Another Week, Another Vegas Trip
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 - HollywoodDave
Yup you heard it here first, fuckers — another 7 days in the desert for HD and this time was particularly awesome! Despite not cashing in the Dream Team event, I had tons of FUN the whole time and left with a big smile on my face…. after years of grinding it out in the trenches playing blackjack there, you get to a point where you start to see that town as nothing but a glorified jobsite, so its cool to remember from time to time that its not always all work and no play!
First off I came in for my sister Erica Schoenberg’s b-day….no we’re not really related but despite being a bit older than her, she’s always been like a big sis to me so it stuck! Obv we went out with her dad, brother, and bf David Benyamine to a nice steak dinner at the Bellagio where the food (and drinks!) rocked but the service was slooooooooow as shit! Needless to say we had a blast but missed the movie we were gonna see afterwards cuz it took too long to get the different courses out. Some good conversation with some awesome people, and funny to realize that David wasn’t gonna be able to play in the Dream Team event partly due to a 500k blackjack tournament he was comped into that weekend! I woulda loved to trade places with him, cuz something tells me he woulda done much better than me in the poker event while i more than cleaned up on blackjack…
Speaking of Dream Team, the event was put together REALLY well, and I was happy to see so many pros supporting it this time around. Last year at the Hard Rock was a lotta fun but felt more like a trial run, whereas this go around it really ran like a top-notch pro event i could really see becoming a necessary annual stop on the tour! My friend Alex Outhred of WSOP Academy fame (not to mention his super deep run at last year’s WSOP main event) provided red carpets interviews and some truly funny running commentary throughout the event, which gave everything a pretty fun vibe. If only I had done better lol
Basically I doubled up right away to 20k and then couldn’t win for shit after that. My doublethru was pure poetry… somebody weak limped up front (after playing so much online the past year its awesome to play live and notice the confidence levels of your opponents, something much harder to ’see’ online) so I decided to raise with J7 late to isolate and/or take the pot away from him. He made an obvious crying call with a hand I knew he really thought he shoulda mucked, and WOWZA on the dream J77 flop! Even dreamier when this guy called my 60% pot size bet on the flop, turn, and then checkraised me all in on the river when his Ace-baby soooted flush hit! Yum yum, thank you very much sir….
After that I couldn’t make a continuation bet to save my life. I had about a dozen hands where I’d raise with AQ, 88, AK, etc etc, miss the flop completely, get checked to, make a c-bet, and then get my face checkraised off my someone else in the pot! Fold, rinse, repeat. I love poker. Eventually i made a stand with AQ on an AQx-sooted flop, getting it all in against a made flush. Awesome! Go team….Erica made it all the way to the money bubble but i guess Dream Team just wasn’t to be.
On to the Vegas hijinks! The rest of the weekend was a blast, not only some fabulous meals with great people, but a good time out at the clubs (shenanigans at Prive in Planet Hollywood with none other than AP hottie Liv Boeree) and the requisite prop betting/alcoholic consumption combo that is the spice of life (i think this time around featured making out with overweight chicks for cash late nite at Caesar’s). Never a dull moment!
But obv the best of all was being able to spend lots of time with my new crush Mary Beth… I def have a weakness for hot, smart, crazy chicks and this girl fits the bill to a T! Something tells me I may be telling stories about her in my blogs for some time to come…
alright rockstars, i’m out!
-hd.
Tags: blackjack, David Benyamine, Erica Schoenberg, Hollywood Dave, las vegas, Liv Boeree, WSOP
