Okie-Vegas Trip Report

It was early Wednesday morning and I thought I was running ahead of schedule. TripJax and I had discussed meeting where I work around 10:00 am or so to head out for Okie-Vegas. He was going to text me when he left North Carolina so I could have an idea of when to expect him. I check my phone; no text message. Hmm.... It's about 7:45. I hope he isn't still at home. That would put us way behind schedule.
The phone rings. Trip is nowhere near North Carolina; he's almost to where I work...doh!! He had texted the wrong person on his phone and let a former co-worker know what he's wearing at about 2:00 am....heh. I let him know I live an hour from work and I'm on the way. A quick call to work and I have the welcoming committee in place for Trip. Traffic on my side of town of course is terrible, and it seems to take forever to get there.
When I arrive, TripJax informs me that he hit something in the road and there is possibly something wrong with his car. I let him know he's at the right place for that and that will be no problem. We make our rounds of the store and I introduce him to the store full of Mookie-playing and former Mookie-playing degenerates that are my co-workers. We leave his car in the hands of rmbj494, one of the best technicians in the universe and head out.
We are scheduled to meet Dugglebogey and Jusdealem between 4 and 5 pm in Tunica where we plan to have dinner and maybe play some 4/8 limit or something before hitting the road again to finish the drive to Oklahoma. We get there a little early and pull in at The Goldstrike around 3 or so. We quickly locate Duggles in the poker room amongst the 3/6 limit crowd and let him know we are going to walk around a little. He says he will meet us downstairs shortly. We have some time to walk around a little before we are scheduled to meet Jusdealem. I couldn't remember for certain where we had agreed to meet up but I knew it was either at Goldstrike or Horseshoe. I'm fairly certain it's Goldstrike but we have plenty of time so we walk over to Horseshoe and check out the poker room. There's a $130 bounty tournament in a few hours and we decide not to mention it to the others seeing how we had already decided to play 4/8 limit. We get back over to Goldstrike and find a spot where we think the meeting place is. We get a drink and settle in and start looking around trying to spot her.....which is pretty hilarious because we have exactly 0% idea what she looks like. I guess we looked like a couple of desperate guys eagerly eyeing every woman that walked anywhere near the bar. I made a sign on a napkin that said "Jusdealem" thinking that might help. Duggles came downstairs and joined us just as we got the bad news from Jus that she couldn't make it.
The three of us head over to the cafe and grab a bite to eat. They have a 12 buck special running that includes prime rib, soup, potato, and cheesecake. While enjoying our dinner, we decide to play the tournament at the Horseshoe.
We get signed up and are starting at three different tables. There are 52 entrants. The play at my table is fairly weak tight for the most part starting out. There's a couple of solid players that I quickly identify and one luckbox that can't fold a hand but keeps hitting and accumulating a massive stack. I win a couple of fairly decent pots and double my stack before the first break. At the break, all three of us are still in. TripJax loses his last hand before the break but he still had a good stack. Duggles had built a nice stack up but had a set not long before break and it got busted on a terrible suckout so he's back down to his original starting stack.
We play on after the break and Duggles gets moved to my table as his table breaks. He is low on chips and I know he will be making a move to double soon. I get moved to another table and not long after he gets eliminated. TripJax goes out a little while later. I think we were down to about 22 players by this point. We get down to two tables and take another break. Duggles and TripJax are railing me and I'm just trying my best to make a few moves and survive the rising blinds. I manage to win a few hands and make it to the final table. We make it to the money and people start falling out quickly. We get down to four players and I'm the shortest stack. They offer a four-way even chop and I quickly accept seeing how I have less than half the chips of the leader and I'm the shortest stack left. I pocket my winnings and TripJax and I say our goodbyes to Duggles and head for the car. The journey continues........