Catching Up to Speed

Shamanalix commented on my last post that I was more interesting and fascinating then the shill I had become in my most recent posts and challenged me to do better then that. Point taken, but when you mention things like Tiffany Michelle's breasts and UB Cheating Scandal your blog traffic does increase quite a bit.

I should backtrack a bit. I've played very little poker in the last two months. I was on vacation from July 4th to the 13th and had plans to play quite a bit of poker during that time. I had planned on getting back into the online grind in camaraderie with my friends out in Vegas kicking it back Vegas style and to play some live poker too. Of course, the closure of my underground cardrooms, after the much storied raids at the end of May/beginning of June put a damper on that.

The beginning of my vacation started with Snake5970 and his two brothers trip reports from Vegas. Rich, aka Silo2436, one of my live league mates got into Vegas on July 1st, got off the plane went to Caesar's with Snake5970 and proceeded to build a huge stack in one of the Deep Stack series there. I was texted Silo updates from Snake5970 who had hit the rail early (a pattern that became all to familiar with Snake on this Vegas trip). Silo made a horrible play per Snake, when he shoved 88 with a monster stack and ran into a bigger stack donking out with a small cash. Snake told me he gave his brother an earful in the Sportsbook about that move.

The youngest P brother (who I have never met) rolled into Vegas from New Jersey on July 2nd. He only stayed 5 days. That nite the guys went to Lawrey's Prime Rib and then to see Danny Gans at the Mirage. Silo and Snake did make a couple of last stab attempts at a WSOP Main Event seat but when they were told to come back later on the nite of day 1C to see if there were seats for a last chance satellite for day 1D, they both gave up and decided to focus on cash games. Snake told me more then once he didn't like the way Harrah's handled certain things.

On the 3rd of July my dad called me to tell me that my dad's estranged wife aka my stepmonster had passed away after her second battle with cancer. We knew the end was coming quick and my dad had actually spent the last few days down at the hospital with her, and other family members and he was with her when she passed. Fourth of July was my first day off. I met my mom up at her part-time job of Barnes in Noble in Saratoga, bought some reading materials and we had dinner at Pizzeria Uno after running some errands to Lowe's and JC Penney's. Saturday I went down to BFF Kim's mom's house for a barbecue in honor of nephew Conner's birthday. As usual the conversation was entertaining and hysterical. Sunday I woke up and felt fine and did stuff around the house contemplating a live poker club appearance on the galaxy far far away. By mid afternoon I had to take a nap, by that night I was feeling funky in my tummy and had the chills on and off thru the nite. By Monday Morning stuff was pouring out of me an I had a funeral to attend. I took some stuff to calm my intestinal issues paid my respects to my step aunt and step grandma and came home in lieu of going too the post funeral get-together.

I went downt to Westport, CT on Thursday July 11th to visit my sister for the day with my dad. I was still not feeling good. Stuff is still coming out of me and I don't really feel like eating or running around. Four and a half days this is going on. My mom thinks food poisoning and lactose intolerance are both at play. I buy a bottle of Acidophilous Pro biotic pills for intestinal health. I already own Lactose enzyme pills. Friday I was feeling bleck in the morning but met my mom at TGIF's for lunch. Finally, by Saturday I feel like a human and I actually have time and feel comfortable enough to sit at the pool for a day. The rest of the weekend I catch up on stuff I couldn't do when I didn't feel good.

In the meantime Silo had already flown home to Upstate NY and Snake5970 was playing his last day of poker in Vegas in cash games at various poker rooms up and down the strip. Literally, the two of them did a Las Vegas tour of poker rooms from the Flamingo to Planet Hollywood, to TI, Mirage, MGM, Caesar's, Venetian, Excalibur and I'm sure a few others I forgot. Other brother Chris didn't play any poker but did play some other negative EV games. When Snake caught me up on some non poker stuff, I was extremely jealous of the details of their fine meals at the Palm and Lawrey's Prime Rib. Had I felt better I probably would have been flipping Snake the bird from my end of the cell phone. Instead, I probably said a few things.

Anyway, very very little poker for me on that vacation just a little online. I did gamble a little on horses cashing on a Breeder's cup race at Delmar. I also conjured up the idea that a trip to TROCK was in order for the deep stack turbo challenge at the tail end of the Continental Poker Championships and Snake5970 was to be my partner in crime.

To be continued .....