Ah, the 4/8HE game at Bellagio. My five-year-old brother could beat this game. Not many memorable hands – except for one where I bluffed at a pot with ten high on the river, got called in two places, and won – but I did work on value betting on the river, something I don’t do enough of, especially in a game where people call with worse than ten high (huh?).

I met a woman in one of the games who is the wife of a pro who lives in town. I was bummed when she told me she lived in Vegas because I’ve been hoping to meet more poker couples to hang out with in NYC. I guess the chance of meeting a poker couple from New York in Vegas is pretty unlikely. [Hey Matt, I guess we'll have to convert Ivy, eh?] It would be great to know some ladies at these poker events. While I certainly don’t need any chums to sit at my poker table, it would be nice to have company at the pool or the spa.

I’m setting a goal to move up to 8/16 next trip, which probably won’t be for a while unfortunately. But that will give me time to work my way up online and build my bankroll. Being around all these people who play so high has definitely put my “big wins” in perspective. I go to the cage to cash out a few hundred, look to my right, and one guy is cashing in three racks of $100 chips, another guy is talking about how he’s up $13K in a game he’s playing, and a girl at an empty table is shuffling four flags and a several $1K chips with a bored expression on her face. I slide my racks of blues and reds over to the cage, hoping no one sees them.

On a different subject, Chris and I are decorating our apartment and it only seems natural that we would have some poker-themed art hanging somewhere. Only thing is, everything we’ve seen is the tackiest shit in the universe. Anyone have a line on some decent poker art? Somewhere between the “My pair is bigger than your pair” T-shirt and the the impressionist painting of Phil Hellmuth throwing a tantrum that I saw at the “Poker Lifestyles Expo”?

Having a dreadful run lately. Surely it has nothing to do with being unemployed and depressed in New York City! j/k

It was one of those months where everyone seems to have the one hand that can beat you, the wackiest draw that comes in on the river…you know how it is, so I won’t elaborate or bore you with my bad beat stories. I’m hoping to get this out of my system and turn things around when I get to Vegas on Wednesday. I won’t be playing in the Series of course, but I recall that the 4/8 game at Bellagio is pretty sweet, and I think I will be giving the small tournies at Aladdin a try. I probably won’t go back to the Orleans – the structure was pretty bad and the amount of starting chips was small. Plus the place is damn sketchy.

I’ll update from Vegas….