Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Marky147]

It seems that when you turn 78 you find out who your real friends are.

I have no shame in naming them - it was initiated by bookiebasher, & endorsed by Red Dog & Treveor "typhoon". Utter bastards.

Haha!

Belated Happy Birthday, and sticky buns on me next time you're unfortunate enough to cross my path

marky!


How you keeping, bud?

Hey Tony, I'm all good, and glad to see you're enjoying your well earned retirement.

Apologies for missing your message a short while back, I replied whne I spotted it 

Hope you and Gill have a great holiday

[GreekStein]

Update please Mr Anthony

[tikay]

Update please Mr Anthony

Last night of a truly wonderful holiday tonight, best of my life, flying home tomorrow, so will Update you once I'm home, probably over the weekend or early next week.

What about you Mr P?

[Doobs]

Update please Mr Anthony

Last night of a truly wonderful holiday tonight, best of my life, flying home tomorrow, so will Update you once I'm home, probably over the weekend or early next week.

What about you Mr P?

Over the summer we went to a place which I thought you'd love.  Will be intrigued to know if it was a same place as I think you went to the USA again, and you are a big fan of Scotland/Norway. 

It was Alaska and Vancouver Island.  The West Coast of Vancouver Island is just like stunning view after stunning view. Rains a bit, but people are down to earth and food simple but somehow really good. Think you'd love it if you didn't go there. Alaska similar really.  Alaska is much more like Vancouver Island than Vancouver Island is like Vancouver.  FWIW I know a few poker players go to Vancouver for WCOOP and really think they should just go that little bit further.

[tikay]

Update please Mr Anthony

Last night of a truly wonderful holiday tonight, best of my life, flying home tomorrow, so will Update you once I'm home, probably over the weekend or early next week.

What about you Mr P?

Over the summer we went to a place which I thought you'd love.  Will be intrigued to know if it was a same place as I think you went to the USA again, and you are a big fan of Scotland/Norway. 

It was Alaska and Vancouver Island.  The West Coast of Vancouver Island is just like stunning view after stunning view. Rains a bit, but people are down to earth and food simple but somehow really good. Think you'd love it if you didn't go there. Alaska similar really.  Alaska is much more like Vancouver Island than Vancouver Island is like Vancouver.  FWIW I know a few poker players go to Vancouver for WCOOP and really think they should just go that little bit further.

Thanks David.

Sounds right up our street.

We'd probably use Amtrak up to Vancouver & then work from there. We've done most of the West Coast Amtrak from San Diego right up as far as Seattle, & it's a terrific journey, especially through Oregon, so that little bit extra up to Vancouver would be fun.

Presumably you took the family, did they enjoy it?

You still playing poker? With Sky, or elsewhere? Not sure how much fun Sky is now it's joined I-Poker. There's a Sky Poker Discord Channel which I occasionally peruse, but I've moved on & to be honest, I'm not sure I'd enjoy still being part of it, I have a different agenda these days. I wish them all well though & I miss a few of the crew. I don't miss the Moaning Minnies though.

[tikay]

Update please Mr Anthony

Well I don't really know where to start with that, as I can't recall when we last chatted.

Anyway, a potted version would read something like this....

I retired in May of this year after working for 61 years, since when my life has changed completely. Now, for the very first time in my life, have the luxury of time, of not having to rush. My whole life I've never had enough time, party because I've been a "busy fool", partly through reasons beyond my control. Now everything is lovely & leisurely, & it's such a luxury. In a perverse way, of course, I don't have the luxury of time, at 78 that's one thing you don't have, so there's a contradiction there I suppose.

The day after I retired - literally - I headed off to Vegas for a month. First time I've been to Vegas on my own coin for over 20 years, someone (Sky, & before that Wm Hill) always paid my air fare & Hotel, but the flip side of that was that work responsibilities always took precedence. This time I had no responsibilities or duties, except to myself. It could not have gone better, best time I've ever had since I began playing poker. Think I played 31 MTT's, mostly Big O which is very much my game of choice these days. Not great financially, my total poker outlay was $22,500 & I "won" $22,000, so I dropped $500, but I was thrilled with that. At 77 (as I was then) it does not get easier, & you worry about cognitive decline, but I think I did pretty good all things considered. 11 cashes, 2 of which were WSOP's, but only 2 FT's, so I'm still Mr Min Cash. Leopards can't change their spots I suppose. Best thing was I had a staker who took 50%. Nobody has ever had that much trust & faith in me before, & it meant a great deal to me, so I was desperate to get him a decent return. In the end he lost $250 on his $8,000 investment, but I hope he got a terrific vicarious sweat, & I gave him in-running WhatsApp Updates the whole way. And he was a great staker as when I was struggling, he revved me up & tried to reassure me with motivational stuff.

Once back home it was golf or poker every day, sometimes both. Literally, 7 days a week I do one or the other. I've reconnected with a lot of old poker mates through golf, & regularly play with the likes of Tom, Moulty, Trevor Pearson, Mr Giblin, Ralph Shalson, Paul Jackson (not the poker player), & occasionally with the likes of Fat Mitch, Stato, John Legdon etc. I'm absolutely shite at golf, & regularly playing does not seem to help, but I don't care & I'm immensely grateful they put up with me, especially given that folks of my age are rarely decent company.

Most of my poker is at DTD. I'm no great fan of NLH but it's a social thing really, & I seem to get along with most. My passion at DTD is the £2 £2 6 card PLO cash which i play after I bust the tourneys, depending on the line-up. I love it to bits, but if the line-up is not right I have the discipline to swerve it. Somewhat surprisingly, several of the regulars always offer to swap a % with me.  

Every few weeks, Gill comes across & we go away for the weekend, London, Paris, whatever. We stay in nice hotels, have posh Afternoon Tea, all sorts.

It's been over 4 months since I retired, & I've "done something" almost every single day.

I actually planned my retirement quite carefully, I called it "The Great Retirement Adventure".

Apart from the month-long Vegas trip, the other star attraction was a special once in a lifetime holiday with Gill, from which we got home yesterday. We went Vegas - Ohau - Vegas, & it went perfectly. We only stopped in Vegas both ways to break the journey, it's such a long trip otherwise. So, 3 days in Vegas, then a week in Ohau, then back to Vegas for another 3 days, then flew home. Took a bit of organising - 4 flights, 3 hotels, 3 car rentals etc but everything went perfectly.   We stayed at Palazzo both times in Vegas, & Four Seasons in Ko Olina, in Ohau, which is on the west coast about 20 miles from, Honolulu. We had THE best time ever. I'd go into more detail, but other folks holiday tales are like other folks holiday snaps, if you get my drift, so I'll spare you that. Just one thing though, we had a 14th floor room in Ko Olina with two balconies, each of which had full height glass "patio doors" so we'd open both fully & let the breeze off the Pacific blow through & as we were right on the coast we could hear the waves crashing on the shore all night. I'd get up at around 6am every morning, go fetch 2 Starby's, then we'd sit on the balcony & watch the dawn come up. We'd put a plate of food out for the birds & were visited by an astonishing array of exotic birds every morning. Heaven. Each morning we'd do the Tourist stuff - Pearl Harbour, Waikiki Beach, Banzai Pipeline, North Shore, Dole Pineapple Plantation, everything - & in the afternoon I'd go play golf. Again, more exotic birdlife, plus a whole load of mongoose. I've never seen mongoose in their natural habitat before, so that was quite something. Oh, & there was a resident seal on the beach below our balconies too. Apart from a very nasty do on the first day, which scared the life out of us both, it could not have worked out better.

 Whoops, I said I'd not bore you with holiday tales, & then all that waffle came out.

Anyway, tl;dr, life has never been better.

Your turn now, what you been up to? Where are you, what you been doing, family news, etc.

[Knottikay]

Whatever. When is the book coming out?

So glad you seem to be enjoying your Great Retirement Adventure. When is the Honeymoon trip report coming 

Hopefully, I will catch up with you at DTD soon.

[Kev B]

The great retirement adventure. Loving it.

[Marky147]

The great retirement adventure. Loving it.

This!

Super read, and super jealous

[Doobs]

Update please Mr Anthony

Last night of a truly wonderful holiday tonight, best of my life, flying home tomorrow, so will Update you once I'm home, probably over the weekend or early next week.

What about you Mr P?

Over the summer we went to a place which I thought you'd love.  Will be intrigued to know if it was a same place as I think you went to the USA again, and you are a big fan of Scotland/Norway. 

It was Alaska and Vancouver Island.  The West Coast of Vancouver Island is just like stunning view after stunning view. Rains a bit, but people are down to earth and food simple but somehow really good. Think you'd love it if you didn't go there. Alaska similar really.  Alaska is much more like Vancouver Island than Vancouver Island is like Vancouver.  FWIW I know a few poker players go to Vancouver for WCOOP and really think they should just go that little bit further.

Thanks David.

Sounds right up our street.

We'd probably use Amtrak up to Vancouver & then work from there. We've done most of the West Coast Amtrak from San Diego right up as far as Seattle, & it's a terrific journey, especially through Oregon, so that little bit extra up to Vancouver would be fun.

Presumably you took the family, did they enjoy it?

You still playing poker? With Sky, or elsewhere? Not sure how much fun Sky is now it's joined I-Poker. There's a Sky Poker Discord Channel which I occasionally peruse, but I've moved on & to be honest, I'm not sure I'd enjoy still being part of it, I have a different agenda these days. I wish them all well though & I miss a few of the crew. I don't miss the Moaning Minnies though.

Sorry about the delay.  Am busy at times.

I think you told me you were going to Hawaii when we were in Vegas, so my guesses were probably worse than you thought. 

On Vancouver Island, you can get a ferry from Seattle, so don't even need to go to Vancouver proper. Got quite excited about it.  Can even go up to the Yukon, which is even more wild and remote.  You can have a road trip through Alaska to the Yukon too, but guess there must be some car switching going on, as you are in 2 different countries. There is pretty much one road up via Vancouver and one up via the Rockies, so don't really need a satnav.  Drive 1000kms, get to Yellowknife, turn left, take the other road back kind of thing. Genuinely want to do this now.

You got no mobile signal out of towns, so very much like it used to be.  Would be strange to breakdown with no phones etc.  Guess people just stop and help you out still.  Can't imagine many of them driving past, maybe I am too optimistic?

We genuinely just came across a bear wondering done the road at one point.  You can even catch sight of dolphins and whales from the Ferry, but we were out of luck. kids loved it really.  Vancouver Island just had the very best zipline through a canyon. The eldest is very much like me and loves adventure, so we did a bit of kayaking too. I can't see the youngest ever taking up ice hockey (she just needs somewhere to perch and watch her phone and she is happy).  If we'd stay longer, we'd have fit more in.

Don't really play poker much at all now.  Friday is ice hockey practice, weekend she has games, so I fit it around that.  Am lucky to get one night a week these days, but still play the Sky ipoker games if I can whilst they are still running.  Am thinking of trying to play some WSOP circuit events at DTD.  They are only doing Omaha and not hi lo though.  Might see you there?

Btw I know you always talk about my kids like they are about 5.  Eldest had an entrance exam to Cambridge on Thursday. Apparently it is one of those places that is kind of a big deal.  Very proud obv; even if she doesn't get in.