So...I know i haven't updated this in forever, but that's what jobs do I suppose. My free time has gone practically kaputs lately. But I've found the time in between (actually during) old episodes of 30 rock to update, so feel honored.

Anyways, as the title suggests, I was in Vegas last weekend for CES (consumer electronics show) and got a bit of poker in. I've always enjoyed reading other's trip reports, and have done a couple of my own at www.allvegaspoker.com .  Anyways, here we go:

First Day/Flight/Whatevs:

So I got about 2 hours of sleep due to the fact that I was packing late, and was working pretty late as well. My flight left Denver at 644 am which meant leaving my house around 430am (yuck).

I really hate airplanes. Especially when they're sold out. Especially when it's before 8am. Anyways I at least had the back ailse seat which to me is the most comfy (other than maybe the front aisle.)

The flight was rather bumpy but went alright I suppose. No cab line obviously, got to the TI with a pretty friendly cabby which was a bit of a surprise as it's like pulling teeth with the grand majority of them.

Got to the hotel, checked the bag and headed straight to the conference on a shuttle. This took a huge amount of time due to some acid leak or something that stopped up traffic...not to mention 140k people in town for the conference. Got to the conference, got the badge, discovered my badge wouldn't let me in anywhere for like 2 hours. I made my way to the monorail which took an inordinate amount of time trying to find in the hilton.

Back to the strip, got some mcdonalds breakfast (probably not a good idea), tried to check in early, then milled around half heartedly looking for a game. This day had an added amount of stress because someone on my team at work (i'm a project manager) was getting laid off that day and I had no idea how they would take it. For this reason I hunted out the free wifi in the venetian food court and tried to assess the situation and calm some people down over skype/email. This was probably where my headache started. 

I then reserved to go back to the conference. Finally got to check some stuff out, mostly Intel, Microsoft, LG, and Motorolla booths, the headache got terrible during this process due to lack of sleep water and sanity.

Made it back to the hotel around 1pm and got checked in early. Finally got a chance to take a nap and some alleve...and that was like heaven. I never thought I'd enjoy sleeping in vegas that much. Also, if you care about sleeping the beds at TI are flipping awesome. Seriously...I've been there twice and hesitate to go anywhere else now. The only ones that come close are at MGM but I still the the TI ones are the best. 

So I finally woke up and went down stairs trying to find a game. No game at TI, walked to the venetian, got on the 4/8 list but my friends came into town before I got a seat. Back to the TI where I decided to start drinking, so i gamed a cocktail waitress (i.e. walk around till you find one taking drink orders and put a buck in a slot machine), got a corona and started feeling a lot better.

After my friends got there we decided to forgoe the conference for that day and hit the tables. For my friends this means blackjack and craps...for me this normally means poker. But when we got downstairs I reserved myself to play a blackjack since they still had $5 min and I was drinking anyways. I won like 40 bucks and we headed out to get Chipotle and meet our other buddy in town.

The night got a little fuzzy after that as we kept drinking...but somehow we ended up at Bally's. This was my suggestion since I knew the game would be soft and they'd have reasonable minimums. We get there and I'm fairly intoxicated but take a seat at 1/2 after like a 20 min wait with just a bill, figuring this will simplify my play as my effective stack will be 50bb. I sit next to a guy who I have a long chat with about the tech world, and places to live in the US, as well as being a musician. It was one of the more enjoyable stranger/poker meetings i've had. I love it when people aren't dicks in a game full of them.

Anyways the table is filled with rocks at the start, but a good aggressive guy eventually shows up. I see him value bet a river against a nit for like 1.3 times the pot...so i figure he's going to gamble. Almost the next hand I get dealt rockets utg, raise it to 5 ONLY because I figured aggro guy who was OTB would want to get more in there. He obliges by iso-raising to 20. I only have like 75 behind at this point so I shove, he calls, I double up.

Practically the same thing happens 10 hands later, I get aces, raise, Short stacker shovs for like 40 with tens, I double up.

At this point my stack is up to like 180 and I had ordered another corona so I figured I'd just leave up as I didn't much feel like playing real poker (also the aggro kid left).

Rest of the night gets even more blurry, and we end up back at the hotel at like 1, mostly due to the fact that we all woke up super early.

Day 2:

Me and my buddy wake up fairly early (at least for the previous nights' activities considered) and our other friend is super hung over and stays in. We grab a bagel sandwhich at the venetian (cafe santa lucia) which was pretty damn good. Hit the monorail to the conference after a 20min wait in line.

The show was freaking awesome! HD Tv's a half inch thick, 3d projectors, practically every company had a new tablet. I wrote some tech blog type stuff at justinces.blogspot.com .

Anyways back to the strip and our friend who was still pretty hung over. We take it easy while we wait for another friend coming into town with her sister who had just turned 21. We hit the strip pretty hard as friend's sis was ready to party. I play a short session at Harrahs and lose 5bucks, but realize the table isn't soft in the least bit. I play probably one hand of note in which I raise AJ LP, get called by two, flop top pair on a scary board and ep leads out for 10. I call as does everyone else, turn completes a small straight, ep checks, i bet 20 into like 40, get min raised, ep check raises to some absurd amount. I fold, and LP calls. River is meaningless, EP checks, LP bets huge, EP calls. Pot was probably 300 or so, EP had aces and LP had straight, but aces cracked got paid 100bucks.

LP and I start talking about the merits of his river bet for value, as well as the merits of EP's actions with the Aces cracked promotion. It's at this point I realize that 80% of this table knows what they are doing...which is not really where I feel like playing on a friday night in vegas.

I leave, go drink some scotches (after I found out that glenfiddich is comped at harrah's owned casinos this is just about all i drank) and we eventually end up at osheas. I take a car bomb, ask the friends if they are going to gamble for a while, and sit down at that 2-6 spread game.

I quickly realize that I can beat this game while shitfaced hammered, so I make it my goal to do so. I play only one real hand of note after 3 hours and something like 4 guiness draughts. On to the hand (it may be fuzzy):

The aggro guy who seems to think he's better than he is button straddles to 3. I find TT utg and pop it to 9, MP dude calls, button raises max to 15 total, I call as does MP. Pot =42 (huge for this game already). Flop comes T77 two clubs. Due to the rare amount of aggression pf I elect to slow play til the turn. I check, MP checks, LP bets 6, i call MP Calls. Turn is the 8 of clubs, and this is probably the best card ever to check, so I do. MP bets, Button raises, I lay the hammer down and raise. Both call and button is all in at this point. I elect to bet blind hoping that the river is a club. It isn't but MP calls anyways. At this point button calls out might hand, and I politely tell him he's correct and he starts to get mad since he had aces. This is easily the biggest hand the table has seen in quite a few hours.

I ride out the rest of the session, finally cash out, somehow get handed a shot of jaeger (ugh) and we stumble off into the night.

Day 3 is uneventful as we are somewhat hungover and have a mid day flight. We get out rather painless and all is well.

I ended up betting on the ravens at some point during the trip as that line was a lock which is a cap on a great trip!

If you got this far you are certainly a champion, and if you're ever in colorado I owe you a beer.

~Justin

(p.s. zimba thanks for the tip on the card runners promotion, i scooped that up for sure!)