House of Cards: Day 16-18, August 2, 2006

The last few days are a blur. Here are some bullets that I can remember:

John busted out of the Main Event on Day 1, Set over Set. There were a few guys from our house left going into Day 2, but I don't know if any of them survived the long night.

The parties continue. Last night it was SunPoker at the gargantuan Palazzo suites at the Rio. I met the editor I work with at BLUFF, but it was a short conversation. No drinking pals so we left to have dinner at The American Grill. Tonight there are parties for Party Poker at MGM Grand. I need to go because I'm writing for their blog, PokerBlog.com.

We left the frat house. There is as much work now as we can churn out, not to mention my pressing Forbes Traveler articles and getting woken up at 3am just isn't ok anymore. There's nothing we can do about it as we are the only ones on the 7am-midnight schedule. Can't fault the others for wanting to enjoy themselves, we're the odd men out. We just picked the worst room in the house, plain and simple. Lesson learned. And besides that, we're old. If we decide to work the WSOP again next year, we'll be getting a condo close to the Rio like Amy and Tim did. But that's next year. Way too early to plan that. I don't want to think about anything past the Aussie Millions in January.

I'm quickly recovering. After waking up two days in a row grouchier than all get out (I can't believe I've hit the wall on our 5 week stay before John has), I woke up fine today. We're at the Golden Nugget and as much as I'm mad at them for ripping out their cool vintage Vegas pool, I do really enjoy the rooms here. Besides the fact that they're only $59/night, they just suit me. The wall hangings are of vintage India and the floral prints remind me of the Bangkok Oriental. Even though we're on the cheap they still have hair dryers and respectable soaps. And I love the vanity table. High speed internet? Of course. Did I say this was only $59/night? Yep. But this isn't why I'm happy again....

Golden Nugget has an awesome poker room. The GN redid their poker room—and it's gorgeous. Only three weeks old, being in it feels like you're part of the club. It even smells new. Furnished in deep browns with Chenille-like chairs and big comfy tables with drink holders, the staff, and the players were friendly. Jay Greenspan, author of Hunting Fish, came with us last night and I got to watch him in action. He totally pushed around our first "must move" table and then continued to build his stack our next table. John left first, Jay left at 2pm after winning a full buy in, and I hung on till three in the morning. I finally got to have my happy hour I've been wanting. I drank red wine, had good travel talk, and enjoyed the admiration of the big stack at the far end of the table. Quite possibly the best $275 I've spent in a long while. Ahhhh.

Ok, now back to real work. Everyone gets a day off tomorrow, so I'll be planning a fun field trip and seeing who's game.

I hope you are enjoying your summer.

Current: Las Vegas, NV
Next: San Diego (Aug 12-13), Burbank, San Francisco (Aug 15-?) Oregon (first week of September) Seattle (second week of Sept)