I hit Vegas on Friday a.m. – snow at the top of the ‘hump’ (AKA Mount Potosi) was around a foot deep but the road was clear. Some wind and sleet/rain was incoming and I was sure there would be snow on the way home that evening. I stopped by the old digs and then headed to the convention center of the Riviera where I was to meet/pick up Clearspine and his wife. We found each other.
And decided to do lunch at The Peppermill…a long time favorite of mine for food in the restaurant – and just hanging out in the lounge. If you’re looking to get it on with someone for the night or sitting with friends, the lounge is quite intimate, sunken fireplace and all. We parked in the back and entered through the lounge – the drawback is smoking, on our way out a guy was sitting by the exit, at the end of the bar, huffing and spewing clouds of cigar smoke around him and the woman with him…can’t help but wonder how much he paid her…perhaps she likes the stench and the mystery of being hidden in clouds of smoke in a public place.
New means to upload pictures (FTP) and then link to the location – could save me hours…less bitching too.
Without further ado *drum roll begins, round of applause* Clearspine (Jan) and Tracy. Tracy was fun to visit with and appeared to be quite receptive to my gabby lunacy. I had a good time, the meal was good, so was the company, and the coffee was great (I can’t say that for all the places I eat at). We dropped Tracy at the convention center and went to The Orleans to play a little ‘pokah.’ We helped start a new $2-4 LH table – our intention was to sit and visit more than anything else. We had discussed hiking – the week before their arrival – but the oceans of water falling from the sky took that topic and shit canned it for another date.
The poker game was horrible, it was the stop over for everyone that was waiting for another table and we no sooner got a player, than we lost a player – or two. I managed to piss off one of the local women because I didn’t chop. She huff shoved her dollar at me when I said I didn’t chop and within 2 heartbeats she was on the transfer list and left. Poor BITCH Baby! Clearspine and I sat beside each other, he was on my left, and I raised out of the SB with A-10 when it was him and me. Of course he gave me the ‘raising my blind’ garbage. He called with Q-8 and hit a queen on the flop. I led the bet into him on the flop and the turn and checked the river. He called the flop and turn and checked the river also. He said, “At least I didn’t raise you!” Let me get a reality check on that one…as in like if he had raised, would I have called? And I don’t mind, either way, I would have played his hand too, the only difference is, if positions were reversed, I would have raised him if he bet into me. LMAO In my own twisted way, I feel that I won in that hand.
The jackpot was big – somewhere around $106K for Holdem. We never even came close. We did get one dealer that came in with his mouth flapping and it took him 3 minutes to get the cards in the air because he was settling into his chair while talking to a player at the table behind us. I gave him a good natured, “How long before we see the next hand,” and he just dissed it without even a half glance at me and kept gabbing.
He kept up the jibber-jabber pimping the jackpot and how we were a jackpot table, yadda-yadda-yadda, and I said, “How can we win a jackpot when we can’t see the next hand?”
I wasn’t mean about it but seriously, this guy’s jabber was over the top, and I never slowed him down.
The 9s was an azzhole that I’ve dealt to and had to call the floor on at Bellagio more than once. He’s still an asshole. He got into it with the dealer and kept trying to make an issue of it, a coupla players got in the mix and shut him down. He’s one of these players that if he doesn’t like the cards he’s getting, or the flop, turn, river, he picks his whole hand up, exposing it to those on either side of him and looking at it like it’s a two day old monkey fart covered in goat hair. Then when he folds, it’s almost impossible to know he folded unless you know his play mode…he drops his cards 1/2 inch from his fingers and looks at the dealer like they are mental if they don’t just reach over and scoop his hand. He knew he knew me, but we never got involved, and I was armed and ready to go to war with him if he started. Sick fuck needs a poker table to go to so he can blow his daily emotional allowance…no one else would put up with it in the real world.
Oklahoma Johnny Hale sat down on the other side of Clearspine, looked at two hands and got called to another table. He still grates on my nerves after all the years of dealing to him and playing poker with him.
Gabe came by to talk to a friend of his that was in our game. We exchanged ‘hi and long time no see’ greetings. I really enjoy Gabe. Gabe jams the $30-60, $15-30, and maybe more now, haven’t seen him awhile. I think he moves around town and plays the jackpot rooms too. His friend and I tangled on a coupla hands and he snapped me twice. He tried to give me $ back at the end of the hand when I didn’t even pay him off. I got a charge out of him and he was the best part of the game – other than my poker date.
One time I decided to straddle the bet, we had a new player in the 2s – his BB, he wasn’t happy. He informed me it was a horrible move, blah, blah, blah. Nice! Why do people try to discourage other people from gambling? I wonder if he’s married related to Bill Frist. I looked down to A-10 hearts. I raised it. I didn’t win the hand. I think I gave it up somewhere on the flop after I checked and then had to fold.
I did pick up K-K once and flopped a set, and rivered a full, with one of the very live ones in there calling me all the way. The last card was a 3 which put two of them on the board. He was so live, I figured he might have a 3…I bet it out all the way…he thought about it for a minute and then folded. Damn!
One thing I noticed about several of the dealers – it’s a pet peeve of mine – that if someone dropped, flipped, tossed their bet in – even if it was only 5-6 inches from their hand, the dealers reach over and PUSH the chips back towards the player. WTF? The tables are so big there’s no chance that one player’s chips are mingling with another’s – and why waste the energy – and make it harder on yourself to reach further when you pull the chips into the pot. Stupid dealers.
We played about three hours, we each lost $66 – go figure – and we saw some pretty remarkable play by a few of the kids at the table. Gotta love it but neither of us could ever get in a spot to help them empty their chipstacks! It was time to go. Clearspine’s lovely wife was waiting and I had to drive back over the hump.
I had planned to pick Riot up for the weekend after meeting Clearspine but the Riotmaster was sick and it was no go.
I went by the Whole Foods Market on Charleston and Fort Apache to pick up a case of Kombucha and they also have some really great pizzas and sandwich thingys that are hot and wonderful, along with freshly made sushi. It was after 6 p.m. and I was starving. I got my Kombucha and headed back to the food service area. They have a big wood cutting board, behind glass, with heat lamps over it and a pizza oven on the wall behind it. I was gazing at which one I wanted a piece of – some great looking spinach/mushroom things and there it was…dancing across the board, from the oven side to my side, weaving in-between the freshly cooked pizzas. A light reddish brown – that cockroach knew no shame in dancing across the stage under the hot lights. WHOA!
There were two girls behind the counter, I told them a bug had just run across the pizza table. One went immediately back to her business, the other gave me a look of “OMG!” and went to find a guy in the back. He came around to my side of the counter with a towel rolled up in his hand and pushed the cutting board away from us and started sweeping with the towel along the edge of the glass. There she was! Not sure where she ended up. They started weighing out the pizza and pitching it – I said I really came for pizza. Oh my lucky stars, they had a spinach/mushroom/tomato in the oven that would be out in about 10. I left to go buy avocados, tomatoes, and a few other things – after asking her to hold two pieces of it for me. When I got back, others were already taking pieces of it, but she held some for me, damn good thing or I was going to scream, “BUG!” YUMMY! I ate it on the trip home.
When I hit the Vegas side of the hump, it started to snow. It’s a passing lane going up and a small car sailed around me but as soon as they saw the snow, their speed dropped to about 35. Fine! I followed them. About a mile and a half from the top, we had a SUV in front of us that apparently has never driven in the snow. It was snowing too much to even consider passing both the cars in front of me, but the one leading the pack had his fucking foot glued to the brake. He hit the brake every 20 feet…how he got up over it, I have no idea. As we started down the home side, the divided highway began. It was still snowing heavily and he was still B-R-A-K-I-N-G. It’s also straight, and gradual downhill for the next 10 miles. The snow started to abate a few miles after the hump and I waited until he figured he could get his ass over into the slow lane and I went around him. Why the other car decided he had to stay behind was a question to present to a sanity hearing. Those idiots that ride the brake cause more problems in snow than the law allows.
I made home without a hitch.
*****
A slight back track, I stopped in Red Rock Canyon on my way into Vegas for some pictures! I’ve seen snow in the canyon but nothing like this. The park visitor center is at the base of the red rock.
