Not much to really report these days.  My trip to Vegas featured continuous frustration at the poker table.  I just could not get over the hump in any of the tournaments I entered.  Some were really excruciating and I’d rather just forget about them.

One thing I did notice in my Venetian and Wynn forays is that the bad players were loose/passive players rather than maniacs, who are plentiful in AC and Foxwoods.  As a result, I forced myself to play a low variance form of tournament poker.  This differs from the East Coast game I’ve developed, where I do a lot of restealing on the crazy guys.  I felt I made the transition well, but my results were nevertheless quite poor.  I’m not sure whether this East Coast/maniac, Vegas/loose-passive pattern is a significant trend or an anomaly, but there was a distinct difference in the general style of play in $500-$1000 buyin multitable tournaments on this trip.

One piece of good news:  Just as I was set to completely dismiss square gambling as a life-wasting exercise for morons, I went on a big tear playing craps and blackjack in Vegas.  As I’ve mentioned before, I typically dabble for a few hours on these trips in order to keep the comps coming.  On this particular trip I had a horseshoe wedged in my ass for the duration.  All four of my square gambling sessions were positive.  Included in that mix was a craps roll that lasted over two hours.  That is not an exaggeration or a typo.  A man held the dice for over two hours.  The players relieved the table of all the green, black and purple chips in play twice.  Yes, that fortress of chips that sits in front of the boxman disappeared not once, but twice.  It was an epic roll, and everyone at the table happily missed their dinner reservations.  In my craps heyday I would have made a fortune–the player to my right bought in for $900 and left with over $40,000–but I turned only a fairly modest profit.  Still, it salvaged my trip.

In other news, Janeen and I are planning our wedding.  In order to preserve my sanity, I’ve tried to maintain a safe distance from the trenches, where Janeen and her mother are getting down and dirty with the real decisions.  Still, I’ve been (willingly) dragged into the fray a few times already.  Picking out our registry was an especially metrosexual experience for a guy who wears the same sneakers every day and whose bathroom product collection consists of a bar of soap and toothpaste.  I will never care what my flatware looks like, and I’m thankful for that.

Anyway, I have quite a nice little weekend coming up.  While Janeen is off in Chicago getting our wedding shit in order (thanks Janeeeeeeen!), I’ll be in Atlantic City for the Caesar’s WSOP Circuit Events, with a pit stop in Philly to see my alma mater’s baskeball team (yayy!) take on my other alma mater (blah).  Cornell is NCAA-tournament bound for the first time since 1988, and I’m running a high grade school pride fever for the first time!  Cornell has ZERO history of proficiency at basketball and they stunk for the four years I was there.  The only major sport Cornell has excelled at in the past 20 years is hockey, and I don’t give a crap about hockey.  College hoops, on the other hand, is one of my favorites.  I’m rather excited, to say the least.  Here is some footage of the final moments of the NCAA-clinching game and the postgame net cutting.  Go Big Red!  We’re dancing baby!