TR Snippet: I Invite a girl to play Poker

I've reported some of the dry details of my trip.

I think it is time to tell a story.

It is about 8 AM and I am playing poker with the old regulars who come to the Imperial Palace to play for the Aces cracked, to lose a small pot but get $100 from the casino as a bonus.

To my left is an empty seat, a rare thing most mornings as these tables fill quickly and stay filled often until all the cracked pockets are gone.

I am often the most talkative and the loudest at the table. At times I know some of the old local regulars resent having their routine interrupted by a tourist in party mood playing an predictable game.

To my left is a huge Black fellow who might have played some football. He plays decent Hold Em, but he is no match for these tight regulars. He is in way too many hands, raising without reason, and the fellows are passing him around.

He is not unpleasant, but he is a bit surly, the way one gets when one is in hand after hand as second best and confused by it.

When I get some good cards, most of my opponents fold, so I end up head to head with him, and I win about three hands that he calls to the river. 
 He is not happy.

A couple hands later my cards go nowhere, but I bet the river anyway as I detect he is weak, and if I don't bet, I can't win.

He considers.

He wants to call me.

Perhaps he senses I am weak as well and just pushing.

Certainly, he just figures that I can't have good cards all the time.

But having only showed good cards, I have a good table image, and so he folds.

As he folds, he says, " There will be a hand coming where I will get you."

It is not friendly banter.

I try to loosen him up just a bit.

"Hey, you're not one of these guys who takes 2-4 seriously, are you?" I ask smiling.

And in saying this I have given him an opportunity to laugh, to say he isn't taking things that seriously, and make a joke and be friendly.

But he is quietly raging inside, and there are no jokes in him this morning.

"I just said there will come a hand when I will....take... you... down," he says, and the threat is clear.

"I got that," I answer. "I also caught the tone."

"That is the nicest tone I have," he says, and that would have been a good joke, but he is not joking. 
He is all threat.

I laugh anyway.

That will be the last I ever say to him.

And I won't be bluffing him off another hand either. He has warned me that he is primed to sock it to me. So I  only go after him when I have the goods. I  do this twice more over the next half hour or so in hands where I look weak until the river when I raise, after which he changes his seat to another table. Later I am moved to that other table, and he stops playing poker altogether and leaves, probably having lost money, not much of it to me really, but certainly projecting on me his puzzled frustration.

It is true that I am one of the more aggressive players at this table. The rest seem to have a sort of unspoken agreement that they won't compete too much for pots, but just wait for the Aces (at $100) and later the kings ( at $50). It does make good sense not to bet if we can't beat a pair of kings. It may well be out there waiting for us and hoping to be cracked.
One regular bets into me with a pocket pair of Queens when I have the Aces and I call to the river.  He bets then too, and I'm hopeful that I am beat, but instead he is beat.  Invisible Aces.

Three guys at one end are jokingly called the Three Musketeers. They come together, sit together, go to the bathroom together, leave to cash out together. Certainly they have some silent signal when one of them gets the Aces, but I never catch it.

At Imperial Palace there only needs to be $10 in the pot for cracked Aces. At Flamingo there needs to be $20. So that keeps the tightest old guys at Imperial Palace.

Another regular is Louie. He is an old guy, older than I am. Whenever he shows up with his dressy hat and maybe a sporty suit jacket, you think,  "Mac the Knife is back in town."  
Louie has Parkinson's so it takes him time to assemble chips for a bet. The guys who know him say to watch him, and if he bets without shaking, then fold, because he has the goods.

I think of this not as real information, but just a joke, the irony being that an other player with shaking hands is signaling that he has good cards.  It is a classic tell.  So Louie is the opposite.

I am never in many hands with Louie, because he is flighty. Perhaps he is just getting in his hours. He plays a hand or two and then is gone for a while and back to play a hand or two. I don't see how this is good play because he plays more blinds that way, but maybe if a guy is very low bankrolled, he can squeeze out the hours he needs for the weekly freeroll.

But he is always very friendly. Maybe because he heard me mourning Jimmy's death, and he was one of Jimmy's best friends.

At times there is joking about having Louie and Dewey at the table. One day a guy got very drunk and insisted he was Huey, insisted he be called Huey, bet with statements of his alterego in the third person like, " Huey just calls."

He got so drunk he bet straights that were only in his head.

But this morning it is still early. Just old guys, good players. No Louie. No drunken guy taking on the name of Huey.

I am the only one drinking.

Coffee and Sambucca. My usual breakfast.

I see the pretty girl watching our game high up on the elevated glassed-in section to my right. She smiles when I look up,  and I wave to her to come down and join us, showing her the empty seat next to me, teasing her to come play with us.

A minute later she is there in the empty seat to my left.

She is good looking and very friendly, but she can't play because not only does she not know anything about this particular game, she does not even know the ranking of poker hands.

She has a pleasant face, soft olive skin, and when she slips off her coat I know I'll be well entertained between playable hands. She is dressed in black, something a little lacy, but not so provocative as that lingerie look the girls now put on to go clubbing at 2 AM.

"I just learned Blackjack," she tells me.

She sits in the empty seat, and watches, and I tell her not to play with her money, but I give her some sense of the game between hands, just what beats what and a bit of poker 101. 
She is a great contrast to the quiet old men. They are not actually grumpy, but they are quiet and they come for poker, not camaraderie.

It might be that Gary from Alberta is there to my right. I think so, but it is hard to remember for certain. Gary is a quiet man, but very friendly, and I like having him about for a bit of conversation. even with long pauses in between.

He is a twin of a fellow I play with every week. It is eerie.

I know that my buddy from the old El Cortez crowd is not there. He comes later that day, and we get caught up on all the old characters, tell a couple Action Jackson stories, mourn again the death of Jimmy at 55 this year, and in general, we have a great visit. I show him my American Casino Guide Resort Fee article and we talk a bit about that frustrating practice.

I am Facebook friends with him, but it is his children who put up all the pictures from his childhood, and actually work his site.

He is an honorable and friendly guy, and a wonderful poker player. He will talk and tell stories and knows a little something about most topics.

I hate being in a hand with him; I certainly will lose.

Anyway, in the early morning there is only the girl who is talking, and I talk to her while I throw away junk after junk after junk and just play blinds, and even those I cannot play very aggressively.

One thing about this game is my blinds generally see free flops. A guy with pocket Aces won't raise preflop. After 11AM, a guy with pocket kings won't either. So my blinds rarely need to be protected. Probably the only raises except mine are A-K and pocket Queens. I sometimes raise in last position with suited connectors, but in this game I may lose too many callers to make that a good bet.

The other thing I realize is that my biggest leak is playing connectors from 7-10. I like them too much. 
 In this game they are not a bad play in late position with plenty of players  in. I do restrict myself to the button or near the button and I need to have enough callers.

On this table I don't raise either, as I might in a no fold em game. These guys will fold.

But a guy with Aces, rather than push me out, is hoping I will catch and will give me free cards without my having to make a button raise to get one. He will give me the free cards just because he wants to be beaten and get the $100 bonus.

The girl says she is 21 and from Miami.

"Are you Latino?" I ask.

She responds, in a little bit of huff, that she is obviously Black, and it puzzles me that she would be surprised to be asked that question, an olive skinned girl from Miami.

I apologize, tell her there are lots of Black Latinos, and that I only asked because I knew of a great lounge act at the Eastside Cannery that has a wonderful Latino show.

" Well, I would not understand that," she said, "because it would all be in Spanish."

"Yes, " I answer, "it would."

We are still friends.

The Black guy is interested, but he is still not friendly even to her. They talk a bit, and then she turns back to me.

I wonder if he feels like I am beating him at poker and pretty girls.

The night before I played with a Black girl to my right who was overweight, fat faced, and not particulary attractive, but very, very sweet.

Her boyfriend played a while, then he gave the seat up to her. He was an easy going guy, and we had a good friendly banter, so when I took down a big pot, she bumped me a bit.

"Did you feel that bump?" she asked.

"Yes....I did....and for a 65 year old guy that was better than winning this pot."

I don't think too many men compliment this heavy girl and she just beamed.

This morning someone comes to play in the empty seat, and this girl moves behind me and a bit to my right.

I'm sorry.

I now have to turn to talk to her and to see her pretty face.

And then I get the second hint.

From behind, she rests her head on my right shoulder.

Soon, she asks me if we can meet for a drink somewhere, and I say a ridiculously disingenuous thing,

"Thanks for that invitation, but I'm a very conservative man."

"Well, you drink, don't you?" she asks.

"Yes........I do.........but I drink here..........for free."

So , soon she is telling me it is time for her to go and to watch for her if I change my mind. She is friendly until the last, and I don't have that sense I have wasted any of her time. She was on and off her cell phone and I think this was dead time between clients. 
And  she got a free orange juice.

My buddy Wild Bill will talk to the working girls a while. His famous line is, "I can't afford you because you are too pretty."
That gets them trying to explain how reasonable they are and keeps them for a while in a conversation. He got approached seven times once walking from Mandalay Bay to Bellagio and with his line of talk had one walking companion or another almost the entire trip.

But I don't like using up their time. I think of it as hard work with plenty of people taking advantage. I don't want to be one of them.

The table meanwhile has been silently cracking up all this while. The dealer says that she tried to hit on him when he came to work that day, but he did not want to say anything to me because he did not know if I was trying to get something going.

"No, I don't want to get anything going in Vegas. The health statistics are pretty sad here in Vegas. If I wanted to get something going, I'd pay the big bucks and go out to Pahrump where it is safer."

So the poker continues, the Black guy moves to the other table, and the game goes along in the quiet, plodding fashion of old men waiting for cracked Aces.

Ah, Vegas.

Nothing like this every happens to me at home.

Reflection on "Why not play more and quicker?"

I get more pleasure out of getting the most for my money. I liked coming home from Vegas and knowing I had seen more than a gamble. Watching the bull riders ride was wonderful. All the music was delightful. Meeting so many strangers was fine as well. And seeing 23 days of beautiful women everywhere.. well....
A limit poker table is one of the few places where an old man can stare right into the face of beautiful young girl and it is acceptable.
I like travel even with no gamble, and Vegas gives a good bit of travel pleasure and collects a delightfully Cosmopolitan mix of people as well, all in party mood.
It is the only place I have ever found so many small communities of happy people.
Also, with live low limit poker my major game, I have hope that playing won't always be stretching a bankroll across negative expectation play. I see the guys who live there and have their low limit game to the point where they play everyday, all year long, and end up ahead. That is my goal. This trip gives me hope. 
I am already doing that in the weekly game here at home. 
No limit poker gives the kind of dollar swings that attract some, but we pay for the thrill of the win/loss with a community that is generally a bunch of dead stones flavored with constant whinners and a few young folks who are either hidden in musical hoods or all bravado attitude. No one says much unless it is about "outs" or someone's poor play, or the latest poker celebrity news, or the sad fact that in a random universe the "river" often brings tragedy.
Since the low limit games are simpler, the players can be more fully human. Randomness can often be laughed at; the talk is richer and the people more natural and less fanatically focused on just one aspect of living.

And the advantage video poker play as well should statistically let me grind out a bit of profit if I am slow and careful, especially when freeplay and cash back are figured into the gamble.
I guess for me learning and developing a gaming discipline gives more pleasure than a brief burst of uninhibited pleasure.
Then I have the fun of the gaming without the tax of the vigorish. 
I like being a long term winner.

This trip the mathematics tells me I am doing well. I stayed about even for most of the trip without a VP royal and without any luck on high hand bonus awards. Had those hit, I'd have come home well ahead. One royal would have almost paid for my trip.
You have to also appreciate that I am retired with a great wife, so I am not motivated by a need to escape the stress of a job or marriage and the anxiety that go with that; the drive to go on tilt for a few days is unnecessary therapy. 
But we all do this differently.

TR Snippet - Buddy Hackett's Rat Pack Show

I may have just been too tired to fully enjoy this.
Or it may be that I did not like waiting at the Hilton because I just don't like the Hilton
I did not like listening to a couple of "businessmen" half drunk and holding their own serious meeting in the men's room.
I  did not like paying $3.85 for a large water and then not being able to take it into the show with me, and of course forgetting it when I left.
The Hilton is just not me.

Or the opening of the show may have glorified the mob just a bit too much for my stomach.  Okay, I watched the Soprano's, but do I want bullies and cold blooded killers in charge of anything?
No.

Or it may have been that I remember Joey Bishop. Sandy Hackett makes a much better
Brad Garret than he does Joey Bishop.  Bishop was small, like Frank.  Hackett looked stupid trying to move like Joey moved.  I have seen some other Joey's.  They were better.

Or it may be that although I know Frank was pretty moody, he was not so moody on stage, not as much as the guy who plays him and that guys looked more Polish than Italian.
Harry Connick Jr. would have made a better Frank.
Or it may be that I just don't like impersonations any more at all.
There is something very creepy about them.

The music was fine, but nothing moved me much.
The voices sounded something like the originals if I closed my eyes.
But the faces made it all seem pretty creepy.

The theater was not crowded.  We all had good seats.  I guess it is not a popular show.
Radio Deluxe gives me a better feel for that old music.
And I thought the quality of those era songs was better at the free Toast of the Town shows.

I know Sandy Hackett was there back in those Rat Pack Days and should be able to add an authentic flavor to the show.
But at Toast of the Town Jackie Wilson's boy produced the feel and energy of Jackie in a much more authentic way,  There I saw how it could be done and how I might be transported back into a musical time.

I was not transported in this one.

It was a good deal at $20 from Groupon.
The original black and white clips were good.
The rest was just okay.
http://www.tix4tonight.com/sandy-hackett-rat-pack-show.html

TR Snippet: Video Poker

Absolutely, my best VP play was at the Cosmopolitan with their sign up bonus.  They offered to give back in freeplay the loss of $100 to any new sign up.  It took me a while to get the real sense of this and I was afraid that there was a loophole.
The way it was first explained, I thought that were I to win $60, then that would count against my $100 loss, but actually it just worked that if I won $60 I needed to play that down to zero in order to get the freeplay.
I knew the trick here was to play a high volatility game for the first hundred.  I actually considered two spins on a $25 two coin slot.  But that seemed a bit too volatile.  Still, it was tempting. When else would I ever do that?
I was looking really for a $5 slot when I came across a double double bonus spin poker machine.  It was 25 cents but max play would be 15 lines and about $19 a spin.  Okay, that seemed good.
It played more like a slot because I could not really follow more than the three lines I could see.  I was down to $83 when I started to hit.
I was dealt a straight and then a flush, but I am not sure if that is such a good thing when most of the line bend.  I seemed to do best with a pair of 6's that went somewhere into quads.  I was breathless when I had three to the royal.  No hits there.
I would be content to double up, but I kicked up into about $268 and so I used my normal technique when I play just $20.  I would stop either at $200 or $300.  Then I was kicked to about $340 so I reset my stop numbers to $300 or $400.  No more big hits.  I cashed out at $301.  So I did not need freeplay.
Had I lost and used the freeplay, I'd have then gone to low volatility and just run the freeplay through once.
As it was in less than ten minutes I had pocketed $201 bucks and was on my way to see Sin City Comedy.
**********************************************************************

During my free days at the Orleans I put a good bit of play on the nickle triple play with progressive royals.  At one point one of the royals was up to $580.  I was hoping.  But I lost money there.  Since my live poker play is becoming stronger, and the Orleans is tough to access on the bus for just two free nights, and downtown is so much easier, I may just drop that play and put the bankroll into my favorite game of 10/7 DB at the Four Queens where it generates 3 free nights and this trip gave me 3 in october and 3 in November, both on weekends and added a free slot tournament with two free breakfasts, $50 in food, and $120 in freeplay which I played through once and cashed out for $260.  Pretty good for free.  The Orleans does nothing for me like that.
Also, I found that for the days I don't play VP, but stick just with live poker, I can extend my stay at the Four Queens by getting a poker rate from Binions of $24 a night and those nights will not show up on my Four Queens computation of play or reduce a daily average.
So I could go for a week, hit the 10/7 DB progressive hard for the three free days they give me, and then play only poker over the next 4 days.
Nice for avoiding check in and check out.
I also seeded the Fitzgerald's this trip, playing the Vue Bar 8/5 DB progressive and actually hitting the quads twice when they were up $20 extra.  That casino is being sold, but I hope that my play will generate from free room offers.
Checking in and checking out from Ftizgerald's  to 4 Queens is a short crossing of a tiny street.

The 10/7 DB is just a great play.  The royal progressive was up to $1100 plus most of the time I played. Sadly there was no royal for me, but I did have one day when the quads seemed to be as free as pairs.  I loved it.  Overall, I guess I lost money.
It is hard to measure.
I played some Megabucks there as well. Not much, but I figure it presents me as a mixed player.
They gave me $35 in cashback, I ate good both trips, and I covered those expensive weekend rates with free rooms.  One time I stayed in the South Tower and another in North Tower and both were just fine.  They arranged for quiet in each place, but the South was quieter.  Still neither kept me awake.
That is another problem with going to the Orleans.  If I am staying anywhere downtown, I can walk to the 4 Queens without luggage and negotiate a room.  I can wait until what I want comes available and then go get my luggage.  If I lug my luggage from the Orleans by bus to the Four Queens, then I want to get a room it they have one, whether it is my first choice or not.

Lucky Pete from Florida took a good bit of money from that 10/7 DB while he was here with the Silver Strikers.  He just seemed to hit the quads easily.  It was great to hang with him a bit, and his buddy John.  We all ate on my $50 free food and he gave Wild Bill a ride down from the Orleans a couple days later.  I love Lucky Pete.  He is such a good hearted character.  I saw the new $300 silver strike issue while I was there and heard plenty of stories as well.
The new $10 coins have no silver in them. The new large coins have a bit of silver, but it is not like the old days.

I played a bit of VP at Sam's Town, but I could not remember the Deuces strategy well enough to feel comfortable.  I played the coin dropper 10/7 DB near Friday's and broke even.  I did not play much, but I don't worry about playing light there because Sam's does not send me much in the way of free rooms anyway.
If I decide to get serious up that way, I'm going for the old fashioned machines in the classic area of Eastside Cannery.  For a while they sent me a free night and often there is a $30 a night senior citizen deal.  With the new Boulder buses I'd be tempted to stay out there for a couple nights and play poker.  Monday would be my favorite as the Claudine Castro Band on Monday performs a great Latino Act.  For the price of a couple of $1.50 local Eastside Cannery microbrews, this is one of my favorite music venues in Vegas.

http://www.executiveservers.com/claudinecastro-com/

I watched Wild Bill play in many places.  He is just beginning to get the strategy.  I would  stand behind him with my sheets in hand and coach. He just rolls his eyes when I say things like, "Okay there is one Ace, if there is a offsuit ten, you play her by herself, but if the ten is suited, you pick up the other face card with her, unless, of course, there are no penalty cards 5 or under to toss away.  If there are no wheel penalty cards, you just play that Ace alone hoping the wheel will come."
Well, with 23 days in Vegas I have to do something besides put my own money at risk.  Watching Bill play is just as much fun as using my own money.
Wild Bill liked going with me this time because I had so much free food.  Four days into the trip he looked at me in amazement and said, "We've been here for 4 days and I've only spent $11 on food!"

And that was it on the VP this trip.  I played none at El Cortez.  I was mad at them.
Extra $25 a night for any nights after 7!
Dumbest thing I ever heard!
Well, they pushed me down to the Gold Spike, and I've found my new downtown home.  Nothing to play there, but the rooms, heated pool, free wifi, and TCM television are all great.  And even with the stupid resort fee, their rates rock.  The hotel manager sent me a nice note asking me to spread the word and to come back.

I hit no royals, but had many close calls.  I hit Aces and Deuces and Fours in a single day of play.  I missed playing $20 for a free Black Chip Porter at Main Street Station. It seems odd to say that 23 days is not enough to do everything, but I was never thirsty for beer when I went to Main Street Station, but just went in for some free buffet with raspberry tea.
I caught one straight flush, holding just three cards.  Jacks were my most regular quads.
I caught no quad Deuces when I played that game or in the live poker either.

9/6 JOB GONE AT ELLIS ISLAND
Well, another good play is gone.  The JOB is down to 8/5 and so unplayable.  Too bad.
I used up the last $3 of my food comps and now I'll just go to eat and then not at regular eating hours because there is nothing to entertain me while I wait.

CROWNE AND ANCHOR

One of my weakest plays was at the Crowne and Anchor bar out by the Pinball Hall of Fame on Tropicana.  They offer a free lunch for $20 played through the bar VP.  The paytables are not great, but the rules are clear.  One must play the $20 through at least once, 15 hands of full play.
I loved the waitress, loved the lamb stew in bread, loved the bread itself, and loved the beer.  I was allowed to taste three beers before picking my free one.
Blues played while I ate and I enjoyed the entire ambiance.
So I played on as I ate, thinking I'd quit when I was even, and I lost $100.  Suckered in and fleeced.  Rare for frugal me.  Had I stuck to the rules I would have lost about $10.
So I only  recommend this lunch deal only to those with discipline in the face of just wonderful atmosphere.
And the worst of it is that in retrospect I don't regret it.  That's how I know they really had me.

TR Snippet - Live Low Limit Poker

One of the most satisfying parts of ny 23 day trip was to see my low limit poker play had improved enough to put me over the break even point.

I can't even fully explain what happened. I have noticed improvement in local games. Certainly, I have tightened up even more. Also, I lay down more losing hands.

And in Vegas I worked hard for table selection.

However, I just could sense that my brain was working in a new way and making controlled and clear decisions, sometimes on an unconscious level.

Ironically, although I know that the 3-6 and 4-8 games better overcome the rake, I lost money there. I won at 2-4 and the spread limit 1-3-6 at El Cortez.

I could sense that the higher level games, expecially those with kill pots, could potentially yield higher profits, but somehow whatever was happening below my conscious level was not happening there.

I won at Suncoast's 4-8 with full kill, but it was just getting great cards at the beginning of my play. So I bet out and looked like a new guy on tilt when actually I was getting prime cards all in a row right as I sat down. It was such a run of luck that the table was shy of me, so I stole a couple hands as well.

I ended $150 ahead, but after lunch lost $100 at a 2-4 game there that was just too loose, with guys reraising on nothing preflop just to get a big pot. There I was unlucky or I'd have cleaned up. However, playing prime cards cost me money when the flops did not match, and I was forced to lay down. A guy might cap my Ace King preflop and then catch his low junk on the flop.

I lost again at the Golden Nugget. All my friends rave about this game and yet I could not seem to get my traction. It is a 3-6 with a full kill going to 6-12. The pots I won were small. I was sorry I played there.

I'll play 2-4 next time.

I am always attracted by both the American Casino Guide extra $10 buy in coupon and by 4 hours of play yielding a buffet comp that just about covers the cost of the cheaper weekday breakfast buffet.

Golden Nugget has a great buffet with my favorite smoked salmon, capers, onions, tomatoes. And I've learned how to mix cream cheese and horseradish to produce a half way decent creamy horseradish sauce.

I played well at the local dominated early morning game at Imperial Palace where the old guys gather more for the cracked Aces than to play poker. Here were the Three Musketeers, three guys who sit together, get up together, certainly signal when they have the Aces so the pot is big enough. They talk and play and leave together. They are very funny.

Some other really tough players are there too, and I made some really wrong bets against one old guy who beat me every time.

I met Fitz, and old buddy from the El Cortez game years back. That was pure pleasure. He and I talked, too much for the old regulars, and I showed my Resort Fee article and we got caught up.

I like this guy.

He reminded me that Harrah's was giving Veterans a free one day buffet pass on Veteran's Day and I remembered I had brought my DD Form 214.

It worked too. I had a breakfast at Paris and a supper at Caesar's.

Fitz had a run with cracked Aces and also with the cracked kings (starting at 11 AM) He was really lucky.

Our hours were added up to qualify for a freeroll, and I won one of those for a free $140 when the final table split.

I also ran into Mohave (or Drawing Dead), an old board buddy, and he gave me a ride out to North Vegas to get fed at the Lucky Club and invited me another night to Rio's Diamond Lounge.

So by playing at the Imperial Palace I managed to realize four meals.

Also, Imperial Palace puts out some pretty good cookies. One or two of them with a Caesar's packed with as many olives as the drink waitress can fit makes breakfast. I think tequilla is better than vodka in those clamato based drinks. Followed with coffee and Sambucca I don't need any more food to start my day.

I met a fellow from Alberta named Gary, a fine fellow who reminds me of one of our poker buddies here at home. They have the same facial look. It was eerie. I played with him in a few places over the week. He was conservative and good. Another guy from Calgary just lived in the Imperial Palace. He was a bit annoying. Narcissistic and negative. Perhaps if I were a great lover of sports it would have been different as he did seem to lighten up and laugh if he could talk about a hockey game. However, our first conversation I noticed that he had nothing good to say about his own Canada. He was complaining about their casinos not being as good as Vegas, and perhaps that is true for all of us, but I started talking about what a fine job Canada does at Niagara Falls and how much it rises above the work the states have done, and I could see that my praise cut into his griping in a way that made him uncomfortable.

( to see my Niagara Falls poker trip click here and scroll down below the green tomato post)

http://foxwoodspokertr.blogspot.com/ )

One night at the Imperial Palace a fellow from Pennsylvania had a shirt that said he was drunk and had lost his horse. He was drunk, and he was full of fun.

I joked with him and he came around often for another round of lost horse banter, even when he was playing at the next table. Some of the more quiet and conservative ladies were annoyed, but this was my bread and butter.

The next day at the freeroll he had sobered up, changed his shirt, and did not even remember me. It was an amazing transformation.

I kidded him. Asked him now that he found his horse could he look for his party self. He laughed.

The dealers are just great at the Imperial Palace. One looks just like Chandler from Friends and has the same mannerisms. They always remember my name.

At one point a fellow leaving the table and got permission to splash the pot with the last of his chips, $16. Of course, everyone was in the hand even though the flop came with two kings. I had the only pocket king. It was low kickered, but it did the job. So I tossed the dealer $5 that hand.

The worse thing about this poker room is that the bathroom is a long, long walk. It is annoying. Instead of running to fit the bathroom between blinds, I just started going just before my blind and coming back at my leisure and then waiting for the blind to come around. That gave me some time to see the Dealertainers. Great little acts. It was a fine idea.

Another negative is that Harrah's has decided that 2-4 poker play was getting too many comps. So they reduced the dollar an hour to fifty cents and the tier credits were chopped as well. Most of the locals will be affected because they all have diamond cards from almost daily play. I lose 50 cents and hour, but I don't think the tier reduction will bother me. I never am diamond, not with just a couple trips a year.

I can't seem to tell if my free room offers will dry up as well. We'll see.

What needs to happen is that the locals need to go to a 3-6 game and then get back the dollar an hour and more tier credits as well. If that happens, I'll be thrilled. To have 3-6 take over as the basic game in Caesar's casinos would be a great advantage unless the tourists keep playing a 2-4. Right now the 3-6 interest lists never make a game. There is just so much room for limit poker and 2-4 dominates that room.

One young fellow named Doug played almost every day and I heard that he is supporting himself with this 2-4 play. He was a fine and friendly young man, without affectation or that bravado that is so annoying in some younger players. We could not help but like him. He was tough to beat. I watched him come and go and realized that he was letting table selection determine whether he stayed or not. I need to do that.

Another regular was Louie, an old guy with Parkinson's and a very distinctive hat. There was lots of jokes about Huey, Louie, and Dewey. One day a drunken player decided he was Huey and refused to be called anything else.

Louie was a conservative but good player. He was in and out of the game often. I don't see that it gave him an advantage to make his blinds a larger percentage of the hands he saw, but that is the way he played.

Louie was best friends with Jimmy who features my last trip as a fellow player at the Eastside Cannery.

I was sad to hear that Jimmy died. He went in for a hernia operation, they found all sorts of things wrong, and he died of a heart attack while in the hospital at 55 years of age.

Action Jackson told me the sad news.

Now there is a funny story.

Action showed up at the Imperial Palace and I asked if he was going to play.

"Well, I am a little short." he said.

So, I gave him $20 to buy in.

He came and talked with me a while, but when he seat came empty, I looked around and he was gone.

I hate to see this character, who used to be so full of fun and craziness so down and out. I generally buy him a meal when I come to town. I'd have given him $40 if he'd asked.

He deals the World Series and is considered a very skilled dealer. He never drinks when he deals. They he goes traveling to find other jobs dealing games around the country.

I had good comps at the Flame last trip and asked Jimmy to tell him I was in town, but Jimmy never passed that on.

Well, I'll see him again.

And chew him out for not playing poker with me.

El Cortez used to be full of fun and crazy characters. Most of them have been 86'd and remaining are for the most part dull old men who say very little and are a bit grumpy.

I'm tired of grumpy old men talking of operations and recent funerals. And if i wanted to play poker with quiet, serious guys, I'd play no limit and not drink.

So I play less at the El Cortez now.

And the way they jerked me around while I booked this past trip also discourages me.

I played very little in their slots this time. I played a bit in the old slot machine near the elevator that is the last of its kind in Vegas. I hit too, and quit ahead.

I guess I should thank them for pushing me over to the Gold Spike where there is a heated pool, free wifi in the room, and good television. I had booked there two years and been attracted back to the El Cortez, but now I'll go there as my main home downtown.

Flamingo poker was also delightful. The dealers there know my name as well and they are full of banter. Steve, an old guy, calls me whitehead. He bought some silver strike rings from me to give his kids, realizing that they are quite unique. Once he held back half the pot to see if I would notice, and I did not. The table gave me a good razzing. And of course, having tipped for the first part, I had to tip again for the second in appreciation of the joke.

Bill is very funny. He is a teasing dealer.

All the dealers are full of fun and they treat me well there.

Once they let me change tables even when it left the table I was leaving with an extra empty seat. One night I moved my table twice before I found people I could beat, and then I took home $150 even with plenty of alcohol and some inbetween advice to a fine looking woman from Alabama sitting next to me who was very new to the game.

Flamingo also has a very small bad beat bonus now. That would take the edge off getting four Jacks beat by a straight flush as I did last year at the Imperial Palace.

In addition, locals at the Imperial Palace who play 20 hours get twice the chips for the weekly freeroll. At Flamingo, once the base hours are met, everyone gets the same. Then too at Flamingo there is now an automatic chop. The last fifteen players get $100 each. No debate.

One day at Imperial Palace we chopped, but in order to agree to it we had to pay the high chip person $5 each and cover a dealer tip of $5 each as well.

The woman who was high chipped had about as many chips as the rest of the table combined. Had I been her I'd have pissed off the rest and put off chopping at least until it was down to four. She would have just needed to play blinds and fold the rest of the time until more people were eliminated. However, there is a great deal of peer pressure to chop.

Generally, I like chopping because whenever I am at the final table I am uncomfortable and I need a restroom break that is not coming until the game is over.

And both the Flamingo and the Imperial Palace have long hikes to the restroom

Of course, all this will change before I got back. The new Linq project will combine the Imperial Palace poker room with O'Shea's poker room, give it a new name, and perhaps a new location, hopefully a spot closer to the bathroom. Who knows if the same dealers will be there.

I played two 3-6 games. At Mirage I played late afternoon and always found it was full of regulars who were tight and tough to beat. I lost money. Also the dealers were less friendly. Getting rake reduction was harder. And one dealer got annoyed at me when I went to the bathroom and broke up one game.

I don't like playing 5 handed with little rake reduction.

Let them get as annoyed as they like. At 2 AM the table is not going to fill and even if I wait a bit for a seat at a combined table, I'll get one soon enough.
I missed cracked Aces here.  They go from 8AM until 2PM.  They also have a small bad beat and high hand awards.  I did play Monday thru Thursday 1pm to 8 pm when they have a high hand award every hour and those who earn jackpots are excluded so that it will often hit the Aces full crowd.  Their freeroll for 25 hours looked good as it was 250,000 and everyone who played receives some share.  I did not make that.  The game would have to be a bit softer or I would have to be a bit more skilled for me to want to play that long.
There was on Asian fellow who did things I did not expect.  I raised with a king on the board and one in my hand.  He reraised.  I had some good draws and he had been irrationally aggressive, so I raised again.  We gave each other two free cards.  He had a pocket pair of jacks.  The whole thing confused me.  Was he also capping for free cards?  He was not an idiot.  Over on afternoon he had accumulated large stacks of chips and he rarely paid much attention if he was not playing, reading the Poker News.  It was unsettling.

The other 3-6 at Bally's has always been tough on rake reduction for short handed play. They always have to ask the floor and the floor is always slow, and then it is like they are doing us this huge favor by dropping from 5 and 1 to 4 and 1. In past years this made me angry. Now I just cash out and take a walk, come back and put my name on the list again if I think I can get a full table.

I did like the Bally's game. For one thing I earn my full dollar comp and I get credit there that will give me free rooms for my next trip. For another, it was really just like a 2-4 game, full of tourists and easy enough to beat. I did not beat it. But that was just the luck of the river.

This 3-6 at Bally's however is a late night game. I waited my last time playing there about 30 minutes for there to be enough to play, and then there was no dealer and we waited another 15 minutes at a full table for a dealer to show up. This was at 8 PM.

For late night games like this I need to sleep in the middle of the day. I always wake up early. However, the heated pool at the Gold Spike and the 8 AM games at Imperial Palace give me plenty to do before I am ready for a nap. With the right nap, I can play the late shift poker, the shift that usually pays better than anything else all day.

The best example of this was when I went to bed at 5 PM and woke up at midnight to play the 1-3 spread limit game at the El Cortez. There was only one old guy local there, Alex. I got him started telling stories, and he would not quit. He had things to tell us about all the Presidents and plenty of personal stories. He never listened, just talked. At times it distracted him, an added benefit.

The rest of the players were average to bad and the average ones left to go home.

I was playing with a short table here, but remember the rake caps at $2.50 here.

A young man to my right was full of bravado and wanted to project a table image that he was a wild and crazy poker player who knew the game inside out. His favorite strategy was to bet $3 in the dark preflop. Now, remember, this is a game that has just a single one dollar blind, so his bet created a huge big blind that only he paid.

Then came a hand where I held a nine of hearts with something that did not catch. On the river the board had five hearts, including a 3 and a 4. I bet $2, the fellow to my left called, the poker expert raised to $5 and I figured I might be beat, but I called and the other fellow called.

I had the only heart.

As the dealer pushed me the chips, poker expert said, "Wait, wait, we all have a flush and we split."

"No," Tim the dealer tells him. Dewey's nine of hearts plays.

"But I only raised because I thought that to win a guy needed an Ace of hearts to beat the king on the board."

So we called the floor which at the El Cortez is Jimmy just a few steps away.

Jimmy explains to the poker expert how flushes are valued and all about the best five cards.

I collect the pot, and the game begins to break up.

"Well." says poker expert, "that is not the way they play in Florida."

Now I had not challenged any of his "knowledge" up until then because he was the fish and I did not want to slip the hook out of his braggart mouth, but since the game was breaking I said to him, "At what casino in Florida do you play that has this ridiculous rule?"

And he put on a sheepish grin that said, of course, he played no where in Florida at all and certainly no where that supported his sense of poker.

I took close to $200 off that table that night. At the El Cortez that is a huge profit.

I did not play at Eastside Cannery for more than a few minutes late one night because I spent the night there in the lounge listening to some of the greatest Latino sounds I have ever heard. Monday night the Claudine Castro band

http://www.executiveservers.com/claudinecastro-com/

plays and she is just wonderfully full of energy and stage presence. There is an occasional hint of English, but most of everything is in Spanish and authentic. When she gets the audience to tell countries of origin, there is Chili, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, and more.

I did not play at Venetian. All my poker buddies swear it is a money maker, but Wild Bill just made $20 when he went. I made $22 that same night at Flamingo and put hours toward free rooms.

The entire 23 days I only hit one bonus pay. I took the last of the cracked kings for $50 at the Imperial Palace one afternoon.

Meanwhile, at Suncoast I had Aces cracked twice and would have lost a third time had my Ace of Clubs not seen the fourth board Club on the river. At Imperial Palace I would have made $200 on those losses and almost broken even for the trip. The insurance of cracked Aces is something to consider.

Also, it means when I am against pocket Aces and drawing, I will get all the free cards I want because my opponent also wants me to win. This makes straights and flushes easier to achieve. The house pays off the pocket Aces and I catch for free on the river. Finally, when a guy raises preflop after eleven AM at Imperial Palace, I can put him on queens and when an Ace or King comes on the board, I can bet with just one in my hand. The bonus changes the game.

I was disappointed not to see quads at least once. However, coming out ahead on my poker play without those bonus benefits makes me know that my play is better now and I look forward to another trip next year.

I lost my last two days, but I saw that the losses were simply lucky rivers and my opportunities were very slim because I did not have decent cards dealt to me.


I did not play the Palms although it was recommended.  Mohave told me the cracked Aces promo had been withdrawn, so it did not seem worth bothering to go there.

It was a fine trip. I like to think I will be mentally ready for the next one. I hope so.

TR Snippet- Toast of the town

This show is clearly my newest Vegas addiction.  It is good entertainment and free.  Fits my profile.

When looking for gambling buddy Lucky Pete at Sam's Town and not finding him, and unable to call him because my phone had no charge, I ran into the show Toast of the Town just as it was beginning to start at about 2 PM

It is so ironic that last trip I stayed at Sam's Town and forgot to go to the show and this trip did not expect to see it and walked right into it. I did not even have my B connected ticket with me, but the woman let me in without it. I just could not swipe for a ticket so I wasn't in the drawing for prizes.

It surprised me. I thought it was going to be more of a talk show like the one I saw at Cowboy Christmas a while ago.

Instead it was a variety show with performers selected from around Vegas in current shows or perhaps older performers a bit beyond their peak. It is a long show.

I could not stay for all of it, but I wanted to.

This was the 100th show.

Starting out was Ronnie Rose, an older Black vocalist. The first song out of his mouth was "Rock Around the Clock" which is probably the first rock and roll I remember. I have it on 78 RPM. He was good, and the right away I knew that this variety show was going to reflect was my era of music. No rapping would come in this session.

Ronnie followed up with "Rockin' Robin.

Then he sang Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill" and actually did the stroll steps on the stage. Amazing!

The band was a base guitar, regular guitar, drummer, and Saxophone. The sax played some mellow jazz.

The pianist, Bill Fayne, is also the musical director.

Ronnie came back. He was the emcee. He said, "This music came from the days with linoleum floors. " Wow. I want to remember that one.

Then Carmine Mandia who sings at the Clarion in "Shades of Sinatra" came up to give us a taste of his ability. He said it was not meant to be an impersonation of Sinatra but only a celebration of the music, but his voice was so close and his styling so similar. He started with, "Didn't We "

However, in this one I thought there were places where his styling needed work. "Almost Being in Love" was just great.

Ronnie was back with a Black female vocalist, and they sang that duet that Nat King Cole did with his daughter, "Unforgivable" It was really done well. The saxophone stepped in for a part.

Next came Cork Proctor, a 79 year old comic who was funny. He made some old jokes. He still performs in small venues. His next would be Railroad Station Casino. He wore a tangerine colored coat and made some jokes about that. It was to celebrate Halloween.

He complained that the young people were annoying.

"One of my children borrowed my car, and wrecked it, smoke all my dope and ran off with my girlfriend...................and that was my daughter."

He complained about modern times when it seemed everyone was using the F word all the time......Foreclosure.

A man goes into a restaurant and orders some soup, and the waiter comes out with his thumb in the soup. The man complains.

"I keep my thumb in the soup because I have an infection in it, and my doctor says I should keep it warm."

The angry customer retorts, "Oh, go stick your thumb up your ass."

And the waiter says, "Yeah, that is what I do when I'm not serving soup."

A man buys a parrot, but the parrot's beak is too sharp and every time it pecks him, it causes a wound. So he goes to the hardware store to get a file and talks it over with the hardware store operator.

"I wouldn't file that parrot's beak. It will kill him. He'll either die of malnutrition or frustration."

"Just sell me the file," the man says.

A few day later the man comes back to the hardware store and the clerk says, "So how did that work with the parrot?"

"The parrot is dead," answers the man."

"Well, I don't like to say I told you so, but was it malnutrition or frustration?"

"It was neither. The parrot was dead when I took him out of the vice."

And then I had to leave. I missed another comic and a magician. I hope to get back to see the show again. It is different every week, but I suspect they play to an audience that is my age.

WEEK TWO

Wild Bill and I went to the show on the second week. It was not a good as the first, but still worth seeing. This week the hosts were a couple. They sang together. He did not do very well, but she was great.

All the rest of the show was music as well. A three person group from the local area did Peter, Paul, and Mary sang "Jet Plane" and "If I Had a Hammer" and did them very well.

Next a woman probably older than 75 sang my favorite lounge music song, "Someone to Watch Over Me." She was very good too, but her style was more formal. She said the song was 85 years old.

She also sang a song I did not know, "The Ship."

A young Black singer had an amazingly powerful voice and proved it in one song but rested it in the second.

A woman ventriloquist performed but moved her lips too visibly and did not have good material or very interesting dummies. She did have a nice voice. Her audience was probably not adults.

Third Show

I went up the next week and saw another. This was focused on Broadway, called a Broadway Razzle Dazzle," and hosted by Jay Joseph and Natalie Carson. Compared to the man and wife team last week, this was one hundred percent better. Natalie had a powerful voice that could sing wonderfully strong. Jay knew how to sing along with her, and how to sing by himself as well.

This show was was just like being in a musical except the best of the music was in front of us, and we did not have to wade through the corny plots to get to the great songs.

Natalie sang "On My Own" from Les Miserable.

They did a perfect duet version of "Anything you can do I can do better."

Jay sang, "Anyone can whistle."

They dressed and acted out "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors.

The great lyrics of this song emphasize that being cool does not make us the best partners, but rather being a good friend, "Sweet understanding, Seymour's your friend"

Strong voices here and the characters they assumed were very believable. I think this is harder to do out of context. In the musical there is plenty of time to establish character. Here they needed to do it in just a few seconds.

Barry Marshall came out and sang "Hello Dolly" and one other, but it was clear he was beyond his prime. Then he did a wonderful bit from "My Fair Lady" which was more dramatic reading than song, and his performance was over the top. He should have done two of these. His training showed and he managed well to capture the conflicted state of Prof Higgins who is both madly in love with Eliza Doolittle and at the same timne angry that she intends to marry Freddy. Flute like music in the background.

It was wonderfully done with both of the extremes of emotion believably presented. I liked it better than any version I have seen before.

Bobby Brooks Wilson came out and did a great job with some of Jackie Wilson's songs. He just mentioned it was his father. None of that smaltz that Deanna Martin uses. Then he sang and performed like a 50's singer. He had a pompadour with a DA and he would wobble his legs and travel the stage just as was done in the old days. With a bit of gravel in his voice at times he did, "Stand By Me" " When you Walk Through a Storm, " "Higher and higher" "Under the Boardwalk" "Lonely Teardrops" "Just too Good to be True" and he had such stage energy. He took off tie and suit coat and danced around the stage. It was like being a teenager again and perfectly styled for the 1950's.

This show is so much better than many of the shows I pay to see. There used to be a Vegas variety show that was free at the Stratosphere, but it was always the same. This is brand new every week except for the band and all of it is focused on an audience of seniors.

I'll be arranging my Vegas time around this show next time. And right outside for a quarter I could get those delicious Jelly Belly jelly beans and chocolate covered peanuts for a quarter a spin. I'll have to put a sandwich bag in my pocket next time.

TR overview: Just the bare bones

I am home and and almost unpacked after a 22 night trip to Vegas.

Trip reporting 22 nights is impossible.

Over the next month I'll write up snippets of the trip and place them in appropriate board places, but I thought I'd just do a bare bones overview.

Vegas is clearly the least expensive place to visit if we do our homework and make frugal choices.

Many people I talked to before I left thought it impossible to go to Vegas for such a long time on a frugal bankroll. I find it impossible to imagine going for three days now that I am older and take time to adjust to the weariness of plane travel.

My pace is a bit slower than it once was.

Still, I was a bit worried about bankroll and during the first part of the trip I limited my gambling and expanded my experience of other Vegas fun.

It helped to have buddy Wild Bill with me and also some time with Lucky Pete because I could watch them gamble. It was especially helpful for me to watch Bill play VP because he does not know all the smaller play decisions, and I could watch and coach and feel really not much of a difference in the pleasure of it.

However, even in those early days of the trip, there were quite a few poker sessions that extended into the morning hours. Some of the best live poker is between midnight and 4AM. I don't think there were many days that I took a full break from gambling.

My VP play I saved for the nights that I needed either to seed a casino hotel for the next trip or protect offers I have coming.

So, playing hard the seven nights I was at the Four Queens on my favorite 10/7 DB, the two nights I had from the Orleans on my favorite nickle 3 play 9/7 DB with progressives, and seeding Fitzgerald's by playing a nickle Deuces Wild and the Vue bar progressive 8/5 was pretty much the extent of my VP play.

I don't do slot play except for an occasional very limited 10 pulls on the Megabucks with money saved by not playing the local lottery over the year. Megabucks is better mathematically than those lotteries and playing just a bit and walking away reduces long loss experience and still lets me plan how I might manage the millions I might hit on all the sleepless nights over the year. Many Megabucks winners have only put $20 at risk.

Below are most of my actual expenses.

There are missing expenditures: tips, bottled water, a few items like band-aids and antibiotic ointment to wrap my blistered toes. I did not keep track of those expenses. But here is a good sense of what the trip cost.

Vegas offered an inexpensive bed:

I played with different ways of representing the cost of hotels and decided to break out the free food and the freeplay and let the first reduce my food calculations, while the second reduced my gambling losses.

I paid an average of $14.68 a night, with all taxes and fees:

2 nights at Fitzgerald's $36 total

7 nights Four Queens(3 in Oct and 4 in November) $27 total

2 nights at the Orleans - free

2 nights at El Cortez $34 total

3 nights at Harrah's - $34 total
7 nights at the Gold Spike $192 total

(note: I ended up double booked for a night, so there are 23 booked nights here, but for the calculation I divided by 22)
Vegas was a frugal show trip:

I saw 13 shows:

Bull riding $45

Beatles - Fab 4 at V Theater - $30

Orleans Big Al's comedy $14

Orleans Big Al's comedy free

Xtreme Burlesque at Flamingo - free

Two shows at Fitzgerald's comedy- free

Three Toast of the Town Vegas variety shows - free

Sandy Hackett's Rat Pack - $20

Sin City Comedy - $10

Eastside Cannery Latino Lounge Act (2 sets) - $3 for 2 beers

Total $122 dollars or $9.38 a show.

Vegas was a cheap Moveable Feast:

I ate whenever I wanted at buffets and restaurants and diners and snacked in the room for 23 days for a total dollar charge of $161 or $7 a day. ( not including bottled water or tips)

I had $50 in food comp at the Four Queens based on play, and $50 at Dupars for winning the American Casino Guide contest by writing casino reviews. Veterans Day was a real freebie with Harrah's giving a full day buffet pass to Veteran's.

However, I don't need to eat often when I play live poker. Sometimes a free cookie at Imperial Palace and the olives in a Caesar's with tequilla was a meal.

Vegas reduced my Silver Strike ring gamble:

Thinking they would make great card protectors, I bought a bucket of Silver Strike outer rings for a wide variety of casinos. A guy had popped out the silver and sold it at melt down prices. I got the rings for scrap value.

At poker tables I sold $17 worth of these rings, bringing the recovery on my investment so far up to $47 of the $100 I invested.

Vegas was a venue of inexpensive transportation:

Vegas was not a free flight trip:

For years I was the one to use the free Southwest flight because I had the largest flight expense. With the new point system, the points work more like money so the family politics of who gets the freebie is more balanced. This was not may turn for a freebie.

The nonstop from Albany to Vegas was $379 or $16.47 a day

However,

I traveled all around Vegas on the bus, riding almost everyday, and took the bus from the airport and back for $31 total or an average cost of $1.34 a day.

So for $18 a day all my transportation was covered.

It costs me twice that in gas and tolls to drive to my local casinos.

Vegas was never a completely sober adventure:

I was rarely was excessively drunk; however, I was never completely sober, starting the morning with coffee and Sambucca and expanding later to clamato with tequilla and lots of olives, Hennessy, Myers dark rum, nuts and berries (my new drink), Dewar's, more coffee with Sambuca, hot chocolate with Frangelica, rusty nails, red wine, and assorted beers including a few microbrews.

I chased the alcohol with orange juice, clamato juice and my favorite Perrier with lime.

Cost (without tips) $3 total for the trip (2 Eastside Cannery micro-brews while seeing the Latino lounge act). Otherwise the only drinks I bought were in bottles of water.

Vegas was a frugal gamble:

Played hours and hours of limit poker, often six or seven hours at a stretch and a good bit of video poker, seeding free room offers for my next trip. Added a bit of single zero roulette, some Megabucks so I can keep my millionaire fantasy life alive, and one slot which I played a penny a spin for 45 minutes in the lobby of Fitzgerald's while waiting to meet up and get a ride. I risked $5 and cashed out for $5.37.

Two days before I left I was ahead $42, but the last two days drained me down to a net loss of $232. I guess this means that I did not have the bankroll for 22 days and should limit myself to 20. But even so, this means I recklessly gambled away just $10 a day on average.

So this rich and wonderful trip, not counting tips and water, cost me

$59 a day.

Vegas was a social trip:

Listened to the life stories of people from Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington state, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Mexico, Scotland, Norway, England, Israel, Australia, Vancouver, Alaska, Florida as well as those of my sister's children and grandchildren and great grandchild.

Met Vegas discussion board posters from four discussion boards at a couple of last minute meets, and over a half dozen poker table players I had met on prior trips. Sailor, Rambler and his wife Irisheyes, Hardware, and Passline were among those whose faces I can now match with names.  I have exchanged banter with Sailor for many years and finally we met face to face.  And thanks Ian for a good meetup while you took me and my luggage from downtown to Harrah's.  Donnigan and I met three times without any planning.
From Linda Boyd's board I met Casino Camper, a very interesting fellow who has lived a life on the road in an RV camper for many years, working out of the camper.  I've been looking for my notes to remember some of the details of the conversation, but that morning has kind of slipped out of my mind.  Now the computer I brought to Vegas has also crashed taking with it plenty of writing that I had not backed up in the cloud, so actually getting the details of this trip written and saved is going to be a challenge.
Anyway, it was great to meet everyone.  I was overtired that morning too and inept'  I seemed unable to remember the most common details in a conversation.   I hate that.  Why yesterday I gave my phone number to a fellow making a Thanksgiving pie for me, and out came the number I had thirty years ago rather than my current number. What is that about?

Hung out and gambled and ate with buddies Wild Bill from home, Lucky Pete and John from Florida, and Mojave from Nevada.

Joked and bantered with some of my favorite dealers at the El Cortez, Flamingo, and Imperial Palace.

Vegas was a daily exercise:

I don't need a workout room at my level of sedentary decadence. Just the constant walking, the skipping meals to stay at the poker table, the running to catch buses, the hiking to see attractions, the pulling of heavy luggage, and the swimming means that I put myself in better shape over those 23 days. Without diet and even with the added alcohol calories I came home 5 pounds lighter and feeling much more fit, which suggests some muscle development replaced fat. Especially dramatic was that one muscle issue I had that put me in a good bit of pain the month before I left, was worked out and eliminated with swimming exercises and walking.

Vegas was a learning trip:

I have plenty to write about this trip. Slowly I'll post the details over the next month. But here and now I'll just list a few bits that caught my attention:

I rode and enjoyed the new buses. 
see the bus details here
http://vegasonthebus.blogspot.com/2011/11/22-days-of-vegas-buses-and-couple.html 

Contrary to what Gold Spike told me when I booked, the Gold Spike outdoor pool was heated to feel like bath water and I swam without my wet suit most of the 6 days I stayed there.

Four Queens comp calculations for free offers and Binions poker room rates are mutually exclusive on the computer. This means I can book my free nights and play the VP hard while I stay for free, but I can avoid check in check out by adding a poker room booking at Binions for as many other nights as I might need without affecting my play score at the Four Queens (as long as I don't play just a little VP on the days I book to play poker.) Eventually, the two cards will become one and the poker may contaminate the VP statistics, but for now there is a separation in calculation.

Poker now starts at 8 am at Imperial Palace and Flamingo with cracked Aces and sometimes Kings, so waking up early does not mean waiting for a game.

My low limit poker skill has clearly reached another skill level, and I'm consistently playing beyond the break even point.

Bull riding is just great to watch.

Toast of the Town on Thursdays at Sam's Town is a hidden gem of a show, especially for seniors.

The Cosmopolitan newbie signup is probably the best gamble in Vegas. My play-the-volatile-first strategy worked for me and others I talked to.

In November a very light summer shirt ,two warm pullover shirts, a scarf, and a warm hat allowed at least Northern blooded people to walk outside, wait for buses, and be comfortable in all November weather. The outside air was cold at night. The casinos were too warm. Layers is the answer.

The new Margaritaville has two amenities to travelers. First it means that one can walk from where the Boyd shuttle lets off at Bill's to Oshea's with only two small bits of the walk in the cold of the outdoors. I stayed at Harrah's, played at Flamingo, and just dressed in a light shirt even on cold nights.

Second, waiting for the Deuce there means being entertainted with plenty of Jimmy Buffet sounds instead of the usual rock pumped to the street.

Okay. that is enough. I'll detail all I experienced and learned as I write over the next month. For now, it was fine to see many of you and this was my best trip in a long while.