Out of nowhere, I go into drop dead tired, and yes, it could be the over 50 thingy but as we change over the years, it’s damn hard to tell if it’s a sign of aging, something is wrong, or are all these aches and pains and tired as hell are anormal thing that I should expect to happen? Well I don’t expect it to happen. Kee-rist! Maybe it’s just too much of everything stacking up at times and I want to escape by disappearing into the dark, lazy world of sleep. But then again cholesterol lowering medication can do all kinds of weird things to ones body…besides lowering cholesterol. I’d gladly give up the Vytorin for wine. *sob*But I’m just kicking along on a get healthy kick. My Doc says I can have a glass or two of wine a day. Only problem is that when I start lifting the stemmed glass to my lips, one or two glasses just lead to another one or two or three. So I quit! I have too much to do and too much to experience to do it in an unhealthy body. *water glasses clink*

*****

Bellagio beckons five nights a week. I escape every chance I get. I’ve dealt a few downs and most of them are interesting. My half hour of dealing on Monday night consisted of a $10-20 NLH game. There were three walkers when I sat down. All of them came back at some point during my down. The 7s returned to a Missed Blind and No Player Button. He was one out of the blind and he threw in two $20 chips and all of his buttons. I loudly announced, “Live $40!”

Some rooms, of which we are one, allow a person to Straddle and be dealt in rather than waiting a hand for the blind. And they aren’t forced to post both blinds plus the straddle.

Everyone folded to the 2s, he raised it to $80. Everyone folded to the straddle. He wanted $10 in change. OMG! Without a lot of fuss, the 2s told me to give him back $10, I did, tne 7s folded. He then asked the player next to him how he was supposed to get back in the game if he didn’t put out both of his blinds. Yikes! I apologized to him for not understanding what he was doing and explained that I thought he was putting a straddle on the blind and that I had announced it. He said it was ok and threw me the $10 chip I’d given him for change, “This is for you.”

Double ‘0-0’ WOW!

One hand that would have made me think before I put all of my chips in the pot was one that involved Walter, 1s, and the 3s, a stranger. There was a must move game but it appeared that these players had been playing with each other for quite some time and playing an hour with Walter should give everyone the message that he doesn’t mix it up much. He’s got a hand or he isn’t in the pot. The 3s flopped Kings up. Walter turned bigger Kings up. All the money went in on the River, when the 3s bet $1,000 and Walter raised him all-in. The 3s left a little over $2,300 in that pot and left us for the night. Ouch!

One hand in the WPT/Bellagio Festa al Lago event that could have ended in major suck-out. *This was my half hour down for the entire night* There were four name brand players at the table, Billy Baxter, Michael *The Grinder* Mizrachi, Scott Fischman, and Bob Stupak. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for live spots, although The Grinder can be pretty live at times, he’s got a lot of play in his game and can be very dangerous.

The table was nine handed and the 5s was on a little siz, he didn’t have to show down on three raises he made and he managed to scoop a few blinds and calls in some of the pots. The antes were $300 – blinds at 1 & 2K. He sort of picked up the shakes on one hand when he raised all-in. He started the raise to 7K and got raised by the 8s (unknown to me) to $20K. The 5s went all-in for another $21K and change. The 8s called – almost without thinking about it. The 5s turned up Q-Q, the 8s turned up Presto – 5-5. The Flop brought a Queen, the Turn brought a five…yikes…little throat clutcher here…a six on the River.

I have played on shift several times also…that new tip compliance thingy hasn’t been signed into Bellagio’s IRS pact yet. I should restate that we haven’t had it presented to us to sign. If we don’t agree to it, we probably won’t have a job or the IRS will plague us every year at tax time with a major audit. Some of thoseplaying on shift games and handsare probably a lot more interesting to me than to the rest of the world. One hand I feel I played incredibly well, *pats self on back* simply because I made maximum value on it and I presented my whole structural plan with a giant smile as I carried on a conversation with my opponent. And it didn’t hurt a thing that we both made a hand, with the same board cards.

I raised pre-flop with A-J, my opponent held Q-J. The Flop was J-J-3. He checked. I laughingly asked, “If I bet right out, you won’t believe I have a jack, will you?”

He agreed. I bet. He check raised me with, “If I raise, you won’t believe I have a jack, will you?”

I kept laughing, and watching him watch me, “No I won’t,” and I raised again.

He called.

The Turn brought a low card. He bet. I raised. He raised. I raised. He called. The only time he checked to me was on the River when a 5 came, and of course, he called. He picked up his chips and left the game. Umnhhh!!! I figure he put me on Kings or Aces. Sometimes the best way to drag extra chips out of someone is to keep a steady flow of conversation going while you’re extracting.

Tonight, after dealing my one down, I came home and played $3-6H on AbsolutePoker – winner, winner, chicken dinner! Handle ‘PokerWorks’ if any of you want to work at extracting my chips from my stack late night.