Thursday, April 20, 2006
Vegas Vacation
My spring break was well spent. On Thursday, March 23rd, I took two tests, packed, and got on my way to Vegas. In anticipation of the trip, Cachaulo and I watched Vegas Vacation. To say the least, I was a little pumped. Cachaulo, Kevin Coelho, DC/DTS/DOH/DTI, and I piled into Cachaulo’s car for a 11 hour drive to Las Vegas. We arrived at 3:00 in the morning at the Wynn hotel, where we were staying. Danny and Eric (who had flown out to meet us) were sleeping at Danny’s place. As we thought that Danny had our room key we decided that 3:00 in the morning, after a long day of tests and driving was the perfect time to start playing poker. Cachaulo and I sat down at the $1-$3 game.One very unique and interesting hand played out. I had J-Q off and had called the big blind. Two more players (including Cachaulo) called and the big blind checked. The pot was at $12 and the flop came J-Q-4. I had first action and I raised the pot $12. Cachaulo re-raised to about $30, the third player called and the big blind folded. I had about 80 behind me after the flop raise and I went all-in. Cachaulo went all-in over the top and the third player called all of his chips into the pot. At this point I was pretty sure that I was in big trouble. The turn came a 10 and the river came a 9. Not exactly the cards I wanted to see. We all reluctantly turned over our hand to reveal that we all had J-Q. All of the Jacks and Queens we’re out for three two pairs and a chopped pot.After we repeatedly tried to reach Danny to no avail, I realized that there was no chance that I would get any sleep before Kim’s volleyball tourney at 8AM (which was coincidentally the same weekend in Vegas). At that point I decided to start drinking heavily to add another element of excitement to watching volleyball. Before Kim’s team car left from the hotel to go to the UNLV campus, I got up and cashed out. I walked from the Wynn to the Stardust where Kim was staying to go with the team. At that point I established myself as Kim’s team’s biggest fan. I sobered up while watching Kim’s team turn a corner and play surprisingly good volleyball. After their set of morning games, Cachaulo picked me up and informed me that we still had no room and Danny could not be reached. On the way back from UNLV we saw a sign for $1 roulette, a game that we thought would be fun to waste our time at. Unfortunately, the casino, and I use that term loosely, was not offering $1 roulette because there was hardly anyone in there. Cachaulo and I ach wasted a dollar on penny slots. But I won 20 dollars from craps and blackjack in two quick sessions before leaving. That $19 made was the extent of the gambling I did away from the poker tables.Finally after leaving that “casino”, we got in touch with Danny and arrived at his house, which was surprisingly well kept and very nice. I wouldn’t say that he was living large, but definitely comfortable. It was at Danny’s house that he informed us that my name was also on the room and we could have checked in any time we wanted. We all drove (including Eric and Danny) to the Wynn. We had our first of many fine meals comped by the Wynn. At about 6 in the evening (34 hours without sleep) Cachaulo and I again headed down to the poker tables.This is when I realized the greatest part of playing live poker and being in Vegas, all of the hilarious people that you meet. The following sections will describe my favorite players of my vacation.Local Harry – Harry and I enjoyed several sessions playing together. He is the kind of poker player that lacks creativity so he is very dependant on the quality of his cards and the cards on the board. We sat next to each other a whole bunch, He even let me listen to the crappy music he was listening to on his Ipod imitation. He would play all of the top ten hands and then either get sucked out on, or not flop well, or just get plain old beat quite often. His mood was a direct reflection on the success of the last hand he played and usually he was upset. He would always slam his good hands away into the muck after a junk flop. His widow’s peak and rooster middle hairdo, combined with stories of his failed acting career in LA, made him an original. Probably the one moment that describes him best is after I raked in my second biggest pot of the trip he tells me that I should be grateful to be so lucky, because he had been “running bad for six years”. Good luck Harry.Silverback – Silverback was from Massachusetts and was one of the worst poker players I have played with. When I got to the cardroom I would put my name on the list and when I got seated I would put my name on the list for Silver’s table. When I got to Silver’s table I would try to move closer and closer to get right next to him. He was incapable of putting down any hand so He was a cash station for me. Every time he was in a hand and other players were coming after him I rooted for him and he put on a show of awesome bad beats. This guy would lose his money 10-30 bucks a hand, until he either finally had a good one or he made a great suck out, or he busted and bought back in. He was the guy at the table that would lose $300 then put in $300 more and so on. Silverback got his nickname because he was easily 300 pounds, probably 350 and his figure somewhat resembled a gorilla. His silver slicked back hair was just the finishing touch. My favorite part about Silver was how highly he talked of his son. He described him as being in medicine, but I’m pretty sure he was a nurse. Eventually after hours of hearing how proud he was of his son who not only had made it as a nurse but was also a dominating poker player, he sat down at the table.
Silverback Jr – It was pretty funny when it only took Silverback Jr. four hands to bust. He played his fourth hand very aggressively and very quickly. He kept raising and the other player kept calling. He lost all of his money with ace high trying to bluff out a made hand. He bought back in and managed to last another 30 hands before busting out again. Sadly, he and his father left, not exactly dominating the table.
Black Jack Dog – “They call me the CEO.” This guy could talk about himself and how great he was even more than I do, to total strangers. According to him he won a WPT event, and 41 out of 65 tournaments he entered. This guy is the biggest liar I have ever met. He wanted to sell Cachaulo and I his system for beating blackjack everytime. And for only $100 each. He told us that his book that he signed sold for over $1000 on ebay. One of my favorite expressions, from my father, can describe this guy best. He was so full of shit, his eye’s were turning brown.
The Guy in the suit – Danny, Cachaulo, and I stayed up super late playing deep stack poker at the NL 1-3 game with this guy. He thought my name was Billy and he was a loud dude. A bunch of drunks and idiots walked in and came lost their money and left in the hours we were all playing together. The table action got crazy with him, Cachaulo, and Danny each with $1,000 in front of them building up the pots. He kept on giving us what he thought was amazing unique advise for life. He kept bringing up his wife and he acted drunk drinking juice. At the table was this old Asian guy who had sat there for a good hour not playing a single pot. The best part was one hand Cachaulo goes all-in from under the gun and the action comes to the Asian guy and you could tell by the look on his face that that was going to be the one hand he was going to play. He looks at it over and over again, folds his hand, picks up his chips, and leaves.
There are more guys I could talk about but I’ll save the space for more people on my next trip.
Silverback Jr – It was pretty funny when it only took Silverback Jr. four hands to bust. He played his fourth hand very aggressively and very quickly. He kept raising and the other player kept calling. He lost all of his money with ace high trying to bluff out a made hand. He bought back in and managed to last another 30 hands before busting out again. Sadly, he and his father left, not exactly dominating the table.
Black Jack Dog – “They call me the CEO.” This guy could talk about himself and how great he was even more than I do, to total strangers. According to him he won a WPT event, and 41 out of 65 tournaments he entered. This guy is the biggest liar I have ever met. He wanted to sell Cachaulo and I his system for beating blackjack everytime. And for only $100 each. He told us that his book that he signed sold for over $1000 on ebay. One of my favorite expressions, from my father, can describe this guy best. He was so full of shit, his eye’s were turning brown.
The Guy in the suit – Danny, Cachaulo, and I stayed up super late playing deep stack poker at the NL 1-3 game with this guy. He thought my name was Billy and he was a loud dude. A bunch of drunks and idiots walked in and came lost their money and left in the hours we were all playing together. The table action got crazy with him, Cachaulo, and Danny each with $1,000 in front of them building up the pots. He kept on giving us what he thought was amazing unique advise for life. He kept bringing up his wife and he acted drunk drinking juice. At the table was this old Asian guy who had sat there for a good hour not playing a single pot. The best part was one hand Cachaulo goes all-in from under the gun and the action comes to the Asian guy and you could tell by the look on his face that that was going to be the one hand he was going to play. He looks at it over and over again, folds his hand, picks up his chips, and leaves.
There are more guys I could talk about but I’ll save the space for more people on my next trip.
