Yeah, I basically am not going to retell the following week in Vegas because I got caught in the shuffle in terms of doing things (meaning from the 2nd to 11th, by and large) but it was bubbling a tournament, (the actual bubble boy in the 2500 6m, where Clayton and Alex both FTed and Jay took 9th) and having pretty big swings in cash where I "should" have been up a lot, but wasn't up much at all. Frustrating. I will pickup from the morning of the 11th, where I played a sesh in the Bellagio. I recalled some hands since I only played a few hours (from about 2am until 6am) since I wanted to stay up all night to catch my 11am flight. Also, since I do like maintaining my blog, I hope the rest of Vegas wont get lost in a similar shuffle!

Some action shots of the 3 tourneys I've played so far: (0/3, yet I'm w/3 in terms of making dinner breaks. Don't think this is a good thing... 1/3 on making day 2, but 0/3 on ITM!)

Tournament #1: 1500$ 6max NLH


Tournament #2: 2500$ 6max NLH



Tournament #3: 2000$ Full Ring NLH


Anyway, I had awoken sometime midday, since well, my sleep schedule is basically "sleep when tired, wake up whenever, only adhere to a schedule if I want to play a tournament". Amanda's graduation was exactly on the 11th, so I had to be in California either that night or the following morning. I decided to book a 11:30 AM flight on Virgin America since I wanted to play poker. Boom! Mikech told me to come by the Bellagio, (where I ran into Ashman as well) and I was able to hop into a 10-20 game. This was my 2nd session at the Bellagio, the 1st one went terribly (it was sometime during the 2nd to 10th) so I was determined to fix that!
*Actually, they had about 5 10-20 tables going (just 1 25-50) and it did take a little bit to get on the tables... While waiting I ran into Nate (Neon) and TJ, I hadn't seen them yet, so that was solid. I will say omitting to recount the details of the days prior to this, I met up with a bunch of friends/mutual friends/acquaintances, ran really bad at CCR in 2 expensive dinners, (I'm stuck 2.5k in dinners or so?) and played a bunch of cool hands, none of which I suppose will get reported!

So, I sat down at a must-move, bought in 11.2k, and the game was somewhat shorthanded. The big pots that night:
-3handed about 30 mins in, a young guy who looked competent and probably played online, sitting with about 8k, raised to 80 on the button. I had won a bunch of hands, but the pots had all been small, since a bunch of people had been rotating in/and out... It's important to pick up pots that no one wants, and when the game is changing (people filtering in and out) you get people less focused on the particular action. By extension, when people do show interest, it's better to give them more credit. Anyway, the small blind had about 4 or 5k, was a youngish (but not 20s) asian (who had seemed very willing to gamble, "standard") folded and I called with KTo. Flop came 973r, I checked, he bet 120, I checkraised a bit more than half pot (to 400) and he called. Turn was a K, I thought for a while and then bet 720. He called. River paired the 7, great card, I bet 1520, he called pretty quickly, I tabled my hand and scooped the pot.
-A few more people filtered in, that was the only big pot to speak of, and one of the new played UTG (6handed now) raised to 80. He only had 3k, and the asian called on my right. I overcalled with 8s, and one of the blinds called as well. (~300+ in there) Flop came 8 6 4r, blind checked, pfr bet 240, asian folded, I called, blind folded. Blah blah blah. Turn was a 3, he checked, I bet 440, and he called. River paired the 4, he checked again, I figured I could only valuebet small, so I bet 700ish, and he tanked and agonized and asked if I flopped the straight, finally calling me. I was then moved to the main game upstairs. (Kinda quick)
-9 handed I raised J4dd in MP (The Splasher, ldo) and got called by the guy on my left. He had been flatting me a ton, and I basically had double barreled him 3 times (each time worked, I think I had KT in BvB on 9xx, turn J in one hand, the best hand in the 2nd, like tp or so, and a 3rd time with complete air) so I got the sense he was waiting to take a stand. Flop came a beautiful J 4 2 w/ 2 clubs and 1 diamond (the 2, obv) I cbet 140 and he called. Turn was an offsuit Q, I checked, he bet 320, I made it 1320, and he shoved for 4.3k total - I snapped, and he had KQo. I held.

I'm kicking myself because this was more than a week ago, and I generally don't forget hands, but I literally played 3 big hands (the set is more of a middle hand) and won a ton of small pots, and wrapped up a 10k sesh before leaving, basically putting me in a good mood. But I can't remember that 3rd big hand, which is a shame, because I like posting big hands, heh. (Especially because combining tourneys and expenses I had been down on the trip, that put me in the green) Anyway, around 6am, I was hungry and Mike and Ashman's 50/100 PLO game was breaking up. (Where Ashman was crushing Farha, ofc) So we went to breakfast at the Bellagio.

I then went home, packed/did laundry, 2p2ed for a while, then drove myself - exhausted - to the airport. I upgraded to 1st class, because hey, it was only 50 more, and I was finally up on the trip after a bunch of frustrating sessions. (I literally have been swinging session to session up 10k, down 6k net, up 7k, even, etc. Games have been great though!) there was a weather delay (no joke - fog in San Fran means they have to shut down some runways!) Which meant there wouldn't be anyone to pick me up, since Amanda's graduation was at 4. My plane was initially slated to arrive at 1, but the delay meant I'd get in at 2 or 230. Regardless, I passed out on the plane though, very infrequently do I sleep on planes, but I was just so tired. The planeride was actually really enjoyable, when I woke up I was in San Francisco.

So, I had to take a taxi to Marin, which is an hour taxi. Apparently anything over 50 mins they charge 150% too. All along the way I was checking the 2p2 NBA auction:
http://auction.f2f2s.com/index.php
which has kept me occupied. Anyway, I arrived with my big bag, exhausted, 30 minutes early (330) and no one was there yet from my family. Hmm, cool guys. The taxi ride was 140$ including tip fwiw, which is not fun.

The graduation ceremony was fine; I sat next to my sister Martina, it was held outside, was a beautiful day, etc etc... I fell asleep actually, so I only remember bits and pieces. Next thing I knew, she had her diploma, and we were heading back to the house.

There was a graduation party of sorts for Amanda, but I was pretty exhausted - and it was Lakers-Magic game 4. So, I socialized very briefly, having to answer retarded questions about poker and Vegas, and then retreated downstairs, where Martina and I would be sleeping. I turned on the game, made it through the entire 4th Q until the last few seconds, and passed out on the floor. (In my defense, I had been up for about 30 hours, only sleeping on the plane and during graduation) At some point I was moved to an air mattress. I thought the Magic won when I woke up the next morning at 6am.

June 12th.

So I woke up, no one else was up, the internet wasn't working (so I had to read all the recaps and so forth on my phone) and basically I tried waking up Martina so I wouldn't be bored. That didn't really work, so I fell back asleep until 12:30 or so - this has not been an unusual Vegas schedule, up 30 hours, sleep 16 hours type deal.

My sister, Martina (Amanda had been up all night doing graduation parties and so forth) wanted to go into the city to a particular burger place, so Michael, Martina, and I drove into the city. (From Tiburon it's a 20 minute drive or so, just across the bay) The burgers were fine, I didn't think anything special, but w/e. We then went to Golden Gate Park, went for a walk, and checked out this small botanist museum: (my phone is brutal at pictures, but oh well)

Then drove in to Corte Madera (which is past Tiburon) to go to a Borders. I had insisted (I mean not really, but sorta) that I wanted to pickup the new Silversun Pickups CD (guitar hero has made me a massive fan of theirs) but I also had a different agenda; I wanted to see if someone I knew was still working at a restaurant there (I used to go to Corte Madera very frequently when I lived there) but unfortunately she quit a month ago.

It was a relaxing day, I think Amanda was still sleeping from the long night out, and I had plans with Jeff (lostinthesaus) to grab dinner in Sausalito. I invited both Martina and Amanda, but they both flaked on me. Just like Matt Probability (who was supposed to be there with his gf) flaked on Jeff (and me, obv) so it was just us 2 at a place called "fish" right on the water. I had fish tacos, pretty solid, Jeff and I talked about how Vegas was going so far (he's now here: In the past week I've played bball with him a few times) and it seemed he was still answering work calls while we were eating.

Went home, I wanted to go out and do something, but Martina pulled the "I'm laying on a couch watching TV" and Amanda went out again with friends (pretty understandable!) so I stayed in. Watched the Office or something, who knows. Anyway...

June 13th.

Woke up around 2pm and decided to go out on my own. Took a long walk, went to a few of my old spots (like Shark's Deli, which is mediocre at best, but the BLT is ok!) and came back. It was my Omi's birthday (Omi = grandmother) being held at the BTC. (Bay Tennis Club) I don't really associate with most of the people from this side of the family, so I spent the majority of the birthday on the phone with kbfc and GKA talking about the NBA. Below is a picture of Martina and me from the birthday party.



I decided to stay up all night and fly out the following day with everyone (Martina was going back to NYC, etc etc) and I did. In the morning I "woke up" (had been awake) around 6, which is when my dad got up. I went upstairs and he broke the coffee pot, so we decided to go out for breakfast, which actually was quite nice.

June 14.

Upgraded again to first class because I was exhausted, flight had a lot of turbulence, but I watched Kobe: Doin' Work on the plane (it was actually pretty good) and was back in Vegas. Yeehaw! (Drove home, crashed)

That's it! Hopefully i'll be able to keep a better up-to-date Blog