Fear and Loathing in Locke Vegas 2010: Part 7

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 7

'Just another freak in the freak kingdom'

The main reason for selecting the Imperial Palace was location. So I waste no further time and take a walk up the Strip. The heat is utterly relentless but at least you can dive off into air conditioned buildings every few hundred metres. There is the old school Flamingo, the Irish themed O'Sheas, home of Beer Pong, and the spectacular Bellagio fountains. In front of Planet Hollywood is the Miracle Mile. This is a circular mile of shops containing all sorts of outlets, some areas are themed in different styles much like the shops at the Venetian. I walk up as far as City Centre and enjoy the spectacular architecture from another angle. You couldn't talk about a walk up the Strip without mentioning the Mexican 'Pimp Run'. I had heard Jabba making reference to this on the Wednesday night but hadn't really taken it in. Every few hundred metres along you would find 2 or 3 Mexicans in orange or green t-shirts dishing out leaflets to anyone who will take one. The t-shirts promise 'Girls direct to your door.' They make this sort of regular noise by slapping the card leaflets against their hands. Whilst it is a little annoying they are no more in your face than just putting the leaflets under your nose, clearly where they stand and how they behave is subject to some police scrutiny.

The spectacular City Centre

I return to the shade of the Imperial Palace at about 4pm. I am meeting Chivalrous Gent and others for dinner later but have two hours to kill. What better way to fill it than the $1/2 NL Hold'em game in the Palace's poker room. To say the table is soft is an understatement. I get off to a bad start losing $110 in an ugly pot. I am about to reload $100 when I find QQ and jam it in preflop. Unfortunately the spewtard I am jamming on has woken up with pocket aces. A glorious Q on the flop gets me level. I then flop two more sets in the space of ten minutes including cracking aces again. I then pound on the table with the full fury of a big stack. 2 hours later I am almost aggrieved to have to leave, up to the tune of $500 dollars.

The Venetian

Dinner is at the Grand Lux cafe at the Venetian. From the Imperial Palace it is less than five minutes walks so you can see the usefulness of it. I meet up with teh Chivster plus entourage, Elz442, Trymean77, Khaine81 and Discomonkey. I have to say it is always a pleasure to spend dinner with Chiv. He is a fellow foodie and his brother has a seriously amazing knowledge of wines and beers. Both like the refined things in life. We are also probably the only idiots wandering round the Venetian in suit jackets. After dinner several members of the party have a craving for cigars, luckily the Venetian has a kiosk selling some of the finest on the planet. We end up in a fairly flash bar complete with VJ and spend a pleasant few hours before going our separate ways, though a number of us are at the Imperial Palace so can walk back together.

It is about midnight when I settle in for my second session in the poker room. Clearly I have been saving up my luck for today as this session just gets silly. About forty minutes in I flop a straight flush and get paid off by an overpair. When the dealer halts rather than shoving the pot straight over to me I ask what is going on. I am told there is a High Hand Bonus in operation and my hand needs verifying by the floor. For doing nothing other than flopping a monster and getting it to showdown they ship an extra $250 my way. The session turns into small pots gained and small pots lost. I am thinking about leaving at about 2am but decide to play one more round. I'm glad I do as a pot comes up where I flop an open ended straight flush draw. A short stack goes all in on the flop and the original preflop raiser just flats him so I have to call. The turn brings my 2nd straight flush in two hours. I am just thinking about how to get the most value from this when the other guy in the pot shoves all in. I take all of about 0.2 of a second to call announcing 'This is the sickest thing ever...' The short stack had a pair and the other guy made a full house on the turn. I ship the pot... and another $250 bonus!!! Soooo sick. I of course feel it would be rude to leave at this point and keep playing for another hour. I bleed away a few dollars in a couple of coolers but end up leaving $800 to the good and $1,300 on the day.

 Epilogue  

I never finished the blog at the time.  My last day was spent back at the Aria's poker room.  I won a nice little cash session then went out just before the money in the evening tournament.  I got a relatively early nights sleep and the following morning found myself back at Mccarran Airport.  It had been a brilliant eight days that I would never forget, a first taste of poker's biggest stage that had whet my appetite for more.  After a bad start I had turned it around to a nice little profit on the trip.