Vegas, babies, Friday

Thursday night in Vegas, babies:

• 7 p.m. - We start to walk down the strip. It seems to be a slow period in Vegas right now. That’s OK with me. The poker probably won’t be as good, but the streets are emptier.

• 7:15 p.m. - Someone is selling bottled water for $1. Can you make a living selling bottled water out of your cooler?
And I wonder if the “ice cold” sales pitch works this time of year?

• 8:05 p.m. - If I get asked if I want to see a show or get another nightclub pass shoved in my face I’m gonna punch someone.

• 8:06 p.m. - Kate stops me before I punch someone.

• 8:07 p.m. - An angry black woman yells at me when I don’t take her pamphlet. I’m no salesman, but that doesn’t seem the best way to reach potential customers.

• 8:10 p.m. - We ride the New York, New York rollercoaster. Holy shit that was fun. I scream like a little girl on the first drop.

• 8:35 p.m. - I bow before the greatness that is the Bellagio’s poker room.

• 9 p.m. - We have a shrimp cocktail and lobster bisque at the Ceasar’sPalace food court. Yum.

• 9:15 p.m. - Sundae at Ghiradellis. We have not had a drink yet, but we’re all about the hot fudge sundae. I know, our hardcore partying is probably blowing you away at this point.

• 10:30 p.m. - I play $1-2 NL at Mandalay Bay. I play until 1:30 a.m. with a nit-like table. I get AA once and KK once and win small pots. I eventually lose $80, which I’m OK with. I made a couple nice bluffs, got caught once and generally hit no big flops and go card dead most of the night.
It was my first time playing live NL poker, and most of the guys at the table had played there for weeks, if not years.
I also wonder what you think about this hand:

I have J-A, the best hand I’ve seen in a long time, and I raise it to $`10. I get one caller in the small blind, a guy who was not one of the regulars but played pretty tight most of the night. The flop comes A,9,3 rainbow. That seems pretty good for me, so I bet $10, and he looks at his cards, pauses, then calls.

The flop comes a 6, and we won’t have a flush. He bets $15 into me. I call, but that worries me.

Another 9 comes on the river, and he bets $50. Do you call?


I’ll give you my answer tomorrow.




Friday, babies:

• 11:30 a.m. - After a night of blissful, heavenly sleep (Vegas is for sleeping; well, it is if you have infant twins), we are down at the pool. It’s hot enough to sweat but not hot enough to take a dip.

• 11:35 a.m. - “Something About You” by Level 42 plays, a song from my college days, when my roommate loved pop music and I had to play Iron Maiden extra loud to drown t out. All the music we’ve heard this weekend is from the 80s.

• 1 p.m. - Censored

• 1:45 p.m. - We hear a couple boning each other up above room. The woman is really going for it. OH YES OH YES OH YES!!!
Maybe we inspired them.

• 2:30 p.m. - We have lunch with Linda from Pokerworks. She’s my editor for the site and runs it basically. She’s a trip. I loved hearing all the stories from the poker dealing days. We had a great time and she even paid for lunch. If I can get Carmen and Miami Don to pay for a buy-in at the MGM tonight, this will really be a complete trip. Thanks, Linda, that was very nice of you.

• 5:30 p.m. - I probably look like a dork sitting here in the middle of the Luxor casino where I can get a signal staring at my laptop. But then again, me looking like a dork can’t ever really be helped. You are what you are.

Goddam I’m still sore. You would have thought I”ve never hiked before.

In a few hours, we’re heading down to the MGM to play poker with Don and Carmen. I can’t wait. I just hope my session goes better than yesterday. I think it will.