GAMBLING
Well, I left off yesterday thinking I'd make it to the
WiFi and I never did. That changed the events of the day and because of those changes, I made money.
I went out to mail Lucky Pete the coupons because he is going soon to Vegas. I was anxious to get them out on Friday because I did not know the hours of the post office. I had a rough idea of where it was, but the bellman here at the Plaza seemed to send me in a different direction, so that what I thought was a short walk took me well up to the El Cortez, and in the heat I decided not to eat on my points at Main Street Station, but to buy a nice meal at Mamacita's Mexican Cuban place near the El Cortez and then get in the poker game there.
The game was tough at all tables. I switched tables once and landed in a seat right next to Jackie Gaughn. This is a fine seat in which to play because the old fellow plays very loose and calls right to the river, paying off good cards. He might even call with a busted straight that he does not read right. The rest of the players were all difficult to beat, especially one who manages his seat right next to me. So it is difficult poker. And I am losing.
Particularly I am losing to Jackie who catches the river when I have the winning hand. One particular pot was huge with my pocket kings flopping trips and looking very good against my opponent to my left who held A=K and had two pair. Jackie chases these high cards with his 5-8 of diamonds and catches on the river. The entire table erupted in laughter, including me. But the hand cost me over $100.
When Jackie leaves, I ask for a seat change and manage to get to a third table that has opened with some young tourists who are no limit players. They play fine poker, but I can beat them at this game, and I almost get even when most leave and the rest of us are put back on the first table. Here the poker is hard and gradually the tourists are eliminated, so I am thinking of leaving when I have a ten and the flop comes with two more. I slow play and the turn gives me quads which are big enough to be the second highest hand of the day. However, I have to get ten dollars in the pot to qualify and I don't have that amount. Also I have to go to the river. There are four in the hand and I check again. No one bets. Finally the river comes. I count chips and bet two, get only one caller, and luckily he raises two and that is just enough. I can't reraise and chance pushing him out, so I call and get on the board.
Now these high hand awards are for the entire day and the contest goes until two A.M. Generally, on a weekend, straight flushes win. Players only need to have one card in their hand so it is pretty easy to qualify. I expect to lose, but when I call the room after two A.M. I find out my hand has held up, so I get $225. Their awards are simply the raked money for that day divided between two high hands.
I leave and head back. I am tired, but mostly I know I can't beat these players. I play jack-eight as my last hand just on a lark, and it catches the jack for a pair and the eight on the river to beat my jack-nine opponent. So I win a few dollars and leave down fifty three dollars.
I am tired, but I decide to try the Plaza 2-4. Playing that will be mostly luck. I'll play tight and hope the best cards hold up. Then I'll get paid. Otherwise I'll give up money to trash hands. The players are terrible, but not too loose, but I don't catch too much. I loose sixty almost immediately and then stay down from twenty to forty for the rest of the night. The table gets down to five and in this game that is a great thing because I have a better chance of winning with fewer people. They will pay me, but there won't be so many calling all sorts of things. Two of the players will pay A-K to the river and act surprised when it does not win. Someone taught them it is a great hand so they keep calling with it. They don't need a pair. Once they pay my pocket threes that flop trips. Often I win when I think I must be beat, but they are playing fourth best hands.
Then I get confused. My pocket jacks flops quads on the turn. There is a guy betting into me (without a full house by the way) but I think that I have to take these quads to the river, so I just call. At the Plaza high hands do not need to go to the river. This cost me eight dollars or maybe sixteen. My pocket jacks are one the top high hand awards and get me $250 and the money in the pot.
So before collecting the El Cortez payout I am $131 ahead in a day of bad poker results. The bonus hands have paid me. Luck, no skill. On a trip that has been one loss after another, this is very easy to take.
And once again I am amazed at the turns of causal relationships in life that make poker so fascinating. Had I not mailed the coupons to Lucky Pete may day would have changed and none of this would have happened. So many results in life hinge on small decisions. We struggle to do the best we can with what we know, to play the hands we are dealt, but randomness withholds or delivers benefits even against the odds.
I did not expect to get back much of my losses this weekend because I am playing such low stakes games with swings of perhaps a hundred dollars in a day. I thought myself pretty unlucky to be at the bottom of that curve in the poker itself and then the high hands took me back.
PLAZA
I got a fine room here at the Plaza again on the eleventh floor. I did hear some trains this time. Still it does not seem to bother me as it once did. Perhaps the white noise of my apnea machine while I am sleeping takes care of the train or it just is a different sound here at the Plaza than at Main Street Station.
The pool was very, very cold today. This does not discourage me because I swim in cold water at home, but it did seem odd. They must have just changed the water.
In the tennis courts are these odd horse shoe pits. Wooden three sided barriers enclose a pit with some sort of stone and rubber mats. I asked about horse shoes and it seems that they had some aluminum horse shoes last year, but they got lost. They have reordered, but the reorder has not arrived. So no horse shoes this trip. Normal iron horse shoes would not be good for this pit as on missed throws they would chew up the cement. So this was a good idea, but they did not follow through and get the equipment.
EL CORTEZ CABANA AND GOLD SPIKE
I could have had Gold Spike rooms this trip for $9 a night, so I wanted to see what it would be like to walk from the El Cortez to the Spike after playing poker. With the new Cabana rooms also not far from there, the area seemed lighted and safe. I stopped in to the Cabana rooms and talked with the security guard and he said other than pan handlers and the regular sort of downtown characters, they had not had any problems in that one short block. He said that he was there watching as was the security at the Spike. So I have put it on my list of frugal possibilities. I walked past it at midnight and then walked to Freemont. There were folks in the streets walking, and it did not seem to be a problem. The security guy said that between the El Cortez and the Western, and in that direction, things were still a bit risky.
So I did not see the Cabana rooms, but I did see the foyer. Wow! Very nifty. They keep little red candies and a plate of fruit available for guests also. This is a small thing, but it makes a difference to me as I would make a meal of an apple or two just as down here at the Plaza I make a meal of the shrimp at the Golden Gate.
As I readjust my focus to making my Vegas trips truly frugal again, these two casinos are in my sights again.
MAMACITA's
I had a fine meal as always, but there was for a while one strange character. He was one of these fellows who talks loud and engages everyone. He wants to be the center of attention. So he came in loud and talking about coming to the casino with $20 and leaving with $900. This might be true or not. Then he insisted that the staff was going to pick what he ate, bothered some family eating soup to get their opinions, finally decided on something. They gave him takeout and he said he wanted to eat there. I think they wanted their money up front. He ate the soup, was quiet, and suddenly he was gone. I wondered if he had paid.
PS I was to see him over the next couple days acting out on Freemont. Is he a street person?
The videos were great as always. Spanish music videos with sexy girls and some soft tones. I wish I had brought my pad as one song in particular I would have liked to find later.
I tried the Havana plate this time. Sorry not to have the names of the foods, but it was very good and very much off my diet. Two deep fried concoctions with corn and meat, black beans, rice, crispy toast. The horchata is never ending there. They just keep filling it. And the meal starts with Mexican chips (the good kind) and some fine salsas. It was delightful for about $16 plus tip.
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