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The Perils of Paulie - An Irregular Blog

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Paulie_D:
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APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Tuesday, 15th November 2011

So Far, So....'Meh'!

Tuesday was always going to be a quiet day. I don't plan a lot for myself on these trips normally preferring to just go with the flow. Obviously, once the rest of the contingent arrive on Thursday we're planned like the Germans invading Poland but that's a whole other thing.

I pottered around the room for a few hours after I woke up. I can't say it was a perfect night but it was slightly better than the previous ones I've had here.

Anyway, by the time I left the room at noon I was ready for a day of grinding. A grind it would prove to be. I opted not to eat breakfast, or should it be lunch, or brunch, at that time of day? Whatever, I didn't and just made my way to the card room and got seated immediately as it was a little quieter than the previous few days...midweek I guess.

I was trying to find a happy medium between the boredom of folding a lot of hands and the fun of playing the pretty looking hands that I probably should fold but like to surprise people with.

This led to my stack doing a yo-yo for a while getting as low as $20 from my initial buy-in of $200. That pulled me up sharpish and I really had to get back to proper grinding.

Since the Orleans is primarily a locals casino you see a lot of the same faces every day and they tend to soft play each other and will check it down when they get heads up. Oh, they're not raising any anyone out and then doing it but all the same it's happening all the same.

I saw this on more than one occasion, especially between the little old ladies who are friends, and when I queried of one why she had checked her quads she replied, quite openly, “Oh, we always do that”.

Sigh.

The dealer just ignored my question as to whether you could check the nuts and I can't be bothered to take it further. Nothing is going to change and I guess it's just another thing I'll have get used to.

After about 7 hours I'd finally gotten my stack back up to my original buy-in but had consumed a number (OK, a lot) of beers. In fact, I was sitting on a small profit of around $40 and was considering taking a break and even perhaps just locking in that small profit.

Stupidly, I ignored that impulse and got involved in a nut high vs. my nut low hand where I got counterfeited by a 3 outer on the river which lost me a few dollars.

I played a little while longer getting down to $150 from the original $200 when people started leaving and the table dynamic changed.

I was getting hungry by then and decided just to take the small loss and grab some food at TGIs.

In thinking it over I had to be fairly close to break even after tips after 8 hours. I mean figure 3 beers an hour plus, say, 3 pots an hour over 8 hours...hang on let me take my socks off...

6 x 8 = 48...so yeah....I can call it break even if I want. A little self-justification is good for the soul.

Hey, what do you mean delusional? Yes, yes, I should have listed to my instincts and taken the profit when I had the chance but there you go.

Anyway, back to my home away from home, TGI Fridays for a nice Steak and Salmon meal and a couple of Stellas. At around 10pm, I realised that I was not looking forward to finishing off my pint...it just tasted 'not right'. It wasn't bad or anything it just felt like I was forcing it.

I abandoned it, paid my bill and went for a wander around the casino to let the food digest a while. No particular destination or plan, I'd just see what was what and if anything caught my eye then fair enough.

Imagine my surprise when I found myself wandering back to my room....auto-pilot must be trying to tell me something.

I took the hint, clearly the old PASPS (that's the Paulie Autonomic Self Preservation System), for those who might remember, was kicking in even if I didn't know why. I wasn't drunk by any means despite 8 hours or more of drinking....three Bud Lites an hour over 6-7 hours wouldn't  even dent my alcohol stream. I hung out the 'Do Not Disturb' sign just in case of ursine intervention (I could have been wrong about the bear after all) and crashed.

Paulie_D:
Repost

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Wednesday, 16th November 2011

Just Another Day At T'Mill

I just can't figure out why I'm not sleeping right. I think I'm fighting off a cold or it could be the air-conditioning is drying me out and messing up my sinuses and simulating a cold. Anyway, it's nice to have plenty of time in the mornings to get stuff done, catch up on work emails and some TV.

Nothing special to do until around noon when I'm ready for breakfast and some poker.

As I said, breakfast first so I chose the Courtyard Cafe in the Orleans...what the American would call a coffee-shop. That's different from a Starbucks or Costa, you know, what we would think of a coffee shop.

Nope this is full service food and coffee restaurant. Steak, Eggs and Hash Browns. Lovely...and 10% off with a voucher they give you when you check in.

That set me up for a day of grinding. Grinding. It's what I do.

I got seated after just a couple of minutes...It's handy having my Kindle with me as it gives me something to read other than the usual poker magazines they have lying around.

I wish I had much of anything interesting to report but it was nothing I haven't already detailed over the past few days...more of the same today.

After 6 hours I was precisely on my original $200 (but +EV on the beers of course). I suppose that's good enough.

I haven't done an exact count up but I think over the 5 days I'm basically breakeven on the poker...maybe a few bucks ahead in cash terms but definitely a winner in the 'drinking for profit' stakes.

A big thanks to Nellie, Jenna & Caroline for taking care of me in the beer department. As soon as I was even close to polishing off my drink another would materialise. I wish I could have taken pictures for you but it's kind of frowned on.

Take it from me....you missed something.

As I was walking over to TGI's for something to eat (with another 15% off voucher) I met Andy & Debjani (who'd been dabbling in the 2/4 LHE muddy waters) and they offered a lift over the the Stratosphere again where they were going.

I wasn't really in the mood so I gratefully declined and got my beer and steak on instead.

By 8pm I was ready to leave but in two minds as to whether to bother with poker or not. I decided not to but rather to play a few slot machines and a little blackjack.

Once again, nothing of interest....sorry, I wish I could spice this post entry up but I'd rather tell you the truth.

”I may leave stuff out, but I don't make **** up”.

Tomorrow is D-Day for the British Invasion. Some commandos have already reconnoitred the area but the main landing party hits the beaches at 2pm PST.

I have a feeling that my brother is bringing the bear with him.

Paulie_D:
Repost

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Thursday, 17th November 2011

Oh Feck, They"re Here!

This not sleeping right is really starting to hack me off big time but perhaps a change of scenery will do me some good...luckily it"s moving day. I pottered around the room packing and policing up the room to make sure I hadn"t left anything behind before making my way down to the front desk to check out around noon.

I took a cab over to Harrah"s and got checked in in pretty short order and trekked up to my room on the 14th floor. I"d deliberately asked for a quiet room, I need to maximise my opportunities for a good nights kip.

I unpacked and set-up the IT kit as per usual but, for some reason, I couldn"t log on to the wi-fi. The screen kept saying I couldn"t apply charges to my room even though I had specifically enabled this on check-in. This was a little annoying as it meant I would have to trek down to the front desk and get it sorted.

These little things are sent to try us I suppose.

I"d already planned to get some lunch at Toby Keith"s so I took the opportunity to make my enquiries at the front desk as I passed. On doing so I was informed that Harrah"s DOESN"T HAVE WI-FI in it"s standard rooms...only in it"s suites.

WTF!? Even the friggin" Imperial Palace has wi-fi in all it"s rooms! I looked at the woman behind the desk as though she"d told me that beer was bad for you.

Apparently, they only have cabled connections in the standard rooms. I"d noticed a cable in the top drawer of the TV cabinet when I was unpacking but I"ve seen this dozens of times in other hotels...it"s an emergency thing, not an actual necessity.

Sorry folks, a "Travel Guru Fail" on that one...who knew? I guess I"m supposed to know but it still boggles my mind that they don"t have this basic functionality. [2016 note: Rectified I understand]

Well, there it was, nothing I could do now, so I went to eat. A few beers and a plate of chicken fingers later I"d fed the body and soul and a text arrived from Richard Baker telling me he was in Carnaval Court. It was only 2pm by this time, a little early but why not?

I walked the short distance outside and found Rich, Andy & Debjani planted at a table. Rich had one of those 4 foot drink things full of alcohol wrapped around his neck and was obviously in a party mood.

Figuring that I had a long night ahead I just contented myself with a few Bud Lights while we watched a great band called “Wonder Boogie” get the smallish crowd fired up with disco music and audience participation bits. They"ve been doing this for a long time and have it down pat. It"s a whole lot of fun to watch.



Rich and I sat there for a fair while (Andy & Deb had gone off to eat I think) just having a whale of a time just watching the crowd belly up to the bar for free shots of alcohol every half hour or so. It"s just cheap booze and fruit drinks mixed up in a pouring bottle but it"s a great way to get people involved.

Finally the rest of the APAT contingent started to arrive and we got stuck in. I can"t say everyone made the choice to turn up but the usual hard-core were in attendance so I think we did it up right.

Buckets of beers for $25 seemed popular once I"d spread the word..."Travel Guru Redeemed".

To be honest I had expected us to just be there until fully liquored up and crashing but it seemed that a lot of people wanted to play the 8pm tournament at Harrah"s. I honestly can"t see the attraction...It"s a crappy room and the tournament has, as is the way with these things, a horrible structure...but I was willing to go along with the majority.

Along the way, I"d been trying to get hold of my brother. He should have landed about 2pm but I hadn"t heard a peep out of him. I"d called, texted and emailed but nothing.

On my way to the poker room, detoured for a pee and as I"m washing my hands and on the way out, in he walks. I meet him in some funny places.

It turns out he"d gone out to an AT&T store to buy a sim immediately after checking in but for some reason his phone still wasn"t getting data. That explained the lack of contact. I took his new number and he went back to his blackjack I headed over to the poker room.

We"ll catch up later...it"s that sort of relationship. We don"t feel the need to be in each other"s pockets all the time. He"s not into poker and I"m pretty much over long spells at the blackjack tables....been there, did that during the nineties.

Naturally, every move I made was the wrong one and I was out in about 2 hours, probably less...in fact almost certainly less.

I sat outside the poker room for a while and found myself nodding off...I mean literally, doing the head jerk thing when you pull yourself back from the edge of sleep. This sleep deficiency thing is kicking my backside.

I played some slots for a while to rack up a few lousy Total Rewards points before heading back to the room to try and get the internet working.

That was a real palaver too. Firstly, I couldn"t find anywhere to plug the cable into. I searched for quite a while before finding the router attached to the back of one of the nightstands. Success I thought. Nope, the cable wouldn"t reach to the table in the room. Ok, move the table...that"ll cause problems with housekeeping, I"ll lay odds...I"ll have to leave a note asking them not to move it back.

Are we there yet? Nope, no signal. It"s surprising that something didn"t drop the 14 floors out of the window. The answer....they hadn"t plugged in the router to a power outlet. Once I"d twigged that it was plain sailing but, sheesh, sorry Harrah"s you don"t get any more stays out of me.[2016 Note: That turned out to be untrue.]

So that was that. They"re here.

I"ll let them tell they"re own stories over on the APAT forum. I have little doubt they will be doozies.[2016 Note: Hopefully not lost in the recent server switch.]

Paulie_D:
Repost

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Friday, 18th November 2011

Staggered

Moving hotels seems to have done the trick. The beds at Harrah"s are very comfortable and I can't pinpoint what the difference might be but I got a full six hours solid sleep after Thursday's invasion.

So what's a fellow supposed to do? That's right, I rolled over and went back to sleep...it's still early for crying out loud and tonight is going to be a doozy.

With nothing to do until late lunchtime I did that...nothing...just enjoyed a restful time in the room before grabbing a cab over to the Monte Carlo and planted myself in Diablo's Cantina. I checked in on Foursquare and alerted the Social Media of my arrival in time to see Don Logan wandering in clad in appropriate attire.

He'd only arrived late the night before from Chicago and we ordered food while waiting for others to arrive. Before long we were a decent size party and so we adjourned to The Pub on the other side of the Monte Carlo. This proved to be a popular choice especially as the had a happy hour of 2 for 1 drinks until 6. We indulged.

As we were a large party they insisted on a single bill and slapped on a service charge of 18%. Seems fair...it saves us having to work out the tip at the end.

I arranged for a pitcher to be placed on the table so that we could put the cost of our individual drinks in that rather that have a fight over who ordered what and for how much at the end. I think it worked out.

Ger the Duke seemed insistent on us sticking rigorously to the outlined agenda while I was somewhat more laid back about it. Trying to get 20+ people to agree on whether it's time to leave is like trying to herd cats....it just can't be done...all you can do it tell them where you are going and hope they'll follow.

I gave the name and address of the next location to all and sundry before heading off to the hotel lobby to grab some cabs. The message seems to have permeated because before long we were piling into Frankie's Tiki Room for some large drinks.





The drinks taste very nice...very nice indeed...and I had too many. It didn't feel it at the time but they let me know later.

Joobs was insisting on trying to recreate 'Umbongo', a kids drink from some time ago...but with flavoured rum and various juices. The bartender Mike played along and for $6 each they were nice...very nice indeed. I had three or four...and that's after two previous large rum concoctions had forced their way down my throat.

We were already running behind the alleged schedule and various people (I mention no names Tighty) were more interested in...erm...more mature entertainment.

This hadn't been part of my plan but as I always said...it's just an outline, if people want to do something else then that was fine with me.

So, I made the executive decision to give the Bikini Bar a miss and we'd head off to McMullan"s Irish Pub instead...at least those who wanted to could. So Mike called us a bunch of taxis and we made our collective way there.

I mentioned John Windsor previously in this thing and he was playing again on Friday. He went over a total storm with the Brits and everyone really got into it.

Curlarge got up on stage and played 'Wonderwall' for us during one of John's breaks and those two seemed to have a good old natter.

We coaxed a few more songs out of John after his usual knocking off time of 12.30am but he had to pack up some time. That didn't seem to stop the party that was going on but I was well over four sheets to the wind by that stage...more like and entire Chinese laundry to the wind in fact.

I can't recall the exact time I decided to call it a night but I walked outside and hailed cab and was safely tucked up by 2.30 am or so.

Apparently, I missed some high-jinks by leaving including...I'm led to believe Michelle and Joobs being told off for dancing on the tables, Michelle doing a juggling act with Joobs'...erm....assets and Mr Prime finding another odd location to catch forty winks.

Me....I had company of my own....the drinking bear has arrived!

Paulie_D:
Repost

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Saturday, 19th November 2011

Out Cold

Yes, folks, the bear is most definitely back. Clothes all over the room, cr@ppy taste in my mouth, raging headache and pocket full of singles. Ohhhh, Lord....rum drinks...tasty but so dangerous. Anyway, as you can imagine it took me more than a while before I was even close to being compos mentis enough to make my way to Caesars for the APAT event.

I met Shogun along the way and we made our way over together.

We got under way in the event and given that the field was a good 80% British my table was full of familiar faces. I got my Kings cracked fairly early on but doubled up through Paul McGuinness towards the end of level three when he didn't believe me when I shoved with a full house.

Of course, I picked KK again on the button in the very next hand and got coolered to a flopped full house.

That left me at a loose end and, even though I am the travel guru, I hadn't planned on anything for the Saturday afternoon. I wandered back to Harrah"s for lunch where I had a $5 coupon thanks for Foursquare.

From there I just thought I would take a nap to recover from the bad night and made my way to my room.

This proved to be a big mistake....I lay down about 5pm for a couple of hours....unfortunately, those two hours actually proved to be six. I said the beds were comfortable.

To be honest, I suppose I could have made the effort to get up, clean myself up and go wandering but I figured that would just mess up my sleep pattern again.

So, I just wrote off Saturday and just hung out in the room. Sorry to be boring but there you go.

Sunday, I want to play the Mixed Game at the IP but I might give the Venetian a whirl first.

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