Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Morning.

I promised to do a few updates, Fat Vinni, Miserable Trev & a few others asked, but to be honest, very little of note has gone off.

Having said that, I’m a huge fan of Diaries (in the book form) especially the ones that are filled with fine detail & minutiae & some of my favourite books lifetime have been that sort of thing.

The Alan Clark Diaries were perhaps the best. Political Diaries really, detailing his time as an MP & various ministerial roles. His detail was incredible, right down to his daily bowel movements & texture. (I’ll not go quite that far…). Don’t get me wrong, he was a horrible man – a racist & Nazi sympathiser & a full on womaniser despite having the most wonderful wife. He was so posh he lived in a castle in Kent (Saltwood), & when he was short of a few bob he’d sell family heirlooms for a few milly apiece. His wealth, of course, was inherited from his father, Lord Clark the historian. Karma got him in the end though, & he died an agonisingly slow & humiliating death, (cancer of the brain or somesuch) when this once proud & independent man was forced to rely on his wife for literally every basic need. Absolutely the worst sort of politician, completely self-serving. Fascinating man though, in a sort of Trump-ian way. The end of Alan Clark's final diary was written by his wife & it was tremendously emosh for all that he was a bastard.

At the very opposite end of the spectrum were the Tony Benn Diaries, again full of the minutiae of daily life. At the time my politics could not have been further removed from his, but he was one of the last great politicians, in that he was there to serve others, not to self-promote for gain. A wonderful man & a great read.

The Alan Bennett Diaries were fabulous too, though in a very different way.

I took 4 books to Vegas with me, including the Alan Rickman Diaries. TBH, I’d never heard of him and had no idea who he is or what he does, but a sample speed-read of a few weeks in his life looks very promising.  (PS - Actually, he no longer does anything, as I now gather he passed away in 2016....)

Anyway, all that is my way of an excuse for the waffle that follows, as nothing interesting has happened. It was interesting to me though, as I'm in that sort of reflective phase of life. 

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[tikay]

I mentioned the laptop problem I had last Friday, the upshot being they issued me with a brand new lappie, the downshot being I lost all my Passwords. Trust me, if you have an internet addiction (guilty) losing all your Passwords is a bit of a nightmare, & it genuinely freaked me out.

And no, I don’t keep a record of any Passwords except in my leaky memory. I suddenly realised I have around 50 different Passwords, so that was an incoming challenge. No time to address them on Friday, & Saturday was travelling to Vegas day, so on Sunday (in between pokering) I started to address the problem. All sites now have terrific “Forgot Password?” recovery systems, but the trouble is they all go to my google Mail account, & I’d forgotten the Password to that too…

Eventually, last night, after dozens of attempts back & forth, & google suspending my account due to too many incorrect password attempts, I sorted it. When I at last managed to access my g-Mail account there were 57 e-Mails from google, mostly telling me my account was suspended. Go figure. This sort of thing...


In 48 hours, we’ll email xxxxxx@gmail.com with a link to sign in to your account.

That'll be the account I can't get into...

I’ve now managed to restore most of my accounts, though I can’t get on my VPN & so due to geo-blocking, & I can’t access the Sky Poker Forum at all without a VPN. So much for the “Postcard from Vegas” series I promised them… So, it’s ended up pretty much a full on holiday. It was actually very satisfying to painstakingly sort all those “lost” Accounts & I feel quite pleased with myself in a way.

Talking of which…

[tikay]

Earlier this year I started to realise that I have a serious addiction to being Online.

Mainly work-based, & for a variety of reasons. I want to do my job well, I suffer from fearful job insecurity (despite being there for 17 years unbroken, go figure), & it’s gradually just become an obsession/addiction.

I go online at 7am most days, & apart from a couple of hours every afternoon (nap time) I’m on there until around 10pm. 7 days a week, 52 weeks per year. Not really working as such, more a case of monitoring, being ready to try to resolve any issues that arise, & seeding the Forum. And one day I suddenly realised that when I shut the lappie down at 10pm, I always feel relieved & happy, & then I have 4 hours of “me time”, mainly on Netflix, You Tube, or Sport. My bosses keep telling me “look, you don’t NEED to spend all that time on Sky, or worry about it” but I can’t help myself. It genuinely is a really bad addiction, & not easy to cure, but I’m on the case.

So I’ve been trying to address that. Golf has helped, in fact it's part of the cure, though I really must stop checking my ‘phone on every tee…

It’s a bad addiction, but the first step is recognising it. Step 2 is a work in progress.

I have a feeling I'm far from alone with this addiction. God knows how parents cope with their kids who want to be on their i-pads & 'phones all day.

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[tikay]

On Saturday, I was up at 5am UK, arrived in my hotel room in Vegas at 5pm Local, (so 18 hours so far) then went to hop in a taxi to take me to The Orleans for pokering. The Taxi line was 200 yards long & no taxis were arriving. Waited 90 minutes before eventually getting lucky when the Taxi Marshal found someone at the front of the queue & arranged for me to ride share. (I don’t use UBER, mainly as I don’t understand it & rarely use Taxis anyway). Every road was gridlocked.

Eventually got sat in a game & by way of convo opener, I mentioned the taxi/traffic issues, & a local said there was a big fight on at T-Mobile, with the Main Event scheduled for 8pm. I blame Marky, our Vegas Fight Correspondent, for not warning me, that’s his department.

The traffic issues were & continue to be a right pain – most of the Vegas main roads are being re-paved in readiness for the F1 thing in November. From Caesars to the Palazzo entrance took over an hour, & as Vegas veterans know, it’s only a few hundred yards. One side of the Strip was closed, & Sands Avenue was closed too. What a nightmare.

TRAFFIC UPDATE

As of this morning, one side of the Strip is completely closed (Caesars side), 8 of the 10 lanes in Sands Avenue are closed, Spring Mountain Road (connects the Strip to I-15) is closed, Tropicana is closed, & West Flamingo is down to 2 lanes, 1 each way. Vegas regulars will know what sort of chaos that is causing. I’m essentially trapped in Palazzo. Poor me…

Which brings me to car hire…

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[tikay]

I’ve always used Hertz in Vegas, & did so again this year, and in May I ordered & paid for a “Medium Sedan”.

Went to collect it at 0730 Sunday & they said “good news Mr Kendall, we’ve upgraded you at no extra charge”. They gave me a Chevy Camara – like a Mustang – a 2023 model 2 door sports car. “It’s got a sunroof too, so you can drive with the top down Mr Kendall”. In temps of 43c…..

I was quite chuffed at first, until I clambered, or more correctly crawled into it. Low low seating position, big thick door pillars that obstruct the view, & a boot smaller than a glove box on a normal car.

It’s not me at all. It’s the sort of portly late middle-aged sorts drive. (I think Chompy had one, the case rests).

Worst of all,  there was no way of getting Gill’s suitcase in it, other than dropping the roof & slinging the case into the back seat.  It’s a 2 door thing & the front seats don’t tilt far enough forward to squeeze the case in that way.

So I went back to them & threw a mini-strop &  in a sort of hands on hips censorial tone  asked them to get me a proper car, like the one I ordered & paid for 3 months ago.

They were good as gold, & agreed to do a swap for a proper car this morning. At 0830 this morning the phone in my room rang & it was Hertz, “your replacement car is ready Mr Kendall”. Yay.

I was not done with them yet though. I paid ~900, but the bill they gave me here was for ~1,100, so I said I’m not paying the extra 200. The girl looked at the paperwork, & said “well Mr Kendall, the ~900 was in Sterling, & the ~1,100 was in Dollars”. I could almost sense her patting me on the head as she said it.

Whoops.  

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[tikay]

Without realising it, I’ve converted to “cashless” in the last few years, I now use plastic or Online for everything. I have had a solitary £20 note in my back pocket for months without ever using it. Even the window-cleaner is “cashless”.

Lifetime, since I started earning decent money in my twenties & thirties, I’ve always enjoyed the feel of carrying a nice wedge of folding in my back pocket, but that’s all gone now. Partly an ego thing I suppose, Billy Big Bollox, it gave me a good feeling, especially as in my earlier life I’d never had any money. Course, I’ve wasted & frittered most of it, but that’s another story altogether…

Anyway, for Vegas I took dollars – real dollars, proper folding, & I suddenly realised how much I miss using cash & carrying a wedge. I got it a few weeks ago, & amused myself almost nightly by sitting at home counting it like a little old miser. Weird but true. US Dollars have a lovely smell too, though I don’t generally sit there sniffing it.

Just to be contrary, I don’t use ANY plastic or Online cash in Vegas, just dollar bills. And I love it, peeling off a few hundo like a dude every chance I get. Once a year, it can do no harm.

[tikay]

Nearly done, for now.

Poker.


Been scratching my "Live" poker itch. Arrived 5pm Saturday, was playing at Orleans by 7pm until midnight. Returned Sunday @ 8am & played another 6 hours, then returned in the evening & played $4 $8 Limit 08 until the table broke, then $8 $16 Limit 08 till that broke too. Yesterday I played from Noon until 10pm non-stop. Today at 4pm I'm playing a little O8 Limit MTT at The Orleans, $150 entry, will throw a few bullets at that. Note this though...

From each entry, $28 will be withheld for admin and staffing fees


Gill arrives tomorrow, so I was keen to scratch my poker itch before she arrived. I’ve also got two $300 buck tourneys I’m going to play at Venetian, PLO8 this week & Big O next week, so a couple of bullets is in the budget for each of those two. That apart, the rest of the trip is all work (work….) or touristy stuff.

Profit/loss so far? 7 bucks down. To be honest, it’s hard to win or lose much at 08 Limit if you know the basics, especially as there is so often a split. I just love Live poker, the more table time the better, & the profit or loss is secondary.

I did manage to get $200 in the hole at one point yesterday, & against my better judgment pulled up another 2 hundo.. Very next hand I scooped a 7 way Half Kill pot. Wiiiiiiiiiiii Flopped everything, kept betting & they all kept calling, & of course being a Half Kill it was all the better.  

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[tikay]

Some of our party of players are playing their designated Tourney today, & I had planned to do a Live Update prior to the computer issues buggering that. So I’ve been down this morning to take a few photos & chat with them, but the TD said I can’t approach the players. So far I’ve had two 1st Warnings (?) & a final warning, so that’s that, my work is done for today.  So if anyone from Sky is reading, that’s why no updates. I feel a bit of a fraud, 10 days at Sky’s expense & doing bugger all.  WAL, eh?

Well that’s it for now, I promised some updates & I’ve tried. I may or may not manage some more when time permits. Bet you can’t wait.

[Doobs]

Hi Tikay

I can post these updates over on the other place if you like.  Will just post when I can, as am not on here 7am to 10pm with work and kids etc.  But will try and check in every few hours.

Might struggle with photos.

Let me know if you want me to do this including any bits you don't want posting next door.  Alternatively I could just make stuff up as you won't be able to check any of it

Have a better trip pokerwise than I did.

[tikay]

That'd be wonderful David, thank you.

As I noted earlier, we had some lads playing today, & I've just got back (01.25) from railing the Day 1a players.

I'm absolutely whacked though, so reports of their progress (or not...) will have to wait until the morning, my batteries are completely dead & I just have to get to bed.

There was also a very odd incident indeed today, something I've never once seen or heard of ever. Details, again, tomorrow. (Or later today, more correctly). I hope to be up & on my keyboard by around 6am. 

[tonytats]

Southpoint has a 2 pm 08 tournament and cash or it did when we were there
Plus 2/3 nice restaurants

[RED-DOG]

I loved all that waffle Tone. You should become a diarist.

[alanc]

I loved all that waffle Tone. You should become a diarist.

Agree 100%.

[tikay]

Southpoint has a 2 pm 08 tournament and cash or it did when we were there
Plus 2/3 nice restaurants

 
Thanks Tony, & good morning.

You are correct, but it clashes with The Orleans one, both are every Tuesday afternoon. (Why do they do that?). It has the same structure, except only 15,000 chips (Orleans has 30,000) & the guarantee is $4,000 (Orleans $10,000).

The juice at Orleans $150 is 23% ($122 to the prize pool + $28 to the house) whereas at the South Point $100 it's 28% ($78 to the prize pool +  $22 to the house), always assuming my maths are correct, which you would be unwise to assume. I mean, at these stakes, it does not make a deal of difference, we are playing for fun & I doubt anyone can beat that game at those stakes/reg fees long term. Interesting though, & I am keen to try South Point after the rave reviews you gave it on your last trip.

Orleans;


https://static.boydgaming.net/orleanscasino10/media/downloads/TO_Tournament_Structures_2023.pdf


South Point


https://southpointcasino.com/casino/poker-room/daily-tournaments

[tikay]

Strictly for the Sky Poker guys...

Our package winners get to play an MTT at Venetian, which has 2 x Day 1's (yesterday & today) with the final day tomorrow (Thursday).

Each of the opening days plays down until 12.5% of the entries remain, they are then guaranteed a cash & go through to Thursday's final day.

Yesterday, there were 69 entries, so 9 have made the money & will return tomorrow. Unforch, as I noted yesterday, I could not really interact with the players or take photos.

5 of our players elected to play Day 1a yesterday, being Alvez11, "Josh Manley Poker", bigfatfish, loololollo, & Nigel M (sorry, forgot alias).

Of those five, four fell by the wayside, with loololollo the lone survivor, so he's guaranteed at least a min cash. Decent shape too, just below average with 258,000. Blinds will resume at 6,000-12,000/12,000. (BB Ante), so I suppose that's in the region of 20 Bigs, though I'm not sure how to calculate it to allow for BB ante. Hopefully he'll wear a different hat tomorrow, a multi-coloured  bucket hat is not something I'd be seen dead in, and as is well-known, I am an arbiter of fine taste in the clothery department.

I should perhaps add that our players (& only our players) also have a $200 per head Last Longer, with, I think, 3 places paid.

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