If you’ve not heard, the MGM Grand is closing down the lion exhibit. I always loved sitting in the poker room and being able to look up and catch a glimpse of a lion. I’ll miss that. Of course, now the poker room is dismantled too and instead shoved in a corner of the casino floor diagonally across from the old room. It reminds me of the poker “room” in a Reno Harrah’s. Depressing.

That being said, I look forward to what the MGM Grand Renovation results in. The new rooms look nice (very Aria-like) and I’m sure everything will be back in order soon.

Sure will miss these guys though.

More photos at Facebook or Flickr.

But at least I can get it out before 2011 ends, right? That’s progress. Kinda.

Trip reports are weird. If you were there, you don’t need me to tell you what happened. If you weren’t there, you probably don’t want to hear about every little detail. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN TOO BAD YOU WEREN’T THERE. Right? Right.

So. I’ll say this: HUGE thanks for CaityCaity, Jordan, and JoeSpeaker for organizing the assorted side-events. Big thanks to the crew at Pokerist.com for their contribution. Gigantic thanks to the folks at Aria, who continue to be awesome and a delight to work with. Seriously, at this point I don’t really even do much – it’s all on autopilot really. The props are entirely to them.

I did not win the tournament. I didn’t even really play many hands. Stupid cards.

They made up for it though on Sunday. Got in a quick session before leaving for the race watching. Naturally I end up sitting next to the one guy who is also from Silicon Valley working for completely overhyped startup that will not be named. Hope that stock pays out cause the poker game won’t.
Favorite part of the game was the hand where I flopped a set and turned a boat on a board littered with straight and flush draws. Check-raised on the river which sent my opponent into the tank. I was a little worried he was going to drown in there actually. I’m sure that whole “staring and thinking and making comments” bit works sometimes, but come on. I check raised you on the river. I either have it or I am full of shit. Pick one. The “I wanted you to call” comment will get you nothing. I wanted you to bet so I could check-raise.
Couple of hands later was bummed to get a small pocket pair, flop a set and then find two all-ins in front of me. Reluctantly let it go… surely someone either had the flush already or had a bigger set. Of course no. And again, would have turned a boat and stacked them both. Excellent way to insure the entire table hated me, especially with me leaving to watch the race right after.

The race watching was fun. Hate hearing about the general clusterfuck that was the race itself though. Loved being there to cheer on our crew, and having the likes of Pauly and Grange there to come up with new cheers was highly entertaining. No doubt a lot of runners were pissed to find out that in fact there was NOT a 2-for-1 hooker special at the finish.

Was a more low-key trip this year. We’re all older (it’s TRUE) and now I know what people do in Vegas at 10am. [Gamble in pajamas, apparently] Really liked the vibe on this trip – more relaxed, more of an emphasis on hanging out and letting whatever happen.

Let’s see if we can’t continue that for next year. And you better join us.

Thursday:

Sherwood Forest Bar at Excal – If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years of organizing, it’s pointless to try and put a start time on the drinking. I suggest keeping an eye on the #wpbt hashtag, you’ll see when folks start gathering. I’d estimate anywhere from 5-8 as a start – really depends on when folks land. Please note that the Sherwood Forest Cafe, which was right around the corner from the bar, has been closed and is scheduled to reopen today as the Lynyrd Skynyrd Cafe & Bar. I’m told by the folks at Excal that this *does not* have an impact on the Sherwood Forest Bar and that it has not changes names, but you never know.

Friday:

Beer drinkers unite at The Pub in Monte Carlo, starting at 4pm.
We have two tables at Aria starting at 6pm.

Saturday:

The big day. Tourney at noon, $125 buyin, follows the Aria daily tournament structure.

If you don’t have your last longer team in place, find Caity this weekend… because your good friend Jordan from HighOnPoker got a sponsorship with Pokerist.com and they’ll be adding $1,000 to the last longer prize pool. And there’s more…

Sunday:

Football. Games start at 10am, and per Falstaff’s suggestion, let’s go with The Pub at MonteCarlo. It’s close, easily accessible from Aria, and no doubt has beers you didn’t get to try Friday.
This again is one you’ll want to keep an eye on Twitter for; but keep in mind that Pokerist.com is also sponsoring $1,000 towards the bar tab for game-watching – so you’ll want to be where Jordan is!

See you soon gang! Remember, Twitter is the best way to keep up with where folks are, and find someone for breakfast, lunch, dinner at 3am. Don’t be shy, just jump on in.

___________________________________________

And now, a word about our awesome sponsor!

What IS Pokerist.com?

Pokerist.com is a web project developed as a part of the information support network for the Texas Poker application by Kamagames Ltd.
Texas Poker is an application for mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Android devices) and social networks. It is currently one of the most successful poker applications in the Apple App Store and Android Market. Millions of players all over the world play poker in this app daily. Yet it is not an online poker room – the game is just for fun and for the sake of sport, no real world money involved. The application is actively developed yet remaining quite simple to learn and play.
In the late spring 2011 the Pokerist.com website was launched with initial purpose to serve as online business card. But today with more than 15,000 unique online users daily it has totally overgrown the initial aim and now must focus on searching for more and more new ways to improve content to keep players happy. Just now developers are working on transforming the website into entire social platform for poker players all around the world.

And it got me thinking. This little community we have here, of assorted misfits and degenerates, we’ve come together in good time and bad. It used to be so much easier. Bored on a Friday night? Log in to Poker Stars and fire up IRC – there’s your friends. Find yourself in a tough time or just passionate about a cause? Organize a charity poker tournament and have your wildest expectations exceeded. Now? Now it’s harder. [There. Criminalizing online poker keeps us from raising needed funds to cure cancer. There's your PR angle. You're welcome.]

Many of you know that one of the “OG” Poker Bloggers, The Fat Guy, was recently diagnosed with cancer and has been blogging his treatment journey. He’s got a lot under his belt so far but still has a long road ahead of him. I mention this here because one, if you can, I know a donation would be appreciated. And I really wanted to find a way to make the WPBT WInter Classic an event for TFG, similar to the tourneys we used to run online. Unfortunately, as we know, the rules regarding brick & mortar events are far more complex than those (rules?) surrounding online play. So we have to get creative.

I for one, will be dedicating my play in the tourney to TFG. On the off chance that I win the tourney, I pledge half my winnings to him. So, you should all fold when in a hand against me. Just make a note.

Seriously though, I count myself incredibly lucky to be able to make this trip and see you all. In the spirit of the holidays, thankfulness, or whatever reason you can muster, I’d encourage us all to play a hand for our favorite cause, roll the dice for a friend, let it ride in the name of doing good. Just cause you can.

Final WPBT details coming later today… wrapping up a few last details.

My co-twit Chilly summed up our weekend plans thustly:

Couple of changes to that – one, Steel Panther sadly canceled their show Saturday night, so it’s off the table. For Sunday, I’m still on the hunt for a place that could accomodate a large group of people but not make us all share one tab (trouble) or having a thousands-dollars minimum (more trouble). Will update more, but for now I’m leaning towards either a) having a volunteer camp out somewhere to secure seats or b) everyone meeting at the Hilton’s new sportsbook because it’s plenty big, drinks are cheap, so is the food, and how can you not love the liberal use of adjectives here? I know Hilton is at the wrong end of the strip, but it has a monorail station. I’m leaning towards Hilton, unless someone wants to volunteer to stake out a spot at another location.

Questions? Concerns? Let me know! If you haven’t put together your last longer-team, then GET ON IT and update here.

See you soon!

Thanks Katie for taking this one on!

And now, in the remember when category…

While I’ve never taken part in it before (because it’s cold and starts early in the morning) the golf outing has become an annual event of its own. Here’s some photos from the first one, courtesy of Astin. And please do contact Mr. Joe Speaker if you’d like to take part in the fun this year.

But as part of trying to install one, I had to search the ole Google archives for an access code, and in that process came across a comment from Betty that made me pause and trace back the source. Laughter ensued, which isn’t surprising given that the story involves some of my most favorite people.

“I don’t even know what that means, but I love it!” and “Head Games”

[As a side note: I don't really recommend searching the GMail / Chat archives too much. If anyone needs me, I'll be over in this corner punishing myself for multiple accounts of stupidity]

To address a couple of questions that have come up in the past week:

1. Yes, you can still get a room at Aria. I’m sending requests in until they tell me we’re cut off. If you’ve requested a room and haven’t heard back yet, please drop me a line. Everyone should have a confirmation letter (except for those requests I just put in; give it a day or two)
2. Please update your RSVP on Facebook, OR if you’re totally anti-Facebook, then fine, just comment here or drop me a line. This is so we have at least a rough idea of how many are playing.

To recap the weekend:

Yes, I moved the date from the second weekend of December to the first. Yes, there’s a reason. No, none of them asked me to move it. For you old schoolers, you’ll recall that these gatherings started just because Pauly & Derek’s annual brothers trip turned into a blogger meet-up; which then grew every year. With that spirit in mind, it seemed tragic to schedule the tourney for a weekend *after* several bloggers were in town. I get that not everyone can make this weekend. Unfortunately, there’s never a date that works for everyone. As a bonus, this gets us back on schedule with the start of the rodeo, which maximizes our Cowboy-tilting potential. (No idea why I felt Cowboy needed to be capitalized. Must be a Texas thing).

And keeping with the old-school ness, for Thursday night, I BEG OF YOU PLEASE let’s meet at the Sherwood Forest Bar in Excal. Friday night we’ll have the traditional mixed games, only at Aria. Saturday the tourney is at Aria. Sunday, no one has planned anything for football-watching, but previously in years past we had someone stake out a spot at Mandalay Bay for watch parties. If someone wants to take that on again, perfect. If not, we’ve got Twitter – perfect for announcing where large groups of us are. {Follow the @wpbt account, where Chilly & I will do our best to make sure we retweet good stuff. Also keep the #wpbt hashtag in your tweets, as 1) it’s a great way for everyone to follow along and 2) it makes a certain news station look way cooler than it is.] And speaking of Sunday, the aforementioned group of runners will be headed down the Strip that night – I for one will be there to cheer them on. I can attest that race watching is waaayyy better with a drink in your hand. And for you golf-lovers, check in with Mr. Speaker please for a Friday golf outing.

Some new stuff this year, I know, and understand that it freaks some people out a bit. Don’t fret – it’s still a weekend in Vegas with your favorite degenerate gambling friends. Don’t overplan. Don’t overanalyze. I can say this after having done a very good bit of both for the first few years of coordinating these gatherings (a fact that PokerGeek and Bill Rini can both attest to!) You can always guarantee that we’ll be at some bar on Thursday, playing at the same place on Friday, and tourneying on Saturday. Make time for a nice dinner (and feel free to invite me to tag along!) and make time for a drink with that person you just really haven’t connected with enough in the past year. Aside from that – the magic happens when you’re not expecting it. It’s the 2am craps game, the mid-afternoon roulette sessions, the 4am breakfast.

To that end, I’ll be posting here some favorite recaps/photos/links from our previous adventures over the years. It’ll get you in the spirit and help rev you up for the weekend (but no, it won’t make time go faster. Sorry). We’ve got a good seven years of material, so I’m personally looking forward to digging through it all again. Got a fave? Link me.

Questions? Send ‘em on! Otherwise, see you in December.

P.S. DAWN SUMMERS WILL BE THERE PEOPLE!! Now it’s a party.

Last Friday, I was sitting in the San Jose airport waiting for a flight to Vegas (wedding-location scouting trip, not degenerate gambling trip) and was checking email on the phone. As I was reading this one, the smile and then laughter gave away who it was from – Jason looked over and said “Must be an email from Scott”.

It started off innocently enough. My old poker buddies were getting together for a night of light drinking and bullshitting. This game ran for 8 years but this is the first time in 2 years we have been in the same room at the same time. For almost 15 years we have all been drinking and partying together and I would put the 14 of us in our prime against any fraternity on campus today or any day in history.

To put it short and sweet we fuck shit up.

We are all older and with the exception of two of us we all are married and have multiple children. It is safe to say that these days we are just older thirty-something’s that have turned in our “rager” cards for Spongebob and Dora the Explorer pajamas and Honor roll bumper stickers. We are past our prime for sure.

We met up at my friend Bryan’s house as his wife and kids had left to go on vacation in San Antonio. It was pretty tame with us passing around pictures of the kids to each other and talking about the upcoming school year. Bryan showed us around his house and we were all happy to see his lifelong dream of having a fully functional bar complete with beer taps has come to fruition. It was a very pretty oak and brass bar with enough room to seat 8 comfortably or 14 really close friends. The Dos Equis started flowing from his fresh Keg that he had gotten just that morning, I remember joking about how it was only 6:30PM and that normally I am making chicken nuggets at this time. We all laughed and traded the same story with a different kids food as the punch line.

After 30 minutes, two beers and a shot of patron for everyone we sat down to play some poker. I have not tossed a card in the air live for over a year and about the same online. Poker has taken a backseat to golf and kids for me. We shot the shit for close to 2 hours while we played and there was no shortage of beer drinking around the table. At some point 4 pizzas showed up and with 14 hungry full grown American males it didn’t last long. I was failed to get a slice as did my old roommate David because we were busy pissing in Bryans water feature in his back yard. While we drained our bladders David mentioned that he felt a little drunk. No worries the game will last a while and he has plenty of time to sober up.

9:00PM and John came in to tell Bryan that there is something wrong with his beer tap. Beer was not coming out and it was making a weird noise. The Keg was floated…

1920 oz in a fresh keg, we are drinking out of 16 oz cups 1920 / 16 = 120 beers / 14 guys. Hmm 8 and a half beers per guy, yeah that sounds right. “Bryan what else you got to drink around this place?” Back in the day Bryan was notorious for his ability to consume brown liquor. Later on in his 20’s he switched to Vodka and could make an old Russian Grandpa proud with his ability to down the stuff. Bryan had no liquor beyond 2 bottles of Patron one of which was close to empty already.

A light bulb came into Bryan’s head. His wife had several bottles of wine that she brought back from the Hill Country on a girls only retreat. They had been sitting in the box she bought them in for over a year and thought this was a great time to break them open. Our Plastic beer cups became wine glasses and we finished playing our first tournament. The wine lasted less than an hour and barely gave everyone more than two cups.

By 10:30PM we were pretty much out of booze in the house so a small group us ventured out to the corner store for a good old fashioned beer run. Back in the old days everyone would toss in some money and we would head down and get a 18 pack of Natty-Light. We are now older, wiser, more refined and have more money. We bought 3 cases of beer and regardless of our current stations in life we automatically picked Natty as if it was just old habits coming back.

Now back at the house the game at deteriorated into a bastardized form of poker where pots were not decided by the cards but by prison rules and ridiculous side bets to determine who was going to drag the pot. I personally drug a $75 pot across the table only to be challenged by the loser in the hand with a proposition. His claim was that he can pull a bong hit, take 2 shots of patron and then exhale… The game came to a halt as it took me all of 3 seconds to accept the challenge.

We poured out onto the back patio eagerly awaiting the outcome of this bold claim. A bong was produced as if out of thin air and when the group was queried with “who’s holding” 5 bags ranging in size and quality hit the patio table.

Side note: While we all smoked weed at one point in college it was never a large group thing. Our clique is a varied cadre of Repubs and Libs, tight asses and free spirits, straight laced captains of industry and lowly waiters. As the bags hit the table the laughter hit the air. We all have gotten old, settled down, had kids and started smoking weed instead of going out nightly to get wasted at bars. It was the most exciting news of the night.

Bong loaded. shots poured. challenge starting. My friend had chosen some shit recently purchased in Colorado and I must admit the smell alone was enough to make me crave ice cream. Fired up, he drew in a deep breath and downed the first shot. As he was reaching for number two his face turned green and a stream of purple-ish yellow-ish tinted puke exploded from his head and onto 2 bystanders. The night was picking up.

As we closed in on 1AM, poker had pretty much been abandoned. We were now throwing dice on the back yard table and passing smoke around to everyone. We were all drunk and while a few of us had fallen off or gone home a good core of 8 of us were still alive and kicking. We started one upping each other on stories and braggadocios claims of manliness in our new lives as parents. The amount of urination taking place on the back yard plants was epic. I am not really clear on how it happened but someone started the conversation about how it would be cool to go to Louisiana to gamble the rest of the night. The idea initially had steam but tapered off as we calculated the math on time traveled to get there and back, play cards, and come back to broken marriages and no visitation rights. The numbers just didn’t add up in the risk versus reward category but while the light of this dream was dimmed it was still burning. Our friend Chris happened to mention that he not only has a pilots license but he also owns his own plane. He is an avid private pilot and would love to fly us to Louisiana if we were really serious they only rule was no horseplay in the plane. While we initially scoffed at this offer after another round of tokes it became clear we were headed to the airport.

Only 5 of us were brave enough to make the trip to the Austin Executive Airport at 2:45 in the morning. During the drive several challenges were laid down and one was accepted. Chris claimed that he was going to make us puke within one hour of the flight taking off. Chris got the plane stuff done ( I am sure that is not the technical term ) and in no time we were buckling in. I do not know the type of plane we were in but it had room for 6 passengers and 2 crew members (pilots seats). Chris offered me a front seat and I was close to accepting when he mentioned that it would have the best view if we ended up crashing the plane. I took a back seat and settled in next to my buddy Dave and his pocket vaporizer. We filled up a balloon and both took quality tugs as the plane taxied towards the runway.

The plane was small. It was getting smaller as we pulled further away from his hangar. It got reallllllly small as he powered up for takeoff and by the time we pulled up it felt like I was wearing a t-shirt that I had stolen from my son. I was happy to know I was not the only one now completely scarred stiff. With the exception of Chris we were all pretty much crying lumps of slovenly drunk babies. I personally was praying for the first time in 25 years openly and loudly. Bryan immediately puked as Chris banked the plane into a turn and the whiff of beer, wine, tequila and pepperoni pizza filled the cabin. This was quite possibly my last moments on earth and all I could think about was that my kids would know their Dad died in a very stupid way. I snapped from my fear coma when I heard Chris mention the words engine, and crash within the same sentence. Chris was of course joking, the plane was not going to crash but he was also well aware there was no way we were going to make it to Louisiana either. He kindly turned the plane around and a mere 25 minutes from the time we took off we were safely back on terra firma. Upon debarking the cabin I promptly fell to the ground puking violently while sobbing gently. We headed back to Bryans house without saying much to each other. I left almost immediately after telling everyone we needed to do this again real soon. Once the echoes of my friends telling me to fuck off and die faded I drove home slightly drunk, little more stoned, extremely tired and covered in my own vomit. I walked in around 5:30 this morning, stripped naked, climbed into a running shower and passed out until 6:45 this morning when my wife found me and reminded me that she is leaving for a week at 8AM AND I have my sons parents meeting with his new teacher today.

I am currently nursing a F5 level hang over.

Last year I announced plans for the Winter Classic on July 2nd. It would be cute to announce this year’s plan on the same day, but that’s a Saturday this year and it doesn’t really work for me. Today I have a laptop and a train ride in which to type away.

Also, this year holds the record for single most easily booked event EVER. EVER. I cannot speak higly enough of Adam Altwies and the crew at Aria Poker. Immediate response to my request, and immediately looked for ways to add value for us. Just an awesome crew all around, and a complete no-brainer to pick Aria after the fantasic experience we had there last year.

So, you got that, right? Tourney is at Aria.

We’ll be mixing things up a bit this year. Why? Because dude, we so need to. The first Winter Classic was in 2004. We are officially in the 7-year itch; time to shake things up! It won’t be crazy, I promise.

For starters, how about on Thursday night we meet at the Sherwood Forest Bar in Excal? I like the idea of returning to our roots. The poker room is back, and the Excal has been the scene for many a great story. It also has less hookers, but I don’t see that being a problem for anyone (maybe Waffles).

Friday night, we move the mixed games to Aria. Why? Did I not mention how awesome their staff is? Last year, many folks suggested we host the Friday night games at Aria this year. So we will.

Saturday, tourney. Starts at noon, uses the nightly tournament format. $100 + $25. No rebuys for us though.

Sunday, there are football games and places to wager on the outcomes. There is also several folks we know running down the Strip – and not even because they’re being chased!! I’m sure they would love some supportive degenerates. Or at least someone at the finish line with a beer.

And finally, all this awesomeness will take place the FIRST weekend in December, not the second. Tournament will be December 3rd; Excal on December 1st, Mixed Games December 2nd. The cowboys will be there too.

And because Aria is so awesome, they’ve extended to our group the poker room rate for reservations there. Rates are $99+tax+resort fee Sunday – Thursday; then $139+tax+resort fee Friday and Saturday. There is no hour played requirement for us to get this rate. If you’d like to book under it, send me an email with your check in/out date, first and last name, full address, and telephone number. Also tell me your room request – non-smoking/smoking with king or queen beds (2 queen beds are based upon availability). You’ll give a credit card when you check in.

Tourney RSVP on Facebook please! Lot of info here, if I missed something just holler. And get started on that bankroll and booking your plane tickets! See you in December!