Vegas Report - Pool and Poker

Everything is going well here in lovely Las Vegas. The weather is very nice. It is just a little on the warm side… and then the sun comes up. Man, does it get blistering hot. By noon, the temperature reaches 100 degrees and by 5 in the afternoon it feels like you shoes are going to melt on the sidewalk. Walking the strip is out of the question. It is much better (and safer) to take a cab or ride the bus.

As for the poker, that really is going well. After 5 days and about 10 sessions of almost all $1-2 no limit hold’em, I am up $180. It is not a huge amount for the time spent, but it is fun and anything on the plus side is a welcome change to my usually casino poker experience. $180 is nothing compared to my pool teammate John Mike. It just 2 days, JM cleared about $1100 from the same $1-2 games that I was playing in. The game at the Riviera is pretty good with all of the pool players drinking and playing. I’ll hit it again tomorrow.

Speaking of pool, the team is in the money. We have won two matches and lost one. I am writing this at 3 am pacific time. Not 30 minutes ago we finished up the second win. And it was an incredible win. Let me tell you about it.

The match is won by one team winning 3 out of 5 contests. The match started out about as bad as it could. We put up Brent, a good player ranked a 4 (right in the middle of the APA handicap system). He played a 5 who was shooting like a 7 (8 being the highest). He tore Brent up in short order.

The next game had Mark go up against the other team’s 4 named Jeff Burton (not the NASCAR driver). This Jeff Burton was a bald 6’ 5” and 350 lbs. making him the lowest ranked player per pound that we have faced (which has nothing to do with anything). Jeff Burton shot like a 5 or 6 using safes, english and very good cue ball control to take Mark out 3 games to none. To make things worse, the opponents had a female fan in the gallery who would yell out “bullshit” every time Mark made a difficult shot. I guess they had given up on the sportsmanship award. Also, I’m not saying that Jeff has ever sandbagged to keep is ranking down, but he sure shot like it. That is to his credit. Our heroes are now down 0-2.

We were then forced to put up our ace player Wade. Wade is a seven who really shoots a beautiful game of pool. The other team put up a 3 which means Wade had to win 6 games to the opponent’s 2 games. To make the situation as dire as possible, the other player won the first game, so we are now needing Wade to win 6 games in a row or we are done for the tournament. Since you already know the ending, you also know that Wade did just that. In fact, the other player never got close to having a shot on the eight ball. Villains 2, Heroes 1.

The villains put up a 5 next and we counter with the first appearance of the Suarolator (also a 5). I guess Wade got our team’s attitude on the right track, because Suaro ripped his opponent a new orifice and put the set away 4 zip. Villains 2, Heroes 2, but the situation is still not even. The other team still has their ace player to come and we are forced to play our lowest ranked player, Jenna. Long story short, Jenna KICKED HIS ASS. She played like a 2 on a few shots, but she made all the big pressure shots when she had to and put him and his team away 2-1. Heroes win 3-2 which puts the team in the money.

The down side it that there is no time to celebrate. That match ended about 2:40 am and our next match is at 8:00 am. So it is off to bed with me. Good night.