Viva Las Vegas from a Centurion
As promised, dear reader, here is a quick precis of my trip to Las Vegas. This is also my 100th post to the blog, so I'm a member of the Centurion Club. There will of course be many many more to come, so thanks for your support and do keep reading!
To Vegas, and it started with someone else's bad fortune being my good fortune. At the same time that my good friend, Gavin, was winning a satellite tournament (beating 1,900 other players) to qualify for a seat at the World Series of Poker (WSoP), so his girlfriend was learning of a death in the family.
By winning the tournament, hosted by pokerstars, Gavin also qualified for $2,000 in expenses. Naturally, he would have been escorted by Sam, his girl, under normal circumstances. But, unsurprisingly, Sam didn't feel like travelling. She did however insist that Gavin travel and compete, and suggested he ask me to accompany him.
Of course, I was happy to step in despite the delicate nature of the situation.
So, last Thursday, we set off from Manchester direct to Las Vegas. bmi are aggressively targeting many of the same routes as Virgin, but from their Northern base and, on the evidence of the Vegas flights, they are a serious competitor. Beating Virgin on price by over 20%, and offering an excellent cabin service, the 10.5 hour journey passed quickly. Especially so as I managed to whack Gavin at Scrabble: beat him by 175 points at 20 cents a point!
(In fairness to Gavin, I should record that he did stop me breaking 500 for the first time in my life by getting out the turn before I could, and also won the series 3-2, though lost about 20 dollars in the final reckoning...)
We arrived early afternoon on the Thursday, and - after showering and shaving - it was time to test the tables. No early luck for Gavin, but I managed to get my first Pick 3 of the week up.
For those who don't know, a Pick 3 is like a mini-jackpot bet, where you have to correctly select the winners of three consecutive races. As it's a pool bet, the idea is that if you find one or more lively outsiders to prevail, you can collect a decent pot. My win was just over $300, which was to pay for a subset of my subsequent losers!
Later that evening, there was a major incident in the hotel we were staying in (New York New York), when a guy walked in and opened fire with a gun. He shot four people before he was taken down.
http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-vegasshooting6jul06
I'm happy to report that we had both long since retired for the evening at the time of the disturbance and awoke to watch the story on the local news. A rare incident but nevertheless the type of thing that can very easily happen in a nation that insists on continuing with its archaic 'Constitutional Right to bear arms' while not allowing its patrons to bet freely in any state.
Bizarre and indicative of the preposterous hypocrisies that are rife Stateside. As much as I love travelling there, I find some of their laws outright unfathomable.
You can own a gun without a license, but you can't place $20 on a horse, unless you live in State A, B or C. Crazy. Rant over.
The tournament format for the WSoP was that it would be played over four days. Day One would actually take place over four separate days, 1A, 1B, 1C and - you guessed it - 1D. This was because there were 7,000-odd competitors, all pitching up with the $10,000 entry fee.
Gavin was to play on the first of the four days, and did well. Despite having next to no decent cards, he managed to guard his chips sufficiently well to get through the day with slightly more than he started.
Poker legends Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim and a number of other past winners and poker Hall of Famers failed to clear the first hurdle, testament to the strength and depth of the assembled players.
Mike Sexton, poker star, is to the left of the dealer here. Behind him and to the left in blue shirt and baseball cap is our local hero, Gavin.
Gavin's poker playing day began at around midday and ended just after 4am the following morning. These games run and run!
Having played Friday, and with the other three day ones to follow, Gavin was not due back at the table until Tuesday, the day I flew back (not that I didn't have any faith in my man's ability to progress in the tournament or anything...!)
By that Tuesday, the initial 7,000 had been whittled down to just under 2,000, and the battle resumed in earnest. With the blinds and ante's rising steeply now, every player had to be more aggressive and those who found themselves short stacked would succumb to the 'death or glory' of the 'All In' call.
As with many before and since, this was the fate of Gavin. Holding Ace Ten, he went all in and was called by the - at the time - chip leader. 'Bigchips' had been wantonly bluffing and scaring people off with his ample stack (as it were) most of the day to this point, and had rarely had anything to show when push came to shove after the river.
Just Gavin's luck then, when he turned over Ace Queen, and won the hand. Gavin had played very well, and done brilliantly to progress to the second stage of the world's most presitigious poker tournament but, alas, the gods were not smiling on his gnomic features this time.
The temperatures in Las Vegas were 47C all week, and it was all a struggle when out of the cooling embrace of an air conditioning unit, but I rekindled my lost love for the city whilst out there, and had an absolute ball.
For those of you that are interested (and I will not be offended if there are none!), I've posted a few other photos on the site, and you can see them by clicking the links below...
Viva Las Vegas indeed. Which reminds me, I'm thinking of opening a strip joint on the Strip, and calling it Beaver Las Vegas! (I'm not really, I just wanted to gratuitously get that line into this post!!!)
Til 101, roger and out.
Matt
To Vegas, and it started with someone else's bad fortune being my good fortune. At the same time that my good friend, Gavin, was winning a satellite tournament (beating 1,900 other players) to qualify for a seat at the World Series of Poker (WSoP), so his girlfriend was learning of a death in the family.
By winning the tournament, hosted by pokerstars, Gavin also qualified for $2,000 in expenses. Naturally, he would have been escorted by Sam, his girl, under normal circumstances. But, unsurprisingly, Sam didn't feel like travelling. She did however insist that Gavin travel and compete, and suggested he ask me to accompany him.
Of course, I was happy to step in despite the delicate nature of the situation.
So, last Thursday, we set off from Manchester direct to Las Vegas. bmi are aggressively targeting many of the same routes as Virgin, but from their Northern base and, on the evidence of the Vegas flights, they are a serious competitor. Beating Virgin on price by over 20%, and offering an excellent cabin service, the 10.5 hour journey passed quickly. Especially so as I managed to whack Gavin at Scrabble: beat him by 175 points at 20 cents a point!
(In fairness to Gavin, I should record that he did stop me breaking 500 for the first time in my life by getting out the turn before I could, and also won the series 3-2, though lost about 20 dollars in the final reckoning...)
We arrived early afternoon on the Thursday, and - after showering and shaving - it was time to test the tables. No early luck for Gavin, but I managed to get my first Pick 3 of the week up.
For those who don't know, a Pick 3 is like a mini-jackpot bet, where you have to correctly select the winners of three consecutive races. As it's a pool bet, the idea is that if you find one or more lively outsiders to prevail, you can collect a decent pot. My win was just over $300, which was to pay for a subset of my subsequent losers!
Later that evening, there was a major incident in the hotel we were staying in (New York New York), when a guy walked in and opened fire with a gun. He shot four people before he was taken down.
http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-vegasshooting6jul06
I'm happy to report that we had both long since retired for the evening at the time of the disturbance and awoke to watch the story on the local news. A rare incident but nevertheless the type of thing that can very easily happen in a nation that insists on continuing with its archaic 'Constitutional Right to bear arms' while not allowing its patrons to bet freely in any state.
Bizarre and indicative of the preposterous hypocrisies that are rife Stateside. As much as I love travelling there, I find some of their laws outright unfathomable.
You can own a gun without a license, but you can't place $20 on a horse, unless you live in State A, B or C. Crazy. Rant over.
The tournament format for the WSoP was that it would be played over four days. Day One would actually take place over four separate days, 1A, 1B, 1C and - you guessed it - 1D. This was because there were 7,000-odd competitors, all pitching up with the $10,000 entry fee.
Gavin was to play on the first of the four days, and did well. Despite having next to no decent cards, he managed to guard his chips sufficiently well to get through the day with slightly more than he started.
Poker legends Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim and a number of other past winners and poker Hall of Famers failed to clear the first hurdle, testament to the strength and depth of the assembled players.
Mike Sexton, poker star, is to the left of the dealer here. Behind him and to the left in blue shirt and baseball cap is our local hero, Gavin.
Gavin's poker playing day began at around midday and ended just after 4am the following morning. These games run and run!
Having played Friday, and with the other three day ones to follow, Gavin was not due back at the table until Tuesday, the day I flew back (not that I didn't have any faith in my man's ability to progress in the tournament or anything...!)
By that Tuesday, the initial 7,000 had been whittled down to just under 2,000, and the battle resumed in earnest. With the blinds and ante's rising steeply now, every player had to be more aggressive and those who found themselves short stacked would succumb to the 'death or glory' of the 'All In' call.
As with many before and since, this was the fate of Gavin. Holding Ace Ten, he went all in and was called by the - at the time - chip leader. 'Bigchips' had been wantonly bluffing and scaring people off with his ample stack (as it were) most of the day to this point, and had rarely had anything to show when push came to shove after the river.
Just Gavin's luck then, when he turned over Ace Queen, and won the hand. Gavin had played very well, and done brilliantly to progress to the second stage of the world's most presitigious poker tournament but, alas, the gods were not smiling on his gnomic features this time.
The temperatures in Las Vegas were 47C all week, and it was all a struggle when out of the cooling embrace of an air conditioning unit, but I rekindled my lost love for the city whilst out there, and had an absolute ball.
For those of you that are interested (and I will not be offended if there are none!), I've posted a few other photos on the site, and you can see them by clicking the links below...
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007041.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007042.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007043.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007044.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007045.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007046.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007047.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007048.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007049.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007050.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007051.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007052.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007053.jpg
http://www.nag-nag-nag.co.uk/vegas07/06072007054.jpg
Viva Las Vegas indeed. Which reminds me, I'm thinking of opening a strip joint on the Strip, and calling it Beaver Las Vegas! (I'm not really, I just wanted to gratuitously get that line into this post!!!)
Til 101, roger and out.
Matt
posted by Matt at
15:29
1 Comments:
LOL "Denby said the casino remained open while investigators were interviewing witnesses."
Business as usual.
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