More Vegas Numbers...

Total Trip Combined Winnings by Bloggers: -1100
Poker: +400
Sports Book: +330
Prop Bets: +30
Keno: -5
Horse Racing: -70
Pai Gow: -85
Slots: -485
Craps: -500
Black Jack: -825

I polled 17 bloggers... to figure put approximate wins and losses. Al Cant Hang suggested that we consumed roughly $1000 in alcohol a day. 86.7% of that was by Al Cant Hang and Big Mike. One anonymous blogger dropped over $1500. It's obvious that as a group we're doing OK in poker and at the sports book. We get our asses kicked in -EV games like slots, blackjack and craps. Stay away from those tables! And make sure you don't place a bet when The Cooler is lurking.

Someone asked me how I did for the trip. Well, I won enough to cover my airfare and hotel from NYC and a couple of Christmas presents. So now, I'm even. Spending my winnings once again instead of building my bankroll. Over the weekend, I missed making the money in two tournaments by four places in total... bubbled in the blogger tourney 6th/30 and came in 11th/60 in another. A cash in any of those would have added to my winnings.

Getting Props

I have had a lot of good things said about me by some bloggers who met me for the first time. Here's some om my favorites.

Bob wrote:

If I had one day to spend in New York, Pauly would be the guy I want planning my day. You get the vibe from Pauly that he could get anything done within an hour. Need a place in Vegas to host a private tourney? Pauly will take care of it from New York. Need a hooker to disappear? My guess is Pauly could get it done.

Otis mentioned:

BadBlood was near bubbly as we hit the motorized walkway. He'd cashed in his first Vegas tournament and we were on our way to meet the bloggers.

"We have to page Dr. Pauly," he said. I agreed in earnest and did my best to avert my eyes as we walked into the poker room.

"Don't let them see you looking," Blood said. Blood walked to the front counter and grabbed Ari, the manager.

"Could you please page Dr. Pauly?" Blood asked.

"Sure."

Ari jumped on the mic. I could barely contain myself as Ari and his accent hit the airewaves: "Dr. Paury! Paging Dr. Paury!"

And there he was at a middle table, jumping up to greet us. The great Dr. Paury himself. It is here, friends, that life in the Days of Otis, begins to take an odd but fantastically sublime turn.

And of course, Iggy the Blogfather joined in:

Only one thing is gonna cure what ails me: booze and lots of it. After praying with Saint Hair of the Dog for a bit, I snack on some olives for breakfast before finally hitting the card room and sitting with Pauly and Derek. Had a damn good time hanging with these two, not only here, but all weekend. Pauly's blog doesn't do him justice, believe me, you've got to hang with The Good Doctor to get a full sense of his huge, gregarious personality. You can't make a guy like Pauly up.

And one of my favorites, was from Maudie:

I found the poker room at last and immediately spied Pauly (I'd seen his picture), sitting at a table playing. I went to the counter, however, and asked them to page Dr. Pauly. The guy said, "Dr. Pauly? I know where Dr. Pauly is..." and he took me to Pauly. And it begins. I got a big hug from Pauly, then I spied something out of the corner of my eye - someone stood up and yelled "Ant Maudie!" - and there was Al, arms outstretched and a shit-eating grin on his face.

More to come.

Day 1, Part II: Cowboys, Iggy, and the Hammer!

"Our WPBT event coincided with the National Rodeo Finals. That meant Vegas played host to the largest collection of cowboy hats and plastic breasts since the release of Western Barbie." - CJ

8:34PM PCT... I was up $7 for a seven hour session at the Excalibur. With dealer tips ($1 per pot, $2 for big ones) and giving away a $1 everytime I ordered a drink, I was probably up $40 or $50. I was starving and headed for a quick dinner at the diner next door to the poker room with Bad Blood, Daddy, Derek, and Maudie. That was the first time we all got to chat without poker chips and cards in front of us and the ambient casino background sounds of slots machines, cocktail waitresses whoring watered down drinks, and some rip roaring drunk Cowboy from Amarillo hootin' and hollerin' at a nearby blackjack table.

During our lengthy dinner, we chatted about some personal stuff. I felt that meals, the few which I had in Vegas, were the rare opportunities to truly get to know my fellow bloggers. Man, I never knew that Daddy was an engineer! Bad Blood was an ivy leaguer? Never knew... because I never asked. Maudie played the role of Ariel? (Sorry for the Shakespeare reference). Even my brother let his guard down and admitted he worked for a major insurance company on Wall Street. For some folks poker is an escape from their 9-to-5 lives and the last thing they want to do is chat at the tables about their personal lives... family, work, inner demons, etc.. That's why although I felt I knew some intimate details of my fellow bloggers' lives... I definitely didn't know some of the basics. I honestly had no idea what the majority of them did for a living (aside from fleecing the fish on Party Poker). I guess that's because I never judge anyone on what they do make money. I don't allow someone's job description to define who they are as a person. In America, especially in New York City, that's exactly how you are judged, pegged, and pigeonholed.

Hearing Maudie's subtle Oklahoma drawl was something that just doesn't translate over an IM or in the chat on Party Poker. It's those little things that made the weekend fascinating. Putting together the little pieces of the physical person and having that mesh with the internalized projection of that specific blogger. Next time I'm on Party Poker, the blogger sitting in seat 3 is not just a blank face... I can now imagine Bad Blood flexing his muscles as he calls an all in pre flop bet and takes down a monster. I can picture Maudie shooing away her cats from the keyboard. And I can visualize Iggy swigging a bottle of his favorite beer while penning one of his uber-posts.

After some stellar conversation, we headed back to the tables. I was still waiting on the parts of NYC crew to arrive, along with CJ, and Grubby who was AWOL. I eventually got to sit with Maudie again!

Late Night Cowboy Table:
Seat 1: Aunt Maudie
Seat 2: Old Cowboy aka Black Bart then later me
Seat 3: Tourist then later Iggy
Seat 4: Young guy w/ his girlfriend sweating him then later Derek
Seat 5: Another Cowboy
Seat 6: Young Cowboy named Cody
Seat 7: Dr. Pauly
Seat 8: Young Cowboy named Shane
Seat 9: Tourist
Seat 10: Cowboy

Now if you don't know by now, the rodeo was in town. The rodeo finals draws cowboys from all over the country and late night the poker room is flooded with them. It reminded me about the last few times I was in Vegas to see Phish concerts and the casinos were filled with random neo-hippies. Just like the cowboys you can spot them from a mile away. The tables are filled with fishy cowboys too. Seriously, the bigger the cowboy hat, the bigger the fish. These are the types of guys who will see anything to the river. They like to "keep you honest" and call you on the river even if they know top pair is a loser against a flush. Yep. You can't bluff the hybrid Cowboyfish. But they are fun to play with although plenty of dealers were complaining because they did not tip after winning a pot. I felt bad for them and over compensated. I would give $2 or $3 per pot (instead of $1) to make up for the miserly cowboys.

Now let me tell you about the two young cowboys that sandwiched me. Their names were Shane and Cody. I'm not making this up or changing it for "privacy purposes". You can ask BG if you don't believe me. He sat with them later on in the trip. Anyway, these guys were in their late 20s and flew in from Utah. They were decked out in cowboy boots, the most popular form of footwear for folks heading to the rodeo finals. They both wore blue jeans, held up by belt buckles the size of CDs and plaid shirts. They had goatees and drank Budwesier. One of them was decked out in a black cowboy hat and the other a white one. That's how I was able to distinguish the two from one another.

"So which one of you is the bad guy?" I said as I sat down and stacked up my chips into neat columns. "You got the black hat on," as I pointed to Shane, "I'm willing to bet $1 it's you."

"Yer, Gawd dam'd riiight!" he said as he took a huge sip. "Where are you from?"

"I'll tell you, but I don't think you've ever heard of it... it's very small town."

"Tell me."

"New York City."

It took several seconds before he got the joke and started laughing. Nice to know that cowboys from Utah operated on a seven second comedic delay. Seriously, they were hilarious. Cody was a nice fella. They both were for that matter, just two guys in town having a blast drinking and yapping at the poker table while their wives were off blowing vacation money at the slots. These guys were loose and Shane was seeing every flop. Maudie was running over the both of them before I sat down. That's when I let them know that she's my aunt.

"She's yer aunt?" Shane blurted out after he swigged the last backwash of his beer. "Shit. I'm scared of yer aunt."

"You should be, pal. She's going to pay for her trip on fishy plays from cowboys like yerself."

OK, I didn't say that. I really wanted to... that's what the wise ass New Yorker in me would say... but just smiled and kept my mouth shut. I wasn't going to blow Aunt Maudie's cover. Don't tap the glass, right?

"So, New York, what kind of hands to you play?" Cody seriously asked me after I bought a round of drinks for them and a Corona for myself... and by saying bought I mean that I tipped the waitress $3 for all three of us. It was a small investment but the drunker they got the better the chances we'd get even more river calls with bottom pair.

"I only play good cards."

That got a chuckle from the cowboys. Both the dealer and Maudie giggled.

"I like playing any Jack, like J-2, J-3. Are them good cards?" inquired Shane.

"Yes. Yes they are," I agreed trying to hold a straight face. That was my biggest bluff of the trip.

Shane and Cody also bestowed upon me the most original nickname I ever got... New York... which they'd shout out at me when I'd see them from time to time in the poker room over the weekend.

So, there was an old cowboy sitting next to Maudie who looked like Black Bart. His face was weathered like an old catcher's mit. You know that guy's had at least a dozen of empty Jack Daniel's bottles smashed over his head in various backroom brawls in his younger and wilder days. Some of the scars on his hands and face were older than me. The dealer was getting pissed at him after he won three big pots in one orbit and never tipped her once. Black Bart took a monster pot from me. In fact everyone at the table was taking pots from me as I suffered some brutal river suckouts. My Hilton's lost to Cody's J-10. Slick suited lost to the Shane's Varkoyni. My Hellmuths lost to Big Bart's Q9. That really hurt. Maudie told me that he was calling me a "terrorist" for raising pots preflop. Oh well. He had a monster stack and I was going to bust his loose eventually. It was a scene out of a classic John Ford western movie when I, the obvious outsider, was destined to take out the aging, morally corrupt gunslinger and teach the Wild West that there's going to be a new Sheriff in town ending his tyrannic rule of the poker table. Here's what Maudie had to say:

Played for several hours until I could barely think. I mostly folded. I was astounded at the stretch of cold cards - 9-2, J-3, T-4 and on and on. Cowboy Tom to my left was warning folks at my end of the table that the guy at the other end (Pauly - who'd been table hopping and had returned to this one) that "that feller over thar will play Ace King 'n, well Ace-King..." Pauly was wiping up. I continued to play tight and do my best to maximize my good hands. I was liking live play a lot!

Lucky for me I caught Big Slick at least ten times over the next few hours. In a few hands I wiped out my early losses and I was on my way to doubling up thanks to all the loose cowboys at the table. I made sure I got two Bud's for Shane and Cody everytime the waitress came by.

Bill Rini had finally arrived to the jam packed poker room and I met him up front for a quick chat. He sat down at a table and grinded his way to a good night. He's one blogger that I wish I had more time to hang out with and specifically play at his table. CJ, one of the tallest poker bloggers (he's up there... er, literally with HDouble and Mr. Decker) magically appeared. It seemed like within an hour he already had a Hammer story! Here's one of my favorite hand of the weekend as recanted by CJ:

I'm dealt two black 6's and Otis raises in front of me. I call, hoping to catch a 6 on the flop. It didn't come, but it wasn't the worst flop ever: 2-3-5, all clubs. Otis checks, I bet out $6 and I believe Otis raised me. I was worried about a flush, but had to call. The turn was the 4 of clubs. Jackpot. I've never had a straight flush at a B&M table before, but I think I hid it well. I was really hoping Otis didn't have the ace of clubs. That would be a hellish beat. He checked and I bet out.
"I can't call you," Otis told me. I said he could and that I wouldn't bet anymore. He paused, and then sheepishly turned over the Poker Bloggers favorite hand, the HAMMER. That's right, I cracked his HAMMER with a straight flush.

When I turned over my 6, the table erupted. It also meant I got to spin the Excalibur's money wheel that brought me an extra 20 dollars (and a really awful baseball cap).

I admit I was not playing every hand and took a lot of breaks. I was getting up to walk around the poker room every twenty minutes or so. I always checked up on my brother. I'd head over to Bad Blood's NL table or find the Otis' crew's table. Everytime I checked up on Bill, he had more and more chips. CJ and I would stand in the middle of the poker room and just give a quick update on the blogger tables.

"I just dropped the hammer... Derek's Hilton's were cracked by 76o... Maudie's running over the cowboys... Where the fuck's Grubby?"

I can't tell you how cool it was to be checking out different tables and seeing someone you knew there. It was almost like a Friday night on Party Poker except we were in Las Fuckin' Vegas and I had my pants on.

HDouble, sporting a LA Dodgers hat, eventually wandered in and we recognized each other right away. By that point Al Cant Hang was just that... not hanging. He was out cold. That was the first shocker of the weekend. Al Cant Hang was the first to crash... before Midnight of all things. Little did we know, he was just taking a cat nap, and was ready to unleash a wicked bender.

Maudie was getting cold cards and after Black Bart left, I switched seats next to her. Derek joined the table and we had bloggers on one end, and drunk Cowboys on the other. After a few orbits a guy came over to us. I had seen him playing on HDouble's NL table the few times I wandered over to talk.

"Hey, I just wanted to say that I'm a friend of Hank's from LA. I read both of your blogs and I really like them."

Maudie was flabbergasted. I've met fans before so that was not a new experience for me. I still don't know how to handle it, but I'm getting better with handling compliments from readers and people I never met before. I thanked him and something about him struck a wave of familiarity with him. Yeah I got that sense that we met before. I pointed to Derek.

"This is my brother."

"Oh, Derek from Poker in the Weeds," he quickly said.

Even Derek got suspicious. No one aside from bloggers reads his blog... and only a handful do; Halverson, Daddy, Bob Genius and Boy Genius, AlCantHang, and.... Iggy.

"Iggy?" I half whispered.

He smiled. I gave him a big hug. At that moment I knew that no matter what else happened in Vegas, the entire trip was worth it, even if I was beaten to a bloody pulp by a guy named Vito or got drugged by a sexy starlet at one of the casino bars and lost both of my kidneys by a sophisticated ring of Chinese organ thieves... none of that mattered because I met the Blogfather! And he was drinking... Budwesier. Huh?

At least the two biggest rumors on the net were squashed. Only rumors about Lindsay Lohan's fake boobs were burning up the Internet as much as the actual identity of Iggy. Yes, it's true. Iggy was a normal sized human and he was not a sober housewife from Ohio as I originally hypothesized. Otis... on the other hand... is a 93 year old Grandma in a walker, the ones with tennis balls on the bottom instead of wheels. And that old broad can drink!

With the internet rumors squashed I let out a sigh of relief. When I set up this event there was one person I had set in my mind that I really wanted to meet more so than everyone else... Iggy, naturally. When he told me he couldn't come I didn't want to push. I let Al do that and it worked. He had me fooled for sure. The night before I left for Vegas we played on a table at Party Poker together. I felt bad that the bloggers (Sean, SirF, Glyphic) I was playing with would not be able to come with. Little did I know Iggy knew he's be seeing me the next day. The fucker!

I also realized how hard it is for a guy like Iggy to find time for everyone in Vegas and I was honored for the time we did get to hang out. Every fuckin' second. He found a seat at my table and all I kept thinking was how much the trip was getting better and better. Maudie, Me, Iggy, and Derek... all in a row. Man oh man. 2:13am PCT on Saturday in Vegas was a moment I'll never forget. There was no other place on Earth I'd rather be.

We played for a few more hours and the cards were a blur. I chatted with Iggy about so many things. Our blogs, his horses, living in Vegas, the trip so far. He was trying to keep his identity a secret and eventually told Boy Genius, Otis, and CJ. I cashed out... up a few bucks and we were off to wake up Daddy who passed out in my bed hours before. On the way to our room, we spotted a bar. I really wanted Krispy Kreme, but how could I pass up having a drink (or three) with Iggy in Las Vegas at 4am. We stopped at the Sherwood Forest Bar and became engrossed in a conversation that I wish I could have kept going until sunrise. Maudie, Iggy, and Derek were all yapping about poker and life and blogs. Maudie has some life experience and has plenty of stories to tell. Afterwards, Maudie retreated for some sleep and we ran up stairs to wake up Daddy. He had no clue Iggy was coming and was pumped when Iggy woke his fat ass up! We hung out for a while before they went downstairs.

Now the late night mini-parties in our room (Derek and I shared a room) are a serious blur. I'd wake up and find the room trashed and empty bottles all over the place and I'd forget exactly who was up there hours earlier. I can't recall the full roaster of people there on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday and it's probably best we don't talk about what happened between the hours of 4:20am and 6am in Vegas. It's just a personal rule of mine. Events transpired in Las Vegas County between those said times are not in anyway blogworthy... that's the stuff you'd have to read about in my novels or in sealed court documents.

With that being said, I was exhausted. I only had 3 hours of slumber in my previous two days! I had to get some semblance of rest before the big event... the Holiday Classic at Sam's Town. I also had a couple of hours of personal writing that I had to do before I slept. I fell asleep at my laptop, when I woke up an hour later I shut the fucker, rolled over and as soon as I closed my eyes, I swear... the phone was ringing. It was my wake up call. Wake up? I just went to bed! I was still wearing all my clothes from the night before. I was suffering from mental dehydration and had a wicked case of cotton mouth. As I stared up at the ceiling, all I could think about was... where the fuck was Grubby?

... to be continued.

Here's the timetable of the rest of my trip reports:

12.17 - Day 2, Part I: Sam's Town Meet & Greet and tourney report
12.18 - Day 2, Part II: More blogger tables, Hammers, & late night hijinks
12.20 - Day 3, Part I: Sun. am shots and NFL betting at Mandalay Bay
12.21 - Day 3, Part II: Late night hijinks including Bellagio hookers
12.22 - Day 4, Part I: Aladdin tourney report & hanging w/ Grubby & Derek
12.23 - Day 4, Part II: The Brawl revisited and Late Night with Otis
12.24 - Day 5: Afterthoughts plus my fav. pictures & quotes

And here are the ones I have already posted:

Day 1, Part I

Stay tuned for more wild and wacky Vegas stories. There are plenty fo Hammer stories too. In the meantime, please visit everyone's blog for their kickass trip reports; Iggy, Derek, Poker Prof, Flip Chip, and Foiled Coup from Lasvegasvegas, Dick from Buy It In Vegas, Riding the F Train, Boy Genius, Bad Blood, Bill Rini, Felicia, Glenn, Otis & CJ & G-Rob, Al Cant Hang & EvaCanHang, Maudie, Signor Ferrari, - EV, Bob, Grubby, Mas from Genius of Poker, Martin from JMC Automatic and Brian, Linda from Poker Works, and Daddy from Snail Trax. Did I miss anybody? Some are up, some are in the process of writing them, and some people like my brother are swamped with work, so I'm sure you'll be reading about this trip over the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by.

Some Cool Trip Reports

BG talks about strippers on one of his Vegas posts. Here's my favorite part...

Do "dancers" smell like whores, or do whores smell like "dancers?" Either way, it takes a lot of mid-priced perfume to cover skank adequately.

Oh yeah. And AlCantHang has some gems about Vegas on his site. I hope EvaCanHang posts something of her own!

Definitely check out The Poker Prof's write up of the blogger's tourney. There's a pic or two of me on there.

The Real Vegas Reports: Day 1, Part I

"Let it be said that Pauly knows how to throw one helluva party." - Iggy

First of all, thanks to The Poker Prof from Lasvegasvegas.com in addition to the rest of his crew, his dad, Santos, and Foiled Coup. They helped get the pros together for the Meet & Greet. And definitely thanks to Dick Gatewood from Sam's Town. He worked hard to set up the ballroom for breakfast and his tournament went as smoothly as any live one I've attended. His dealers and staff were great. We were treated like high rollers! Seriously, everyone's thanking me for the weekend, when it's Dick and the Poker Prof you should be thanking. My hat goes off to you for all of your help. Now go read their blogs and sites... there's plenty of Christmas shopping you can do on their other sites.

Special thanks to all of the professionals who showed up. Ron Rose hooked all of us up with free copies of his book. Charlie Shoten handed out excerpts of his upcoming book and shared a lot of his wisdom in a great lecture. Thanks to Tom McEvoy for enduring a Q&A session with the bloggers. And thanks to Max Pescatori who skipped a Bellagio event to play with us and take all of our money, except Felicia's.

Prologue

There's never a perfect place to start a Vegas trip report. You just have to close your eyes and pluck moments out of the air. Ah, and notes are a godsend. I flipped through the first pages of my notebook. I filled an entire small one up with hand histories, overall thoughts, ideas, cell numbers of strippers (just kidding Briana), and even a poem or two. Based on my handwriting, I could tell that I was nervous. I might seem like a guy that acts cool in tough situations but on the inside I was freaking out for the entire week before Vegas. If I wasn't busy writing a new novel in November, I would have been freaking out some more. Some days I feel like I'm hanging onto life by a tiny piece of dental floss as I'm getting tossed around, when other days it's the opposite and I feel like I tearing down the open road of life at 100mph in full control of my destiny. I prayed to the poker gods that Vegas would be a trail blazing adventure. After reading people's trip reports, I'm starting to think it was.

One of the good aspects of my personality is that I feel I can talk to anyone about anything. Individually I was not worried about meeting anyone, even the pros. I love those types of things. My concern was meeting twenty bloggers for the first time (and the more I thought about it, someone like -EV, Bill or Maudie never met any of us before so for them it was meeting 30 people) and not finding enough one-on-one time with everyone. My biggest regret is that I did not get to spend a substantial amount of quality time with... well, pick a name! I wish I could have spent an entire day with everyone one-on-one... walking around Vegas, having a good meal and conversation, and playing at a table with you against tourists, specifically Cowboys. That was tough and as much fun as I had with some people, I felt that I let down a lot the others due to limitations in time, my short attention span, and my precocious gambling and scathing substance abuse problems. Bottom line, I wish I had more time to hang out with all of you but the time we did spend together was special to me. I might do something like HDouble posted jotting down some special memories that I shared with everyone. Yes, I am honored and humbled that everyone took time to come out.

I am also touched to hear how so many folks that could not come out wished us good vibes and were hitting up our blogs all weekend, looking for live updates. Everyone who didn't come was certainly missed. And that might be my second biggest regret of the weekend... that not everyone got to come. I know that this weekend started the ball rolling for future live events, and I hope that we'll have a bunch in 2005 so you can pick one to attend. Seriously, everyone was much cooler than I imagined.

Oh, and my third biggest regret was everyone blowing off Felicia's stud tutorial after the tourney. To Felicia and Glenn, I fully accept the blame on that one for failing to rally the troops to get kick ass advice from a world class stud player. I definitely lost out on improving my stud game. I hope you can forgive me for that.

I knew that everyone spent time and money and cashed in favors (spousal or work-related) to make the trip and with knowing all of that, I was hoping that everyone would have a great time and more specifically, have one great Vegas story. The more I reflected on my flight home, the more I realized that the blogger weekend was one of those events that could be the core of a future novel. Don't get your hopes up too high. I have at least three other novels to write before I could consider writing up this weekend. Which is why these mini-reviews and live updates have helped, along with my scribbled notes, and these trip reports. Seriously, I spent hours this morning ready everyone's versions of the weekend and seeing some random pictures of all of us out there.

Getting There

Every journey begins with a first step. I knew I was going to Vegas in December over a year ago. Derek and I love heading out to Vegas during March Madness and the week or two after Thanksgiving. As soon as I mentioned it to Boy Genius while I was dropping him off at the airport in Philadelphia after the insane AlCantHang's Bash at the Boathouse, both he and his brother Bob booked their flights and rooms as soon as he got back to Michigan. Once AlCantHang and EvaCanHang heard the epic news, their posse booked flights. With six of us confirmed, and knowing Felicia and Glenn were nearby I decided to get in touch with the Poker Prof to find out if he knew a place that would host a private table. I spoke to Dick from Sam's Town and he offered up a private tournament. And that's how it all began. One by one some of the bloggers and folks from NYC I was friends with joined in. That was expected. Several bloggers that I only knew through reading their blogs (and never spoke to before via IMs or calls) were reserving spots. Now that was cool! I was worried about filling up one table. We now had two tables and it looked like we were going to fill up three. And in the last week, I got word that HDouble and Daddy from Snail Trax were coming and I knew that I had to stop worrying. Everyone was going to have a blast.

Daddy was the first blogger to arrive late Thursday night. He called me from the airport to announce the beginning of his whiskey bender. Just as I was falling asleep, The Poker Prof called with great news; Marcel Luske was going to attend the function. Of course, I couldn't sleep all night anticipating my trip to Vegas. I should have left Thursday night. I woke up restless to a wet, cold, rainy day in the big city. When Derek and I get into the cab at 7am on Friday to go to the airport, I forgot which one were were flying out of. NYC has three major airports. I knew it wasn't Newark. So I found myself with my first coin-flip situations. LGA or JFK? I figured it was JFK and called to make sure. I was so flustered that I forgot to print up my flight info.

I always fly JetBlue to Vegas from JFK. They have direct TV for everyone. That helps kill half of a 5 hour flight. But after the second hour I was sick of four ESPN stations. I secretly wished that they carried TBS so I could watch Dawson's Creek. Instead I ended up watching cartoons and avoided the real world and stayed away from the alphabet news stations. I began counting the minutes to touchdown. Luckily were were 30 minutes early. On line at the cab stand, Derek spotted Senator John McCain, while I was trying to read my seven text messages and over a dozen voicemails.

As we got out of the cab at The Excalibur, I heard someone shout, "Pauly!" I looked over and AlCantHang and EvaCanHang were rolling up in their rental car. We checked in, grabbed a quick bite and found Daddy, BG and Bob chilling out at the sports book. Within minutes I was hearing the first of many Vegas stories. Daddy's story was hilarious. He was telling me about eating a patty melt at a diner in Sam's Town at 5am with some guy named Vinny. It took just a few seconds to drag them over to the poker room. We all put our names on a list. Felicia and Glenn sat down at a NL table and I almost joined in, but I didn't want to lose some of my bankroll in the first hour against some of the best NL players I have met! I decided to play the lowest limit $1-3 because I wanted to take plenty of table breaks to chat with everyone and be able to field phone calls and meet everyone as they arrived. Most of the weekend was like that. I didn't get to play as much as I would have liked because I was acting as the host, especially on the first day. Luckily were seated at a new table around 1:50pm PCT and the mayhem began

The first ever blogger table in Vegas...
Seat 1: Derek
Seat 2: Tourist
Seat 3: EvaCanHang
Seat 4: Bob
Seat 5: AlCantHang then later Maudie
Seat 6: Me
Seat 7: BG
Seat 8: Daddy
Seat 9: Tourist and later Mas
Seat 10: Tourist and later Otis

The action started out fast. EvaCanHang adheres to the no-limping rule. Bob liked to see a lot of flops and pounded Corona's while AlCantLimp tracked down waitresses for shots of SoCo.

1:55pm PCT... I called a preflop raise with 55. Daddy raised me after I hit a set on the flop. I just called and even asked, "Do you have a set?" I ended up cracking his pocket Jacks. As I stacked up my chips I had the first surreal Vegas moment... How the hell did I get here? BG to my left, The Hangs to my right, Derek and Daddy at the same table with me. Amazing.

2:45pm PCT... I hear over the loudspeaker, "Dr. Pauly, you have guests at the front desk. Dr. Pauly?" I always wanted to be paged in Las Vegas and I was by Otis and Bad Blood. I had seen pictures of both guys but lemme say, Bad Blood had a pair of guns for arms. If I was cut like that, I'd wear muscle shirts all the time.

3:30pm PCT... Felicia got an Omaha 8 game going for a second blogger table. I passed. I'm a bleeder in Omaha 8 and bankroll management was important for me the first few days. Sounded like everyone was having a good time in the far corner. Whenever I came over to the table everyone asked, "Where's Maudie?" There was a woman roughly the same age as Maudie playing Omaha with the bloggers. She had the same hairstyle and wore glasses. For a second a few of us thought that was her. I called her cell just to make sure it wasn't. Sure enough she arrived and was on her way! I feel that I have special connections with a lot of poker bloggers. The most unique is with Maudie. Sure we are divided by a whole generation gap (Baby Boomer vs. Gen X) as well as a regional difference (big city boy vs. an Okie gal) but we have plenty of connections. She's a theater gal. We have similar tastes in music and donuts, and then there's poker. We've had a whole running joke that Maudie had given me up for adoption 32 years ago and we found each other through poker. We were even going to try to pull off that story at a table. We almost did it once. But I'll tell you that later. My point is this... poker is a unique entity that brings people from all works of life together. It was great to see that connection in real life.

Anyway, here's what Maudie said about our first meeting:

I found the poker room at last and immediately spied Pauly (I'd seen his picture), sitting at a table playing. I went to the counter, however, and asked them to page Dr. Pauly. The guy said, "Dr. Pauly? I know where Dr. Pauly is..." and he took me to Pauly. And it begins. I got a big hug from Pauly, then I spied something out of the corner of my eye - someone stood up and yelled "Ant Maudie!" - and there was Al, arms outstretched and a shit-eating grin on his face.

I felt like a celebrity during those moments. Shit, I felt like the most famous person in Vegas for the entire weekend. It was pretty cool. Maudie sat down and we all started chit chatting. It was almost like Party Poker but with a bigger chat box. One of the dealers asked us how we knew each other. The table grew silent for a few seconds when I muttered, "Prison." That got a chuckle for everyone. Again, I usually don't tell people at a poker table that I'm a poker blogger. And I didn't want to blow our cover.

The Hangs and Felicia and Glenn headed out for sushi off the Strip. I desperately wanted to go but I felt I had to stick around the Excalibur to wait for more arrivals. Grubby was no where to be found and that was a concern. That was the first coin flip decision I had to make in Vegas and I was bummed out that I missed everything especially reading Felicia's take on the dinner.

We played for a little while longer as I directed people to the poker room and giving out other minor directions. I needed some food and we ate at the diner right next to the poker room.

... to be continued.

I will end this section for now. I have too much to write and will spread it out over the next week.

Here's the timetable of the rest of my trip reports:

12.16 - Day 1, Part II: Playing w/ Maudie & cowboys and meeting Iggy
12.17 - Day 2, Part I: Sam's Town Meet & Greet and tourney report
12.18 - Day 2, Part II: More blogger tables, Hammers, & late night hijinks
12.19 - Day 3, Part I: Sun. am shots and NFL betting at Mandalay Bay
12.20 - Day 3, Part II: Late night hijinks including Bellagio hookers
12.21 - Day 4, Part I: Aladdin tourney report & hanging w/ Grubby & Derek
12.22 - Day 4, Part II: The Brawl revisited and Late Night with Otis
12.23 - Day 5: Afterthoughts plus my fav. pictures & quotes

Lucky Julie, 3rd place winner at the WPBT Holiday Classic, will be posting some of her tourney write up here as well.

Stay tuned for more wild and wacky Vegas stories. There are plenty fo Hammer stories too. In the meantime, please visit everyone's blog for their kickass trip reports; Iggy, Derek, Poker Prof, Flip Chip, and Foiled Coup from Lasvegasvegas, Dick from Buy It In Vegas, Riding the F Train, Boy Genius, Bad Blood, Bill Rini, Felicia, Glenn, Otis & CJ & G-Rob, Al Cant Hang & EvaCanHang, Maudie, Signor Ferrari, - EV, Bob, Grubby, Mas from Genius of Poker, Martin from JMC Automatic and Brian, Linda from Poker Works, and Daddy from Snail Trax.

Some are up, some are in the process of writing them, and some people like my brother are swamped with work, so I'm sure you'll be reading about this trip over the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by.

Random Vegas Numbers...
Number of Krispy Kreme donuts consumed: 18
Total shots of SoCo I downed with AlCantHang before 11:45am: 6
Dwarf sightings: 2
Hours of sleep since Thursday: 12.5
Times I saw Otis at a Pai Gow table between 2 and 4am: 3


Me, professional player Max Pescatori, and G-Rob at Sam's Town during the bloggers tournament in Las Vegas, NV