Hella Hold'em

Day 4:

Sunday started out as a bit of a cluster*#ck. Minneapolis Airport was completely shut down on Sunday night due to a blizzard, and Chicago was under a winter weather advisory with high winds. I really did not want to sleep in the airport, because I figured I'd eventually get to MN, but there was no way my evening Chicago flight was going to make it. So I tried to call Delta to rebook my flights for Monday. For 2 hours, I couldn't get through, because their phone recording said that they couldn't answer my call due to extreme weather. Their headquarters is in MN. Gah!

Eventually, I got through, and while the customer service rep initially said that my flights did not appear to be affected (they showed as "on time" online), I explained that by the time I have to catch the flights that afternoon, that situation would likely change. He put me on hold with his awesome Australian accent, and came back and agreed to rebook me based on the weather conditions in MN. I got an 11am flight the next morning, but then his computer wasn't working properly and he transferred me to someone else to do the actual booking. I had to go through the whole situation again with her, as she was of course saying, "Your flights don't appear to be affected..." After a few holds, she came back and rebooked me. Whew! I had no trouble getting a room at MGM, as the rodeo was heading out of town and MGM was glad to have me.

It turns out, my original flight to MN was delayed by 4 hours, and my flight to Chicago was canceled. (I would have missed it anyway, and it was the last flight of the day to Chicago). So I would have ended up sleeping at the MN airport. All hail proactiveness! (Is that a word?)

These new flight plans allowed me to make it to Legasse's Stadium at the Palazzo, Emeril's place (BAM!) Full Tilt was sponsoring part of the food/bar tab, and what great food it was! I had cheese pizza and some awesome hummus. For me to say the pizza was fantastic is a big deal - I'm from Chicago, people. I know pizza. Delicious. So good! I ate way too much and was finally able to pawn off the last two pieces of pizza to Alan.

I got to see just how awful the snow was in Chicago on the big screen (while the Bears were getting crushed). I was glad to stay in the Vegas weather for one more day!

April, Maura, and I bid farewell to the blogger-folk after a few hours and walked over to the Wynn. I'd never been there. Nice place. Like I said, I may check out their limit games next time MGM can't get anything going for me. Maura and April then headed back to their room and I headed down to the MGM poker room. I spent a few hours losing and winning the same $50 at 1/2 NL. April let me know that they were going to watch the Amazing Race finale and would come get me afterward. Sounded good to me - we had plans to find a cheap craps table!!

In the meantime, I hit gold. The fact that it was against a bunch of frat boys (one of which was so drunk he kept ordering Red Bull and vodkas, forgetting that he had one in his cup holder each time) was just a bonus.... set over set over straight, 4 way all in - and me with the nut flush draw. The pot was laying me 4:1 to make the call all-in after the flop, and I was 4-flushed. I was either gonna get up and go play craps, or win a shit-ton of loot. All in!

And... SCORE!

The three frat boys immediately left the table in disgust. I didn't notice until after I finished stacking all those pretty pretty chips.

I played for another 45 minutes or so, until April and Maura came down to get me. I made back my whole weekend bankroll right there. That's what I needed :)

First, we walked across the street to Hooters, hoping to find a cheap craps table. No luck - and, ewww. Hooters is so blah. I think even the restaurants are nicer than the casino. So we walked over to the "improved" Tropicana, and - wow! Very nice! Very clean, very white. I would definitely stay there! Many people noted how scummy the place was in recent past, but they've done a great job with the remodeling and redecoration. I liked it, anyway.

We played some slots to take advantage of a new player card promotion, and while we played, the craps tables dropped to $5! Maura and I played a little craps (it was her first time), and while we didn't win anything, we had some fun. It was a perfect, quiet table for learning the game. And I love rolling the dice!

And that was about it... I headed back to my room and crashed out, then packed up on Monday morning and headed out. All of my flights went OK on Monday with only minor delays. Still, it was 11pm before I pulled into my driveway at home. Long, long day.

Overall, a most excellent trip. I had such a blast seeing everybody, and it's always fun to come home even! :-D I can't wait till next year!