"Hi, are you Mr. Souther? I have good news, and bad news!"

It is 2:45pm. I am sitting at Table 61, seat 9. At the Venetian. You heard that right...the Venetian. Not that I have anything against the Venetian, mind you...its just that I am supposed to be currently sitting at Table 52, seat 8 at Ceaser's HalfWay House playing with 27 other mostly psychopaths trying to win $17,000.

So was that a good enough 'hook' for everyone?

Well I walk in at 1:55 and there is Jim "Napoleon" Padula standing there with two security guards. "Mr. Corey (shhh only my Mom calls me by my first name, yikes!) Souther? I'm Jim Padula, poker room manager at Ceasers Outhouse (did he REALLY call it that?) I would like to let you know that I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that you are our official 27th place finisher today and I have $876 here for you. The bad news is that after conducting an investigation (pfffft wish I had video footage from THAT meeting of the mental midgets!)it has been decided that you are being disqualified from the tournament and Trespassed from Ceasers Palace! These men will escort you off the property"

Mike stood there shocked. Honestly, I was actually almost expecting something like this. Not this EXTREME but SOMEthing that would cause me to feel that familiar "Fuck Harrah's" feeling that seems to make such a rampant appearance at poker events.

So in a very calm tone I said to Shorty, "uh if you wouldn't mind telling me why exactly it is that this is happening I would appreciate it."

So he tells me I'm being DQ'd for 'threatening another player' which clearly I never did. Granted, its ME...and I know the kind of attention I attract, and granted...at the end of the night when this little pecker came by me I could/should have just ignored him and let it go, that's not in my personality. This little asshole had called clock on me against a clock that wasn't even RUNNING (they freeze their clock and drain 2 min's per hand at Skeezers when they are hand-for-hand, which is actually a pretty good idea) on a decision that was huge. And he was just a punk in general. And rising up out of his chair in his own little threatening way to 'bow up on me' before finding out I had him crushed THERE too didn't help me understand how exactly I was the bad guy in this. I never said ONE single threatening thing to this weasel, whose name by the way is Maziar Keshavarzi (which sounds Persian, so Iranian terrorist is quite likely. Says he's from Austin, TX. Sure!)

All I did was ask him, point blank if he "would like to go outside, off the property to discuss our little situation." To which he reacted like a friggin cockroach when the lights come on. What a worm. So we left, without another word spoken.

And I walk into THAT!!?? An investigation was conducted? The weasel was squealing for Jim Padula last night. Is there a chance here that this is one of Jim's little butt buddies? Maybe a distant relative? Who knows? Or maybe Jimmy's been reading my blog all summer, how I've been slaughtering him and his hair-brained attempts at running a horrible tournament. That's probably a strong possibility.
So I get the walk out from security. God it must suck to do that job. $12 an hour to play Billy Bad Ass.

Make my way over to Venetian where they are on break and I have minutes to get in. So I do. I've been writing this since I sat down. Just lost about 75% of my stack on a bet that a GOOD player folds to on the river. Not this fool. Nope. Top pair is good. Ugggghhh!!! And there is a really nice 772 player field here today too. So with 570 players left and blinds about to go to 300/600 next hand I'm now sitting on 3000 chips! What are the odds on me!!??

Talked to the guys here from Venetian about what happened over there. They pretty much agree that its total bullshit what they did. They encouraged me to call the Gaming Commission on Monday. I will do that. I will also send an email to Jeffrey Pollack and Howard Greenbaum. No idea how or if this affects me on the Rio property. He told me I was being trespassed from Ceasers Palace, not Harrah's so I am assuming there is no issue there. But who knows.

I'm all in here in the BB with A5c. Up against 10-10 and AQ. Here we go. Not a good matchup. Flopped an ace with two clubs and just bricked the flush draw. I'm out. Perfect.

Well that seems like a good place to leave off. Not sure what to do now. Sometimes being me is so fun. And sometimes it just sucks. Today it pretty much sucks!

Busted Monkey