Thanks

Seems like it's been awhile since I last posted anything so I wanted to write something about what's been happening, and that would be Thanksgiving. I had some family and friends come over and we did the whole turkey dinner tradition and what not. My wife and my mom collaborated on making the dinner and they did an excellent job. I wish I had taken a picture of the whole dinner setup because it was pretty cool. I was too entrenched in the fact that I was hungry at the time and the NYJ-Cincy NFL game not going the way I wanted (I was all over Cincy at +10, +3.5, moneyline, not to mention my nickel opponent had almost the entire NYJ offense on his team...NY won 26-10 so what should've been a time of thanks was more of a time of This Sucks, well just football wise anyway).

Seriously I was eating dinner in our dining room w/ my family and friends and was happy we had a chance to get together and all. Anyway I think it was a good time to reflect on all the things I'm blessed w/ and to give thanks for all those things. Being the Christian I am I give God all my thanks.

Now I'd like to give some thanks to others.... I'll start w/ my eyes rolling thanks...

Thanks to the Patriots and Jets for bringing a small damper to my Thanksgiving..they hurt my wallet and my fantasy prospects

Thanks to the weather in Vegas, it's so damn cold it makes it hard to go outside (the one good thing is that ski season is just right around the corner)

Thanks Venetian for putting your main event on a Sunday last week...I missed most of the NFL action...maybe if I cashed I wouldn't have felt as bad

Additional thanks to them for the $10 food voucher...that's so considerate after putting up $2500 for the buyin

One more thanks to Doug Lee for busting me in that event...maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that...thanks Doug for being the subject of one of the longest and funniest running threads on 2+2, and yeah I know who you are

Thanks to Cardrunners and the other instructional sites for ruining what was perfectly a good (and highly profitable) game for me

Thanks to the right wing moralists who are trying to tell us what to do in the comfort of our own homes, and yeah, especially in the state of Washington

Thanks to all the guys that haven't paid me back...you guys are making me realize it's better to say no, and that I thank you for

Now I can give real thanks where they're due...

Thanks to my wife for everything she's been, and for letting me go to Los Angeles the day Joe won the NAPT. It just so happened that was our anniversary as well (12 years and counting). I told her I'd spend the day w/ her but she was adamant I be there to sweat my friends and in case one of them won (which Joe did) that I should be there. So w/ her approval I got to witness my buddy win it all. Before I left I ordered a vase of flowers, box of chocolates, and a couple of Happy Anniversary balloons to be delivered to our house while I was gone. She was happy, I was happy, so everybody was happy...next year I'm making sure our anniversary will be one she won't forget for her sacrifice.

Thanks to my daughter for growing up so quickly and being the best kid any parent can hope for. Even though at times I feel like I haven't done the best job as a parent, you would never know it when you're around her. Brag...she's yet to get worse than an A through 4 years of elementary school.

Thanks to the Dallas Cowboys for letting me win 1 football bet yesterday (they may have lost but they covered, and in the world of sportsbetting that's all that counts)

Thanks to Cardrunners for actually letting me join their stable of pros and vidmakers...haha I fooled them good on this one. Also I'm actually an employee of a company...that hasn't been the case in over 14 years.

Thanks again to Cr and other instructional sites to actually helping my game some as well. Even though I was doing perfectly fine before they came along, they actually helped me realize some of the mistakes I was making. Still, I think I would've won at a higher rate if none of the sites existed but it was bound to happen and the games evolve so the sites are useful tools in improving one's game, including mine.

Thanks to PokerRoad and Jeremiah for actually thinking I know what I'm talking about

Thanks to all my friends that shaped my game

Thanks to all the Nevadans that voted for Harry Reid. He's a big advocate in our fight for legalization of online poker.

Thanks to Michael Vick, Steven Jackson, Arian Foster, Greg Jennings, Marques Colston, James Jones, Davone Bess, Jacob Tamme, Marcedes Lewis, Tim Hightower, and Joseph Addai for getting my team in 1st place in the 3dime league and getting me the most points so far through 11 weeks. Let's finish this season strong boys!

Thanks to the new Kinect accessory to the Xbox 360 for giving me a fun way to exercise. It's a full body motion sensor that allows you to play games moving your body around. Great fun, great exercise....my kid and me fooling around on it the night we got it (it snaps photos of you while you play)...
























Finally thanks to all the readers out there. Hope you guys all had a great Thanksgiving and thanks for reading my stories and thoughts in poker and in my life.

Witnessing Final Table Domination, NAPT style

I drove to Los Angeles from Las Vegas yesterday to witness my buddy (who I've spoken about before) Joe Tehan win the $5k NAPT main event for $725k. Another Vegas friend and I decided to take the trip to sweat him and another friend, Ray Henson that was on the same final table. It just so happens the 4 of us are all in the nickel 8 team fantasy football league.

It's about a 4 hr drive from Vegas to LA so we were hoping that one of them won it, notably Joe because he's my closest friend in poker. Ray started the day 3rd in chips and Joe 5th in chips among the 8 final tablists. The well known players there included Michael Binger (3rd place at the WSOP main event the year Jamie Gold won it) and Jason Mercier.

Anyway they moved the venue to Crystal Park Hotel and Casino which is located in Compton of all places. To say that it might be a little scary to walk out of that place w/ hundreds of thousands of dollars is an understatement. Anyway the tournament was played at the Bike in LA but they moved the ft to accommodate ESPN since they were not contractually allowed to film at the Bike due to conflicts w/ WPT.



















*Ray using his phone and Joe w/ the blue shirt at forefront*

Well we got there and Joe ended up playing a big pot right off the bat getting it aipf w KK vs chipleader's AK and doubling up. Our entire cheering crowd went wild, all 3 of us...Jon (Vegas friend), Lisa (Joe's fiancee) and me. Little did we know that he would plan on showing a clinic on how to run a final table. Shortly thereafter he busted the 1st guy w/ AQ vs JJ aipf. Next he busted Jason Mercier which was probably the pot of the day at the ft because of the stacks and players involved (2 of the best players there). Jason and Joe got it aipf and Joe's JJ bested Jason to end Jason's coin flipping winning streak at 7 (from what I read on the news coverage of the tournament). Now at this point Joe had a big chip lead w/ about 11 mil vs 2nd place's 5mil and various others at 1-3mil. He absolutely played his big stack to perfection open raising well over 75% of his hands, and mostly shoving when the others behind him had 15bbs or less.

He ended up busting in succession, Binger, Ray (we were all sad to see him bust because he was a good friend to all of us, including Joe), Poker Stars pro Van Nguyen (another friend of ours), and Al Grimes. That's right, he busted everybody up to that point! He was hu vs Chris Demaci w/ about 16mil vs Chris' 6 mil.

Now Joe and I were pretty confident he was going to win barring some kind of coolers. Joe is my best friend in poker and we talk poker all the time. Whereas I've read books, hhs, forums, and thought about the game away from the tables and felt like I had to learn to get better, Joe was a natural at poker. From what I know he really hasn't read any book nor studied the game anywhere but just figured everything out on his own. We are both pretty much self taught but we have talked so much poker w/ each other that we have helped each others' games significantly, especially the last 4 years. I guess if I had to point out a person that impacted my game the most it would be him, and vice versa. So anyway I was pretty confident he was going to win because I knew he had more of an edge now w/ deeper stacks and hu where you're forced to play a lot of hands. If there's something he excels at it's playing postflop and playing all kinds of hands. Also assuming his opponent at best was your typical live tournament pro (which we assumed) and not being an expert at postflop play nor hu play, Joe was a pretty big fav.

Little did I realize how outmatched Chris was. I tried to watch the 1st 30 minutes intently, trying to pick up physical tells and tendencies Chris may have had to try to help Joe but after watching for 30 minutes I knew that this guy was just about drawing dead hu. Both were minraising their buttons but Chris was folding sometimes, including 3 straight times on the button. That alone showed me that Chris was not aware of how to play hu very well. Joe played 100% of his buttons hu. Both tried to take the same approach, small ball poker but I felt early on the only way Chris was going to have a shot to win was to try to play big pots and get lucky that way but I guess Chris felt like he was a good player (and overall he was, he was just outmatched by a better player) and good players tend to play small ball in tournaments. The only problem was Chris was not very good postflop while Joe played every hand perfectly postflop from what I saw.

After 30 minutes I felt no need to really sweat intently because I knew it was a matter of time before Joe won w/o really having to gamble. He was chipping away very slowly w/o showing a hand and folding when he was usually beat. I started playing games and catching up on twitter and facebook on my IPhone because I was that confident Joe was going to win but that it might take some time because he was playing the perfect style of chipping away slowly w/ almost no risk. Actually Jon and Lisa sensed the same thing because they started playing on their phones as well! Imagine your best friend (fiance in Lisa's case) playing for $725k and everybody being just bored waiting for this thing to end in Joe's favor. Finally w/ Joe having 20 mil to Chris' 2 mil (again w/o any really big showdowns or pots) Joe got it in on a K high flop w/ KT vs Chris' K4 and won.

For pictures and a summary of the final table, you can see it here...

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/north_american_poker_tour/2010/napt-los-angeles-tehan-runs-the-table-fo-075803.html

I know he won a few flips early and took out a couple of dangerous players early on, but after that he really put on a clinic on how to play table captain w/ the big stack and then showed how to dominate hu w/o gambling at all. I'm really happy for him because he is one of the nicest guys in poker (just about everybody in the poker world will attest to that, and he is well known in the live tournament scene) and he happens to be my best friend in poker. He is definitely not the type of person to become a "bigger" person w/ an inflated ego because of this win. I know because I was friends w/ him when he won $1mil in a WPT main event about 4 years ago and he didn't change one bit after that win as well. If anything he continued to stay ahead of the curve and the influx of smart kids and continuously talked poker w/ me after that.



















If there's ever a person that deserves to be signed to a major poker site based on their ability and successes in poker, Joe is it. He won a WPT title, now an NAPT title, and has over $3mil in live tournament winnings. He is also a big winner in live cash games including nl and mix games, playing mid to high stakes. Also he doesn't play much online but he is a winner in midstakes 6max nl games, mix games, and mtts online (he final tabled 2 ftops on the same day last year). He actually flies under the radar probably because he doesn't play a full slate of live tournaments like other well known tournament pros do but tries to balance his poker career w/ tournaments and cash games. If you ask the well known live tournament pros they'll all say Joe's a great player and tough to play vs. but they don't realize how great he is at all forms of poker. I guess that's one of the reasons we talk poker so much because we talk about all forms of poker, live, online, tournaments, nl, mix games, etc.

The only differences we have in regards to poker is that he focuses primarily on live cash games and tournaments while I focus on online cash games and tournaments, mainly because it's hard for me to travel w/ having a family and all and I enjoy playing more than 1 table at a time. I'm hoping to change that a little and plan on playing some more live events and hoping that the roles will be reversed soon enough...that my friends will be sweating me winning a major live tournament.

On a different note my 2nd video for Cardrunners comes out tomorrow. I felt like I did a better job on this one vs my 1st one. Hopefully I'm getting better at making videos and hopefully I will help those that watch my videos improve their games, even if it's just a little.

Online poker

Screw live, back to online for me. Live poker is my mistress while online is my girlfriend. After awhile I miss the comfort of online poker and being able to play 1000 hands/hr. Results wise it's been up and down, and running below ev. I've been playing more $5-$10nl which is always a challenge but one that I look forward to. I'm feeling really confident in my game at this point and as long as I put in the hours I feel like the sky's the limit for me in poker.























Also played 2 FTOPs w/ no success. It's been awhile since I've played online tournaments as well so I'm enjoying that. Also I was really in the middle whether to go to Los Angeles for the NAPT main event this weekend and possibly play some live cash games there and passed because I didn't feel like driving 4-5 hrs and I didn't really prepare for it, like not having a place to stay overnight. I will plan on playing the $2500 main event at the Venetian next Sunday though (and miss NFL!). Also I'm planning on playing some of the events at the 5 Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in a couple of weeks including the WPT $10k main event.

I actually feel like someone that matters in the poker world now w/ the stuff I've been doing the past few months. Doing the "Cash Plays' podcast w/ Jeremiah Smith is a blast and I'm excited to be a part of Cardrunners and teach members how to improve their games and help the company grow. I don't care about feeling like someone important, because the only peoples' opinions that matter to me is my family's (along w/ my employers now) but I like the sense of knowing that I could be helping others in poker. I spent the 1st 11 years of my poker career improving my family and my lives and now I'm at a point where I can help others and I hope to do a good job at that and I'm looking forward to more of it. The only thing I haven't decided on is coaching. It's not really about the money because I can probably get paid ok coaching. It's the time commitment now w/ various things going on. When I coach somebody I really root for that person to do well so I feel like I need to invest a lot of myself and my time to see that happen. That's why I've been sticking mostly w/ my friends when it comes to coaching, because they're friends and the time we spend together is , well..like male bonding I guess.

Anyway I'll show a couple of recent hands I played online for those that like to look at hand histories.

Try to guess my mistake in this hand......

No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($680)

UTG ($1621)

MP ($2136)

Button ($1000)

Hero (SB) ($1445)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8, 8

UTG bets $20, MP calls $20, Button calls $20, Hero calls $15, 1 fold

Flop: ($90) 9, Q, 8 (4 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets $90, MP calls $90, 1 fold, Hero raises $275, 1 fold, MP raises $915, Hero calls $730

Turn: ($2190) Q (2 players)

Hero bets $420 (All-In), MP calls $420

River: ($3030) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $3030

Results:

Hero had 8, 8 (full house, eights over Queens).

MP had J, 10 (straight, Queen high).

Outcome: Hero won $3026

For those that thought not shoving the flop is a mistake is wrong. The mistake was not folding my set when the MP player 3bet to $915. This particular opponent's range is 99, QQ, or JT here like always and I felt like I had to fold but the fact that I had a set made me call (actually bad logic in this spot)...I thought I was calling all in but saw I had $420 still left on the turn. It probably worked out better because the board paired Qs on the turn and after my opponent called all in we had run it twice on but unfortunately for him he was drawing dead no matter how many times we ran it. If I shove the flop maybe I just win the 1st run w/ the Qs pairing. Also my opponent tanked forever when I shove $420 into the $2600 pot because he was good enough to realize that I probably had a full house. I could tell he really wanted to fold but given the pot odds probably felt compelled to call. Sorry dude.

Now most people complain about getting sucked on and losing a hand after they played the hand perfectly. I misplayed this hand and got rewarded so it's basically the reverse. I will not complain even though I misplayed my hand (who ever complains after misplaying a hand and winning the pot anyways), but I'll be honest, I can't make mistakes like these if I want to maximize my profits in the future. Chalk this one up to playing bad and getting lucky on my end.


No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($3456)

BB ($1251)

UTG ($1000)

Hero (MP) ($1082)

CO ($1249)

Button ($1277)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 5, 5

1 fold, Hero bets $30, CO calls $30, 3 folds

Flop: ($75) A, 3, 6 (2 players)

Hero bets $50, CO calls $50

Turn: ($175) 5 (2 players)

Hero bets $140, CO calls $140

River: ($455) 7 (2 players)

Hero bets $225, CO raises $1029 (All-In), Hero calls $637 (All-In)

Total pot: $2179

Results:

Hero had 5, 5 (three of a kind, fives).

CO had Q, K (high card, Ace).

Outcome: Hero won $2176

No description really needed on this hand...just that I'd like to give thanks to the guy that floated w/o much of a hand and decided to rep, ummm, I guess a 4 at the river.

I guess I have a whole bunch of hands where I got it in good but got sucked out on but really no educational or entertainment benefits showing those. It would just serve a purpose of saying hey look at me and how bad I run (sometimes). I usually leave that for my wife to listen to...after all, what are wives for?

Live Poker

So I've been dabbling in live poker this month. I started off winning my 1st 3 sessions feeling like live poker is the easiest thing since my drunken date during my sophomore year in college. Then I went to go play $5/$10 nl at the Venetian and played this hand. Epr w/ $1500 opens to $40, mp w/ $900 calls, I, on the button, 3bet to $160 w/ KK (have'em both covered), both call, flop comes 853r, epr donks $350 (which I love to see because it usually means they don't have KK beat or else they'd c/r or c/c flop), mp calls (which I'm somewhat concerned about because she could have anything from a set to 99-QQ), I shove, both call, I turn to the mp girl and tell her I like her hand...epr rolls over 24s, yes....24s, girl rolls over 33...but hey, at least I win a nice side pot as long as epr doesn't hit his oesd....turn Ace...doh! River doesn't pair and he scoops a nice $4800. He somehow manages to build his stack to around $6500 or so and goes broke w/ KK....postflop...on an ace high flop!! No kings in sight either. I lose $1300 that night.

Then this past Saturday I get invited to play in a $2/$5nl game w/ a mandatory straddle $10-$50 on the button at the Palms. I heard this game is really juicy w/ Michael Phelps having played in it the night before. He is somewhat of a competent player from what I know. Anyway I get in the must move game and get up $1800 right off the bat. I see Phelps come into the room and he gets into a smaller game while waiting to get in my game. You can kind of make out this huge samoan guy standing behind him in the pic...that happened to be his bodyguard. I guess if you confronted Phelps or hit a 2 outer to beat him in a pot you'll have to answer to that dude.

The game played around $10/$20 to $15/$30 nl because some were stradding to $10 while a few others were stradding to $20-$50 w/ several guys having $6k-$10k in front of them. Anyway having been used to playing online and understanding how online regs thunk, playing w/ competent live pros was a nice change of scenery, although I was befuddled at some of the lines the better players took in the game.

A typical hand was button straddle to $20, ep limps, bad epr makes it $70, I flat w/ KTs right behind, another bad player calls, solid sb player makes it $245, ep folds, bad epr calls, I decide to call because I had $8k as did everybody else in the hand (or more), bad player behind me calls so there is about $1k in the pot. Flop comes T73r, chk, chk, now I feel like I have to bet here w/ tp2k so I bet $500, bad player behind me folds, solid sb player calls which has me scratching my head...I guess he's potcontrolling an overpair or AT here, bad epr calls which doesn't mean much because he could have anything. Anyway I'm pretty sure I'm beat by the solid player so I was rooting for a T or K. Turn is a Q now solid player leads for $1300, bad epr raises to $4k, I fold, solid player tanks and says to the bad player you have Q7 or nothing here...finally folds I assume is an overpair. Bad player shows 77 for a flopped set. I don't mind bad player's line although I prefer calling the turn in his spot since he can put both of us on made hands (err, I guess he can't since he was only playing his hands). I don't really understand supposedly solid player's line of 3bet preflop oop, c/c flop, lead turn line. If he had just cbet flop, bad player calls, then I could fold and save $500 (a little whining on my part). This "solid guy" took this line several times. I was beginning to wonder if I had poker all wrong because I was losing every hand while this guy was winning the most. I understand there are times to pot control and/or to induce bets by worse but this guy was doing it almost everytime. You rarely see online regs taking this line consistently.

Anyway I play this stupid hand as well...2 opl, same bad player raises to $50 (after $10 button straddle), I flat w/ A5s on button and we take the pot 5 handed. Flop comes AT7 w/ 2 to my suit so I have the nut flush draw, everybody checks to me and I begin to think whether I'm supposed to bet here or not because of all the pot controlling and flop checks going around (even by the "good players" in the game) and felt like I was obligated to bet something so I bet $135 and get called by an epl and the bad player. Turn comes J of spades bringing 2 spades (along w/ 2 diamonds for my nut flush draw), chk, bad player now leads for $300 (again another head scratcher of a line but w/ a bad player it's understandable), I call, now epl c/r to $900, bad player calls, now I have to call esp. considering that bad player has me covered w/ about $10k in front. While the dealer makes the pot right, I pray to God please let me hit a non pair diamond one time (because I was losing every hand up to that point). River rolls off 5 of spades bringing backdoor spades and giving me Aces and 5s...nice %&^$%^% card I think. Ep player now checks, bad player bets $1500, I fold knowing I'm beat, ep now c/r's again! I start thinking wow, this guy must've c/r'ed the turn w KQ or 98 of spades or a combo spade draw on turn. He goes all in for another $1500 more and bad player snap calls w/ 73 of spades...which is good! Ep player shows AJo for top 2.

Let's dissect this hand. I'm not fond of ep opl w/ AJo utg, not fond of bad player's preflop raise w 73s, I'm ok w/ my flat w/ A5s ip. On the flop I'm ok w/ everybody's line except bad player's call w/ 73 of spades on an AT7 2 diamonds 1 spade. Ep should've c/r'ed the flop though knowing I could be betting a wide range on the button and probably don't have a big ace or else I would've reraised the bad player preflop. On the turn I hate bad player's sudden donk of $300 into the flop better (me) w/ bp + flush draw he turned (lol), my call is standard, ep's c/r is standard although he could've made the raise much bigger because it was a very wet board and his hand is most likely good vs our hands, esp. when I don't raise the turn. The bad player's call of $600 more is very meh w/ bp + fd w/ me right behind. I have to call once he calls though. River ep's check is fine, bad player's bet of $1500 is fine, my fold is solid, and ep's c/r all in is horrendous. Other than that, the hands were played fine.

So I lost $1100 on that hand when I would've lost only $200 most times...I was going to check back the turn Jack. I ended up losing $4500 in the game and called it quits at midnight even though the game was still swinging. Phelps never made it to my game, I guess it probably had something to do w/ owning 14 gold medals, being young and good looking, and being in Las Vegas on a Saturday night. For me I had church early then NFL all day the next day. I had something to tell God the next day at church for not bringing a diamond on that hand.

I guess God must've heard because my fantasy football teams did well overall. I won a few thousand dollars in ff even though 2 of my 3 teams lost the hu matches (won $ in side bets).

I've resumed playing online poker though...well today anyway and won $4k. Maybe it's the other way around??...online is soft and live is tough.

October Results

I'm not sure what to think about last month's results. On one hand I ran above ev, but I won at a lower rate than I am accustomed to. On the other hand I'm finding less and less time to grind as the year wraps up. I played 39hrs online and another 10 hrs live. 1st my online results...


































Even though I only got in about 40k hands online, I experienced the swings of playing poker. I started the month off hot winning about $9k right off the bat, but right when I started thinking poker was easy it decided to teach me that it really isn't.

I made another $1680 in rakeback but lost $215 in mtts. I've been playing very few online mtts because of the NFL. I won another $3k playing live. I broke about even over 2 sessions in mix games at the Bellagio but won $500 playing $1-$2nl on my Arkansas trip (will post about my trip next time) and another $2500 playing $10-$20nl at the Bellagio. For the month I came out ahead $8,420.

W/ 2 months left I'm reflecting back on the year. I'm kind of in the middle on how I feel about my poker results. I'm way behind my pace of 7 figures but I've been saying I'm using that as more of a motivator to get me to play more (while working on my game) than anything else. I'm content w/ my hrly which stands around $300/hr. I'm disappointed in the hrs I put in though. I may need to get some coaching w/ Doublefly (who's excellent blog can be found on my blog roll) who excels at playing a good amount while balancing family life (heck I can't figure out where he finds the time to update his blog on a daily basis as well!!). I'm going to leave my $1mil goal as is because I'm planning on playing a couple of big live tournaments in the next 2 months that may get me over (obviously will need to run good but who knows).

I'm not complaining about what I've made though. Even though some make more than me (most by luckboxing a tournament and a few at cash games) I know that I'm fortunate to make as much as I do playing a simple game of cards. I'm not comparing poker to major sports but you see top notch athletes excelling and making lots of money but also knowing they're lucky to be in the position they're in. I feel the same way, even though I'm not implying I'm the best or anything (just good at what I do)...more about feeling lucky to be able to make the money I make doing what I enjoy doing, even if it feels tedious at times. I'm sure a lot of people would love to be in the position I am and I'm not taking that for granted. I hope some of the young guys that excel in poker feel the same way. It would definitely help prolong their careers if they thought the same way.

In other news I've been away for a couple of weeks visiting a friend in Arkansas but am now getting back into the grind of things. I've been playing a little more live which is kind of refreshing since I play mostly online. That's probably something I'll write about in the future, live vs online since I have plenty of hours in both. I live in Las Vegas so it's very convenient to go play live whenever I choose. Besides Los Angeles, Vegas is probably the best place to live for live poker.

I'm also fortunate in that my wife and kid love living in Vegas. Most don't realize that it's one of the fastest growing cities in America, and once you're away from the strip, it really is a normal city. As a poker player w/ a family I have the best of both worlds... a nice family oriented community where we live, and a quick 15 minute drive to the Vegas strip if I want to play some poker.

Yesterday probably exemplifies what I'm saying. My kid had the day off from school so she spent the day and night at a family friends' house. My wife and I decided to head to the Venetian to play some poker. I entered the $350 deepstack tournament (and promptly busted out in an hr) and my wife played some $2-$5 nl. I jumped into a $5-$10 nl game (and won $2600...live poker, gotta love it). I get a $10 food voucher for the tournament I played in and we eat at a nice chinese restaurant in the Venetian then decide to watch a late showing of "Jersey Boys" at the Palazzo which is right next door to the Venetian. "Jersey Boys" is a critically acclaimed Broadway like musical that centers around Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons of "Sherry" and "Walk like a Man" fame. Anyway the show was good even though the demographic of the crowd were people in their 50s and 60s which is understandable. So for the day I ended up winning $2250 in poker and got in a nice dinner and show w/ my wife at the end of it. Yeah, Vegas is cool.