I went to Vegas with the Duke and survived!!!

Ok, as I've donked out of all the tournies again, and as Dukes trip report seems so long coming, here's my take on our week in Vegas.

Arrived on the Friday after the usual 10 hour flight from Gatwick, cab to the Imperial Palace, then after checking in straight up to Planet Hollywood to meet Duke and Dan350 as agreed. Head to poker room, mtt is on final table and some drunk with a craig stadler moustache is still sat at the table. Blimey, Dukes on a roll as he agrees to a 9 way chop mainly so that he can brag that he won the tourney!! After a few celebration beers we head down to Treasure Island for the 7pm headhunter. Unfortunately for us we arrive at about 5.30. So we have an hour plus to kill. "BAR" orders Duke so we choose a bar where the waitress was rather well endowed. A couple sat at the bar next to us were spotted downing a shot of some type. Duke points at the drinks and says "three of those" to his new best friend behind the bar. The rule of course was it had to go down in one. I've no idea what it was but it tasted awful.
Warming up, Duke announces "we need an Irish flag". No idea what he's on about, he proceeds to tell the barmaid to get three shot glasses and a spoon. One part creme de menth, one part baileys and one part something else. Apparently it should look like the colours of the Irish flag but it didn't have time to settle before it had gone down the hatch. Our patriotic sides emerged as Dan concoted a Welsh flag followed by the Bigfella English flag. Suddenly it five to seven and we stagger down to the poker room. A few hours later i find myself on the final table with two bounties secured. The combination of the flight, lack of sleep and drinking the flags of the united nations ensured i fell asleep at the final table and not surprisingly bubbled! Oh well, back to the bar to end the night.

The next few days were a blur of poker and drinking. I managed a good session on the cash tables when Duke was sat next to an even drunker irishman who would never fold a hand after coming into a pot (and he still managed to felt the Duke lol). Away from poker, we tended to settle at the three card poker table and one night will go down in my memory as a classic. Arriving at about 10pm, Duke had his drinking head on to the extent where the cocktail waitress said to me she may as well set up an IV drip of vodka and red bull straight into the vein! Somehow we managed to sit there until about 5 in the morning and both came away almost $1,000 up. We were convinced it must be a game of skill, and have perfected the art of betting blind and hitting trips. The next day was a bit quiter all round!

We watched the Calzaghe fight in a local bar and the Americans were rather quiet after the first round. They do make me laugh, the number of times people asked Dan where he came from and on hearing "Wales" nearly everyone asked "is that near Great Britain??". Also, sat at a poker table I listened to a conversation about the recently finished wsop main event. "Where does the winner come from?" asked seat two. "Texas" came the reply from down the table and they proceeded to say how many good players come out of that fine state. I politely pointed out Denmark is not in Texas but I'm not sure if they knew where Denmark was (probably near Great Britain?).

I managed to take down the $150 deepstack at Harrahs near the end which ensured I came back in profit. When 3 handed, I sucked out on the river against an old boy (wow, if i'm calling him an old boy he must be old) which led to him announcing "I'm taking you out, there's no way I'm doing a deal i'm gonna win this". Ten minutes later it's just the two ofus left and after going all in for three consecutive hands and watching him fold each time, i now have 80% of the chips. There was a big gap between first and second ($2100 v $950), so after he suggest a deal (with an apology for his steaming earlier) i say i'll take $1900 and he can have the rest. Generous or what?

All in all a great fun trip and many more stories to tell - like when a dealer thought Dan was Dukes son and I was grandad!!! Wow , a week in Vegas really has aged me... I need a holiday to recover!!