December, Really?

Good morning everyone.  In case no one's ever told you, time flies my friends.  Tomorrow is December 1st, 2017.  The first day of December.  You've got to be kidding...  Things are going pretty well for me in my life right now (you'd already know that if I wrote more often).  I've been back in Las Vegas for just over 18 months, and I have a job that I love, writing race and sports tickets for Caesar's Entertainment.  Who would've guessed that a coach would enjoy working in a sportsbook???  :)  This is my second football season at work, and it seems that our most busy chunk of the year takes place from September Thanksgiving.  Of course we have other busy weekends during the year (Super Bowl, March Madness, the big horse races), but regarding a big block of time, we start to slow down a bit during the holiday season.  Conversely, I've found myself playing very little poker during this time of the year, but I'm looking forward to spending more time at the tables in the near future.

Speaking of poker, one of my favorite poker players visited town recently (I'm trying to convince Courtney that she needs to visit Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker and play in the Women's Event this summer), and I was able to watch her win some cash in the Flamingo nightly tournaments over the course of a couple of days.

I met Courtney several years ago through Spadeclub, an online poker site that is similar to the current WPT site, and when I thought back on it, I realized that Courtney was the one who initially let me know about the existence of the Winstar Casino in Oklahoma.  A fellow Texan, Courtney lives much closer to Oklahoma that I did in San Marcos or Austin, and she is able to take advantage of her proximity to the cardrooms in Oklahoma.  Recently I've started studying my backlog of poker materials again, and watching Courtney play succeeded in getting me just a little more amped up for my serious return to the tables.

The last time that I wrote about anything here was just before my birthday, which means that I've been holding onto this little gem for a while.  Like most people, I was looking forward to going out and having a nice meal for my birthday, while hoping for more prosperity and bigger and better things in the year to come.  Ali, one of my friends from work, found this little treasure and gave it to me on my birthday weekend...

My first reaction was that I'd never seen such an extravagant post-meal 'wipe," and then of course I chided Ali for not bringing me a "Post-Lobster WIPE DOWN," which seems to promise more optimism for the future than it's chicken counterpart...  :)  Truth be told, I eat some form of chicken almost everyday...

Speaking of birthdays, I've waited so long to write this post that it's already this youngster's special day...

Eileen was a high school classmate of mine in New Hampshire, and she recently crossed the country with her husband Darren (both pictured above) to do a little networking and have some fun in the desert.  Although we hadn't seen each other since we were in high school ten years ago (ha ha ha), I thought it was pretty cool that Eileen and I picked right up like we see each other on a daily basis.  Acutally, Eileen looks like she could be at her ten-year reunion, and as for me..., well...,

Have a great birthday Eileen!  :)

While we were up on the 50th floor of the Rio, I pointed out to Eileen and Darren the convention halls where the World Series of Poker is held every summer.  It's now going on fifteen years when my brother first brought me to the Bellagio to see the start of the $25,000 buy-in Main Event of the Five-Diamond Poker Classic, which is the annual capstone event of the WPT (World Poker Tour) season.  After railing the action til the first break, Pete took me to the Mirage, where I promptly lost $337 in six hours in my first live casino poker session, and I was hooked...  :)  Anyway, the WPT is back in town, and on Tuesday I'm probably going to go rail the first day of this year's Five Diamond Main Event.  Like I said my friends, time flies...  Have a great weekend, and I'll see you soon!