Nick Momrik

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 4

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 5

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 6

5 nights is way too long.
Summer trips way too hot. Dry heat is better than our humid heat here in Michigan, but 100+ degree temperatures are hot no matter what.
The bus going up the strip and to downtown is the worst $2 you can spend in Las Vegas.
I never got to see the Wynn, Hooters, Palms, Treasure Island, and several other of the big name hotels and casinos
I spent way too much time playing video poker and slots. I’ve always hated slots.
I can’t wait to go back to LV for a 2 or 3 night stay.
I really enjoy playing poker into the early hours of the morning.
Holy shit did my cards suck at the poker tables.
Next trip I want to see a Cirque Du Soleil show.
Seeing the WSOP was one of the coolest parts of the trip for me.
Red Bull and Vodka is now my favorite drink.
Coffee with Bailey’s is good too.
Next trip I need to go with people who are willing to actually stay up past midnight.
Didn’t get to any strip clubs. How pathetic!
Shows are cool, but cost a lot of money. Blue Man Group was entertaining, but I’m not sure it’s worth $120 a seat and $20 for 2 drinks.
I’m sure I missed a lot in my daily summaries, but I’m done!

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 6

July 19, 2006March 22, 2025 Nick MomrikLeave a comment

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 4

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 5

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Woke up around 9am. Showered and packed up the hotel room. Borrowed a key from Jere and stored our bags in his room. Walked the strip thinking maybe I could catch the Bellagio water show, but they were doing some kind of maintenance on the fountains. Jumped on the free shuttle to the Rio from Caesar’s. Much better than taking any bus! Putzed around the Rio for a bit and then took off looking for the World Series of Poker (WSOP). It’s quite a walk from the casino floor.

I walked into the largest poker room I’ve ever seen and was in awe. Started snapping photos. I had left my camera at the hotel, so was borrowing Lindsay’s and not quite sure how to use it. Got yelled at by security within 2 minutes of being in the room because the flash was on. Whoops!

I was quite surprised how close I was able to get to all of the players and how few tourists/fans were in the room. I saw the Brunsons, Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Dutch Boyd, John Juanda, Clonie Gowen, Johnny “Fucking” Chan, and the list goes on. I can’t wait to get the pictures and see how they turned out, but not quite sure how long that will take since it wasn’t my camera. I imagine the enjoyment of being around all the top poker players in the world would grow old, but I was floating as I walked through the room. It was pretty damn cool.

Met up with the girls and checked out to see if there was a line yet for the seafood buffet. There wasn’t, so I blew some money on video poker. An old lady sat to my left just after I sat down and hit quad twos with an ace right away for a big win. Bitch! The seafood buffet was beyond words. We ate stuffed our faces for an hour and a half before finally calling it quits. There were so many choices, but I have to say the tortellini was the best I’ve ever had. I could have been satisfied simply filling up on those cheese-filled noodles. I’ve always wanted to try out different kinds of sushi to see if I’d like it and that’s exactly what I did. It was edible, but not something I’d ever order up on my own. I’ll stick to lobster, crab legs, shrimp, clam strips, etc for my seafood fix.

After eating we headed up to check out the sites from the Voodoo Lounge. Some storms were rolling in off the mountains so the view was pretty neat. Nothing like being on top of the Stratosphere at night, but still something to see and experience.

We caught a cab back to Excalibur, changed our clothes and headed out back to wait for our shuttle to the airport at 7:30. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:20pm and arrive back in Detroit after 5am local time. During checkin I noticed there were exit seats open all over the place, so I grabbed the three right by the door for us and I was in heaven with all the leg room. Got a good hour or two of sleep in on the plane. Got back to Detroit on time, were picked up by Rose, drove back to Lindsay’s place, and I was on the road back to Saginaw. Made it back around 8am. HOME SWEET HOME!

First Trip to Las Vegas: Final Thoughts

Soccer Without Goalies

AsideJuly 18, 2006 Nick MomrikLeave a comment

Wouldn’t soccer be so much more exciting if there weren’t goalies?

Atheist Manifesto

AsideJuly 18, 2006 Nick MomrikLeave a comment

Atheist Manifesto is a good read for anyone interested at all in religions.

Free DNS from OpenDNS

AsideJuly 18, 2006 Nick Momrik2 Comments

I’m testing out OpenDNS here at work on my main computer. I’ll try out any service to replace something on our network. In testing the past couple of minutes some web pages seem to load faster and some slower. I’ll also be setting it up at home to see how it performs. Time will tell. […]

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 5

July 18, 2006March 22, 2025 Nick Momrik2 Comments

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 4

Tuesday, July 4, 2006 – Independence Day

Is it time to go home yet? I get up around 9am. Buy drugs and head for the pool. Go for a coffee and Bailey’s but the bar isn’t open yet. I already bought the coffee. Head out on a mission to find Bailey’s. Get it at the same place I’ve been buying DayQuil. Spend about 2 hours at the pool and head up for a shower. Meet a couple of people behind the purchase of pokerchiptricks.com for lunch at the Sherwood Forest Cafe. I had the ham and cheese omelette and hash browns. It hit the spot!

Meet up with Lindsay and Julie and we head out. They bought some package deal tickets for the Stratosphere for $50 each. Buffet, American Superstars show with 2 free drinks, and elevator trip up to the top. Somehow I let them talk me into catching the bus. We wait a half hour for it to arrive and another hour to get there. Bus = Worst $2 you can spend in Las Vegas. As we boarded the bus I bet Lindsay $1 it would take us more than a half hour to get there. After the time passed

The food was good and I definitely ate my share. For the American Superstars show there were people doing Elvis, Britney Spears, Tim McGraw, Christina Aguilera, and Michael Jackson. Elvis and Christina were good, but Michael Jackson took the show. He had the voice and his dance moves were great. I’m a sucker for Michael Jackson entertainment. He’s one of the greatest musical artists of all time and did more for music than anyone ever has.

After the show we got in line to head up top for a view of the city. Since it was the 4th of July there were fireworks going off in every direction for as far as you could see. Quite amazing to see. We didn’t get up there until around 9:30pm so we probably missed most of the good fireworks, which I heard usually start around 9.

Caught a cab back to New York, New York where we met up with Jere and some of his friends. Gals went to Coyote Ugly and guys went to 9 Fine Irishmen. Everyone got pretty drunk by the end of the night and we ended up eating some great pizza. I think I got back to the room around 3am.

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 6

First Trip to Las Vegas: Final Thoughts

Too Hot For Me, Wie Too

July 17, 2006 Nick MomrikLeave a comment

While golfing 45 holes over the course of Saturday and Sunday, I came to one conclusion. Over 90 degrees with over 50% humidity is very hot on the golf course. I managed to get through it without too much of a problem, but I’d much rather have temperatures in the low 70s. Looks like Michelle Wie had a bit of a problem with the heat, dropping out of the John Deere Classic after 9 holes of the 2nd round. I just couldn’t resist getting her into a post title somehow.

2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Winners

July 17, 2006 Nick MomrikLeave a comment

The 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been going on since June 26, 2006. A lot of new poker players are making names for themselves and a lot of professionals are adding to their poker resumes. Following is a list of those players who have taken home bracelets so far.

$500 No-Limit Hold’em Casino Employee – Chris Gros
$1,500 No-Limit Hold’em – Brandon Cantu
$1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em – Rafe Furst
$1,500 Limit Hold’em – Kianoush Abolfathi
$2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short Handed 6/Table – Russ Boyd (Dutch Boyd)
$2,000 No-Limit Hold’em – Mark Vos
$3,000 Limit Hold’em – William Chen
$2,000 Omaha High-Low 8/OB – Jack Zwerner
$5,000 No-Limit Hold’em – Jeff Cabanillas
$1,500 Seven Card Stud – David Williams
$5,000 Omaha High-Low 8/OB – Sam Farha
$1,500 Limit Hold’em – Bob Chalmers
$2,500 No-Limit Hold’em – Max Pescatori
$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Rebuys – Allen Cunningham
$1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em – Mary Jones
$10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha – Lee Watkinson
$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em – Jon Friedberg
$2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em – Eric Kesselman
$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Seniors – Clare Miller
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E. – David Reese (Chip Reese)
$2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Short Handed 6/Table – William Chen
$2,000 No-Limit Hold’em – Jeff Madsen

There are many more events to go before the $10,000 No-Limit Main Event even gets started on July 28, 2006. It’s scheduled to run through August 10, 2006 when we’ll have another world champion crowned.

List compiled from results at CardPlayer.

First Trip to Las Vegas: Day 4

July 17, 2006March 22, 2025 Nick Momrik2 Comments