We were blessed with Free Wireless at Las Vegas airport so we weren’t bored at all between checking out of the hotel and our 3:45pm flight. On the flight from Australia to LAX on the way Hui and I had been wishing we had a pair of noise cancelling headphones. Sure enough at the airport Bose had a booth set up and we both bought a pair (pictured below). They were pretty expensive, but I think they will be worth it. Especially since I’m going to be in desperate need of sleep when we board the flight to Sydney.

The short flight between the LV and LA was once again really bumpy and uncomfortable. We had a 5 hour lay over here until our flight leaves later tonight. We have all managed to log onto the wireless so once again the time will fly. I’ve played a little bit of poker across the day despite being on the go. This laptop is on its last legs, the wireless card has been giving me trouble the entire trip and today as the same. I’m certainly looking forward to getting home on a stable connection, with a great monitor and a good ergonomic setup.

It already feels like it has been a long day and I still have a long ways to go. Hui has pretty good, when we get to Sydney he can go straight home. Rohan and I on the other hand have a little more travel to do heading back to Melbourne and Canberra. I think Hui is going to regret wearing t-shirt, shorts and thongs when he walks out of the airport in Sydney. I’ll probably post a summary blog when I get home, but this will be the last entry while in the US, so thanks to everyone for reading and taking interest. I have another US trip on the cards later this year or early next year.

Rohan had badgering me for the whole trip that we wanted to have a few drinks one night. Last night I finally gave in a decided that it was time for a final night blow out. Given that I don’t really drink it was pretty easy to get intoxicated in short time… especially when had a large margarita that was so strong it was like drinking straight petrol. Rohan pansied out of drinking his so I ended up getting a bit excitable all on my own. I ended up getting to sleep about 4am and only had about four hours sleep, but feel pretty decent all things considered.

Well PokerStars had awesome timing with this one, but I’ll take a double VPP promo over nothing, that is for sure! For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about the double VPP promo essentially means that players will receive twice as much bonus or rakeback as they usually would.

The only downside to the promotion is that all the regular grinders flock to the tables, playing as many as they can at once and the fish become a lot more sparse. This tightening up for the games mean to less playing profits and also a slightly lower base points earn rate (as points are based on pot size).

I’ll be trying to get in as many hands as I possibly can before we leave the Vegas on Thursday. I’ll be missing a day while flying back to Australia, but hopefully I can get some rest on the plane and hit the tables when I get home.

We’d been trying to decide what Las Vegas show we should go and see and not getting anywhere. When we moved to the MGM we saw that David Copperfield was performing twice every night so we elected to go and see him. So tonight we filed into the Hollywood Theatre inside the MGM Grand and witnessed a Copperfield show that lasted about an hour.

There were about 500 people in the theater and everyone had a table and a pretty close view. We actually had a chance for audience participation when a rubber frisbee thing that he throws out randomly to select people landed at Hui’s feet. He was too pansy to go up there and the opportunity got passed to someone else.

The most impressive illusion he performed was probably making a Lincoln Convertible appear on stage. It was an entertaining show, something different that is for sure, but I can’t say I was completely dazzled. I was just left a tincy bit curious as to how he did some things. Since we got back we’ve been reading up a little on Google, haven’t found any concrete answers yet.

Going by my achievement of goals July was an epic fail, but really it was one of my more enjoyable months for a long long time and at the end of the day that is what matters. That said, July will see me return home and I aim to get a lot done. I plan to build on what I have learned and developed while I’ve been in Vegas. Given that we are the halfway point of the year I thought it might be a good time to include some goals for year end.

Year End Goals
- Get to 400,000 VPPs
- 400nl to be my regular game

July Goals
- Earn 40,000 VPPs
- Move some of my play to Ongame
- Play 20,000 Hands of 6-max
- Watch 5 Stox videos
- Bit About Me Series - Uni
- Start pre-season cricket training
- Register for an Open University course
- Pay some HECS debt off

June Goals
Passed With Flying Colours, Could Have Done Better, Failed

- Earn 60,000 VPPs - Hotel Internet was sooo rigged against me
- Play $2/$5nl live in Vegas - Attempted to once, never got off the waiting list. I’ll probably try tomorrow!
- Read Harrington Cash Game Books - Will be done by the time I get home
- Run 35km before Vegas
- Prepare Well For Vegas
- Watch 10 Stox Videos
- Blog 25 Hands - Didn’t play enough hands to get enough interesting ones I guess.
- Bit About Me Series - Uni