Monday, April 30, 2007

Just call me "Bubble Girl"....

Laura and I decided to play in a poker tourney on Saturday afternoon/night. It was $100 buy in, 24 people playing, pay out top 3 players. High stakes, yes, but we figured we earned it. :)

The game started with 3 tables of 8 people, 10,000 in chips, at around 530. There were 4 women playing out of 24, and 3 of us ended up at the same table. Lucky for Laura, she was at a table of her own. I am just not a fan of playing with women, especially annoying ones.....like the ones that say things like "Now why did you do that?", when you raise before the flop. Um, because that's how you play poker....now shut up and either call or fold. Anyways...I got over it, but not before I handed a LOT of my chips to one of the ladies who didn't even realize that she had a full house and beat me on the hand. More annoying.

I was playing terribly, but still having a good time. I was down to about 5000 in chips and got a pretty decent hand. Blinds were 200/400. KB raised to 800, I re-raised to 1600, and then Chris to my left raised it to 5000. To call him put me all in. I had K-10 suited. I'd seen the hands that this guy had been playing, they were all over the place....so I sat there and thought for a while, and decided to call him. I would have been pretty much out anyways if I had folded with only 3400 in chips left. So, I called. He had A-K. Well, a 10 came on the flop and nothing else paired....so, I WON. It was one of those hands that really makes you sweat...I was SO thrilled that I won it!!!

Now I had 10,000 chips again, so I was starting from scratch. I got A-A a few hands later, and bet REALLY big pre-flop. One guy called, I think out of pity, and then on the flop I bet big again, he folded. I had to show because of the hand that I had, and thanked him for the generosity.

Shortly thereafter, I got moved to Laura's table. I didn't really win any big hands, I over bet my good cards to be sure I wouldn't lose, and managed to stay in long enough to make it to the final table, top 8 players. I was lucky to be sat in seat 8, so I got to stay in the longest without posting blinds too. (yay!). KB was also at the final table with me, to my left. Well, KB went out pretty quickly, so then it was down to 7. I wasn't the shortest chip stack, but was FAR behind the leaders. I let the other players take each other out. It got down to 4 people and I got K-10 suited again. (It was the hand of the night for a lot of people). I went all in, the big chip stack called me. He had Q-10. The flop came with 2 of my suit.....turn was a Q, and river was nothing. So, I went out 4th. Did I mention that they were paying top 3??? Oh well, I got a few lottery tickets as a loser prize, and think that I made $10 on them. The 3rd place walked away with $230, 2nd $900 and 1st was $1170. Man, what I could have done with that kind of cash....but, overall, I was surprised that I made it that long, so I can't be too disappointed. I never had anymore than about 18,000 chips the entire time and hung on until 4th. :) Fun night overall....better luck next time.

Friday, April 13, 2007

A FULL Week of Work in VEGAS, BABY!!!

I spent the last full week in Las Vegas, for A's user conference. I manage the SW partnership for D, and was there to coordinate D's participation in the conference, and make sure that it all went off without any problems. I managed to squeeze in some fun while there too. Quick photo recap of the week of events. :)

Jamie and I went in on Monday afternoon, and were able to grab dinner at Delmonico, that evening. We met up with Buddy and Garrett afterwards at TAO. We didn't get to see any celebs, but I did get a photo opp with Cleopatra! Ha!

Tuesday, Jamie and I hung out at the pool for a bit, before I was to report for duty to setup the booth. Man, was I SOOOO happy that George, the events guy, convinced me to hire Steve to help with the setup. That was the BEST advice that George could have ever given me, Steve was a lifesaver throughout the whole show!! :) That night we hosted a party for all the D customers that were in town for the show, at Margaritaville. The A sales guys showed up too, and since it'd been since the last MF that I'd seen them, it was great to see everyone again!!


S had their sales conference in town at the same time, and since they just purchased A, all of the executives from both companies were in Vegas. Jamie busted her ass getting a bunch of meetings setup, so that was what we did on Wednesday. That night, we had a really nice dinner at MESA Grill in Caesar's. I got a fun picture too, before dinner, with some local Greeks in the Casino. :)


Let's see Thursday.....oh yeah, booth duties and such. That's not very exciting to report, but that night we had the MF Party. They'd rented out PURE, the nightclub in Caesar's. More than half the people in there (including myself), would have NEVER been let into the club had the entire thing not been rented out. Ha! But I was happy to be part of that crowd, and I didn't have to pay for drinks to boot! The perfect way to party at PURE!



Friday was a day of wrap up.....although I did take time to take a quick snapshot with KJ's nephew's "Flat Stanley". Ever heard of this little guy? Evidently (I think it's) 2nd graders cut out this little guy, and then decorate him, and then he's supposed to travel and take pictures. KJ told his nephew that he'd take FS to Vegas and get a picture. So, I met him for a parting pic from Vegas. Bet no one else's FS made it to MF! :)


It was a GREAT trip, lots of work, and lots of play. Got to see some old friends and make some new ones too!! Looking forward to the next one in Orlando!