Vegas Day 3

6:00 AM - Nope. So much for sleeping in. Maybe I can try to go back to sleep.

7:15 AM - I guess this IS sleeping in, such as it is, at this point in my life. Something tells me there is a nap in my not-too-distant future.

7:55 AM - Tracey is awake and she gets up to make us breakfast....eggs and toast. Not exactly the gourmet breakfast we expect in Vegas but perfectly good for now. She is planning a "pool day" and I am going to go do.....well....not sure yet. I suspect some poker may be involved and I'm sure I'll join her at the pool at some point. We have no defined plans for today, one of only 2 days on this trip that is blank on our itinerary, so we have lots of flexibility today.

9:00 AM - Tracey's down to the pool while I hop in the car and head back to the Mirage poker room. I get seated immediately and not long into my session, the following hand comes up:

Solid player raises in early position, one other caller, I'm on the button with 55 and call.

Flop is 5xx with two clubs. No paint cards.

He bets $30. Other player folds. I think about raising but decide to just call and raise on the turn if a club doesn't come. Turn card is the Jc. He bets again, $45. Can't fold at this point but I think there is at least a reasonable chance he raised with big clubs and may have me beat. I call. River is a blank, he bets $50, I call, and he turns over JJ. Lousy turn card for me, but having said that if the turn card was the other Jack, not the Jc, I would have gone broke on that hand. As it was, I probably lost the minimum I could possibly have lost. Even if I had shoved all-in on the flop he wouldn't have folded, it would have looked too much like I was raising on a flush draw. Dodged a bit of a bullet here despite losing $140 or so.

Not much long after that, I get a bit of a donation, as a very aggressive big black guy (very nice guy from Chicago, but VERY big!) raises in middle position, one other caller, and I call in the SB with AQ. Flop is Qh6h4c rainbow. I check-raise him, he quickly calls. I have $103 left, and I shove it in on the turn after a rag hits. He goes into the tank for a while so I know I have him beat, and I hear him say "I think he's trying to buy it" and he calls off $103 with 99. He doesn't river a 9 and I'm back to being even for the session. I think this is a terrible call by him, although I guess it's possible I might do that with a flush draw, he's got to think that a good portion of the hands that I would call his raise with pre-flop in the small blind (AQ, KQ, JJ, TT) have him crushed at this point.

Not too long after that hand I pick up KT, two off the button. I limp along with a few others, guy in the cutoff limps, button (the black guy) raises to $15. I figure that's it for my hand until everyone else calls too, so I'm getting huge odds to call so I do so. The old gentleman in the cutoff says "well I can't pass THIS up" and shoves in his stack, another $64....and the button AND the guy directly to my left both call. Normally I wouldn't get involved pre-flop for this amount of money with KT, but the pot is huge and I'm last to act so it's a pretty easy call. When the flop comes KTx rainbow, I drag a hefty pot. The guy who shoved had JJ, so he pretty much screwed himself by limping pre-flop and allowing a huge pot to be built so I could call with KT. Little decisions like that mean everything in poker.

I end up turning a $295 profit in about two hours of play.

12:10 PM - I get the car from the valet and head back to the resort to join my wife for lunch at the pool. She is very much enjoying the pool so I know she's going to be there for a while. After lunch I head up to the room to update the blog and contemplate my next move......I may go down for a swim, or maybe a nap is more appropriate......decisions, decisions......

1:00 PM - I decide to head down to the pool to have a swim, a little hot tubbing, and a little tanning. We only stay for an hour or so before we head back up to relax before dinner. Our plan is to head to Mon Ami Gabi around 7ish.

6:30 PM - I wake up from a nap and Tracey is ready to go. I'm obviously discombobulated as I tell Tracey I need 15 minutes to get ready. It doesn't take me 15 minutes to get ready for ANYTHING.

6:37 PM - I'm showered, dressed and ready to go.

7:00 PM - We get to Mon Ami Gabi and are told the wait for a table outside on the patio is 90-110 minutes. Ick. We decide to head across the street to the Bellagio buffet instead. Although I rave about the Wynn buffet, this one is very close to being just as good. Fabulous.

Gordon Ramsey has a new restaurant called STEAK opening up in the Paris. It opens up May 7th, two days after we leave. Oh well, we'll try it next trip.

9:00 PM - We're back at the resort and decide to have a little nightcap, so we open up a bottle of Jackson Triggs Icewine we picked up the other day. It's pretty good, not as good as the Quails' Gate Icewine we always have at home though.

10:30 PM - Blog updated, time for bed.