I’m a week away from taking a three-week LOA. In all of the working years of my life, this is my first LOA. I managed to speed through all of my vacation days for the year and it’s almost time for the yearly sojourn to the campground in N. Idaho. Hey-hey-hey! Happiness.

The plan, as I see it at this moment, make it through five more nights of work and then it’s kick back, relax, lay around, and do nothing more than play a little poker at Bellagio and on the internet, write, sift through a million miles of things I thought I would have done by now and limit myself to only doing what I feel is necessary…because I’ll be on HOLIDAYS! That’s the first week of the LOA – then I pick up that sweet girl, Kayanna, from the airport on the 6th and we load the trusty Toyota with survival gear for regions of the wild forests, lakes, and down home, damn glad to be here people. Goodbye desert on the 7th. While I’m anticipating…

My week at work went more like a session of playing $15-30 every night except Monday. I did deal a few hours on a few nights but mostly my butt was spent in the player’s chair. I had one losing session but won that back the following night.

I rarely lay open my playing thoughts and explain why I would or would not do something when I play – hey…it’s tough enough to beat the game – and there’s no need to give people a direct look into where I’m at when in my trying to beat them from the player’s seat. Yet…I found myself marveling at some of the play in these games. Where do they come from and how do they get here? An age old question in poker but let’s add, how do they stay in chips or find the money to keep coming back?

One night I played next to Pauline. At one point she told me, “I like to piss them off.” That was after she called with bottom pair all the way to the River and made two pair…it worked…he was pissed. God bless her little gambling heart. She plays more hands in a down than I do in a week. But I have to give her credit for at least making a move on the pot now and then. Some of these people played like they were waiting for a revelation from The Card Fairy before they would raise or bet. And no I’m not complaining, just marveling.

I played next to David another night. He told me that he thinks it’s all luck until you get into $30-60 and higher – then you might find some skill. He also said he’s never had a winning year of poker and he doesn’t believe people do – they just lie about it. Interesting to say the least. He’s got more heart than I do…if I never had a winning year I’d have bagged it long ago.

I saw Mike M. during the week and raced to give him a hug on his victorious 9th place finish at the WSOP Championship Event. Of course he really wouldn’t see it as a victory because he wanted to win all the checkers…and who could blame him. What a long hard, uphill battle. He said he’d just gotten too emotional and lost it (meaning the tournament) because of that but he would take the 1M and be happy with that. He was in Bobby’s Room off and on during the next few days but I don’t know if he played or not.

All in all the room was quiet. A nice break from my perspective, plus the fact I’m in the mood to play, but on the whole it was kind of spooky to see 10 to 11 games down at 7 p.m. and not pick them up during the night – especially after the last few months of total jamming.

Some of the reasons for ‘slow’: There’s a giant bad beat jackpot out at one of the casinos right now…all the casinos of that chain share the same jackpot…and lots of lower and mid-limit players are playing there, hoping for a piece of it. Plus it’s summer and everyone’s about hit the wall in tournament land.

Maybe someone will create a new energy drink to cure the never-ending, all encompassing, burn out fever that’s left after a big tournament. I’ll buy a case…just let me know when it’s on the market.

And in the meantime…visions of the LOA are running through my head.