EdmondDantes says

Nice post. Glad to hear you shook off the SF beat. Too bad you missed the LOVE show; I think it's the best of the Cirque productions. In any event, looking forward to hearing more of your poker stories.

Edmond

07/07/07

Anonymous says

Glad you enjoyed So-Cal! Not a bad place to visit.

07/08/07

lakeoffire says

Enjoyed reading your posts! Sounds like you had a good trip overall, but let's not talk about SF ever again. Good Luck man.
LoF

07/08/07

lakong says

great report. Lots of fun to read. When you say that west-coast Mexican food does not compare to east-coast food I'm assuming that the west-coast Mexican is much better. Is that correct?

Please keep up the blogging for the remainder of the trip. If it isn't too much trouble, it would be great if you can include more poker hand action and your thought process in specific/interesting hands.

good luck!

- S

07/12/07

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Location: Las Vegas

Well, I have finally arrived into the sin city! This is my first visit here and I am really excited about it. Let me first tell you guys what happened in SoCal. In LA, we spent one day at Santa Monica which was incredible. I loved everything about it: the beach, girls, and biking. Matthias and I then headed down to Venice Beach where a very liberal and hippie crowd hang out. There were a few hundred people gathered on the beach for a drum dance (my first) and the atmosphere was surrreal. For those of you who don't know, a drum dance is a few hundred people gathered in a circle. There are all type of instruments being played and they combine to make a snchronized beat. If you want, one can dance in the middle of the huge circle. It was cool just seeing everyone relaxing and enjoying themselves. That night we headed to Commerce. I heard the action here is crazy, but the rake stinks. They rake $6 or $7 every pot no matter how big and they even rake a $1 when players chop! I played 5-10NL w/ a buy-in of $300 and grinded out $860 in 4 hrs. of play. The table was incredibly passive and I just kept taking the small pots that nobody wanted. Matthias played 2-5NL and lost $200. I couldn't keep an eye on his play, but I saw he made one big mistake when he called AI w/ 66 on a flop of 789. There was only $20 in the pot and his opponent bet AI for $70 on the flop, Matthias called with 2 other people to act behind him. I think I gave Matthias too much credit and forgot that he is a complete novice to the game and still needs a lot of tuteledge.

After LA, we headed to San Diego to stay with Matthias' friend Jeff. The first night we were there, we headed to a great Mexican place by the beach. The Mexican food on the west coast doesn't even comes close to what I usually get back on the east coast. The next day Jeff had to work so he made an itinerary for us in SD. As we headed to the Subaru, Matthias noticed an oil leak under the wagon. The gas casket valve had cracked leaking oil, and took Matthias 4 hours. to make the necessary repairs. So much for sightseeing in SD. That night we headed downtown to check out the nightlife. The first bar we went to was Altitude. It is on the top floor of the Marriott and was a open-air bar. It had a nice view of Petco Park (where the SD Padres play) and you could easily watch a baseball game from the high venue. We then checked out another club before calling it a night.

Matthias and I arrived into Vegas on the 4th of July. It was a scorching 110 degrees when we came in. We got a place in this hostel in downtown Las Vegas. There seems to be some really neat people traveling staying here, but I haven't had the chance to meet them because I've been playing tons of poker since we arrived. On Thursday, I played a $550 satellite for the ME and placed 50th of 420. They were giving seats to the top 19 in this satelllite. I found the field to be incredibly weak and everyone was playing super cautious in an attempt to slide into the money. This is an ok strategy when there are 25 players left, but I found that people were implementing this strategy when they were 70 to 80 players left. I didn't think they realized how much poker would still have to be played. I maintained an average stack most of the satellite and then shoved w/ 33 in early position w/ 18K in chips. The blinds were 1-2K w/ a 300 ante so I was going to shove with a wide range of hands. A tight player reshoved AI on the button so I thought I was dominated, but luckily he showed AK. He flopped a K and there goes my entire poker life. JK. That night, we went to see KA Cirque De Soleil at the MGM Grand. We wanted to see LOVE Cirque De Soliel, but tickets were all sold out due to its popularity. I was not impressed with the KA Cirque De Soliel. The show told a tale of some jungle bandits kidnapping two of the emperor's children and their rescue. The acrobatics were cool (it was my first Cirque De Soleil experience), but the storyline was really difficult to follow. In the show, the performers spoke a made up language so that only made things more complicated. They tried to mix in comedy, but given the background of the storyline, it did not fit in well. Others in the audience seemed to be thorougly entertained, but I have high standards in any recreational acitivities I partake in. For example, I enjoyed when Matthias and I went skydiving, but everyone else who jumped seemed to have a much better experience than me. It seems the only thrill I get is playing poker! Spoken like a true degenerate. After the show. Matthias and I played 1-2NL at MGM. We were at the same table so I could further teach Matthias about the great game of NL Texas Hold Em. The table was soft and Matthias and I ened up with $450 and $250 profits respectively.

On Friday morning, Matthias left Las Vegas back to Alabama to tie up some loose ends. This officially concludes our road trip together. I'll never forget about what happened on this trip and it has given me a new perspective on traveling. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about our exploits. I plan on checking into the Imperial Inn on Sunday and staying for about another week. Later today, I will try to satellite into the ME again as the field is too weak to pass up the opportunity. Even I don't make it into the ME, I will be playing cash until I leave. I will keep everyone updated on how I do in Las Vegas and this blog will hopefully have some poker content for once :).