Good morning everyone. When I last left you, we were in the Flamingo poker room, and the clock had just struck midnight on Saturday, December 22nd. The score is now Civilization 1 Mayans 0... This was a fun 2/4 limit game that I was playing in, just happy people having a good time. One woman from Houston, a Texans fan who was nicknamed "Hurricane Camille" during the course of the night, revealed this bit of information to the table, and this quote became a status on my facebook page. Having been in Vegas all week, and getting herself ready for the upcoming Week 16 Texans/Vikings game (OH, will we be talking about THIS GAME in my next installment of this series), Camille let the table know, "I'm psyching myself up for the Texans game. I'm only eating red, white, and blue food..." :) And you THOUGHT you were a hardcore fan Alyssa... ;) I actually went and ate an early breakfast with Camille (this is at about 4:00 a.m.) in the Flamingo's Diner (steak and eggs) courtesy of poker comps, and then returned to my hotel room and slept before the start of a ROTTEN weekend...
Nothing of note happens on Saturday until I return to the Flamingo poker room, and then..., UGGGHHH... Today is the first NFL game that I had bet for my group of sponsors who gave me the leeway to gamble as I saw fit on this trip. Okay, ONE THING of note had already happened on this day before I returned to the Flamingo. Due to the fact that I was so tired throughout the duration of this trip, I had decided that I was going to return all of my backers at least 50% of their money. I had already bought all of the football parlay tickets that we needed, and I wasn't going to lose enough in poker to get us under the 50% mark, if I did lose. Oh, and DID I LOSE on Saturday... It wasn't that I lost a lot of money, but go to the next paragraph and read about the trainwreck that was Saturday...
So I'm seated at the end of the poker table, in the 2 seat, with a great view of the first NFL game of the weekend, the Saturday night matchup between the Falcons and the Lions. I was very confident that the Falcons (-4) would cover the spread, and I was also SURE that the game would go over 50 1/2 points. So I'm going to watch the football game and leisurely enjoy the 2/4 limit hold 'em game - YEAH... Football first... Atlanta jumps out to an early lead, and my (-4) is never really in doubt... Now with "plenty" of time remaining in the 4th quarter, it seems like a lock that this game will go over 50 1/2 points. That's when the following occurs. BOTH TEAMS have first-and-goal to go situations in the quarter, and NEITHER gets a touchdown. The Lions, down 31-16, and DEEP in Falcons territory, need a touchdown and I'll cover my bet. There are still about 3 or 4 minutes left in the game. The Lions get stonewalled inside the Falcons five, but when they turn the ball over on downs, their defense gets a SAFETY on the VERY NEXT PLAY! I still have life, as the score is now 31-18, and I'm TWO POINTS from covering the over. What happens next is something that I've NEVER SEEN in my one hundred years (if you're new to the blog, I'm 100 years old by the way) of watching football... On the free kick from the Atlanta 20, the ball travels to the Lions 5 yard line, where the Detroit kick returner DOWNS THE FREAKING BALL, on the FREE KICK!!! Now the Lions have to go NINETY-FIVE YARDS to score again!!! And they ALMOST DID IT, but of course.... GRRRRRRR!!!!! Okay, since the football went so swimmingly, let's talk about the poker now...
We have two poker hands of note, and of course, they BOTH HAPPEN against the loud-mouth donkeys at the table. After watching football, just waiting patiently, watching the donks gather chips, I look down at pocket jacks. This hand treated me well the day before, so I'm not despising it as much as I normally do. The flop comes Q J 5, and the donk raiser bets out on the flop - outstanding... :) The turn is another 5 - GREAT, now I have a full house... The river brings ANOTHER QUEEN... Oh, you guessed it - the donk just hit his TWO-OUTER on the river, his Queens full of 5's now beating my Jack full of Q's... WONDERFUL... In the next beautiful hand where I got whacked, I called the preflop raise from the loose-aggressive genius with K Q. The flop comes Q x 10. The turn is an ace. I'm not very enthused at seeing the ace, but I'm probably still ahead of this mastermind. The river brings another 10, giving us a final board of... Q x 10 A 10. If you guessed that the poker prodigy rivered me with his 5-outer, 10 x, you're RIGHT... (his x provided 3 more outs, where he could have made 2-pair)... UGGGHHH...
Okay, so now I decide to return to my room, throw away my cursed parlay tickets, and go and find something good to eat, in preparation for the FULL SLATE of NFL games that I will be watching on Sunday... It's too late to take full advantage of the buffets, so in LAS VEGAS, I end up eating somewhere that I could eat anytime, although it probably is my favorite place to dine... Yes, I'm at the Outback Steakhouse across the Strip from the Mirage... :) After "enjoying" my meal (the food was good, the bitter aftertaste of bad beats was not), I return to my room and cry myself to sleep... Okay, that might be an exaggeration... I FULLY REALIZED that I was in Las Vegas when I heard a commercial on t.v. say "Caesar's", and I thought 'Palace' before 'pizza' for the first time in a LONG TIME... :)
Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll see you again on Monday!
The poker gods are an extremely sadistic bunch.
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