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——

Okay, I’m kidding. But seriously, I busted out in the second level of the $1k today. Standard stuff. Built up to 4.5k (3k starting) then lost a flip for a 7k pot with AK vs. QQ and re-raised all-in a few hands later with 99 and ran into JJ. Nothing you can do and I walked out of the Rio not the least bit upset about washing out in rapid fashion as opposed to playing all day only to take some bad beat near the money.

Before the tournament started, Dave, my Uncle, TwoGun and I were standing out in the hallway. I suggested that the over/under on the number of us that will make the dinner break is 1. Dave disagreed thinking it was 1.5. I don’t see any value betting over 1.5 there. He offered to put $100 on over 1 and I booked his bet. I did my part by busting in the second level. My Uncle and TwoGun went down in the fourth. Dave sabotaged his chance at pushing on the bet and busted out in the fifth level (I believe). Ship it!

I did a little shopping after I got knocked out at the Forum Shops in Caesars. Later, Dave and I went to T.I. to play the $125 ‘Head Hunters’ tournament again. I started off well but went out 10th after getting KK all-in against 33 on an 883 board. I picked up three bounties in the early going though to make it a marginally profitable venture. For fun, I bought 25% of Dave in a cash game he played after busting the tournament and made another $100 through that, so no complaints.

While I was in the tournament, ‘kid hustlr’ and ‘brendo’ from our poker forums stopped by to say hello. I’ve hung out with kid hustlr in Phoenix before, but had never met brendo before tonight. I forgot to ask them if they’ve been doing any chip dumping at the OnGame tables lately. ZING!!

This is my last night at Bellagio. I visited the host desk and gave them an opportunity to retain my action. The host looked at my play for this trip: 5 hours at an average of $80 a hand so far. What was their offer? Nothing.

I realize 5 hours of $80 a hand doesn’t make me a whale or anything, but you’d think they’d offer me at least a little something being that it’s the middle of the week during the summer in Vegas. They can’t claim to be occupied either. Hotels.com has a rate of $150 for the next four nights at Bellagio, which is definitely on the low-end of their typical range. Another hotel with a rate of $150 was the Venetian, so I called them up to see what they’d offer me. The lady on the phone said, “we can give you 2-4 free nights.” Ship it!

If I thought it would have any impact on anything other than my temporary happiness, I’d go visit the Bellagio host again and tell him I’m taking my $80 a hand over to Venetian and to have fun going bankrupt, but that would just be in vein. Those guys don’t really give a damn and are also probably stupid enough to think the economy will magically recover later this year since “recessions only last an average of 14 months.” News flash: there are no rules that state the economy can’t remain in a state of turmoil for years. End rant.

One final note: I registered for the $1,500 6-Max event on Tuesday. At least I thought I did. I asked the Asian lady behind the counter a couple times, “the $1,500 event on Tuesday is 6-Max, right?” She kind of acted like she didn’t understand me and gave me very vague responses. I decided it wasn’t worth shouting my question very slowly to her since I was 95% certain Tuesday is 6-Max. Turns out I should have shouted. Wednesday’s $1,500 event is the 6-Max event. Oops. Oh well… worse case scenario is that I can’t play it because I made day two of Tuesday’s event. There could be bigger problems to have.

That’s all for tonight. Taking a day off of poker tomorrow and playing golf at this awesome par 3 course at Angel Park with my Uncle and Dave. The holes are modeled after famous par 3s from around the world. Of course, we’ll have some prop betting action going which should make for a fun afternoon baking in the desert heat.