Nancy and Pat's Excellent Adventure

Once again, Pat and I decided to try our hands at yet another live ladies' poker tournament. So last Saturday we made our way to one of our favorite spots....The Borgata in Atlantic City.....to play in their WPT event. As has happened in the past, her husband Bill made breakfast for us before we got on the road. He should be a chef....that's how good it was. French toast, bacon, fresh orange juice -- the breakfast of champions minus the Wheaties. He had also gone to the bakery that morning and bought us jelly donuts and danishes but we were too full to eat them. Pat decided to bring them with us so we could have them in our hotel rooms.

We always have such high hopes when we start out on our journey. It takes about an hour and a half to get there and we talk nonstop the entire way. Our conversation runs the gamut from work to TV shows to children to shopping to office gossip but eventually gets around to poker as we get closer and closer to Atlantic City. By the time we see the casinos in the distance, we're so excited to get there that we can't contain ourselves. I know this probably sounds ridiculous but that's how much we enjoy it.

Since this tournament started at 11AM, our rooms weren't ready when we arrived so we had to check our luggage with the bell captain. No problem there except for the box of donuts and danishes Pat was carrying. Needless to say, we couldn't check them so Pat carried them upstairs where we would register for the tournament. I knew it was coming but wasn't quite sure how long it would take before Pat asked me...."Do you think this box would fit in your bag?"

I could tell you stories upon stories about how Pat travels light and I end up carrying everything. When we were in Rome on our company trip, she left the hotel each day carrying nothing. By the end of the day, everything she bought was in my bag. When we go to these tournaments, she carries a small Coach clutch that barely fits her money and room key. Such was the case when she asked me the long awaited question. So that you my dear reader can appreciate what I go through, I took pictures for your viewing pleasure.

EXHIBIT A .........Box of donuts, Pat's purse, my bag

EXHIBIT B.....Pat's purse and the box of donuts that has now made it into my bag

EXHIBIT C.....I'm sure dear reader that you knew what the outcome would be....I'd be carrying everything.

This entire episode was so funny that we were both laughing hysterically the whole time. The people at The Borgata probably thought we were crazy taking these pictures and laughing while we were doing it.

Shortly after this episode of "Nancy Gets To Hold Everything", the doors opened and the tournament began. It's so exciting when it first starts as you sit down at your table and are dealt your first hand. And after that first hand, you wait to be dealt something good....something like everyone else at your table seems to be getting. But alas, once again, it was not to be. We both lasted through six levels which is a little more than four hours. Did we have fun those four hours? The answer is "yes". Will we do it again? Most assuredly......because it's our favorite thing to do.

Afterwards, we added up how many live events we've played in so far.....all without cashing....and the answer was seven. That's not too many. Perhaps eight will be our lucky number. A few nights later, I was on the phone with Michael complaining about not getting dealt any good cards in the entire four hour period. The conversation went like this...."I got no AA, no KK, no QQ, no JJ, no 10 10, no 99, AK and AQ once and didn't hit anything on the flop with either. " I guess while I was rambling on, Michael put the phone to Bushman's ear who then told me I had nothing to complain about as I had just won $20,000 playing online. I immediately stopped knowing he was right. It made me laugh just picturing them laughing at me complaining.

We had dinner at one of our favorites, Wolfgang Puck's American Grille and then followed that up by playing some cash games in the poker room. We both ended up winning so it was another successful trip for us. Sometimes I think I should just stick to playing cash games as I always leave a winner but the tournaments are just so much fun that I know we won't stop.....especially since we both have a goal and that is to finally cash in one of these events.

The next one is at The Taj Mahal next week. They've just built a new building called The Chairman Towers and we'll be staying there. We're keeping our fingers crossed already.