US Tour Diaries – Vegas, Baby
With the tour now winding into its final week and my liver & body more generally looking for a little sympathy, it's high time for a recap of Las Vegas.
WINNERS
Some professional poker playing friends of Nick's being able to get us cheaper-than-usual accommodation at The Palms, which one of the more luxurious casinos in town (albeit that they haven't done a major renovation in a few years, which means they currently are not the flavour of the month).
11-hour drinking and gambling sprees. After our opening night, I was a little disappointed to see that my wallet had $300 less in it than when we started. Then I remembered that we'd had about 30 beers and tipped on all of them (towards the end, I may have tipped a fiver for the order and another fiver when the beer actually arrived), and that I'd tipped on most hands during seven hours of blackjack. In light of this, $300 was probably a fair price for the night.
The rejuvenating powers of Bloody Mary's. It may now be my 'hair of the dog' drink of choice.
Finding a fellow North Queensland Cowboys fan to sit next to, along with some drunk Canadian golfers who knew how to play correctly, at the blackjack table on the second night. Had a nice little run going until the Canadians left and were replaced by two guys from Pittsburgh (see losers section).
Winning on low-level limit hold'em on the third day. It's actually not a game that requires true skill in the poker sense. Because the capped individual bets are so small and people are feeling pretty footloose and fancy-free on their Vegas holiday, it's very hard to push someone out of a hand. As a consequence, most players keep betting their hand even if it's not much chop, just in case they hit the right cards on the turn and/ or river. Conversely, I chucked away anything that wasn't a strong hand and just waited to pick off the big pots when I had something good – it was basically a case of showing more discipline than the table, and it paid off.
Being taken to a sushi place by Nick's poker pro mates on our final night. It was off the strip and we'd have never stumbled across it otherwise, but it was fantastic. We raced through a ridiculous number of tasting plates – sushi, tempura, salmon, tuna, prawns, you name it – and a few beers during our dinner that didn't kick off until around 11pm, which was something of a novelty in and of itsself. A nice way to cap off a fun three days in Vegas.
(After heading to San Fran, as the tour party went in separate directions before Niners-Bears Monday Night Football) Alcatraz – some pretty impressive stuff on a tour of one of the most notorious prisons of all time.
Since this may well be the final instalment of the tour diaries, I have to add the American people here. Beggars aside (there are an inordinate number of them, especially in San Fran), the people here could not have been more friendly or more helpful to us. Granted, very few of them know much outside their own country, but they seem genuinely invested in visitors having a great time in their town; their state; their country. I doff my cap to them.
LOSERS
Failing to hit a single one of my multis at the sports book – promptly giving back the money I'd won playing poker. That's what happens when you don't know enough about the sport, but feel obliged to have a throw at the stumps with some random collection of games because it's Vegas and consequently a rite of passage.
Blackjack dealers who do nothing but talk themselves up – Jason, I'm looking squarely at you. As if you've ever dated even one NFL cheerleader, let alone the seven you pretended that you had. I don't know much about cheerleaders for professional sports teams, but I'm guessing they care little for back-up blackjack dealers who only come on when the main dealers take their breaks.
Guys from Pittsburgh who split fours against a dealer's 10 (incredibly, he won both hands) and then attempt to stay on seven. Maybe he was scared that he'd get the 16 of clubs and bust out. Meanwhile, I'm sitting to his left and being eviscerated by all of these terrible decisions. The nice little lead I'd built up while the Canadians were around disappeared in about half an hour and I was back to square – time to flee the table and walk away from blakcjack for the rest of the night.
