theres a new bunch in town and don't they look MEAN

Crow, you're good with this sort of thing. Was telling Compo tonight his Sky Poker avatar is not so much mean as...hmm...camp. Can you do the honours?

I was that close to playing The Westererern £200 tonight but it never seems to get going till around 9pm. Couldn't face the 5.12am train from Kings Cross after the inevitable deep run. Plus all that lovely tournament stuff going on at the Vic next week, so will wait until then.
GL to any blondies playing, take those rusky fellas down imo

The making of a pleasing diary.
Is there a poker room at the Riviera? Never used to be. It's about a half-hour walk to the Venetian from Circus Circus (bang opposite you).
Take a taxi imo. Ask the taxi driver where he's from. He'll say Ethiopia. Go from there.

18k in front of me i call a raise of 800 with K9hh, not a normal call but was playing most flops with position trying to accumulate chips as was due to fly back saturday and wanted to have a big stack if i was to change my flight. Anyway flop came . he bets 500!!, i move all in for 17k

LOL, nice bet sir. 17,000 into a pot of 2,500? Ten days in Vegas and you start playing like one of them?
Often see pros and celebs in that evening Venetian tournament.
PS, [X] Five Posh shirts were packed but only four worn.

Girl I was involved with in a big hand at the Venetian the other day blushed to a ridiculous degree. After the hand she said she always does it when she's in a big pot.
I said I'd assumed it was just because she was in a hand against me. She declined further comment.

Will you be penning a diary Rookie? Would you like to borrow my t-shirt?

I dunno about a diary tbh. I don't think there would be much interest, although I plan to take a million comedy pics!

ROFL, your tshirts were brilliant. I wouldn't want to overuse them! haha.

Get it done imo. Breaks up the day and something bar poker to engage the brain.
You will NOT believe how bad the standard is in the £340 deepstacks if you're planning on playing them. Here's one final exit report from my last $340...
Nobody at the table wanted to play a hand so I raised at least 70% of the time, most of the time picking up blinds. Come the first break I was up from 12,500 to around 20,000.
Midway through the 100-200(25) level I was on 25,000, with the only other big stack on my table to my left. He'd shoved with KK and been called with AQ; the way these guys usually get chips, wait for a hand, stick'em in and hope someone else has a hand against you, ie, A8, KQ, KJ sooted etc.
So I had  UTG and made it 700. Guy next to me called, everyone else passed, just for a change.
Flop came  , I bet 1,600, he made it 4,000. I went all in. He called in a second with AQ. No 'hmm, I wonder if he has kings or aces', just 'I've got top pair top kicker, I'm a complete donkey, I call for another 20,000 odd.'
Anyway, good trip, small loss, nothing to worry about. Good to be back, might play the Western £200 on Tuesday. Plus Palm Beach have rejigged their schedule, so a wander up there beckons.
Otherwise, lashing of gym and Betfair ftw. Need to ship a stone in the next month and a bit. No way I'm being beaten on the multi-dimensional weight-loss front.
PS, Four different Posh shirts were worn during the making of this diary.
PPS, Good report Celtic but no mention of Miss pkr.com from the satellite table the other night a shocking omission.

Will you be penning a diary Rookie? Would you like to borrow my t-shirt?

And now the end is near, plane to Washington in a couple of hours. Already looking forward to the bacon and sausage sandwich at the Pot Belly Sandwich Factory in the morning.
It's been a pleasing enough trip, although it was pure poker and nothing else. I never even left the Venetian until last night, which meant eight nights in one spot.
I'd reckon I averaged 10 hours' table time a day, often went deep but only managed two cashes, one minor cash in a deepstack plus the night tournament win. That night tournament has been good to me the last 12 months or so.
So what's been learned from the trip? Celtic runs bad over here, Jim needs to adapt his game for the deepstacks if he's to have another go at them. Keith got unlucky several times but never really threatened to cash (cashless trip to Vegas is henceforth known as 'doing a Sicilian').
Kevin O'Leary is a top man. When I bought in for the $1000 the other day there was some confusion about how much to enter but I was told definitely $1060, not $1070. This was without the staff bonus and extra 2500 chips though.
Anthony, one of the cardroom managers, rang KO'L at 1.30am when he was in bed. KO'L came down to pay the extra $10. Above and beyond imo.
I'll probably be back for another ten dayer in Febraury if they're running the deepstack again, but already thinking ahead to the WSOP next summer (all things being equal).
Some can stay in a hotel for a month but I'm thinking an apartment plus a couple of rooms, one at the Venetian and one at the Rio, split three ways is the future. Need a bit of drudge occasionally, as in shopping, getting petrol, tidying up the house, so on. Got a couple of ideas for sharers but it's a long way off.
PS, Celtic, check your PM...

This is it, my final day and I'm determined to go out and do something non poker tonight.
That said I'll doubtless sit down in the $120 at 7pm after busting out of the $330, which I'll be playing aggressively, and will go from there.
I need another cash of some description to break even this time but fingers crossed it will come somewhere. Might even play a bit of cash to see if I can push into plus figures. Will be wearing my new lucky t-shirt for sure.

Field sizes are down from the summer but still plenty big enough. Yesterday's $340 somewhere around 350 I think. Sunday's $1,000 got just over 100. The $550s have been getting around 200.
Last night's evening tournament got 129. Now, let me see, who won it...blatent brag coming...oh yes, me.
It was chopped of course, five ways, yours truly with 410,000 chips, Jim McBride second with around 320,000. The Luton boys are back!
I arrived half an hour late and ended up on the same table as Celtic and Kevin O'Leary. KO'L won comedy moment of the night award for this...
An older player at the table, short stacked, said he could instead have been shooting craps and having a cigar. KO'L "Or shooting cigars and having a crap." That got me.
Drunk way too much. Those tumblers of merlot must be half a bottle a pop. Oops.
Nobody lasted long in yesterday's $300 and not a great deal else to report. Finally spent some time in the room and tried a film. Mirrors. Crap. No Chompy stars out of ten for that pile of pap.
Switched over to ESPN2 and caught a few WSOP ME shows, from the final 27 down to the final nine. Joe Bishop is what poker should be all about, apart from the slowroll with ace king for which he was roundly booed by the rest of the table.
Tiffany Michelle is what poker is NOT all about. She just came across as an utter bitch imo. Apparently a former beauty pageanter. Who'd have guessed?
Another $340 now, then either the evening tournament or off to see this poker show they've got on here, The Real Deal. Got free tickets if I want them but nobody seemed able to explain what the show is or how it works.
They say you don't need to know how to play poker in order to enjoy it, so it should be ideal for Celtic.
PS, still no Celtic shirt on display. WTF?
PPS, childish play of the night. Blinds 50-100, I raise to 250 UTG with 23 off. Celtic re-raises to 900 with 69 off. Honestly...

It's been kind of like June for me so far, playing really well and consistently going deep but not cashing, or not to any great extent.
So far it's been non-stop poker and nothing else for five days. Went out after around six hours on Friday after losing a race (six Lutoners started, first one out was...Keith) and the same thing yesterday, although this time I made it through the dinner break and lasted another...two hands.
Only had 18,000 with 30secs left to dinner with the average at 53,000. Any two and they were going in.
UTG made it 4,100, in they went with 57, he called with AJ, flop came 5 5 10, all aboard, woo woo. Staggered they were, staggered. A couple of WTF comments and 'wow dude you sure like to gamble'. LOL. It was pleasing to do it against one of the new breed of OTT Hollywooders too.
First hand back was 99. Raise, 6,000, young guy next door all in for 30,000, call. He has A10, er well played, so on so on.
That knocked me down to around 12,000 and this was when the fun and games started. In they went with 9 10, folded round to the blinds.
BB asks how the dealer how much, dealer replies "12,300". He's not keen but reluctantly says "OK, I call". I turn my cards over. Now the small blind, a German guy I think, pipes up and says that he still has cards. These had been hidden behind his chips.
He stands up, looks at my cards, thinks to himself, 'hmm the BB didn't want to call' and goes all in for 50,000 odd. The big blind folds. Germany turns over KJ.
Now before the dealer does any more, I'm informed that, if I win the hand, I'll be getting a ten-minute penalty for exposing my cards. Roffle.
I miss. Germany punches the air. Nice. He was gone within another half an hour. Good.
Stil, alll that meant I was just in time for the $120 donkeyfest. Won the first hand, doubled up on the second hand, flopping top set (7's) v KQ (nice hand) and then...bubbled.
With three tables left, myself, Celtic and Rice'n'peas were all going well, but they both went around 15th, Celtic getting knocked out by a young French guy who went on to make himself look a right tit at the start of the final table.
First he put around 80,000 of his 120,000 chips in his pocket while moving seats. The rule is that these chips are then no longer in play but he was cut some slack and just fined one round of blinds and antes. That was fair enough imo and you'd think he'd have been happy.
But then everyone wanted to pay the bubble their entry fee back bar him. Cock. He changed his mind. Then everyone agreed to a five-minute break bar him. "Non, ten". Cock. He also 'whooped' a couple of times after winning big pots. 'Whooping' should incur an automatic ten-minute penalty.
One rule they are really tight on here at the moment is not talking about your hand heads up. I've pushed it to the limits a couple of times now but haven't yet been given a penalty. Whether I can make it through another five days without picking one up remains to be seen though.
On the subject of penalties I nearly got another guy one yesterday. Had been chatting to the bloke to my right about the WSOP final table and whether it was possible to get tickets. I've got a t-shirt I'm desperate to try out on TV.
Anyway, he knows Dennis Phillips, who'd been given a load of tickets. I asked any chance of finding out if he's got any left and he called him during the hand before it was due to be his BB.
He was still on the phone when the cards were dealt and the dealer, a jobsworth, called for the floor before telling the BB he'd broken the rule.
I said it was my fault he was on the phone and he let it go. He did. Otherwise BB would have got a penalty for doing me a favour. That can't be right.
PS, no tickets FFS.
PPS, three days in and no sign of a Celtic shirt. Backers of that particular 100-1 shot can go collect their winnings.

The Sicilian's Vegas diary for me

Celtic very unlucky yesterday, more moronic shove monkeys killing him. 103,000 at the dinner, which was double average, but then small blind shoved 40,000 with the blinds at 1000-2000, Celtic AK in the BB. Hard not to call imo. SB turns over 44 and, as usual, that kind of donkeyness gets rewarded.
Back to today's $500, on break, came to check out the Posh score and then realised the game was put back to Sunday. FFS.

LOL Cashaments imo.
Five Lutoners started yesterday's $340 and first out was...Keith. Desperate scenes, all in with KK v QQ on an AKQ flop, queen on the river. Next out was Jim McBride after three hours or so.
Myself, Mel and Rice'n'peas all got to the final 50 or so but they went before the money was reached. I went out 24th for a handsome return of $469. Marvellous.
I got knocked out by a 'whooper'. What a nob. All in on a 555 flop, me A9, him 10 10. 10 on the turn and he was out of his seat, fist pumping and giving it the full Dylan Bircheff. If only that other five had come on the river.
It was roller coaster stuff from early. Lost a 40,000 pot with the blinds at 100-200 against yet another Vegas A8 genius, all in on a  , him with  , me with  . Queens are a pain in the arse at the moment.
Two hands later I trebled up with  on a  flop, against  and  .
Then had KK two hands running, firstly doubling up someone with 66, then trebling up v A9 and AQ.
The most amazing thing happened on the table next door about an hour in. Three players all in on the flop, set over set over set. Bottom set then hit quads on the river. Fix imo.
Strongly fancy a big result for a Lutoner today, with Celtic making six of us playing the $540. Hooped-shirt boy was still going strong when I pulled the plug just after midnight last night. I really don't understand that kind of energy.
Bought a $150 five-day gym pass yesterday to help force myself back down there this morning. I must admit I don't find it as easy as in my regular gym back in carrot-cruncher territory, where watching the soft porn channel MTV Dance helps relieve the boredom but it has to be done. That weight has to go and there's no point even trying the S.Galloway/Snat/Tighty shakes gig, I know I couldn't do it.
Gym, final table and fillet mignon ftw.

[Watney's party pack]

Gym now, that Watney's party pack pack didn't create itself you know.

Get back to your shakes'n'water please