Tao of Poker

March Madness 2003 Las Vegas Trip Recap

I went to Vegas in March with my brother and my buddy Senor flew in from Thailand (where he was living) to gamble on the NCAA tournament games. I did very well at the Sports Book and walked away up a couple of hundred at the Mandalay Bay. I stayed at the Excalibur and never played poker there until the night before I was supposed to leave (I always played at the Mirage). Every time I returned to Vegas since then, I stopped in to play a few hands of $2-6 Hold'em at the Excalibur, with their unusal betting structure. If you've played there, you know what I'm talking about.

Here's what I blogged from my hotel room in Las Vegas, to the Tao of Pauly on 3.31.03:

Elevator Gambling at the Excalibur!! It's been so bad for us that we are betting on which elevator comes first in our hotel! There are three on our floor, and we stand there, and bet on which one will arrive first and take us downstairs (or upstairs!) Senor is whoooping me. He is 3-1-1. We're betting $20 an elevator. Ouch!

"We're addcited," said Senor. "I don't think we are coming back. We're staying here in Vegas. If you wish to contact me, please call the La Hacienda and ask for Senor!!!"

Poker? Senor and I sat in at the poker room here at Excalibur, and we played for 3 1/2 hours straight! It was crazy. I was up $40 right away after I nailed a $50 pot... drawing a set of 10s off the flop. I had a few sweet winning hands... I didn't win too many, but the ones I did win were some of the bigger ones. I was up $50 most of the night, but then dropped $100 in the last hour to go down $50. I was pissed that some redneck tourist from Bumblefuck, West Virginia bluffed me when I could have easily beat his pathetic pair of 7s. I had a pair of Kings. D'oh!

Thanks for taking a stroll down memory lane with me as I skim through the archives of the Tao of Pauly, looking for good poker tales.

You can read a short story that I wrote for my blog-zine Truckin' (a literary magazine that I started), which was inspired by actual events during the infamous March trip to Las Vegas. It's called: Vegas, Two Canadian Hockey Players, and a Kansas Blonde. Enjoy. (By the way, I think I'm a much better writer than I am a poker player! But I have been writing everyday since I walked out of my job as a bond trader on Wall Street in 1996.)