My cousin...Mia Grace De Keratry.

I told everybody I would get an update sooner or later. Mia was born at Round Rock's Scott and White hospital on August 9th, 2008. She was 8 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long. The picture shows Mia on the day she was born, its now been three weeks and looks noticeably different. She's doing great and is in perfect health! Its about time Henry learns how to wipe a babies butt.

Besides the new addition to the family, there hasn't been to much goin on lately. Poker is still relatively slow but on that note, congrats to Justin Thurman for taking the last tournament down, nice one. I'm hoping we still keep our poker tradition alive despite the drastic decline in popularity.

Our trip to Las Vegas last year was a blast! We need to plan another Big O outing soon or its gonna drive me crazy! And Rico, thumbs down to Imperial Palace, never again. However, Jim, Rico and myself need to keep the El Cortez breakfast menu on the "to do list." Anyway, thats all I have this time guys and gals, hope to see everybody at the next tourny whenever that may be.

Congrats to Henry and Carol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just to give everybody an idea, this picture is from Shawn's recent visit to his birthplace, Hawaii. Just thought I'd put a shot up to give everybody a little glimpse of what is probably the closest thing we have to paradise. For those of you who don't know Shawn, he's Rockys cousin. He's played poker with us a couple times.

As far as the last tournament is concerned, I guess you could say I earned honorable mention for comin in fourth. "If you not first, your last." Great quote from Talladega nights, if you haven't seen it, its one for the DVD collection.

More importantly, Henry and Carol are about to have a baby!! Time went by too fast, its already that time. Family and friends have cast their votes for the babies weight, size, due date, and last but not least, the babies gender. I think I'll be right on, who knows. I'll keep everybody posted with the babies stats, if thats the right word. This was a relatively short posting but wanted to keep the blog updated. Hope all is well!

Where has poker gone?

Its been over a month since I've played a real table tourny with the regulars. No Jimbo or Mookie tournies.....I'm goin crazy!!

I realize with a new baby and a long trip to Europe things have slowed down a bit, but I never thought this much, guess its about time we throw a tournament over here?!? I'll have to try and brew somethin up with Joel, I'll keep everybody posted.

As far as my personal life, I actually feel pretty good. I'm actually contributing to society once again. In fact, I hit another milestone since I started with Field Assets three weeks ago, I actually went into OVERTIME!! I never thought it would happen but you know, time flies when you have properties to manage. Anyway, things are going pretty well and I hope to see everybody soon. Just thought I'd update the blog with a short and sweet entry.

My only question is......why?!?

I've never been on a roller coaster ride like the one I road at the last tourny over at Jimbo's house. My goodness, starting with 20K then down to 8K in about an hour. Then..from 8k to 80k in around 10 minutes......then, back down to about 20k and again, up to about 85k at the final table.

With that 85k, lost about 55k to Toby on a hand then left with of course 30k(low stacked at the table). Get dealt pocket King's outside of the blinds around middle position and of course pushed it all-in. Well, got two callers.....with A10 offsuite from Jim and A9 offsuite from Ian(a normal over at Jim's). BOTH DAMN ACES CAME OUT!! Four straight hours of play for nothing!

I went out in 7th place out of 17. Oh well, better luck next time. For those of you who haven't heard, I will NOT be joining the military. I believe I can further myself without the help of the Army. Either way, its gonna to take some hard work. Now, it might just take a little more. Six years is quite a commitment that I made rather quickly, luckily for me, I can still get out despite swearing in 1 of 2 occurrences. Had I swore in a second time, audios Miguel, that would've definitely been my ticket into a never ending life of hell. Anyway, I'm currently looking for employment and hope to be employed within the next week. Enough of the whole life story, I'm sick of the entire situation, specifically dealing with the recruiters.

As far as poker is concerned over at the Big O, well, haha, can you say knocked out in about 10 minutes. Yep, first one out, had to be somebody right. I missed the first 2 events of WAM (weekend at Mookie's), both the golf outing and also the BBQ. But, was good contributing 50 bucks to the pot. I look at it as a donation : )

Hope to see everybody soon!!

Its true guys, I'm in the Army!!

As of March 29th, 2008, I'm a confirmed soldier of our beloved US Army. My stepdad, Joel, was nice enough to swear me in. Its a pretty big decision but one that I'm most definitely happy with. Any first time applicants who wish to enlist in any branch of the military must take an ASVAB test. Its pretty much smaller and easier than the SAT. Lucky for me, I scored high enough to land any job I wished to have. While talking with the counselor after my physical was finished, he uploaded my test scores and also the jobs I qualified for. It was a rather large list and in fact slightly overwhelming, however, my decision was quite quick after seeing Air Traffic Control Operator pop up. I wanted to make sure and maximize my bonus to the best I could with my college history. I had slightly over 60 credits which barely qualified me for a 3,000 dollar more bonus than I would have had if under 60 credits. The primary reason for enlistment was because I had no true determination to finish college and be a dedicated student, right now anyway. So, after thinking about it, it dawned on me that the army could shape me up and train me both physically and mentally.

First, I'll be going to basic training in Fort Benning, GA for 2 months. After basic training is complete, I'll then be heading off to the military's aviation school in Fort Rucker, AL. The aviation school from what I hear has a 65 percent dropout rate, but with some hard work and long nights of studying, 4 months should go by pretty quick! After they train me to be a qualified Air Traffic Controller, they will send me to my first assignment wherever that may be. In AIT, they make you fill out a dream sheet. This sheet allows you to request where you wish to be stationed, my first choice will be Germany, then Belgium, and lastly, somewhere in the United States. There's no guarantee, but from what I hear, they try to get you where you want to go. And of course, there's always a chance for deployment. I'm sure there will be questions when I see everybody at the next poker game but this is just to give you a gist of what's goin on in my life.

My plan is to use the Army's tuition assistance program to finish my degree. They told me I could compile all my University of North Dakota and ACC credits, along with AIT credits (yes, even training in the Army earns credit for college institutions) and apply all of those to a particular degree. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has Air Traffic degree programs, so all my training and credits can be rolled up and used together to further myself in the actual completion of a degree, its about time right. Also, using tuition assistance doesn't touch my GI Bill, which can be used for graduate school when I'm finished if I like. Not to mention 100% health and dental coverage, I think the Army was the best decision possible for me at this point.

As for poker, dang, I forgot how to play, its been like three weeks since we've played!! Busy time of the year I guess. Anyway, I FINALLY moneyed and split first place with Stacy last tournament, can't believe it, it only took like 50 tries to get on the list : ) Hope to see everybody at the next game, I'm limited on games, time's tickin for me. Whoever is reading this, you better be there! JK....but seriously.....have a good week guys.

Truckee,CA and Reno,NV

It was my first time to ever travel California. The entire vacation totaled five days. First, we flew from Austin to Los Angeles. I'll tell you, whatta dirty city, lets just say the air quality was that of Mexico City. Despite the unclean air, I was still able to see downtown LA and the Hollywood sign way off in the distance. We were at LAX for only 2 hours. After LAX we proceeded into Reno where casinos were the first thing to catch my eye. Reno brings me to my next point.....

In-N-Out..........

I must say that Whataburger still wins; however, the burger was still delicious. I ordered the Double-Double but I didn't get the special sauce, maybe thats why I didn't grasp the complete experience. Also in Reno on our third day, we went to Peppermill, but were with some people who weren't gamblers so I couldn't take my sweet time. Peppermill was rated a top ten casino out of some magazine or newspaper. Its one of the more flashy casinos I've seen, thats including all the casinos from Vegas. The poker room was large, but I got stuck playing 4-8 limit because 1/2 no limit had a considerably large wait time. I only took 100 bucks to play poker and again didn't have much time so my hand selection was pretty broad. The third hand I was dealt AQ offsuite and hit the nuts on the turn.......Broadway,what comes on the river, the second jack to pair the freakin board, of course I check, he bets out 8, I smooth call. He flips over pocket Kings for a full boat, just my luck, there goes about half my stack. From that point my moral went down and I went on partial tilt playing midrange hands hoping to hit, but, of course I was blinded down to crumbs and left. Here's a shot of Peppermill...........

Overall, California was beautiful! The average temperature during the day was about 50. The average at night and early morning was about 20. Not bad at all, nice fresh mountain air for a change. Anyway, the trip made for a nice little break, now back to civilization. Guess I'll see everybody this next weekend for our regular game!

Sick at home!!!

I'm serious guys, it sucks soo bad! Yesterday I received a prescription of Tamiflu, I hope its been doin its job. It started yesterday around 1:00 PM, right after taking a shower, I was worshiping the porcelain god for like 10 minutes, but I haven't had to since, again....its hopefully the Tamiflu.

I can't even sit up right now which is why I am writing this blog while in bed. Its been awhile since I've watched this much TV. I'm watching Bret Michael's "Rock of Love 2" on Vh1, it was on for like 2 hours, but I will say there is some hotties on the show, even still, my stomach pains are overcoming my emotions. The flu sucks bad, but I should have known it was coming after everybody in the house has already had it besides Henry and Carol. Enough about my pain and suffering, well maybe not all the suffering.........I've been suffering pretty bad as far as gettin on a good run of cards.

The last tournament at both Jim's and Armondo's, I've barely made it to both final tables then crashed and burned with the blink of an eye. Poker hasn't been to kind the past month or so, hopefully, the run will stop, the question is how soon. I hope to see everybody soon, and hopefully by next week, I'll be 100 percent better. Right now the only vision keeping me motivated is my trip to Lake Tahoe March 5th. California is a state which I actually have never visited, so it should be interesting, I've heard good and bad things. I have a 2 hour layover in Los Angeles then from there its off to Reno where the card rooms await.

I love the mountains, and I love beautiful water, so maybe this place will be nothing less than perfect.

I've been looking at all the card rooms they have around the area. From what I've seen, there are some pretty dang good tournament structures, and the buy-ins aren't to bad. I think there's a daily 40 dollar freezout tournament at one of Tahoe's main casinos, thats what I'm talking about!

Thats all for now, hope to see everybody this next weekend!

Donkey's can win sometimes right?

Thats right!!! I've always wanted to be a world champion!! To Jim and Stacy, thanks for having me.

A donkey, hmmmm, not me : ) Henry and Joel are lucky. I was going to have two small donkey's under the main photo with their pics photoshopped on the front, like they were my two little babies. Point being, I'm the one who teaches them how to play. I'm their pokah daddy.

Actually, truth being........both Joel, Henry and myself made a deal to split the winnings evenly. So Henry and Joel had a bad night or run of cards? Could have easily happened to me. Clara made more than I did with her 3rd place finish, damn. Oh well, next time I'll know better : ) jk..
____________________________________________________________________


My online play has virtually been cut by 80% compared to how much I used to play. I did in fact order another black Full Tilt hat, I love those things, they fit pretty well and for the most part pretty comfy. I strongly recommend one for all the hat lovers out there.

I've played in two tournaments this year, taking an honorable 9th place in Armondo's championship event and 1st at Jim's championship event.

As far as life is concerned, Stacy, do not worry about my friend, I'm staying away from that whole scene, I swear your like my 3rd mother.(I have a stepmom, sorry)

Anyway, besides all the early poker tournaments, school is going well, and so is work. I can't complain. Well I forgot about all the allergies giving me what seems to be a perpetual cough and sore throat. Hopefully, I can get rid of both. Thats all for now, see you guys at the next tournament! -Mike Allan

So whats goin
on with the
whole Vegas
issue??.......
POSTPONED


Ok......were not talking about a month, I'm talking two and a half years! I will be attending Austin Community College for the Spring semester then its off to Texas State University. Ive maxed out in credits at ACC so will be applying for transfer in May to TSU. I've been waiting soo bad to get outta there, you have no idea.

The other day while watching ESPN's main event of the WSOP, Chad Norman was talking about how most pro's have degrees. Made me think..."hmm, why should I be any different, its probly a smart thing to do." So, after I get my Bachelor's I will then proceed to try Vegas out so that if Vegas fails me, I have something to fall back on. Some of us have quarter life crisis ideas, I just happened to be one of them.

As far as live poker tournies are concerned, I finished 9th at the TOC III(tournament of champions) at the Big O. I know, not good at all, oh well, there's always next year! Anyways, as stated in the previous blog summary, I told everyone I would update them on our decision for Vegas, well, I now know I've made the right decision because of how I feel. I have to admit, the idea of Vegas made me a little nervous, now I'm feeling more comfortable.

Hope everybody has a good week! Until next time!! -Mike Allan

A Tiltmonkey!!! No way.......or way?

Hello everybody. Yet again, its been awhile since I've updated my personal poker blog, so today, the 29th of December, I've decided to give everyone some exciting things to read.

First off, a tilt monkey, nah.

Mondo, I want to publicly give you credit for your play. In the hand that made Mondo crippled and also the very hand which crowned me as a tiltmonkey, I was holding 78 offsuite and Mondo AK suited. He limped ahead of me knowing I would push all-in simply because I was upset from the previous hand where i took a huge chip loss to Melissa. Sure enough I move all-in and got a quick call from the Mook. Flop gave me a straight draw but an eight fell on the river crippling Mondo. Again, nice play from Mondo as always! However, I got lucky, lucky, lucky and was able to win my second tournament of the year.

Between that and a couple second and third place finishes before my win, I haven't done much pertaining to poker, however, there is a little news that I want to share with everybody.

Justin, yes, the dragon boy, and myself are thinking seriously about moving to Las Vegas. Both of us want to become dealers. In order to do this, we must first get our gaming permits from a school out of Pheonix. It takes 10 days to do so but the nicest part about it, they set up auditions for you with casinos so that we can get employed full time with all the benefits. The guy from the dealer school i was talking with said that most dealers make 55-70k a year if their a multigame dealer meaning they can deal more than one type of game. Mine will be in poker and blackjack. Our tentative plan right now is to start out with a pretty nice apartment and save some money. I've already checked the cost of living in both Austin and Las Vegas and there both pretty comparable cities, so we should be fine with money.

I'll keep everybody updated on our plans. I hope to see everybody at the tournament of Champions!!!!

A little Friday Surprise!!!!



So it all started by deciding to stay home rather than work three hours at Best Buy last night(i technically wasn't on the schedule so it was an option to stay home), the 16th of November.

I told myself that I'd take 100 to 1,000 at the cash tables. As soon as I hit the tables, I took a beat for 65, grrrr, down to my last 35. On the chat box, a tournament flashed across the screen for a 13,500 dollar guaranteed tournament. What the heck, I went ahead and registered.

Back in January of 2005, I actually won a $6K guaranteed tournament, which had a 22 dollar buy-in, but also had rebuys. It ended up being the best tournament I had taken down at that point, how can a Donk get so lucky?

Anyway, after playing for a little over 5 hours I bit the dust in SECOND place, how lucky can I get. Here you go Mondo: lucky, lucky, lucky. I put a couple bad beats on some people in crucial moments of the game but played the best I could. To me, its been the best tourny so far because of the amount of players verse the last big tourny. This tournament had 593, the tournament in January of 2005 had about 185 players.

However, like all poker players, I hope someday to win a bigger tournament than that. But, I'm not gonna get too far ahead of myself there. Although getting sucked out in heads up play, second paid out about 2,200. Not to bad for a nights work.

Here's a screen shot of the tournament lobby after the game was finished................................

Sit n'gos Alone!!

Recently, I made it a point to play no cash whatsoever on Pokerstars. Well, I followed through with my plan, however, I failed to make a profit. I made some poor bankroll management decisions which crushed me. For instance, taking 55 of my 60 dollar bankroll to play in a heads up match and losing, stupid me.

Overall, I have made profit because there were some transactions that I failed to log. I'm mainly focusing on 10 plus 1 dollar single table tournies. 1st place equals 34 bucks profit. Not to bad! I've learned that patience guarantees money, that is if your not a donkey ; )

As for the weekend games at Mondo's and Jim's, I've been suckin it up pretty bad. I won't go into detail, but it hasn't been a good last couple games.

On a good note, my stepdad Joel has returned home from a years worth of service in Iraq. Its good to have him back with us, and also back at the poker tables. Thats all for now guys and gals, have a great week!

Here's an update on deposits and withdraws online.....................

As of Friday, October 12th: Total Deposits: $52.00(Pokerstars)


Results: (Keep in mind this is for sitn'gos only on pokerstars, no cash games whatsoever)


6-handed Sitn'go: (1)Buyin $6.60 Place: 1st Total winnings: $23.40

ST (9 handed) Sitn'go: (2)Buyin $11 Place: 1st and 3rd Total winnings: $63.00

Heads Up (2 handed) Sitn'go: Buyin $10.50 (2)Place: 1st Total winnings: $20.00

Heads Up (2 handed) Sitn'go: Buyin $2.20 (3)Place: 1st Total winnings: $6.00

Heads Up (2 handed) Sitn'go: Buyin $5.25 (1)Place: 1st Total winnings: $10.00


Total Deposits: $52.00 Total Winnings: $122.40
Variance: + $70.40

Current Bankroll: $49.25

(Keep in mind that i haven't been keeping track of tournaments that I haven't moneyed in, thats why my bankroll is lower than total winnings. The other tournaments have been bought in buy pure profit, I'm just hoping to build up my bankroll by playing tournaments alone and consistently make profit.)

On a Side note: There's probably been around 8-10 tournaments I haven't moneyed in keeping my bankroll at the same level as my initial deposit.

A personal goal/test...............

Ok, so I'm going to attempt to make a little money strictly through sitn'gos. I have deposited 20 bucks and the first sitn'go I will be playing in will be a 10 plus 1 dollar no limit holdem tourny, single table.

I have personally never set any specific goal in relation to poker whatsoever, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out. I will continuously be updating hopefully showing nothing but progress but either way, I'll update frequently.

Again, congratulations to Carol on her 4th win in a row between both Jim and Armando's pokerrooms. Pretty tough to win one with all you donkey's out there, not to mention 4. Nice job!

It's off to basketball tonight, have a good one guys....

Pokerstars Blogger Event!!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 2580181

Bubblicious!!


So I screwed up a relatively large chip lead at Jim's yesterday. I'm talking somewhere in the neighborhood of around 120k-140k when the average stack was around 35-40k. Disgusting isn't it. My demise first began with an unlucky loss to Henry. Both of us played the hand correctly, I just got the bad end of it. A range of bad hole cards to incorrect reads was how I found my way out of the game.

However, what sucks worse is to Bubble. Seriously, sitting there for 4 hours about to make at least some cash and them blowing the whole night by getting knocked out after having a third(if not more) of the chips in play.

I even lost money to Mondo. We had a little side bet that if he didn't make first place then I would owe him 5 bucks. However, if he did make first place, I would get 4:1 on the bet, so I would have earned 20 if he had won the tourney. But, not only did I lose that bet, but also accomplished being the bubble. I HATE that more than anything.....I would rather eat Chinese food than Bubble in a tournament(I despise Chinese food).

Here's what I think my new profession should be............what do you think?

Come on, I could make more money than I do in poker with the large crowds I would create. Just imagine me in place of the kid, looks good doesn't it. Whatever, I'm done playing poker for good.

NNNOOOOOOTTT!!! Sorry guys, you have to see my ugly face again because I have to be there to bubble.

Here guys..........this is basically what it felt like but probly not as bad, in fact, I didn't even look at the flop when it came out and it wasn't for that many chips.............(click on the link below to watch and laugh at good ole' Justin in this past poker game)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVe08sBDQ0k

Sorry to bring up sensitive times Justino, it was a way to make myself feel good.

Guys, I am going to start getting into photoshopping. So in the near future, expect funny images of yourself because knowing all you donks out there, there gonna have to be pretty good. Anyway, see you guys week after next!

Btw.......congrats to Carol on her 3rd straight victory at Jim's!

The Deuces Baby........not to bad in some cases.....right??

Ok, so I wanted to blog this individual hand up only for my own protection. This last tournament we were fairly deep and a couple spots from the money, the play was pretty tight as usual and everybody who has been playing at the Big O has a strong grasp of all the players and their particular style. Normally, the core players at the Big O never make bad calls or calls that don't give them the right odds. The blinds were 3,000 /6,000, there were around 6-7 players, just a couple or few spots from the money as stated earlier. I was the small blind, and the newby, Megan, was the big blind. Jim was second to act at the table, he pushed all in for around 27,000. Everybody around the table folded, it got back to me........I had pocket 2's. I looked at my stack and had around 80k, I DID NOT PUT HIM ON A POCKET PAIR. I called, Megan quickly folded. If I lost the hand then it would have left me JUST under average stack. Jim flipped over A7 offsuite...........best I could ask for, no pocket pair.

Jim's hand



My hand

Here are the exact percentages of the hand with only 2 people going into the flop.


Jim: 47.31% to win (with A7 offsuite)


Mike: 52.10% to win (with pocket 2's)


Jim missed the entire flop: K 10 8 (i think this was the flop), then hit a A on the turn, which obviously crushed me leaving me a two outer for the win.

My whole point for blogging this particular hand is that even though I had the lowest pair in the deck, I still had him beat preflop. Reading the players is the most important ability in poker, yes, I do misread from time to time, but being able to read players is what helps a person in the long run, reason being, it helps win tournaments. On the contrary, waiting for made hands all night can still turn out to be disastrous, so again, its not always about the two hole cards in front of you. (In my opinion.)


If I could get some feedback that would be great........everybody have a good week!

Suck............Resuck..........


Yep.........not first, second, or even third, but 4th place! Its like getting a sports award in high school, honorable mention. You know, the award where everybody laughs because you were nowhere near the best.

As everybody knows, we had a field of 13 players at Mondo's this past weekend, which was my eleventh tournament of the year. It took a little while but eventually I started chipping up. The field was unusually smaller but in return, made it easier to get to the final table. So after 3 players were eliminated, the final table was formed. You can check out the final table in more detail in Mookie99's Blog. Yeah I know.....4th out of 13 seems weak but hey, it was still sixty bucks after the 40 dollar payout for 4th and the 2 bounty cards I had. Whatever, we had a good time.

There were 2 things that sucked about the whole night. The first, playing till early morning and being exhausted for the second tournament. Lastly, this being the sickest, the beat I took from Scott. It was truthfully exactly what happened to Henry the tournament before this very one with Mike Ba. It was a different flop but the hole cards for each player were the same and my emotions were exactly as Henry's but kept to myself rather than verbally expressed. Check out this video on Youtube, sick beat, it hurts to even watch! Scott, I'm coming for you son, watch your back! Ok, no more threats, you know I love you man, not in a literal sense either. After all, we do make mistakes.

After taking an honorable 4th place, we decided to get enough people and organize a second tournament. This tournament started a little after 2 AM. Yeah, play wasn't at its best here. But anyway, I again made it to the money but got knocked out first and took 3rd place. Oh well, got to play the great game of holdem.

That's all for now, hope to see everybody next weekend for more poker insanity. Later guys!!

2nd!!.....nope......3rd........YES!!!!!



Ok......this last weekend's tournament was a good one for me only because i climbed my way up a few spots on the Big O money list. From 9th to 6th, not too bad. However, the most exciting moment of last weekends tournament was Mike Barons beat over Henry. Here's how the hand went down...............

HENRY: JJ MIKE BARON: QJ (offsuite)

The flop: Q Q J 9 2 (suits don't matter)


So that's it guys, Mike had 3 outs and hit both for the nut hand, he had to at LEAST hit 2 of the 3 remaining queens in the deck to make it impossible for Henry to win and sure enough with his luck, he crippled Henry. Make sure and listen closely for Henry's expressions in the movie clip(on Mondo's blog)....they are absolutely hysterical.

Mondo and myself chopped both 2nd and 3rd place money which basically was 100 a piece. We were both playing for 5 bucks and 2nd place points. I bit the dust first because of Rocky's cold, hard play against me..........slow playing a full house, bastard.


This is a rather short posting, however, this posting is gold for Mondo's photoshop collection. Here it is boys and girls, in our room at Bally's, the Las Vegas Chip n' dale himself: Justin Thurman in non-photoshopped form.

He was begging me to take a picture of him guys, so don't get any ideas, I had NOTHING to do with it. He was looking back at me mean like a dragon(at least that's what he told me).

Bally the Beautiful!!!!

So our trip to Las Vegas was a blast! To say the least, most everybody made money on the trip. Our group consisted of quite a few of us, mainly Big O regulars and a few relatives: Rocky, Melissa, Clara, Mondo, Rico, Henry, Carol, Toby, Justin, Jim, Stacy, Stacy's mother and father, Toby's father, and last but hopefully not least, myself. That's right, 15 of us. I am unable to tell you the exact amount of cash people went positive or negative but I can give a vague and personal account for how I did and some others. First off, five of us got there on Monday(Rico, Justin, Toby,Toby's father, and me), all the others listed above got there a day before. By the time all five of us had made our way into Vegas people were deep into the tables at the MGM and Paris. My plane trip was a little more enjoyable with the help of Tanqueray. Those babies are 4 bucks a pop on the plane, not too too bad but in reality, it cost them maybe 1 buck a piece. Finally arriving in Vegas at about 5 o'clock on Monday, I had already racked up about 60 dollars worth of alcohol between the plane from Austin to Dallas, at the ABIA airport, and at the Dallas Love Field Bar. Oh well, supposed to be a fun trip right! However, when arriving in Vegas, both Henry and Rico picked me up in a rental. After dropping Henry off, the first thing me and Rico did was ordering up a few burgers from McDonald's. Then, we checked into the beautiful 2 star Imperial Palace. It actually wasn't to bad accept for our 4 mile hike to our room and the really slutty looking cocktail waitresses. Slutty meaning older looking with a pair the size of a couple Hindenburg's. Here's how it all went down............




So here's a casino chip from the places where most of our time was spent, accept, I am missing 2 from both El Cortez and Planet Hollywood.

(All the reviews are in order from the picture to the left top to bottom)

Luxor: This is where Henry and Carol stayed, I have to admit, the inside is pretty damn cool. However, the game I played most was 50 dollar max buyin no limit holdem game. As soon as you post a blind for 1 dollar you can buy in for another 50 so the most you can start out with is really 99 dollars. Not bad, strange but oh well. I did pretty well, probly made 100 after playing for around 4-5 hours.

MGM Grand: Largest casino in the world, huge building with over 5,000 rooms. In my opinion, the nicest building off the strip. Mondo and Clara stayed here I'm pretty sure. Personally, I got crushed with losing over 400 in the pokerroom(thanks to Mondo and Toby) and about 300 in blackjack, thats called getting an ass whippin. So to ease the pain, I went and looked at the Lions inside the MGM casino. They were really tame and ate from the trainers hands, unreal! The animals are inside of a glass dome in a section of MGM.

Bally's: Oh baby baby!! My favorite only because it put me back up for the entire trip just before I headed off to the airport to depart for Austin. This is also where Justin and Toby stayed and where I stayed the last night. I was even on the entire trip, I'm talking dead even, had 600 dollars in my pocket. I told Justin that its not everyday I get to come play poker in the hottest city in the world for holdem. We had about 5 hours till we left so I decided to buy in for a hundred bucks into their 200 dollar max buyin 1/2 game. The guys at the table told me the guy who left just before me cashed in over 15 hundred dollars. Yeah 15 not 5, wow!! I was hoping the seat was still hot. After 2 hours, I had a chip stack of 625 dollars. I profited 525 in 2 hours of play, so I guess the seat was still hot. This put me back up 600 dollars for the trip because I let Justin borrow some because he was having a rough time in Vegas. He's usually lucky, lucky, lucky btw....... but anyway, I picked up a t-shirt that says Bally's Las Vegas on it. Bally's is attached to Paris for those of you who didn't know.

Paris: This is where Jim, Stacy, and Stacy's Parents stayed. Really neat place! However, its where I almost had a heart attack....twice!!!! Freakin roulette(thats why theres a picture of a roulette table chip from Paris in the pic). Thanks to Rocky, everybody started this system that almost killed me. Here's his philosophy layed out right here: If a color has hit 4 times in a row, then on the 5th spin, bet the other color, starting with a minimum bet. So on the 5th spin put out 10 bucks(ten is the minimum) either on red or black...the one that hasn't hit in 4 spins. If it misses again for the 5th time, double your money on the 6th spin to 20 dollars. If it misses a 6th time, then you have to put out 40 dollars, when you hit you only get all the money you put in plus an additional 10 dollars. Here's a nightmare that really happened 3 times...twice at Paris and once at Planet Hollywood.



I'm not exact, the colors could be switched but here's how it went down to me and carol 2 times.

1st spin: Black
2nd spin: Black
3rd spin: Black
4th spin: Black
5th spin: (time to put out $10 bet on RED) Black
6th spin: (time to put out $20 bet on RED) Black
7th spin: (time to put out $40 bet on RED) Black
8th spin: (time to put out $80 bet on RED) Black
9th spin: (time to put out $160 bet on RED) Black
10th spin: (time to put out $320 bet on RED) finally......RED


After all that.........we had $630 dollars of our own money into the table until we hit on the 10th spin. We got all our money back plus 10. Not worth it for 10 bucks. I think I'm done with that system after watching one table run up 11 spins of the same color until finally hitting the other color on the 12th spin. I would have been broke, thank God I wasn't sitting at that table. Instead I was playing Pai Gow poker with Toby where I played off the same 50 bucks for an hour not winning but one hand(its because I pushed most of the other hands)...I won't get into detail about the game but its a game where you could just sit and get drunk.

Imperial Palace: Wow, I'll tell you what, really old casino. But, there were still people all throughout that place in all hours of the night. Overall, I spent the least amount of time in their casino even though I stayed there for 2 nights, thanks to Rico btw. Overall, I was up about 200 in there from Blackjack alone. other than that, didn't play 2 much. However, the worse thing about it, the walk to our room. Here were the directions from the lady at the front desk.

Go down the casino floor until you reach the first set of elevators. Take those elevators up to the second floor, turn right, go down the hallway until you get to another set of elevators, take those elevators down until you get to the base floor, once the elevator door opens, turn right into the hallway.....walk down that hallway until you reach your first cross way....make that right go down to the end of the hall and your room is the last door on the left.......ask Rico...I SWEAR!!


El Cortez and Planet Hollywood were places that we also visited, I just forgot to get chips from both.

El Cortez: The old part of Las Vegas...Rico, Jim, and I went and had breakfast over there!! UNBELIEVABLE breakfast. I had steak and eggs, so did Rico..Jim missed out. We played some craps over there....mimimum 3 dollar table..crazy! We had a little fun, I made 32 bucks profit from that craps table. Paid for breakfast anyway.

Planet Hollywood: By far the nicest pokerroom I had seen out of the places we visited. Comfortable seats with a very nice look. The play was relatively good and the people were nice. In fact, come to think of it, I didn't run into bad play anywhere in Vegas, hmmm, weird.Here's the pokerroom at a glimpse......

It was nice but one thing that sucked is that I missed "The Grinder"..Michael Mizrachi. I missed him by 3 minutes in the PH pokerroom. Rico had to go to the airport and was finishing up a tournament. My stuff was in his car and he was in a hurry so I had to go get all my crap. But anyway, Rocky was still in the tournament and was being watched by Mizrachi. Pretty cool.....I was the only one who missed him, dang. He plays in a promotional tournament on Wednsdays there for a 110 dollar buyin. I thought about playing in it but said forget it, the group was doin other stuff.


Anyway..........we had a blast and I hope to go back later this year when Joel returns from Iraq. We're already talking about another trip for October or November after his return. But for now, thats it. Its back to the cheapy 10 dollar tournaments on the weekends at the Winter and Big O pokerrooms. I have to say with 3 nights free hotel and a 297 dollar plane ticket, I payed for my plane ticket and had an additional 400 dollars in profit. Not bad for my first "real" trip to Vegas!!