Saturday, June 10, 2006
Home again
My life has taken another wild shift as I have left the fast-paced inconsistent life of Las Vegas, Nevada, and traded it in for a leisurely dependable life at home In Highland Park, IL. Let me start by summarizing my time in Las Vegas.
1. I had an amazing time. I lived unbounded by any schedule and entertained myself with anything at a whim. I lived a new surprise and adventure every day.
2. I learned a lot. Between meeting people of all ages and backgrounds and getting to know them, I was able to expand my understanding of people. I also lived in a new place, with new people, and very little familiarity and survived.
3. I made some money. Overall on the trip my poker earnings eclipsed $2000. This is despite what I consider to be below average luck. It is definitely hard to grasp how lucky I was, especially from such a small sample, but I believe with average luck I would have made more. I kept my total expenditure including entertainment, food, travel, rent, and all else slightly over $850. Financially I would consider this trip a success.
4. I can’t wait to go back. I am thinking a couple of times this school year and a similar trip after I graduate.
5. People who live in Vegas (and many people who travel there) are not normal. The amount of crazy characters I met, including my roommates, dealers, poker players, and travelers is off the charts.
Let me start with my roommate Stevie Vegas. When Cachaulo and I first arrived Stevie met us at the door in his Hawaiian shirt and tapered sweat pants. The next morning he wore this strange white bathrobe with a black belt around the house. He looked like the karate kid in his late 30’s. When Cachaulo and I asked him about what he does for a living he mentioned that he is a celebrity poker pro. Now, if he had said that he plays poker for a living, I could probably let the rest of this stuff go, but he said celebrity, and that is why he is a little (read: a lot) delusional. If he were recognizable by one one-thousandth of one percent of Americans maybe I could don him celebrity status. The fact is that the dealers at the places he most frequents don’t even know who he is. The only three games that he played while Cachaulo and I were in town was 2-4 limit at Palace Stations (a mathematically near impossible game to profit at), free-roll tourneys online (The best players in the world could average at best $3 an hour doing these), and the $62 tournament at the Sahara (a very low stakes tournament that I would guess is also near unbeatable due to the large percentage taken by the house). At the very least, Stevie made us laugh.
On other roommate, Josie, was very nice but also crazy spastic, over-energetic, and a bit of a flake. She is a professional everything (entertainer) but her true skill is definitely dancing. She has worked for all of the clubs in Vegas and was accepted to dance for Cirque Sole or however you spell it. She once worked as a stripper and she is pretty excited about everything. She was supposed to hook me up with a hair-modeling gig, but as I had expected it didn’t pan out. Did I mention that she is a little flaky.
If Josie was flaky, our other roommate Maria was insane. The experience with her that best describes my roommate Maria was driving her to Mandalay Bay so she could meet a nice guy at the bar. She explains to me her very personal details about her upcoming lawsuit. Basically, a guy who said that she could go shopping on his credit card because she spent $3,000 is suing her. When we asked her what she does for a living she said that she is a gambler. So, for a living, she is gradually losing money to the house in the casinos. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that that feeling she gets when she puts $25 on red 17 is the feeling that built this city out of a desert.
Of all of the poker players the ones worth mentioning are Jacob, Justin, Molly, Dotty and Tony. Tony and I played together at the Wynn then jokingly talked about playing the graveyard (2 AM) tourney at the Aladdin. We didn’t go but the next day we were at the same table again and we again joked about going, but we decided it would be a lark and we went. Tony is easily twice the size of me and also has pretty much the biggest car in the world. I thought that if he wanted to kidnap me he could so I was a little scared. Everything turned out all right and he busted out of the tourney early and I made it all the way to the bubble where I busted. Dotty is a dealer at the Sahara who plays at the Wynn. In a way, she is like any other poker dealer, she is good, but if she were any better she wouldn’t be dealing. She makes a mix of good plays and bad plays but she always asks my advice. After I give her advice she explains why her way is better. I don’t mind if she thinks that way, that is why I make money. Molly is a local who plays with me a lot at the Wynn. She plays a loose aggressive style that is not very feminine, but I think it is only a matter of time before her poker fun is done. She always buys in short and I think that is because she can’t afford to play in those games. Justin is the most egotistical player on the planet. All of the dealers hate him, but I find him quite amusing. The real question is whether or not he really thinks as highly of himself as he says he does. His game is to play really tight and get other people so happy to bust him that they will go after him with lesser hands. He constantly describes himself as a “great great great great great player”. The other players at the table are “soft chocolate”. He rates the other players at the table on a scale from 1 to 10, mostly 2’s. He will tell you that for as long as you play you will never play against anyone as good as him. And he describes himself as the best player in the universe. All the while he is playing at the relatively low stakes 1-3 game. Jacob was probably the most interesting player I played with during my stay. I lost the biggest pot of my life to him, and won one of the largest pots of my life off of him, both worth over a grand. The first, I lost with pocket aces to a two outer (5% chance). The other I won with pocket tens when I flopped four of a kind. In the end I must have made well over $500 from him. He is from Madison, WI and I told him I was going to be there later this summer and he offered to take me out to dinner. I have his number; I am still debating whether to give this nut job a call.
Now, it is onto the rest of the summer, which for me is basically doing very little but making the most out of my time. I think it is important to set some goals as to what I should do with my time. I would like to buy a laptop and start playing a lot of online poker. I would like to also start a fitness regiment much like last summer to improve my fitness and use my time effectively. My third goal is to play a lot more guitar and also to write lyrics and music. If I spend approximately one hour a day playing guitar, one hour a day exercising, and five hours a day playing poker online I will still have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the summer. I have not come up with a schedule yet but by this time next week hopefully I will. Ideally by this time next week I will have established firm goals for each of the three categories of self improvement.
1. I had an amazing time. I lived unbounded by any schedule and entertained myself with anything at a whim. I lived a new surprise and adventure every day.
2. I learned a lot. Between meeting people of all ages and backgrounds and getting to know them, I was able to expand my understanding of people. I also lived in a new place, with new people, and very little familiarity and survived.
3. I made some money. Overall on the trip my poker earnings eclipsed $2000. This is despite what I consider to be below average luck. It is definitely hard to grasp how lucky I was, especially from such a small sample, but I believe with average luck I would have made more. I kept my total expenditure including entertainment, food, travel, rent, and all else slightly over $850. Financially I would consider this trip a success.
4. I can’t wait to go back. I am thinking a couple of times this school year and a similar trip after I graduate.
5. People who live in Vegas (and many people who travel there) are not normal. The amount of crazy characters I met, including my roommates, dealers, poker players, and travelers is off the charts.
Let me start with my roommate Stevie Vegas. When Cachaulo and I first arrived Stevie met us at the door in his Hawaiian shirt and tapered sweat pants. The next morning he wore this strange white bathrobe with a black belt around the house. He looked like the karate kid in his late 30’s. When Cachaulo and I asked him about what he does for a living he mentioned that he is a celebrity poker pro. Now, if he had said that he plays poker for a living, I could probably let the rest of this stuff go, but he said celebrity, and that is why he is a little (read: a lot) delusional. If he were recognizable by one one-thousandth of one percent of Americans maybe I could don him celebrity status. The fact is that the dealers at the places he most frequents don’t even know who he is. The only three games that he played while Cachaulo and I were in town was 2-4 limit at Palace Stations (a mathematically near impossible game to profit at), free-roll tourneys online (The best players in the world could average at best $3 an hour doing these), and the $62 tournament at the Sahara (a very low stakes tournament that I would guess is also near unbeatable due to the large percentage taken by the house). At the very least, Stevie made us laugh.
On other roommate, Josie, was very nice but also crazy spastic, over-energetic, and a bit of a flake. She is a professional everything (entertainer) but her true skill is definitely dancing. She has worked for all of the clubs in Vegas and was accepted to dance for Cirque Sole or however you spell it. She once worked as a stripper and she is pretty excited about everything. She was supposed to hook me up with a hair-modeling gig, but as I had expected it didn’t pan out. Did I mention that she is a little flaky.
If Josie was flaky, our other roommate Maria was insane. The experience with her that best describes my roommate Maria was driving her to Mandalay Bay so she could meet a nice guy at the bar. She explains to me her very personal details about her upcoming lawsuit. Basically, a guy who said that she could go shopping on his credit card because she spent $3,000 is suing her. When we asked her what she does for a living she said that she is a gambler. So, for a living, she is gradually losing money to the house in the casinos. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that that feeling she gets when she puts $25 on red 17 is the feeling that built this city out of a desert.
Of all of the poker players the ones worth mentioning are Jacob, Justin, Molly, Dotty and Tony. Tony and I played together at the Wynn then jokingly talked about playing the graveyard (2 AM) tourney at the Aladdin. We didn’t go but the next day we were at the same table again and we again joked about going, but we decided it would be a lark and we went. Tony is easily twice the size of me and also has pretty much the biggest car in the world. I thought that if he wanted to kidnap me he could so I was a little scared. Everything turned out all right and he busted out of the tourney early and I made it all the way to the bubble where I busted. Dotty is a dealer at the Sahara who plays at the Wynn. In a way, she is like any other poker dealer, she is good, but if she were any better she wouldn’t be dealing. She makes a mix of good plays and bad plays but she always asks my advice. After I give her advice she explains why her way is better. I don’t mind if she thinks that way, that is why I make money. Molly is a local who plays with me a lot at the Wynn. She plays a loose aggressive style that is not very feminine, but I think it is only a matter of time before her poker fun is done. She always buys in short and I think that is because she can’t afford to play in those games. Justin is the most egotistical player on the planet. All of the dealers hate him, but I find him quite amusing. The real question is whether or not he really thinks as highly of himself as he says he does. His game is to play really tight and get other people so happy to bust him that they will go after him with lesser hands. He constantly describes himself as a “great great great great great player”. The other players at the table are “soft chocolate”. He rates the other players at the table on a scale from 1 to 10, mostly 2’s. He will tell you that for as long as you play you will never play against anyone as good as him. And he describes himself as the best player in the universe. All the while he is playing at the relatively low stakes 1-3 game. Jacob was probably the most interesting player I played with during my stay. I lost the biggest pot of my life to him, and won one of the largest pots of my life off of him, both worth over a grand. The first, I lost with pocket aces to a two outer (5% chance). The other I won with pocket tens when I flopped four of a kind. In the end I must have made well over $500 from him. He is from Madison, WI and I told him I was going to be there later this summer and he offered to take me out to dinner. I have his number; I am still debating whether to give this nut job a call.
Now, it is onto the rest of the summer, which for me is basically doing very little but making the most out of my time. I think it is important to set some goals as to what I should do with my time. I would like to buy a laptop and start playing a lot of online poker. I would like to also start a fitness regiment much like last summer to improve my fitness and use my time effectively. My third goal is to play a lot more guitar and also to write lyrics and music. If I spend approximately one hour a day playing guitar, one hour a day exercising, and five hours a day playing poker online I will still have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the summer. I have not come up with a schedule yet but by this time next week hopefully I will. Ideally by this time next week I will have established firm goals for each of the three categories of self improvement.
