2009 USBC LAS VEGAS REPORT

Well, here's the long story of what happened this week while in Vegas. Yes, I was in Vegas for a WEEK!! I did manage to come home with some $$$ so it wasn't totally bad.

I left last Sunday night around 11pm after work and arrived at Buffalo Bills somewhere around the 1:30am mark. My goal was to get a room (using my slot points) and drive in later in the morning. As luck would have it, they were sold out due to some concert. So I gambled a little bit then headed to the Orleans where I was staying at about 5:30am. Once I arrived I promptly sat down in the keno area and tried my luck at live keno. Guess I didn't have any luck at all. After playing around for a couple hours, I was able to go check in and head up to my room. Once I went upstairs and put things away I separated my "play" money from my "bracket money" and proceeded to head back downstairs and play some more. After losing for a bit, I finally got some luck as I hit a 6 of 6 keno machine for $800. That got me closer to even. About 2 hours later I hit another machine for the same thing....yup another $800. Now I am at about even. I played for a little longer before heading up to the room to get some sleep for the High Roller tournament tomorrow morning.

Tuesday morning I get up and head on into Sam's Town. I head down to the center just in time for a little bit of practice to get a feel for the lanes. The shot seemed very playable and I was feeling good about my chances. The first VIP tournament starts up and I shoot a whopping 210 game. Needless to say, that didn't cash for anything. My first match wasn't until 1pm, so I went upstairs and decided to play a little bit more. As luck would have it, I hit ANOTHER 6 spot on a keno machine for ANOTHER $800. Now I am ahead for the couple days and feeling pretty good. My start time was coming up aso I headed back down to the bowling center for my first match.

Match 1: 234 - 188 I win
Match 2: 210 - 195 I win again. Should have lost this one, but my opponent whiffed a 5 pin in the tenth to give it to me.
Match 3: 246 - 176 I win again. This was the money round, and the winners were now guaranteed $1000. For those in the know, I was bowling against PBA PRO Michael Fagan's wife Amanda. She just couldn't get lined up and I caught some good breaks. Michael seems like a pretty nice guy as I was chatting with him for a few after the match.
Match 4: 234 - 181 I win again. The winner of this round gets into Saturday's finals and can not re-enter any other round 1 slots to try to make extra money. Now I am guaranteed $1100 plus $250 from a refund check for the unused re-entry I had pre-paid when submitting my entry. I really must have gotten under my opponents skin as I opend wit ha spare then a four bagger, the first two were solid BROOKLYN strikes, and he never got going. I did apologize after the match. I realyl hate beating someone like that when they are throwing a better ball than me.

Now here's where I get really STUPID! Knowing that I have about $1400 coming to me on Saturday, I began gambling like an idiot and BLOW all my winnings right out the door with the exception of the bracket & mini-eliminator money I had. Nice move eh? Anyway, so I get up early Wednesday morning and check out to head home to pick up my car and turn in my rental. Probably a good thing as I probably would have blown ALL the rest of my money on Wednesday.

So Wednesday morning I drive home and pick up my car and drive back up Wednesday evening. I get to the Gold Coast about 11ish and am able to check in a day early. I go back out to my car to get my stuff and nothing is working. Lights won't come on or anything. After about a half hour of messing around with it, I notice the connector for the battery cable to the battery is loose.... once I tighten it down, no problem and it's back to running as usual. So back in the casino I go and guess what..... I BLOW EVERYTHING ELSE I HAVE. Yup, I am officially an idiot. All I have left is a couple credit cards that I can purchase food on. So that's what I do all of Thursday. I was hoping Friday would bring my unemployment check in, but that didn't happen either (good thing too) so Friday was more of the same.

On Friday, I wandered over to the Rio to watch the World Series of Poker Day 1A. On the way down the elevator at the Gold Coast, WSOP 2007 Main Even Champ Jerry Yang gets in. Why would someone want to stay there instaed of somewhere a little more upscale is beyond me. Anyway, he's a very friendy guy and I chatted him up for a min or two and wished him luck as I continued over to the Rio. I managed to get a spot right above the featured table when play began. There were four empty seats at the start (guess people were late or something) and one of the late comers was Alan Cunningham, so I snapped a picture there. After an hour of watching boring poker, I headed out to the exhibition hall. I saw Humberto Brenes who was with his wife and he was carrying a large rubber shark (about 7 inches in length) so I snapped a couple pictures there. Also doing a little Q/A discussion was Phil Hellmuth & Johnny Chan (snap snap with the pictures). Then I headed out. Kinda interesting to see, and I can't wait to see the opening rounds on TV.

Saturday FINALLY comes around and it's back off to the Roller for my round 5 match. Winners here are guaranteed $1400. I win this one 222 - 202. My opponent gave me another gift by missing right badly and leaving a six count washout (he needed a double to beat me). Moving on to round 6 where the winners are guaranteed $2250. I was leading by 20 going into the 8th frame when my opponent left the 7-10 split. I really thought I had it in the bag there....then HE PICKED IT UP! I wound up opening in the 8th and sparing in the 9th which forced him to punch out to lock me out. He did that and I opened again in the tenth to lose 228-203 and recieved $1400 for my finish. I don't hold anything against the guy for picking that up, since he shouldn't have left it anyway and was throwing good shots the whole time. I cash my checks (now I have some money for brackets) and head back to the hotel.

SUNDAY TEAM EVENT:
Before I head out to Cashman, I stopped off at another keno machine (YEAH YEAH I KNOW) and hit a 6 of 6 and 7 of 8 at the same time for $800 and cash out and leave (there's something new eh?). I hang out for a little bit until the rest of my team shows up and I try to find out if someone is being backed for brackets or will we be on our own. Nobody is able to decide anything, so I invest $1000 of my money and hope for the best. I have a pretty good line, but can't get it left too much or squeeze it in. I maybe have three boards to play with and that's it. I shoot 212 - 211 - 215 for a 638. At this point I am hoping for just my $750 back (the other $250 was in Super Brackets which won't be done with until the end of the tournament). Once the payout screen comes up, next to my name is $2095!!!! I almost TRIPLED my money!!! We head down to Binion's to pick up the cash and myself and one other from our team decide to have dinner at the steakhouse there. It's on the 24th floor, a bit pricey but well worth it! After dinner and a little playing (I dropped only $100) I drop my teammate off at his hotel and head back to mine. I should have gone to bed then, but didn't and ended staying up until 3:30am gambling (only lost $250).

MONDAY SINGLES & DOUBLES:
After getting an hour and a half "nap" I head back to Cashman for singles & doubles(the 7:00am squad). I decide to invest $750 into brackets and keep my fingers crossed. I don't know if it was because I was tired or the lanes were crap (more than likely a combination of both) but I bowl lousy in doubles 197 - 172 - 182 = 551 (partner shot 549) We move pairs and I have a much better shot as I go 244 - 195 - 193 = 632 for singles and finally get my 30 clean!! I'm hoping for $300 for this and get shocked as I get $483. Still a loss, but smaller than I thought. Same routine as yesterday, go to Binion's, pick up the money, and head out. I drop of my teammate again, and start to head out of town. I'm pretty tired so I swing into the South Point and manage to get a free room for the night. I probably should have just drove straight home, but didn't, and wound up gambling about $700 or so away. Left Tuesday morning and here I am now. Had to bowl tonight.... 211 - 217 - 225

Came home with a little under $2000 (right about my starting point) and should be getting a check in August/September for about $750 or so.

That's it for this trip.... too bad I can't control my gambling LOL OH well..... get to do this all over again next year in RENO!!! :)

2 months later......

This year is just about over.... and I've made what.... about 10 posts?? Whatever Kevin.

Anyway.... first off. Lost my morning job right before Thanksgiving (or somewhere around there). Was laid off due to cutbacks. Shit happens. It's giving me a great opportunity to go back to school and finish up some loose ends. So it's Domino's & unemployment for income. Have to cut back a bit on bowling and other spending. I think I'll survive.

Been dieting since August. Started at 315 and got down to 272 doing the low carb thing. Switched to Weight Watchers about 1 month ago and today (day after Christmas feasting) I am down to 260.7 I think it's going in the correct direction!!!

Got a new camera for Christmas, so I might turn into a shutterbug for a while... we'll see.

That's about it for now. Surprised I remembered my login info for here!!

Last post was WHEN?

INCONSISTANCY!! Look it up asshole!

Anyway.... it's been a while so let's catch up.

Baseball.... we finished 3 - 12 (or something like that) with a win in our final game. The Cards won't be back next season... I was planning on taking over but it doesn't look like the interest will be there so I may just go to tryouts and take my chances.

Bowling.... Albuquerque was great. Finished in 42nd place in doubles for $800 and cashed very nicely. Will be with a new team next year in Vegas where I'll be bowlign the High Roller and possibly be in the WSOP (one of the side events). That's gonna be an experience.

Out of debt project.... looking like Summer 2009 (roughly) Need to stop going to Vegas LOL

Weight loss..... started back up in August. Was up to 315. Now I am at 277. Will try to get to 250 before switching to Weight Watchers.

Jobs..... looking into getting the management position at Domino's which will allow me to quit my other job and go back to school.... keepin my fingers crossed on that one.

Enough of updating for now... hopefully more later.

New month....same crap...

Gotta love two weeks between posts. If people were reading this, then I might post more, but since nobody does.... I'll update it whenever I damn well please.

Went to VEGAS again..... good trip.... GREAT food. Came back with about $300 less than I life with. If it wasn't for the 6 hour car trip back (and being uncomfortable in the back of Bri & Ang's car) it might have been better. Bowling didn't go according to plan either. The new ball I got did the exact same thing as everything else I have....and my problems were I got hit with our damn drop rule and I couldn't carry. Add those two together and you get a very mediocre 653 set and get blanked in EVERYTHING!! At least my gambling made up for it a bit. I even hit two 4-of-a-kinds on the fortune pai gow within 1/2 hour of each other. Can't beat that too much.

Now to get ready for Albuquerque at the end of June. Should be fun!!!

Weight loss...... went off the diet for Vegas and am going to start back up next Monday.... just get through the weekend. I've only put back about 5 pounds and am still under 300 (for now).... I think my new goal is to get to about 270 before New Mexico.

Baseball.... well we lost our first game 14 - 2. Apparently it wasn't all errors this time... so I'll take it for what it is.... next game is this weekend against a team that has been mercied twice in a row.... BADLY! Should be an interesting game!

Poker.... played a little in Vegas, and haven't played much of anything else since. While in Vegas, Bri & I sat a $2/$4 table and for the first couple hours I could barely play a hand for two reasons..... not getting any cards, and to jackasses to my left who would raise on any two cards or call ANYTHING!! Needless to say I couldn't get involved much, but when I finally did, I took down some decent pots and walked away $60 up. Then I turned $20 into $250 on a penny Star Wars slot. THAT was fun!! Stayed up for almost 40 hours straight up there from Thursday - Fri night/Sat morning.

Enough for now.... time to head on home (well the other job)and make some money to go to the NM fund for June!

Another Week.... another post

These are getting less frequent all the time.... I really need to commit more to some things.

Anyway..... got back from Vegas with pretty much what I left with. I bowled pretty good, but a lot of corner pins (and missing some of them) really cost me. I made about $650 in brackets & sidepots, and managed to come home with that...partly thanks to a quarter machine I hit for $600 and a nickel machine for $400. Let's see if I can repeat that in 8 days when I head back up for more!

Baseball.... after beating an 18A team 10 - 8, we got stuffed in that damned 18Open division again.... not what we wanted to see. Our first game though, got rained out so we won't play til the 30th... the day I am coming back from Vegas... I'll prolly miss that one too.

Poker.. had my Full Tilt bankroll up to about $110 before starting to donk it off a bit. Last night I managed to final table the 2 90 person SnGs that I was in and made a little bit back.... hopefully I can keep that streak going for a while.

Still on track to be out of debt (minus car & rent) by year end.... can't wait for that to happen!!

Enough for today... hopefully I'll post before I go to Vegas.... or maybe even while I am in Vegas!!!