Thursday 24 November 2011

You Can’t Beat A Happy Ending

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Wednesday, 23rd November 2011

Another good night’s sleep....like I said, the beds at Harrah's are very comfortable. I was doing the general stooging around the room when my brother Pete texted me suggesting breakfast. At 11am...is he insane...that’s way to early!?

Nevertheless, I felt it my duty to see the little blighter as I hadn’t actually laid eyes on him for 5 days or so. Good to know he was still alive although judging by the look of him when he knocked on my door it had been a rough night.

We sauntered down to The Cafe at Harrah's...an unimaginative name but accurate. Steak, Eggs, Breakfast potatoes, orange juice and coffee....lovely. We caught up on our various doings but as out interest on the gambling front are different he decided to have another shot at the blackjack tables and, mug that I am, went back to the Venetian.

Seriously, I should have known better....

No madam...you did not KNOW the villain had JJ on a J7388 board when you called all the streets of betting, raised by the villain and reraised by me on every street. I knew he was betting the come on the flop with his A2, I’d been watching him do it for past hour.

If you seriously thought he had JJ you would not have called with a bare 3 and no low on the flop and gone runner runner with 83 to boat the river against my 77.

That was enough, I’d been there less than 2 hours and was down $140 already...I’m done.

Of course, this left me with the rest of the day to fill. I wandered back to Harrah's and played the penny slots for an hour or two dropping another $100 or so...no, I lie, it was more like $200.

Jesus, I’m so stupid sometimes.

That put me further in a funk and I was sitting in my room trying to decide whether to even bother to do anything for the evening when I got a text from, as it turned out, Ger to the effect that they had acted on a suggestion of mine from some time back and made reservations at The Range Steakhouse upstairs in Harrah's for 8pm.

I kind of felt obliged to be there ad it had been my original idea but on reflection that wasn’t the important point. No, this would be my last opportunity so socialise with some of my APAT friends before they flew back and that I could not miss.

So, I threw off my troubles and made my way downstairs and found a small crowd at the Numb bar just outside The Range’s private elevator. It seemed that some people there were unconvinced about the value of the meal compared to the cost so they elected to choose the Outback instead.

Fair enough. As it turned out Richard Baker called me and said that he had rounded up a few more and we eventually made it upstairs eleven handed. A couple of tables pushed together right by the window overlooking the Strip and all the ambiance you might expect.

Oysters, Steak and Lobster followed by Tiramisu all washed down with a few large glasses of wine.

How much you ask?...About $110 each and worth every red cent. The service and food were top notch and I would recommend it if you happen to be into that kind of experience.

We were out by 10.30 pm or so, I’m not precisely sure of the time but I suggested that we finish off the night at Toby Keith's.

This ideas was more or les warmly received although I did see Ger and a couple of others yawning but that didn’t stop them following along.

On arrival, someone was getting the drinks in while we tried to find a table that we could all sit at when I looked around to find Dawn having a barney with a security guard.

It seemed that this jobsworth was concerned about us disrupting the flow of the restaurant section by sitting at a ‘restaurant table’ instead of at a a set of stools no more than 4 feet away.

Dawn was explaining to this f...ellow that it was had to disrupt the flow when there were precisely 3 people sitting the the restaurant section which had space for over 100 covers.

Regardless, I suggested to Dawn that it wasn’t worth the hassle but somehow, bless her, she managed to wangle not only $50 worth of comps as an apology for our trouble but late check-out (2pm instead of noon) for all of us in the party staying at Harrah's.

Gift of the gab I suppose.

Well that sealed it...we were drinking and singing along to the somewhat (I thought) mediocre cover band playing and eventually closed up the joint at 1.30am.

Job done.

I shook a few hands in case I didn’t see them again before they flew out and wended my weary way back my room. Stuffed and Happy.