Scott Diamond

We arrived in Vegas at 5 minutes till noon and I drove straight to the Orleans Hotel and Casino for the first event of their Orleans Classic.

I made it upstairs to a ballroom they had setup for this series and registered along with 303 other players. I was in seat 7 and this maniac was in seat 5. I guess he thought he was playing a cash game because he was in every pot and by the first orbit was down to 250 chips. As my BB came back to me I look down at 99. Seat 5 won a few pots with all in bets and had his stack back up to 2000 chips. He raised 500 when the blinds were still only 25-50 and there was 175 chips in the pot. I thought for a minute and called the 500 and the others folded. Flop 9c-Jc-Kh. I bet 1500 chips because there were 2 clubs on the board and he folded. I folded AQ hearts two hands later when seat 5 went all in against a raiser who called with AKspades. Of course the flop came out all hearts and seat 5 showed 22 and doubled up.

I played tight and my position, I actually had some cards and was up to 7200 after starting with 4000. Seat 5 was on a rush and built his stack up to 8500 chips. As we were approaching level two I had Q-10 clubs in the SB and I called two limpers, seat 5 one of them. The flop came out 9-8-J rainbow I bet 125 and seat 5 raised to 400 and I called "All-IN" seat 5 folded K-10 face up and I know I over bet, but I wanted to take this pot down due to my past tournaments. I showed him my cards and the guy called me "A Lucky Bitch" I just looked at him and he immediately apologized and I just told him No Prob, I have been called worse.

I lost about 400 chips with AK on the button on a flop of 8-9-10 when another player put in 1500 chips after calling my raise.

Just before level 2 starts I am again the BB and have 88, one guy raises to 350 and seat 5 calls as I do. the flop is 6c-7c-8d and the initial raiser goes all in for about 2200 chips and seat 5 calls so I go all in incase he is on a flush draw for an additional 5000. Seat 5 calls and the first raiser has JJ and I have a set of eights and seat 5 has 5d-9h for a flopped straight. The river is no help and I am done just as level 2 starts. "Lucky Bitch" I should have said it as I walked out, but I do not want to be the amateur Phil Hellmuth.

So my wife and I get the girls from the playroom the Orleans has for kids and they charge $7.00 per Child. Pretty good deal in Vegas and they really enjoy the play room. It was only a cheap $28.00 and as I arrived to pick them up, Bianca says, "Daddy you broke playing Poker already" Yes Honey, I said. daddy is not a Lucky ..as my wife yelled, "Diamond" so I didn't finish my comment.

The movie theatre was right there so we paid 62.00 to go and see Hancock and I was very disappointed in it. The Hulk was much better!

So off to the Rio we go and we get our room and we head downstairs to the WSOP Convention after unpacking and having a talk with the girls about behaving. They are so excited we are at the Rio.

We watch Poker on ESPN all the time and they had begged me to stay here and I had to spoil them.They see the Rio on ESPN during the broadcasts and have seen it all lit up at night on previous trips, so the Rio it was this weekend.

As we get to the doors of the Convention Scotty Nguyen and Greg Raymer are there. Greg is signing autographs at a table and Scotty starts talking to the girls and sits on the floor with them a minute. he was really enjoying himself but to many people kept stopping so as he walked away signing autographs, he looked back and said goodbye to the girls.

The spectator crowd was huge in the Amazon Room so I did a quick walk through and said Hello to J.C. Tran and gave him one of the Charity Event shirts and also Jeff Madsen. I am fortunate to know them and these are the type of guys who are great for Poker.

I met up with the wife and kids and we started heading towards the Long walk back to the food court for some pizza. As we were walking Antonio Esfiandari who I know very well from the 2007 LAPC. we met there and he went on a ride along in Compton with a friend of mine because I was not patrolling at the time due to my Achilles tendon surgery. We have kept in touch and when he finally saw my girls he sat on the floor with them asked them for a hug and began to do magic tricks after peeling the girls off of him.

Antonio was so excited sitting there with the girls he ignored everyone who was trying to get an autograph. He pulled out a Poker Chip and began to do magic for the girls, the more excited they got, he got. He begged me to be able to babysit them one night and my wife and I agreed. Antonio's father was with him and he looked over at his Dad and said, "I have to get married"!

After Pizza we actually went up to the Room about 8:30 pm and I was probably asleep at 9:00, it had been a long week and we all needed a good night sleep. My good friends Jim Pittman and John Mcneely were coming into town and we were going to have breakfast with them. Jim is playing the Main Event at noon so I know he wanted a good breakfast and it takes my wife an hour or so just to get the girls a bath and dressed. With 7 of us taking showers we needed to be up by 9:30am at the latest.

Thursaday I will finish up the vacation and tell you about John and I running a table game and then entering the evening $340.00 NL tournament at the RIO..until then,,,Be safe...Take Care..