Welcome Party

Wednesday night arrived quickly and the excitment in our camp built as we looked forward to meeting with the rest of the team. When we arrived in the conference room to pick up our PR goodies the place was filled with players from all around the globe laughing and joking with each other in a plethora of different languages.

First up was a photo shoot with all the players, which took a lot less time than it could have done considering the single photographer was dealing with 70 jetlagged poker players. After that the fun began with a buffet being laid on and the first entertainment of the night was in the form of two belly dancers (that's if you don't count Kristian's (PR VIP manager) welcoming speech).

Free food and a free bar was laid on, and the majority of the players didn't need asked twice to leave their seats. My only grumble was that the bar was ill equipped - i mean there were no mint leaves so there were no mojitos to be had!

Marilyn Monroe and Elvis made special appearances and there was an artist on hand for caricatures and even a palm reader - although she claimed i wasn't a gambler, so after that i was a little unsure to believe a word she said!

A few of us managed to keep the jetlag at bay and made it to an in house bar, where instead of drinking and dancing i managed to become in a heated debate with David from PR over how to manage my finances in and out of poker. As i told him today, i was definitely right, even though i have no clue what i was saying.

The fact that i can't remember the conversation, should probably show why playing poker when the bar closed was not a good idea, but decisions like that are far easier to make when sober. I hit the cash tables and an hour later i had doubled my buy in and even at that point i couldn't recall how i had done it. Definitely -ev, but who cares - i won!

Unfortunately all that drinking put paid to the Hoover Damn trip for me the next day, but who really wants to see a big block of concrete anyway, although apparantly they claim that the engineering is similar to that of the pyramids in Egypt.... i think an American may have made that one up!

Ok, next entry I'll include some more poker chat, as mundane as it is, but I've had a few good cash hands in the last week - a stark contrast to my tournament form!