Is this town big enough for Pshabi and 2Tone?

[2Tone]

Apparently so, as on my own trip to Vegas this weekend, I kept an eye out for a bearded donkey-slayer, but didn't see anyone matching that description.

Arrived Thursday a.m. with a crew of nine in town to bet big on U of Wash and celebrate a friend's bday. Checked into the Venetian, and was blown away by the size and luxuriousness of our suite. It was expensive, but a fantastic room. Highly recommended.

Ambled over to the Excalibur, where I traditionally start out my Vegas jaunts. In a mood to play higher than my customary crushing of the 2/6 spread game, I sat at the $200 max buy-in NL table. I got up an hour later down $150, before remembering that I'm a very poor NL cash game player.

No matter. Across the street to the MGM in time to register for the 6 p.m. $125 tourney. One of my friends also enters, and we swap 50% of each other. Start out 40 players, and a pretty good structure. I tread water until we are down to two tables, at which point the deck hits me in the face, including a sweet big blind special in which I flop a nut straight (double up) and have a couple of flushes that put me in good shape when get to the final table. A few short stacks get picked off, and we're in the money at five players, and blinds getting very high.

The blinds knocks out another couple players and we're at three left. I am a strong second, with about 75 percent of what the big stack has, and probably twice that of the third player. Cards are dealt. Big stack is in the SB, short stack is BB. I look down at Kings. I limp, hoping to trap – thoughts on this? Big stack completes, all of us see the flop, which comes Ace, King, blank. I hem and haw a bit, then push, praying either of them have an Ace. Imagine my shock and pain when short stack turns over pocket rockets. I'm out a few hands later when my AJ fails to improve against a low pair. But the $720 was by my biggest tourney win to date (wish I hadn't sold 50% of myself!) and I was delighted.

Thursday night, we hit Tao at the Venetian. Cool club, including a girl in a bathtub recreating the rose petal scene from American Beauty.

Friday I played some 3/6 at the Aladdin, where I ended up sitting next to Pauly of the fame, who is a great talker, though I was embarrassed to lose most of a rack in front of him Later Friday a couple of us hit the Wynn for 4/8 with a half-kill. I must have been at a very different table than what Pshabi saw – the game I was at was nuts, with lots of straddling, and plenty of pots capped (for FIVE bets) pre-flop by multiple players. If I could have won a single hand I'd have been rich, but instead I dropped $160 when my decent starting hands never got there.

Friday night we had dinner in a private room at Palms steakhouse in the Forum Shops. It was my buddy's birthday dinner, so eight of split a dinner bill in excess of $1200. But it was all good because UW covered the spread by a half-point, meaning it was time to go blow a lot more money at Crazy Horse 2.

Saturday night I made some of the previous night's expenditures back at the Mandalay Bay 4/8 game, which included plenty of loose raises, and exceedingly generous older gentlemen happy to call down two pair with Jack high. We finished up at the Foundation Room, which has the best view in the city.

Back in July for the opening days of the WSOP. Hope to see a lot of you there.

[Talking Poker]

Count me in. Can't wait.

Nice report, as always. Not enough strippers though. But I'm intrigued by the bathtub thing.