Vegas Trip Report Day II

It's about time I got down to finishing my trip report!!! Trying to keep the suspense up like waiting for the next (and final?) Harry Potter installment, which by the way I have yet to read any of!!! I got out of work at 1:30 PM after a week of insane phone volume and calls. The hot weather must have everyone ornery and bitchy and just plan rotten. I commented that our member base needed to have their prescriptions of Paxil, Prozac etc. adjusted. I got one chuckle when one member asked if therapeutic massage was covered and I replied with "Not under your dental plan". Of course being customer focused (95% of the time if you are nice to me) I offered to transfer the caller to Medical. Sometimes I wonder what was I thinking when I went to customer service from claims last September. But, I knew the writing was on the wall and claims would be Bangelored and I was right. A few months back my former division was told that claims was being outsourced completely and it was customer service or out the door. Since the company is offering jobs within no packages will be offered. At some point I reckon, the phones will be outsourced to.

Anyway, I stopped by the mall to check out the remodeled Williams Sonoma Store and to see if DSW shoe warehouse had any new shoes I should be buying. Then it was off to Walmart for OTC allergy medicine and my weekly vice of celebrity mags, a quick trip to Starbucks for my fix of Blackberry Green Tea Frappucino and then the predicament of I'm hungry what should I eat. Nothing sounded appealing and I correctly assumed that by downing the Frap I would be full. But I digress.............

DATELINE LAS VEGAS JULY 10TH 2006!!!!!

After a late night of live play I still was up in time to get myself purtied up for breakfast with the Poker Analysis crew at the Rio. Finally, I'd get to meet Ellen and Dean, Clark aka Kelarob/Razrback and little did I know Lou Krieger would be joining us. After breakfast I planned on heading to the Orleans for the Ladies Tourney. I decided to go comfy and wore my adidas capris and a White Cami (with strapless bra to avert any wardrobe malfunctions) and my trusty birkies once again.

I hail a cab... Oh no that's a NYC thing... I got in line at the cab stand and one was summoned for me from queue and I was whisked away to the RIO, the short way I might add and dropped right outside the poker room!! Other folks would not have as much luck as me getting the short cheap direct routes with Vegas Cabbies but thats a story for another time!!! I then made my way to the Sao Paolo Cafe where we were meeting up for breakfast. As I was waiting in line to go in, I hear a question directed at me of "Are you waiting for the PA breakfast?", I turn and look at a warm congenial dude who I instantly assume must be Clark, and I'm right. Clark had staked me in one of the pokerstars $20+$2 buy-in 180-person sng's when I was nervous about stepping up a bit. One of the best players on PA, he has been instrumental in my development as a player. I think Emmy Jo was also outside waiting with me at this time too, and then El comes out and tells us to go right in the table is ready. Kisses and Hugs are exchanged with Dean and El who are like family even though we've never met. Dean's Dad is also in tow from Australia, and PAer Brad/Sick Coyote, who has won a seat thru PA/Titan for today's event is there with a friend. Breakfast consisted of me, Brad and friend, Dean, Dean's dad, El, Shya and Tom, Emmy Jo, Clark, late arrival Carol/DCI, Tina/Survivor and Lou Krieger. I think I got everyone and sorry if I forgot someone!!

I've referred to Lou as my lucky penny, because when he joins PA in our $10 buy-in on Royal Vegas, I usually win or come in second (and yes, he did cut me down to size once when he cracked my trademark hand of 99. I hit a set on the flop and he outdraw me with a str8). I am an owner of a signed copy of his Hold Em Excellence book, and of course an "I Knocked Out An Expert" t-shirt from RVP. He's originally from Brooklyn, like my dad (I was born in the Bronx). Anyway order's are taken and I order Granola with bananas, everyone else orders Eggs and omelets and lots of carbs, and Lou orders the Fruit Plate which is truely huge and more then one person can eat. Lou pipes to me that he cant order Granola because he doesnt drive a Volvo. I don't either but I am wearing Birkenstocks, and I do refer to myself as a tree hugging hippie chick. Heck I've met Wavy Gravy. I get to share in the spoils of the fruit plate (blackberries and blueberries) and I'm proud that I've stuck to my healthy diet. Breakfast is spent talking about Lou's upcoming projects and if Tina/Survivor has gotten closer to getting picked for the next season of the reality show Survivor (and that is where she gets her name from). She's applied like every season and has been as close as being an alternate. And of course I have to explain (again) that Jayke is a no show to El and Dean who had also been expecting him.

Breakfast wrapped up with me not getting enough time to talk to Clark or Dean for that matter since they were on the other end of the table and I was kind of mid table. Ellen had finished in the money for about $3000 at 49th in the Ladies WSOP, Tina went out early and Emmy went out right before the dinner break (see previous post). Emmy decided to play the stud tourney at the Orleans, and Tina staked her for half. That tourney started at noon so she gave me a ride in her rental car and I saved on cab fare once again!!! I decided to hang out at the Orleans till my Ladies event started at three. We headed up to her room at the RIO which she was sharing with a WPC member: Anniejr. The door was ajar but had the boltie thing in place and a shoe was in the doorway??? We couldnt get in the room so Em had to wake Annie. Annie had busted out of the ladies tourney too but then had gone on to win like $3000+ in I think a RIO second chance tourney so she was groggy and sleeping. I found the door ajar but half locked with a single shoe in the door mildly amusing. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Off to the Orleans poker room. Emmy registers and pretty much gets right underway with a noon start. I have time to kill, so I walk around the casino, check out the food places, decide not to gamble, go back upstairs and read my poker magazines and Vegas mags Ive been collecting and chat up a Aussie gal whose name I now forget. Ellen comes over to the Orleans and also decides to play. I see Judy/Bluedove from WPC, London Gallagher, the "amateur" from the Ladies Night of WPT and hear lots of bad beat stories about the Ladies WSOP event. The Ladies Orleans event doubles in size to the point where there is an alternates list. As women bust out, Seat Open is announced and the seats are filled with the alternates. I think close to 300 actually wound up playing.

I'm not found of all Ladies tourneys because its like wading thru a minefield of limpers and calling stations. You cant isolate anyone because if they see a paint card or an ace it looks good. Early on I was card dead. But at least I was still in the tourney. We lost someone at my table on the second hand. I was in Seat I which I loathe since I cant see seat 10 or 9 for that matter and I even think they tried to squeeze 11 in. Our dealer was this Asian gal who didnt speak English well at all. I had to go over the blind levels/lengths and add-on policy with her. We players wondered if she was right out of dealer school. Too her credit she could deal well and had no problems with catching string bets or figuring out the side pots. I think we were all a little nervous though.

Card Dead, card dead card dead.. At some point OPENING SEAT 6 is announced and taken by a attractive African American woman who looks vaguely familiar. She's gregarious and asks our names and states, "Im so happy my son won his first bracelet".. Im quick.. I look at her and state the obvious.. "Your David Williams mom". God Im good.. Yup.. Shirley Williams is at our table. After the intros are all made she apologizes in advance if she forgets our names and then announces that she tried or was trying to quit smoking....A delight at the table..

Anyway, some local older woman known to the floor staff is seated in seat 5 as an alternate. She called a raise on her BB with T4h and sucked out a flush. Bluedove's friend from her Jersey home game is in Seat 3 and gives me the rolling eyes. Local strikes again with one crap hand after another. Finally, its the first break.. Im treading water and in okay chip count size as the blinds are going up slowly as the rounds are 30 minutes. I loose a chip when we color up (always my luck). Back from the break. three hands of note that I play but don't go my way at all. I call a small raise with KJos... Seat 3 calls too. I flop a str8 but a 4 flush is out there. I fire out a pot size bet, Seat 3 calls my $1000 bet and of course hits the nut flush on the turn. I check, she puts me all in. I fold. She shows me the nuts. A few hands later I then get AK. I raise get a caller from a shorter stack. When the flop misses me and I check, shortie moves all in. I put her on tens and she had them. I'm now crippled and a short stack myself. I raise again with ATs the same chick calls. I hit Top pair and push my remaining chips in with a board of T 9 X. The chickie calls with QJos chasing the open ender, and when the turn pairs her Jack or queen and I fail to improve I am out.

I head over to El's table to tell her I busted and she tells me the Seafood Buffet is pretty good per Barb Enright. I decide to use my $5 voucher for the Monday night seafood buffet. It's good with a New Orleans theme. I see a bulk loader piling up a huge plate of crab legs. Too much work for me so I eat the peel and eat shrimp and the oysters on the half shell and some shrimp scampi, corn on the cob and other buffet items and have a dessert or two. Little did I know had I made the dinner break I would have gotten a free meal. Little did I know that Clark was at the buffet at roughly the same time. He had played the days mega entry WSOP event and busted out and came over for the 7PM second chance tourney that he won!!! Carol and Dean had also made their way over to meet El and I missed them all.

I catch a taxi back to TI and amuse myself for about $20 worth of video blackjack, slots and video poker for about two hours. The time change and long travel day has caught up to me so I hit the hay relatively early.