Luton Calling.

[nirvana]

Yep, sometimes forget to acknowledge, but I love reading these and often given me a genuine lol moment

[tikay]

Evening!

Well under a month now before the Vegas trip, and the excitement has returned. I am a self confessed America-phile (I think that's a thing, though I am careful to avoid words with the suffix -phile, as most of the '-phile's aren't good things), so I am looking forward to doing things I think Americans do. Like eating spoonfuls of high fructose corn syrup, waving a revolver about and riding around a Walmart in one of those scooters they reserve for the obese.

I have the following comps penciled in. I'm going to play mainly cash games, but I wanted to play at a good mix of venues with a good mix of game types. Plus I want some sort of trophy to take home, and I think my best shot at one is going to be one of the limit events in a smaller series. Plus the WSOP 2-7 Triple Draw gets about 300 runners on average, so I will take my bracelet shot at a game I am self admittedly pretty good at rather than try and get a seat on the run good bus in a 3000 runner holdem comp for the same price.

Aria $125 x 2 - $250 - Aria
Phamous Poker Series $200k GTD One Day Event - $400 - Planet Hollywood
$2 x Rio Deepstack $235 - $470 - Rio (May drop one of these if I can find a $200-$300 Omaha comp somewhere)
Grand Poker Series Stud Hi/Lo - $240 - Golden Nugget
Binions Poker Series H.O.R.S.E - $240 - Binions
WSOP $1500  2-7 Triple Draw - $1500 - Rio

Total - $3100-ish.

---

Work is starting to get on my nerves a bit now, mainly because our clients in Asia have decided to call instead of email now. Having commands barked at you in broken English gets old quickly. They don't mean to come across as rude, but it's like dealing with a child. I don't mind calls from the English folk as they want to get things over with as quickly as possible, but the guys in Singapore love to drag a 30 second call into 8 minutes worth of repeated sentences.

I don't really want to do it anymore, but summer is coming up and it's two months of quiet nights. So I'm going to sit back, collect my wages for doing almost no work and re-evaluate in September. I'm not doing another mental Christmas there, I just need to try and figure out the optimal time to leave. I think I'm one of the only employees not on a zero hour contract, and my notice period is a month as I would have to train my replacement.

When I am taking bookings for people younger than me who are going on business trips overseas with big clients, it's probably time to re-think the whole career thing. I've never believed in the whole deal where you find a job, work 45 hours a week until you're 65 and then retire. It doesn't make sense to me, that you'd sign most of your life away to swivel on an office chair for just enough money to get by on. But then I've never had a job I really liked.

Could take the money I have (or have left) after Vegas and move to Thailand to grind cash games online. Though my judgement is poor even when I am sober, and I can't tell a lady from a ladyboy. All cats are black in the dark though, right?

---

Lost chunks with KK vs AK this past week. Never mind.

When luck shuts the door, we go in through the window.


 

Hi,

What date(s) are you playing that Golden Nugget Hi-Lo?

Be good to bump into each other, I'll be playing most of those, except the Limit affairs.

If you've not met me, I'm late forties, usually dressed in a rather suave manner.

[Ransom]

Evening!

Well under a month now before the Vegas trip, and the excitement has returned. I am a self confessed America-phile (I think that's a thing, though I am careful to avoid words with the suffix -phile, as most of the '-phile's aren't good things), so I am looking forward to doing things I think Americans do. Like eating spoonfuls of high fructose corn syrup, waving a revolver about and riding around a Walmart in one of those scooters they reserve for the obese.

I have the following comps penciled in. I'm going to play mainly cash games, but I wanted to play at a good mix of venues with a good mix of game types. Plus I want some sort of trophy to take home, and I think my best shot at one is going to be one of the limit events in a smaller series. Plus the WSOP 2-7 Triple Draw gets about 300 runners on average, so I will take my bracelet shot at a game I am self admittedly pretty good at rather than try and get a seat on the run good bus in a 3000 runner holdem comp for the same price.

Aria $125 x 2 - $250 - Aria
Phamous Poker Series $200k GTD One Day Event - $400 - Planet Hollywood
$2 x Rio Deepstack $235 - $470 - Rio (May drop one of these if I can find a $200-$300 Omaha comp somewhere)
Grand Poker Series Stud Hi/Lo - $240 - Golden Nugget
Binions Poker Series H.O.R.S.E - $240 - Binions
WSOP $1500  2-7 Triple Draw - $1500 - Rio

Total - $3100-ish.

---

Work is starting to get on my nerves a bit now, mainly because our clients in Asia have decided to call instead of email now. Having commands barked at you in broken English gets old quickly. They don't mean to come across as rude, but it's like dealing with a child. I don't mind calls from the English folk as they want to get things over with as quickly as possible, but the guys in Singapore love to drag a 30 second call into 8 minutes worth of repeated sentences.

I don't really want to do it anymore, but summer is coming up and it's two months of quiet nights. So I'm going to sit back, collect my wages for doing almost no work and re-evaluate in September. I'm not doing another mental Christmas there, I just need to try and figure out the optimal time to leave. I think I'm one of the only employees not on a zero hour contract, and my notice period is a month as I would have to train my replacement.

When I am taking bookings for people younger than me who are going on business trips overseas with big clients, it's probably time to re-think the whole career thing. I've never believed in the whole deal where you find a job, work 45 hours a week until you're 65 and then retire. It doesn't make sense to me, that you'd sign most of your life away to swivel on an office chair for just enough money to get by on. But then I've never had a job I really liked.

Could take the money I have (or have left) after Vegas and move to Thailand to grind cash games online. Though my judgement is poor even when I am sober, and I can't tell a lady from a ladyboy. All cats are black in the dark though, right?

---

Lost chunks with KK vs AK this past week. Never mind.

When luck shuts the door, we go in through the window.


 

Hi,

What date(s) are you playing that Golden Nugget Hi-Lo?

Be good to bump into each other, I'll be playing most of those, except the Limit affairs.

If you've not met me, I'm late forties, usually dressed in a rather suave manner.

The Stud 8/b is at 11am on the 12th June I believe. If you're about at that time, make a beeline for the youngest looking person in the comp - it'll probably be me. By all accounts it should be free of the hoodie wearing button clickers and you'll probably be able to hear me if you can't see me.

[redsimon]

Venetian PLO8 on same day I think

[Ransom]

Venetian PLO8 on same day I think

I think that's the evening event on the Venetian Deepstack schedule that day for $600. Can't say I am going to be involved, but it's fairly likely I will be playing cash in the vicinity that evening if all goes pair shaped at the Golden Nugget that day.

[UgotNuts]

Remember I'll have 5% of your package when you've got your final package sorted

[redsimon]

Venetian PLO8 on same day I think

I think that's the evening event on the Venetian Deepstack schedule that day for $600. Can't say I am going to be involved, but it's fairly likely I will be playing cash in the vicinity that evening if all goes pair shaped at the Golden Nugget that day.

Ahh, might bump into you at Nugget then, I'll be in hoodie and headphones just to confuse you

[duncthehat]

Yeah I will be playing the stud8 on the 12th too.  complete with hoodie and baseball cap    Going to be a danger this year.  finally got glasses so will be able to see the cards!!.

You going to be at the Venetian that day then Simon or slumming it at the Nugget?

[Ransom]

Evening Blonde!

My back is pretty much back to normal. Had a few days dosed up on Paramol which was chucked through my letterbox by one of the many people I had been moaning to this week. Thank you magic painkiller fairy. Happy to be able to sit up again, I was fearing that if I couldn't then this blog would be less about my adventures on the felt and more like a Jeffrey Archer prison diary.

I'm now thinking it was a kidney thing playing up and masquerading as lower back pain, seeing as I have a severe energy drink addiction and I imagine if you chopped me open a bunch of caffeine syrup and rocks of sugar would fall out of my organs. Hadn't got the chance to get my three pints of Cherry flavored Relentless in me each morning, so I think laying off those and just drinking water all week might have sorted it out.

Up and about now, but with nowhere to go. I could do jumping jacks if I wanted, but I just want to sit down and watch Gypsy Weddings. The irony of the past few days isn't lost on me.

---

I am currently embroiled in a war at work with someone in Singapore. They do the same job as me, just on the other side of the world for a similar company. The person in Singapore cocked up and ended up and overcharging a client by about £500 on their personal card as they double booked a load of stuff and didn't cancel them, and they've decided to try and frame me for it. Even though all requests are automatically logged at the second they are made and connected to individual corporate accounts, they are adamant that I messed it up and they refuse to deal with it further. Thing is I wasn't even working when it happened!

It's some admin in Asia fearing for their job, and have decided to try and chuck me under the bus for no reason other than to save themselves. Shame the company I work for can be so bollockless at times that they will just give in and eat a £500 refund to this client for another companies mistake rather than risk losing an account. We had a guy yesterday "demand compensation" for a car from Austria to Slovakia because we couldn't sort him one on 30 minutes notice and he had to rent a car himself. Wouldn't surprise me if they just snap shipped him the £150, because heaven forbid this moron sends a strongly worded email to his manager about us.

Odds on tonights tactics/excuses from the guys in Singapore as to why they shouldn't cough up -

"The system glitched and made the error" - 1/3
Pretending not to understand English and writing gibberish emails on purpose to buy time, despite having phone conversations with me 15 minutes earlier - 4/1
Forwarding me fake emails from my colleagues again that admit to the fault being on our end, but are clearly not in the font/formatting/stupid corporate buzzwords we use in our emails - 2/1
"This is our fault, sorry for the trouble" - 1000/1

My god it's a grind sometimes. I think I'm developing tinnitus as well from the high pitched ringtone our phone software uses. Injured at work and not your fault? Maybe the National Accident Helpline will help bring me back to even for the year. More than willing to lose a finger or something if need be.

---

Does anyone have any experience of going to the Red Rock Canyon? I fancy heading up there for an afternoon, but I don't want to be one of those tourists that have to get rescued halfway up a mountain, all dehydrated with a snake bite on my leg.

Not adverse to hiring a mountain bike and doing a couple of trails if that's something they do. I figure if I don't go, I'll wish I had. If I am just constantly grinding it out, I'll feel like one of those old slot machine ladies. All insert coin, press button, repeat.

Also need to do my travel insurance. Do not need a repeat of last years fiasco in Crete where I drank myself into a private hospital.

---

My friends at Uni in London had a poker night last week. I didn't get an invite, but I did get sent pictures and asked "who wins this one" multiple times.

I imagine they didn't invite me because they didn't want to lose to someone who actually knows what hand beats what, and not because I would be constantly enforcing rules and taking it upon myself to be a TD when everyone just wants to flick in a fiver and get pissed.

Every time I have played a home game, it has evolved into some daft game of DC where we make up the rules on the spot. I've developed a knack for it.

- Superstud High only, second best hand wins and you can swap your card on 5th street for £2.
- "First to quads" - 4 card draw, cost is £1 a round to draw. First person to make quads wins. Shuffle discards back in as many times as necessary. Hilarious when two people are drawing to the same quads.
- Double deck holdem. 5 of a kind is the best hand.
- 5 Card triple draw high with Jokers Wild

And my favourite...

Get too drunk and end up calling someone up wild west style for heads up for rolls. Realise that you only have £50 on you, keep increasing the blinds before you start until they back out.

---

A long night of arguments and corporate newspeak ahead. I'd rather play limit holdem.

[UgotNuts]

That home game seems tasty! Make sure I'm in the guest list next time!

Glad to hear your back on you feet! You should defiantly write a book or a script for a film. Doesn't matter what the plot is I'm sure the detail you describe would make it interesting!

Have you been writing Diray's/blogs for a while? On any other forums?

[redsimon]

Yeah I will be playing the stud8 on the 12th too.  complete with hoodie and baseball cap    Going to be a danger this year.  finally got glasses so will be able to see the cards!!.

You going to be at the Venetian that day then Simon or slumming it at the Nugget?

Nugget first V. very much as a back up if the wheels fall off

[Ransom]

Good Morning - it's 12:03am at the time of writing. And I leave for Las Vegas tomorrow.

It feels like I've already missed out on about three quarters of the events after reading through everyone's diaries. Very much looking forward to arriving and just getting the journey out of the way.

- 5:30am tomorrow - Leave Bedford for the drive to Manchester Airport. It's about a three hour journey without stops. I could have flown from one of the London Airports for an extra £100, daft not to in hindsight.
- 9:00am - Arrive and shamble to the terminal, get into departures with the minimum of fuss and avoid buying any cigs/food/drink at silly markup. Hit Travelex and try and change up some hundreds.
- 11:00am - US735 to Philadelphia. 7 hour flight on average. Fidget like a mad man, watch the new Mad Max on my tablet and try and get my head down for a bit.
- 6:00pm GMT - Arrive, get frisked by customs/immigration - avoid rubber gloves and sail on through in a reasonable amount of time. Look for Wendy's and stuff my face with burgers.
- 10:00pm GMT - US676 to Las Vegas. Hope I've got enough battery on my tablet to watch the episodes of Game of Thrones I have missed.
- 2:00am GMT on the 12th - Arrive, meet my fancy executive car and chauffeur (work perks) to take me to the famously non fancy Circus Circus.

Could I have made this outbound trip any worse for myself? Added about five hours onto my journey for the sake of saving about £100. I'm sure it'll fly by though given I live in a perpetual haze between night and day where time means nothing like a Salvador Dali painting. All clocks will be melting into the walls by the time I catch my connection - though I am hoping on my arrival into Las Vegas it'll turn a bit more Bob Ross. Only with less "Happy Little Trees" and more "Angry Neon Lights".

I hope I can just get into bed and fall asleep. I can already picture myself dumping my bags in, having a shower and auto piloting into a taxi and just mumbling "Rio".

I've done similar before - got into bed after a long day, and as if by magic I'm reg'd for a comp at the Luton G with almost no recollection of actually getting there. It's almost as if the 18:25 train from Bedford leaves from Platform 9 and 3/4.

I'm feeling good about it though - let's see how good I feel on the next update. Which could be anything from me rubbing 10k bricks on my bare chest to dressing up as Buzz Lightyear and standing on Freemont Street trying to charge $5 for a photo because I did myself in playing Pineapple Chinese.

---

I have my life in a carry on suitcase, and I'm going to Las Vegas. It's the stuff dreams are made of.

[booder]

Long time lurker , love your diary.  Have a fantastic trip. Be lucky.

[atdc21]

Great stuff, good luck

[maccol]

Enjoy. Looking forward to updates.