Hella Hold'em

Catch up:

Part 1 - The Ride In
Part 2 - Storming the Castle
Part 3 - Aladdin Classic and Toothless Donkeys

Vegas Part 4: Poker at the Plaza and MGM

12:27pm Sunday, June 05, 2005

No up early for me! Woke up in the middle of the night feeling like dog shit. I now have a sore throat and what feels like a cold. Damn it!!! I slept in till 11am , so I got 9 hours or so, but had chills and sweats all night. Not good. I got up and took a shower, and I'm thinking I should probably lay low today (meaning, play poker all day). I may stop at the ABC store and get some throat drops. Only the right side of my throat is killing me – it is odd.

I'm debating if I should just go downstairs and play some poker here at the Plaza for a bit and see if any bloggers materialize. I'm thinking I'd like to check out the $50 sit-n-go's at Aladdin, but I really don't want to do the whole cab thing. There's $50 round trip right there. I could check out the bus… It is daylight, after all. But it would probably be nighttime coming home, and…. Well, I dunno. I don't know if it's safe to go alone. Unless I make sure I come back during daylight. That might be the maneuver.

I wish I had internet access here. I'd go look up the bus info. I managed to locate a couple wireless networks in range of my room, but I can't get either of them working. They're unsecured and I managed to pick an IP address that worked, and I have a couple national DNS addresses that I know work from anywhere, but I can't seem to get out of the network onto the web. Probably not guessing the default gateway correctly. Bah.

Oh well – time to go decide what I'm doing today… I feel like crap :(

Sunday, cont'd (written post-trip)

I decided to go eat Subway for lunch. Ya know, eat on the cheap. On the way to Subway I ran into Hank, who was in line for checkout. Sad sad sad! I was glad to have another day in Vegas. I ate my sandwich and headed back to the Plaza poker room to play some cards.

When I got there, a few bloggers were milling about, trying to decide what to do with their day. April ( Texas ) and her friend John were there, as well as Hank and a few others. I had signed up on the list to play some limit hold'em and somehow convinced April and John to play as well. Hank headed off to play Blackjack.

We sat down at a $3/6 game. The guy who had won the high-hand jackpot the other night at my table was there. The game pretty much sucked – a bit tight, and the people weren't very sociable. But, I wasn't losing money, so I wasn't ready to leave. Gracie showed up with her friend Pablo and I got to play with them for a little while. April wanted to go play at MGM , so I told her I'd meet up with her later for dinner and then we'd hit the MGM poker room.

I ran into an awful hand that took me for a good $40 (can't remember the details for the life of me), and found myself quite discouraged. I thought I might just leave, but decided to hang in there, and good thing. Shortly thereafter, I limp into a multi-way pot with pocket 4's. The flop brought my set, and a few people came to the turn with me. It was a dud – no major draws out there, but a couple high cards, and I managed to bring a couple people to the river. What card should fall but a glorious fourth four! One guy called my raise on the river, and I got to showdown my quad 4's. Then, someone yells out, “high hand!” I hadn't realized that those quads were going to win me a high hand jackpot. Sweet! It was only $61, but in addition to the monster pot I dragged, it was sweet indeed. I tipped the dealer out of my pot, and then tossed him five bucks when my jackpot arrived. Too damn cool. Turns out that a blogger's wife hit the jackpot earlier with quad four's – thus my itsy bitsy jackpot. I'm drawing a blank as to who it was – but good for her! Jackpots all around! The sailboats brought my friend Kathie to mind (of the JackHammer games). Good times.

After about 5 hours there at the Plaza, I was up almost $200. Around 5pm I decided to call it a day and head over to find April for dinner. I ran into Poker Geek, who was helping to arrange a mixed game there at the Plaza. April invited him to join us for some cards at MGM , but he'd already committed to the game at the Plaza. So, after chatting a bit and hearing the awful story of how Geek got knocked out 9 th in the Plaza's noon tourney (7 places paid), I headed to MGM .

Geek wins the award for the weekend for telling the best stories. I personally like to visualize all of the little details when listening to a story be told, and Geek did not skimp on the details. Most righteous.

I caught a cab and headed towards MGM . This cab driver was polite and didn't feel the need to fill every second with conversation. I was content just to be quiet for a bit. He started talking about halfway through the ride, and I asked him how long he'd been driving. Two years, and he doesn't like his job. Well, alrighty then! He dropped me off at MGM and I went in search of the poker room.

After wandering around a while, I found it and April A. She was sitting with a bunch of sharks at a no-limit table. I was feeling a bit hungry and didn't like the chances of me getting up if I sat down to a table – I'd hate to break up any good mojo by leaving to eat. So I suggested that we grab some dinner. April settled in for her last orbit just as April H. and Maura came walking around the corner. Sweet! What a nice surprise :) They decided to join us for dinner.

Right around then, I got a phone call from Randy. I stepped away from the tables to chat with him, and in my absence, April A. ran into a harsh hand that set her back a big hunk of change. Ouch. Dinner sounded good right about then.

We ate at the Rainforest Café – good stuff, though I was a bit disappointed with the thunderstorms. And if I hear one more person scream, “Volcano!” I might scream. I enjoyed the conversation at dinner though. April H. and Maura had scored some sort of We're the Shiznit cards, which allowed us to bypass the waiting list for priority seating, and then get a free appetizer. These girls know how to live. April ( Texas ) and I picked the tomatoes out of the bruschetta and discovered that we've got very similar peculiar eating habits. (Yes, we know – bruschetta IS tomatoes! But the juice is yummy!) Tasty morsels indeed at the Rainforest Café. April A. and I washed our meals down with cold medicine. (Thank you SO much - girl - you saved my life with those Advil Cold n' Sinus!)

After dinner we caught up with reader Jim from Vegas. Cool! He was up for some poker too, so we all got on the list for $2/4 limit. We eventually got seated, albeit at different tables. April H., Jim, and I were at one table, and April A. was at the other. Poker Geek made it out and ended up at April A.'s table. Later, April H. moved over to the other table, and Jim and I put in for table changes and waited. Our table had gotten a bit tight after the drunk birthday girl and her mom's friend left, and Ms. Raisy Pants took flight. The fish from Alabama was gone too, with his any-two-cards calling station tendencies, and the sweet old woman had also left the table. Our loose fish were replaced by tight WPT-watching types to the right side of the table, and two very quiet guys to my left. Little did I know, those quiet little sharks…. were bloggers amongst us.

Chilly! It was Chilly and friend. They were offended that Jim and I wanted a table change, but once we realized who they were, the banter picked up and we canceled our table change requests. I wasn't making any money, but was having fun. I was starting to feel like crap, though, as my cold medicine wore off and I neared the 14-hours-of-poker mark.

I was finding it harder and harder to win any pots at that table, and eventually requested a change. It was 3am or so, and it didn't take long to get a seat with the April's, geek, and… someone else that was with Chilly (name is escaping me!) Early on, I made a pot big enough to bring me back to even at MGM when my pocket 8's hit a set on the flop. The set held up and I was a happy camper.

Shortly thereafter, Poker Geek had a run in with a couple of jerks at the table who spent a bit too much time speaking in their native language, and played a bit too suspiciously when in pots together. Geek reported to the staff that he suspected collusion, but we weren't there long enough to see what happened, as one of the guys sucked out on Geek with 2-5 suited after he called the junk hand in jest, sending Geek on full tilt. Geek wisely stood up and left the table before he could say anything regrettable, and April A. and I followed suit. (April H. had already left for the night).

End result: I was up $1.00 for my time at MGM (9 hours or so). A whole dollar! At least it was profit…

The three of us split a cab back to the Plaza, where Geek ran into a blackjack dealer that had taken him for a ride earlier in the weekend. With five bucks in hand, Geek managed to go on a little blackjack rush – maybe up to $50 or so – only to lose it back to the soul sucking dealer. But, in the end, Geek's original five bucks was back in his pocket, and he broke even for a few minutes of unabashed blackjack fun.

We parted ways, and I headed to my room after a very long day of poker. I ended the day up about $200, offsetting the losses of the day before. I made it to bed by 5am or so.

Nice. Final day in Vegas, coming up.