Time to wrap it up

Well my Vegas Vacation is at an end. The APQ and I are sitting in the airport lounge minus one snowglobe. Yes you heard me right. I packed a snowglobe in my carry on luggage and apparently snow globes are on the list of banned substances right between hand grenades and assault weapons. The TSA was about to lead me off in chains when the APQ stepped in and in a regal tone commanded "Only We (note the royal we) get to lay hands on that man" Two highly chastised bodybuilders let me go as if they were burned and we were able to proceed into the airport lounge. Minus one snowglobe.

So now I have a bit of time where I am not falling asleep at the keyboard to try to catch up on the merriment of Vegas. On Tuesday morning the APQ and I went out to Hoover Dam. Lightning told us his idea of early morning in Vegas started about noon so we told him we would let him know when we were heading back that day so that we could maybe go over to Green Valley Ranch. Anyway we decided that we would grab breakfast at a local place rather than somewhere on the strip. You may remember on Sunday we walked up to Hash House A Go Go for bfast and I didn't mention but on Monday we made our triumphant return to the Peppermill. Anyone who stays on the strip must breakfast at both of those places for both the food and in the case of the Peppermill, the ambience. Since we were still kind of on Eastern time we hit the Peppermill about 6:30 monday morning.

Since we stayed up kinda late on Monday we were much more acclimated to the western time zone and managed to get up at a reasonable hour of 7:30 am instead of 5. I started driving west on Flamingo toward I215 hoping to find a decent place to eat when we happened upon Blueberry Hill. It's a chain of restaurants but kind of a local chain. So we stopped in for a leisurely breakfast which was pretty good and very filling then headed out to the Dam. It really was a nice drive through Hendertucky and out to the edge of Lake Mead. The Dam was a sight to see. The APQ had already toured the dam previously and I just wanted to walk around it and not go inside it so we spent about an hour and a half or so out there wandering the place and reading the memorials and stuff. After leaving the dam we went back to the main road and drove across the new bridge to the Arizona side and then came back. You can't see much from the new bridge as there are high concrete side walls, probably to prevent Winnebagos from being blown off the bridge and plunging 900 feet down into the canyon below.

On the way back I made the APQ stop at this little dive of a casino named the Hacienda between the dam and Henderson. It was like a step back in time to the Vegas casinos of old. We played a bit of low limit black jack and 3 card poker for about an hour. Then headed back to Vegas. Lightning texted me on the way back that he was in his accustomed position in Vegas, the Ballys poker room with someone elses chips in front of him, so I told him we should be there in about an hour and that we were definitely heading to GVR that night as the APQ and I wanted to play in their tourney at 6.

The 3 of us headed out around 5pm for GVR. On the way we decided to stop at an In N Out burger restaurant to try them out as that was to be another first for all of us to do this trip. We all enjoyed the burgers very much but are not sure what the big fuss is about them. I mean they are good and all and kick the living crap out of McD, BK, and Wendy's for fast food burgers but next to say 5 Guys, they are just a decent burger. Still a good burger was had by all and that's never a bad thing. We got to GVR a little after 6 and got a primo parking place right next to the elevator to the casino. We found the Players Club so Lightning could get a stations casino card. The APQ and I didn't need one as Monday after leaving the Peppermill we decided to explore a bit and ended up going to the Red Rock Station casino. That is a nice casino, as nice as most of the Strip properties. GVR is a bit nicer though.

We headed to the Poker room only to find that the tourney had been cancelled for lack of interest. I was surprised as I thought GVR had a pretty decent amount of people who played there but apparently, not that night. Lightning and I decided to play some 1-2 no limit while the APQ decided to try her hand at the Video Poker machines. She texted me not long after that she had hit quad Aces for a $500 score.

Play was pretty choppy for us in the no limit game. Lightning managed to hold on to his starting stack while I was up and down like a yo yo. I lost a chunk with AK on a king high board when I couldn't get the maniac from down the table to lay down his draw and I think he hit it on the turn. He made a big bet on the river and I was debating a call when I notice his legs moving a mile a minute. I read in Joe Navarro's book that the feet are a major tell if you can see what they're doing and that made up my mind for me. I dumped it and considered myself lucky to be down 50 bucks.

A bit later on I raised in early position with AA. I got 2 callers, the guy 2 seats to my left and the guy next to him. Flop was J10x with 2 spades. I bet 2/3 of the pot and got called by the guy 2 seats to my left. The other guy thought seriously of calling but folded. The turn was the 10 of spades which did not make me very happy. I bet about half the pot and was called again. The river was the 8 of spades making my Ace of spades top flush but putting a lot of good draws out there. I checked hoping he would check behind but he pushed all in for almost all of my stack. Then it was think tank time. If he had been Josie I would have had to lay this down as he would have been sitting with the J10 boat in his hand. I considered that and also if he would have called with 10-8 perhaps but thinking he didn't I decided I had to call with the top flush so I did and he table KK including the K of spades. He was quite unhappy with my A of spades. That was about the best result I had all week playing poker.

Things went downhill for us all from there. I went completely card dead and every decent hand was met by a lousy board. Lightning kept it together but lost a chunk on one hand and the APQ gave back all she won on the machines. It wasn't too long before we all decided to head back to Ballys where we seem to be doing so much better. Ballys did not treat me any better but Lightning was doing pretty damned well. I did take some chips from him when I chased a flush and made it but he took more from me when I finally got AA and raised him. We saw the flop 3 handed of KJ10. Now that's a bad flop for AA. Lightning immediately leads out which made me suspect 2 things, either he had a hand like KQ which I can see him playing that way, or he had AQ and had flopped the straight. I called his bet and then saw even worse news when the A of spades hit the board. Now I've got top set but if he has Q anything he has me. I decided to call his next bet hoping the board would pair and I could take it down but the 9 of spades hit instead. Now any 2 spades or a queen beats me. He made what to me was a smallish please call me bet and I obliged by tossing my hand. He later told me he had it which I pretty much surmised. I was really thinking he had AQ during the hand but afterward decided he had KQ. Hopefully it wasn't 7-2 off.

Time to board. be back later.

Well we made it home. Flights were a bit bumpy but nothing to write home about and no problems outside of the TSA. It's good to be home but I'll miss Vegas and all the action all the time. And yet I came to realize a couple of times that maybe there is a soul numbing quality to spending too much time in a place that is as unreal as Vegas can be. I think any place that is so detached from reality, that sells the dream that everyone can strike it rich, that we all can be somebody important based on the turn of a card or the pull of a lever, is selling a falseness that can lead a person to despair. I don't wonder now why some people commit suicide. I wonder sometimes why more people don't do it.

Anyway after losing that hand, the first hand the entire trip where I started with a pocket pair and made trips, things continued on a downhill bent. I lost in poker, video poker and 3 card poker completing the losing trifecta. Even the APQ had a losing day, fortunately her only one of the trip.

Well I guess the rest of the wrap up will have to wait, I am beat. Time for bed, my own bed for the first time in a week. Talk to you tomorrow. Stay lucky you nuts.