All,

Shares Magazine journalist Geoff Ho is off to the bright lights of Las Vegas next week to chance his arm on the card tables out there.

Geoff is an avid poker player and plays in regular tournaments, and now the action in Vegas is beckoning for him.

MoneyAM Poker Room has sponsored him to see how well he can do, and Geoff will be posting regularly on this thread to keep you all informed of the highs and the lows of Las Vegas life.

Will Geoff make his fortune and be sunning himself in the tropics after his week in the US? Or will he return down at heel?

Will he sink? Or will he swim?

Find out with Geoffs diary on this thread starting next week.

Viva Las Vegas!!

I think as a fan of the Salford red sox, he should feel at home being a Man Utd fan that far from old trafford. ;-)

DocProc,

It is supposed to be a fun diary piece from Geoff - he is actually on annual holiday, and we asked him to take time out from his own holiday to post a few light hearted comments on his trials and tribulations in Vegas, for which we have sponsored him(beer money).

Sounds a lot like me when I was his age.

I am willing to do a swop and rerun it :)

Ian

And here's me thinking it's an 'all-expenses paid by MoneyAM' trip to Las Vegas.

Am I daft or what?

:-)

Lost 10p today on one of those games where you try to get the 2p coins to fall over the edge. Things went from bad to worse when my crane picked up the teddy bear and then dropped it. Decided to retire for the day.

Kayak,LOL :-)

Kayak you can hedge against that ,a hard shove should get the 2p's flowing out ,,then move away swiftly when the alarm goes off and let those teenagers take the blame.

Geoff,

Trust you do NOT try to play the mother of all hands [in-joke from previous Shares staff poker game]. The Yanks won't be as forgiving as we were. Next Wednesday I expect my 500 back or you'll be ramping Arsenal for the next ten years.

Shares ed

Doc, I made the same mistake in thinking he was being sponsored.

Now we know it's a holiday it's something different! Good luck kid and keep us posted.

No footy tonight so he should do OK.



Let's watch ths space, eh?

Sponsorship doesn't mean 100% of everything. So obviously, if Moneyam are paying his beer money he's going to drink a lot of beer! Makes sense to me.

I think some people should lighten up !!

The United comments are tongue in cheek i would guess so take them in the mood they are expressed .

The only thing i would question is playing slots and video poker when there is real game waiting to be played .
Better to lose at the table than drop money pushing buttons when you know it is stacked against you .

Jerry - the "mother of all poker hands" (aces over kings, full house) actually helped me come third in a tournament at Luxor today. I started the tournament, which was $35 a head, badly, as nothing came my way and my stack was slowly being eaten away by the blinds. Fortunately, the mother of all hands came up and I soon trebled my stack and knocked out a really obnoxious Texan in the process.
After that it was a regal procession to the final table, where I eventually came unstuck pushing hard with a straight to the king. My opponent had the ace and won it when he got the queen on the river. Still I managed third and made $400 in the process.
Feeling flush with success, I decided to head on down to Caesar's Palace and play no-limit hold 'em. That was not such a smart move. I played $300 no limit for over four hours and all I had to show for it was a piddly $20 profit. Nothing came my way and like this morning, my stack was just being chipped away by the blinds and antes. I got lucky when I managed to flop three tens, which was the start of my come back. I eventually got my money back when my prayers for a heart flush draw came true and the 8, 4 and king made my ace high flush. I decided to stop playing after getting my money back - after all, I started playing poker at 8am and played for nearly 12 hours.
Having spent four days doing nothing but gambling, I'm going to take the day off tomorrow and do a bit of sight seeing, present shopping (for that Arsenal comment Jerry I'm bringing NOTHING back for the office!), etc.
My next forray will be on Saturday in the morning after I've watched Man Utd versus Bolton (on at 6 am in Vegas), which will see me try my luck in one of the daily tournaments at Binion's Horseshoe Casino, where they hold the world series of poker.

Geoff

Ay, you've got some stamina, mate!

Are you still playing Geoff? In case you didn't see United won again.

Sorry for the delay folks. A lot of things have happened in Las Vegas and unfortunately, fate has not been kind to some of my friends here.
Despite my desire to not do any gambling on Friday, things did not go according to plan. I went to see Rent on Friday at Paris and it was the WORST excuse of a musical I've ever seen. No plot, no fun, average music sums up Rent and me and my friends Adam and Fiona walked out at the interval.
Feeling very annoyed at having forked over $70 for a ticket for that travesty of a show, I decided to play $50 no limit hold'em at Paris. I really should not have played - your game goes to pieces if you are a) drunk, b) tired or c) angry. I was most definately c after watching Rent and so it came as no surprise that Paris was unkind to me. Nothing went right at what is a very nice, welcoming poker room. When I threw away garbage like 6 4 off suit, those cards would inevitably form things like straights, full houses, etc thanks to the flop and turn out to be the best hand. When I bet heavily with things like pocket aces, somebody would win with three 9s. That was very annoying.
Then came the ultimate distraction - a simply stunning girl (she couldn't have been more than 23) sat down at our table and I have to say it was very hard to ignore her perfectly shaped assets, which were packaged in a very skimpy outfit. She cleaned up. I did not play a hand against her but the men who did paid attention to her instead of their game. Unsurprisingly, she won a stack of money byt not one of the guys on my table complained. There were all trying to get her number.
Nothing was going my way so after an hour I decided to leave with a $35 loss. To compound my misery I won and then lost $100 on the blackjack.
Saturday was a different story. It started with me watching Bolton vs Man Utd on pay per view at 6am at my friend Adam's house. Once the game finished, it was back to the Casinos. I came fifth in a $50 a head no-limit hold'em tournament at the Excalibur which netted me $200. Things just kept going my way. I'd have solid starting hands - at the very minimum I start with ace-10 and even if the flop held nothing for me, people were betting so weakly that I could afford to see the turn and river cards, which for some reason, all seemed to go my way. I ended up beating one guy with four 6s thanks to good turn and river cards! Eventually, my luck ran out when I went all in with a pair of jacks only to be confronted by a pair of queens.
At that point I met up with a few friends from London and New York and we started playing $50 limit hold'em. I made $340 thanks to my tight play and habit of only betting on the strongest hands. I cleaned out a guy called Tim, who is on the coaching staff of the Kansas City Chiefs american football team. He seemed to think that betting big on the blind would scare me off. It didn't because I had pocket aces and ace, five, nine came up on the board. Tim went all in (he was down to his last $20) and had a pair of kings. Nothing came up to help him and I took the last of his money. This carried on in a similar fashion with a number of other victims. NEVER in my life have I seen so many weak poker players in one place. These guys play anything, be it low cards off suit, rubbish like two 3s or 6 and 7 suited.
After that we went drinking in the bars and clubs around the strip and at about 1am I got a phone call from Adam telling me he and Fiona - my hosts in Vegas and long-time friends - were having marital difficulties. Rather than go back to their house and interupt their arguments, I spent $250 on a hotel room. I spent most of Sunday in the bar by Excalbur's pool with my mates sunning myself. Apart from taking advantage of the excellent weather, I gather that my absence has lead to my friends having very serious, but necessary discussions.
I've only just arrived back at Adam's following a $90 cab ride (my friends live very, very far away from the strip) and the upshot is that a fair chunk of my poker profits from Saturday have been eroded.
In summary I'd say this - Vegas is a fun place to visit, but the slot machines and video poker will kill you. The casinos know this and do all they can to make sure you stay regardless, hence the free drinks and snacks. In fact, had I had the common sense to ignore the slots and video poker, I'd comfortably have enough to have paid for the flights out here and most of the drinking I've done. This hard won wisdom will never be forgotten.
I'm calling it quits now and I'm heading back to LA tomorrow. The fact is that I still have money and I'd like to do something other than gamble and watch two dear friends rip each other to shreds. As much as I'd like to say something, common sense says never get in the way of a fighting couple. Also, I'm looking forward to going back home and seeing my girlfriend.

Geoff

$250 for a room in the excalibur????????

Casino rate there is about $80 for a tower room. It's one of the cheapest hotels on the strip.

Wine, Women and Song - looks like you've had trouble with all three!

Thanks for the narrative - and yes, your friends must live a long way from the strip of it's a $90 ride! The lady poker player sounds as if she knows how to win... distraction is the name of the game.

Can I go Moneyam? :-)
Drinking competion in Vegas, sounds good