LV Report 4-10-06 (9 of 12)
Yesterday I reported that it looked like my cold was on the
way out and hopefully had run its course. It turned out to just be
a cruel joke on me as it returned last night with a vengeance.
There's no fever and really doesn't make me feel bad, but the
coughing and congestion has really stopped me from sleeping. I went
to bed at 10:00 PM, tossed, coughed, and turned for about an hour
and then woke up at 2:30 AM with a coughing spell. I never got back
to sleep after that. I figure to be running pretty much on empty
today, but who knows?
I drove over to the Palms where I was to meet Martin. I was
early but I knew that Tullio, my Internet friend from Italy, is
staying at the Palms. I also know his routine: Get up at 4:00 AM,
gamble until 11:00 AM, eat lunch, go take a nap until 4:00 PM, then
gamble until 7:00 PM and go back to bed. So, I went over to the
High Limit area and sure enough, there he was playing 10/7 Double
Bonus Poker on a $2 schedule (that's $10 per hand). Now Tullio was
not having a good morning game wise, but said that's okay for now,
he was already up for this trip over $33,000. As you can probably
tell, Tullio and I don't travel in the same world circles, gambling
wise. He is, by anyone's count, a high roller risking on average
per day of about one to two hundred thousand dollars. By
comparison, I average on a GOOD day about $2500.
When I sat down next to him, he stopped playing and we
chatted about music, Italy, girlfriends (he's as much a committed
bachelor as I am), and gambling. His English is broken but
perfectly easy to understand after a while. A nicer, more down-to-
earth guy you'll ever want to meet. I told him I was going to go
play the 50-play 9/6 Jacks or Better for pennies. Martin arrived
and I introduced him to Tullio.
We turned in our LVA 3X coupons (good for 24 hours) and
attacked the machines. To find a full pay schedule of any kind on a
50 play machine is very unusual. And even at a penny game (50 x 5),
that's $2.50 per hand, that's a large amount of risk for me. But
with this pay schedule and game I'm playing, the volatility is quite
small, meaning I'll win a lot of small hands along the way while I
wait for a big hand win.
For over an hour, Martin and I plugged along. I was always
going down, then up in my bank and pretty much was staying even.
However, after Martin was down $30, he quit. I kept playing.
Though I never caught any premium hands, I still managed to play for
almost two hours putting over 2000 points on my cared (to be tripled
later). Martin was getting anxious to move on, so I cashed out
$13.00 ahead. I went to the slot booth because they were giving
away some pottery gifts if you put 250 points. When I picked up the
gift, the clerk looked at my account and issued me a new card at the
next level (all-star). Martin was a bit peeved. He has more points
on his card than I do, and he played about as much I as did, but he
didn't get the next level card. I really don't know why except,
perhaps this is the Palms, after all, and they do like to pamper the
young and hip crowd.
We drove down to Terribles for lunch. We both have enough
points on our cards to eat there for the next six months, if we
wanted to. I've mentioned in past reports that though Terribles is
not the ideal destination type of place, its café if quite good and
has some of the best bargains in town. We ordered their Chinese
lunch that included rice and moogoo gai pan dish with soup for under
$5.00. It was very good. We then used our match plays $5 to win
$7. First we played roulette, Martin on black, me on red. I won.
We then used the play $10 to win $20. First Martin played his on
Don't Pass in craps and lost. Then I played mine on Don't Passand
lost. Leave it us to find the one hot shooter in building.
We then decided to drive out to the Cannery to see their new
poker room. It's a long drive, but neither of us had been there in
a while. Well, the poker room's opening has been pushed back until
May, and so the poker tables were still in the main casino. There
was 2/4 game going, so we played. My live poker game is still in a
major slump. Both Martin and I played almost an hour without
getting into even one hand (except in the blinds and folding soon
after). We just couldn't catch any cards. At one point, I finally
had an A/Q and raised preflop. A queen comes on the flop with a 10
and a 7. I bet, two people fold, two stay in. The turn is a 3. I
bet, one guy folds, another stays in. I bet, a 5 comes on the
river. I bet. The last guy calls. He wins holding on off-suit
10/3 with two pair. This is the danger of playing low-limit
tables. You play against really bad players who get lucky.
Unfortunately, this has been my result the four times this trip
playing live poker. Even when you play right, you can lose. That's
the game.
After playing a short session of full pay Jokers Wild,
Martin and I headed back to the Palms. I wanted to attack those 50-
plays again, and Martin wanted to play some live poker there as they
were having some bonuses going on. I played another two hours. At
one point, Tullio joined me to keep me company. Of course, while I
played pennies ($2.50 a hand), he played quarters ($31.50 per hand)
for 25 hands. Even though I played for another two hours and over
1500 hands (that's 75,000 total hands), I couldn't catch a royal. I
never even once caught four-to-royal on the flop (which I was
looking forward to, it seems to happen all the time on single
line). I did manage one cash out and end up breaking even again.
However, putting more than 5000 points on my card (to be tripled)
will hopefully prompt some mailings my way. Though I was playing
pennies, the computer logs it as a $2.50 a bet player.
One thing to note: While playing, some young dude with long
hair and dirty clothes sits down to the machine next to mine. He
pulls out of wad of hundreds that could choke a cow. He put in his
card and it displayed 400,850 points. He was playing Bonus poker
for quarters, which is full pay. He put in ten $100.00 bills and
played for about twenty minutes. He was down to $300, but hit a few
quad Aces, got his grand back and cashed out. I'm nosey. If you
sit next to me, it might look like I'm concentrating on my game, but
I'm scoping you outbeware!
My cold has gotten worse. It's 8:30 and I leave Martin at
the poker tables and head back home stopping to pick up some PM
cough medicine. They needed to put my driver's license into the
computer. Can you believe that? To buy cough medicine now, you
have to be 21 and have identification. What is this world coming
to? Because ONE guy is an idiot, everyone in the country takes
their shoes off to get on an airplane. (oops, no more soapbox).
I bought some chicken noodle soup here at Sunset and took it
to my room. It was delicious. All-told, it was a small loss for
the day, but we did a lot and had a good time. Isn't that what it's
all about?
More tomorrow.