Bleh, I got snowed in here in Madison for the night and my flight got cancelled. So, I decided to write up a trip report. I am not an STT poster, but Slacker suggested writing it up and he and 66's are regulars here.
So I was in Tucson for a computer security conference last week, and Slacker being the gracious gentleman he is, played tucson tour guide for me.
On Tuesday night Slacker was busy so I hit the tourney ($65+10, 1 $60 rebuy) at the Desert Diamond, which from the outside resembles a giant circus tent but has a decent card room. I got there just in time to sign up so I didn't sit in any live games. There were about 80-90 players, and I rebought right away and had an extra 1000 chips (3k total). I FPS'ed my way out of the decent stack I'd built and limp my way to the final three tables. Nothing doing and got knocked out OOTM. Bleh, it might have been a good thing I didn't cash since the damned parking lot was removed from the casino and pretty dark.
Anyway, onto Wednesday when Slacker and I met up. We decided to play the $30+5 freezout at the Casino del Sol, starting at 7. I ditched the conference a little early in hopes of getting some extra early bird points, but no luck. I spent a few minutes driving around the Casino gas station parking lot, which didn't help (it looked like the casino?!?) I get there and all the games were full, so I put my name on the board for everything. I eventually got a seat in the 'big game' at the time, which was $3/$6. Typical low limit table which I crushed for 4355234 bb/hr. My Omaha 8 seat opened up so I racked and moved.
Doing ok at the Omaha game when Slacker walks in. I'd told him what I look like so he strolls over and starts to immediately harsh my gig. I get crushed in a big pot with an underfull on a hi-only board. I can't remember if Slacker ended up sitting at the table, as I'd had about 3 or 4 $4 heinekins (what's the deal with charging for beer?!?), and Slacker was about to start me in on the $1.50 tecates.
I eventually cash out, BS with slacker for a bit, and the cards go in the air for the tourney. It has a horrible structure, with about 105 players. My first table is atrocious, so I hit the first break down about 200 chips. After the break, I start to chip up and get moved to another table. I start to run it over, and see that Slacker got busted out by some gmilf who hit her backdoor flush after he flopped top 2. Lesson - don't f*ck with gmilf's (at the poker table that is [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]).
The blinds are getting high, and everyone is playing very tight and making terrible folds out of the blinds, so I start stealing liberally. I'm sitting next to Carol, another gmilf, with this cool blinking lips card protector. I flirt with her and make some comment about it, and she says I could use a good luck charm. Burn! She pulls out the minnie mouse and I put it on my stack. Next four hands, four people get knocked out. Sweet minnie! She let me keep it too:
I get jobbed on one hand when I'm all in with my KQs vs. KJo and we split the pot. But, I make it to the FT with a decent stack. The blinds are massive, and a bunch of people want to chop, but we play on. Then I push T7s from CO and get called by bigger stack button with KQ. Bye bye for me.
I collect my $220 and go find slack. We are both about 10 beers in, and he's at $3/$6, so I sit in. I start to donk it up, which is still fun when you're the only one doing it. Especially when there are a couple of ipod guys making fun of me. Oh well, I'm playing fairly tight, only around 85 vpip. Limp capping, etc., generally having a good time.
So me and slack are talking about not slowplaying sets/trips, and I comment on not having had 3 of a kind in ages. Next hand I raise JTo UTG and Slacker's caught on to my 'tell' so calls me with some trash hand. Flop comes TTx and I think ha I'm gonna break my rule and slow play these suckas. I check, table checks around. 4 on the turn, I bet and Slacker raises for some reason. BS, I call down and he turned a boat holding 44. Oh well. More cards, beers, etc. and Slacker calls it a night at around 3:00 am. I call him a wuss and go try to sober up in the 24-hour casino restaurant. I'm a vegetarian, which is not good in casino restaurants, so I get the jalapeno poppers and pancakes with a large coke. Probably not the best meal with 12 or so beers in me, but I sober up a bit and make it back to the hotel.
On Thursday, Slacker and SuitedSixes got pwned by the Hooters girls for the
blind calcutta draw while I was sleeping it off. Shoulda called me to regulate, fools. So that night, Slacker hooks me up with a ticket to the Arizona mens bb game. Slacker is the courtside announcer at the McKale center and has all the hookups. He's got the total radio guy voice going on, and all the college girls are throwing their panties at him. Anyway, the Cats barely win, and Slacker and I grab a quick beer.
On Friday, we play some golf. Coming from rainy Oregon, I am stoked to wear shorts and short sleeves in December. I show up not having played golf in 1.5 years and hit a few on the range. Slacker the arizonian is of coursed dressed in his snowsuit or at least a sweater b/c it is 60 degrees. We have a great round of golf, and only about 4 beers each. We decide to gamble it up on the last two holes, going $20 for par, $40 for birdie, and $10 for best score. I have been putting them off the green all day so Slacker pwns the 17th for $10. On to the 18th.
A fairly easy par 4, but I push cut my drive as is my custom. I hit my second shot out of the fairway bunker, over some trees, onto the green within 30 ft or so. Sweet. Slacker then pulls out his granny 11-wood or something and knocks it about 5 feet closer than me. BS, rigged, etc.
Anyhoo, I drain my putt of course, scoring the birdie. Slacker lines his putt up to tie me, hits a real nice putt, and lips it out by about 4 inches. He drops the putter and the damn thing must have hit perfect b/c it busted in two. That leads me to my second souvenir:
I had the thing in my laptop bag and got searched by the TSA. So of course I forgot to take it out of my bag for this week's flights, and got searched again in Boise and Eugene.
Jeez this is getting very long but onto Friday after golf. We hit casa de slacker after a quick beer/grub run. Drink a few more and Suited makes his way over with his daughter (very cute, total daddy's girl). We play a little poker and I dominate some of the neighborhood 11 year olds in bball (including Slacker Jr.). We head over to the neighbors. He whoops me in ping pong (haven't played in 2-3 years). I think I can get the feel back in a few more games, so I consider putting some money down. But, everyone is in the poker mood so we head inside.
We decide on some $10 5 handed STT action (no juice, baby). 4 or so left in the first tourney, and Suited pushes like 40 BBs with some crap hand out of the SB into my BB. I have 46s or 57s and 30 or so BBs so call instantly getting 'pot odds'. He has some garbage ace high hand, and the flop comes all babies. I get excited when the turn brings me an open ender, neglecting to see Sixes just made a wheel. River is some rigged brick and I'm out.
Next tourney I get AA in the BB. Neighbor host raises about 5BB, Suited for some reason calls from the SB. I push 25 or so BB, and get called in both places by JJ and TT. My hand holds up and its heads up between me and slack. Hands, hands, etc. and then I raise 5BB or so with AJo. Slack pushes and I call. A on the turn and I win. It's getting late, so we take off.
All in all I had a really good time in AZ. Slacker and Sixes are both very cool guys who like to have fun and are good family guys to boot. I am definitely looking forward to president's day and sttf-huc2. This week I was in Boise and was going to try to continue my pre-huc2 tour and meet lacky for some HU lessons (was only going to charge $100 per [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]), as Slacker told me he's an idahoan. Alas, plans changed and was only there for a night, so I did some snowboarding instead. It's nice to golf in AZ one week and board in ID and WI the next, that's probably the only good thing about so much business travel.
Enough writing.
Jason