New Orleans Recap

I should be nearly arriving back home right now but instead I'm stuck in the New Orleans airport as my flight out got canceled, the earliest flight I could get was at 620 am, pretty awesome. I actually called NWA while we were all in line waiting to talk to someone here in new orleans about getting a new flight and I was one of the lucky ones apparently as some people are going to be stuck much longer. The first person I was on the phone with actually said she couldn't get me out til Thursday night, then I called back and they got me out early Wednesday morning. So I still have to wait in this line so I can get setup for a hotel, I'm the last one and she has me all setup tells me where to go gives me some food vouchers and I ask her if this is everything and she says yes, I actually asked her twice as I had nothing about the hotel, so I assumed she called over there and put my name down as she was on the phone for part of it. I go over to the hotel and find out they were supposed to give me a voucher or I'd have to pay $140 for the night, so the guy doing the shuttles had just arrived with someone else who had their shuttle and he said he'd take me back over there and get it. We go inside and everyone is gone, no NWA people in the kiosks anywhere. This guy gets on a phone and gets in contact with someone and they say everyone has left as there is no flights out and there is no way for me to get a voucher tonight, so here I am in the terminal waiting for my flight that is 11 hours away. This airport is the total suck, all the bars/restaurants close down at 6 pm while one stays open til 8, there are no outgoing flights in the evening, place is dead.

So back to last week, got in on Wednesday and just walked around the french quarter and ate at a place called Cajun Cabin which was pretty good. I wasn't expecting to see so many strip clubs along bourbon street and a few sex shops too. The next day I had to play the $1k which I got some bad news right when I sat down and got my ipod out as the state of Louisiana doesn't allow ipods or any electronic devices in the tourney area since its a temp gaming area, so now this was going to be pretty boring. We started with 2500 in chips and I was down to around 2k when I ran AK into AA preflop. We headed to the aquarium and IMAX which was just a minute away from the hotel, we were going to watch "Hurricane on the Bayou" and managed to see everything the aquarium had to offer right in time to make it to the movie. I went to the concessions and to my surprise they were selling beer and mixed drinks. The movie was pretty interesting as it told about the hurricane and a past major hurrican as well and why this one was so much worse. It was interesting to find out later as I went to the trustworthy Wikipedia to get some more info on the movie and it said that it was originally a "What If" scenario if the big hurricane hit and then later was turned into a before and after since Katrina did hit. Lindsay actually got sick at the aquarium and even threw up so we just stayed in that night.

The next day we ate at Oceana Grill for lunch and then walked down bourbon st where we ran into the bar selling "Hand Grenades" advertised as the strongest drink in new orleans. The exact recipe is a trade secret but it is said to contain 1 part grain alcohol, 1 part rum, one part melon liquor, one part vodka, and one part gin. You could get it frozen or on the rocks and it was surprisingly very good.

One managed to knock Lindsay on her ass and we were back in the room by 6 pm that night and she was passed out, I started watching the reds game and fell asleep in the 2nd inning and didnt wake back up til the 9th and we didn't get back out that night. We are pretty lazy I guess. Saturday I once again played a $1k and never really got much going, I did suck out on Sabyl Cohen who was the woman who knocked me out in the 2006 main event where I basically bubbled. I won KT vs her AK all in preflop and the board came AKxQJ making it even sicker. That allowed me to waste another 2 hours and then bust out right before dinner. We headed to Acme Oyster bar that night we got there pretty early right around 6 and we had no wait. By the time we left there was a 40 person line, we then headed to PatOBriens which has a piano bar and went right in there and got a good seat. They also sell a famous drink called a hurricane which is pretty strong but pretty good just like the hand grenade. We stayed there for a few hours to which at that time there was a huge line to get in. It actually started out as 2 women players as they had dueling pianos, I think every hour it was 2 new ones came in, had a total of 4 rotating I think. We requested Sweet Caroline which was a very good rendition, though it seemed like lindsay and I were the only ones singing along, she spun that right into Piano Man and even broke out the harmonica so that was pretty awesome as that is my favorite song. Fun times.

Sunday we were lazy all night then went down to a different part of the french quarter which we hadn't been yet and looked around and ate. Alligator sucks, it is too chewy.

Monday was the $5k and things started out pretty good for me. I flopped a set out of the bb with 66 on a TT6 board with flush draw against a raise and a caller and led out and got 2 callers. I bet the turn again and got 2 callers, then bet the river and got a caller and went from 10k to 16k on that hand. I built up nicely without much trouble but then lost a small flip AK to TT to take me back around 16. I built that up to mid 20s and got it in with nut flush draw vs top pair and got there vs a short stack to get to 32 or so and I was feeling good at that point as avg was only around 16. Not too much happened after that until I switched tables a couple times and picked up A9o in mp at the 200/400 level, I made it 1025 and an old man who didn't see my raise puts in 1500 and announces 1500, so now he has to raise to which he raises the min to 1650, I then put in 4500 and he eventually folds. A few hands later I pick up QQ and make it 1400(300/600), I get 2 callers. Flop 442 with 2 clubs which looks about perfect to me, I bet 3000 and get 2 callers. Turn 7, I bet 7000 and the 2nd guy puts his whole stack in which was just 8700 and he had 22 for just quads. That put me back to around 16k. I didn't get much going after that for a while just stealing chips when I could as I got moved to a pretty good table. Near the end of the 300/600 level I picked up AQs in the bb with a 15k stack, utg made it 2k to go and I just called. Flop Q77, I checkcall a 2k bet, turn Q, I check, he checks. River 2 and I instashove, he tanks and calls with A7, so that put me back over 30k. I once again get moved and go sick card dead and earned one pot where I raised a limper with 86o, then with about 10 mins left in the night I pick up TT in the bb. A somewhat tight guy raises in mp with a 17k stack and I decide to rrse and put in 8k, he shoves and I call and he has AK. Flop J62 Turn King, bleh, that dropped me down to 11k or so instead of being close to 50k which would have been top 20 with 75 left. I ended the day with 11k making me 65/69 with the avg stack being close to 40k.

Day 2, I picked up a couple pots in the first orbit by shoving to get me to 17k when a guy in mp raised to 3500(600/1200), and I shoved my 17k in with 88, he tanked for a bit and I thought he was going to fold and was hoping he had a small pair but eventually called with KJo and the J ball came right on the flop ending my second day run. That flip would have put me right back to average, bla. Maybe I can run better in Vegas next month.