I can make no sense of the multi-building apartment complex’s non-sequential numbering. Its drives are deserted and the night is quiet. As at the beginning of the trip, my wallet bulges ostentatiously with (even more) cash– I seem to put myself in the most stupid circumstances. I wander in circles, crisscross[…]
Category: trip reports
Bright Days of Vegas, Part VII
The arrival of my longtime poker pal, Gargamel, caused me to extend my stay in Las Vegas. I was not eager to leave, after all, and the extra bed for me at the curious and uneponymous Mandalay Bay was a great excuse to swallow an airline flight change fee. Live at the Bike, despite[…]
Bright Days of Vegas, Part VI
Fausto raises.Fausto raises quickly. When he attacks the lead from the small blind, he is acting, in part, out of habit. He has left the sphere of totally deductive play. I can see him taking this action again and again, because he has and he will. The chips distribute themselves[…]
Bright Days of Vegas, Part V
Midway through the week the cheerful Club de Soleil would add an extra guest, one not on ChipXtractor’s official docket. Both taller and bigger than you might suspect from his class-trip-to-AMNH-to-examine-the-lives-of-chips avatar, Fausto Valdez gives the first impression of a young man dressed as a hockey player, an impassioned American Gladiator fan,[…]
Bright Days of Vegas, Part IV
In some respects being solitary, my lifelong theme, is a luxury. The frustrations of my last relationship had featured highs and lows in Las Vegas, where my natural need to have a woman nearby vexed my horrible independent streak, a trait I am beginning to accept as a curse, and one[…]
Meanwhile, in the Annals of Gambling Justice
NYC lets me off the hook.
Bright Days of Vegas, Part III
The Golden Nugget is the premier low stakes cash location in Las Vegas. Naturally, I love the Wynn and recommend it. Of course. Who would turn down perfect décor, Fiji water, and the city’s most attractive servers? And the Aria? It’s a beautiful place to play our game. Its comfortable[…]
Bright Days of Vegas, Part II
Directly outside the main entrance to the World Series of Poker at the Rio, the smokers are given a little circus tent to parade their disability under, shaded from the sun but not the passer byes. They shuffle and bend and stare. A few heavy duffel bags lay comatose and[…]
Interregnum Ignotum
“Tongs,” the meat man commands. “Thank you.”I was unaccustomed to pieces of filet mignon being vertically flayed into my plate from a twenty eight inch harpoon. A little slow as to my part of the performance.“Excuse me.” I flipped the juicy flesh off the skewer onto my plate of cold squash, lightly[…]