115

Good morning everyone.  I'm in the midst of having three days off, so there's no excuse not to write a little for you.  I won't tell you that was also the case last week, when I basically slept for three straight days...  The last time that we were together, I was getting ready to go to the 2017 World Series of Poker.  As you might suspect, I overindulged, and on very little sleep, I spent twelve hours at the Rio, before working the next five days in a row.  I've pretty much been tired all month.  Oh, did I mention that I go play poker most every night after work also?  

The 2017 WSOP...  I had planned on eating with my friends at the Rio's breakfast buffet, and only upon arriving did we learn that they're currently not open for breakfast during the weekdays.  We settled for a hearty breakfast at Hash House A Go Go.  I asked one of the employees to take a photo of us for the memoirs...   

The Riviera didn't know how lucky they were to have this group dealing poker for them back in the day.  Pictured from left to right are myself, Joey, and Brian.  After dining and our media photo op, we staked out the setup for this year's WSOP before the Casino Employee Event began at 11:00 a.m.  I may have told you previously that I played the event in 2006, and for $500.00, I had the thrill of watching my aces go up against queens and sixes, with a queen hitting on the river.  For $500.00 less, I decided to rail the festivities three weeks back, with Brian and several of my other friends from around town participating in this year's first bracelet event.  Brian himself ran into a number of tough beats, and decided to play in the $235.00 daily tourney after busting the Employee Event.  As I said, I hit the wall at 7:00 p.m. after twelve hours of fun, but Brian persevered and ended up cashing in the $235.00...  While Brian and I were chatting during a break in the Employee Event, a mutual friend of ours spotted us and we chatted briefly.  As it turns out, Chris was also playing in the Employee Event.  My immediate plan was to sweat both of them on the rail, but when I ventured from the daily back to the employee tourney, it was practically impossible to see the action at Chris's table, so I returned to the daily.  A few days later, when I saw a couple of Chris's friends, I asked how he did in the event.  As one of them responded that he did okay, the other held up two fingers.  Immediately, I excitedly queried, "HE FINISHED SECOND?!"  This is how you look when you run deep in a poker tournament...   

Congratulations on your great finish Chris!

115.  Yeah...  That's been the average high temperature here lately in Las Vegas.  Today is actually the first day of summer, and it also happens to be the one-year anniversary of my residence in my current apartment.  I joke with others that I live on the edge of the hood, but no one has tried to mess with my place in the last year, and it's within walking distance of the Strip, so I may stay here a little bit longer.

5:00...  At 5:00 p.m. Vegas time today (8:00 Eastern/7:00 Central), the 2017 NHL Awards Show/Las Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft will be taking place at the nearby T-Mobile Arena and will be televised on the NBC Sports Network.  This coming fall, the desert will be fielding (icing?) an NHL team for the first time, and tonight they get to pluck a player from each of the other 30 NHL franchises.  Being a sports junkie, I find drafts inherently interesting anyway.  Knowing how difficult it is for an athlete to make it to the top level of his/her sport (and for an organization to forecast which athletes which achieve that level of success), it's intriguing to watch as players that franchises were unable to protect are named to the roster of a brand new team joining their league.

In other news, things are still going very well for me here in the desert.  I love my job, I get to play poker whenever I choose (outside of work hours), and believe it or not, the football season is actually creeping closer.  I'm doing my best to use poker and fantasy baseball as a bridge to get me to football season...  :)    The one drawback to my cable carrier is that I don't have the NFL Network.  Anyway, the last week of August will give us a light smattering of NCAA games, then widespread footballs break out in September...

Alright.  We're within a half-hour of the NHL shenanigans, and I plan on writing a little in my other blogs too.  Have a great week, and I'll see you soon!