Vegas 2008 Part II

Merlotgirl and I flew off to Vegas for Thanksgiving week. We left Saturday morning and flew back Thanksgiving morning. We had a great trip as usual. We left town a little lighter in the wallet this time then the last time, but there were still numerous highlights. I’ll try and recall them here.

Stayed at the Golden Nugget again and played cash games at the following casinos:
Golden Nugget
Binions (new room…very, very nice)
Planet Hollywood
Bellagio

Merlotgirl Chopped a Deep Stack Tournament at Binions. $125 buy in, start with t8,000, 30 minute blinds. It got down to 3 handed with one player having Merlotgirl and the other player covered 3 times over. Merlotgirl and the other short stack agreed to chop 2nd and 3rd place, but still play on to try and beat the big stack. She ended up with a $600 + cash, as her AT was beat by the big stacks A3, when he spiked a 3 on the turn.

Golden Nugget – “The Grand Fall Poker Classic Ladies Event”

Merlotgirl enters this event. $200 + $30 buy-in. It’s a LIPS event, and has a number of well known lady players. As it turns out she sits at a table with 2007 WSOP Ladies Event winner, Sally Boyer. When Merlotgirl points her out to me, I tell her I was playing a $1/$2 NL cash game at the Nugget and was sitting directly to her right. She was a very good player. Sally was a very quiet, almost shy woman, but very gracious. She had put a bounty on her own head, offering to pay the buy-in for the person who beat her. After playing with Ms. Boyer for several hours Sally tells Merlotgirl she’s a very good player and should play in bigger events. Not a bad compliment coming from a bracelet winner.

Sometime after “The First Lady of Poker” Linda Johnson busts out, tables are rebalanced and “Ms. Poker”, Susie Isaacs sits at Merlotgirls table. So there is my wife playing at the same table with the 2007 WSOP Ladies Event Champion ($262,000 plus prize), and Ms. Poker, 2 time bracelet winner of the WSOP Ladies Event (1996 & 1997) and 10th place finisher in the 1998 WSOP Main Event. Merlotgirl beat Susie in a hand and Susie wanted to see Merlotgirls hand. Merlotgirl politely declined and mucked her hand. Susie did not like that. Score one for Merlotgirl. While Merlotgirl eventually busted out after playing great poker for the day, it was a tremendous boost to her confidence to play with such fine players for 6 hours or so. She can play with these players.

“Super Tuesday” – Well Tuesday was going to be a great day for us. We start by ordering room service, which is fantastic. Then we take a cab to Caesars where Merlotgirl has a day at the spa planned, before we go to see Bette Midler Tuesday night. I drop her off and stop by Bellagio for a quick session of $4 / $8 limit. Win a little bit and wander over to Planet Hollywood for a tournament. It would be a lot easier for Merlotgirl to recount her day at the spa then for me to lay it out here, but I’ll try. She got there early and spent an hour or so in the mineral baths. She didn’t think she’d be able to last too long in the really hot one, but her attendant said it would be ok. So she sits in the corner, and the attendant turns a knob and cooling rain falls on Merlotgirls head. Nice. I also know there was some room with heated marble seating that was very cold and had snow falling on her head. Then she had a 75 massage with a Hawaiian Masseuse named Gina. Highly recommended by Merlotgirl. Let’s not forget about the “Tea Sommelier” who made her a couple of cups of nice tea. Upon completion of the massage came the shower, in one of those shower rooms where multiple shower heads hit you form various angles. Merlotgirl enjoyed this day at the spa immensely.

She then wandered over to Planet Hollywood, where I was at the final table of the tournament. When we got down to 4 players we agreed to chop it 4 ways. $413 each for an $80 buy in tournament.

We now have just enough time to head to Todd English’s “Olives” a lovely restaurant with a patio overlooking the Bellagio Fountains. We dined out there and watched the show. It was fantastic!!!!!

On to the Colosseum at Caesar’s to see Bette. She put on an incredible performance. Her rendition of “When a Man Loves a Woman” brought the house down. We highly recommend seeing her show. Simply fabulous.

We capped the night off by heading over to Bellagio to play $4 / $8 Limit for a few hours. We didn’t see anyone playing in Bobby’s Room. I suppose the big game has moved on to the Venetian. As we were leaving we took a look over in the higher stakes area and there was a table playing $150 / $300 No Limit. I didn’t recognize anyone.

We played well and bubbled out of several other tournaments. As usual we had a terrific time, and can’t wait until our next venture back to “sin city”.