Almost as soon as it starts, it’s over. I barely got here and yet tomorrow I’m leaving…this trip is like closing a chapter of my life. I mentioned at breakfast with the Duo a few mornings ago, the day they were leaving, that the Aruba trip will never be the same again. There is the possibility that UltimateBet will change their venue and not even return next year – that would mean I definitely won’t be here. But in the event that they do remain, times are changing for the Duo. Jim is attached, he is making plans with his girl, Sarah, and rightly so. He may not make the trip again, and if he does, he won’t be flying solo. Wayne is finishing all of the paperwork to move into his new condo and he’s not sure if he will come again. Of the three of us, I am sure i will come again, I just may have to hang with myself or find a group of newbies to run with…but the end of the chapter is almost finished.

I’ve written very little about the dealing part of the gig. It’s the easiest dealing job in the world. It’s not a bunch of hard core, know it all, hate my life, have to win or sleep in the street group of degenerates that line the tables. It’s just the reverse, lots of kids with fresh attitudes that have a lot of – and only – poker on their mind. I ran in to one asshole, I think his name is Rick, and if he reads here, yes, Rick, you are an asshole at the table. And every one you played with and most of the dealers and staff can attest to that. I had one incident with Rick that I wish I had handled differently. We had a player at the table that had very long hair and when he went all-in, he pulled his hair over his face. Mr. Hair happened to raise Rick’s big blind when they were at the final table of the $540 buy-in tournament. Everyone had folded to Rick and Rick shot out, “Am I supposed to give you credit because you look like a fucking baboon?”

I did an instantaneous, “HEY, you’re not allowed to talk to anyone like that.”

Another player said Rick should be given a 20 minute time out. I called Maria (tournament supervisor) and said that Rick had said the ‘f’ word. She gave him the cold hard facts that he would be given a 20 minute time out if there was another offense. When I got pushed, I spoke with her and she gave me the cold hard facts. I should have stated exactly what Rick said. No player is allowed to say anything like that to any of the staff or other players and he would have been given a 20 minute time out. I so wish I had done my job correctly. And she had had more than one problem with him already.

While Maria was telling Rick the ‘sit out’ plan in his future, he was giving her the patronizing, “I understand, Dear,” like he was talking to road kill on the highway. The funniest part of it was the player in the 9s, while Rick’s lecture was going on, said, “The word I most object to is the ‘b’ word.” *LMAO*

Otherwise, most of the tables I dealt, either every one was really quiet and focused on game play or everyone was laughing and joking with each other. Either way, it was very easy to deal with. *pun intended*

So here are some pictures of the some of the high spots of the trip – keep in mind that I’m highly entertained and totally pleased with the small treasures in life:

I jumped the elevator going down and found two of our BJ dealers and poker dealer Frank already on board. Frank was providing elevator music. It was so much fun, I failed to get off in the lower floors and went back up and then back down to my original destination point:

I dealt to Rafael in the satellites and saw him around the tournament area more than once. He’s ‘cutie pie’ in this post. We met at the Radisson one night, while playing poker, and had to have a picture together. I love this guy!

This is a sign in the Radisson poker room. It says it all…too bad more people that play poker can’t figure it out without a sign shoved in their face.

I dealt to Matt several different times over the course of satellites, tournaments, and the main event. I ran into him on the street and in the elevator…fate? He finished 50th in the main event, don’t worry, you’ll see more of him because he’s not even close to finished yet. I like this kid’s attitude – a lot.

Melissa and her babies. Melissa is a driving force behind UltimateBet’s organization and keeping up with all of us that travel and work the events. She’s a beauty with an exceptional attitude and high spirits. She slowed down long enough for me to capture a shot of her with her sweet children:

On the day the final event started, all the dealers were in lock down mode…meaning that we had too many tables and not enough dealers to spread breaks until some of the tables started to bust. I dealt three and a half hours before my first break and stayed at two tables for an hour each because there was no push. No big deal. It happens. But Suzie ended up pushing me through three of the tables and I just had to take her picture when she pushed me out of the first one. Hey…when I met her she was a dealer, of course she can deal!

Christoph Haller, long time friend and fellow hiker, arrived out of the blue. He rarely makes the trip to the US anymore to play poker. He said he’s tired of customs detaining him and wanting to know why he has cash – even though he’s explained that he plays high limit poker. They search through all of his bags and question him. He said once when he didn’t bring much cash, they detained him and questioned him as to why he had no cash with him. Go figure! Anyway, it was great to touch bases with him.

Annie Duke was at the same table as Christoph. She’s the only name brand player I took a picture of during the whole event.

Paboo you should really get a kick out of this one. I went to the Excelsior Casino to play in a satellite for their Saturday night NLH tournament and struck up a conversation with the 10s. Jesse said you said to tell me hello. How funny that we would meet at the Excelsior and not at the Radisson during any of the tournaments. And hello, Paboo! Jesse and Karen:

I found this big boy out in the shrubbery and flowers at the Wyndham, enjoying some fine dining.

I found this in the lower lobby of the Wyndham. I hate it. I’d like to think they aren’t sharing information while they are playing but it looks BAD!

And the only place I’ve seen that sells Grey Raymer glasses is at the casino gift shop in the Radisson:

The first player to take a seat at my table, during the main event, was Mike Woo. He lives and plays in CA, visits Bellagio occasionally, and we may meet again:

This little beauty – all dressed in pink – was doing her rendition of Devil Fish on the piano in the foyer during the main event. Let’s assume that her dad was playing in the main event. Her piano playing needs a little work. Her smile and sweetness can’t be improved upon.

Just as the main event finished for the night, I found this group excitedly chatting and milling in the tournament area. I loudly announced, “Ok, everyone under 12 please line up, I want your picture.” Some of them exclaimed they weren’t under 12, a few others were like…”OK!” I managed to herd them all together for a brief shot. And don’t most of them look like they are under 12? Or is it me? I’m just getting older so everyone looks much younger?

I’m such a huge fan of ‘night shot’ that I can’t resist the urge to shoot it up when flash is forbidden in rooms that are so dark that photos don’t take worth a damn. Our favorite UltimateBet blogger, Mean Gene standing along the wall, watching and recording the play down of the last few tables. Gene on the left.

The guy behind the software that drives UltimateBet – Greg – he even had chips in front of him:

The final table – outside by the Radisson pool area. Hot, baby, hot, hot, hot! I’m so glad I wasn’t dealing it this year!

Jack and Ava McClelland – working the main event. Jack will be at Bellagio this week, Festa al Lago time is here again.

Moving away from the world of poker, yes…there is a place like that…I was enchanted with this cactus, never having seen one like this before, it had to be displayed and recorded in my digital archives.

The Carnival Destiny sitting at dock behind the Swap Meet. This baby is huge…much bigger than the picture details.

The swap meet is across the street from the Mall. Don’cha just love it? I do! The back side of the swap meet sits about 12 feet from the edge of the sea.

The mall across the street has three levels and is also filled with individual kiosks:

The Tattoo is the boat that Jim and a lot of others took on the BBQ, dancing, swimming, jump off the rope and slide the slide night. It sure sounded like fun. Jim continues to profess to be afraid of water but he spends all of his time jumping or diving into it when he’s onboard. Umnnnhhh! Anyway – TATTOO

Wayne decided that he wanted to do a ‘meet the animals’ day. No…Silly, not the poker players, the birds that are housed at the Wyndham. Jim had Wayne’s camera, I had mine, and between the two of us, we took a lot of pictures. My two favorite birds were these little ‘cuddlie-poos’.

The one that Wayne had on his arm, made the climb up onto his shoulder, and proceeded to beak a neat little slit in his shirt. Not just once, but numerous times and about five of them were symmetrically perfect in space, line, and slit. The look on his face was priceless…and at least it missed his shoulder and went for the shirt.

Apparently the birds are territorial and defend their space. When someone tried to back up a little too close to have their picture taken under the bird’s tree stand, the handler warned them to ‘back off’ so they wouldn’t get beaked. Here are a group of them on their stand:

The brightly colored cat in this picture stays completely by itself. It does not allow handling, but it sure is damn beautiful.

At one point, this blue beauty had a screeching, squawking fit while Wayne was holding it. Not sure what happened there. Perhaps it was talking to a fellow bird or something came up that it felt had to be talked about. Wayne showed us the indents in his wrist when the bird was returned to the handler; this beauty had one helluva grip.

This little guy hung out by himself all the time, never mingling with any of the other birds, it moved up and down a rusty iron loop – the same loop that is the base for the branch the cuddlie-poos were sitting on.

This fat cat was hanging out below the bird cages, just looking ultra kewl and waiting for me to take his picture. Never one to disappoint a poser, I complied.

If I missed taking anyone’s photo, or snapping a shot of anything spectacular, it was because I was asleep or not in the vicinity when it happened. Believe me, I tried to get a shot of everyone and I’ve got a lot of shots that won’t go up here. I just keep trying…the world needs to be recorded in digital format and I’m doing my part.

Several events that need mentioning, mainly for myself as I reflect in years to come. The day I arrived, my room on the 13th floor smelled so badly of mildew that I requested a move. I was moved to the 15th floor, after standing at the reservation desk for over a half hour. That room had a slight mildew smell also but nothing like the room on the 13th floor. I was exhausted and rapidly unpacked, putting my clothing in drawers and toiletries in the bathroom, and putting things in general order where I thought it would be easiest to find them. I set up my laptop, hooked up to wifi, and no sooner got ready to settle down to sleep for a few hours when I got a call from the front desk. They were going to make me change rooms again…NOT! I didn’t have a real fit, I just kind of refused to go and they left it at that. Where they were going to move me to does not matter, I just wasn’t in the mood for it after the day of traveling and finally settling in.

I only ask for maid service about every third day. On the second request, one of them noticed that I had a box with an electric burner in it sitting beside the TV. Yes…I had planned to cook my own oatmeal and a bag of ramen if I felt the need to feed at off hours. I did not use the burner but I brought it with the intention of using it. BUSTED! Security called me later that day, informing they would confiscate it because it was against their policy to have anything like that in the hotel.

“Ok, when?”

“Now!” NOT!!!

“I’m taking a nap, send someone at 4:30 p.m.” It was true, we were working that night at 6:30 p.m. and I wanted a nap.

I happened to leave a little before 4:30 to meet the Duo for dinner. No one ever appeared or called again about the electric burner. I never used it. I took Jim’s advice and just used hot water from the coffee pot in big insulated cups, with a tight cover, works perfectly. But every time Jim called me, I kept expecting him to hit me with, “This is security, we are coming for the electric stove…” but it never happened.

Then Monday rolled around. There was so much noise going on out in the hallways that it was almost unbearable. I made several trips downstairs to the lobby and lower lobby and each time I went, I saw big bins filled with articles of bedding outside of the rooms, and people milling around. They were all very friendly, inquiring as to how I was, etc.

I planned to take a 5 p.m.ish nap, get up and shower, go out to eat and then check out the poker rooms – I’d been out on Sunday night and it was pretty grim around 8 p.m.

*ring-ring* “Hello.”

“This is Irwin at the main desk. We need to move you from your room to another one.”

“What?”

“You are the only person on the 15th floor. Tomorrow at 6 a.m., we want to start construction to remodel the rooms…”

“Are you aware that I’m leaving on Wednesday? And do you know how much of an inconvenience this is for me to pack and move and then get ready to leave on Wednesday?”

“We can have a bellman move everything for you.”

“Everything is strewn all over, I will have to pack. It’s such a pain…”

“Yes, but we still want to change your room. Now would be the best time. We have a room for you on the 13th floor…”

“Ugh! No! When I first arrived, I was given a room on the 13th floor, even stepping off the elevator was uncomfortable with the mildew smell. When you have another room for me, call me back.”

“Ok…”

I started packing. Kee-rist! There went my nap. There went my plan to be rested and refreshed and head out in search of poker. It took me a little over an hour to sort through and leave out two days worth of wear, packing everything else for the return trip home, and be ready for the bellman when he arrived. No sense in packing twice, might as well get ready for the flight home at the same time. So…I moved to the 8th floor. Irwin gave me $100 off of my bill for making me move, that was nice. Remember that I pay for half of my room since I choose not to have a room mate; any rebate helps a tad.

I ended up calling room service for dinner – BTW the filet mignon was incredible – and I was ready for Sandwoman Land by 9 p.m.ish. Of course I sleep like shit most of the time so I was up at midnight, and after dozing off for a few nods, I gave up and got up at 1:30 a.m.

On poker here in Aruba, the rake will choke you to death. While the tournament is here, games are hopping. It looks dead right now. Perhaps weekends are better in general but I won’t be here this weekend. I played twice at the Radisson – got to make quad fives and got paid off on them in a heads-up scene. I played once at the Wyndham, the game was great but I had an umbrella out and open while it was raining chips. I played the satellite at the Excelsior, nothing live. I may head out tonight to see what I can find – since it’s my last night on the island.

Tomorrow night, late, I will be back in Vegas. My next post will probably be from the US. Time to close the chapter and move on to the future. I miss the Duo and our great times already…but I guess that’s why we have memories and digital cameras…