Tao of Poker

Vegas Day 4: Easter, Pai Gow, Double OT, and Drunk Strippers

The day started off like any other Las Vegas morning. I was hungover with a slight headache with the gambling angels slowly whispering my name. I couldn't sleep and headed down to the poker room around 8am to play against drunkards at the tail end of their late night session. My pocket aces held up. Senor eventually wandered downstairs. With A6o he flopped trip aces and then spiked quads on the turn. Yes, he got to "spin the wheel." The first spin... he caught a triple. Next spin... another triple. Too bad they didn't honor that second spin!

Senor and I were ready to work the George Costanza Method to perfection with the last two games in the Regional Finals. We took the money line and Wisconsin +450. If anything it was a hedge bet. I picked UNC to win my pool, so if they got upset, at least I'd get something. We also took Kentucky... the line moved from -1 1/2 to +1! The game went into double OT in another wild game 3 of the four regional finals went into over time. Damn. The gambling rush was killing me. Ups and downs. Highs and lows.

We went back to the poker room and I got reamed. I caught a flurry of high pocket pairs. Pocket Jacks only held up 1 out of 8 times. Hilton Sisters = No Action. Pocket 10s, 9s, 8s... nothing. Man, it was ugly. At least Senor hit quads 7s and got to spin the wheel again. Grubby stopped by and he got spanked in NL.

We all met up with the Poker Prof and Flip Chip at Caesar's Palace for dinner. Luckily, we got into Palm. I had to grease the hostess a $20 to seat us... since they were "booked for Easter" and it was worth it. Great fuckin' steaks. I caught some shit for ordering a "medium-well" Filet Mingnon. Flip Chip told me a great story about Doyle Brunson giving a pizza delivery kid a $5,000 tip at Sam's Town.

Senor had a Midnight flight and we drove him to the airport. We had 10 minutes to play some tables games. We found a $50 Pai Gow poker table... and persuaded the floor dude to drop it to $25. Otis would be proud... I played $25 hands of Pai Gow. We all won. I Doubled up in 15 minutes. Senor doubled up in 10 and Grubby took the most. Man... I told Grubby that he needs to stop playing slots and online BJ and stick to focusing on being a professional Pai Gow Poker player.

Instead of going back to my empty hotel room and writing, Grubby persuaded me to hit up a few strip clubs. We went to three different ones. I'm going to save all the stories about out late night wacky hijinks for a later post... the infamous Strip Club post. Stay tuned. But I will tell you one bit. At Treasures, I had a stripper stop by who was so drunk she fell off my lap... not once... but twice during a lap dance. I guess it was a "slow night" in Vegas due to the fact it was Easter Sunday and plenty of the girls were getting loaded. Great. I got the drunkest stripper in Vegas working me. At least she didn't puke on me.

I went back to the Excalibur and played NL. I made the worst move and doubled up. I'm short on time and will save that write up for when I get back to Vegas. For now... I have to shower and watch the tail end of Dawson's Creek before I head to the Aladdin to play in a tournament.