Uber Vegas

Okay, first things first, I suck.

Really.

I knew my degenerate time would be a bit limited this go around, but I badly understimated just how much time would be sucked up in the performance of husbandly duties. Staying at the Stratosphere was likely not the best choice, either, making it hard to sneak out for some free time here and there, given distances involved.

While I did get to play a goodly bit of poker with helixx and ankhorahil at MGM early on Friday, I only got in a few orbits at Excalibur. I did, however, get to personally witness CJ whip out quad 7s when dropping the hammer, which sent some poor lady scrambling for the exit, steam emanating from her ears.

Saturday was more of the same, as plans to hit up the after party evaporated into a touristy haze of white tigers and lions, sharks, and Blue Men.

So yeah. I suck. I barely had time to meet anyone, and when I did, it was pretty much limited to Hey, yo, nice to meet you. It wasn't out of shyness or lack of desire or any damn thing like that. I was just honestly and truly occupied the whole damn time, and not willing to abandon the better half or convince her that she should forget about the stuff she wanted to do her first time in Vegas, so that she could instead come with me to meet a bunch of poker folks.

That said, I had a really good time. It sounds sort of hokey, but my wife and I have a really good time, and it was her first time in Vegas, and in the grand scheme of things I'm glad I manage to swallow my degenerate pride and make sure she had fun. I also think I likely managed to build up enough credits to make the trip solo in the future, assuming there's another gathering of blogger souls, at which point I can truly partake in the festivities.

But yeah. Vegas.

We got in around 6 on Thursday, checked in, surveyed the landscape. I was a bit surprised as far as the Strat. Definitely not nicey-nice but it wasn't bad, especially considering that we ended up paying something like $20/night with the package deal we got. We grabbed some food and my wife expressed the desire to play slots for the first time. We sat down and plunked some money in penny slots. I was playing some Sea Monkeys game, not really paying attention, and suddenly the machine was blowing up, spinning on its on, blaring the theme song from The Monkees. And it kept going, and going, and going. My wife is finally like "What the hell is it doing? Make it shut up." At which point I realized that I'd just won $300, when it finally stopped. Sweet. The wife finished up $70 or so, at which point we quickly fled.

Walked around a bit, down to the Wynn. Pretty nice, all in all, but Jebus that's a tiny, cramped poker room. Hung out there for awhile, played a little blackjack, played some more slots, called it a night.

Friday we checked out the Rio, getting there right before Event #2 started. Pretty crazy, all in all, and I was definitely kicking myself for not just buying in, as it's hard to walk around, watching, when you're thinking "Damnit, I could be dead money, sitting at the table, just like all these other muppets." At which point my wife casually says to me, "Why didn't you just sign up for this and play?"

(To rewind a bit, the main reason I didn't just buy in was because we have a working agreement that I'm free to gamble as much as I want, at whatever limit, as long as I don't start talking specifics with her. She trusts me, but if I start talking hard numbers, she'll get nervous and want me put it in a savings account or something respectable like that. I didn't see any way around that, as far as plunking down $1,500 to play, as my reasoning would have been "Wifey, I just plunked down $1,500 to play in a poker tournament, but it's okay, as I'm still ahead (insert dollar amount) for the year." So I didn't buy in, which likely saved me $1,500, but, you know.)

So I explain to her just how much it was to buy in, to which she responds, "Yeah, I know." I then, for the sake of clarification, ask her if she is, indeed, saying it would have been okay for me to do that. To which she casually responds "Sure, you've done really well, you should have done it. I kept expecting you to ask me if it was okay."

Doh. Note to self: give wife more credit sometimes.

Hit up the MGM later that day with helixx and ankhorahil, playing 2/4, which was, umm, interesting. I mentioned this way back when, but I'd actually never played a single hand of hold 'em live. Never. So I was a little bit nervous, just as far as not wanting to do something stupid and screw up the blinds, act out of turn, etc. We all sit down at the new table they opened, buy chips, all that good stuff. I was actually hoping for a trashy hand, just to muck it and watch the action.

I'm sitting in late position and look down to find 10 10. Four people limp in, so I just limp, and we have something like six to the flop. Which is 10 10 5. At which point I'm thinking "Hmm, this live stuff is so freaking rigged." I slowplayed as much as I could, getting a little action from a guy with 7 7. No spinning wheel or high hand jackpots at MGM but still, not bad, quad 10s the first hand out of the chute.

I ended up booking a nice little profit, despite not catching much in the way of cards. Grabbed some food, then made it over to the Excalibur for a brief stint at 4-8 at the same table with CJ, BadBlood, and some other bloggers whose names I didn't catch. Got absolutely no cards, folded a lot, then had to go collect the wife.

Not much to say about the blogger tournament at the Aladdin that hasn't been said, as far as the crapshootastic structure. I had a decent stack but managed to get myself commited with AJo on a semi-steal, called the all-in, and ran into AKs in the BB. That left me with a couple of BBs, so I felt compelled to push with K2s in the SB when it folded around to me. Hank called with K10o, no soup for me, and I was done, busting out 42nd or so.

I did, though, manage to pick up Joe Speaker's most excellent bounty, the book "Homeboy" by Seth Morgan. It's been a long time since I've read a Holy Shit book, one that I stay up until 3 in the morning reading, slightly amazed, shaking my head, but that one fits the bill. Anyone with a single degenerate bone in their body should track down that book and read it. Holy shit. Thank you, good sir, for such a veritable bounty.

The rest of Saturday was sort of a touristy blur, hitting up the observation deck and pool at the Strat, sharks at Mandalay Bay, Blue Man group at the Luxor, tigers and dolphins at the Mirage, silly Nascar stuff at the Sahara, and other stuff I'm forgetting at the moment.

Sunday we checked out, hit up the penny slots again, where we somehow defied the odds and scored again. While I'm not complaining, at all, there's definitely something amiss in the universe when penny slots come close to paying for your trip.

Got back home Sunday night and crashed.

Which brings us to today. With me sitting here at work again, bored out of my skull. More later.