Update for Wednesday

Today marks Day 7 and I kind of feel obligated to throw something your way. It has been a pretty interesting trip so far. I don't have a lot of time as its 11:05 and I am playing the Venetian at noon again.

I just finished reading Wild Bill's recent entry. Good stuff. Funny. He uses lots of big words, timely references that are generation-based in nature. Makes me chuckle, which at 11am is vital to my existence.

I am not broke yet. Thats nice. I'm guessing there are a lot of guys out here who ARE, they HAVE to be...you should see them play. It is a cacophony (sic?) of horrible players. This is what the WSOP does, it brings every mutant and mental midget from all corners of the Earth to this dry, dusty outpost in the desert for 6 weeks of displaying just WHY they were never loved by their parents or neighbors.

You have to condition yourself. I am back to logging MASSIVE amount of hours at Venetian, only to bust just shy of the money when I run into one of these 'Creatures from the -ROI Lagoon,' you can mark me down now as having played 2 tourneys for a total of 21 hours, and not a cash yet. But hey...its all good right? I keep seeing guys I know at the Final Table, and that gives me hope. My buddy Eddie, who was down to his final bucks...took a loan from me to play yesterday...told me in the car on the way over "Will, I am telling you...I am winning this tourney today." At 2am, he bagged up 420k in chips (avg 325k) and comes back today at 4pm with 33 others. Its still confusing as to whether we traded 10% or not. Not really worried about it, although first place IS $60,000.

It would have been nice to be coming back myself, instead of losing FIVE sit n gos while waiting on him to finish up, as he asked me to do. Yeah, a special shout out to red-headed Briania (prounounced Briana) who slid in to the $130 SNG with me having 6700 chips and 7 players left...the next closest holding 1700...and effectively DESTROYING ME...gives guy flush on the river, beats my KK three times (vs. AA, cooler; A6...6 on flop, 6 on turn, A on river...NICE, then vs. AJ....A on flop) then kills me with QQ vs. 33 and AK...flops two Aces. Perfect, and OUT 6th. That really kicked ass. Go Eddie.

Carwash...real name Mike...won the $340 from a couple days ago...good for a very nice chunk of cash. Then yesterdays $550 top three were ALL guys I know well, but couldn't tell you their names because either (a) its too early still or (b) I'm just too tired to try and remember.

Couple nights ago, Jackson and Justina, dealers on the circuit...had their hotel robbed. Unreal. This on the heals of me loaning them money to get out here, since Harrah's was nice enough (uh huh) to NOT pay them until two weeks after New Orleans ended. Jackson came to find me immediately to pay me back. Good man. Yeah so then they get robbed of almost all their money...and a laptop, and her wedding rings. People make me sick. Why can't everyone in the world just be turned into Black labs. There would be no wars, no crimes...it would just be a bunch of people chasing balls. That wouldn't be so bad...especially during a poker tourney....it would be like playing three-handed. "He's not in his seat dealer...that hand is dead!"

So I send out an email to the 1200+ people on my list detailing what happened to these guys. And as I expected several of them answered by sending money. One guy even promised to send a new laptop; he refurbishes them for a living a guess. That was pretty nails...and it made me feel better as a human being. So hopefully they are back to feeling better about life.

Last night, as I was coming back to the Rio, I go talk to Keith at the Shutter Bar, which has come to be known as the "Hooker Bar"...which, basically it is. He has just hit a $10,000 something or other on video poker. Wow. Shows me the ticket to prove it. Somehow I start talking to some guy I don't know who tells me I don't want to get the guy behind me at my table. Huh? Who is he? "Have you ever heard of 'da professional on Full Tilt?" WHAT!? You gotta be kidding me! The guy who I was told won THREE tourneys online in the mattter of 24 hours a few weeks ago? Who I wrote about on here as having HAD to be cheating? That guy!???

Well the guy's name is Christian Iacobellis. I guess we are now kind of buddies, of sorts. We would end up talking for close to an hour, exchanging numbers and email addresses. I showed him what I wrote. He defended himself. Pretty sure he is not a cheat of any kind. Dude just had one seriously kick ass day/night. Starting to almost think online sites decide to create monsters on their own. Not sure. Its freaky though, still. Maybe one day out here I am going to go to his room and sit and watch him play to see what, if anything I am missing. But in talking to him, we appear to have very similar styles. I won't get too much into it because I don't want to blow his image nor am I in the mood for some of your email comments...which inevitably come when I start discussing hand play.

What else? Jeff Timms was down there, and apparantly its official...last night was the DRUNKEST HE HAS EVER BEEN IN HIS LIFE. Hope he does well in the 6-handed tourney today.

How about my Lady Huskies! Washington Huskies...2009 Softball National Champs! Pretty cool! And they beat a Florida team that was 63-3! My sister played softball there her first two years at the UW. Their pitcher was the player of the year in the NCAA and pretty good looking too. I love watching hot female athletes. She might be a lesbo, but who cares? Maybe she isnt....

Another shout out to the Venetian. Man...these guys are running a great show over there. Granted, I wish the structures on the sit n gos were just a LITTLE better...wishing the blinds started out at 25/25 and instead of going from 200/400 to 400/800 would go include a 300/600 level. But honestly, I would rather be playing deep into the money in every tourney and NEVER playing a sit n go. But still....Rio's SNG's are giving you JACK SHIT for starting chips....800 in the $65...1000 in the $125, $175, $225...and 1500 in the $275, $325...its a joke. All it is in it purest form is Harrah's trying to milk us as much and as fast as they can. At any rate...the room at Venetian is great, they have equipped themselves with a LOT more tables this year to handle the big numbers they are getting for every tourney. I really like playing over there. I continue to hear people bitching about Ceaser's and their tourney...and that makes me smile as well. I haven't checked in on their numbers the last few days...but I hope they suck. I've also been looking over my shoulder the last few days for someone acting out a contract. After all, they don't check for weapons when you enter a casino, do they?

See I am still making money on the oil market. Thats nice. Heard a plane just disappeared or blew up over the ocean, killing over 200 people. That is horrible. Just when I think I had a bad day...I think about THAT! Not so bad, was it? Wonder if that was anywhere near the Bermuda Triangle? Whatever the case...I feel awful for those people and their families.

Kai just arrived via 30 hour drive last night. Always nice to have him around. Should make for some very interesting tales. Hope to see him today at the Venetian.

It is now 20 till noon. I am going to wrap this up. My biggest decision right now is what to wear today. By the way...got a massage here at the spa the other day...the Spa at the Rio is a dump. Walking around in there and they have all these pictures of like, Lonny Anderson and other 'Stars from the 80's' in various work out outfits. WTF? How old IS this place? All the letters and numbers on the doors and wall placards have started to either rub off or fade off...so instead of seeing MENS SPA...the sign says like, ME__ S_A...good stuff. Very classy. And the massage sucked. Not sure why that went at the end of this blog entry....guess I was thinking about how sore my knee still feels.

MONKEY