Return to Las Vegas March 9-14, 2024 and a Weighty Decision

I almost can't believe that it has now been over six months since I have been to Las Vegas. A variety of circumstances have led to this half-year break. They included having a colonoscopy, a trip to Greece, my wife's trip to help her sister, my wife's trip to assist our son in moving here, actually having our son here, a mystery respiratory illness, a trip to the Grand Canyon, several Phoenix Suns games, a Seattle Mariners spring training game, various concerts, driving my non-profit's clients to several medical appointments ...

It sounds a little busier than it has actually felt. Unfortunately, I have also been running extremely bad in poker, which started right at the end of my last Las Vegas trip. Either that, or suddenly I now really suck at poker. It has been a very frustrating (in poker) last six months. I am hoping that a trip to Las Vegas will help get me back on track.

I decided not to write a Part II to my last post. However, I will speak here of one of the two things I was going to write about. With several things serving as motivation, I decided that I needed to do something about my weight if I hope to live several more years. It is funny sometimes to look at the perspectives that we have integrated into ourselves. I was a skinny kid. My siblings were also pretty thin. However, I've had a huge appetite almost my entire life. In high school, I was very active in sports. I was a victim of the freshman 15 when I began college. I was pretty slim when I began my first professional job after being poor during graduate school -- which certainly helps keep weight down -- but over the years, my weight went up. The glory era of online poker didn't help as I played poker almost every night back then. Anyway, after hemming and hawing after deciding not to pay $1,100-1,500/month to get semaglutide shots, I decide to man up and cut out sugar and carbs from my diet. I am not following any particular name diet plan and am not feverishly counting my carbs, just cutting out all the bad stuff. Monday, March 10 will be the two-month mark since I began. As of the morning of March 7, I have lost 26 pounds. the first 20 came off pretty rapidly the first month, but things have slowed down the past four weeks. However, what I am doing is very reasonable. I was surprised that I have not missed many things I regularly ate, but the temptations seem to be coming a little bit more the past couple of weeks. However, I am a stubborn dude and have largely stuck with my plan. In the past two months, I've had two days when I ate a lot of carbs, usually due to some life circumstance, but they actually seemed to help me bust through some weight plateaus I had been stuck on. So ... a slimmer version of lightning36 will be invading Las Vegas this coming week.

I plan on playing some poker with some friends and maybe doing a few meals with some. Hit me up if you want to fling a few cards together or grab a drink/meal (keto in my case, of course). I have felt pretty bored the last few weeks. I am really looking forward to this trip.

Thanks for reading!   

My Personal Life, Part I: The Gift

How many times in life do we wish for  a second chance? How many times do we actually get that chance? If we do, how do things work out? I have gotten a lot more insight into these questions the past two months. I am happy to report positive results.

The background: My wife and I have three children. The middle child is our son, Rick. In the summer of 2013, Rick began taking classes at the University of Illinois and wanted to live on/near campus. Amazingly, just before the fall semester began, we were able to find him a decent apartment very close to the building where he would take most of his computer science classes. That same summer, our oldest daughter also moved out after she completed her Associate in Arts degree. Life was never the same after they moved out, as we went from a family of five to a family of three.

There is certainly an adjustment phase. Since both were still living in town, we still saw/heard from them occasionally, especially if the subject was free use of our laundry or a home cooked meal, not to mention the occasional need for some cashola. Initially, I remember both feelings of sadness at their leaving and also happiness at seeing them start to transition into responsible adults. We still had a daughter living at home and did not become empty nesters until I retired and we were selling our house just over four years ago.

Rick, who was in the Math/Computer Science program at the University of Illinois, had a bright future ahead of him. He decided to take a job in Seattle -- 2,000 miles away! Fortunately, since he was living in a major city and we were within driving distance to the Chicago airports, we knew visiting could always be done by tweaking our work/vacation schedules.

I retired from my job in July 2020. Our youngest daughter moved out in October, knowing that the sale of our house and our move to the Phoenix area was imminent. When she did, we were without children living in our house for the first time since 1992 -- the first time in 28 years! There were certainly  feelings of sadness and emptiness, but also an excitement at realizing that hey -- this is how we started 32 years ago! We sold our house in Illinois in December and moved to Arizona just before Christmas of 2020. Our son was now 1,400 miles away and our daughters were 1,700 miles away.

The move to Arizona has been great for us. My wife's best friend lives out here, and I have family in the area. However, more and more, we felt the pangs that many advancing age parents feel: we miss our kids. They don't understand how much visits, phone calls and texts mean to us. Fortunately, between our visiting them and their visiting us, we've still been able to see each other sporadically. And although it is great living by ourselves and only having ourselves and our pets (two dogs and a cat) to take care of on a daily basis, there has been a degree of quietness and loneliness that we have adapted to.

Recently, we had a change, as our son ran into some bad times. He broke up with his long-time girlfriend who moved to Seattle with him, and was laid off from his sweet computer engineering job due to company cost cutting measures. He was in a downward spiral. After going through his severance pay and savings, he had no money for rent. We had been offering to let him take a nice break away by vising us, but declined. Finally, my wife convinced him to move in with us for three months to try to effect change in his life. So, at the end of last November, my wife flew to Seattle, helped my son pack and move some things into storage, and drove back home with him. He has now been at our house for about two months.

How has it been? Well, there were obviously some adjustments that had to be made by all three of us. Shopping and sleeping routines, among other things, had to be modified. Suddenly the downsized house for two retirees now had to make room for a third person. No more walking around the house in varying degrees of nakedness!

In spite of these minor issues, the experience has so far been overwhelmingly positive. My wife has always expressed how much she loved it when our kids were real little. Personally, I like things more with having adult children. I know that we both have felt lonely without our children around. After over 11 years without our son living with us and over four years since we became empty nesters, we once again have a child in the house. To me, it is more like a second chance to experience family in a way we never thought we'd see again. And as much as my son is struggling to work through his difficulties (he did find a great 30+ hours/week job at a landscaping company a few minutes walk from our house), it has been a joy to have him here -- really, a gift, to be able to get back, if only for a short time, that feeling of having your own kids back in the house. He's trying to find a computer engineering job where he can work from home, or some type of hybrid job that would be based in Seattle. He is through 2/3 of the time we initially agreed upon, due to review at the end of the three month period. He desperately wants to moved back to Seattle, but the professional job situation is crucial. He might move back to Seattle and move in with a friend until he finds a job, but we are hoping that he will stay with us until he has that job. We have no idea what the future will bring right now. However, I am determined to enjoy this gift while we have it. We have already gone to two Phoenix Suns games and will likely go to a Seattle Mariners cactus league game or two. I might take my son with me for a short stay in Las Vegas so that he can experience the city that I love. The conversations we have are amazing. Talk about generational differences!

This issue is one that has been dominating my life for the past couple of months. In my next post -- My Personal Life, Part II --  I will write about two other major life changes that 2025 has brought. It seems that things are rarely dull in Arizona retired life!

Thanks for reading.

Hello, Yeah, It's Been Awhile. Not Much, How 'Bout You?

I was quiet surprised to see that my last post had been 2 1/2 months ago. What have I been doing since my last report of Oct 27?

Oct 29: Jeff Lynn's ELO concert.

Nov 3: A really bad day. I went to see the Chicago Bears embarrass themselves vs the Arizona Cardinals. I got a great last-minute ticket and loved the atmosphere for the game, which almost appeared to be a home game for da Bears. A great crowd of fans was disappointed and angry at what they witnessed ... and paid for tickets, parking, travel, etc.

Nov 14: Bachelor week began as my wife flew back to Illinois to help her sister, who was experiencing severe medical issues.

Nov 23: High school football state semi-finals as my nephew's team (he is head coach) goes for back-to-back state championships.

Nov 24: Wife flies out to Seattle to help our son pack up and move to Arizona to stay with us for three months or maybe a little longer.

Nov 28: Thanksgiving with my AZ family.

Nov 30: Nephew's team comes from behind with 1:14 to play to win the state title again by 1 point.

Dec 2: Wife returns with our son. We had been empty nesters for over four years, and our son had not lived with us for about 8 years.

Dec 19: Went to Indiana Pacers at Phoenix Suns NBA game.

Things seemed to be cruising pretty well until sometime in mid-December, I came down with a cold, had it almost go away, and then return with a vengeance. This kept up for several weeks into January. The cold seems to have finally run its course.

Jan 11: Burton Cummings concert.

I had two trips to Las Vegas (December and January) that I canceled due to this nagging cold. I haven't been to Las Vegas since September -- the longest stretch since I moved to Arizona, I think. I hope to head back to Las Vegas early in February.

I traveled a lot in four months (July - October) that included Las Vegas, Wisconsin/Illinois, Napa CA, Las Vegas again, Greece, and Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas. I dunno -- maybe I wore down my resistance with the trips? 

Anyway, I am feeling better and did a lot of thinking in December about my life and where I am. I have decided to make a couple of fundamental changes in my life for 2025 (I guess you could call them New Year resolutions) and already have both in process. I'll speak more about them later as the new year unfolds.

Thanks for reading!

Of TBC, Dallas Poker Clubs, Oklahoma Poker, and family visits: My Road Trip of Oct 23-27, 2024

For several years, Tony Bigcharles and I had talked about taking a road trip so that Tony could visit his mother in rural Kansas. With Tony always on the go and with my living in Phoenix, the trip never came about. However, after returning from a vacation with my wife to Greece, I saw what appeared to be the perfect spot in my calendar for me to go. I made a deal with Tony that if he would handle all expenses, I would drive him to see his mom. He agreed, and I spent several hours looking at plane flights, rental cars, hotel rooms, and poker rooms so that we could make the trip at a decent price while staying in decent hotels. Everything came into place, and the wheels were set in motion for me to leave the morning of Wednesday, October 23 and get back home late night on Sunday, October 27.

Wed, Oct 23, 2024

The trip started with my flight from Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. A big thank you to Alysia Chang, who ordered me a Starbucks coffee while I was waiting for my flight to leave. Kudos to Frontier Airlines, which had a modest price for my flight to Dallas, and gave me a free aisle seat in the front of the plane.

The trip to DFW was unremarkable, and soon I was headed on the shuttle to the car rental center. I had decided to rent a Chevy Malibu for its combination of comfort and gas mileage, and was able to pick out my choice at Hertz. I drove to Tony's hotel, assisted with a little clean up, and then headed for something to eat before we played poker. Our first poker club stop: Peaks Dallas. Texas, as you might know, does not have casinos but does have private poker clubs. You pay a membership fee ($10 for the day is standard, but as a new player, I only had to pay $1) and instead of having rake taken out of pots, you pay an hourly fee. In this case, it was $13/hour, which seems to be pretty standard. I did vlog this first session:

Tony had a really good session (watch the vlog for details), whereas I was pretty much card dead and ended up with a HUGE profit of $20, playing a mixed Hold em/Omaha game until moving to a $1/2 NLHE game. They were able to do bomb pots, which are always fun.

We then moved to another private club, Shuffle 214 Dallas. I lost some money initially, then got it and more back when I had a couple of nice hands, including pocket Kings. I played them the lightning way, not the Robvegaspoker way. I was sitting pretty until I was the small blind with the button straddling. I had a pretty Ah-Qh and raised to $15. The straddler re-raised to $40, and I called. The flop was 8-Q-8. The player who straddled had been caught semi-bluffing a short time before, and frankly, I didn't believe him. I raised and he only called. The turn was a blank, and I decided to put him to the test. I felt pretty confident that I was ahead. I jammed all in, which he clearly was not expecting. He went into the tank for several minutes, which seemed like hours. He started saying things like "What do you have? Q-Q? A-Q?" When he mentioned A-Q, I thought I might be in trouble. Finally he decided to call and asked how many times I'd like to run it. I said twice. He then flipped over ... K-K! I got no help on either run out and he stacked me for a pot of over $1,000. Yuck. He then started telling me what a great play I'd made since he ALMOST folded. Meh. Tony lost some at Shuffle, and that was the end of the night. Not a great poker start to the trip.

Thurs, Oct 24, 2024

We checked out of Tony's hotel suite (I slept on the hide-a-bed in the living room), and made the drive into Oklahoma to play at Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant. The poker room was pretty dead and had two tables of $1/2 NL going. Tony and I were seated at different tables. Once again, I was pretty much card dead and did lose a couple of pots when guys stuck in a hand when way behind and got a lucky river card. I lost part of a buy in, and Tony lost. He then headed to the video blackjack machines while I played some slots. I liked the poker room and also the rest of the casino. Looking back, we stayed there way too long, as we had a 350 mile drive to Kansas to make that afternoon and evening. I was determined to get us to our hotel, but Tony was trying to persuade me to stop somewhere else along the way. It was really dark until we were greeted with some lightning, then rain. However, We kept going, getting to our hotel at about 11:00pm.

Fri, Oct 25, 2024

After waking up and getting a nice meal in the Comfort Inn breakfast area, we headed to his mother's place. The plan was to drop Tony off at 9:00am. He would then stay the rest of the day and night at his mother's house, while I would have a nice day of relaxation. We got there shortly after 9. I met Tony's mother for the first time. We had a nice conversation before I left and headed out of town. I decided to stay at the same hotel that Tony and I stayed at Thursday night. I got to the parking lot shortly before noon and was deciding about going in to see if I could check into my new room a little early. I ended up taking a 3+ hour nap in the car!

I had a nice quiet, relaxing evening, watching the World Series on television and swimming in the indoor heated pool. Tony, meanwhile, was staying in his mom's basement. He had mentioned staying there in the past. I envisioned a dungeon, complete with trolls and dragons. In reality, the basement had been fixed up years ago as a very nice apartment for Tony's son. Since his mother went to sleep very early, Tony was able to go online and search out blackjack games, unfortunately. The results were predictable, unfortunately. If only he could kick this nasty habit.

Sat, Oct 26, 2024

After another hearty Comfort Inn breakfast, I drove the 30+ minutes to Tony's mother's house to pick up Tony. We then got to his son's (Mark's) place shortly after 10:00am. I met his roommate, and the we drove off to take Mark out to one his his favorite spots, Wendy's. When the local bowling center opened at 11:30, we went inside to go bowling. I opted to oversee the electronic scoring so that father and son could have this time to bowl together. They had separate lanes to bowl on, and I saw an unbelievable display by Mark, a regular bowler, as he bowled eight games in 52 minutes, with scores  ranging from 121 to 188. It was quite a performance. Tony did okay for a person who never bowls, bowling three games in 35 minutes before deciding to give his arm a rest. 

This was when we ran into our complication in the visit. Mark was supposed to be back by 2:00pm, but we had to make a trip back to Tony's mother's house because Tony inadvertently left his phone there. Mark wanted to go with us to see his grandmother, but decided not to at the last minute. He had us drop him off back at the bowling alley, where a ride home had been arranged for later that afternoon. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication dealing with Mark and times which came back to haunt us later. That was unfortunate, as the three of us had a fun time bowling, riding around, and just having fun talking as guys would in that situation. I gave props to Tony for doing a good job interacting with his son. He was patient and  bought several pair of reading glasses, a set of headphones and a bowling gift card for Mark. But now it was time to hit the road, as we needed to drive 250 miles to get to our hotel in Norman, Oklahoma. The hotel was adjacent to the Riverwind Casino. After checking in, we headed to the poker room, where we had a substantial wait to be seated.

I was not doing well at our $1/3 NL table and decided to take a break. I resurfaced at a $1/2 table and did well, more than covering my loss at the first session. We went back to the hotel, where I posted this vlog:

It was time to call it a night. We would have a long day on Sunday, the final day of the trip.

Sun, Oct 27, 2024

We woke up, had breakfast, and decided to put in one  last session at Riverwind. I had an absolute horror of a session -- one of those where you get beat almost every hand, I raised on the button with Ad-Kd. I got two callers, one of whom stuck in the hand with me. The flop was 10-K-rag, a good flop for me. My raise was called by one player. After the turn put two cards to a flush on the board, my opponent checked and I shoved to make sure the price high if he was going for the flush. To my horror, he called and flipped over pocket 10s. Oops! A  few hands later, I again had Ad-Kd and was in a hand that had been raised by TBC. The flop was Queen high with two diamond on the board. When short stacked Tony raised, I shoved. He called with his K-Q. My flush didn't get there. Boo! I ran into set for the second time in my session and finally called it quits when my A-K lost to K-Q --- again! There were several more times when the poker gods pissed on me that session. It was horrible!

Tony and I got in some machine time which, looking back, was a mistake as it took too much time. We got in the car and drove the 100 miles to WinStar World Casino in Thackerville. It was ginormous! We were running out of time and did not play poker there. I did see the poker room and was surprised how little action was going on. Whereas I liked both Choctaw and Riverwind casinos, I didn't particularly like WinStar because it was so big. Row after row of slot machines. Ugh.

We headed back to Dallas, where I dropped Tony off at his new hotel and then at one of the Dallas poker clubs. We said goodbye and I headed to the DFW Airport to drop off my rental car. My night flight left a little late, but it made up for the lost time on the flight back to Phoenix. It was the end of an exhausting five days.

I have chosen to say little about the miscommunication regarding Tony's son and the visit. I was upset, however, by the tone and content of the emails I received from Tony's mom Saturday night. I give props to Tony for responding to her and sticking up for me and himself. I was determined not to let her ruin what had been a fun and enjoyable trip.

Some statistics:

Days: 5

Flights: 2

Flight miles: 1,760

Rental car miles: 1,165

Satisfaction of seeing Tony with his mother and then his son: Priceless beyond words

Some people asked me why I did this. The best answer I can give comes from my Catholic upbringing.

Luke 12:48: Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required.

Mathew 25:35-40: "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?" And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."

Thanks for reading!

Las Vegas Trip Report Sept 2-6, 2024: Outed Three Times at the Poker Table

 Prior to September 2

It seemed like this day would never come. I had spent a significant amount of time assisting my wife, who was caring for our elderly friend, Sandra. Sandra had made the decision several weeks before to stop going to her twice-weekly dialysis treatments. However, Sandra had made this same decision about three or four times before, only to start back when she started to feel really bad or her fear of dying overcame her. This time, however, she was serious. She lapsed into unconsciousness the third week in August, and we and two care givers were watching her as much as we could. My wife and I had a vacation to Napa, CA planned for Aug 26-29. We were hoping that Sandra would pass before we left. I was actually the last person to see her alive Sunday night, Aug 25. I had given her a sedative and morphine that had been provided by hospice and was watching the Three Stooges, followed by Pulp Fiction. About 11:00pm, I said what I imagined would be my last goodbye. My wife and I had an early Monday morning flight into Oakland. Sometime after we landed, my wife received a text that Sandra was found dead when a neighbor checked on her late in the morning. A huge weight had been lifted off our shoulders. It was time to have fun in Napa! Having nothing planned for Labor Day weekend, a time I traditionally spent in Las Vegas, I made plane and hotel reservations to lock in my trip, which I felt I sorely needed. A tip of the cap to my Australian brother, thundering36, who for several years went out to Las Vegas with me that weekend to celebrate his birthday. I would have to celebrate without him.

Monday, September 2, 2024

The earliest flight that I could get on Frontier was in the afternoon. The day started off well when Alysia Chang texted me to find out when my flight got in. She offered to pick me up at the airport and drive us somewhere for dinner. She did just that, and we met up with Chris Abramski at Tacos and Beer for Happy Hour. After some street tacos and beer, we headed straight to the Venetian, where I was excited to play at the its poker room. It wasn't too difficult to find when coming in from the parking  garage, but Venetian needs to put up better signage. The new second floor poker room, in the Grand Canal Shoppes area, looks pretty spectacular. The blue and white tables and chairs reminds one of another classy poker room in the immediate area. The chairs were all brand new and wonderful, a badly-needed change from the old chairs that had seen their better days. Chris had gotten there before Alysia and me, and doubled up on a flopped straight pretty quickly. Poker is EZ sometimes! I got seated at table 25, and Alysia, Chris, and Las Vegas poker friend Luke Johnston all moved to my table. Normally, this would have resulted in my having a blast. However, there was a woman at the table who was cackling loudly the entire time. I don't remember playing with her before, but interestingly enough, I saw her playing later at night at Bellagio later in the week. She was older, and had short white hair that was parted on one side, reminding me of class picture day from when I was in elementary school. I had nothing against her personally, but her loud cackling was being projected straight at me, causing a massive sound in my hearing aids. I eventually moved to a different seat to avoid listening to her at her maximum volume.

Unfortunately, I was card dead most of the session. Even with a decent starting hand, I couldn't hit a flop to save my life. My play then got sloppy as I was frustrated. The only redeeming part of the session (apart from playing at a table with three friends!)was that a dealer from Venetian, Dustin, approached me and said, "It's nice to meet a member of the Inner Circle," so he had apparently been reading Tony Bigcharles's blog for some time. 

He said that he actually only met Tony once in a casino. I had not been outed at a poker room for a year or two. Little was I to know that this would be happening two more times this trip!

My final hand, I shoved with a pair and was called by the raiser in the hand. He had top-top and I thought I had sucked out on him when I hit two pair. Unfortunately, he also had the nut flush draw and hit it on the turn or river. Meh. I lost my buy-in plus another $100, so the poker was not off to a good start. Could this be foreshadowing? Alysia cashed out and drove me to Excalibur to finally get into my room. Day two would hopefully be much better poker-wise.

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

When the going gets tough, what do you do? You go to your honey hole. For me, this meant Bellagio. It had never been a favorite back in these days when it was so packed with tables that you could barely walk, but I had been having much success there in the past year. Since December, 2023, I had won 11 of the 13 sessions I played there. I had been running really well, and as a few of my poker friends could attest, I was really dominating play there. So yeah, bring it on, Bellagio!

I was first seated at a table with some pretty good players. I quickly learned not to stay in a hand unless it was solid. After about a 1/2 hour of play and a small profit, I decided to request a table change ... and what a great decision that was! The players at my new table all looked pretty new, and I suddenly began to catch a few cards. This was a classic table of no fold me Hold em. People kept calling my raises, and I went n a short torrid streak, winning every significant hand for about 20 minutes. My stack grew and grew. I only remember losing one significant hand when someone turned a gutshot straight. I knew I was behind and called anyway, thinking that the way I was winning, I might just hit the card I needed. Well, I didn't. 😃 I decided that cashing out with a good profit would make the most sense when a few players changed and the table dynamics changed with them. I was now back at even at poker for the trip.

Next stop: Horseshoe. Now, some familiar with me and my blog might know that many years ago, I couldn't lose when Horseshoe was Bally's. Then things turned dramatically -- in the opposite direction. I think it was on my last trip to Las Vegas that I won playing there by sucking out. I am not too proud to accept a suckout, u see. 😁 I was seated at a decent table but wasn't winning many pots as I had gone card dead again. As I was bleeding chips, I took a stand against the table lucksack and doubled up. I left after winning a couple more hands and grinding out a small profit. I had told James "Pman" Urbanic that I would play some poker at Westgate after he started his shift this trip, so it was off to the monorail to Westgate. Thanks to Alysia for loaning me her locals monorail card.

When I got to Westgate, it was shortly after 9:00pm. An earlier tournament was at the final table and a new one had just started. The $1/2 NL game that had been going that evening had just broken up. I said a quick greeting to James and headed back to the monorail  to play at MGM. Long ago, MGM had been one of my favorite and profitable rooms, but like Horseshoe, things had changed. However, I was at a really good table, played very well, and caught some cards. I made a very nice profit to end the night, profiting in four figures for the day which, to me, is pretty good in $1/2 and $1/3 NL. I went to my room with a tired but happy face.

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

I decided that I would first head from Excalibur -- the "dirty castle, ' to Luxor -- the "dirty pyramid," 😀 to put a few bucks in the progressive slots there that cnote_vegas has mentioned in his X posts several times. My victim: the progressive with $173,000+ up top. Not bad for only $.75 maximum/spin. Although I hit some decent hands and could have pulled a profit out of the machine, I was looking for more. I burned my winnings and a little more before deciding to move on. We can always dream, can't we?

Dinner that evening was at Ellis Island BBQ with Alysia, her brother Solomon, and poker buddy NormInVegas. The portions were HUGE, the price very reasonable for Las Vegas (especially if you take advantage of two specials that both decrease the price you pay), and the taste -- excellent if you like your BBQ sauce sweet. I will definitely go there again.

After dinner, Norm and I headed for Bellagio. As we were at the desk to check in, I saw that we were standing next to three ol' tyme poker bloggers: Grange, Poker Peaker, and Bad Blood. They told me that Dr Chako has left Las Vegas earlier that day. Talk about  a living time machine. 😝

I was seated at a table and soon afterward was joined by Norm. Things went haywire quickly. I lost chips and was not having fun. I was doubting my ability to win in the game and wanted to change tables, but I didn't because Norm was there. u see, this was therefore all HIS fault, of course. 😀 At the end, I jammed to a raise (stoopid stoopid) with pocket 8s. My opponent called. I thought I sucked out on the river when I binked an 8, but he flipped over his cards to show that he flopped a set of 10s. Bad decisions by me, baaaad poker. I headed to the sportsbook for a break. After checking social media and whatnot, I decided to buy in again. That was, in retrospect, a mistake. The session was so bad that I can barely remember anything about it, except that I ran top-top into Aces. I'd had enough for the night. I tucked my tail between my legs and headed for the slot machines. On the way, I was stopped by a guy who said "You're lightning, aren't you?" Hmmm ... who could this be? I had a nice conversation with a guy named Lewis. He said that he had played poker with TBC many years ago at Suncoast. I guess he had continued to follow Tony's blog, thus the familiarity with me. I texted Tony later that night to see if he had an idea of who Lewis was. He had no recollection of him. Sometimes the ol' memory isn't what it used to be. 

Thursday, September 5, 2024

I decided that my final full day in Las Vegas would be relaxed. I made plans to meet Chris Abramski at MGM at 4:30ish to be seated in time for its Thursday Night Football promo. I decided to take it easy that day. I had lunch at Buca di Beppo in Excalibur and had a fine looking and tasting antipasti salad. 

I got to MGM about two hours before the 5:20pm start of the game and was seated at an interesting table. My rivered flush lost to a rivered straight flush. One player called a short stack all-in with ... 3-3os -- the dirty diaper! Things just weren't going well for me despite being at a table with a few obviously weak players. Hell - maybe some players thought I was a weak player! I couldn't hit any flops and got suckered into losing a huge pot when I should have known better. I was missing every draw and playing poorly. It's bad when you can feel yourself playing badly. After a few player changes, I was sitting next to a guy who appeared somewhat familiar. He asked me where I was from. I responded Phoenix, but originally Chicago and Illinois. He then said "You're lightning, aren't you?! Damn -- the third time this trip! I said "I don't know him" and smiled. He said his name was JT and that he was a local. I donked off the rest of my chips and left at halftime. Back to the slots where I was having decent success. By the way Chris Abramski, what the hell ever happened to you?

Friday, September 6, 2024

Final morning in Las Vegas. I checked out of my hotel at 11:00am and decided on lunch at Hooters in Oyo. However, I guess my thinking cap wasn't on. I headed from Excalibur toward the Tropicana, not expecting everything to be completely blocked off. No easy way to get past Tropicana to Oyo. I decided to grab a sub at Jimmy John's in the Excalibur food court. Now, I know a lot about Jimmy John's. I've been to the first Jimmy John's store. The headquarters for Jimmy John's was in my town in Illinois. Heck -- Jimmy John used to live a mile away from me. Everyone store I've ever been in has had the famous Jimmy John's freaky fast service ... except the one in Excalibur. I'm guessing it is not a franchised store since you can't find out much info about it. The lackadaisical young guy who has been there almost every time I've gone was there was working. I attempted to order an original #3 Totally Tuna sub. "Sorry - we are out of tuna." Ummm ... okay. Then I tried to order an original #5 Vito. "We are out of pepperoni." Seriously? I said that I'll get my lunch elsewhere and headed to Buca. The pasta sauce there is dull, but hey -- at least I could get lunch there.

I caught a Lyft to the airport and had a little luck there. I had been assigned a middle seat of my Frontier flight back home, but the person in the isle seat didn't show. The 40-minute flight home was unremarkable except that we got in too early and a plane was still at our gate. I quick pick up from my wife and I was home by dinnertime.

Epilog

Looking back, I really enjoyed my meals and poker with my friends. That is always the high point. I did really well on slots. Although I didn't really mention them in my report, I won on several and had a blast doing so. I have new respect for the Frankenstein machines that I previously disdained. The poker? Well, I had an exceptional day on Tuesday. However, for the other sessions, I either was card dead, missed most draws, or played poorly. Sometimes that just happens, I guess. I was in a bad funk and got impatient. At least my Tuesday poker wins and slot wins through the five days covered most of my poker losses, leaving me down a puny buy-in for the trip. The end result is that I had a good time, played poker and slots, and it didn't cost me too much what with cheap Frontier flights and a cheap room at the "Dirty Castle."

A special thanks to NormInVegas for the ride from Ellis Island to Bellagio and to Alysia for the airport pick up, a few other rides, and use of her monorail ticket. It's nice to have friends who live in Las Vegas. 😀

I probably will not return for at least a month, maybe several due to this year's F1 race. In the meantime, I have a colonoscopy scheduled soon, a trip to Greece at the end of the month, and in October, possibly a trip with TBC to get him to visit his mother and son. That could be really interesting.

Thanks for reading! 😊

Back to Las Vegas September 2-6, 2024

For many years, Labor Day signaled a few things to me. With work, it was the end of an intense period that had been going on for about a month. It was a time to get away from work and everything associated with it. It was the perfect time for a short vacation. When one of my older brothers, thundering36, moved back from Australia to the United States in 2000, it became a natural time to visit Las Vegas as thundering's birthday is right at Labor Day. Finally, an interesting chapter of my life just ended as an elderly woman I had been assisting for over a year, Sandra (I referred to her as "Eva" in my first post of 2024), passed away last Monday. I had been the last person to see her alive late the night before. She was buried on Friday. I feel like I need some time away.

I will be flying this trip, staying in my usual Las Vegas "home" (Excalibur), and hoping to see some friends while, of course, getting in several sessions of low-end no limit poker. I have been running so well at Bellagio that I will undoubtedly play a few sessions there. I also look forward to trying out the new poker room in Venetian. Outside of those plans, I will be playing it by ear. Hit me up if you want to play some poker or grab a meal/drink. I am guessing that Wednesday night might be prime time for this. I have been on the move recently, taking a trip to Las Vegas in June, another one in July, a 10-day trip to Wisconsin and Illinois at the end of July, and a trip to Napa, CA last week. Things will get even better at the end of this month as my wife and I will be taking a trip to Greece.

Viva Las Vegas -- here I come!

Thanks for reading.

Las Vegas Trip Report: July 9-11, 2024

To go or not to go -- that was the question. My friend, Koala Pete, was going to be finishing his five-week trip from Australia to Las Vegas on Wednesday, July 10. I had made plans in my mind to fly back out to Las Vegas to see him before he left. But there were complications.

I sent out a tweet saying that on Monday, July 8, I had had the most frustrating day I've experienced in 30 years. It involved frustrations with a police office, a bank, and a hospital. There is a long story attached to this, but I do not want to put any details in writing, especially online, while there are several things in the works. However, the frustration was very real. The temperature was around 115 degrees. I was hot, I was tired, my stomach was hurting, and my attitude was just shitty. I had planned to fly to Las Vegas later that afternoon, but there was no way for me to make that flight. I considered taking an evening flight, but I still didn't feel right. Around midnight, I felt a little better and decided to just head out on the first flight in the morning. I had already rescheduled a physical therapy appointment on Thursday morning so that I could at least stay two nights. I made a hotel reservation at Excalibur, my Las Vegas home, and Frontier Airlines, my low cost carrier. I was hoping to be back to 100% after a few hours of sleep.

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

I had my wife drive me to the airport. Lately, I've been liking this more than my usual driving myself and parking at a slightly off-airport lot. My usual routine paid off as I do not pay for anything for Frontier flights except the ticket. I was assigned a window seat in the 14th row. Not bad. The airplane seemed new, clean, and spacious for Frontier.

When I went to the Uber/Lyft staging area at Harry Reid, I was shocked to see virtually no one there. I quickly got an Uber and headed to my Las Vegas home, Excalibur. Thanks to MGM's app/online check-in system, I was already checked into my room before I left the Phoenix airport! This is certainly much different that Caesars, which once offered to check me in 30 minutes early ... for an extra $60! I texted Koala as I headed to Jimmy John's in the Excalibur food court. Nobody was in line, so I stepped aside to answer Koala's return text. When I did so, a complete girl's volleyball team with coaches got in line in front of me. Needless to say, the new plan was to Uber to Rio to have lunch with Koala.

Koala's remodeled RIO room looked very nice. It reminded me of a couple of times many years ago when my brother. thundering36, and I stayed there. We talked until friend Alysia C got off work, picked us up and drove us to The Golden Tiki, where we were later joined by our friend Norm. We had a great time, especially when the entertainer,  Dino a' la Carte, stopped by the table to regale us with stories of his being Frank Sinatra, the Fonz, and Ringo Starr! What a great, fun guy he was!

Me, Alysia, Koala Pete and Norm

After The Golden Tiki, Koala headed back to Rio as he was still recovering from a medical emergency. Meanwhile, Norm drove us to Bellagio to get on our pokerz. Alysia C joined us later, and we all got on the same table. What a blast! Best yet, we all left winners. I have been running extremely hot at Bellagio in 2024, and that night was no exception. I had a full house and flopped a set early on and took lots of chips off three weak players at the table. Norm, who had been card dead, flopped quad Queens, followed by a hand where a weak player kept calling his second nuts flush. Alysia, meanwhile, won a huge pot when she jammed all in with top two and  a huge flush draw. It was a fun fun fun night!

One of only two bad things this trip happened when I got back to Excalibur. My usual favorite slot  machines, which have almost always pay off, didn't. Grrrrr. Isn't there some kind of casino law against this? 😀

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

After relaxing in the morning, I headed to Excalibur's Buca di Beppo for lunch. The salad and pasta lunch special is not a bad deal for $12.99.

I was still a bit tired and thought of heading back to my room for a bit, I decided to go to Mandalay Bay since it would be the easiest room to walk to. I waited for about a half hour before I was seated at a $1/2 game. The poker "room" there is still "temporarily" next to the House of Blues -- adjacent to the bottom of the escalator that is near the tram station. In fact, with a national girls volleyball tournament going on, it was fun to see all the teams coming down the escalator on their way to the Mandalay Bat convention center where, I heard, there were 100 volleyball courts set up. Imagine!

Evening dinner that night was at Shake Shack at New York New York, followed by a final poker session at, where else, Bellagio. My initial $1/3 table didn't seem too favorable, so I switched to another. I still need to work on switching tables the minute my intuition tells me to move on. Anyway, I went from being down to being up when four of us were in a pot together and I had a suited hole cards with the Ace of Diamonds. The flop came diamond ... diamond ... diamond. I won a nice pot. 😀

Table dynamics shifted as some players left and were replaced, so I decided to cash out with my win. I had enough time to hit up one more poker room for the night. Although I have been winning at Caesars this year, I decided to head to Horseshoe. The room there used to be my poker home ions ago, but it had been very unkind to me in 2024. Time to give it a shot, I thought. 

After arriving, I saw one of my favorite dealers, Gianna. Once seated, I saw another of my favorites, Ronnie B. Unfortunately, things afterward did not go well. I was card dead and was second best in a couple of hands. I switched positions  and got A-Kos. I bet $12 and was called by three other players. The flop was 4-A-9 rainbow. I bet $25 and the table lucksack raised to $50. Of course, poker is all nice and fun when you hit every flop! What did he have: A-9, A-4, 9-4, a set, A-Q/J? I had about $150 behind and he had a stack of about $450. What did I do? How did he respond? What did he have? How did the hand end? I will give people a chance to weigh in with their thoughts before I update with the answers. Please put your guesses in the comments section. Sometimes people post them on Twitter, but then nobody knows what you are referring to. Whatever. 😁

Thursday, July 11, 2024

I woke up at 5am, knowing that I had to leave for the airport around 7am. I decided to go to the airport early and have a leisurely breakfast there. Ha! Few people were in line to go through the TSA station. However, when my bag was in the X-ray machine, the person running the machine disappeared! Several of us waited for what seemed to be an eternity before the treys started coming out of the machine. When mine finally came out, it was kicked to the side for an individual search. After waiting again for several minutes until someone grabbed my bag, I was told that the machine did not take a picture of it and it had to go back through the machine. Geez. At least the TSA agent put it right in in front of the other treys waiting to go in. My plane trip and ride home were thankfully uneventful. My first course of action at home: a nap! And being a true poker degenerate, I headed to Desert Diamond in Glendale for some poker action later that night.

All comments, especially about my hand at Horseshoe, are welcomed. Thanks for reading! 😃

Update to the hand at Horseshoe

To review ...

I was card dead and was second best in a couple of hands. I switched positions  and got A-Kos. I bet $12 and was called by three other players. The flop was 4-A-9 rainbow. I bet $25 and the table lucksack raised to $50. Of course, poker is all nice and fun when you hit every flop! What did he have: A-9, A-4, 9-4, a set, A-Q/J? I had about $150 behind and he had a stack of about $450. 

I was guessing that Mr. Lucksack had either A-9 or A-4. Of course, other hands like A-Q/A-J/A-10 were also possible. I was inspired by an episode of Yellowstone. When faced with a task that needed to be done immediately and no great answer of how to do it, say "Eff it." So I did. I shoved all in, knowing that I was likely behind. He called the all in but did not immediately reveal his cards. The turn was another 9, and Mr. Lucksack started whining "Now the kicker will play." At that point, I knew that my guess had been on target. He had A-4 (not even sooted) and now was a river card away from doubling me up. The river was a brick and my loss turned into a win. I guess I didn't see the need to tell him that this is why we do not play any A-rag hands without abandon as getting counterfeited is a very real possibility. So ... I sucked out. I'll take it!