Okay then if you hit the J of hearts of diamonds in 21 it's Redjack and a gut shot straight should come with a slug to the guts

Ari's a weird dude.

In early 2007, Ari posted on another message board that he was moving to Vegas from Vermont and was looking for a place to crash. Erin and I had an extra bedroom in our first apartment here, so I volunteered. About an hour before they arrived, I thought "Oh ****. I'm about to let a complete internet stranger in my house. I'm totally going to get robbed and/or murdered. Well, it's been a good life..." Fortunately, Ari didn't try to rob me. In fact, when I asked for his car keys as a sign of good faith, he gave them up no problem. And he drove a fairly new Porsche convertible, so it wasn't some beater. I don't know why he trusted me so implicitly from the get-go to crash in my extra room and give up his keys. I don't know why I assumed that getting his keys would be the only thing I needed to ensure his complete and total trust and loyalty, but I didn't get robbed and I think I'm alive. Unless this is the Sixth Sense and M. Knight Shyamalan is just ****ing with me. The Village sucked.

He drove cross-country with his ex-but-still-good-friend Kristen. She had transferred her Costco job, and Ari figured he'd just get a job here, or play poker to pay the bills and scrape out a living. There was one slight problem with the latter part of his plan: He was 20. I decided to give him my Station Casino players card and he would go play poker at Red Rock. If they tried to card him, he'd pull the "Oh I forgot my ID, but here's my player's card. My birthday is xxx and my PIN is 1234". He said this worked about 99% of the time. Every once in a while he'd get tossed, but he'd just go to another Station room and was fine.

This little bit always made me smile: Prior to moving to Vegas, neither of them had ever seen a palm tree before. There was one 10 feet from the front door of their apartment. It was kind of culture shock for them at first.

About four days after Ari and Kristen moved to Las Vegas, I get a call from Kristen. "Hey, I think Ari's like, hurt or dead or something." Excuse me, what? "I got a call from his phone, but someone said 'Hey this dude was in an accident and he's really hurt.' So whatever. I think he's at like, a hospital." I could never figure out why Kristen was incapable of human emotions. I had her pegged from day 1, and she never really changed. I call Erin, and we both leave work early to try and help Kristen figure out what happened. We start calling hospitals, police stations, and morgues to figure out where he was taken. UMC finally confirmed that someone with that name was in their ER, banged to **** from a car accident. I start driving and tell Kristen to call Ari's parents. "Yeah hi, it's Kristen. Ari was in like, a car accident. He's in the hospital. Yeah I don't know. Yeah. Okay bye." I suddenly decide I hate people from Vermont. We get to the ER and we're told we can't see him right now. It's going to be a while, so either go home or get comfortable. We camp out in the ER. My memory on how long we were there, if/when we went home is a little fuzzy. What I do remember is when we were finally able to go see him, he was a mess. Bruises, tubes, sensors, partially shaved head, stitches... exactly what you'd expect from someone that was just in a major car accident. He opens his eyes, gets a little grin and says "Oh Spike, you look like ****. What happened to you?" **** you too, buddy.

If you haven't driven in Vegas outside of the Strip, it can be intimidating at first. The major roads are all three lanes in either direction, with a 45MPH speed limit. It's a grid system and there are few to no curves, which means speed is rarely impaired outside of red lights or *******s. Ari was heading west on Sahara going to Red Rock. As he got to the intersection of Ft. Apache, a 16 year old with a learner's permit going eastbound on Sahara tried to take a left on Ft. Apache directly into Ari's path. He didn't have enough time to stop and slammed into the side of her car. A third car hit Ari from behind and sent him spinning into the wall next to the sidewalk. ****ed him up pretty bad.

His parents arrived a day or two later and stuck around while he recovered. Somehow, he didn't need much physical therapy and made a relatively quick recovery. He called one of those TV lawyers to sue the **** out of the learner's permit. It took years, but I hear he eventually got a mid-six figure settlement from the insurance company, but not much from the other driver's family. He was so annoyed with how little he was able to speak to an attorney, how long the process took, and how disorganized this law firm was, it actually inspired him later on...

Needing a steady source of income, Erin got Ari a job with AT&T. Ari was fearless when talking to other people. Just couldn't have given less of a **** what people thought about him or what he said. A true social nihilist. He would routinely **** with customers just for the fun of it. He was Jewish, but decided to give himself the Hitler-style mustache. For his first day of work. He shows up, and his boss said "Ari, you need to shave your mustache." He said "Melissa, so do you." Miraculously, he wasn't fired for that. He was the type to take his lunch break at the craps tables. Never lost a ton (or at least, never admitted to losing) and played poker nearly every night. At our small buy-in micro-stakes homegame, Ari was the type to drop $120+ in buy-ins just trying to get even. He actually dropped over $200 one night to someone's mom.

One day, I got a call from my dad. He's usually pretty low-key, but I could tell he was mad. "You're gambling too much!" What the hell... "You're gambling way too much. You just got a thing in the mail from Station casinos offering you four free nights. You don't get free nights unless you're gambling way too much!" I had to stop and think about it for a minute before I realized it was actually Ari using my card, and I still had my Massachusetts license/address linked to the card. Not sure if my dad bought that excuse, but he certainly enjoyed taking the four free nights the one and only time he's ever come to visit me out here.

Unfortunately, I don't have too many other stories that feature Ari. At least, not a lot I can remember. He got fed up with his job at AT&T and went to dealer school at night. After graduating in early 2008, he was given a choice - either on-call at a ****ty off-Strip place in Vegas and he can try to work his way up, or get guaranteed full-time at a newer Indian casino outside of Santa Fe, NM. He chose Santa Fe, and moved there with one of the Penn State brothers. The two of them stuck it out there for a while before both transferred over to a casino outside of Denver. Both of them live there now, but Ari just graduated from law school and is now a public defender. That ****ty experience with the TV attorney motivated him to the point where he wanted to go to law school. I got to visit him last year when I went to Denver for a conference, but I missed him in Vegas a few weeks ago. He came out during my finals week. **** timing. His new girlfriend has calmed him down some, but I think that old nihilist is still lurking around in there. Just a matter of finding the right moment for him to shine.

After Ari moved to New Mexico, Kristen moved back to Vermont. Without Ari, there wasn't much for her in Vegas. Honestly, I was a little sad to see her go. Not just because she was hot (she was, and Ari was nice enough to send me one pic which I still have). Her and Erin had become good enough friends that Erin wasn't completely insufferable. Losing her meant losing a bit of stability in my own life. Come to think of it, I really only wanted Kristen to stay for selfish reasons - hotness and stability. I really am a reprehensible human being.

How did a 20 year old kid with no work skills get a Porsche convertible (the word is "Cabriolet")?

Thursday, July 14 -

It's 3:30am. Why the **** is my alarm going off at 3:30am? My wife half-shoves, half-slaps me to get me to shut off the alarm. I don't do well in the morning. I have three alarms set on my phone, plus my clock radio on the other side of the room that blasts mariachi music. I need all of these alarms to actually get out of bed. The mariachi music is blaring, and my wife is pissed because she doesn't have to get up for another four hours. I shower in the downstairs bathroom so as not to disturb her, and I head on out.

I mentioned earlier that I'm getting pretty fed up with my job. During my last performance evaluation, I asked for more responsibility. Most of the jobs for which I want to apply require things like supervisory experience, budgeting, training... something other than what I'm doing now. I tell my boss that I want to do more, so he volunteers me to help with a major state grant. This sounds nice at first, until I realize that it's just a bigger version of what I've been doing for 2.5 years and I don't really have much say in how things are done. I just get to pull data. Part of this big grant thing is the occasional trip to Reno. Unfortunately for me, this first trip is only a day trip, which means I'm on the 5:50am flight.

It's still dark outside:




I get to the gate, and I'm hanging out for about 20 minutes when I realize my co-workers have been sitting behind me this whole time. We're all on this flight, because we're all really stupid. The flight is scheduled to land at 7am, and the meeting starts at 10am. I don't think we can find a three hour breakfast, and none of my fellow travelers are willing to hear me out on my suggestion of a strip club and poker table. Probably because they're all 40 years old+ women and boring as hell. We get a mini van to cart us around for the day, and the newly promoted one amongst us takes the wheel. I guess my company figures if she crashes the van, she can afford to get it fixed with her new salary.

We ended up taking my boss' suggestion of going to a place called Archie's, which is right outside the UNR campus. If you ever find yourself up that way, I recommend it. Breakfast was massive but didn't take much time to put a dent in our time-to-kill window.

This is sacrilege in Las Vegas but... I REALLY like Reno. I'd heavily consider moving there if my wife could find a job comparable to what she's making now. I mean, UNR is beautiful:






Hell, even Truckee Meadows Community College (the location of this meeting) had a nicer view than what I'm used to:



Our meeting began at 10am, and ended just short of 5pm. We had an 8pm flight out of Reno, which once again meant a three hour window of time to kill. One woman said she had to be at the airport by 6:30, so dinner should be quick. I suggest we just eat at the airport. Another woman nearly lost her mind, "Oh no we're not spending 3+ hours at the airport." We decide to go back to Archie's because we're just that unoriginal. Our driver decides to invite her Goddaughter to join us for dinner since she's taking classes at UNR this summer. She shows up, and one of my co-workers literally starts the conversation with "Nice to meet you. Is prostitution legal up here?" I start laughing hysterically. The 18 year old college student looks very confused. Someone suggests that perhaps Google should be involved. The conversation quickly shifts to how big the burgers might be.

Pretty uneventful otherwise. I'm grateful to get on the plane and snag a window seat, but with a full flight I feel pretty crammed against the side wall. Fortunately, it's only an hour flight, give or take.

Home sweet home:



Friday, July 15

I was supposed to go back to Reno for another (unrelated) conference later this month, but the travel arrangements were all FUBAR. My boss emailed me during my vacation last month about it. He then sent my information along to the person coordinating the event. I didn't see any of this until I got back to the office on June 27, and the deadline for both the conference registration and hotel discount expired June 24. The conference coordinator didn't take care of my reservations, so I was **** outta luck. I suppose it's a good thing in the end, but like I said, I really like Reno.

Friday night, my wife's friend is having a birthday party. And she's celebrating by renting out an entire theater showing the new Ghostbuster's movie. First things first, we need to grab a quick giftcard and small present:



Movie theater snack bar is using a really old version of Windows Media Player:



The movie was better than I expected. I didn't expect some kind of cinematic masterpiece, but it kept my interest, the funny lines were actually really funny, good cameos, and the obvious lead-in to the sequel (stick around for after the credits). I was pleasantly surprised.

After the movie, we're off to the Tenaya Creek Brewery... except it's not called Tenaya Creek anymore:




Saturday, July 16

Wife and I decide to start the day by going to our favorite breakfast spot:



I love Lee's Liquor ads:



My buddy Joboo is off work and texts that he wants to play poker somewhere. I suggest either the 5pm $185 at the WSOP, or the 6pm $125 at Caesar's. We figure the WSOP would give us the better bang for the buck, so I head on out. Little did I know, the Pavilion room and lobby were already dismantled:




I call Joboo and tell him it's off, but then I find out it's actually happening in the Amazon room next to the Main Event area:





Daily deepstack area:




Opening blinds are 25/50. About halfway through the first level, there's a raise to 125 from MP. Btn calls. I'm in the SB and see AA. I pull back my single 25 chip, count out a stack of 450, and throw it out there. The MP raiser says "That's a string bet." Dealer informs him that no, it's not a string bet anywhere, ever. Player insists on calling the floor. The floor confirms that it's a raise all day, and MP becomes upset. "I did that last week in the deepstack and the dealer said it was a string bet. How can it be a string bet one day and totally fine the next?" I don't know what he expected the floor to do, but the floor just calmly said "I'm sorry that ruling went against you sir, but that's always been a raise" and walked away. If anyone cares about the action, MP and BTN both call:

Flop J76ddx. I bet 800. MP and BTN call.
Turn 4d. I check. MP and BTN check.
River 5x. Great. Flush draw and four to a straight get there. I check. Both players check behind. I announce that board just kept getting worse and worse for my hand. Both players chuckle and then muck. Not bad.

Unfortunately, that was the last hand I won. It was not, however, the last time I was able to add a chip to my stack.

I had just lost a ton of chips with 44 v AT all in pre. It was a bad spot for me to 3-bet pre, but it was level 4 and I was bored. I was down to three 1000 chips. As the new shuffle is happening, I toss in a 1000 chip for an ante. Dealer breaks the chip into two 500 chips. Dealer then breaks one of the 500 chips into four 100 chips and four 25 chips. I get 475 back in change and think nothing of it. I fold pre, the hand gets all in at the river and someone wins like a 25k chip pot. Halfway through the next hand, I count my stack and see I'm at 2450 when I should be at 2950. It takes me a while, but I remember getting change last hand and the dealer never gave me the second 500 chip long with the rest of my change. I realize this and ask the dealer who won the last hand. Dealer points to the 3 seat and I say he got an extra 500 chip from me. The dealer asks how, I explain the situation. Dealer agrees and says that it was his mistake. I say that it's too late now and my own fault for not paying attention. Player in the 3 seat tosses me the 500 chip and says "Don't worry about it." I'm honestly a little surprised no one put up a fuss but I went bust about three hands later when I shoved KJcc and got called by AcJx. I can't improve and I go home.

That's all I've got for now. I'll be playing cash a bit this week, and there's a chance of a Cards Against Humanity night for my birthday in a couple of weeks. Should be a good time...

I'm not entirely sure. He had always made vague allusions to some kind of military service, but not where or for how long. And being only 20, I can't imagine he'd have gotten out already (I don't know much about military life... maybe I'm wrong). I think the more likely answer is either a) online poker or b) living at home with mom and dad and saving up every cent. It's easy to save when you have no bills of your own.

It's not easy to save enough for a late model Porsche no matter how low your costs are.

Ah, the brown hills of Reno/Sparks. At least Virginia City isn't far away.

And in case google failed you, no, hoes aren't legal in Washoe County where Reno is. You have to go over to Lyon County for the hoehouses.

I just tried to message him on Facebook but it appears he has deleted it. I have him as a friend through Battle.net so I'll ask when he signs on again. You're right. It's weird that someone so young with no discernible skills pulled that off.

I sort of assumed that was the case. I didn't want "Reno prostitution" on my phone during working hours, but if my memory is correct - prostitution is allowed in any county with a population less than a certain amount (200k?), and not allowed in Carson City at all. Of the 16 counties in the state, 14 are under the population threshold, and eight allow prostitutes. Someone feel free to fact-check me, as it's been a while since I've looked. Given my ex-wife's proclivity towards these activities, I did do some research back in the day. Been a long time, however.

I took a sick day today because I had major back pains when I woke up. By 8:30, I felt fine, but there's no sense in giving up an already-used sick day. I'm meeting the wife for lunch, and then it's off to a 1/2 or 1/3 game somewhere in town.

Sounds like the retailing of some illicit substances may have been involved.

Maybe not in the CC city limits, but two miles away in the little town of Mound House is Hoehouse Central for northern NV.

thanks for the continuing updates; i know it takes time and effort; and though people may not always respond; they are definitely reading

This for sure.

Thanks for all the stories so far.

I had a moment this morning of "Oh no, the shirt I bought this weekend is a size too big... Oh no, it fits perfectly."

I've got a major work project due, otherwise I'd have two days worth of playing to post here. Unfortunately, "real life" has taken over once again. My department is directly responsible for creating the information that our President will present to the board, so it's kind of a big deal. Me and Joboo are going to play more cards tonight, so I may not have a full update until tomorrow night or possibly the weekend.

Brad loves to drink. Steve loves to drink. When the two of them get together, it can be hilarious or utter chaos. One night, they made white Russians and got hammered. The next morning, they decide to make cereal, but they used all of the milk for their drinks the night before. Being evil geniuses-in-training, they decide to pour white Russians over their cereal. And apparently, Cinnamon Toast Crunch with a white Russian instead of milk is the grossest thing on the planet... Anyway, on to the story.

I heard about this from those who lived through it, so I apologize if any of the details or timeline seems off. I'm texting with Brad to make sure I get this as close to right as I can, but it's even fuzzy for him. Brad and Steve decided to take a random weekday, drive to Arizona, and go to a Diamondbacks game. Brad looooooooves baseball (he and Joboo went on a cross-country road trip after college and hit something like 24 of 30 parks) and Steve just wants an excuse to drink in a hotel room. They drive to Arizona and promptly start pre-gaming. During the game, they continue to drink. After the game, they continue to drink.... and that's when the problems started.

They wind up at a bar and just start pounding 'em back. At one point, Steve gets up to use the men's room. Two minutes later, Brad realizes he also needs to use the men's room. Brad walks in, looks around... and Steve is nowhere to be found. Brad goes back to the bar. Still no Steve. Brad tries calling and texting, but there's no answer. Weird. So Brad does what any good Boy Scout would do - he thinks "Eh, **** it" and walks back to the hotel, drunk and alone.

About two hours have gone by and Steve still isn't back. Brad is starting to worry, so he tries calling again. As he's calling, Steve walks back into the hotel room and acts like nothing happened. Brad asks where Steve was...

Let's see if I can explain the situation properly: The restrooms at this bar were down a small hallway, women's room on the left; men's room on the right. Against the back wall, there's a ladder that leads up to a small attic space. Steve decided that, since there's no sign on the ladder specifically saying "Employees only", he'd climb up and see what was up there. And he did. And then he fell asleep. So, while Brad was worried about his buddy having gone missing, Steve was sound asleep amongst whatever storage was up there. I assume that, if it's boxes of liquor, it was the best sleep Steve ever had.

The next morning, Steve starts complaining. Somehow, during the night, he lost his belt. They scour the room, but Steve confirms that he had it on at the bar and doesn't remember having it when he got back to the hotel. He thinks he left it in the bar attic. The two of them go back to the bar and inquire about the belt. After getting a good scolding about going up in the attic, the bartenders confirm that no random belt has been found.

Brad and Steve walk around a little bit until they find a men's clothing store. Perfect, they think. Alas, their dreams were dashed, as this men's store sold suits, pants, shirts, socks, suspenders, hats, and accessories, but no belts.

I found out later that they want to the mall and Steve got a belt there, but that's not the point. The point is this: As Brad and Steve are telling me this story, and they get to the part about the store, I get a MASSIVE grin on my face. I start doing a little jig that looks like a toddler about to piss his pants. Steve, resigned to the fact that he knows he's about to hear a terrible joke, scowls and says "What? What is it, Spike?"

I asked them to confirm that the men's store did not, in fact, have any belts. He confirms that they were belt-less. The following words tripped out of my mouth, like Dick van Dyke over an ottoman. I didn't so much say these words as I did bazooka-launch them out, from sheer excitement and pride:



I... I'm sorry. I really am. I apologize to anyone with eyes that has to read drivel like this. I apologize to anyone who thought they would click on that spoil tag and see something worth reading. This is an embarrassment, but Brad insisted that the story end up in this thread.

Happy now, *******?

haha; sleeping in the attack of a bar is one thing; but coming back, admitting it the next day just to look for a freaking belt; lol; those guys have no shame

Monday - July 18

I called in sick. I just couldn't bring myself to get out of bed this morning. Even with the impending major projects that are due (end of next week), I feel confident I can get everything done in time. I sleep in a bit, and run a quick errand:



I drop by my wife's office and we get some sushi delivered for lunch. Whatever that small sushi place is downtown, it's not bad. I think there are better places in Las Vegas as a whole, but if you're downtown and not willing to travel, give it a go. Then it's off to do "real work" at the MGM. In for $200:



My second hand and I'm on the BB. Five limpers to me with A5o and I check. Flop comes K54. It checks all the way around to the btn who bets $10. I decide to float and see if I can either get a read or get lucky. And get lucky I did. Turn is another 5. I lead for $20 thinking I'll take it down here. Btn thinks and raises to $55. Interesting. I call. River is a Q. I check, btn bets $100. I insta-call and he shows 75. I show him the bad news and take down a nice pot to start.

No other real hands of note here. I worked the stack to about $440 at its peak but dropped some back on missed draws. Cashed out +$165. I leave around the time my wife should be getting off work. I should point out that, for all the MGM parking-related ****ery I was complaining about earlier, I was able to get in and out of the garage without issue using my Nevada ID. They fixed something on their end, so that was appreciated.

Just as I walk in the door, my wife tells me she's working late, possibly until 9. I don't know how lawyers do it. I'm asked to work late occasionally, but the amount of hours she's putting in is obscene. My dad is worried that she'll get burned out before too long. I think she can handle it. I'm just selfish and want to see her more. Melancholy aside, I need food. As if by some kind of ginger telepathic connection, Joboo calls. He's off work and going to Chada Street. I tell him I'm heading out the door and head to Chinatown.

Unbeknown to the two of us, Chada Street is closed on Mondays. Garfield was right, Mondays are the worst. Joboo points out that there is another Thai place in the same plaza. If you've seen the strip mall that has Chada Street, Doh, Lee's Sandwiches, and a couple other really good places, you know that it faces Spring Mountain. What you may not realize is that there's about half a dozen other storefronts facing Wynn Rd, and that includes:



REALLY good for quick Thai food. I had the crab rangoon and duck pad thai, left fat and happy, and still had plenty left over for when my wife when she got off work. She's tired as hell and goes to bed about the millisecond she comes home and finishes wolfing down leftovers, so I do what any kind, caring husband would do - head to the TI and run the 10pm tournament. The tournament gods have a sick sense of humor, and I bust when I shove 10bb with AK v JJ v 52 (it was the BB and he only had like 1.5bb behind). Flop 652. Turn A. River J.

Tuesday, July 19 -

Once again, I decide to call in sick. My old boss used to say "I have anal glaucoma - I can't see my ass coming to work today." She was a classy broad, that one.

Last weekend, the wife and I reached a mutual understanding. She wants another cat. I don't. So we compromised and agreed to get another cat. I have no will power. On Saturday, we hit up both the NSPCA and Animal Foundation (formerly Lied Animal Shelter). One of the cats at the SPCA was super sweet. I picked her up and she started sniffing my beard. ****. We left empty-handed, but I could tell my wife's heart is set on this little bugger. Back to Tuesday - I tell my wife to meet me at the shelter and we'll get the cat. I can stay home with her this first day and we'll see how the new cat does with our current one. We were disappointed to learn, however, that the "kitty condo" had one sick cat, so all of the cats are under quarantine for the time being. We left our information and just have to hope no one snags this cat out from under us.

Now, I'm left with a quandary. I want to go play a tournament, but don't necessarily want something that's going to take hours upon hours (Aria 1pm). I check PokerAtlas and see that there's a 1pm across town, in a room I've been largely ignoring for a while. I text the wife about where I'm going and I get back "... what the ****?" I don't know, baby. I really don't:



Pandering to a certain crowd:




The room itself:




I get there early enough for their early registration bonus. $35 for 5000 in chips, plus a $10 add-on for 2000 more at any point before the first break. I have time to kill so I wander a bit:

Sports book:



I decide to sit at a terrible but easy table game: Wild Hold 'Em Fold 'Em. There's three betting squares: ante, play, and raise. The player starts off by betting the ante and gets three cards. It's basically a five card stud game with deuces wild. I bleed off a bit, then get dealt 922. I ask the dealer "What's the most I can bet right now?" She tells me that the play bet = ante, and the raise = double the ante. I put my cards down and max the bets. She gives me a 6 and a 10 for a beautiful straight. I stick around about four hands longer than I should have, and cashed out a $25 winner.

Time to get to work:



Opening level is 25/50. There's a guy at my table, and something's off. He's muttering to himself, seems to be drifting in and out of consciousness... but he's definitely not drunk. This is either narcotics or some kind of long-term mental illness. He's open-raising to 650 or more nearly every hand, or three-betting to 2k when someone is dumb enough to raise in front of him (how do you not just limp/shove when he pulls some kind of nonsense?). But, every time he showed a hand, he had something. He doubled when the bb didn't believe him and shoved with K9. Out-of-it guy calls with AK and holds. He builds a stack, and by level 3 he's playing like a human being again. I get on a little heater and bust some players, working to over 20k at first break:



The prize pool is posted. With something like 27 entries, they're paying the top 3 spots: $313 to first, $185 to second and $120ish to third. I work it up to about 40k and we get down to four handed. Everyone agrees to a bubble save, since everyone always agrees to a bubble save in daily donkaments at a local's casino. I think I've mentioned here before (at least on 2+2, if not this thread): I'll ALWAYS agree to pay a bubble. Even if it's not advantageous at all, or if I've got the short stack crushed 100:1, I'll agree. I know that's going to set off the -EV alarms of most everyone here, but I can't help it. I play poker to have fun. I do NOT need harassment, headaches, or to hear some rancid old ****er tell me the same exact story about "The last guy that didn't want to pay a bubble and was the next one out..." I don't need the aggravation in my life. It's worth $20 off of first place to keep him quiet. We agree to pay a bubble, and it quickly bursts when a woman who hasn't played a hand for an hour shoves UTG for 12bb. The monster stack looks at his hand, laughs, and says "I'm only calling so I can try to knock someone out" and flips over 85. The woman of course turns over AA. Flop K75, turn Q, river 8 and the aces are cracked. At this point, the monster stack has maybe 100k, I have 60ish, and the short stack has maybe 20-30k. The blinds are stolen a few times when the monster stack raises to 3xbb. I'm on the sb and have 22 and go ahead and ship it in there. BB folds, monster stack pauses and sigh-calls with AJ. Of course, a J hits the turn and I'm gone in 3rd.

At this point, it's not quite dinner but the only thing I've eaten thus far is a gas station hot dog. Time for a pit stop:



The wife comes home, we eat real food, and then she's right back out the door to a 24-hour Starbucks so she can write some kind of motion or other legalese I don't understand. I figure it's time to hit yet another room I haven't tried in a while:





Easily the craziest swings I've ever had playing cash games (which, admittedly, isn't nearly as many hours as some of you). I buy in for $200 which does me no good. After an hour, I'm down to like $140. I'm on the btn and it limps to me. I call with 98ss. Flop is T87 one spade. Checks to me and I bet $12. Guy to my right c/raises to $30. Interesting. I can probably just call here if I had actually taken the time to think about my options, but I go ahead an impetuously ship it, only to be insta-called by J9. ****. No more spades and I can't get another J to chop.

I re-buy for another $200. This lasts me a little longer, until I get involved in a hand against a guy who, when I first sat down, dusted off buy-in after buy-in until he quadrupled up when he rivered kings full vs two flushes and another hand that I never saw. I'm on an unraised BB and decide to just check with ATo. Flop comes QT3r. I bet $7 just to see where I'm at. Villain calls, btn calls. Turn A. I bet $20. Villain raises to $75 and btn folds. Villain only has like $60 behind so I know he's never folding. I'm behind a few hands here, AQ, KJ, 33, but does he ever limp with those? For some reason, I talk myself into thinking he has AK or AJ and ship it. He of course calls and of course shows KJ. I can't get lucky on the river and I'm down to $49.

There's a poker dealer from the Venetian at our table. He loves to raise to absurd amounts pre-flop for no good reason, so I'm hoping he leads out when I have a pocket pair or a playable hand so I can just shove and try to steal some money back. About an orbit later, he obliges by open-raising to $21. I see 66 and just ship it. One guy calls. Tight British doctor calls. Venetian dealer calls. Great pot odds, but I'm going to have to dodge about every over card in the deck. Imagine my disappointment when the flop is AAQ. This night can just **** right off. There's some action back and forth, and the turn is a 5 bringing a second heart. I should stand up and prepare to leave, but I figure that's unfair to the action, plus I'm still technically alive. Imagine my shock when the 6h comes, completing the flush draw but giving me a babyboat. The other three players get it all in with AK, AJ, and KK. I show my hand and will happily take the main pot.

And then, I went on a run. Solid player raises to $7 pre. I see AJhh from the BB, call, and check dark. Flop AJ7. Solid player checks behind. Turn is an 8 and board is a complete rainbow. I bet $20. Solid player raises to $70. I think for a few seconds, and decide once again to ship it. He goes into the tank for what feels like two minutes and eventually folds. I didn't ask what he had, but he sneered when he folded. I didn't get him of 77 there, did I?

I had another hand where I flopped a set, and had someone betting into me when he turned two pair. Another hand where I had K2 in the BB on a 422 board with a bet and a raise in front of me. Turned that last $49 I had into $360 and cashed out a small loser for the night.

At this point, I don't know how anyone can do this for a living without regular pscyh evaluations and/or drugs. Lots of drugs. The swings in this game are fun for a night, but dealing with this **** on a day-in, day-out basis? I can't fathom it.

Bonus pic from last night's TI tournament that I didn't care to mention because I apparently suck at tournaments now:



His chip stack was "feng shui". I don't know what his excuse was for that shirt.

nice update; thx for sharing! i like games with lots of swings...as long as I end up positive or around even lol

Holy crap this is epic!! I don't post that often (see my join date and post count) but, one must post in an epic thread and this is it. Keep the stories flowing!!!

I'm going to guess it's maybe because the average pro doesn't shove with second pair, no kicker.

thanks for sharing spike

AND I was open-ended. Sheesh, give me some credit, will ya?

No I played that one about as bad as possible. The other player hadn't been all that active. His raise HAS to tell me he's got a monster. If I had stopped to think about it for even a minute, I would have known he's not doing that with an over pair or two pair. He's only ever got a monster here - set at the bare minimum. Oh well, live and learn.

My wife and I decided to take a road trip this weekend. She likes it when I just book **** without telling her where we're going or where we're staying. (To date, I've only ****ed up once - Ely, NV. She was going to a conference there and all the hotels in town were sold out. I had a choice of either this motel/gas station/liquor store, or a smaller motel in the next town over. I decided to go with the combo motel in town, and it was so bad we left a night early.) I decided I'm going to do a round-about little route:

Click for full map

Hitting a bunch of the rural NV towns that no one knows, plus some booming cities like Tonopah, Elko, and West Wendover. Staying in SLC Saturday night at some crazy giant hotel. Then coming back on Sunday through Utah. Should be a fun trip. I love the little rural communities outside of Las Vegas because you can see such a different way of life. Plus the people are typically really friendly. We went to Caliente, NV not too long ago. The pizza place in town may be the best pizza I've had in southern Nevada.

Have I talked about Under the Bed Cat yet? I think that's the next story. I'll slap something together tomorrow. Glad you guys have liked these so far.

I played a TI tournament with the Feng Shui guy 1,5 weeks ago. Before I left for Norway. Old man with glasses, right?

Good one from that tournament. About 3 hours in or so he announces all- in dark. Claims he is always lucky with those. Girl to his left instacalls and tables KK. Then he turns over AA! Big debate on if he has looked at his cards follow. All others on the table naturally convinced that he looked. But the dealer claimed he never looked. Or at least the dealer didn't see him looking.

Fun times!

Honey, I'm all in!

Yeah I know that guy. He and his wife are at the TI every night playing that tournament. It honestly wouldn't shock me if he went all-in blind, or at least only looked at the first Ace and shipped it. He loves to do that, especially just before the break, double-especially from UTG. He's been keeping track of those hands for the last few months and claims he's won upwards of 85%. I've seen him table weaker hands (KJ, QT-types), but he did bust me Wednesday night with that move - I called his all-in with TT and he shows QQ.

Come to think of it, maybe he's doing any ace, any pocket pair, any two Broadway cards, any suited connectors... and it just seems like he does it all the time. I'll have to pay more attention when I inevitably run that tournament again.

That SOB is running hotter than the sun. I played one of those tournaments in June when I was there for the WSOP. He and his wife both made the FT, but his wife is a super nit. We were 4 handed (4 spots paid) when I got down to about 8bb and I shoved with A4o. Action came to her(about 20bb), she hemmed and hawed and finally folded. Couple orbits later we chopped 4 ways and she mentioned she wanted to call so bad with AK when I shoved but decided not to.

He might have looked at an ace I guess..If he goes all inn as dark as he claims you would expect complete crap a decend percentage of the times, but from what you write it seems he never shows up with 9-2 or similar in these spots!

I actually busted him in this tournament with A-2 vs KQ so his Feng Shui didnt work 100%, and I went on to chop 4 ways and take home 700..Which leads me, as a guy who goes to Vegas maybe once a year to another thing that surprised me.

When we got paid there was the usual short speech that any tips to the dealers were appreciated. So I gave 50$, thinking that its maybe a little low..Less than 10% and all that. Then I see the next two tip 2$ each..And now Im thinking I must have overtipped greatly.. What would be the normal tip on a tournament score like that?

Everytime I hear or read the word Tonopah; it reminds me the song Willin'; by Little Feat. Great song; if you haven't heard it, Tonopah is in the chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaRCE83Epqs