After the Danny Gans fiasco, I was more than happy to see an actual good show.  So we relied upon our mantra of, “when in doubt, Cirque it out.”

That’s where Love comes in.  It’s Cirque’s newest show on the strip and it’s phenomenal.  There is your normal nutty cast of characters that you will find in all Cirque shows, but this one seems more contemporary.  What I mean to say is that because you know all of the music, the transitions between the incredible acts are flawless.  There are no gaps and everything seems to build on the next element.   Aside from “O”, this is the best Cirque show by far.

And the music was just extraordinary.  Even someone who knows very little about the Beatles can appreciate and enjoy this show.  Enter Lori. 

Lori grew up in rural central Florida on 10 beautiful acres of pristine farm land.  Unfortunately there was only country music and a sprinkling of pop music in the 90’s, so you can understand when I say that she has no connection with the greatness that is the Beatles. 

Remarkably this fact did not matter as many times during the performance I would look over and she was transfixed with what was going on.  We had great seats in the lower level (section 103 , Row G) and was practically on the stage, but I don’t think it would have matter where we were since this was a theater in the round.  There is as much going on in the air as there was on the ground, so even if you were up and in the back of the house you had a great view.  We went on a Saturday and the place was packed.  It’s definitely worth the nearly $170 per ticket, so go see this show!

Lori and I went deep in three of the tournaments during this last trip, which is amazing considering how little we actually play.  Each day we were playing 10+ hours and ever so close to cashing in all of these events.  I would have to say that a lot of the reason why is because we have a good mental approach to the game.

Your Worst Poker Enemy: Master the Mental Game (Amazon) by Dr. Alan Schoonmaker is a great book for helping you “quiet” your mental game.  Poker is not a difficult game to learn, but it’s getting past the basics that separate good players from great ones.

One of the things that I love about this book is that it assumes that you are already an intermediate to advance player.  That you understand the nuances of the game, but maybe not recognize the calling signs that bring them on is also key to appreciating and understanding this book.  It’s incredibly well documented, which is nice since so many poker books are just first hand accounts of how some poker pro plays, but not necessarily how the average person may think or play in certain situations.

The book is easy to read and is an excellent get for anyone looking to discover something about their own play that they might not even realize.

I have read a ton of poker books over the years and I have to say that Barry Greenstein’s Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide (Amazon) is one of my favorites. Barry is a top pro and is respected the world over. He has a very inviting and easy style about his writing that I really enjoy.

The photography throughout the book is vivid, appropriate and engaging; which I find refreshing as compared to the norm for this type of book. I think that I enjoy it more than most because it assumes that you understand the basic premise of no limit and it truly gives you some insight to a higher level of play. He uses real hands that he has played and tournament scenarios that help visualize the points that he makes.

There is a small amount of poker theory, but again it’s well illustrated and thought provoking. There is also a forward by Doyle Brunson that is very good, but that’s just icing on this already great cake.

This won’t be the first book in your collection, but it’s one that you most certainly should have if you are serious about playing at the next level. It’s also nice enough to be on your coffee table and your folks won’t even know the difference.

On this year’s March Madness trip we had an interesting cast of characters.  Myself, “44”, and Hollywood are the core members of this annual trip.  We really enjoy analyzing the teams, watching all of the games and betting too many of them.  It’s a trip that we really immerse ourselves into the action.

Unfortunately this year we added some different guys to the mix and the results were mixed at best.  The group was all over the map with one of the guys coming off of a divorce and looking to make up for lost time.  We had another guy who just wanted to golf and really nothing else.  And then we had this guy Mike (Moose) who fancied himself as a Vegas pro since he had been a couple of times before.  Now normally this would have been a great thing.  44 and I welcome the opportunity to have someone added to the mix that can fill in the gaps in the itinerary.  The problem is that there were none.  We had the rooms and meals more than covered so there was really no need to do anything else.  But that’s not what happened.

So Moose had his heart set on seeing Danny Gans.  He was told by a good buddy that this guy was amazing.  He basically browbeat the group into seeing the “Entertainer of the Year”, but what year or even what decade no one knows.  Well we headed over to the Mirage and decided to give it a shot since Moose already plunked down the money for the show on his Visa.

Now I have to say, Danny has talent.  He can do a lot of impersonations and his show basically is one long impersonation.  The only issue is that his entire set is geared toward the blue-hair crowd.  When you are still doing George Burns and Joan Rivers bits, then you know you are anything but contemporary.  It is a variety show so there is some singing (Simon Cowell would kick this guy’s ass not only for his terrible singing but for stealing his tight black t-shirt look!), some ventriloquism, and of course impersonations.  The show just didn’t have any flow and the transitions between bits were just not there.

Basically this is an “old” Vegas style show, much in the same vain as Wayne Newton (note: We have seen him too and it was just sad.  Please don’t spend that money either!).  Thankfully Moose sat on the end of our row and couldn’t hear or see anything that was being said by us.  We were dying.  I actually left to go to the bathroom about halfway through and I debated even coming back.  Well I did come back, but I stood in the entryway with the usher who was in love with Danny.  It was a little eerie.

So there you have it.  A show with no real flow with a guy who has some talent but is far from the most entertaining show you could see on any given night on the strip.  Personally I would recommend any Cirque du Soleil show over this one in a heartbeat, but you might want to have subject matter for constant jokes over the course of your trip.  If that’s the case than it’s Dan-tastic!

I have to say that I am one of the luckiest guys in the world.  The fact that Lori loves everything I do (Gators, Lakers, Johnnie Walker, and of course Vegas) makes life that much easier.

She happens to be a great poker player as well, which makes for great trips to Vegas where we do nothing but play poker.  We just went there two weeks ago to play in a couple of daily tourneys as a warm up for the WSOP trip that we will be going on early next month.  I will be posting throughout that trip, but here is a quick review to wet the palate.

Caesars Palace $300+$30 (Saturday @ Noon)

The poker room is located through the sportsbook and is fairly large.  The tournament area is actually a separate room altogether and has recently been redone since they held a WSOP circuit event earlier in the year.

The chairs, tables and general atmosphere are all top notch.  Oddly though they don’t have automatic shufflers which isn’t terrible per say, but you don’t get as many hands in per round.

Personnel is always key in every well run tournament, and these guys are good.  The dealers are efficient and knowledgeable and move the games along nicely.  Both food and beverage service is good; however the woman running food was a bit elderly and ornery.  Loved her.

You start with $10k worth of chips and there are 40 minute levels, so the play is nice and long.  I will spare you the bad beat stories, but I will point out that both Lori and I got bounced with QQ.  There is no justice.

The Venetian $130 +$20 (Sunday @ Noon)

The poker room in the Venetian is right next to the escalators leading up to the main entrance of the casino.  It’s very open and has a comfortable feel to it.

The chairs at the Venetian are a bit more “comfy” (Lori’s favorite descriptor) with more cushion and wheels.  This is key when you reach the 4th hour of a 9 hour tourney.

The dealers and floor personnel are solid; although there was almost a mutiny when the main floor guy turned off the Lakers/Jazz game right at the moment of the final shot which ultimately went to overtime.  The Lakers blew the game in OT, but they soldiered on and closed out the series in 6.  But I digress…

One of the nicest amenities of any poker room in Vegas is the Venetian water, which is bottled Fiji water.  They pass it out like candy, and it’s just a bit nicer than your normal purified water that you will get out on the casino floor.  Very Choice.

Nothing great to report other than I got out kicked on my set in a three way early on and then donked the rest of my chips off when this incredible Magoo woke up with KK.  Lori of course just had her AA cracked by a set of K’s with the last coming on the river.  Solid.

So over all I would have to say that the Venetian was the overall better experience.  They have a $500+$50 on Saturdays that is normally pretty good, but that’s for another post.

Pictures provided by www.allvegaspoker.com.  We forgot our camera.