Ship it! +$15

Such a silly day. I played 39 $215s at 6/2/3/28 for +$15. That's 15 dollars. Not 1500 or 15,000. Pretty remarkable to invest $8300 and make $15 :) Spent the evening over at Chris Balzli's playing pool and somehow I managed to lose my car keys. I hopefully locked them in my car, because if not then they are gone. We tore Balzli's house apart looking for them. I figure the 15 bones I made today will come close to covering the charge for the locksmith tomorrow, so it was a very even day :) My uncle is having a retirement party in Birmingham tomorrow, so I'm gonna go check that out during the day. Katherine just got back in Alabama from Key West, FL and is coming to hang out this weekend, so I'm excited about that. Bama football has it's A-day scrimmage game on Saturday, so that should be a good time. Probably no more poker until Sunday night.

Sidenote: I am deathly sore from working out 4 days in a row. Anthony and I somehow managed to go 4 straight days, which is incredibly remarkable feat given our work ethics :)

Winning day, Vegas house booked

I played 40 more $215s today at 4/5/5/26 for +$400 exactly. That is very even relative to the amount of money I invested, but it is a win nonetheless, and I'm happy. I feel like I could make a strong run at these $215s in the next couple weeks.

On a more exciting note though, my poker friends and I officially booked a house in Vegas for June 26 through August 10th today for the WSOP. Here is a link if you guys wanna check it out:

http://www.cyberrentals.com/USA/Nevada/vacation-house-Las-Vegas/p132262.htm

There are 10 of us staying in the house. It is a very, very, very solid group of young online pros. The group includes some great high limit cash game players, Pot Limit Omaha players, and online and live MTT stars. We all are gonna learn a lot from each other and have a blast at the same time. Here is a list of the 10 players:

1) Jonathan "XxTabiasxX" Little (21...Pensacola, FL)
2) Michael "Worldsgrtest" Banducci (20...Traverse City, MI)
3) Mike "NUTZREALBIG" McStott (21...Minneapolis, MN)
4) David "Trip12s" Anderson (23...Amherst, NE)
5) Mats "KISFM" Iremark (23...Gothenburg, Sweden)
6) Adam "VinceIsGod" Geyer (21...Austin, TX)
7) Dave "Gary_Player" Winters (New Jersey)
8) Donny "Deez_Nuts3" Carlton (22...Iowa)
9) Nate "supg81" Hayes (21...Kearney, NE)
10) Shannon "BLUFFforRENT" Shorr (20...Tuscaloosa, AL)

Woah..I CAN win

I am overcome with excitement after I just crushed 39 $215s at 8/4/3/24 for +$3215. I wasn't happy about being relegated to $215s, but now I'm exhilirated. Part of being a good gambler is knowing which games to play. It makes no sense to play $530s at negative ROI when I can, I think, beat up $215s for a much better ROI over time. In the end doing this for a living boils down to making money. It's not about who you play with or what kind of stakes you get involved in. It's about making money. I'm going to play 40 more tomorrow and hopefully tack a couple grand more onto the bankroll. I've also been working out the last few days, so I feel like I've been very productive today :)

Bradley Johnson...Gone but not forgotten.

Wake Me When March Ends...

I just wanna cry. I got off to a great start in $530s tonight and then proceeded to fucking go 0/0/0/8 in my last games to end the day at 1/2/3/12 and -$2690. $1600 of those losses can be attributed to me getting fucked in the WSOP step 5 by JT vs TT after we got the money in on a flop of 679. Poker has never been this bad, and I really have no idea where I wanna go from here. I'm pretty sure that I am going to drop down to $215 SnGs starting tomorrow. Even the thought of sitting at another $530 makes me wanna puke. It's taking every ounce of energy in me to stay sane and not get incredibly depressed.

:(

Minus $8300 today. Enough said.

Good night at tables, but some sad news...

I played 37 $530s tonight from 7 pm until 230 a.m. and busted them up for $3800, which I'm very happy about. I was down $3k or so through the first 20 games, but really came on strong in the rest of them to finish the day at 6/5/1/25. I'm probably going to continue to relax from the traveling by playing lots more $530s and watching basketball tomorrow.

Now for the bad news:I heard some devastating news from my friend Tim tonight. Bradley Johnson, a 17 year old high school student from Birmingham, died tonight in a car crash. Tim and I had played golf with Bradley on a number of occasions. The guy was one of the most highly tauted amateur golfers in the nation and had numerous offers from colleges all over the nation. He even reached the regional finals of the US Open qualifiers this year as a 17 year old. He was one of the nicest kids you'd ever meet and had a tremendous future ahead of him, so as you can imagine I, along with rest of the community, am heartbroken. Looking at something like this makes me realize that my poker problems are extremely, extremely small in the grand scheme of things. I will try to get the address of the family and I'll post it in case any of you are interested in sending Bradley's family a card.

RIP Bradley Johnson 11/16/88 - 3/25/2006
You will be missed.

Finally back in Tuscaloosa

It's Saturday night and I just made it back to my apartment for the first time in almost a month. I had a really good time with my friends in Destin. We didn't get to spend a ton of time on the beach because it was still pretty chilly a couple of the days.

As far as poker goes, it's been awful. The whole month of March has been miserable on the rare occasions that I've played. Like I have in the past, I've given away thousands of dollars playing big cash games that I really shouldn't be playing without much cash game knowledge. Part of that was trying to prepare for the limit tournament on the cruise. I've also lost about $6000 due to connection problems and power outtages in March, which doesn't help. This is going to be my first losing month since May 2005 barring me winning a big tournament in the next couple of days. I'm pretty depressed and frustrated, but it's not the end of the world. I'm going to spend Sunday-Thursday grinding probably 35-40 $530 a day and playing some MTT's as well. It's really nice to be back in Tuscaloosa after all the traveling, too.

In Destin

I'm in Destin and my phone is broken, so I can't see if you call. Leave a message and I will check it from someone else's phone and get back with you.

Yep,
SS

Out of $1000, Aussie Millions info

I died a slow death and finished 112th out of 157 in the $1000 today. Sent 1300 from the BB with TT after 2 limpers for 100 and obv first limper has QQ. It's nice to lose a pot where I was an underdog though. I got 3 outted in a $215 a couple hours later though, so it reassured me I'm the most unlucky player on the ship. Last night on the ship tonight. We arrive in Ft. Lauderdale at 8 am eastern tomorrow, fly to B'ham at 215 and arrive in B'ham at 315. I then have to drive to Tuscaloosa to return a tux and then I'm off to Destin, FL for 3-4 days to hang out with my friends from Bama. I'm done playing poker/gambling for the trip. For the first time in one of my international trips I lost money. I ended up -$2500 or so on the trip. I take comfort in knowing I ran completely awful for a whole week and only lost that.

Also:
The Aussie Millions was supposed to broadcast tonight, but apparently it is being pushed back a couple weeks while they air the Monte Carlo Millions. It should air early April.

3 outted, of course

I played the $1000 freezeout yesterday and finished 87th out of 228 because my AK was obv no match for AJ. I sent 2500 all-in UTG with blinds 100/200 (25) and was taken down by AJdd on a final board of Kd Tc 9d 8h Qh. I would have been double the average in chips :( I'm playing the $1000 that starts in about 5 minutes, so hopefully I will win today. We arrive in Ft. Lauderdale at 8 a.m. eastern tomorrow. The trip has been amazing. I hate that it's coming to an end.

No worries,
SS

Thursday

The last 2 days have been really enjoyable, except for gambling. We did the aforementioned activities in Jamaica and had a lot of fun. The Jamaican locals are really funny though. We went shopping for souvenirs and the Jamaicans absolutely will not leave you alone. They will pressure you to no end to try to get you to buy their items, so that was pretty funny. Today was great too. We arrived at Grand Cayman Islands this morning and went on a semi-submarine where we were able to view the underwater life from the boat. Then we got to get in the water and snorkel. Good times. Gambling hasn't been as good. I lost $1400 playing poker last night and $500 tonight playing caribbean stud in the pit. The live SnG's though are kinda frustrating. It basically comes down to whether you win a coinflip or not to determine whether you're +$2,000 or -$2,000. With those losses I'm still +$2,000 overall on the trip. I'm playing a $1000 NL tournament tomorrow morning and another $1000 NL tournament on Saturday morning, so there is potential for a $40,000 score in each of those. I also don't think I've mentioned that there is a film crew here doing a story on me. They've been following me around the ship and even on one of the excursions, so it's kind of mini reality-TV. It's going to air on Travel Channel or something like that.

Sidenote: Both Randali and XxTabiasxX cashed in the main event in 75th and 96th place, respectively. They each took home a cool $16,000 for their efforts, so congrats to them. Also, I just found out that Bama knocked off Marquette in the opening round of the NCAA tournament! I read that it was a thriller though, so I hate I missed it. I am really pumped though. They play UCLA in the second round on Saturday. That will be a very tough game, but a win will send them to the sweet 16 in Oakland. Roll Tide.

Tuesday...Having a blast

It's Tuesday night (Wed morning) at 3 am. My mom and I are having an absolute blast on the trip. We've been eating some really nice (free) dinners, soaking up some sun on the deck, and listening to karaoke both nights so far. The karaoke has been the best part. There are actually some very, very good performers. My mom actually sung an outstanding rendition of Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine" tonight, so that was fun. Neil_Trahey and I are considering singing "Mambo #5" tomorrow night. I lost $1500 last night in sidegames and won $270 tonight, so I'm still +$4000 in poker on the trip. We dock in Ocho Rios, Jamaica in about 5 hours and have a fun day planned. We're going on an excursion to touch dolphins and go to Jamaica's number 1 tourist attraction, a waterfall that you can actually walk up 600 feet on. It should be exciting.

Sidenote: Two of my best poker friends Jon "XxTabiasxX" Little and Randall "Randali" McCowan are left in the main event of around 200 players. 99 get paid. I'm rooting for them hardcore. Jon is one of the hardest working poker players I know and Randall is such a good person that he deserves good things to happen. First place is a shot at $1M for both of them, so me being the professional prop. odds-maker that I am, will probably try to buy a piece of them at some point :)

I'm happy,
Shannon

Out of PPM V, +$5380in side games

Well...

I busted earlier today out of the main event. I was actually the second player out of the 270 playing today to bust. I busted just behind poker pro Paul Darden and just before poker pro, Barry Shulman, so I guess I'm in good company. It's hard to describe what went on. Fixed limit hold 'em is a very strange game and a lot of it has to do with the cards you're getting and the position that you get them. I just couldn't pick up any hands for the entire 2.5 hours that I played. I folded, folded, folded, and played extremely tight. When I did pick up hands I lost all 5 or 6 I was involved in for massive pots. **BY THE WAY THESE ARE NOT BAD BEAT STORIES, SIMPLY DOCUMENTING** I had AdKh and 3 bet a raise on the button preflop. The flop came down AsKs5s. The guy leads and I raise of course. The turn is the 6s putting 4 spades out. It goes check/check. The river is the Qs and he leads. I have to call for my equity in the split pot. I actually could've laid the hand down if the river was something like the 8s instead. For him to have a spade in his hand though it would have to be with a non-face card except the Js that he would have opened with in middle position for a raise. That was unlikely, so I called and he showed Ts6c?! Just after break number 2 I proceeded to lose a gross pot with K8hh. The UTG player raised and got callers from the cutoff, the button and the small blind, so I have to flip in the extra 200 chips because I'm getting 9:1. The flop comes AhQh9c giving me the nut flush draw. It's checked to the cutoff who bets. The small blind and I both call. The turn is the Qs. It goes check, check, bet, call, call. There is 3800 in the pot now. Here is where things get interesting. The river was the Th. The small blind checked and I was debating whether to check to induce a bet or just lead. The cutoff, an online qualifier who had been playing poorly all day, quickly bet. I had not yet acted to I just checked. The small blind called. The small blind definitely has a dry Q or a small flush. I checkraised with the nut flush and the cutoff just called and small blind pondered and folded. The cutoff has 99, what?! He flat calls me with the full house and I'm down to 1600 chips after I lose almost 2000 in that pot. The next hand was fitting. I was all-in drawing dead on the river with KTdd on a board of Ac4d3d9h against her Ad7d. I lost a couple of pots before that with hands like A7 vs 22 on a AK345 and QQ vs KJ on a Kxxxx board. I just have to continue to bet those boards for value all the way down. The 22 hand I get checkraised on the end. It was just sickening. I'm confident in the limit hold 'em that I played though and I look forward to playing $6000-$9000 in limit events at The World Series.

Good news though:
Last night I played some side tournaments. I played a 20 man $540 for another seat in the Main Event and busted in 14th, but then played a $1080 single table tournament where the winner gets a seat. I ran over the table and had 68%/32% of the chips when I got heads up with an excellent poker player from Yale University named Alex. We agreed to chop and I took $7,000 and he took $3500. My mom and I are really enjoying the cruise though. The food is amazing, and after I busted we just hung out on the deck for like 4 hours enjoying the sun. Tonight we're going to check out a comedy act and maybe go watch (not sing) some Karaoke. I hope to continue to bust up the sidegames late at night.

Fucking rigged

It's been a while since I've posted. I haven't been playing much poker, and when I have everything goes wrong. I've lost like $6000 in equity because of connection problems and the power going out the other night during the storm. It's hard enough to make substantial money playing poker, so to have to combat another "rake" of sorts is pretty painful. I've basically lost all of my freerolls to WSOP now because of the connection problems and the fact that I can't win a coinflip or 60/40. WSOP step 5...K5 vs J6 no chance. AK vs TT, nope. A9 vs 77, nope. I have no real desire to play any online poker for like a week. I leave for the cruise tomorrow which is going to be nice. Tonight is formal with Katherine in Columbus, GA though so it is going to be very fun. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to post on the ship because I hear that the internet connection is shaky. Cardplayer.com is covering the event, so updates should be available there. The tournament starts on Monday.

adf;jkhsdjfkhasdjkfhasdjkf,
Shannon

Back in the States

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

I finally made it back to Birmingham last night around 9 pm. It's really nice to be back. I woke up around 11 am today and went to eat lunch with my mom at Red Lobster. It was delicious :) I've spent the last few hours today playing WSOP steps and I'm doing very well. I bought into step 4 and won it to move on to the final WSOP step and I bought into step 3 and won it to move up to step 4. I will update accordingly. I probably won't play any $530s this week. I'm trying to get some limit cash games in in preparation for the cruise next week. My mom and some of my aunts and uncles and I are going to eat dinner tonight, so that should be fun. The rest of the week is going to be pretty laid back until I leave for Auburn on Friday to go to formal with Katherine. I can't wait! I leave Sunday morning from ATL to Ft. Lauderdale for the cruise.

Out in 11th

Just missed cashing in the $1000 freezeout :( The cutoff opened for 4,000 and I sent my 19,000 from the button with A9o. Of course the cutoff has KK though and I'm out. I'm happy to make it deep in yet another tournament though. I am continuing to learn something new in all the live multi-tables that I play. We fly out in about 8 hours. I should make it back into Birmingham by 8:30 central time on Monday night. Time for bed. Goodbye Vienna.

Final 17

First chance to update. I'm actually in the final 17 of this $1000 freezeout. 82 players started. I am extremely low with 10,500 and blinds about to be 800/1600 (100). Average is about 26,000. You never know what can happen if I double though. Only the top 9 get paid.

Sunday

John and I spent the afternoon checking out a neat art museum and had a lot of fun. We made it in time for the $1000 freezeout tournament, and we are currently on break from it. I had a great first 90 minutes and am up to 8700 from my original 5000. I will update accordingly.

Final table deal

Unbelievable final table. Some of the strangest stuff happened. On about the 5th hand of the final table the second short stack moved all-in from middle position. I found AKcc and called instantly. He had ATo. The board stayed clean and I doubled through to about 70,000. The guy was halfway out the door and it turns out he has me covered by 500 chips. The blinds were 3000/6000. So the next hand he is in 2nd position and goes ahead and puts his 500 in. The BB raises over the top and I fold in the small blind and the big blind folds. The guy with 500 chips has 84o and the button has K4cc. Amazingly the guy spikes the 8 on the river to multiply his stack by 5 including the antes. The next hand he sends his 2500 all-in UTG. He is called in 4 spots including the BB. He has AA and multiplies his stack by 5 again and is now up to 12,500. He then proceeds to double in the BB and is up to over 27,000. A few hands later a guy opens for 16000 UTG and I found TT in middle position. I make it 48000 and he ponders and finally folds. It stayed 9 handed forever and the blinds increased all the way to 6000/1200 before any eliminations. Some sick chopped pots and suckouts to survive kept it 9 handed. Finally we lose like 3 players in 15 minutes and agree to a 6 way deal with 7 minutes left on the clock of the 6000/1200 blinds. They brought the tournament staff over and calculated what the payouts would be according to chip stacks and I finally, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to a deal. I was the last one to agree. I had 59,400 in chips and was going to be UTG and hit the blinds very soon. I was 5th out of the 6 remaining in chips. I lost over 30,000 in blinds and antes alone because I was so card dead over the course of an hour. I would have shoved almost any picture card to try to steal blinds, but I just didn't get the opportunity. I think I made the correct decision though. I was guaranteed 3700 euros for 6th place, but agreed to the deal which gave me 8660 euruos. I would have had to finish 2nd or better to make more. First and Second paid 36k euros and 18k euros respectively, so that is what made me kinda want to play. It was such a crapshoot and I figured if I picked up a good hand UTG, BB or SB then I could make a run at the 38k euros. It's almost a no-brainer though, you have to accept a deal when 5% of all the tournament chips in play are in the middle of the pot before every hand starts. I'm happy though. 8660 euros amounts to over $10,000 USD, so I made about $8800 USD on the tournament. That covers my $5000 I lost online yesterday and $1800 entry into the Main Event. That leaves me with $2,000 profit, another final table appearance, and the amazing time that we've had here. No poker tomorrow. A group of us are going to check out some museums and stuff in the city which I really look forward to. We depart about 9 am local time on Monday, so we're just gonna enjoy ourselves until then. I keep having big scores Internationally after I get screwed in side games or online. It's almost an Omen.

Cheers,
Shannon

Final table

Just limped into the final table of 9 with 37,000 chips exactly. I got crippled when I was priced into a call with KJ vs QQ, but I just lucksacked QJ vs JJ all in preflop. The board came AT8K4 to give me the nuts. Payouts don't increase very significantly, so I am going to try to gamble my way to first place.

In the money

Unbelievable roller coaster hour. I took a devastating beat and was down to 14,000 at one point. I have worked my way back up to 54,100 with 18 players left. Average is about 35,000. Hopefully things will go well.

Overall chip leader

I am overall chipleader with 34 players left. I have exactly 60,000, more than triple the average. First place amounts to $43,000 USD. I am playing textbook big stack poker and expect a top 3 finish. It will probably run until about 7 pm Alabama time.

Great 2nd hour

Worked my way up to $26,200 in chips. I made probably the best call of my life with (JT) on a final board of K9742 and the guy rapped the table and showed 6c8c for a missed straight flush draw. I'm probably amongst the tournament leaders with like 70 players left.

First break

Had a solid first 90 minutes. Worked 3000 starting chips up to 4675. I added on at the end of the first hour for a total of 7675 chips.

Saturday

It's 5 pm here and we're about to play a 500 euro + Rebuy tournament. It's snowing here and I'm pretty sick with a cold, so we decided against going outside. I had a badddddd day yesterday online and didn't get in bed until 5 am. Hopefully today will be better. There are about 110 entrants and first should pay about $40,000. I will update on breaks.

Out in 82nd place :(

Just 30 minutes into day 2 I gave away 90% of my chips. I did the one thing I didn't wanna do...get involved in a big pot with guys that I can outplay. I opened from 3 off the button with K7o for 1325 with blinds 200/400 (50). The guy directly to my left flatcalled me. We took a flop of 762 rainbow. I felt pretty good about it. I led out for 2100 and the guy quickly makes it 6500. I didn't know what to make of this. I was 100% convinced he didn't have a set. He just acted too quickly. I thought he could have one of a number of hands, most of which I was ahead of. I thought AK, AQ, 33, 44, 55, 88 or a very, very slim chance 99-AA. As I was pondering I realized I had to act fairly quickly if I was going to get him off of a hand like 88-TT. I decided to move it all-in for his 19,000 total. It takes him less than 10 seconds to call me with TT. I blanked out and was down to 3,800 in chips. When I got around to the small blind it was folded to me and I moved my 3400 or so all-in with A2o. The BB, same guy that busted me calls with AJ. Amazingly I hit the 2 and double through. The next time I was in the BB I called 700 more from a MP raiser with 89hh. The flop came 933. I checked and he bet 1000. I moved in 7000 quickly and he folded. The next hand I was in the SB. UTG made it 1200 and I found AKdd in the small and moved all 11,000 in. He pondered for a minute and called me with TT. The board came x x x x all spades and neither of us had a spade. I had 9 outs to chop the pot and 4 additional outs to win it outright. Unfortunately the 2c came on the river and I'm eliminated. I'm not sure what we're going to do the rest of the trip. It sucks, but obviously I'm not going to cash in every tournament. Just to cash in 3 straight tournaments you're like 999:1 if you assume average talent level. So I'll take making the final table 2 out of my first 3 and clear my head and try to do it again on the cruise in a couple weeks.

No worries,
Shannon

Day 1 recap...Day 2 about to begin

I didn't get into much of a recap from yesterday because we didn't stop playing until 2 am local, and I was exhausted. My table was fairly solid for the entire day. About 4 of us played together all day and players were moved in as tables broke. Two seats to my right was WSOP bracelet holder Jan Sorensen. He won an Omaha bracelet in 2002 and a Stud bracelet in 2005. He was very tricky and mixed it up, so having position on him helped. To my left was a solid, young Hungarian player who is hanging on with 11,000 in chips. I only had a few interesting hands all day. I hit a set of 2s and took down a nice pot early on and also picked up Aces and got paid off nicely. I played what I felt was nearly immaculate poker. I only made one mistake all day and it was with KJ. I'm really not sure it was even a mistake. I raised from middle position with KdJs to 925 with blinds 150/300. The big blind flat called. The flop came Jd 9d 4s and he checked to me. I bet out 1400. I had about 29,000 in my stack at the time. The guy ponders for about 5 seconds and announces that he's all-in for like 10,500. I really had to go into the tank. It was such a huge overbet that I felt he could easily be making the play with a hand like JT or even something like A5dd which I'd prefer him not to have, but I still have to call. I call and much to my chagrin the guy turns over AdAc. The turn gives me some more help, a ten. I'm dead to any picture card to take the hand. The river is a 4 though :( I truly grinded my way back from 18,000 to 27,500 but then dumped 2500 on the last hand of the night with 55 when I had to fold to a river bet. There are somewhere between 82-90 players left. 27 get paid.

My friend Cody "Thugmoneymkr" Slaubaugh is 11th overall with 45,050. I am 40th overall. I'm going to continue to play how I'm playing. I made one mistake in 9 hours and can't hang my head over that. I'm going to continue to just try to make the best decision every hand I'm involved in. That's all you can do.

Sidenote: My friend Brad from Auburn pointed out to me that there is a website that is following the tournament. They have a forum, atleast. You can find it at http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=7635.375

I'm at table 26 seat 2 today. If you want an update tell them Shannon is the one in the loud brown PartyPoker jacket.

Cheers.

Day 1 over, finally

Today was a grueling 11 hour affair, but we're finally finished. I finished the day with 25,500 in chips. There are 90 players left of the original 234, so the average is exactly 26,000. I'm going to get some food and go to sleep because I'm exhausted. Play resumes at 3 pm Vienna time (8 am Alabama) tomorrow.

1 more level to go

Just finished level 5. We have one more level (90 minutes) before we get outta here. I slipped down to 21,100 :( I lost a 28,000 pot with KJ vs AA on board of J x x. The guy trapped me and I couldn't get away. I'm almost exactly average with 110 players to go.

Going well

28,925 in chips after 6 hours of play. We have 3 more hours. 135 players remain of the 235 original entrants. I will post again around 730 pm in Alabama.

About to leave for day 1

We are about to take the shuttle over to The Concord for day 1 of the event. I probably won't be able to update until the day is over. The event starts at 3:00 local time.

Last night was lots of fun. Jon, David, Cody and I partied it up hardcore. Hopefully we'll still be able to do well today :)

Vienna

We made it to Vienna at like 1:30 local time and got checked in around 2. We took a much needed nap from 3-7 pm because we hadn't slept the whole time. We are about to go to a private party in the city that should be fun. The tournament starts at 3:00 pm tomorrow (8 am in Alabama). I probably won't be able to update status until after the end of day 1.

Cheers,
SS

Just touched down in Stuttgart

Jon and I just safely touched down in Stuttgart, Germany. Let me tell you this is sooooooo crazy hearing everyone speak German. There were very few things in the airport translated into English, so needless to say we had some difficulties finding our gate. It's 10:40 am here but only 3:40 am back in Alabama. We board our short flight to Vienna in 40 minutes. We're going to a PartyPoker party tonight in Vienna, so that should be a blast. I'll try to update later.