Friday, July 14, 2006

Vegas Baby!!

I'm so far behind in my writeup. Work was hellacious when I got back, and that's always my favorite place to write. My Mom came to visit the next day, so my evenings have been full too. I need a vacation! LOL

Here's my quick writeup... (I'll get links in later. If I don't get this up now, I don't know when I'm gonna have a chance again.)

Booze. I drank a whole lot of it. Stayed away from the shots this time (no more 6 AM tequila shots with Iggy. It's amazing that little body can hold that much alcohol), but the beer was enough to keep me happily buzzed. I tried to pay off my booze by playing the video poker in the bar. The first night, I think I drank enough to pay for it. The other nights, I lost money faster than I can drink. Most people can attest, I can drink pretty fast too. Learned that I can get more +EV at other forms of gambling.

Early morning breakfasts. One after a long Sherwood Forest Bar stint, another on the last night of the trip. The first was with Iggy, Derek, Spaceman, Bobby Bracelet, G-Money and Me. (I think. Booze-fuzzy memory.) Second with April and umm... ugh. Can't remember.

Sherwood Forest Bar. Our bartender Tim looked like BG in about 20 years. He wasn't the most attentive server initally, but he warmed up after a few days of binge drinking and overtipping. He'll definitely remember us for a long time to come.

Poker. I didn't play much outside of the blogger tourney. I did play the night before the tourney. 1-3 spread limit. I suck. Drank, but not enough. Only other time I played, on the last night/morning, I sat next to...

The guy who hit on me last year. When we stayed and played at the Plaza, my last night was spent at the tables to the right of this guy with way too much money for his own good. Same position again. He remembered me, and vice versa. The only reason I sat down at the table originally was that April was telling me about this table asshole that was annoying her. I wasn't gonna play... and then he started annoying me with the come-on lines. I lost my first buy-in to him when he sucked out on my pocket 5s with 98o. He didn't get anything on the board... two higher pair, and he took it with a higher kicker. Got it back and more when my A9 hit two pair. He was playing any two cards, and throwing money around like it was water. I made my money back plus a little... that was all I wanted. I got up and left happy.

Playing Pai Gow. After hearing so much about this game from other bloggers, I learned how to play from an online site (no money involved). On Sunday night, after watching Jen Leo kick butt on Pokerdome, a few of us (Garth, Gracie, and I) decided that Pai Gow was a go. Pai Gow is a drinking game. Lots of pushes, hopefully you don't lose much and come out ahead a little bit, but the +EV is in the drinking. We had more +EV than any other game I'd played during the whole trip! We were joined by other bloggers (Maigrey, Derek) and had a grand old time donking it up on the Pai Gow table. I think that it was probably my favorite time of the whole trip!

Blogger Tourney. I skipped the Roshambo tourney and just played cards. Sat between Pablo and Poker Bitch (The Mark's wife). We had a blast with the people on the table. Although I got sucked out on (Josh's friend got me good!), I played well and lasted down to the final 4 tables or so. I busted out and headed out to drink with Iggy, JoeSpeaker and Maudie. Lots of blogger bonding. We got done and headed back to Excalibur.

Slots. SUCK! When we (Me, Gracie, Pablo, Garth, Falstaff, Byron and ...ugh, can't remember who the 7th person was) got done with dinner at the Luxor, there was a bank of $1 slot machines right outside the stairway. Normally I don't play those, but they had a jackpot of $11.6 MILLION!! Of course I had to play. At one point I was up $3. Probably should've quit there. Nope, had to go for the jackpot. Came up with nothing. That's how all of my slot play went. I'm sure it won't stop me from playing...

Dinner at Luxor. More specifically dessert. I'd gotten this black forest torte-thing. I put one bite into my mouth and almost gagged. Pablo saw the grimace on my face and started smiling. Of course, I can't suffer on my own. I turn to Falstaff, who's on my left. "Here, you've gotta try this!" Of course, he grabs a big forkful and puts it in his mouth. He's trying to school his face into a semblance of normalcy while he's inwardly cringing. I say to him, "Tell me, does that taste as shitty to you as it does to me?" and burst out laughing! Pablo sees the whole thing and starts to giggle. Falstaff starts laughing - he was trying to figure out how I could like the taste of the stuff and how he was gonna lie to me about his opinion of it. Of course, I can't let it go. "Watch this... Hey Garth, you've gotta try this!" Garth fell for it too. Used the same line on him that I used on Falstaff. I almost peed myself at the table! I was laughing so hard that I was crying. The whole table was cracking up. Luckily, the room we were in was almost empty so our noise didn't bother anyone else.

I'm sure there are all kinds of things I'm forgetting, so I apologize to anyone else for anything good I've forgotten. The booze has gotten to the few remaining brain cells I have left. I'll try to remember more and post over the next few days. Feel free to remind me!

I want to say how much I enjoyed seeing everyone again and meeting all kinds of new people. I loved every minute of this trip... or at least those I can remember. :-) I can't wait to see you all again!