[* WARNING *]

Morning Tikay.

As seen as you have single handily closed down our Forum next door  , I will have to post my VEGAS trip report here.....

* WARNING * - contains a massive bad beat story.

As you know, I have been trying for years to get to Vegas with Sky poker, and scraped in via the last tournament satelitte. This would be my 1st ever trip to Sin City.
Flew from Manchester on Virgin with a stop over at Atlanta. Landing at about 9pm, I was slightly taken aback by the sight of all the lights from the city.

After checking in, I needed a drink and a nicotine fill up. Had a walk about the casino (Planet Hollwood) and decided to locate the poker room. 1st friendly face I saw sitting down playing cash was TommyD (he sends his regards to you and has promised to drop by here to say hello too). I declined the offer to sit down with him and super ollie to set fire to $100+ . I was only going to play Tornament poker on this visit. I had also predecided to only play roulette in any casino I went to.

The following morning I was surprisingly up very early and was feeling remarkably fresh. I decided to play the PH £100 10am tournament. Only 29 players and I cashed in 3rd for $335. I had arrived. Buzzing with that 1st cash, I tried my hand on the roulette tables. Another $250+ in winnings. Easy to make money here I mused to myself. Obv, the next 6 days found me out and I never made that much profit in a day again. I played 8 of these $100 tournaments over the week and I final tabled 7 of them. Sounds impressive.......but most had only 2 or 3 max tables to begin with. I cashed only once again out of all them......2nd for $400. So, only $65 down for the whole week on poker. I took that as a personal victory and put my $735 returns in a seperate wallet to bring back with me to help fund my annual Benidorm trip with the lads.

Went to the Sunday night welcome party. Apart from TommyD & Super Ollie, there was an array of Sky poker faces I knew. To name just a few......Ben nutter, DanTB, Timmy Ra Ra, Swog. Also got introduced to players like Granite and alvez. It was a really friendly night with a good vibes.

Had a walk down the Horseshoe for the FT of the Main Event. Bumped into Ian Simpson and had a really good chat with him. Nice bloke. I was a proper poker fan boy, and loved the atmosphere in there. Watched the final H/U hand live and all the razzamataz that followed.

Visited most of the other casinos while there and was impressed by The Bellagio and The Venetian the most.

TommyD took me down Freemont Street one night. Wow. We ended up in an Irish bar sampling the Guinness for several hours   Enjoyed that evening.

Overall, I really enjoyed my 1st trip to Vegas. However, I never realised how expensive everything is over there. Mind blowing prices for food...drink....tips (?) etc. I will need some more coin if ever I am lucky enough to be able to go again.

And now for that horendous bad beat story......

On arriving back at Manchester (Via Amsterdam), It appears I had parked in the wrong Car Park. Sigh. Just the £550 charge for that.....plus £103 charge for the intial Car Park.........and a £60 icing on the cake charge for stopping for 90 seconds looking for the right car park on arrival. All poker winnings gone and no Benidorm trip this year for me. GG.

Hope you didnt mind me posting this here Tikay. And hopefully I didnt waffle too much  .

Cheers, Alan.

Thanks for these reports and posting the links in here too.

Enjoyed reading them all. Cheers again.

Only fair to admit that I am...Knottikay's coach or backer either.

Good luck tomorrow Stu, love your updates.

+ 1

Really can not believe that Tikay did not require your services for his Vegas trip/retirement party this year Jeeves.   

Congrats on your latest cash Tikay. Really enjoying yours, and Stuart R's, updates.

I am another 'sky reg' not able to get to grips with the new Sky Poker home. Unable to download the client, so have just played some freerolls on the website.......and not really impressed with the whole set up with that TBH.

Going to have a break with online (probably way overdue anyway) until I get back from Vegas (Did I mention I was going this year?  ), and then look for other sites to join/play on. Shame really, as I would say over 95% of my online playing was on Sky Poker.

Looks like you will not be out there when the package winners get there. Another shame. I was going to buy you a coffee and an iced bun too  . Really looking forward to my trip though.....albeit with some fear at being overwhelmed by it all and completly out my depth.

Well done to the other cashes jumping on this diary to boast too 

Not a bad start for an old fart  (you can use that as a paragraph title in your upcoming book on your retirement years)

Was meant to post something on your goodbye thread next door last night, but was a little 'tired' after a Bank Hol day out, so didnt play at all and forgot.....oops.
Anyway, VBOL out there. And once again, thanks for all your help and support over the years.

VBOL Stu.

Not got a piece of you this year, but love following your progress/updates on here.

Quick question though......are you playing the Seniors or Super Seniors with Tikay out there this year 

Bugger! When it went 7-4 I could have cashed out for £1.47. I've missed the boat now.

I take it that was your 'maximum' cash out? 

I always enjoy the World Championships every year, and watch every game if I can.

I put a fiver e/w on Zhao Xintong @ 12/1. He is such a natural talent and some of the older heads (Hendry & Davis among others) are singing his praises this year too. Looks like he might meet Ronnie in the Semi's and possibly Trump in Final. If he wins both of them, he will deserve to be World Champion IMHO.

Watched the rerun of the 'Black Ball' Final from 85 on BBC 4 the other night. Amazing how the game has progressed since then. There were half a dozen 'foul and a miss' shots back then, which obv were not called . Plus the amount of times when power shots were not done to break up the pack.

My snooker claim to fame.... Back in the late eighties I was one of only SEVEN people nationwide who got 'shot of the Championship' correct. I missed out on the 3 prizes on offer.

I stayed up watching this too. Where/what channel did you find commentary on it? I was just watching it on a small window on my BET 365 account.

Great win......however, that was only the 1st qualifying round out of 4. So, a long way to go until he can lose in the opening match at the finals.

Excuse dodgy typing, am on 'phone.

Seat 1 hidden

Seat 2, Wayne Rideout, aka Glitterbabe.

Seat 3 Carl Jones (thin)

Seat 4 The Rt Hon Lady Mason

Seat 5 Lee Redmond aka lolufold

Seat 6 Pass

Seat 7, Dameflop from Edinburgh (George's wife)

Seat 9/10 Thought it might be Vinni/celtic but he lacks the necessary rotundity so I think Tighty is right, its the Grosvenor Poker Manager last I heard, Liverpool fan Jim McShane.

Seat 6 looks like James Marriot.

Good to catch up at the w/end with you. And congrats on your cash in the ROE yesterday. If you did less table chat and focused on your cards, you would have won that 

Hopefully I will play more live this year now I wont have a forum to read all day. Fingers crossed for Vegas too.

That's about 15 minutes from me Kev. Hope you enjoyed the tour of Glengoyne I work for the company that owns it.

Hi Eck, hope you're well.

Loved the whole day. Kelpies, Glengoyne tour, lunch at Loch Lomond finishing off at the Denstone distillery. A few wee drams consumed.

It has been nagging me for weeks! I think that I sat next to you at the Stoke Poker game at Blackpool last month. I knew I regonised the face, but didnt know where from! lol. I thought you might of been someone I knew from work........but it was from here. Hopefully I can introduce myself properly next time I see you

As it looks highly unlikely I will get on the Vegas trip this year next door.....

1% please when you get round in doing your staking for your package. As always, I do not expect a return 

Cheers 

[Money received with thanks today]

Money received with thanks today. Did we not have a saver for the bubble boy?   

Think this is the final standing

If someone could take a double check then I will get the winners paid

That looks correct now. THANKS for running comp. Well played Doobs in 2nd. Unlucky to Tikay in the bubble spot.