APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Tuesday, 15th November 2011
Tuesday was always going to be a quiet day. I don’t plan a lot for myself on these trips normally preferring to just go with the flow. Obviously, once the rest of the contingent arrive on Thursday we’re planned like the Germans invading Poland but that’s a whole other thing.
I pottered around the room for a few hours after I woke up. I can’t say it was a perfect night but it was slightly better than the previous ones I’ve had here.
Anyway, by the time I left the room at noon I was ready for a day of grinding. A grind it would prove to be. I opted not to eat breakfast, or should it be lunch, or brunch, at that time of day? Whatever, I didn’t and just made my way to the card room and got seated immediately as it was a little .quieter than the previous few days.
I was trying to find a happy medium between the boredom of folding a lot of hands and the fun of playing the pretty looking hands that I probably should fold but like to surprise people with.
This led to my stack doing a yoyo for a while getting as low as $20 from my initial buy-in of $200. That pulled me up sharpish and I really had to get back to proper grinding.
Since the Orleans is primarily a locals casino you see a lot of the same faces every day and they tend to soft play each other and will check it down when they get heads up. Oh, they’re not raising any anyone out and then doing it but all the same it’s happening all the same.
I saw this on more than one occasion, especially between the little old ladies who are friends, and when I queried of one why she had checked her quads she replied, quite openly, “Oh, we always do that”.
Sigh.
The dealer just ignored my question as to whether you could check the nuts and I can’t be bothered to take it further. Nothing is going to change and I guess it’s just another thing I’ll have get used to.
After about 7 hours I’d finally gotten my stack back up to my original buy-in but had consumed a number (OK, a lot) of beers. In fact, I was sitting on a small profit of around $40 and was considering taking a break and even perhaps just locking in that small profit.
Stupidly, I ignored that impulse and got involved in a nut high vs. my nut low hand where I got counterfeited by a 3 outer on the river which lost me a few dollars.
I played a little while longer getting down to $150 when people started leaving and the table dynamic changed.
I was getting hungry by then and decided just to take the small loss and grab some food at TGIs.
In thinking it over I had to be fairly close to break even after tips after 8 hours. I mean figure 3 beers and hour plus, say, 3 pots an hour over 8 hours...hang on let me take my socks off...
6 x 8 = 48...so yeah....I can call it break even if I want. A little self-justification is good for the soul.
Hey, what do you mean delusional? Yes, yes, I should have listed to my instincts and taken the profit when I had the chance but there you go.
Anyway, back to my home away from home, TGI Fridays for a nice Steak and Salmon meal and a couple of Stellas. At around 10pm, I realised that I was not looking forward to finishing off my pint...it just tasted ‘not right’. It wasn’t bad or anything it just felt like I was forcing it.
I abandoned it, paid my bill and went for a wander around the casino to let the food digest a while. Not particular destination or plan, I’d just see what was what and if anything caught my eye then fair enough.
Imagine my surprise when I found myself wandering back to the room....auto-pilot must be trying to tell me something.
I took the hint, clearly the old PASPS (that’s the Paulie’s Autonomic Self Preservation System) for those who might remember was kicking in even if I didn’t know why. I wasn’t drunk by any means despite 8 hours or more of drinking....three Bud Lites an hour over 7 hours wouldn’t even dent my alcohol stream. I hung out the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign just in case of ursine intervention (I could have been wrong about the bear after all) and crashed.
