las vegas: day 4 - poker & shopping

so sunny and i finally made it to the luxor poker tournament! it was a $30 buy-in with an additional chip buy-in for $3 (i believe we started with $350 in chips). since it was our first casino tournament, we weren't sure what to expect. the 1st hour was a limit game with the blinds raised every 15 minutes ($10/$15; $15/$25, and when it eventally hits $100/$200, the blinds double), and then after the 1st hour was over it became a no-limit game.

sunny and i were placed at different tables - there were only 3 tables w/11 players per table. when a player is eliminated from the tournament, there are alternates (ppl who have entered the tournament, but there weren't enough seats to start a 4th table) who come and take their seat (at my table we had a high turnover in seats 7 and 8).

i had some decent hands in the 1st hour, and i actually thought my game was over before we even got to the no-limit round. my goal was to stay in for at least an all-in hand, and i succeeded! i'm terrible at remembering what my cards are after i'm finished playing, but i remember in my final hand, i was down to my last $200 and i was chip loser, so i just called an all in w/my suited dolly parton's. i was hoping for a flush, but my river never came :P (winning hand was pair aces on the river). ah well, at least i finished in 5th place, so i won $46 (the top 7 players get paid out).

sunny and i were so pumped up from playing poker, that we wanted to play in the 3 a.m. tournament at paris, but we were too tired later on to stay awake :P anyhoo, we were on to the next task at hand.......more shopping! we were heading over to the premium outlets, just 6 minutes off the strip by taxi. as always, we started our experience with some lunch to get ourselves all pumped up. i finally, finally, finally found my coach bag at the outlet. funnily enough, it turned out to be a diaper bag (it has the changing mat), and no, this was not a hint to chris, nor was it an announcement of any kind. so simmer down everybody! it's a great multi-functional bag (as the salesperson told me), and it's true, i've already been using it for work (which was the purpose of the bag, as opposed to buying another purse). the 3 of us did more damage at a variety of stores in the outlet.......they had everything under the sun......coach, banana republic, shoes stores galore, designer labels (d & g, kenneth cole, armani exchange), sporting goods (nike, adidas, puma). ah, i was in shopping heaven. the only problem was i didn't find as much stuff as i thought i would. usually spring and summer are my best seasons, but nothing was jumping out at me on this trip. well, at least i got my coach bag and signature wristlet. hehehe, i can't wait until i get my coach coin pocket next month :-)

after our 5 (?) hour shopping excursion at the outlet, we headed back to our hotel and got ready for a nice dinner and clubbing at pure. we ate in the hotel at mon ami gabi......i just like saying the name......mon ami gabi. so flow-y :-) sunny started with a salad, while ang and i shared garlic potato crisps (or something like that)......personally i didn't really taste the garlic until i washed it down w/my martini - paris romance (amaretto, malibu and fruit juice). for entrees, sunny and ang both had the mussels & frites while i had the steake frites (medium rare of course!). all the food we ate (including the bread, butter, and carrot-like spread) was delish!

we headed over to pure just before 10 p.m. for more girly fun. unfortunately the clubbing fun never developed for us. after waiting and drinking (mmmmm, malibu & pineapple!) in line for 2.5 hours, we finally gave up.....we still had at least another 1/2 hour till we would have gotten inside, and then we would have had to pay $20 for cover, and then if we had gotten in, we were determined to stay for at least an hour. so we decided that it just wasn't worth it :P the 2.5 hours weren't a complete waste of time......the 3 of us had the best time in line......remember girls, WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, STAYS IN VEGAS! i did throw $5 into a slot machine for a few minutes, and i was actually up to $35, but then i kept playing and lost it all. whatever, it was only $5!

so after a slightly disappointing night, we headed back to our hotel and ordered room service. there's something about those chicken wings on the 1st night that we just loved, so we had another 2 rounds. yum! i'll post a picture of our time-killing activity in the room.......we were having a good time :-)