First real day in Vegas

So I'm starting a blog. I've never kept a journal or anything similar before, so who knows if I'll be responsible enough to keep it up to date. Let's do yesterday's entry before we get to today's stuff:

I'm living in Vegas for the summer, sharing a house with ~4 other guys. Right now we have 3 people living here other than myself: Nate (Meyvis), Ben (2+2 guy), and Matt (another 2+2 guy sub-letting for 1wk from future roommate Nath). Meyvis, Ben, and I moved in yesterday I realized recently that I know too many people named Nate/Nathan/Nathaniel, all of whom share the same hobby of poker with me.

Before we get to poker, I started along the path to becoming a certified skydiver on June 1st. I successfully completed two tandem jumps (AFP-1 & -2) with my instructor Kevin that day, and I completed my AFP-3 & -4 jumps this morning. For AFP-4, I did two controlled 360s in the sky -- one right and one left -- then guided/controlled the canopy to the landing zone with almost zero assistance from Kevin. Next step is completing a ground school course on Tuesday, after which I have 4 solo jumps (supervised, but solo!) to pass before I get my certification. I'm really excited for my first solo jump next week, especially because I felt surprisingly zero adrenaline during all 4 of my tandem jumps.

As for poker, I came to Vegas pretty short on cash unfortunately. I have a very comfortable bankroll online, but my bank account balances certainly do not reflect this. My game of choice in Vegas is 5/10NL, especially at the Bellagio, so Nate and I headed over for an early afternoon session yesterday. Nate didn't find much success at 2/5NL, and I dropped a buyin at 5/10 within 5 orbits after stacking off with AK to 66 on KhJh6x flop. This crippled my live roll (I *badly* need to trade PS$/FTP$ for cash) to ~$700, but I had good reads on everyone at the table + position on a very loose-passive fish. The fish finally stacked off to me (I barely had him covered) with 78o to my QQ on a 67Jr flop -- turn 8 (asdfgrstfgsrdfcdcsf), river 6 (ship it!). Finished the session -400 or so.

Nate and I went home to drop our bags off, then headed to the Rio to meet up with Strasser, who was getting deep in Event #1 ($5k Limit/NLHE mix). I railed him for a bit and noticed quite a few big names still in the tourney trying their best to concentrate while the barrage of fans madly snapped photos of their favorite celeb from as close as the ropes would allow. Jason had direct position on Juanda, and the table got a lot more interesting when Max Pescatori was moved to his left.

After a 2-3 rounds on the rail, I left Meyvis to find a 5/10 game. The game I joined was comprised of a mix between some stereotypical live loose-passive players and a couple of young, aggressive, oh-so-obviously-from-the-internet players. These aggro donkeys were far too LAG for their own good though, as many small- to mid-stakes internet players are, and I exploited this in the following hand:

[i had ~$1100 to start the hand, and button (villain) covers]

UTG straddles ($20), 2 calls, i call w/J8c in the CO, button (a LAG internet player) makes it $70 to go, 1 calls and i call.

Flop: Tc8s4c

checks to me, i plan to check/raise, and the button puts in $140. limper folds, i raise to $400, villain looks kinda shocked that i would c/r him but announces a re-raise to $400 nonetheless. i shove my last ~$200 in the pot, which makes the guy immediately start cursing as he counts out the chips to make the call.

Turn: 7o
River: Qc , which completes my flush, and villain resumes cursing as i show my cards to beat his... A8o??!! Are you serious?! "I *knew* you were on a draw, at least I made the right call." Explosive laughter ensues in my head because these people are SO BAD!

That's about it for my first day in Vegas; I think I'll start a new entry for today's events.