Vegas June 2016 (WSOP Seniors, Solstice)

Days 1 and 2 - Drive and dinner

Last Updated: 2016-06-17 10:56:14

Not a lot to say about the first two days of the trip...

The drive was pretty easy as usual. We did run into an I-70 closure, I think just west of Silt, CO, due to a decent size brush fire that a crew was trying to contain. Thankfully there was a frontage road that ran along the other side of the highway. After that it was smooth sailing.

No chat with Colorado's finest on this trip like the November trip :-)

Rolled into In-N-Out Burger in St George, UT around 11, with the time change got to New York, New York around midnight and hit the sack.

Thursday was then a "planned day off". Usually I get right into the poker action, but with the WSOP event on Friday I didn't want to play in anything that would keep me up late. Most likely next Friday will be a day off as well for the same reason with the Monster Stack on Saturday.

So breakfast at Bellagio, and I think it was the first time I ever at at that buffet and came away disappointed. My omelet was runny and the cook didn't give the cheese enough time to melt (I don't think he was cooking hot enough). The rest of the food was good, breakfast is breakfast...

Walked to Fashion Show Mall for some shopping, Joann picked up a dress and we got some kitchen supplies from Sur La Table including a new, bigger pizza stone. The pizza stone we have is usually perfect for the size we make on pizza night, but sometimes I stretch the dough a little too big and it can hang over and drop stuff. Problem solved!

Walked back to the room. Turns out a big pizza stone can be heavy if you're going to walk a couple of miles. NYNY is towards the south end of the strip. Fashion Show is across the street from Wynn/Encore, which is considered the north-most end of the strip. Joann's been tracking her walking, and from NYNY to Bellagio to Fashion Show and back (including walking the entire mall...) ended up being 5.5 miles. Probably 2.5 of them with me carrying a lead weight since it wasn't exactly the last stop in the mall...

Dinner at Smith and Wollensky. Awesome as always. And almost dead-on on budget, I was sure that second glass of Macallan was pushing us over...

I will say this, we've been looking forward to this meal since we booked the trip back in February and we've long had our meals planned. I was rather disappointed that what I was planning to get had been taken off the menu (3 tenderloins prepared three different ways) but instead we got a sauce on the side made with whole small onions and about a half a head of garlic that was really good.

Then over to the Rio to buy in to the Seniors event. I will start in the Amazon Room at Orange 373, seat 5. Haven't played in the Amazon room in a while, generally been starting in the Pavilion room and once in Brasilia over the last several years. I think the last time I was in Amazon was PLH/PLO day two.

We were going to railbird the $10K HORSE tournament going on but about 5 minutes after we showed up Mike Sexton bubbled and they went on dinner break.

Jason Mercier (pronounced Mers-E-ER, not Mers-E-Ay!) was still alive. Why does that matter?

Last week Mercier won the $10K 2-7 Single Draw Championship bracelet.

As soon as he won, apparently, he walked over to the cage, late bought into the $10K Razz Championship, sat down and played Razz. Tournament started 3pm, he bought in probably 9 or 10pm. He made day two, by end of day two he was still alive and among the chip leaders.

He finished second in that event, tho he was chip leader with more than half the chips in play at 3-handed.

As soon as he busted out of that event, apparently, he walked over to the cage, bought into the aforementioned $10K HORSE Championship, sat down and kept playing poker. Again he bought in probably 7+ hours late. Again made day two, which is what was going on when we showed up.

And when they called it for the night last night at the end of day two he was the chip leader. Sick.

Talk about a heater! Back-to-back-to-back cashes in $10K events is pretty impressive. 1st place, second place and chip leader going into final day? That's amazing. Joann will probably spend some time watching that on Friday, hopefully I will NOT be joining her...

That's all I have for today. Hopefully I'll have lots to talk about next time...