(no podcast today because everybody in the house is asleep and I'd wake them up!)

First off, I want to wish my brother a happy birthday today.  He officially turned 24 and I hope you had a blast!  Don't get in too much trouble!  Happy Birthday man!

Wil and I arrived in Vegas about 6:30 pm locally.  We made decent time and were technically already up on the trip.  When we stopped in Fillmore, Wil started filling up the car right before they increased the price of the gas!  Never happened to me before.  On top of that, I got a free bag of fries with my Jr whopper when they messed up my order.  Score one for team High Society!  Upon arrival, we headed straight to his uncle's house to settle in.  I did mention to Wil we need to stop downtown first and pick up some "football drinks" but he was having none of that.  (If you don't know the story, scroll back in the blog to the Vegas trip last summer.....)We unpacked, chatted up with his aunt and uncle, and off to the Rio we went to check out the action!

First thing I did, register for the 1500 NL Holdem Event 36 tomorrow.  I know lines have been crazy the day of the events so I wanted to get that out of the way.  Once we did that, we were pretty much up in the air of what we wanted to know.  I for one, didn't want it to be too late of the night because I wanted to get my rest for tomorrow's event.  However, we still have to play a litlte poker though right?  We concluded on going to The Palms to check out the action there and I called up Rich (from the meetup group) to meet up with us there.

I sat down, bought in for $400 at the 1-3 NL game.  Nothing happened much during the first half an hour or so.  Pretty much just exchanging small pots, typical NL game.  Then this hand came up.  I raise in LP behind a limper with  to $15.  BB calls as does the limper.  Flop .  BB leads out for $25, limper calls.  I felt like my hand was still good at this point and with a dangerous flop, I made it $100 to go.  After some deliberation, BB goes AI for $450ish (I have $300 left) and the limper folds.  Tough spot wouldn't you say!?  I basically have no read on this guy except he has the most money on the table.  He did think I made a move on him in an earlier pot but the pot wasn't very big and I took that into account.  The only hands I think I beat are AQ and AJ in this spot but is he crazy enough to make that move?  After some thougt, I made him for a big hand and laid it down.  Was it the right move?  What do you think?  (Opinions welcomed)

That dropped me to shade under $300 and it was a battle from that point on.  I couldn't make a freaking hand if my life depended on it.  Flush, straights, pairs, nothing.  I dwindled down to $200ish before making something happen.  I open raise UTG with , mp caller, and sb reraises to $45.  I call and we lose the other player and its heads up to the flop of .  SB checks and I check behind.  I proceeded a little cautiously on the flop because either he loves that ace (AA) or hates that ace (KK or QQ).  If he has the latter, then I'm hoping to get a bet on the turn.  Turn .  He bets $60 into the pot.  I considered smooth calling in this spot but then I looked at my stack and I only had $150ish behind.  So either he believes me or he doesn't if I got AI, which I did.  I figured I could get a call from QQ with the Qd (which I wouldn't mind that call obviously).  If I was wrong, he's going to call anyway, especially if he has the Ad.  He folded and I scoop down my biggest pot of the night and we're right back in business.

A little while later, new guy that just sat down, kept on raising preflop and taking down pots with a flop continuation bet.  Finally, on his third raise in a row, I called him with  on the button, and wanted to test him and play a little poker postflop.  Just so happens I flop big:   and he leads out for $21.  I raise to $50 and was hoping he had an overpair.  I chose to raise there because I wanted to see where he was at and how he wanted to play the hand.  It is somewhat of a dangerous flop anyway and the only hand I'd be worried about here is J10 and if he's the type of player to open raise with that in EP.  He called my raise and I was fairly certain he had an overpair.  Turn  and he checks.  I go to value town and bet $100.  To my SURPRISE, he went AI.  I thought for a second that I could have been wrong on my initial read on the flop but I really can't get away from the hand regardless, the way it was played out up to this point.  I called, river bricked, (he never showed his hand) and now my stack it right around $650 after that big pot.

By this time, it was getting close to around midnight, so I dabbled in a few more orbits and called it a night, cashing out $627 for +227 for a 3 hour session.  Not a bad way to start the trip out!  Wil mentioned he cleaned house too over on the other table for +500.  I didn't want to stay out too late because I will be playing for at least half a mil tomorrow.....Well, I better get off to bed.  Thanks for reading and I'll be in touch!  Hopefully you'll find me on the leaderboards over at www.pokerpages.com!

TK