Saturday morning I slept in a bit because I didn't want to play 50-100 with 10k starting stacks in the Festa $1k O8 tourney.  I made it to the Bellagio and at a table by 1pm, just inside the 2nd level.  I had Scott Clements on my left, which is always good for fun but not good for stacks since he's the best in the world.  By the second break Scott and I had less than 6k combined.  It was a good table in a good field and neither of us could win a thing.  I busted somewhere around 5:30 or 6, was somewhat out of dollars in my Bellagio box so decided to head over to the Venetian for a cash game.  

The must move game I started in was the nuts.  I was making great calls and good bets and up $1k without a sweat before getting moved to the main game.  I wasn't too excited about this since my friend Bryan Andrews just quit it to go see about a game at the Hard Rock.  Apparently there was some guy making it $300 pre every hand dark Friday night and he said he was coming back tonight.  

There was a ton of money on the table.  Over $50k in 9 seats, including the $2500 I had sitting in front of me.  It took me about an orbit to realize that this game was completely batshit.  In the two hours before I got any substantial money into a pot I watched one dude lose $10k.  This 5-10 game in that first orbit after I sat down turned into a round of straddles that flowed directly into mandatory straddle.  A guy came from the must move game, refused to straddle, so we turned it into a 5-10-20 game.  Which got straddled often enough too, and 5-10-20-40 is a big game.  

Two hours into the main game I was $2300 deep.  The cutoff, a solid player playing very well opened to $70.  The guy who had punted $10k already called the button, and it folded to me in the middle blind.  I had AKo and made it $420.  Initial raiser folded, the guy made it $1400, I instantly shoved, he asked how much and then called within about five seconds.  The board ran out bricks.  I said, "No pair..."  He responded, "Ten high."  Sweet ship the double up.  Next orbit I'm in the biggest blind and check my option five ways with pocket treys.  Flop QcJs3c.  SB bets $80 into $100, middle blind folds, I make it $250, the bettor (solid dude) calls and everybody else folds.  Turn a red king.  He checks, I bet $500, he calls.  River a brick, he checks, I bet $900 which I think is probably a little small but I didn't think he was terribly strong and wanted to get paid by KT and the like.  He called and my hand was good.  Played another hand against the guy, same spot as before.  Cutoff made it $70, guy called, I made it $550 with two kings.  By this point my stack was like $6k and I realized that the guy didn't like folding pre-flop so I gassed it for value.  Cutoff folded, he called.  Flop QJX rainbow.  I checked, he checked.  Turn an eight, putting two hearts out there.  I checked, he bet a canary ($1k chip), I called.  River the king of hearts, a curious card indeed.  I checked, he bet another canary, I called and beat his AKss.  

By that time I was 450bbs deep and thirteen hours into play for the day.  I had been slowly drinking Bud Light for the last four hours in the spirit of the game.  I then witnessed an amazing hand.  Small blind (solid player) makes it $70.  The guy, in the middle blind, calls as does the big blind.  Flop 234r.  SB bets $100, the guy makes it $330, and the big blind who is also solid makes it $660.  The initial raiser folds and the guy calls.  Turn a queen putting two hearts out there.  The guy checks, BB bets $1200, and the guy calls.  River another queen, and after about ten seconds the guy shoves for a total bet of $6800 and change.  Holy shit.  

I just went wooooooow.  Pretty clear that our hero doesn't have a boat since he goes into the tank.  After about five minutes he turns up A5 for the flopped wheel.  Three minutes later he finally says, "Alright, I call."  

"Nice call," said the guy plain as day.  He then talks about how he was gonna leave but now he has to stay, asks our hero if he's gonna stay, he says about an hour so the guy says he'll stay an hour.  But I'm exhausted.  I'm really not thinking clearly or focused at all.  I would shit myself if put in that spot.  Against much of my desire I pried myself out of the game, not willing to make a mistake super deep in a big, hyper-aggressive game.  Drove home with the top down and an extra $7360 in my pocket.  Felt damn good.  

Sunday was online play.  Nothing exciting happened.  Made a few bucks in cash games on UB.  

Monday I woke up in time to go tuxedo shopping before the $1k NLHE Festa event at the Bellagio.  I've never owned a tuxedo before mostly because I haven't had a reason to wear one since prom my freshman year of college.  Yeah I said it.  Karri has half a dozen black tie events a year and renting a tuxedo sucks, so I had no problem spending $500 on something that I would have rented for $100 at least once.  They are professionals though at the Men's Wearhouse and got me for $830 out the door.  Three ties, one shirt, one vest, one tux, one stud set, and two pocket silks.  Over to the Bellagio, get sat at an awesome table, quickly chip up to 12k, and then can't win a hand.  I finally get in with JThh on 442hh vs two black eights and lose.  I sit in an awesome 5-10 cash game, win one $3400 pot with JTss making a flush and value shoving the river on a paired board.  I lost every other hand though and quit stuck over a nickel.  

Today I intended on playing the $1k limit event.  Woke up at noon feeling groggy, slept til 1:30, called the Bellagio and heard that they only had 27 runners, and laid there wondering what I was going to do with the day besides get ready to leave town.  My first black tie event is this weekend in Chicago.  Last year Karri won the USO Heart of a Patriot award, this year she's giving it away and I'm her date.  About that moment Jared called, wanting to borrow one of my rifles so he could blow up a television with a bomb he bought at a gun show.  Yeah come over.  

They obviously talked me into going and me made it into the desert shortly before dusk. The bomb was offensively unexciting, but we could have just been doing it wrong.  The first hit was a nick so just made a small flash.  The second was solid and made a big bright flash, but no boom or destructive television force we were hoping for.  There's totally a market for quality explosives out there, I'm surprised nobody's tapped it yet.  If only we had a quality product to shoot so the damn television actually exploded.  Shot some video hopefully it's fun.  I drive to LA tomorrow and then we fly to Chicago on Thursday, first class courtesy of American Airlines.  Alright :).

Peace and good luck,

Devo