom McEvoy got up and took some questions. Tom even spoke a little about playing online at PokerStars and Party Poker. He joked about being ticked off that he's never won a multi table tournet online. He gave some great advice on poker and playing online. Most of the pros left after the speeches and went back to the Bellagio to play in the NL event. It was nice of them to join us and take time out of their day to meet and speak to us.

The big question of the day is . . . what kind of food did I eat at the breakfast? Since I was a little drunk, I definitely needed some food in my belly before the tourney started. I ate 7 bagels (yes, 7). I drank 10 glasses of water and ate the world's greatest muffin. That muffin must've had some crack in it because it tasted so good that I ate two. And to think, earlier in the morning, I turned down an opportunity to share one of these muffins with EvaCanHang. What was I thinking? That's why I ate the second one. I had to make up for that missed opportunity. Anyway, back to gambling and drinking. I went over to the bar area (it was very close to the banquet room) and ran into Boy Genius, Bob, Daddy, and Iggy. Iggy took off shortly after the breakfast and went back to the Excalibur to crash. He looked tired. I still can't believe that Iggy was there! This was an awesome trip and we hadn't even played in the tourney yet.

My next trip report will be the "Afternoon" edition. Stayed tuned . . . .