Air Canada Sucks

I swear, one day, I will have a normal flight. Everything is going to go smooth, my plane is going to board at the scheduled time, we're going to take off at the scheduled time, the connection will go smooth, and my suitcase will arrive in the same country that I'm in. I know this is probably just variance, but I have to run good in a flight eventually!

So yeah, I get to the airport, and I'm one hour ahead of the scheduled departure. My flight plan is Ottawa > Montreal > Las Vegas. Pretty simple, right? When I book my own flights, I ALWAYS pick Westjet. When I saw that my sponsor had booked my flight through Air Canada, I knew something was going to go wrong. So I check in, and when I get to my gate, they announce that our flight is going to be delayed by 20 minutes because our plane is late arriving. Okay, no big deal. 20 minutes pass, 30 minutes pass, then we get another announcement. Our plane needs servicing, so it will be approximately another 15 minutes. Okay, 20 minutes pass, 30 minutes pass, we finally board the airplane over one hour behind schedule.

By the time we get to Montreal, the other plane to Las Vegas already began boarding 15 minutes ago! Also, because I'm connecting to the USA, I have to pick up by bags from the carousel, go through US Customs with them, then check them again. There's no way I'll make it in time. I inquire about the next flight to Las Vegas, and it's not until 10:00AM the next morning! That would also mean I would miss the $5000 HORSE event. I'm steaming right now. I find out there's only 3 other people from my flight that are connecting to Las Vegas, so we SPRINT to US Customs, with my 40 pound laptop on my shoulder. To our amazement, there is nobody in line at US Customs, so we frantically explain our situation. They tell us that you're not allowed to go through Customs without your bags, but they make an exception for us and let us through. They tell us that there is no guarantee that the plane will wait for us, but if we run we might be able to make it. So we do another half-marathon to our gate, and barely make it onto the plane.

In the end, I made it to Vegas, but for the 3rd time in a row, I'm without my suitcase after coming or going on an Air Canada flight. Whatever, they tell me my bags will be delivered to my hotel the next day. We'll see about that. I take a cab over to the Bellagio, I check into my room, take a quick shower (after sweating buckets during my sprint though the airport), and head over to the Rio to register for the $5000 HORSE tournament today. After I finish, I'm in the mood to play some cash games, so I check what games they have there. The biggest game they have going is $5/$10 NL and $175 satellites. I decide to leave the Rio and go back to my favourite poker room in the world at the Bellagio. I looked for a $50/$100 NL game, but the lady tells me the biggest game they have going is a $25/$50 NL. I tell her I want to play in it, and she promptly gives me a seat. To my delight, they had increased the stakes to $25/$50/$100 NL (3 blinds). I look at the stacks on the table, and the biggest one is around $18,000, so I buy in for $20,000.

I take it easy for the first orbit, the table is 6 handed, and it doesn't take me long to find out who the target is. The guy to my direct left seems to be wealthy, and has no concept of bet-sizing. He would raise $400 pre-flop, get one caller, and then fire $2000 on any flop. He also tips the dealer $100 every time he wins a pot! I just needed to sit and wait for a good hand to take this guy out. I play my normal aggressive game and I'm up around $6000 when the following hand comes up. We were playing 4 handed, so basically there was the button, and the other 3 players were always in the blinds. About 2 hours in, I pick up AA on the button. I make it $400 to go, rich guy calls, and so does the big blind. The flop comes K73 with 2 hearts. I also have the Ace of hearts. Rich guy checks, BB bets $800, I flat call, rich guy flat calls. There's $3600 in the pot. The turn pairs the 3. Now rich guy bets out $5000, BB folds, and I just call, hoping the guy has a King. Now there's $13,600 in the pot. River comes off-suit T, making the board K733T. He checks, and I ask him how much he has left. He has around $16,000. He says "Go ahead, bet, I'm gonna call." This guy really wants to see a showdown with his hand. I think about betting around half his stack, but I decide to go for the kill and push all-in, hoping he reads it as a missed flush draw. He thinks forever, in my head I'm thinking "Okay, this guy must have a strong King." After like 5 minutes, he says "I'm folding the best hand", and painfully folds 99 face up. lol? He quits after this hand, and I take my $13,000 profit and decide to call it a night.

Today is the $5000 HORSE event. I have improved my Stud games a lot over the last 2 weeks by playing online, and hopefully I can show something for it in this tournament. It starts at 8:00PM EST. You'll be able to check for updates on PokerNews and CardPlayer's websites.

Wish me luck!