Best Week Ever

The past few days have been a whirlwind for me. I've been up everyday around 8 or 8:30 a.m. (that's early for me) and I am crawling into bed around midnight every night with no rest in between. I'm not complaining or anything because I'm having a great time with my parents. We have seen so many things in the past few days. We went to the Hoover Dam, saw KA (awesome show) at the MGM Grand, went downtown and played some live poker at the Golden Nugget, had dinner at Binion's Steakhouse (AMAZING!!), had dinner at Diego (where I work) at the MGM, went shopping all day (for my birthday gifts) at the Fashion Mall and best of all - we finally made it over to the Rio to check out the World Series of Poker.

Oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a sight to behold. I really thought the crowds would be crazy and parking would be a mess and traffic would be terrible and I wouldn't see anyone good. I was wrong!! Traffic was very minimal, parking was easy and the walk was nothing. I made the trek over there yesterday (Tuesday) for day 1 of the $5,000 buy-in NLHE event #9 (I think). I walked into the room and it looked just like on T.V. - a bunch of tables crowded into a very brightly lit auditorium type room and a bunch of people with hats and ipods and sunglasses on hunched over a table. Upon further examination (after I pushed my way up to the front of the ropes) I started scanning the room and everyone was there!!!!!!! I saw Mike Matusow first (my favorite) but I wasn't sure it was him, so I walked further down along the ropes and I saw Steve Danneman sitting at a table next to Men the Master, next I saw Jennifer Harmon and Howard Lederer, Doyle Brunson, Jesus Ferguson (he bumped into me and said "excuse me" and I was like "sure, no problem" like a giddy little school girl. I also saw Evelyn Ng, Clonie Gowan and T.J. Cloutier. Someone standing near me said that they saw Greg Raymer up near the front, so I backtracked and there he was right next to the door. I missed him cause his back was to me. I was standing so close to him, I could have touched him. I held myself back from doing so. A few minutes later Phil Helmuth arrived and he was sitting at a table very close to the ropes as well. Seated to his immediate right was Tony G and to his immediate right was Sam Grizzle. Now that was a fun table!! My dad and I stood there for a while and listened to Phil needle this poor guy about being too quiet and asking him if the cat got his tongue etc. I could have stayed there all day but my mom was bored and wanted to leave. She couldn't understand why I was so excited because they aren't "real celebrities" anyway. I know - they are better!!!

Anyway, I'll post a few pics, but they suck because we weren't allowed to use a flash in the poker room, but that didn't stop me from taking about a 1000 shots anyway.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a few days - check out this Top Ten List - I made number one baby!!!!!

Doyle was kind enough to look up and smile for me...



Gabe Kaplan or better known as Mr. Cotter...



Mike "The Mouth" Matusow...



Sam, Tony and Phil...



That's it for me tonight - gotta get up early and play in the Sahara Tourney tomorrow morning.