Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Chompy]

PM me if you can make it tonight and I'll bring whatever you require.
The Venetian are running another deep-stack festival in October I believe and Caesars will probably have year 2 of the 'Classic' series around the same time. Their deep-stackers while I was there this month were much better than the inaugural Classic last autumn, so I'll probably give that another go. Looks like Celtic is plotting a return around the same time too, so no shortage of bad players due to descend.
Yep, that was me in the Five-O last night, not bad for £4, lol. At one stage I really fancied me and Snatty were going heads up, in which case I'd have finished second. P.Cooklin is the one player I've always struggled with. Not that he's any good, I just can't beat him...

[tikay]

Day -1.

OK, I'm all set for Vegas.

The cat (Angell) is safely installed in the local Cattery (he not happy), the milk is cancelled, all the bills paid. To hell with the lawn, it only grows again.

Those were the words which started this Diary, on July 7th 2007, so another week & I'll have achieved a lifelong ambition,  & ticked another box - to have kept a Diary for one whole year.

I shall just C & P Entries from last year from now on - it saves so much time. I have a nagging doubt that nobody will notice.

[Laxie]

Don't you dare!  Where'd I put me whip?  Hey...tell Compo to give my whip back!

[tikay]

Before I start this year's Vegas blather, I wanted to list my Vegas likes & dislikes before I set off, but you know how it is, I'm not too organised, & it never happened. By the way, I've loved all the Vegas Diaries this year, & I hope it becomes the norm for blondes to tell us their Vegas tales.

So, my Vegas likes & dislikes.

Dislikes.

Constant queues, eveywhere, all the time.

The heat.

The tacky architecture.

The constant background music, everywhere.

Air-Conditioning.

The amount of Stretch Limos - I've never understood why anyone would think a Stretch Limo is cool.

The sound of a 1000 slot machines, all out of tune with each other, as you enter any & every Hotel Lobby.

Traffic on The Strip.

The sleaze.

Lack of greenery, grass, trees, nature, wildlife.

The journey.

Likes

The way Tourney Poker over here is organised.

Being able to find a Live Tourney 24/7.

The quality of the Dealers.

Meeting Brits out here, it seems that extra bit special to meet up so far from home, a sort of bonding develops.

The local Police - they look so cool.

Yellow School Buses.

Hooking up with friends, particularly Lady Mason, Phil Quayle, & Thewy. And this year, Jim McShane.

Going home.

Jaw-Droppers

The size of the Hotels.

The size of the Hotel Parking Lots.

The size of the Hotel Rooms/Suites.

The Airport - so close to The Strip.

Hoover Dam

The Grand Canyon.

I wonder how many of these will have changed come going home time? Thi is my third "paid" Vegas jaunt, & they have all been workbased, so maybe I'd think different if I came here just to play poker.

What are your Vegas Likes, Dislikes, & Jaw-Droppers?

[redsimon]

Dislikes

The expectation of a tip no matter what the level of service is

Outside heat

Whooping and hollering when a player wins a coinflip

Likes


Air Con

Poker 24/7

Bad US players

Food choices

Getting home after and sinking a few cups of tea

Jaw droppers

Size of food delivered

Strip at night when you fly in (dont work on direct flights)

[WarBwastard]

You can't have both heat and air conditioning as dislikes surely.  

You can accept the tacky architecture in Vegas as it makes genuinely tasteful architecture in England seem all the better when you get home.  

[tikay]

Before I do more Vegas stuff, some sad news from home. (I've got a bunch of stuff to write up from last week, which was "one of those weeks" I'd rather not go throiugh again, to be honest).

You've probably heard, & shrugged your shoulders, about the cryptosporidium virus in the water in Northamptonshire. Here's a brief extract from a local paper about the effects. ("affects?).

Bottled water is flying out of shops and supermarkets across Milton Keynes as 250,000 people in neighbouring Northants are told to boil their drinking water
At Tesco Bletchley trolley-loads of water were being snapped up on Wednesday afternoon.

One shopper, who works in the city, told MK Today he was on his fourth trip after calls from friends and neighbours at home in Northampton to get supplies.

Another shopper arrived at Tesco saying neighbouring ASDA had been almost stripped bare following similar scenes in Northampton and surrounding towns and villages.

Sainsbury's in Wellingborough ran out of bottled water at about midday today.

Customers concerned about the cryptosporidium virus which had contaminated supplies in the west of the county, bought hundreds of litres of water at a the store in Northampton Road.

Duty manager Mark Taylor said: "We sold out already. People were buying buy the trolley load. They are buying for their homes as well as businesses. We've ordered a vast quantity of water to make sure we have enough for the foreseeable future."

It's caused by a parasite which occurs naturally. Anglian Water have, in my view, handled the PR beautifully, & kept everyone truthfully informed. It's a BIG problem to solve, they admitted. They first have to trace the source - it could be almost anywhere. Then empty out the system, then disinfect all the pipework, then refill, then test agin. Rinse repeat, every time, And each Test for the Parasite takes 24 hours to get the result. Asked how long they reckoned, the PR Spoksman said "we are talking weeks, maybe months".....

Now, many of you may have noticed Dingdell has been noticebly absent from the Forum this last week. And that's because - yes, you are there now - she run two Colonic Clinics, one in Northmpton, one in Milton Keynes. And her business has been devestated. The Northmpton Clinic, obviously, is not able to work right now, & even in Milton Keynes, unaffected by the problem, punters have shied away, the usual panic stuff. It's her business, & no punters means no income, but the Overheads remain the same. She's pretty down about the whole thing, as you can imagine.

For her sake, I hope the problem gets solved PDQ.

[tikay]

You can't have both heat and air conditioning as dislikes surely. 
You can accept the tacky architecture in Vegas as it makes genuinely tasteful architecture in England seem all the better when you get home.  

Well, I know it sounds daft, but there is no happy medium out here. The Air-Con is wonderful the moment you enter a building, but becomes opprressive after a while, & chills you. And the heat, as you exit a building, is momentarily a relief, but after a few seconds, you think, "phew, I need to get back inside"!

Maybe I'm, just odd, but I do find them both a bit OTT. I should add that I have a medical condition, & I'm effectively allergic to strong sunshine if I stay in it for more than 20 or 30 minutes.

[Colchester Kev]

I should add that I have a medical condition, & I'm effectively allergic to strong sunshine if I stay in it for more than 20 or 30 minutes.

shared by 99% of poker players .. mostly its daylight, not just strong sunshine

[Chompy]

Likes

Fillet Mignon, Newcastle, Merlot at Cafe Lux
The poker room staff at the Venetian
Playing against American shove monkeys

Dislikes

Dylan Bircheff
Hitting the Vegas wall
10s v eights for a huge pot in a WSOP event

Jaw droppers

Peaches of Deja Vu Showgirls
Celtic wearing the same shirt six days running

[KarmaDope]

I should add that I have a medical condition, & I'm effectively allergic to strong sunshine if I stay in it for more than 20 or 30 minutes.

shared by 99% of poker players .. mostly its daylight, not just strong sunshine

Is it that Porphyria I've heard of? Nasty stuff...

[tikay]

I should add that I have a medical condition, & I'm effectively allergic to strong sunshine if I stay in it for more than 20 or 30 minutes.

shared by 99% of poker players .. mostly its daylight, not just strong sunshine

It makes my hair go green......

Seriously, I get a quite appalling & unsightly heat-rash, & it irritates obscenely, as well as looking horrendous. I can manage without sunshine, as luck would have it. Just give me the English countryside, and birdsong at dawn, that'll do me. Homesick already, less than 24 hours in.... Still, only 17 days & I'm home!

[Laxie]

Mind yerself with all that air con.  Great way to end up with a cold.  Hate the stuff.  Pity they can't control it a bit better so it's cool without bordering on frost bite conditions.

[tikay]

I should add that I have a medical condition, & I'm effectively allergic to strong sunshine if I stay in it for more than 20 or 30 minutes.

shared by 99% of poker players .. mostly its daylight, not just strong sunshine

Is it that Porphyria I've heard of? Nasty stuff...

Thankfully not. I had it poperly diagnosed once, but I forget the name. For that reason, I abandond ny annual trips to Africa. It was like drinking alcohol - the after-effects outweigh the pleasure.

[KarmaDope]

Ouch. Sounds nasty!