Fear and Loathing in Locke Vegas 2010: Part 6

This series of blogs first appeared on the PKR Forum in June and July 2010.  I won a WSOP Experience Package worth $4,000 through a PKR Road To Vegas Tournament League that ran for several months.  Most players are referred to by their PKR user names. 

Part 6

'There was also a certain bent appeal in the notion of running a savage burn on one Vegas Hotel and then... checking into another Vegas hotel'

Sunday saw a slight change of pace. Today's activity was at Tao Beach at the Venetian. I get over to the Venetian for 1:30pm then proceed to wonder round lost for about 40 minutes. The Venetian amuses me greatly, the exterior is as though some one had taken the most memorable landmarks of Venice and jammed them into one small space. Inside everything is fake renaissance opulence with high painted ceilings as though Michaelangelo had stopped by, lost his life savings by putting everything on red, and been forced to pay his way by doing the interior decoration. There is a long line of shops that resemble the typical ones found in Venice. Whilst you are inside the ceiling is painted with blue sky and clouds and there is a 'canal' complete with singing Gondoliers. Curiouser and curiouser.

The Venetian shops

Tao Beach is well hidden. I eventually locate the correct lift and whilst many guys are being turned away I am safe in the knowledge that once again I am a VIP. Up a few floors and I am outside, though on a part of the Venetian rooftop. The main pool area is okay but not as nice as the Aria. However this pool is just for mere mortals, not PKR players. At the far end the sound of thumping House music is unmistakable. The smaller side pool is clearly where a very high proportion of the young, rich and beautiful people of Las Vegas have come to hang out for the 4th of July. Amongst this throng of bikini clad women and toned men is a small enclave reserved for white, pasty and flabby internet poker players. Actually that is unfair, most of our party fit in well but if I were to repeat this experience I promise that I will spend more time down the gym first, honest. We have a couple of cabanas complete with their own safe, games console, drinks fridges and sofas. At the back air conditioning units are blowing away in a futile, and seriously environmentally unfriendly, effort to tame the midday Vegas heat.

A busy bar at Tao Beach at the Venetian

Our numbers are few to begin with but gather steam as the afternoon wears on. Waswini surfaces at about half three. Amazingly he looks perfectly fine and is suffering no after-effects from the previous night, despite having no memory of the whole experience. On some level I know this is still the same planet that I normally inhabit but I'm beginning to doubt it. Whilst we have a supply of free drinks coming out of the fridges a glance at the bar menu shows we can order a wide range of extra items. My favourites include a bottle of tequila for $3,000 and a bottle of brandy for $6,000. Like a Vietnam veteran I suddenly want to sit in the corner, start rocking back and forwards and mutter to myself 'This is not happening man.' The food is frankly a little more reasonable and I enjoy a 'Kobe Beef Burger' for a bargain $30 with exquisite fries. The party goes through to sunset but by six o'clock I have had my fill. Sundays are for cooking a nice roast diner and then settling down to multi-table like a madman. This glimpse of an alternative paradise of the rich is almost a step too far. I'll come back after I win the Main Event next year....

I escape with RiverBoatRay, another strong performer in the R2V and a veteran of many Vegas trips. The intention is to be back at the Aria for the 7pm tournament. Unfortunately we discover it is cancelled as the holiday rush has filled out every table in the poker room with cash games and the alternative venue spaces are all occupied by private functions. Cash it is then. I finally clock up a decent session and finish $400 to the good.

I awake early Monday morning compared to my last few starts, but then I have to be checked out by noon. The thought of saying goodbye to my super lush room is most upsetting. I know that I will come back here again though. I get a taxi across the strip to my new digs, The Imperial Palace. So far on this trip I had seen little of the horror that so inspired Hunter S. Thompson's book. Vegas had seemed cleaner and shinier, the mob influence displaced by the corporate machine. Suddenly I had discovered that flip side to the American dream. This was the cheap and cheerful end of the Vegas experience. Grannies shovelling quarters into slot machines. Fat, obese, stupid Americans hogging the corridor space with their self-inflicted mobility scooters. At the heart of this madness were the 'Dealertainers'. An area of blackjack tables where each dealer is dressed as a different iconic singer. On the hour they would take it in turns to get up and sing a song as their star, or in some cases mime really badly. The horror. The casino is gaudy and old. It is like Great Yarmouth gone global. I have only just got here and already I want out.

The Imperial Palace.  Do not stay here.

It takes 40 minutes to get to the hotel desk in the queue to check in, don't you swines know I have been kicking it VIP all week? Sigh. The layout of the building is extremely confusing. My key card suggests I use Tower 4 to reach my room. This involves lugging my suitcase up a small escalator before I can get to the lift. Of the 3 lifts in this area only one seems to be working. The corridor carpet on my floor is extremely worn and dirty from decades of grime silently screaming 'Replace me!' The room is basic and plain. I guess for $33 a night I can't complain but after the Aria this feels like serious culture shock. Two nights here, I can cope with that.

Fear and Loathing in Locke Vegas 2010: Parts 1 and 2

The following series of blogs first appeared on the PKR Forum in June and July 2010.  I won a WSOP Experience Package worth $4,000 through a PKR Road To Vegas Tournament League that ran for several months.  Most players are referred to by their PKR user names.

Part 1

'We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.'

My journey to Vegas does not begin until tomorrow but I'm planning on blogging regularly whilst I'm out there and I wanted to start setting the scene. This journey feels a long time coming. I got into poker about about five years ago having previously never played a hand. Something clicked from that first time and within a matter of weeks I was reading everything about poker I could lay may hands. Amongst all that strategy and history the specter of Las Vegas was never far away. I'm going to take a couple of favourite books to re-read on the long flight so I can remind myself of the Vegas I never had a chance to know. So much of it ripped down and rebuilt so long ago. So much buried in the old school/new school poker blur.

I haven't been either that excited or that nervous so far. I guess the first moment will hit as I fly into the airport, the second will be walking into the Rio and getting smacked in the face by the sheer scale of the WSOP. Up to this point I feel like I deserve to be there, I've been so close so many times that this trip has been earned; the hard way, the long road. I'm a decent player and at the moment I'm playing full time so this feels like the first trip of many rather than some once in a lifetime deal. I'm glad I went to the UKIPT last month as although not in the same league it at least prepared me a little bit for what to expect. The only real annoyance is that I was unable to land a Main Event seat before leaving, I had some chances but it just wasn't clicking for me in the sats I played.

It is also a journey to remind myself of one of my favourite writers, Hunter S. Thompson... possibly the greatest political journalist who ever lived. Of course to most he is just known as the writer of 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.' He had a love/hate relationship with the city that I think will likely reflect my own opinions.

Tomorrow will likely be a reflective day all round with things really getting going on Wednesday and then Event 54 to play on Thursday.

Part 2

'We can't stop here. This is bat country.'

Seven and a half hour flight to Toronto during which I watch 'The Hurt Locker' and 'Wallstreet'. Both oddly comparative to poker. Disarming bombs much like playing No Limit Hold'em whilst Gordon Gecko was born to guest on 'High Stakes Poker'... "Greed is good." A couple of hours sat around in an airport lounge in Canada, there is a beautiful city just beyond that that glass I cannot get past . US customs are swines to, I have never felt more like a criminal in my life. Another four and a half hours of flight and Vegas swims into view. The desert around it is utterly dark in the night sky from the plane. Suddenly thousands of tiny pinpricks of light are visible in the distance. As the plane comes in on approach the vast behemoths of the casinos become easily distinguishable... dwarfing everything else around them.

The first advert I see whilst waiting to reclaim by suitcase is for 'The Gun Store'. It promises that I can fire machine guns there including AK47s and M16s, amongst many others, just as I have 'always dreamed of.' LOL. God bless America. I am kicking it Old School for my first night and take a taxi to the Golden Nugget. It is a pertinent choice after rereading 'The Biggest Game in Town' by Al Alvarez on the flight over. Despite being up for 23 hours and it being 11:30pm local time by the time I arrive I want to do some exploring. I check out the Nugget, have a wander round on Fremont Street and the old core of Vegas including that place of poker pilgrimage Binion's. Everything is colourful and casual. The heat outside strikes you the moment you walk out of any of the air conditioned casinos. I see a few children wandering around with parents and question how I would handle enquiries from them a six year old about what the fairly explicit Gentleman's club advertising was all about. This place strikes me as a strange place to have kids in tow.

'Glitter Gulch'

I don't trust my flight addled judgement so opt for a short game of $2/4 Limit at Binions rather than No Limit, surrounded by the old photos of the early days of the WSOP. I run like crap including several sick coolers and call it quits after 90 minutes $100 down. It is about 2:30am local time when I go to bed. I wake up four hours later with a pounding headache unable to go back to sleep. Breakfast and some paracetamol help matters. Just before eleven I check out of the Nugget and get a ride to the Aria. Whilst the Nugget epitomises old school Vegas the Aria is a stunningly modern development. Everything exudes class and big money. On opening my room door the place springs to life, curtains automatically drawing back to reveal a stunning view of Las Vegas including the Palms and outwards towards the mountains. The plasma screen contains all sorts of neat toys and options. I unpack then explore.

The view from my room at the Aria

The casino is stunning, shops and eating places everywhere. There is a poolside area of real beauty baking in the extremely intense Vegas heat. The poker room is very, very cool featuring 'The Ivey Room', a new venue to take on a lot of the uber high stakes action when the right players are in town. I register for the $150 1pm tournament then run into Ashley Hames. Amusingly he can't stand the modern gadgety-ness of the place preferring the less expensive down to Earthness of other Vegas venues. Ash is also in the tournament but takes an early bath. 37 people register in total. I survive nearly four hours of missing every flop, amusingly only going to a showdown once. Other than that I keep picking my spots, stealing and jamming, to maintain an average stack. My luck runs out when I shove a pair of sixes into queens preflop and I'm out in 20th. During the break I run into Pokerkate88 who sounds like he has had an amazing time driving here from San Fransisco through Death Valley. Japete also appears having been down to the Rio to check it out ahead of tomorrow.

The pool area at Aria

Hopefully I will sleep better tonight and will find some better flops at the Rio tomorrow. First there is the PKR welcome party to negotiate though!