At this writing, it's a little over 6 hours to "wheels up" when I fly off to the town that keeps it's secrets. Will I have a secret to keep by the time I leave 40 hours later? I don't know. But, I kinda hope so. Read into that what you will.
Al asked me yesterday if my poker game was up, I answered that I was thinking of it this way: in theatre a bad dress rehearsal is an omen for a good opening night to follow. I've been having a long rocky dress rehearsal, with the exception of last night's $20+2 NL Sit-n-Go - a second place finish - and this morning.
I tried to stay up late last night to "prime the pump" for little to no sleep during my 40 hours in Vegas, I only managed to last until to about 1:00 am. And then I was wide awake at 5:30 am.
Too early to get out and run my errands - unless I went to Wal-Mart. I could have done that, but I had a better idea. Of course, I logged into Empire and went hunting. The Sit-n-Go tables were having a problem so that was a no go. I considered cashing out, waiting an hour or so for the $$ to hit Neteller then reload at UB to take advantage of the reload bonus. But, I wanted to play.
I landed on a $25 NL table. I just couldn't stomach going over to the .50/1 Limit tables, even though they were better suited for the bankroll. I wasn't up to a grind this morning. So the NL table was it for me. I'd resigned to go careful and get out fast if it was clear the rain cloud of cold cards and bad beats was still hanging over my head. I hedged my karma by launching Poker Tracker, as well.
For only the second time at a NL table, I stood up after a little over 2 hours of play, more that tripled up. I got some great cards, and managed to also outplay a couple of folks. I apologized to one poor fellow who got his AA cracked by my KK - this could have ruined my whole morning. I figured him for AK to maybe even AJ and prayed to the poker gods he wasn't holding AA. He'd raised from EP and when it got around to me, I re-raised more than double his raise. He ended up all-in after thinking a minute.
He was short stacked, so my call would still leave me up if I lost the hand, but only but about $10 and my nice steady gain would have been down the tubes. But, I called. He was sort of a loose canon. Fishy, for the most part and not that strong of a player. The cards came out low - no paint, until the river when Balthasar caught up to Caspar and Melchior (hey, it's the holiday season) giving me my three kings and cracking his AA.
I played a little while longer until I passed the century mark. I'm heading to Vegas on a positive note. Can't ask for more than that.
A shout-out to Fred who admitted to being one of my 50-59 respondents on The Maudie Quiz. Thanks! Now the other one needs to fess up!
Alrighty - this will be it until after my return on Sunday. Have a great weekend, everyone. You know I will!!
