Tuesday – I flew in Tuesday afternoon, dropped my bags at the hotel and headed to Pubcon. I never even made it, as I stopped off at the Renaissance and immediately got drinks. We had a great meal at the Wynn before heading to Pure where Rubicon hosted a table. Suffice to say 5 bottles later, we were pretty lubricated. I do remember bargaining with the limo drivers out front to give some of our friends a ride home. One moron kept insisting that he’d do it for free, but any Vegas veteran knows where a free limo takes you. I got one guy down to $40 for a stop at the Wynn and then the Palms. Not bad.

Wednesday – For some reason this night is a lot more blurry than it should be. I woke up pretty late, hit the gym, and then spent a few hours at Pubcon. The show floor was a pretty big joke. I was actually wondering if they had a secret room with more booths. Anyway.. the fine folks at Rubicon again hosted (and definitely made a name for themselves) a party in their suite at the Wynn. Like Shoe said we were planning on playing poker at midnight, but somehow midnight came and went and we were still up in the suite. When we finally did leave, I ended up walking around the Wynn with a bottle of champagne that I proceeded to finish by myself.

Thursday – I really have to give a shout out to Purpose INC SEO for their Poker tournament. Not only was it exceptionally well-organized but I thought it was a great networking event. The very nature of the tournament-style poker game meant you had to move around tables a bit and meet new people. Plus, when you went out there was nothing else to do but chat with other people who busted out. I made it about half way before busting out. Definitely check out the Name the SEO contest and score yourself a t-shirt. I normally don’t pick up t-shirts like this because I won’t wear them, but they were so cool I snagged 2! (Don’t be mad DK). The only bad thing was that Shoemoney took second place which meant we were there all night. I had promised a friend who is a host at a club that we’d bring in a crew, so we didn’t make it there until 3am. John Reese met up with us there, and we stayed until 8 or 9am before grabbing breakfast and crashing, HARD.

Friday – I set my alarm for 1am so I could wake up and make a decision on the Pubcon. While I barely had the energy to make it, I reasoned that I could go to Pubcon for a few hours and still make it back to the hotel to hit the gym and sleep before dinner at 10pm with a bunch of friends from Minneapolis who were in town to see Roger Huerta kick some ass. I went 2/3 on that plan. Spent a few hours at Pubcon, made it to the gym, but no sleep. I met up with my friends at N9ne Steakhouse at the Palms for a ridiculously good dinner. After that we went to Pure again, and needless to say had a great time. Another long night.

Saturday – This was the day I had been waiting for. I was originally planning to go to the Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale fight at the Palms, but the guy I was supposed to go with kinda flaked out at the last minute. No big deal I knew it would work out. Lucky for me, my friend Jay who came down from Minneapolis to see the fight had an extra ticket. Not only was the Pearl at the Palms the ultimate venue to see a fight, but Minneapolis fighter Roger Huerta absolutely beat some ass. I’m really looking forward to seeing Huerta become the lightweight champion. Also, I wish they weren’t in the same division, but props to Kenny Florian for being one of the coolest athletes I’ve ever met. This was the second time I had talked to him (first being 77 in Cincinatti) and he’s never too good to take a minute to chat. After the phenomenal (maybe best fight I’ve ever seen) fight we went up to Moon for the after-party. I have some great pictures from Moon, but I’ll have to upload them later.

All in all what a great trip to Vegas. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things, so I’ll probably update this post. You might be wondering why the hell I would take the time to go to the gym while I’m in Vegas. More on that later…but for now I need to pack my bags again.

I want to thank MMAJunkie for the Cincinnati hospitality and hooking us up over the weekend. It’s always great to meet the people who run sites you’ve been a long-time visitor of, but Junkie was a class act. It was also great to meet the Mickey’s guys, I look forward to working together with them in the future. I also had a great time hanging out with Jeremy’s neighbor, Brad Alderman, the champion wrestler lincoln dentist. Thanks for paying for EVERY cab fare dude.

There were some really great fights Saturday night. Even though I bet on Silva, I found myself actually cheering for Franklin due to the tremendous energy in the arena. Rich has some unbelievable fans in Cincinnati. Unfortunately, Anderson Silva is a freaking Jedi, and Franklin just doesn’t win that fight.

Tim Sylvia put in the exact performance I was hoping for. Far from exciting, but consistent and winning.

Love it. What a great weekend. Pictures at Shoemoney.