Travels and journeys.
Instead of my usual self-assignment of the trials and tribulations of the low stakes cash grinder, for the next two weeks I will be covering the Borgata Fall Poker Open. I arrived yesterday and was generously welcomed by Chelsea Reyes, the Borgata’s Direct Marketing Manager, and Greg Ranieri, Jr, Poker Marketing Coordinator, as well as others including…
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 paths and squares, duck under…
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 my having played relatively poorly,…
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 slightly sideways after falling…
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, or a roller hockey villain.…
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 which makes compromises other people…
NYC lets me off the hook.
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 chairs (when you can get…
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 slack jawed in the brutal…