Had bad luck in tournies during my November run. Focused on cash games for this trip that ran from June 16 - 24, 2012. Stayed downtown as I got a good rate at Golden Nugget and have stayed there before so knew if was a good deal. Check-in went well. Was very tempted to play tournies in the Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series but remembered how that last trip turned out so asked the floor for 2 stacks of redbirdsand told him "lock up seat 9 on that 1/2 game". Sat down with a table of regulars and two tourists. grinded for a couple of hours, stack going up and down, nothing significant. Then it happened. I got my favorite hand, 9T spades, popped it to $6 from middle position and got 2 callers, button and BB. Flop comes 8sJsAd. Bingo, I'm sitting on open ended straight flush draw. BB checks, I pop it to $12, button calls, BB folds. Turn comes Kh and I barrel for $35 and he calls. River comes 7s. There it is, the absolute nuts, straight flush. I figure the only money I'm getting here is a small suckbet for value so I roll five redbirds across the betting line and cover my mouth to send a false tell that I'm bluffing. My mark looks at me and then the pot, sighs and pushes his stack to the middle, I call (of course) and scoop it. I crack my knuckles, drag my pot and called to the floor "rack please!". Cashed out my first double up and then met my brother in the lobby as his flight had just come in. I took my bro up to the room so he could drop off his baggage and freshen up before a night of rounding. As soon as I opened the door I flung it open for 1.5 seconds and slammed it shut. We've practiced this drill before, no need to see the inside of the room. It is only useful when you need to catch a nap between sessions. within that 1.5 seconds, he had flung his bag into the room and was headed to the elevator.

Next stop Binion's. They don't cap your buy=in so I sat down with my take from the Nugget, about $400 Grinding a little while. Went set mining with 66 when flop comes A66 after a little preflop raising. Long story short, I stacked a shorty of his $100 buy in. He's steaming because he had rockets and i just shot those rockets out of his proverbial sky. He then buys a rack of redbirds. He's steaming, and muttering under his breath for about half an hour. He seems to have something in for me because he seems to get in every pot I'm in. He wants his redbirds back (by now you probably figured out I like to say "redbirds" when I refer to $5 chips). Then I get AA and get into a pot with only the villain. He calls my PF raise and it's off to the races. Flop is AA6. Bet, Call. Turn 6. Bet, raise, shove, call. Quad aces vs his quad 6s, what are the odds? Boy is he really steaming now. I crack my knuckles, drag my pot and called to the floor "rack please!".

The next few days we spent mainly in the Bellagio and Aria. With my irons hot, i jumped into the 2/5 action. At the Bellagio one afternoon, I sat with a table of young regs. I strategically wore some dockers, dress shirt, and a convention badge I found by the escalator. I wanted these sharks to smell fish when I sat down, and they did. I see them licking their lips and nodding approvingly at each other as I sat down with my rack of you-know-whats (redbirds - I did say I like to say "redbirds" when I refer to $5 chips, didn't I?). I played it up real good, asking the dealer how much it cost to call, if a straight beats a flush, you know the deal. I let the fellas push me off a few pots to spike up their aggression stats. Then I got 7 2 off suit and thought it was time to get tricky and make a play. My plan was to push it to the river even if I didn't hit. i raised to $45 preflop and 4 of them called. Surely they put me on AA or KK and hoped to outflop me. Flop comes 772. I bet $125, guy behind me calls, next guy squeezes for $250, next guy folds, i shove and both guys call. One has 22 the other has A7. I crack my knuckles, drag my pot and called to the floor "rack please!".

On the last full day I go to Aria. Long story short, chinese business man in the 2/5 game gets all in and I hero call with 4th pair and scoop a nice pot. I crack my knuckles, drag my pot and called to the floor "rack please!".

At the end of this trip, I find I have a little more than doubled my starting roll. Keys to success: avoiding the variance of the tourneys, and hitting hands like quads. OK, here's the thing, if you notice, the dates of this trip are in the future, the story you just read has yet to happen, but I will be the cards, see the cards, feel the cards, and it will happen, just as I've spelled it out here. Stay tuned for how tth story really ends after teh tip actually happens...