Day Two

We had finally made it. A bedroom. Who knew a hotel room could feel this good. Yet, something was wrong with the room. Maybe it was the fact there was only one queen bed and five of us. Maybe it was the plaster board windows with the ongoing blinking of neon outside. It could have been the fact that the room hadn't been refurnished since the World Series of Poker had been started thirty-five years before. It was probably a combination of all of this along with five guys who were cranky and needed some serious sleep. We ordered a rollaway and slept two on the bed, one on the rollaway and two on an air mattress. We had to shift the bed mattress slightly over the air mattress to fit the rollaway.
The feeling of noon woke us and we were ready to begin a full day in Las Vegas (Days don't begin until noon in Las Vegas anyway). We decided that although having a room for $25 a night in the Horseshoe Casino would be super, it was probably best to just go to our hotel room that I had secured through the Hilton employee discount. It would be more expensive, by about two dollars a person, but it was worth it. Chad and I went to the registration desk to pay the bill and we were greeted by a wonderful surprise.
The young man asked, "Was this a comped room?"
Chad answered, "Yeah." This wasn't a lie. It was comped at half price. We didn't know the kid was going to give it to us for free.
"Well, then you are done. Let me validate your parking," he said.
Our first night in Vegas was comped. How excellent was that. You hear stories about people getting comped rooms, but you never expect to get one in your lifetime.
The day was mostly uneventful, however we did play in a $60 tournament that night. The tournament was at a casino called Sam's Town. It is a place that probably was in the middle of nowhere about twenty years ago. It has a casino, hotel, restaurant, lounge and bowling alley. (By the way, Harrah's recently purchased Horseshoe Casino and in Shreveport, Harrah's has moved to the Horseshoe and Sam's Town is now where they used to be.)
All five of us entered the tournament. We ended up with about 48 people in the game. Chad was the first to go out. He didn't even make it to the big blind. Bart was next. Like the whole trip, no one really knows how he did during the game. He just shows up and says how much money he either has won or lost. Clint was looking the best out of all of us at the break. He might have even been close to being chip leader. However, in No-limit Texas Hold'em, things can change rather quickly. In about three hands, Clint went from a lot of money to not much money. He was third to go out of our group.
I had a good chip lead at my table and the guy on my right went all in. It was only another $200 to call (I had probably $5,000). I was pot committed and called. I had 4-5 off suit. He had pocket 9's. He had this one in the bag. The flop came with 7-4-4. The odds of him losing were not great and I actually felt bad for the guy when nothing else came for him. I wasn't supposed to win and it wouldn't have hurt me financially. Yet, luck plays a factor in this game and it was not on his side.
The field was eventually dwindled to ten. We moved to the final table and drew for seats again. James and I were one seat away from each other. James was on the short stack the whole time we were at the final table.
The pay structure looked like this: 1st-$1,000; 2nd-$750; 3rd-$380; 4th-$220; 5th-$100.
Before we started the final table, an older woman, who had a twin at the table with us, asked if we would like to chop it so that everyone got $100. Seeing that I was the chip leader at the table, I was very against this. However, I didn't want to say anything because I was new to all this and didn't know if it was common to chop it like that. James approved the deal very quickly because he was worried he wasn't going to place in the money. After a vote, we decided not to chop it thanks to the guy who was second in chips. He didn't want to and I thanked him for it. The old hag's sister then asked if we could change it to where everyone got at least $50. I was okay with that. They changed the pay structure to resemble this: 1st-$900; 2nd-$700; 3rd-$350; 4th-$170; 5th-$100; 6th-10th-$50.
We began to play some more cards. I was on fire. I was hitting everything. Making good calls. Laying down monster hands. It was wonderful. Player by player, James and I were moving up the ranks. However, James was clinging by just a few chips. He ended up lasting until 5th place. This left me with an older gentleman and the abominable twins. We took a five minute break and I was sweating with anxiety. I was so nervous, I was uncontrollably shaking. When we sat back down, the double mint twins asked if I wanted to chop it a final time.
"This is the last chance," she naggingly said.
"I'm sorry but I don't want to," I replied with frustration. It wasn't fair to make me the scapegoat for not chopping it. I wanted to know how good I was. After about ten minutes I started to wish I had chopped it. I became low on chips from a few bad calls.
I won a lot of them back though in a big hand that knocked out one of the sisters. I had pocket J's. She had 9-10 off suit. I called her all-in bet after the flop, which was Q-4-J. I had trip J's and she was on a straight draw. The turn was a King. She had her straight. I needed a miracle card. The river flipped over and it was a Queen. I had hit a full house. Needless to say, the ice maiden with frosty white hair was not happy. She got up and whispered something to her sister. I think she told her to tear me apart.
It came down to me and her. I was sweating profusely. My shaking had gotten worse by this point. The final hand came quickly after we began heads-up play. Lady luck went all-in and started the stare down. I looked at my cards and saw an A-8 off suit. Not a hand I want to call for all my chips. I asked her to count it down. I would be left with very little. I debated in my mind for what seemed like an eternity. I finally said to myself, "You've made it this far. You have proven that you are good. Call."
I moved my chips in and called her bet. She flipped over Q-9 of clubs. The flop gave me an 8 and nothing else came on the turn or river. I had won my first tournament ever. I was on a high. I gave Clint, Chad and Bart $100 each (we had made a deal that if anyone won the tournament, the others got $100) and I tipped the dealer $60.
We were living large. I had won $900 and we decided to celebrate at Bellagio. While there, we saw Jason Alexander (George on Seinfeld). He was being very friendly with all the fans and generally seemed to care about what they were saying. The day had been good and I was going to enjoy the greatest sleep of my life.