I've been listening to that a lot lately.

Anyway, let's work backwards. It's still the 2nd to me, since it's only ~12:45 (past midnight) Vegas time. But, tomorrow when I wake up, I'm going to drive w/ Alex and Assani to meet up with Keith and attend G1 of the NBA Finals. Yay! So here goes... Note: now that I'm finished with this blog, it's 230. lol. I was sitting with the housemates and being generally distracted, so this took me quite some time! Wow. Well, enjoy

We (Alex, Travis, me) had an ~8oclock flight out of Logan on the 31st. Since it was Memorial day Monday, we *thought* there would be a lot of traffic. But there wasn't, so we got to the airport early - leaving around 5pm EST - and had more then a 2hr wait. While going through security, my friend Colin (kidcolin from 2p2) randomly was going through as well. (He lives in Sacto, was flying home, so odd coincidence). Anyway, just our luck, our plane was delayed 2.5hrs (had to fly from JFK where they were backed up). Initially we wanted to go to Naked Fish upon landing, but we got in too late. Landed at 1 AM Vegas time, which made for an 11hr travel day. Yuck.

Alex in the foreground, Travis in the background, waiting very patiently during our 2.5hr delay...


Alex got a room comped at Caesars - due to last year's BJ playing I'm sure - so we taxied over there. Had to endure what seemed like an eternity of a line, since we were all exhausted and there was just 1 dude working there. Anyway, the room was pretty nice, and I passed out pretty quickly. (Travis and Dub went downstairs to get food)

The following day (the 1st) we met up with Tri in the lobby. We ate at the caesars cafe while waiting for Isura to arrive (both guys had rented cars already; we had a lot of stuff so we needed 2 separate cars to transport our luggage... but I was having trouble reaching Isura). Kinda a nondescript meal. Isura and Tri didn't eat much so it was technically a 3-way CCR, but since Tavaris and I owed Dub a CCR equity each (from losing a 100m sprint with him nearly a month ago) we just chopped it up. We then checked into our house, which is *PRETTY* nice. It's much better then last year, but not quite as nice as 2 years ago. Next blog, when everyone arrives, (JC and Ryan arrive Saturday) I'll do a video walk around / introduce people.

This year, as well, rather then giving myself the master bedroom (and paying more for it) we decided to just leave it all up to fate. There are 5 bedrooms - Ryan and his friend have 1 - so that left 4 bedrooms for 5 people. Tri was the dealer (initially he was going to stay with us, but actually somehow has a hookup with a Palms place - details are a little foggy, but that worked here because although there is bed space, it would be a tight squeeze) and we dealt a PLO hand to everyone. We decided to work backwards - the WORST hand would have 4th pick, and so on. Dubby unlucked-out and got 4th. (So JC will be rooming with him) Travis got 3rd, I got 2nd, and Isura "won" the master bedroom. I'm alright though - my room is the 2nd best / we moved a dresser there so I'm in fine shape. Also, we got to the house while the cleaning lady (named Maria) was still there. I hired her to clean for the house weekly - 50$/visit, which seems reasonable. Very glad we have a cleaning lady this year, specifically for the kitchen and bathrooms.

After figuring all that minutiae out, Dub/Isura/and I went to 24hr fitness to meet up with Assani and play basketball. Was pretty good, we played about 2+hours - met Nicolak and his friend Nathan. (About this: If you want to play bball in Vegas, just PM me w/ your number or whatnot, I normally just send a text out when I play, which is nearly everyday...) I played OK. I'm breaking in new shoes (that I bought a while ago) and they gave me awful heel blisters. Impacted my play marginally - everything was good (defense, running the floor, finishing) but not so much shooting. I connected on only 1 3, and my form felt way off. Mixture of adapting to the Vegas heat/dryness, being overtired from the exertion of traveling/jet lag, the new rims (vs Tufts gym etc.) and all that. Excuses excuses, but give me 3 more days here and I wont have any excuses left!

I had heard from Matt Flynn earlier in the day that it was his last day out in Vegas - fortuitous timing in the sense that I had been there for 1 full day, so was able to meet up. Unfortunate in the sense that since Matt is a doctor, he can't come back out to play the Main Event, since that requires not scheduling patients etc. I wanted to go out with Mikech as a "customary" Nobu dinner (welcoming to Vegas so to speak) the first night, but since our flight would've gotten in (even on time) too late we passed on that. I made reservations for 6 at Nobu to make up for it.(Isura, Dub, Assani, Matt, Mike, and me)

The food was excellent. Mike and I ordered for the table, and frankly, Nobu is unbelievable. Def. my favorite. Was pretty good conversation all around - Matt talked about some interesting hands he had played to that point and so on. Leading up to the bill, Mike and I were going to bet our CCR equity on an over/under for the bill. He thought it was more then 700; I thought no way that much. (Nobu, relative to 5 star restaurants, is "reasonably" priced) The sticking point was I demanded a price - since it makes sense to me - that if he "won", my wager was greater (say the bill was 800, his equity share would be 125) whereas if I "won" (and the bill was under 700, like 600) my equity share would just be 100.

Instead, Assani offered to Johnny Loden w/ anyone for CCR equity. I jumped to take it, but Mike did too and was matched in a best-of-5 against Assani. The questions were as follows: (Mike had "home court," which meant he got to chose the Q first)
1. With Matt as Johnny, how many pounds does a full grown average african elephant weigh? The real answer is 15,000 pounds or so (nuts!) and Mike got the over on 6k pounds. Matt thought it was 11k, so 1-0 Mike.
2. Assani asked Matt how people made 1 million (or more) from poker in the past year. (This actually led to a pretty interesting discussion since everyone varied widely) The stipulation was tournament winners who were backed (which is like 80% of them!) didn't count. Matt's line ended up being 28, and some how the two of them got into a bidding war with Assani finally having 215 and up. lol, 2-0 Mike, going for the clean sweep.
3. Mike thought of another good q, since Matt had just told the story about going out with a few people (including Dave Clark, who is a mod on 2p2 and some reason has serious issues with me... He's the cause of ~all my sporting events temp bans, the bastard!) to the rhino and well, racking up a bill. Will omit details, but in short - Ouch! The Q was: In the 3.5 years he had been living in Vegas, how much money has he spent on strippers? I blurted out "I bet I can guess this within 10k". (Matt was sitting on my left and apparently didn't hear this, heh) The bidding was pretty wild, with Mike having 60k and over. Matt thought the total amount was 600$. Hehe. Assani was still down 2-1. (For the record, my guess *was* within 10k, whereas everyone else was way wrong. I know my friends' habits )
4. Assani asked Matt how many dollars were currently in the Rio in play. (Meaning all the cash game play) I forget what the line was, but Matt thought it was around 650k, and Assani/Mike way underbid. But Mike had the over and coasted.

For actual CCR, though, Assani's 2 cards were eliminated rather quickly and without a sweat. LoL, all that for nothing. As customary with my luck pertaining to CCR, it was heads up between Matt and me. We were having fun with Lodden thinks, so we decided to do a high variance best-of-3 for who gets to pay. Matt got to ask the first Q:
1. Matt asked what age Isura thought Greg Raymer lost his virginity. We ended up setting the line at 21, I had the over, Matt the under, and Isura thought 22. Boom, I'm up 1-0!
2. The waiter came by, and since we were the last table (waiting on us to pay, heh) we decided to include him. He was a tall guy and looked like he was into sports, so I thought of (what I thought was a good question...) "how many seats does our waiter (think his name was Nate or something like that) think are in the Rose Bowl?" I immediately started at 60k, which is a big bid but I expected to end around 80-90k. (My intuition was the waiter would know somewhat close to the real answer, as I did too) However, Matt grabbed the under immediately, and the waiter thought 36k. WTF, tie game, 1-1, winner of the next question ends up with the bill. (Which by the way, was way under 700, so I would've shipped the bet with Mike no problem. Great gambling on Mike's part; don't make the losing bet with me, but beat Assani in Lodden thinks!)
3. Since one of our topics of conversation was Mike's age (Mike looks a lot younger then he is) Matt decided to ask how old the waiter thought Mike was. I think Matt made a fundamental error in Lodden thinks; we had the bidding at 30, and Matt jumped the gun from 30->33. I took the under (if he had said 31, I would've had a real decision on my hands FWIW) and the waiter thought Mike was 26. Boom, I escaped from the bill, phew!

Lots of fun. We actually ended up going to a 24-hr Albertsons on our way home and did a massive grocery shop.



Another really good song. I think Black Rock > Crazy Game of Poker, fwiw. Anyway, moving on!..

So, today (technically yesterday I guess) I slept in. I got a message from Jeff (lostinthesaus) about playing bball at 3, so... I was there on time! It was pretty empty at the wigwam, (Isura wanted the day off and Alex went to play golf this morning) so I just shot around waiting for them. At 4, they still hadn't come, and I got a message from Jeff that it would be another 30+ minutes, so I just bailed. I was a little sore and my legs just weren't there. (Shots were front rimming) As a house we ran an errand to Target (getting a laundry basket for example, among a bunch of other miscellaneous items) Ate at Memphis BBQ on our way home, and well, that brings us to the now. Today was somewhat of a recovery day! In fact, I should sleep soon since we need to leave for LA around noon.

A few other tidbits...

I made my "tournament schedule". Or something like that. Here are the events I will be playing:

June 5th, 5:00 Event 14 (2-7 NL Single Draw). VERY excited for this; the idea is to come back from LA earlier that day, (Friday we're attending Keith's show, so we'll either drive back in the morning or late that night) but I'm sure I'll report how that goes when it does in fact happen! I guess this will be my first foray into live of the trip, since I haven't been able to play yet and I will be in LA for the next 2 days. I think a lot of people will be awful... Although I barely have any experience with this game, I actually do have some (10-20 NL!) and feel very competent with regard to my big bet instincts. A 1500$ tourney is a great training grounds anyway.

June 7th, Event 16. 1500 6max, obv.
June 14th, Event 26. 2500 6max, obv.
June 17th, Event 32: 5000 6max, obv.

June 22nd, Event 41. PLO8 1500$. I played this last year, and frankly people are just the worst. Lots of gamble in this one, so maybe I'll break through.

And the main! So, 6 tournaments. Really hope I go deep in 1 (or more! But I'll be happy w/ just 1).

Moving out of Boston was complicated. Overly so, actually, mainly because I had to find someone to take my cats. This was an odyssey, and had I written a blog a week ago, I would've poured about 1000 words into describing what happened. (I'm sure that would've been a riveting blog) In short, Sherry, an ex-gf of mine, was supposed to take them. At the last minute she pulled out, which left me completely screwed. Luckily a family friend named Dick (who lives in Northampton, so I had to drive the hr45 there, and then back, to drop them off) was able to take them in the nick of time. *I want to add that Travis was VERY helpful in helping me pack and move. It was pretty stressful, but he was a huge help gathering boxes and the like.

My cat "Belle" yawning... (She looks intimidating I think!)


The two kitties together


The sweetest cat in the world, "Evy"


As far as finals predictions, I'm going to hold off. As a fan, I want to see the Lakers burn and crash in 4. I hate them. I *do* think Boston is the better team, but it's close. And home court does help tremendously. So I'm going to say Boston in 7, which is a ridiculous choice, since it means the game is in LA. IF it goes to 7, I think LA wins it... But I think Boston takes it in 5 a decent % of the time.

Also, Alex and I were thinking of proposing a house goal. We wanted something catchy similar to "2months2million", and couldn't really think of anything that combined realism with optimism, all the while establishing a goto phrase. It's kinda irrelevant, but for now we have 1.5months, 150k. Which actually should be an easy goal (I'll just say now if the house as a group does not accomplish that, we sorta failed this summer!) but something like 6 weeks 600k is way too difficult to be realistic. So this will begin when the rest of the house arrives (June 5th; coinciding with Alex and me getting back anyway) and I'll update the "groups" progress. I think. Also, the next part of my Euro series will be out next week, likely the 10th. Later all, GL Cs!

Bringing Back the Bandana... (You will all see!)