Wednesday, April 28, 2010

I just spent 48 hrs in purgatory - let me explain....

girlfriend decided to give me a gift and got me a 44 hr vacation in Vegas - about 10 less then I prefer for 8 hrs of air travel, but a free trip is a free trip

Went to the Trop and got what may be the worst hotel room in the place - first floor right outside the driveway - went and requested another room and got one so far in the back my legs are still sore, but it was more private - with a beautiful view overlooking the ass end of the airport and a mirror on the ceiling - ah good times -

Basically spent 40 hrs dying slow deaths - about three $70 tourneys at Planet Hollywood - (20 min. rounds - 3000 in chips - decent structure for the strip) - and a $120 at Aria (30 min rounds with 8k in chips - for $120) - EXCELLENT structure and room there but there's a 1pm tourney and a 7pm tourney - 1pm had about 70 people and 7pm barely broke 25 and never had more then two tables, so I wished I had done the 1pm one

Dropped $70 in roulette and took my last $100 to play NL 1/2 at MGM Grand after a 4 hr nap - had a horrible sleep pattern never getting more then 4 hrs a shot mostly - slept 12 when I got home - I had a reserve $20 for Taxi money but was looking for local bank ATM's just to be safe

anyways, I am down to $50 when I hear of the $80 tourney at MGM and decide to rock one more time - I play hard and get up to $79 at tourney signup time whereupon a cool dude decides to give me the last buck - (they were all rooting for me on my all in where I took enough to get so close, so that was cool) -

I get in the tourney - probably 3-4 tables worth counting alternates and buy-in's - top 4 will pay -

interesting observation - blinds double at MGM - so dice start rolling FAST - never understood why someone would buy in for 3k at the end of the 4th level with 200/400 blinds, but what do I know

things finally pay off - nail a straight when my opponent gets top pair but trip'd on the river - got another hand that put me straight up to 16000 at first break and chip leader -

2nd hr I'm hot, busting three players, I think - got at least two AK's vs all-in's where I dominated and a 3rd time with KQ - the 4th time I took KQ vs 66 but didn't catch up - doubled up an Asian kid but no harm to myself

We get to the final table and we got a drunk who can barely count his chips and take like 45 sec. to push his chips or his cards every hand - in a ring game I'm happy with this but in a crapshoot with 20 min blinds he's starting to irritate me - fortunately we get down to 9 to 6 to 5 where I have A4 on an Ace/Ten/Ten flop vs an all in and another dude who BETS into me on the flop - was kinda PO'd but he did have a 10 but that's one of the times where you wonder what the hell he was thinking betting when we had the all-in - but he busted and we were down to four.

The other two busted out in short order to the chip leader - who was....guess who? - the kid I doubled up all-in with KQ vs. 66 the 2nd hr ;) - I'm about 4-1 down in chips with little room to wait - the first hand he gets all in and I have 67 suited and decide to call vs his A8 - I get the 6 and now it's more like 60%/40% in his favor - next hand he pushes again and I call with TT vs QJ but he rivered a Q to bust me -

that one tourney made up all my losses and took me back to even at 504 - $25 to the dealers for toke and I gave $6 to the dude who gave me the buck - - ended up dropping another $140 in a NL game and winning $80 at roulette for $60 down but that's cab fare, food, and other stuff so I figure I was even.

And as my hero Townes says, (after winning and losing one game each of $100 9 ball) - if you break even, that's like Purgatory - but getting up to Purgatory in the hell that is Las Vegas gambling is pretty darned good - ;)

good times - maybe I'll make the trip back this winter

other observations - the new Aria is sweet but the City Center as a whole is ridiculously huge - unreal - Vegas in April is still livable and walkable - and be careful where you leave your blackberry - looks like I need a new one unless Lost and Found gives me good news but looks bad 48 hrs later -

rb

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

not a lot of luck on the poker front right now - BUT - chess front is going ok...

watching "Bright Lights, Big City" - a movie famous for it's portrayal of drug usage and decadence. Michael J. Fox doing his young acting thing. What's inneresting to me is the portrayal of the literary life in New York in the 80's - to imagine a research office full of encyclopedias, phones ringing, and the solid foundation of terra firma paper almost seems alien to us now.

A time when bookstores were made out of wood and discriminatory instead of box stores built online - a time when Apartments in Manhattan were moderately affordable and even then the old-timers were raving about the old days when writers really ran with the bulls, right.

back when one's writing was a fingerprint - an identifiable trademark - a legacy and not something that could vanish with the crash of a server. Something that could be held in the hand. I half wonder of the next generation of e-readers which try so hard to mimic paper aren't representative of our longing for this time.

I'd have been SO screwed without spellcheck though - without the squiggly red line in my typing, I'd be beyond hosed in the real world

rb