Sam's Insane Ravings

We went to LA for a day to go to Disney Land, which Kian loved but which for me was just a source of sunburn. There is an incriminating photo in the camera which appears to show me having more fun than Kian in the Buzz Lightyear ride - but it's just the angle or something.

We then went to Vegas for a few days for the corporate retreat type thing with the company Anna has and will work for. It was busy, and we had Kian which restricted my chances to lose large sums of money.

We were staying at the Four Seasons, which seems to be the top few floors of Mandalay Bay - Las Vegas hotels are so interconnected it's hard to work out which is which. It was a really nice hotel, except for the toilet which flushed like an the toilets in planes - really really loud. Kian didn't like the pool at all - I think it was too large and hence scared him. He went to the wave pool once - but got knocked over and hence was terrified about that one too. Days later he is still telling people about being knocked over by the wave and scraping his knee.

I did find a few hours late Saturday night, well early Sunday morning I guess sometime after midnight to sometime before 4am, to try and lose some money.

I played the unbeatable 1/2 NL poker at Mandalay Bay - the rake takes a buyin away every hour or so, making it a losing bet to play but I just wanted to give it a whirl and see what's it's like with actual people.

I won a pot with AQ a few hands after I sat down - my opponent folded on the turn after calling my flop bet. It was pretty clear my AQ high was the best hand on the flop and turn though.

I then dwindled back down to about even before working back up to $250 or so (I bought in for $200), then I lost most of my chips to the table maniac (who wasn't that big of a maniac, but it was a tight table) who was straddling when I picked up KK on the button (it's really nice when the only player stradling on the table is seated so you are on the button when he does), raise,reraise,rereraise,push or something and it was AA against KK all-in preflop. I didn't spike a King and was down to $80 or so which then whittled down to $50 or so before I bought another $100 in chips.

I got back to even (well a little past even) when I had QJ of spades and 4 of us saw a flop of 8 9 10 - with the 9 and 10 being spades. A wonderful flop for me. I check-called the flop with a couple of players folding. The turn was 7 - I bet he called. The river was an ace and I bet, he min-raised, and I re-raised about 3x his bet and he called with a JX for a lower straight.

I ended up $380 or so - so $80 up, which is nice considering I got stuck with the KK versus AA hand...