Back at the Plaza again: Televised $500 events for Ultimate Poker Challenge

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Genius and donkey

I rented my lucky Cadillac Sedan de Ville with XM Satellite Radio from Avis and returned to the fabulous Plaza in downtown Las Vegas with the radio set to Frank's Place. The first televised event was on Thanksgiving Day and I was hoping for a small field: the 59 who showed up was more than I expected until someone told me there were 30 online qualifiers for each of the three $500 events.

 

I drew table 16, seat four, and had Allen "Knish" Kessler in seat two and Mike Laing, arriving late, in seat seven. I got a great read and got away from pocket Queens against a flopped set of Eights but then I raised on the button with Queen-Seven offsuit and made a donkey call of the big blind's jam getting only three-to-two. He had Ace-Jack offsuit, which held up, and I was out in 43^rd place.

 

Dinner was with aspiring pro Clint Baird at the Luxor Steakhouse. The food and service were great as usual and I convinced him to try the yummy black bean soup. There was no reason to order anything but the 2001 Stags Leap "Fay" to wash it down.