February 2018 Las Vegas Trip Report - Part II : Bonnie & Clyde; Clark Gable & Carole Lombard; TBC & lightning36

After waking up on Monday, Feb. 5, it was time for some breakfast and then checking out of the hotel. As I walked outside in the sunny, clear and moderately warm day, I was reminded of the nasty cold weather I left behind. It seemed like that day would be great for a road trip I had planned. I hopped in the car and drove south to Primm, Nevada. Destination: Whiskey Pete's Casino. Purpose: Check out the original vehicle that Bonnie and Clyde were in when they met their maker.

The back of Clyde Barrow's shirt

After leaving Whiskey Pete's, it was back north up I-15 and a little west to Goodsprings, Nevada and the Pioneer Saloon.

Classic movie buffs might know that this is the place that Clark Gable hung out getting drunk after wife Carole Lombard died in a plane crash nearby. The location of the crash was desolate, thus it took search personnel a little time to get to the bodies that perished in the crash.

As the afternoon wound down, it was time to head back up to Las Vegas and check into Bally's. There was a long line at check in, but fortunately only two people ahead of me in the Platinum check in line. I stopped at the Total Rewards Center to get some new cards. I was surprised to see that they were Gold, not Platinum. After checking in my room, I stopped back at Total Rewards to inquire. It seems that, unbeknownst to me, Caesars, although notifying me a year earlier that I would have Platinum status through 2018, apparently revoked my Platinum status since I had not been using my Rewards credit card. The funny thing is, despite having been given Platinum status the year before (shortly after my brother and I stayed at The Cromwell), I have played enough poker to fall just short of earning Platinum, on my own in 2017. Just short -- as in NOT. Therefore, I had to pay the dreaded CET parking fee to park in the Paris parking lot for the balance of my stay. Yeah - paying the $10/day should not be a big deal, but it is just the kind of thing that pisses you off when you pay the friggin' $34 daily resort fee for shitty wifi.

So, with my run good (since getting on my first flight!) over, I headed to an ultra-secret location to pick up Tony Bigcharles for some degenerate poker. Although the Golden Nugget has never been one of my favorite rooms (and certainly one of my least successful), I decided to give it another chance. Unfortunately, when Tony and I got to the Nugget, almost 100 people attending a convention were playing in a private tournament, taking up all available tables. Fortunately our wait wasn't too long, and shortly we were sitting at the same table.

(In)famous poker pro Tony Bigcharles

I was playing well and building a decent stack despite taking a brutal hit when a player chased a gutshot straight all the way to the river -- and hit it! It looked like the Golden Nugget curse would be broken, but ... then disaster  happened very quickly. There were several players at the table who were poor players and were wild, but lucky. I looked down to see pocket Queens. I four-bet a short stack who then went all in. One of the table donks followed. I easily covered them but had a bad feeling about those Queens. The short stack had A-K and won the pot. Even the table donk beat me with the mighty K-8os. The very next hand I looked down at the dreaded Pocket Kings. Well, of course (u see) I would be shoving. Again I was in a hand with the players who seem to swim in the shallow end of the intelligence pond. You can guess what happened: I lost to the mighty Q-10! I was reminded that Q-10sooted was one of my favorite hands. Well ... it is for cheap speculative trapping, not for calling the all-ins of someone who has only shown down excellent hands. Bah!

We left the Nugget and drove to the Stratosphere. Tony, I and an old friend of Tony's were all able to be seated. And once again, my premium hand of a set of 8's (which I shoved) was drawn out by a guy with a straight draw. What a crappy night. After my good poker start, some bad luck had me right back where I started. I then found a video blackjack game and martingaled off $2,000. Oops -- sorry -- wrong blog.