T minus 24 hours...

Didn't get too much sleep last night, wonder why, could it be I have something on my mind that will take place in about 24 hrs... I did get a chance to play in a few tourney's last night, didn't cash but it was good to get the ole feet wet live. I actually went deep in both and seemed to get card dead in both. The late one I played in I went really deep, built up a nice stack early and pushed it a around some. Cards went completely south and the blinds were starting to catch up with me. I went out when I pushed pre flop with JJ (my nemesis) and ran into AK. A coin flip, but when the flop came out AKx and the guy next to me mentioned he folded a J, I was sent packing.

Will be nice starting out with 10k in Chips in the ME (Main Event), these others you start out with 1000 and 1500, pretty tough when the blinds move as fast as they do. Plus in the ME the blinds go up every 2 hours, which is Great! Unreal, you start off with 10k in chips and the blinds start at $25 / $25!! Lot of play there.

Hung out with a few friends at the Ultimate bet private party in the Voodoo Lounge on the roof of the Rio. All UB Pros where there, Helmuth, Deebs, Antonio... Had a drinkn with Freddy Deebs, a SUPER nice guy. He was wearing his signature Red shirt, the one Phil Ivey cracked on last year in the main event. Only took one pic while I was there and it was with Freddy... Speaking of pro's it's like a who's who of poker here. I've seen a ton of pros. There just walking around, taking pics, signing autographs, they are all really nice. If you get a chance to come to an event like this or a WPT event, you won't be disappointed...

Shoe ran into Johnny Chan smoking a stogy in the back parking lot area. They setup some trailers back there that are porta johns, a food tent (pretty good food and cheap) and a tent that is the "Milwaukee’s Best lounge" (bar/pool table/video games/couches). Outside has become the smoking pit and during the breaks there are a ton of folks out there, even not during the breaks… It’s pretty hot out here; going from a room that is pretty cold to 100+ is interesting.

Plan today is to take it easy, may play a small or two tourney around town with Shoe, then have a nice dinner at The Palm (the restaurant, not the hotel) and then *try* to get some sleep tonight!

Last thing… Met with a reporting from the paper before I left I received an email from my wife, who couldn’t make it out with me because were expecting in a month, that the article ran today in the VA Pilot, here's a link to it. There might be some people reading this from that, so if you are, welcome and enjoy the ride :)

I'll try to keep this updated as I mentioned earlier as often as I can. Out from Vegas...