Well, I’m back. Unfortunately I don’t have any great victory stories. Day 3 and 4 didn’t go nearly as well as day 1 or day 2. What can I say? I think I played pretty well overall, but just got hit with a cold deck.

On Friday I played the noon tournament over at Caesar’s Palace. The buy in was $340, and the structure even better than the Venetian noon tournament. Each blind level was 40 minutes long, with antes not coming into play until the 7th level. Each of the 70 players that registered started with a 12,500 chip starting bank.

The first level didn’t go so well, and after 40 minutes of play I was down to 9650. Honestly, I don’t think I played a single hand past the flop. I found a couple good hands, but couldn’t connect them with the flop and found myself folding very often.

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Well, day 2 hasn’t gone quite as well as day 1. My only major plan for the day was to play in the noon NLHE tournament over at The Venetian. The theme over there is Venice, so there are a bunch of canals and $16 boat rides where pseudo-Italians row you around and scream opera at you. The place was beautiful, but I have no desire to talk aesthetics at the moment.

I took the precaution of wearing jeans and a leather jacket, which made me look like a complete asshole walking down the strip in 80 degree weather. Well that gamble payed off, big time. Just as I suspected, the poker room over at the Venetian was kept at a solid 16 degrees. After registering for the $150 tournament, I took a quick walk around the casino to people-watch. While on my promenade I counted not one, but four people double-fisting beers. That’s one for every 20 yards, give or take. Continue reading this post…

So I’m in Las Vegas for a couple days. My dad is bowling in the yearly national tournament here, and I decided to make the trip to play some poker. By some poker, I mean a fucking ridiculous amount of poker. This will be the first of several posts reporting on my observations and progress.

I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am yesterday to make it to JFK for my 8am flight. I scored a window seat, and spent most of the flight sleeping, occasionally taking breaks to read Fooled By Randomness by Nassim Taleb. I’m staying at Paris, a hotel made to look like…well, Paris. It’s really nice, minus the whole french vibe. If I ran this hotel, I would go for historical accuracy and force my employees to only bathe once a week, and treat all the visitors like shit. Continue reading this post…

This post made me think of these guys; if anyone’s a fan of Irish music like me, you might like this:

I’ve seen them during both of my Vegas trips, and they were awesome each time. They’re “Ri-Ra” (which means “Great Time”, “Mayhem” or “Wild Party”), the house band at Nine Fine Irishmen in Las Vegas. They’ve got CD out called “Sin E Ri-Ra” which includes live recordings from a bunch of shows.

After watching my video of them again, I thought “what other videos are floating around the internet with these guys?”

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Check this link for the original post.

People have been asking me if I was going to post a video compilation about my trip to Vegas. I’ll be honest: no, because I didn’t take enough pictures. I was originally planning on doing something similar to Dave Attell’s Insomniac, but after I ran into my good friend Jim Beam, we started reminiscing about old times…and things get fuzzy after that. This is my trip in a nutshell:

1. Welcome to Vegas
2. Jim Beam
3. [REEL MISSING]
4. Leaving Vegas

Thanks Vegas, you kicked my ass. I didn’t remember much, but at least I have my pictures. NOW GET SOME SLEEP!

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I’ve got about a week to go until I head out for Las Vegas.  I started looking at some pictures and movies last year, and decided to share them.  Also, I decided to share a few tips for any of you who plan on going at some point:

1. The average human can walk comfortably for about a mile before needing to stop and rest. Plan your trips accordingly. Research the strip on Google maps if necessary.

2.  There is a monorail that connects the major casinos.  LEARN IT.

3. There is a shuttle service that connects the strip to Fremont Street. Use it. Drinks are not allowed on the bus though, so chug or ditch it.

4. If for some reason you need to use a taxi, be aware that it is illegal for them to pick you up off the side of the street.

5. Basic things like toiletries will be sold at rip-off prices at the casinos. Avoid them. There’s a CVS on the strip, and a couple convenient stores too.

That’s about it for the tips. On to the pictures and videos:

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