Jesse Goes to Vegas, Loses Thousands

That pretty much sums it up. But here are some details. Pete, Eric and I loaded up onto our flight at 11am Thursday morning and were playing 15/30 in the Bellagio before 2 o'clock. At first, things did not go horribly, as I played some 15/30 and then 30/60 and actually jumped out to a slight win. Then I decided to do something catastrophically stupid, inspired by Pete's recent foray into stud. I sat in the 30/60 Omaha 8 game. At first things were going well, and it was clear to me that a few of the players had some very fishy tendencies. I even won for a while. Then the game got short, I was still deep on the 15 and 30 lists (I of course relisted myself) and I got stubborn, and lost the requisite rack of chips. I ran bad (I got quartered HU with a made A2, I tried to steal with QQ64 on the button and ran into AA33 and got a board of AKQ-8-9, twice the flop checked through and I bet my two pair on the turn as the best hand, only to lose the whole pot on the river, and my AAXX flopped ATT and both guys mucked), played a little bad (the quartering was predictable and I could have saved $20, and I missed a river bet because I forgot I had a live Ace), and remembered that while I'm OK at Omaha, I need terrible players to actually have any sort of edge.

We had dinner at the buffet (while you're inside the Bellagio the buffet is actually one of your cheaper options for dinner) and then set off in search of low stakes mixed game action. We found it at the Venetian, to the tune of a 6/12 HORSE game (to which I managed to convince everyone to add 2-7 Triple Draw) and played for 3.5 hours, basically 3 on 3 with these Australian dudes from Poker News. We won (I lost, but Pete and Eric posted wins, just like the 20 minute black jack session right before hand). Then it was craps until WAY too late, then back to the Bellagio for some much needed sleep.

The next day brought a late start and the arrival of leo doc, a southern gentleman of the highest caliber and rather fun dude all rolled into one. After another buffet meal (this time for lunch), I played a little 30/60, then hung out in leo's room for an hour or so before heading to the 2p2 meetup at the Hard Rock. Leo, being the baller that he is, booked a limo and we rode over in style, along with DougL, Mrs DougL, and Mrs Leo Doc. The meet up was absolutely packed, with the lounge full to the brim of poker players basically playing 4/8 mixed games with 10 rack stacks of chips. I didn't actually play, as I couldn't get a seat at any of the fun tables (like the one with Professor Ben, "shaunfuckingdeeb", Sir Felix, and Greg Raymer), and instead spent my time trying to meet people. I succeeded in talking to Greg Raymer ("I'll never vote republican or democrat again...it's just tweedle dee vs. tweedle douche"), some of the founders of Deuces Cracked (Joe Tall and Death Donkey), Nate the Great, and various other poker players of various levels of fame, before deciding to bail out with Pete, Doug, and leo for some semi-actual serious business poker at the Mirage, where I lost a serious amount of money despite the semi-seriousness of the stakes (10/20 and 20/40).

I called it a night early (12:30ish) because I was still exhausted from the marathon craps session of the night before (note to self...don't do that again), but woke up early and actually managed to win a rack of chips in the 15/30 over 4 hours of play the next day before flying home with Pete. Upon my arrival at Bay 101 (I left my car there), I had little choice but to stick around and play with Neal, who promptly left 90 minutes later with 5 racks of chips (one of them mine), and then go home stuck even more. Today went no better, as I posted a 4 rack loss in the 20/40 game. Running bad is really starting to wear on me, and I'm questioning everything. Have my opponents figured me out? Are the games not as good? Am I tilting? Am I just unlucky? Is it some of everything. Things need to turn around soon.