Day 2 Blogger Adventures

Saturday was the big blogger tournament held in the Caesar's Palace Poker Room. I was so excited to meet everyone and play, but I was crabby as hell because I had to get up really early. I was out late the night before hanging with everyone at the MGM and I had to work both Friday and Saturday nights. Good thing I didn't throw drinking into the mix.

At any rate, I got up and headed to the strip. As soon as MiamiDon and I walked into the poker room we saw some familiar faces. Super Model, Waffles, and Veneno were there to greet us and then we all hung out for a while waiting for the others. When it was about time to listen to the speakers we headed to the front of the room to get good seats and I heard someone call my name. I headed over to his table and found out it was Hoff!! I was so excited because I knew he was driving over from San Diego and I knew he wasn't staying in town long. With my work schedule being so hectic over the weekend, I was worried I wouldn't be able to meet him. After we got the seating situated, April came out first and she quickly introduced Linda.



Linda is a veteran dealer over at the Bellagio. My guess is that she has a lot of great stories to tell. I believe she helped April to get our awesome speakers. After Linda talked for a few minutes, we heard from Michael Craig. He's the author of The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King.



He was a great speaker and he told a funny story about the different items he's collected (stole) from various poker pro's over the years. Ahhh - a man after my own heart. I love free stuff!

Our next speaker was Jay Greenspan - the author of
Hunting Fish: A Cross Country Search for America's Worst Poker Players. He actually read a few excerpts for us and they were great. I am REALLY looking forward to getting my signed copy in the mail.

Our last speaker was Howard Lederer.




I snapped this picture of him last week when he was playing in one of the WSOP events. I really enjoyed listening to Howard. He spoke about the current state of poker in our nation and how they are trying to make onling gaming illegal. He traveled to Washington D.C. and spoke to a bunch of Senators to educate them about why poker is different than blackjack, craps etc. Him and a bunch of the other pros are working really hard to make sure the bill doesn't pass.

After all of the speeches and the Roshambo Tournament, we finally starting playing poker!!!! I was ready! I have to be honest, I don't know all the people at my table and I didn't even get most of the names. I was still kinda tired like I mentioned before. I will say that I had the super model sitting across from me though, so that helped me to stay somewhat alert. It wasn't too long before my table got broken and I picked a new seat card. As luck would have it, I was moved to a seat right next to Michael Craig. Cool!!! Him and I chatted it up for a while and he's a super nice guy. Him and I both have this little Mike Matusow obsession going. He's actually friends with the guy though (I just think he's great from afar). His new blog will be up and running soon, so I'll make sure I link him as soon as it happens. For now you can find him on his temporary address over at
Linda's Table Tango.

A few minutes later my table was broken down again and this time I was moved to Don's table. Fun Fun. I must make mention of two hands. I was dealt pocket aces and Don was ahead of me. He raised 3000 in chips and I called because that was my whole stack anyway. He turned over A9. Yay! For once the aces held up. Also at this table was Jules, Evacanhang, Jorgen, and PokerBitch. Quick Note - I was blown away watching Stina, The Poker Bitch play. She has balls and she plays without fear. I love that. She takes chances, she goes over the top and she makes people lay down good hands. It probably doesn't always work out for her, but at least she isn't scared. I feel like I play too scared sometimes, but that's another story for another day. Jorgen eventually knocked me out of the tourney when his pocket 9's held up against my QJ suited. It was all good though because I had a great time, I made it pretty deep in the tournament, and I made it to work on time.

I missed out on most of the nightly adventures because of work, but that's to be expected when you have a new job. I'm especially sorry that I didn't get to spend more time with Hoff, Hoyazo, and Smokkee, and Garthmeister. I felt like I only got to see each of them long enough to say hello and that was it. Hopefully next time I'll have more free time. At least Hoff is close enough that Don and I can drive out there. Smokkee and his girlfriend make a nice looking couple - they were both very attractive.

People I didn't get to meet at all and I'm very sad about it, Jen Leo, Amy Calistri, and Dawn Summers. I read them everyday, but somehow I didn't get to meet any of them.

Coming attractions for tomorrow - Day 3 of the Blogger Weekend and how I got stacked at the Excalibur!!