[Obfuscation]

Second part:

Wednesday 9/13/06: Woke up with a pounding headache (go figure) but otherwise hanging in there. Munch on 3 Advil and get myself together at around 10am due to my Eastern Time Zone metabolism. Plan is to play the noon tourney at Caesar’s so I head over to register. At 11am there is only ONE shorthanded ½ NL game going which I found to be pretty amazing. Beautiful room although very isolated. I prefer the open-air approach of the MGM, myself. Went to the food court for a quick wrap before starting up the tourney.

Wish I could report something more interesting in the tourney but was pretty card cold the entire time. My big hands seemed to always miss the flop and didn’t really run into decent opportunities to make any moves. Did manage to double up once with A10 off a guy who just lost a huge hand and was clearly tilting but that was about it. I wound up going out early in the fourth level pretty quietly.

Everyone talks about how this is a great structure and it is, but the early hour and the lack of energy in the room made for a pretty dull afternoon, quite frankly. You could hear a pin drop in that place and everyone was overly serious. Frankly, my eyes were ready to roll out of my head if another person told a “Main Event” bad beat story. Some dink is a Bluff Magazine T-Shirt *chuckle* actually said something to the the effect of “My mind just hasn’t been right since the main event.” In this overly-somber tone as he looks around to see who’s listening. Good grief buddy, can it, will ya? Anyway, before busting out I discovered that Caesar’s serves Guiness. Oh yeah.

I bust out and sit in the 500max ½ game and stupidly start slugging Guins like its 10 minutes to closing time in Belfast.

Game is filled with maybe 5 decent players (which is of course a lot for casino ½) but I hold my own. I then take 2 absolutely horrendous beats at the hands of this old greek dude which crushes my whole session:

I call a raise to 6 with K3 of clubs on the button and promptly flop 2 pair on a rainbow board. Checks to me and I bet the pot of about 25 bucks or whatever. 3 callers including the old Greek dude who’s been drawing to any and everything the entire game and playing very passively. He also has been sucking out like a madman. On the turn a second spade falls and it’s checked to me and I make a fairly large-ish bet to 100. 2 insta-folds and then the old Greek dude leers at the flop, stews and then grabs a stack of 20 redbirds. I’m convinced he’s now drawing to the flush.

Of course the river is also a spade and Greek leads out for 125. Mother*****. I go deep into the tank and lay it down but the 10% of me that thinks I may have laid down the winner basically tilts me and I start leaking chips little by little. I’m down about 280 at this point and fairly drunk and decide to wrap it up soon when I get rockets in mid position. (Greeky was to my immediate right, btw). I raise it up, get 3 callers and the flop comes a ragged Queen high. I fire out bigger than pot sized bet, still tilty and content to pick up the modest pot. 2 insta folds but Greeky comes along for the ride again. Turn is a rag and I push my last 150 or so into the middle. Greeky calls me. River is a five and he turns over Q5 to crack my Aces. *siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* Kill me now.

I bail down 500 but up about 10 Guins.

After this I go back for a snooze and then some dinner and then decide to take a stroll down the strip and walk into all the cruddy casinos I have never visited before. As you go down the Strip on the Paris/Venetian side the casinos stick out in the street so you will walk right into them unless you turn. Kinda funny. I browse through the Flamingo and Harrahs and O’Sheas and every other foul cigarette smelling casino of yesteryear along the way.

I eventually head into the much-touted Venetian and sit down for some mellow 4/8. Most boring table of all time. Old grouches taking 30 seconds to gather up and look at their hole cards. Half asleep off duty dealers and other locals. I wasn’t impressed at all. Seemed like it was some insider club amongst the regulars and it bored me to tears. Not many games going late on a Wednesday night either. Maybe if I had been up/sober enough for NL I would have had a different experience but overall I just wasn’t all that impressed with the Venetian. It reminded me of a retirement home.

I leave after maybe 2 hours and keep walking down to the Wynn when this drunk 20 something chick carrying a half empty glass of Gin and Tonic stops me and asks me what the club across the street was. Judging from the huge orange sign reading “TANGERINE”, I said “I think that’s Tangerine.” Immediately I’m thinking that I don’t want to talk to a hooker but suddenly it dawns on me that this was just some girl and not a hooker. Dressed too plainly, not ugly but not hot, not too much makeup and clearly from out of town, talking about this being her first time in Vegas and just a little too drunk etc. Honestly, I’m giving it a 20% chance she was a working girl but as I’m not inexperienced in these matters, I’m pretty confident that she was a normal chick.

So what happened? Uh… yeah. I fooked it up and turned her down when she asked me to go have a drink. Doh. 50 yards later, I turn and kick myself but won’t bring myself to chase after her. I am a complete moron. I mean, good lord am I dumb. Instead of having a drink with a reasonably cute girl who may want to have sex with me for free I wind up going into the….. turn away if you’re squeamish…. The Frontier. *shaking head at self*

Dude, I cannot believe anyone goes to this place. No exaggeration, you could smell the stale cigarettes from 20 yards from the front door. It was HORRENDOUS. I did a quick lap and got the hell out of there. Who the hell goes to these places?!?! Why are they still in business? Unbelievable.

Anyway, to make amends I go back and immediately flip open the yellow pages and order up an Asian massage therapist. *nodding happily* 30 minutes later some non-descript Korean broad is rubbing me down and moaning about wanting a 100 dollar tip. Um.. no. We settle on something a bit more fair and I have an underwhelming if ultimately satisfying time. I’m telling you, I don’t know where these Asian massage girls get their wonder bras but you could make a 2x4 look buxom with one of these things. So annoying. I’m giving this a C+.

Thursday 9/14/06: My one buddy rolls into town and we hit the buffet at Aladdin. As my grandfather used to say: “Well, the food’s not that good but it’s all you can eat.” I then go watch Tyson as he finishes up some last minute work before we go over to MGM.

At MGM, I make it a point to stay sober for 90% of the time playing ½ NL and as a result I have a great session feeding on 2 classic, classic, classic calling stations for a 600 win. Then as we are wrapping things up around 9:30pm, I declare a SHOT WAR on my friend at the other table. I ask the waitress if she would bring my friend a shot of Jager over at the other table. “We can’t serve shots here.” *redbird* “Oh, well. I guess I can just put an ice cube in it.” Atta girl. Near vomiting of my friend gives me a clearly successful first strike in the shot war as I sit back down to prepare for the return salvo.

Buddy tries to send me Jack but the scheme backfires when the waitress somehow turns that into… Gran Marnier… *chuckle* I stand up boldly and toast my friend as I slug down the booze/Gatorade and even chew on the ice. It was like his cannon exploded amidships. I fire back a shot of Patron and win the MGM battle. Cashing out again toasty and happy.

The rest of the night was sort of non-descript except for the hooker parade at the Wynn. What a pain in the ass to see 800 super hot hookers and have to reveal that you’re staying at the …. *ahem* Aladdin. I mean, it’s embarrassing even when they are specialists in making you feel like a stud. *sigh* “Oh honey, I love the way your hair is receding that’s so sexy and …. Um.. the Aladdin? Oh baby, I just don’t play that way. So sorry.”

Friday we went downtown and then hit the Palms and Cheetahs and other points unknown… tbc…