Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Another day in Vegas......

We (the Poker Week crew, minus Tim & Steve who were editing this week's show, & Rhow) were due to meet in the PH Lobby at 10am, but one of our ships was missing, overlaid. That Compo plays poker all night, non-stop!

Eventually, we set off for the Hoover Dam in the Mustang. Wow, WHAT an engineering marvel, carved out of the rock in a desert that is unforgiveably hot, is that Dam. The entire Construction Contract was for 48 million dollars (in 1930), for which they got the dam, & all the iinfrastructure & power gerneration that goes with it, a new road & railway from Las Vegas, & Boulder City, purpose built for 7,000 workers to live in. Awesome, just awesome. We filmed 3 or 4 "Postcards" for Sky Poker there.

From there, we drove straight to the house Jon Kalmer is staying in, to do an in-depth interview with him. Took an hour, thanks to Tom-Tom, & then I gave Jon a lift to the Rio to collect his car, which he'd left there the night before.

Jon's wife arrived yesterday, & Conor Tate, who skalie credits with mentoring his game, arrives today. Kevin O'Connell has postponed his return home, too.

The house is superb, 4 bedrooms, with a lovely pool & a 3 car garage. Nick Gibson owns the place, but he's gone home.

Jon is having a barbecue this evening (Monday) & invited us along, but I've had too much work to do this evening, & I am up at 9m Tuesday for Poker Week stuff. Bugger.

I then went with Compo to Caesars Palace for the $300 comp, but was out within half an hour, after my rivered flush gave matey-boy his house. Down to 300, I went on a Thewy-style tear, & parlayed it up to 2,800 in no time, before walking into a cutely played JJ with Q-9 on a 9 highh board & falling into the trap of check-raising all-in. Poo. Johnny Hewston was there, too.

So a quick dash along the Strip to the 8pm jobbie at The Venetian, to play the $110 + $50 mandator single rebuy, where I fared better, before exiting at Midnight with AQ v K-J - how come K-J always seems to win that coup?

I sat with Linda Iwaniak, British Ladies Champion & APAT regular, & then moved to John Exley's table. John is a real man, & I like him a lot. We both got warned "English Only at the table"!

I then discovered, by chance, that John & I had both worked at a place called Monckton Coke & Chemical Works, in Wombwell, near Barnsley. They make industrial coke there, & in doing so, several chemical by-products ensue, too, including sulpher, which stinks to high-heaven. The factory is like Dante's inferno, all furnaces & pipes which emit steam under high-pressure via sundry leaks. Walk in a puddle there, & your shoes dissolve. I kid you not. We also both knew or did business with a Barnsley Civil Engineering outfit by the name of P J Burke. Old man Burke sold his company to M J Murphy in the eighties for £14,000,000, & then purchased it back four years later for £6,000,000. Not daft, them Yorkies. Fascinatingly - & I know you'll love this - but P J Burke Ltd were the largest operators of wheeled (as opposed to tracked) Ackermans in the UK. Who'd have thought that?......

So anyway, post-Exit I made the half-mile walk back to Planet Hollywood, past the Mirage, Ballys, Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Casino Royale, & Paris Hotels. You have to dodge the Mexican hawkers, doling out "strippers to you" cards, & hookers galore, "fancy a party, big boy", jeez. And thence into Planet Hollwood, & that bloody music. Went into the shop to pick up some odds & ends & there was a hooker on sentry duty, & she plopped her left breast out of her blouse & winked at me, bold as brass. Or is that bold as a brass?. FFS.......

OK, quick quiz for you.

John Exley has given Compo a new nickname - "Tolstoy". Anyone care to hazard a guess as to why?

[Claw75]

John Exley has given Compo a new nickname - "Tolstoy". Anyone care to hazard a guess as to why?

because he's always russian around? 

[KingPoker]

If you could narraw it down to which tolstoy is might be a bit easier, there's a lot of them and they all have "interesting" backgrounds.

[spruce goose]

has he been using illegal vouchers

[tikay]

There is plenty to dislike about Vegas. The heat is oppressive at this time of year, those damn slots make such an awful noise, the heat is unbearable, & the younger American players, on the whole, have disgraceful table manners & demeanour, beng quite unable to either win or lose with dignity.

However, the Poker Rooms are nothing short of magnificent. Whopping great self-contained rooms, and capacity of 600+  not uncommon. And plenty of room, too - none of this nonsense we have in the UK, where 120 players are shoe-horned into a space designed for half that number. You can comfortably walk between the tables in all the Cardrooms here.

The Tourneys are, generally,well-structured, & places like Caesars, Venetian, Bellagio & many others usually have 20 or more cash-tables on the go, 24 hours a day. The Cardrooms, needless to say, never close, & you can walk into a game at 7 in the morning if you are so inclined. By comparision, the UK, though miles ahead of Mainland Europe, is in the dark ages.

The Dealers are unbelievably good, too. They don't "slide" the cards when dealing, they "fly" them. Spinners, floaters, ground-skimmers, they do the whole chabang. Very strict on Rules too, which I like a lot, you know exactly where you are. You wanna use your Mobile, well you better leave the table, & if you are away from the table when the cards are dealt, the hand is killed, no argument.

And EVERY Tourney starts smack on time, glory be, UK take note! At Caesars yesterday, they were 2 minutes late starting & the TD came on the PA & apologised for the late start!

Many cardrooms, The Venetian included, have Auto-Shuffling devices, which speeds up the hands-per-hour ratio enormously. After the hand is finished, the "mucked" deck goes in a lttle flap in the table which opens up, & out comes a freshly shuffled pack, cut & deal - easy! Every cardroom of note will soon have these, like Automtic Transmission in cars it's the only way.

And oh, the Valets........They are simply stunning, without exception. I know it's non-PC, but the fact is, they only employ Valets who have stunning looks & bodies, fact. And they have skimpy outfits, micro-skirts or hot pants, & without exception, heaving, uplifted, in your face, ample, bosoms. The architecture & structure of the bras they wear must be something special. There must be acres & acres of heaving, largely uncovered breast in Vegas. I can't bring myself to look.

On that note I'll bid you goodnight.

[tikay]

If you could narraw it down to which tolstoy is might be a bit easier, there's a lot of them and they all have "interesting" backgrounds.

Not specified. No clues!

It applies, I imagine, to all the Tolstoys.

[kinboshi]

If you could narraw it down to which tolstoy is might be a bit easier, there's a lot of them and they all have "interesting" backgrounds.

Not specified. No clues!

It applies, I imagine, to all the Tolstoys.

Were they luckboxes?

[KingPoker]

I assume he's pretty wild then!!!

[The_nun]

I really do look froward to this diary Tony.. Thanks for taking the time to do it for us.xx

[Laxie]

So have I.  It's the first thing I look for on each visit to the site.  Don't know how you find the time, but wanted to say...Cheers!   

[RioRodent]

And oh, the Valets........They are simply stunning, without exception. I know it's non-PC, but the fact is, they only employ Valets who have stunning looks & bodies, fact.

You've obviously not ventured into Bally's poker room then?? 

I've only been back home two weeks, but reading this thread makes me want get back there right away! 

[Moskvich]

Many cardrooms, The Venetian included, have Auto-Shuffling devices, which speeds up the hands-per-hour ratio enormously

I've never understood why everyone doesn't have these already - surely they pay for themselves in about a day, with more hands per hour and therefore more rake for the house.

Is Compo a vegetarian chess fanatic who tells stories that everyone initially thinks will be worth paying attention to, but which go on for so bloody long that no-one can actually make it to the end..?

[kinboshi]

And oh, the Valets........They are simply stunning, without exception. I know it's non-PC, but the fact is, they only employ Valets who have stunning looks & bodies, fact.

You've obviously not ventured into Bally's poker room then?? 

I've only been back home two weeks, but reading this thread makes me want get back there right away! 

I'm sure Coventry tonight will be just the same Alan...

[AndrewT]

And oh, the Valets........They are simply stunning, without exception. I know it's non-PC, but the fact is, they only employ Valets who have stunning looks & bodies, fact.

You've obviously not ventured into Bally's poker room then?? 

And Caesars Palace as well.

I'm sure the casino gets its name from the fact some of the waitresses did actually work for Julius Caesar.

[tikay]

And oh, the Valets........They are simply stunning, without exception. I know it's non-PC, but the fact is, they only employ Valets who have stunning looks & bodies, fact.

You've obviously not ventured into Bally's poker room then?? 

And Caesars Palace as well.

I'm sure the casino gets its name from the fact some of the waitresses did actually work for Julius Caesar.

Andrew is right there - the oddity about the Valets at Caesars Palace is that most of are indeed, "mature" - I'm not old enough to be their Grandfather.

Those in PH are mouth-wareringly nice, with hot pants, almost navel-deep cleavages, with purple silk waistcoaty jobbies.

Ditto The Venetian, where they wear a sort of Bunny Girl outfit, with a sort of tutu which covers the plumbing  departments.