The Venetian Is My Kryptonite

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Tuesday, 22nd November 2011

With nothing planned...at least with any specificity...I could have my usual long lie-in and general pottering around in the room time before doing anything of consequence. I decided to give the Venetian another shot but took my time in strolling over...it would be there when I got there.

My first port of call was the Walgreens (sort of like a giant Boots) for my annual purchase of 1000 Ibuprofen. How daft is it that if you try and buy more than 18 in Tesco they wrestle you to the ground in case you do yourself harm but over here I can buy enough to keep me going for well over a year?

This in the most litigious country in the world...batty I tell you!

Anyway, after making my purchase I took the opportunity to wander through the Canal Shoppes....such a better experience, at least visually, to me...that the Forum Shops.

Same basic idea, shops selling stuff I don’t want and couldn’t afford anyway but the Venetian seems to do it just a little more class than Caesars.

Having skipped breakfast as I usually do, I made my weary (yes already) way to the Grand Lux Cafe and brunched on a very nice meal of fish and chips...with the perennial couple of Stellas of course.

After that it was the poker room where, I’m sorry to say, the experience of a couple of days ago repeated itself. Either zero playable hands or getting crushed by river rats.

I played until about 6pm or thereabouts before calling it quits down about $140.

I don’t know what it is, I used to do quite well at the Venetian...it could just be that I’ve got worse, the variance could be catching up with me or the opposition has gotten better.

Personally, I’d go with No. 2,  then No. 1 then No. 3 in order of likelihood, but whatever it is I’m only going to give it one more shot.

Licking my wounds I strolled back to Harrah's and into Toby Keith’s. A few Bud Lites and a plate of chicken pieces lifted my spirits some but when the band came on my aged ears couldn’t take the racket so I called it a night.

Now look, some of you are, no doubt, sitting there thinking, Paulie’s in the mecca of all gamblers, Sin City, Las Vegas itself and he’s getting in before midnight.

I can understand that thinking but you kind of have to look at it from my point of view.

Firstly, I’m older than most people generally judge and I weigh...there’s no getting away from it...a lot...so I get tired.

Then, also, I’ve been coming here for 20 years or more so I don’t have that ‘Gee Whiz, Look at that!” excitement that the Vegas virgins have.

Finally, folks...and this is the biggie...this is my main holiday for the year and if I want to relax and vegetate that’s what I’m going to do.

Perhaps it makes this blog a tad on the boring side on occasion but them’s the breaks for you.

OK. Rant over.

Like I said, I’ll give the Venetian one more shot tomorrow and see what the day brings after than. Most if not all of the contingent are heading home so maybe we’ll all get together for something but we’ll see.

It’s A Nice Day For A White Wedding

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Monday, 21st November 2011

Calling it an early night yesterday was a wise decision as I needed to be at The Chapel of The Flowers for Adam and Julie’s wedding. A few of us gathered in the lobby around 10.30 and we hopped in a a cab or two to head over to the chapel arriving shortly before 10.45. In fact we arrived shortly before the groom!

Many of the visiting APATers had made the effort to dress up for the happy day especially Stuart Oliver who was in full Scottish regalia. For myself I confess that I had not (I had a full suitcase as it was) so I hid myself at the back out of camera shot.

The chapel was completely full and, indeed, the minister commented that he’d never had such a crowd, especially from overseas. I thought that the minister did a wonderful job of the ceremony and Adam and Julie were clearly enjoying their special day.

Once the ceremony was after the bride and groom were taken off to do a photo-shoot and we all trooped outside to find that the sun had truly come out for the first time during our visit. It was a gloriously sunny day.

We all stooged around for a while as Dawn organised us like a military action. We would need more than a few cabs but I was fortunate enough to blag a spot in one of the chapel’s super-stretch limos to Caesars and the Cheesecake factory.

The driver let us out right be a side door just a hundred yards from the restaurant and we lined up outside. Somehow we’d beaten the happy couple to the place but Dawn was on the case.

It seemed that despite a couple of confirmation call the restaurant didn’t take reservations so Dawn had to badger the manager into sorting out some space for us.

It all worked out in the end and by the time we were done we filled three large tables. Somehow Ger and the rest of the party had gotten side-tracked into a bar so that was a little disappointing but still we had a nice meal for what I thought was a pretty decent price for the Forum Shops.

By 3pm I was ready for a nap so I trudged the whole length of the Forum Shops back to Harrah's. I made sure to set my phone alarm so there wouldn’t be a repeat of Saturday.  By 5.30 I was cabbing over to the Tropicana for the JAPAT Wedding Tournament.

I really like the way they’re refurbished the Trop although they’ve started pumping in some smell that just, if you’ll pardon the expression, gets up my nose.

We got away with 50 runners or thereabouts but once again I got nowhere with any action or move I would make. I managed to run my A4s into Don Robert’s AA who was on fire on our table.

A couple of drinks later and we’d managed to get a 3/6 Omaha 8 cash game running full of APAT regulars.

Ger seemed to be hitting everything in sight even when he should have gotten out of the hand some time before. This was a little frustrating but there is nothing you can do in these situations.

I sat in for a few hours while dwindling chips slowly. By the time the tourney was over I was ready to call it a night...this must have been around 1am and I was down $140.

So be it...I made my way outside and grabbed a cab back to Harrah's.

I have nothing specific planned for the next few days, my travel guru duties are done and dusted, I’ll just play it by ear

It’s Been A Hard Day’s Grind

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Sunday, 20th November 2011

After all that sleep I was more than refreshed and ready for a day of grinding so after my usual lounge around the room I walked over to the Venetian. Food was the first order of business so I chose the Grand Lux Cafe for a couple of Stella and a very nice Club sandwich.

After that, I got seated into a 4/8 Omaha 8 game after just a couple of minutes. Despite going off with only six players the table filled up quickly.

The play was challenging to say the least and my stack yoyo’d between $100 and $200 most of the time. The hardest part was an idiot at the opposite end of the table who would stay in with even the most ridiculous no-draw and get there on the river.

Not only that but he slow-rolled me twice. Sigh.

I crushed him later when I made the ultimate nuts on the turn and he just wouldn’t let go and took him for a decent chunk of change.

Unfortunately, that chunk only got me back to my starting stack and after five hours I was down a whole $4.

That was enough and I wanted to play the IP Mixed Game so I cashed out and strolled over and got my name on the list around 6.30pm.

I was joined after a while by JP Round, James Edwards and Chen Tam and we got under way dead on 7pm with a few other randoms.

Laughs were had, suck-outs were bad and we played for quite a while. I couldn’t get much going...it was that kind of day...and, besides, having played this game before I’ve always treated it as a donation.

So after 6 hours play I was down $100 and I was yawning so I called it a night, especially as I was going to have, at least for this trip, and early morning the next day

I made the short walk back to Harrah's and crashed.

Out Cold

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Saturday, 19th November 2011

Yes, folks, the bear is most definitely back. Clothes all over the room, shitty taste in my mouth, raging headache and pocket full of singles. Ohhhh, Lord....rum drinks...tasty but so dangerous. Anyway, as you can imagine it took me more than a while before I was even close to being compos mentis enough to make my way to Caesars for the APAT event.

I met Shogun along the way and we made our way over together.

We got under way in the event and given that the field was a good 80% British my table was full of familiar faces. I got my Kings cracked fairly early on but doubled up through Paul McGuinness towards the end of level three when he didn’t believe me when I shoved with a full house.

Of course, I picked KK again on the button in the very next hand and got coolered to a flopped full house.

That left me at a loose end and, even though I am the travel guru, I hadn’t planned on anything for the Saturday afternoon. I wandered back to Harrah's for lunch where I had a $5 coupon thanks for Foursquare.

From there I just thought I would take a nap to recover from the bad night and made my way to my room.

This proved to be a big mistake....I lay down about 5pm for a couple of hours....unfortunately, those two hours actually proved to be six. I said the beds were comfortable.

To be honest, I suppose I could have made the effort to get up, clean myself up and go wandering but I figured that would just mess up my sleep pattern again.

So, I just wrote off Saturday and just hung out in the room. Sorry to be boring but there you go.

Sunday, I want to play the Mixed Game at the IP but I might give the Venetian a whirl first.

Staggered

APAT - Vegas Vengeance: Friday, 18th November 2011

Moving hotels seems to have done the trick. The beds at Harrah's are very comfortable and I can’t pinpoint what the difference might be but I got a full six hours solid sleep after Thursday’s invasion.

So what’s a fellow supposed to do? That’s right, I rolled over and went back to sleep...it’s still early for crying out loud and tonight is going to be a doozy.

With nothing to do until late lunchtime I did that...nothing...just enjoyed a restful time in the room before grabbing a cab over to the Monte Carlo and planted myself in Diablo’s Cantina. I checked in on Foursquare and alerted the Social Media of my arrival in time to see Don Logan wandering in clad in appropriate attire.

He’d only arrived late the night before from Chicago and we ordered food while waiting for others to arrive. Before long we were a decent size party and so we adjourned to The Pub on the other side of the Monte Carlo. This proved to be a popular choice especially as the had a happy hour of 2 for 1 drinks until 6. We indulged.

As we were a large party they insisted on a single bill and slapped on a service charge of 18%. Seems fair...it saves us having to work out the tip at the end.

I arranged for a pitcher to be placed on the table so that we could put the cost of our individual drinks in that rather that have a fight over who ordered what and for how much at the end. I think it worked out.

Ger the Duke seemed insistent on us sticking rigorously to the outlined agenda while I was somewhat more laid back about it. Trying to get 20+ people to agree on whether it’s time to leave is like trying to herd cats....it just can’t be done...all you can do it tell them where you are going and hope they’ll follow.

I gave the name and address of the next location to all and sundry before heading off to the hotel lobby to grab some cabs. The message seems to have permeated because before long we were piling into Frankie’s Tiki Room for some large drinks.

The drinks taste very nice...very nice indeed...and I had too many. It didn’t feel it at the time but they let me know later.

Joobs was insisting on trying to recreate ‘Umbongo’, a kids drink from some time ago...but with flavoured rum and various juices. The bartender Mike played along and for $6 each they were nice...very nice indeed. I had three...and that’s after two previous large rum concoctions had forced their way down my throat.

We were already running behind the alleged schedule and various people (I mention no names TIghty) were more interested in...erm...more mature entertainment.

This hadn’t been part of my plan but as I always said...it’s just an outline, if people want to do something else then that was fine with me.

So, I made the executive decision to give the Bikini Bar a miss and we’d head off to McMullan's Irish Pub instead...at least those who wanted to could. So Mike called us a bunch of taxis and we made our collective way there.

I mentioned John Windsor previously in this thing and he was playing again on Friday. He went over a total storm with the Brits and everyone really got into it.

Curlage got up on stage and played ‘Wonderwall’ for us during one of John’s breaks and those two seemed to have a good old natter.

We coaxed a few more songs out of John after his usual knocking off time of 12.30am but he had to pack up some time. That didn’t seem to stop the party that was going on but I was well over four sheets to the wind by that stage...more like and entire Chinese laundry to the wind in fact.

I can’t recall the exact time I decided to call it a night but I walked outside and hailed cab and was safely tucked up by 2.30 am or so.

Apparently, I missed some high-jinks by leaving including...I’m led to believe Michelle and Joobs being told off for dancing on the tables, Michelle doing a juggling act with Joobs’...erm....assets and Mr Prime finding another odd location to catch forty winks.

Me....I had company of my own....the drinking bear has arrived!