Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Soft.

Ha! Soft.

Grandad Angell often described the weather as "soft". He meant that it was raining lightly, "fine rain".

[tikay]

Yikes!  Mind yourself in that heat.  We're a 'chilly' 17 right now, but it's hitting the dizzy heights of 27c this weekend.

Your pal Dan Owston was as red as a beetroot last night, must have been out in the sunshine all day. He'll be sore this morning, poor chap.

[RED-DOG]

Yikes!  Mind yourself in that heat.  We're a 'chilly' 17 right now, but it's hitting the dizzy heights of 27c this weekend.

Your pal Dan Owston was as red as a beetroot last night, must have been out in the sunshine all day. He'll be sore this morning, poor chap.

Oh well, never mind.

[redsimon]

Did it rain? Been waiting for the pics

[tikay]

Did it rain? Been waiting for the pics

Nope, false alarm.

Never known it so hot here. Some sort of minor USA "Bank Holiday" tomorrow, too, so everyone will be on holiday & enjoying the weather.

[redsimon]

loads of fireworks too. When does the holiday end and the job for the other side start?

Not seen your blog updates on here is there a link I can click?

[Laxie]

Oooooh, I'd forgotten all about tomorrow.  Thanks for the reminder!  Normally, I ring my Mom every year on July 4th.  We've been on the phone so often lately sorting wedding stuff, I'd never have thought to ring again tomorrow.  And she would've noticed!  Close swerve from trouble there. 

[tikay]

loads of fireworks too. When does the holiday end and the job for the other side start?

Not seen your blog updates on here is there a link I can click?

My holiday ends today, this is my last day playing bits & bobs on my stake.

Never had such fun, & I think we turned a small profit again. I can barely remember a table which was not fun, so many characters here, especially Downtown. Some of the players & Dealers are - technically - not so good, but in both cases, during the WSOP in Vegas, everyone comes out to play, & enjoy themselves. It's like "holiday poker". Many of the dealers are unemployed most of the year, so some tolerance of their failings is necessary, but they more than make up for it in their character.

I will be playing some PLO later today (Investors Update follows), that's the holiday done & dusted then, though to be fair, "working" in Vegas is not exactly onerous. If you work in, or play, poker, Vegas is the absolute nuts.

I have not penned a Blog for a week or more. I have kept daily Blog notes, so I really must try & resume today. I am under no obligation from the business to do them - I've been on holiday - but I just like to do them, daily if I can. So many people want to do Vegas, but cannot afford it, so it feels good to try & paint the Vegas picture for them, & anyway, I LOVE writing upbeat stuff, & I believe people enjoy reading them. Those that don't like my style, & there are many of course, don't read it, so that works. I bet I have 100 "reminders" on my ippy notepad thing from which to do Blogs.

My problem was the Tourney Heater I went on. By it's very nature, PLO8, my game of choice, plays very slowly, & I was playing 12 to 16 hour days, back to back, for over a week, & it sort of took all the oomph out of me, & latterly I became quite mentally & physically fatigued. I really focus, & concentrate, whilst playing PLO8, there are so many complex decisions & equations to solve, every hand, & every street, & I don't seem to have the mental stamina & fortitude I used to have. Don't suppose eating bad food every day helped much, either.

I read for an hour every night before I go to bed, too. I intend to increase that to 2 hours per night when I return home. Reading good factual books is arguably my greatest pleasure in life, or if not "greatest", right up there. And reading before bed usually seems to induce deeper sleep patterns, but this week I have slept fitfully & badly.

Every morning I get up between 5am & 6am & try to discipline myself to catch up on.....

PM replies

Diary Questions

Twitter comments

Blogs

Business e-Mails

And each morning, I log onto blonde first, & seem to take the soft option, & mess around here. Very poor discipline.

I was a bit cross with myself yesterday for getting involved in the anti-railing David Vamplew thing, which wasted several hours, but it just touched a nerve with me. I am fine with people funking for him, or not, I don't care either way, & I'm completely fine with folks being indifferent to him, or his Bracelet quest. But deliberately funking against him or anyone else sits so badly with me. Our default setting should be love, not hate, or if we want to soften that slightly, & take out the hyperbole, "like" rather than "dislike". I tried not to read all the horrible Twitter stuff about him too, but it's hard to avoid. I'm not suggesting he is angelic, but so much negative stuff on what was arguably the biggest day of his life just sucked. I've disciplined myself to keep out of all the nonsense bickering on blonde of late, but I did a fail yesterday, also two days previously, in another matter which vexed me considerably.

So my next job SHOULD be to get back on my Blog Bike, I have one 80% completed & saved.  And yet, right now, I almost want to go back to bed, I'm so shattered.

To even walk back to my room, via the Rio corridor, takes an hour, as I bump into so many folks I have known for years. Yesterday's walk back to my room included bumping into, & chatting with, John Shipley, Annette Obrestad (always so polite & well-mannered), Trigg, Nolan Dalla, Simmy (the twin), Vicky, & some folks I lined up for TV Interviews. So a 10 minute walk takes an hour, but thats the whole pleasure of Vegas, surely? I'm not gonna rush by them without chatting - I may never see them again.  Camel paid me a visit too, & we had much to discuss, so that was an hour, but a fun hour. He knows all the behind the scenes stories, does Keith, but they are deffo not repeatable.

As ever, so many things to do, so little time.

If I had my time again, & being realistic, I'd educate myself to write better, such that I got paid a small amount (just enough to live, & get by, nothing silly) to write a daily piece. That'd be the nut job in my little world, trying to write something every day which is positive, & includes "in real life" stuff. I'd quit everything else if I could have a shot at that.

Whoops, bit of a ramble there, sorry.....

[tikay]

Investors Update.

$345 PLO : Rio, "Carnevale of Poker"

Cliffs, to avoid the pain. We did a lost.

For the sadomasochistic amongst you.....

Excellent Tourney & structure, perhaps the best structured low cost Tourney I've played this trip. Well played The Rio.

As a comment, rather than a moan, the card distribution last night was awful. I had bad Aces once, 4 paint twice, & one clean rundown, in 7 hours. Which, I guess, is where the more creative & imaginative playerd have an edge, as I really can't bring mysrlf to play with poor starting hands, nor do I have the ability. A little help is needed from the deck, but it was not forthcoming.

The lack of imagination apart, I was really pleased with my game, & discipline, & I think I played as well as I am able, & stuck to my guns when I conceived a plan in various situations.

I want to learn to play PLO better. I think I'm alrerady reasonably competent at PLO8, & slightly less so, though not by much, at PLO, though I prefer PLO8 of course. There, as near as I get to boasting.....and that seMANTIC fella says I lack self-condidence. Might just have to slap him if he says that again......

All my tables were populated by fun people, Americans, Italians, Spaniards, an Isreali, & a few Frenchies. All good company, too.

I sat next to one chap who, after he departed, I was told had won the biggest Online Tournment ever, a WCOOP I think, for $2.2 million, of which he owned 50% of himself. It'd be cool to say I owned him, but not exactly factually correct. Nice kid though, well-mannered, bright & cheerful, smiled a lot, & never dissed anyone. I like all those qualities in a young man.

Anyway, we lost.

The exit hand was a tad brutal, but standard Omaha stuff, & deffo no complaints. I was playing 24,000 at the time, it had been raised in early position to 4,500, & FOUR others called. It did cross my mind to squeeze, but they all had monster stacks, & I feared a chain-reaction if the first chap called, & we'd end up 5 way. Not so good with 4-5-6-7.....Anyway, the flop was near perfect, so I got it in, & I was in pretty good shape against my man, he needed a gutshot really, as I had outs galore. Sod's Law I hit the wrong out.  

Can't make any excuses with a structure like that though, but it was a shame we fell just shy of the lolly.

Today, we end the Stake, with the Ceasars $240 PLO @ 4pm. 20,000 chips, but I fancy the structure will be much faster than last night, & I'll need to get busy with whatever I'm dealt.

[tikay]

Meanwhile, whilst everything in Vegas, over in Arizona, a dreadful tragedy took place, when 19 - nineteen - firefighters were killed in a forest fire.

Average age, around 26.

How utterly awful.


 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/01/arizona-firefighters-disaster/2478537/

[Tal]

Cracking ranty piece, Mr K. You're often at your best when you give it the full Alan Bennett internal monologue.

[tikay]

Cracking ranty piece, Mr K. You're often at your best when you give it the full Alan Bennett internal monologue.

Ha. I'm trying to stop doing those ranty things. It only ends up in bad blood.

[Mohican]

Did you realise that it was the 75th anniversary of this??
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-23158389

[tikay]

Did you realise that it was the 75th anniversary of this??
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-23158389

No, but thanks Carl.

Not much of a "Mallard" fan myself.

The streamling is so wrong, as is the dreadful colour. Locomotives should be black, or GWR Green.

Never much of an LNER fan, either, poor designers & Engineers. Mallard was designed & engineered by Sir Nigel Gresley, but he could not hold a light to the main man, Charles Collett, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Great Western Railway, Swindon Works.

Collett was the best - he designed the King & Castle Classes.

I was in the National Railway Museum in York recently, & could not bring myself to even look at Mallard. Hideous. It is all about class, & dignity, or lack of. Blue indeed. Ugh. 

[Tal]

Surprised I haven't seen a photo of either:

- the Bellagio cafe garden; or
- the mallards that occasionally frequent the fountain outside Caesar's.

Would you oblige, please? I'm missing the place already.