After my disappointment at the Venetian $150 game, i took the rest of the night off and Samantha and me went for a meal instead. The next day, we decided to go downtown Vegas to play the 10am Binions $50 game. We could have played a much better game elsewhere, but as all poker players know, this is the home of poker and the WSOP (until a few years ago), so we thought it necessary.

As for the game, I doubled-up in the very first hand with 7d8d vs JJ after I hit trip 7s - which was nice. Samantha was the chip leader in the competition all the way through to the final after hitting 2 full houses in consecutive hands with KK and QQ!

Talking about KK (aaagggghhhhh)…I was doing OK for chips, but again, on the final 2 tables, was card-dead (a familiar story at the moment). However, I did finally get a nice hand (KK) with 15 players left, only for the dealer to MUCK MY HAND by mistake. I would of course won the hand also, which made me not so happy at all.

We both reached the final, me with about 4k and Samantha with about 14k, but I was out first and Sam out 2nd! The blind levels are very ropey to be honest, not that I am using it as an excuse, and so normal play isn’t really allowed in this style of low-end competition.

However, Samantha and I can both say that we have played on the final table at Binions - something that not many people get to do in their life - and what a pleasure it was to have sat in the seat that Chris Moneymaker won his WSOP bracelet in, even if it was in probably the worst poker competition in Vegas.