Sir, please do not bet the gatorade cap

I owe an update, so here goes.

Almost all of my poker highlights over the past month include live play.

1) First there was Vegas for the ITH convention. At the risk of sounding repetitive, it was a BLAST. It was also one of the most profitable poker trips I've ever had. I took 5th in the ITH main event for a few hundred, played a ton of cash games where I ran super hot against calling fish, and even hit a str8 flush on a $5 bet in a video poker machine! All told I came home with well over 1K in profit. There are way too many stories to tell, but here's a taste of one:

On day 2 of the trip I met up with a friend from home at the card room at Bally's. He dabbles a bit online, but mostly in 7 stud, and had never played live before. After a few beers and shots I convinced him to sit at a 2/4 table and promised I wouldn't bother him. I took a seat at an open 4/8 table across the room. A few hours and several strong cocktails later I saw there was an open seat at his 2/4 table, so I asked for a transfer so I could go over and break my promise not to hassle him :).

I was up alot from my 4/8 table, was half drunk and in a great mood...so I wound up playing it like a micro limit tilt session at stars. I raised every hand and straddled every UTG. And I COULDN'T MISS!! Eventually I started placing a pile of chips under a big orange gatorade cap and pushing it out on the table as a straddle. I always put more chips than the correct raise amount and called it 'dead gatorade money'. The dealer just laughed and let me get away with it, but I could see it was really starting to tilt the whole table. My buddy finally busted out and said to the guy next to him something like 'bust this asshole out'...which I overheard and responded "you wana take this outside buddy?" This was all a joke and pretty amusing since no one at the table knew we were friends including the dealer. It was even funnier since my buddy is 6'4 and 260lbs and would squash me like a bug. The dealer seemed pretty concered for my safety and leaned over to me in seat 1 and whispered "careful, I think he can take you". Too funny. I tipped him well and thanked him for keeping me out of trouble :).

The whole trip was a string of great times at the tables and meeting some fantastic people from the ITH community.

Total Vegas profit: $1,300! W00T

2) Just a few days after I got home from Vegas I decided to hit up AC for some more live action. I made the drive down on a Sat night and the place was a total zoo - never seen it that crowded. I gave up on trying to get a table at the borg and settled in at a super loose 5/10 table at the Taj. My stack size fluctuated like a rollercoaster that night, but in the end I managed a nice session of +200. The next day I returned to the borg and had fantastic session at 6/12...another $200 in just 3 hours.

Total AC profit: $400

3) 4 days later I played in my regular homegame...but we had a TON of new players this week. All told I think there were 20 players in our $50 NL tourney. I made the money (top 4) easily enough, but was pretty shortstacked. Somehow after that I doubled up a few times and found myself HU at the end against a guy who outchipped me 10-1. He played WAY to tight HU and let me triple up by just betting him off his blinds for about 30 minutes. By the time he started to make a stand against me we were about even...but it was too late for him - the deck was hitting me in the face. I won the final hand with J10s against Axo when I flopped the nut str8...another nice payday of over $400!
Total tourney profit: $400

So - with a total net winnings of over 2K in the past few weeks of playing live I've really been putting off my online play. Infact I think this is the least I've played online in over a year. I'm not sure how long this trend will last...have another trip to AC planned for next week!!

I promise a trip report when I get back...just hope the good trend continues!