Sleep is for Suckers

First day in Vegas was fairly packed. Vera and I landed at McCarran around 10 a.m. local time. Grabbed a bite and I dropped off Vera at the World Cup around noon. I then headed over to Binion’s and ended up sitting at a $2/$4 limit table for about an hour or so, killing time before the meeting of the Wednesday Poker Discussion Group that was scheduled to start around two o’clock.

The Poker Grump came over and was there to see me finally hit a nice hand to get back close to even. Then I racked ’em up and we headed over to the coffee shop for the meeting. Thing didn’t get going in earnest until about three-ish, by which time 25 or so folks had gathered. Was a very fun couple of hours, highlighted by a lengthy analysis of a single $2/$5 no-limit hold’em cash game hand played at the Wynn by one of the group.

Operated a little bit like a class, with discussion leaders and several gifted “students” piping up with their ideas along the way. Lots of insights and entertainment, too, and it seemed like there were several moments when folks delivered lines about the player’s approach that were simultaneously uproarious and perceptive: e.g., “You got him right where he wanted you.”

From there I got back together with Vera, then as planned we met up with the Poker Grump, Cardgrrl, BWoP, and F-Train over at the Grand Lux Cafe at the Venetian for dinner, where we had a good time sharing stories and marveling at the absurdly-large size of our dishes (“That Chicken Parmesan is bigger than yr head!”).

Didn’t get to sleep ’til midnight or so -- 3 a.m. my time -- and, of course, woke way too early this morning. Tired but wired, ready for more.

Today I am having lunch with a couple of poker authors, Alan Schoonmaker and Jim Brier, both of whom have published multiple poker books and many, many articles in Card Player and elsewhere. Brier’s articles and books are on the strategy side (mostly on limit hold’em, I believe), while Schoonmaker’s are more about the psychology of poker. Should be pretty interesting to be in the middle of those two today.

Might be meeting up with others today, too, but don’t know yet for sure. And could be playing again somewheres, if the timing is right. Will likely have dinner with Vera and some dressage people tonight, then tomorrow it is off to visit the collections at the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV.

Gotta sign off now. Am taking notes, natch, and plan to write up a more detailed trip report next week. Wish you were here.