Day I, Part II

I introduced myself to Derek and after mucking what was probably his 2nd of 35 AKo of the afternoon, he went to grab Pauly, who just happened to be sitting two tables closer to the ringing of the slot machines.

I hate slots. Hate, hate, hate them. The only slot I'll ever play is video poker, and the one thing that I liked about sidling up to a machine and plugging a Twenty in, the evolution of gaming has ruined--the coin cashout.

The last time I was in Vegas, I remember there being no better feeling than hitting the "Cash Out" button, and listening as coin after germ-laced coin fell into the bin below with a brilliant pingpingping. Now that almost every machine is ticket based, and the only sound you hear upon cash out is whir of the paper feed, the experience is ruined. It's not quite as powerful when you walk up to the cashier and allow a dainty piece of paper to fall from your fingers, as it is to slam a bucket full of quarters on the counter and mutter "Take that, Casino Woman!"

I digress.

Pauly took a break from crushing his table, finally found a way to successfully navigate the mountain of chips in front of him, and came over to introduce himself. We BS'ed for a few minutes, after which he requested a table change so that we could BS some more.

I don't know if you realize this, but Pauly was a very popular person last weekend. Of all the time he sat at my table at the Excal that afternoon, I think he played all of about 5 hands because he was constantly getting calls on his cell phone. But, in those 5 hands, he bled his chips back to the everybody at the table, but me. Jerk.

With most of the contingent streaming into town, our table started breaking up. It was also around that time Derek was dealt AKo for the 35th time, and of course whiffed completely when the board looked more like something resembling an Uno discard pile than a hold 'em flop. As he flung his last few chips into the pot, he proclaimed "I've only lost two live buy-ins in my entire life, both of them here". I've heard that he sucks at poker.

The Brothers left to meet up with other bloggers coming in from the airport, and in the first hand after they left, I was dealt AJo and raised it up. The hand gets so much easier to play when the flop falls all aces, does it not? Hello, my first, and only trip to the wheel, and there was only one person in my rooting section; the guy that traveled with me, Jeremy. Unfortunately, I realized that my dream of being a contestant on the Wheel of Fortune will never come to be, as my spin landed on the lowest denomination possible--$20.

Boo, Pat Sajak. Boo you and your hideous letter toucher, too. She doesn't even have to turn the letters anymore, damn it! How hard can that be?

I cashed out of the Excal up $11(woohoo for monster wins), and we headed...somewhere, and I'm guessing it wasn't all that memorable or important to the story, otherwise I'd remember, right? I'm figuring we headed back to the room for a quick shower and then were off to the MGM. I remember almost the whole weekend, and by this time, I'd only had 1/4 of a twelve pack of piss beer sloshing around in my belly, so I'm not quite sure why this chunk of time is eluding my memory. Oh well, not important.

I think that from now on, I'm just going to post amusing stuff that happened. Some of this is even boring to me.

Up Next: The MGM and being tossed into the fray.