a little late but my blog from denio Nevada

Next time, either come or just stop me...

Yesterday I made the gruelling ten hour drive out of Vegas to Denio, Nevada to head to the opal mines. The first hour or two of driving weren't that bad, but ten hours was a bit much.

Not really knowing the exact location of the motel I wa staying at posed something of a challenge, but with gps in hand I was feeling good about things. The only catch was that the gps thiugt I arrived at the destination twenty miles early. Normally this would not be a problem, but when it's past midnight with no cell reception on an 80 mile stretch of road with no lights...trust me, it gets a bit nerve wracking.

I finally got to the motel about one in the morning. They had left the door unlocked and the lights on so I would know which room was mine. Guess that says something about the part of the country I'm in.

I got up a little later than I had planned this morning. The drive out to the mines themselves was really nice. The drive to the actual mines are a bit sketchy with a small car going over rough unpaved terrain in a national wildlife preserve.

When I got here, I found out I would have to wait till noon to head out to the dig site, which means i'm going to be heading back to vegas two or three hours later than I anticipated.

I almosttjought about just leaving, but with the trouble it took me to get out here, there's no way I was just going to turn around and head back. The bigger thong is that I'm getting to do something my father really wanted to do. With the extremely limited time I have to dig, I may not find anything, but I'm hopeful that my dad will throw something into my bucket.

I'm not exactly lookin forward to the drive tonight, but at least the gps is taking me BACK to Vegas instead o to the middle of nowhere.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

2010 WSOP Recap

Well, this year's run at Event #3 of the World Series is done. I ended up busting 261st with pocket kings and someone else had aces. I was card dead for most of the time which made things really hard. All in all, I have no regrets about the way that I played, especially considering how short I was on chips.

I wanted to thank everyone for their support...old friends and new friends. You guys know who you are. A lot of your comments really helped when I was getting frustrated. I don't know how many times my phone buzzed when there were new comments on Facebook, and I smiled every time I read what you guys were saying. I know that my dad was watching from up above too and had a big part in this. Maybe he's the one that sent me the pocket aces that saved me from almost busting out of this tournament before the first break.

Now that the WSOP is behind me for now, I can concentrate on the next part of my trip checklist. Not sure if I'm going to head out tomorrow or the following day to the opal mines, but I'm definitely going out there. I'll take pics if I find anything.

Ok, that's it for now. I'm going to go and head out to go look for a diet coke and I need to grab another can of dip...

WSOP 2010

Sorry that I didn't post something up yesterday. I really am trying to keep this as a daily blog while on my trip, even if it's just something really short. I wasn't able to post anything from my phone and I was just too tired after getting back from the Rio.

Guess what...I made it through Day 1B of Event #3. I'm not sure how many people registered for yesterday's start, but I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 1700 or so. It was an exciting ride. I didn't think I was going to make it past the first 2 hours being down to a single 1k chip. When all is said and done, I was one of 207 people yesterday that are advancing to play later on this afternoon at the Rio.

I don't have any delusions of grandeur. I know that it wasn't my stellar play and really was a matter of getting lucky when I had to or having hands when someone else had misread me. I'm still really excited to make it to Day 2. The bubble is really close, and I think I might have a shot at cashing in my first World Series event.

Every year, there's an event photographer who takes pics of the tables as they are starting. The link is below. For entertainment value, look at the picture of me. See the guy I'm sitting next to? Ok, how do two people from opposite ends of the world, not only have the same shirt on, but what trick puts them at the same table and seated next to each other?

More to come...

http://www.printroom.com/ViewGallery.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=worldseriesofpoker&gallery_id=2092252

trip day 1 - May 29

Mobile Blogging from here.

Just landed a couple of hours ago. Picked up my car and decided to take my friend's advise and headed to the Rio to register for event #3 in this year's World Series.

Met a cool guy in line that said single table satellites were going off. I may need to go check that out later tonight. Getting the Day 1b start I decided to head downtown to see if my room was ready at the Nugget but no such luck.

I'm really glad that I have the day to relax and get ready for what's going to be a grueling day tomorrow. For those of you who've never played in a long tournament session, you should try it sometime. The mental preparedness you need is staggering. I Hope that I'm ready by morning.

Looking forward to seein one of my friends when he gets off work today. He's a new homeowner now and i'm really glad that he was able to find a place that he loves. He's been looking for a while but nothing that he was really interested in was available.

Sorry if things seem a bit random. I wasn't able to sleep well on the plane and i'm just waiting to find a hot shower and a bed for a few hours.

More to come...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

new beginnings?

Well, I haven't done a really good job keeping the other blog up, but maybe I'll have more luck with this one.

Just a little bit of time until the end of the work day and we all head on our way to the Memorial Day weekend. I'm a little more excited than that because I'll be getting on a plane for my annual trip to Vegas (I guess it's not really annual since I normally take more than one trip up a year).

This trip is going to be kind of special, though. Aside from playing in one of the WSOP events, I'm going to be heading to Northern Nevada to go dig for opals at one of the mines up there. It's something that my father had always wanted to do before passing away two years ago. Due to this and that, we were never able to schedule the trip. When my father got sick, I knew that it would be a trip that I would never have the opportunity to make with him.

2010 has been a year of change so far. The biggest being starting a new job. I also started a few new things that seem to be more productive than my previous habits. Maybe I'll even start writing a bit more and blog updates will become a regular occurence here.

In either event, I'm looking forward to this trip because I'll be heading out to do something that my father always wanted to do. I have dad's picture in my wallet where I always keep it, and I have a few of his things packed in my suitcase. I'm a little leery of the 10 hour drive from Vegas to the middle of nowhere, but I'm really looking forward to it too.

More to come.

-kk