"Oh Yeah, I Forgot...the Rodeo's in Town" Pt. 1

Another gem from the quote machine......

After work on Thursday I packed up my bag and headed out to Ventura to meet up with Mitch, where we'd take off to LA to pick up Darsky on our way out to Vegas. For the past month or so Mitch had been complaining about not having enough money for this Vegas trip, his credit cards are maxed, blah blah blah. I walked into his room on Thursday night, and the first thing I see is a brand new PS3. Good job Mitch. He said he had opened up a Best Buy card the night before and got the PS with a bunch of BluRay DVDs. It's a friggin sweet lookin console....I'll give it to him....but self control man, SELF CONTROL!! My fault for bringing a broke, impulsive-buyer to Vegas?? Perhaps.......

After about half an hour of me playing Resistance: Fall of Man on his Samsung 56" 1080p DLP, I'd had enough and was ready for Sin City. He packed and we left. We stopped in the valley for a little bit first to stop by my dad's and we were at Dar's place at around 10PM. We started the trip with an extended conversation about TVs and resolutions. I like to think that I like electronics and that I know a little bit about the subject, but damn these guys are like tech gurus. I could sure use some advice from these guys along the road of purchasing electronics...

We stopped in FREEZING Baker for gas, and arrived in the city at about 5AM. First order of business: food! We went to a restaurant in the Bellagio for our first meal, which consisted of iced tea and $20 eggs benedict. We stared at the jumping water fountains in the plants for a couple minutes, then we decided to go on a trek to find a $5 blackjack table. We went to the Barbary Coast and found a table with one guy who was playing pretty by-the-book, which is great news cuz around here at Chumash the only people playing blackjack are retards who don't know what a blackjack is.

We all started off decently, but time took its toll on us in different ways. Darsky got reamed pretty hard pretty quickly, while Mitch started slow and was able to make a couple-hundred dollar score. Mitch had a total of $300 dollars for the whole four-day trip, which was hilarious in its own right, but he deserved the win and could have used the money more than Darsky or me. I broke dead even after like 2 hours, so....go me. That's a win in my book when it comes to blackjack.

By the time we were done it was only 9AM, and we didn't have check-in until 11AM. Unfortunately I was ass-tired, as I had to wake up at 7AM Thursday morning, and Mitch was pretty tired, too. Dar was good to go, and I knew I would end up in a card room with him before I even saw a pillow (priorities man!). Mitch was pretty dead so we decided to head to the hotel to get an early check-in. Then, as we stepped out of the door of the Barbary Coast, I noticed an oddity in the streets. Pretty much 80% of the people walking around were wearing flannels, spurred boots, and cowboy hats. Anyone who knows Vegas knows that it was definitely Rodeo time. I had totally forgotten about it since hearing about it weeks ago, but I wouldn't be allowed to forget for the rest of the trip, as I saw more hats and lassos this weekend than I'd ever seen in my life.

We got to the Aladdin to face a long line of check-in...ers? Thankfully the desk staff was competent and I didn't have to wait long. We got the obvious front desk upgrade, which was free when she noticed us getting the employee discount in the first place. Whether or not it would've been free is questionable, but we got for free in any case so that was just fine. It was a quarter to 10AM by this point, and John said that he might have been dealing the 10AM tourney at the Aladdin room, so Mitch went upstairs and Darsky and I headed straight to the poker room.

When we showed up there was only one 1/2NL game going with a noticably loud drunk foreign guy. There was three tables signed up for the tournament. It was a $60 buy-in, started with T1500 at twenty-minute levels. I was pretty dead, played a few small pots, and eventually pushed in with JJ for 1100 at 100-200 and got action from A10. An Ace on the flop and that was that. Nothing disappointing, actually almost expected. I was still feelin pretty tired, but noticed a small 3/6 waiting to get started. I bought a rack and took a seat, and we started playing shorthanded.

John had missed dealing the 10AM, but had come in to help set up for and deal the 1PM. He stopped by my seat and we had a quick chat. He made a few trips over to my table to watch me donk around in the 3/6, and I got a chance to thank him for the room.

After about half an hour I was down about $40 and Dar came over after he busted out. We started with our usual banter with each other when we sit at the same table. We made quick "friends" with Lisa, a middle-aged detective who was a pretty decent player. She maybe thought she was better than she was, either that or she was playing against Darsky and me, who eat 3/6 games for breakfast (it was about 11AM....that's about right).

Then the game died.

So we decided to play double-flop hold'em heads up. Lisa had sat out to wait for the game to fill, but dropped another rack to the two of us when we goaded her back into play. Then she left again, and we continued heads up. A short time later we had interest in starting back up the 3/6 and were glad to have the seats filled. I was still dead tired, but fell into my low limit limit hold'em drone. I started with Coronas and ended up at the end of our 5-hour session with coffee. We eventually had a full game going, with players and chips and everything. It was quite a welcome change to the earlier morning. Lisa was still in it, and still rebuying. I took multiple pots off of her with bluffs, and she ran into my nuts a few times (can I say that??) when she had the guts to call me down. GG Lisa.

Then there was this damn old guy in the 5s who kept pissin me off by catching his mediocre draws and backing into winning hands. It was nothing unusual, but pushing me on a 30-hour no sleep session was putting a frown on my face. At around 3PM we decided to go grab food, since we hadn't eaten since 5AM and I needed energy. As we were racking up, the dealer called over the floor person and had him comp us at the buffet for keeping the game together, and being pretty much the only players talking to and tipping the dealers since we had been there.

Around that time John was getting off his tiny shift, as he had really only come in to deal the 1PM, so he joined us and (obviously) got in on the comp. We headed down to the buffet, which was delicious. I saw seafood and was hesitant, but John insisted that it was good, and indeed it was! I had the seafood, the Italian, and a small bit of Chinese, and it was all very delicious. One thing that has me peeved about Vegas is the rising prices of foods and amneties. In the past, one of the bigger draws for Vegas was the $5.95 buffets, and if you want that now you gotta head to places that people don't wanna necessarily head to. Although the food is quite better in comparison, the prices are catching up with the quality. But we got a $75 trip for free, so I can't really complain.

The food was good, talking with John was better. I hadn't seen him since before he left Ventura for Vegas. He's a great guy and a fun person to hang around. I didn't get to see him after this for the whole trip, which sucked, but next time I go out there it's on the list of important things to do. He didn't even get a chance to meet up with Mitch since he was passed out at this point. Next time, we gotta.

By 4 I had had enough and we took that horrible, bastardly trip back and forth from the casino to the parking garage to grab our bags. I'm telling you right now that the devil was in charge of the layout of the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood - Desert Passage combo. In order to get back and forth from the parking garage and the casino/hotel you need to take a two-day trek through random retail stores and restaurants, cleverly disguised in a pseudo-desert surrounding. I'll give 'em that the Desert Passage mall is a work of art, it's an awesome place and it's a fun outlet. I'll also say that it's completely unneccessary to walk through the whole damn thing to get something out of the car. K we got a good deal on the room so /end rant

We headed up to the room and it was sleep time! I ended up getting three tantalizing hours of close-eye, and by then Mitch was ready for a night of gambling with his newly won "wad". I got up at around 7PM and took a shower. Then we hit the strip. We were gonna walk as we were in great position on the strip, and we decided on the Monte Carlo. We spent a few hours there playing blackjack and drinking Jack N Cokes. We each dropped a few hundred there over a couple hours, with the usual ups and downs of that damn game. I decided to toss a bill at the 3-card poker table for shits and giggles and picked up 2 hands the whole time. That went as planned.

From there we took a walk over to the New York New York cuz I enjoy the scenery. That probably sounds pretty gay, but I WAS an art major and I enjoy art of the physical kind, so I really enjoy themes, props, scenery, etc. Anyways, while playing there I was able to grab the Snag of the Trip for this trip around (I'm also a poker chip fanatic, for those who don't know). The dealer had a whole rack of them, and I was able to grab a pretty much mint snapper from the NY NY. And I know I know, but I have a new Casio EX-Z850 coming on Monday, so take it easy on me.

Anyways the drinks were still flowing as Mitch blew pretty much all of his money. On the first night out, that was expected. Let's just say that for next two days Mitch grew to know the ins and outs of our hotel room. He probably even learned the Bellagio's waterballet schedule thanks to our Bellagio fountain view.

After I lost a little bit there, we headed back to the Aladdin, being that Mitch now had no more money to play. I got crushed to the tune of another $200 on the way up to the hotel room as I saw an open BJ table and thought I could take her. Wrong answer!! Still love that game, though...I knew that since Mitch was done it would be straight poker for the next two days, and damn was I ready.

Next time I'll talk about the Red8, the big names, and the big bluff gone horribly good.

Until next time.