A couple of years ago when my buddie Dougie tried to introduce me to the wonderful casino game of Pai Gow poker, he told me that the appeal of it was that there were so many tied hands in the game that you never really lost that much money. I believed him--he was an authority on the game, having won six figures playing the game one day at NYNY.
So I sat down with him at a $25 Pai Gow table at Mandalay Bay two years ago during March Madness. I bought in for $150 and promptly lost my first six hands in a row.
After that, I believe my reaction was Enough of this Kung Fu shiat, I'll stick with good old American poker.
So I didn't touch the game again until this past November when Eddie B was in town for his bachelor party, and one of the other guys kept saying how he hated blackjack (although he was the only one winning) and that we should go play Pai Gow instead. We finally agreed, and by the end of the weekend I was hooked, having played for several hours each day and walking away with more than my fair share of free drinks plus about $150 in profit.
I enjoyed it so much that I learned to deal the game, and now I'm behind the table about four nights a week. It's now my favorite game to play and deal.
When Dawn was in town this week, I got to play a little bit more--I caught a straight flush on Monday afternoon at Treasure Island, and then on Tuesday afternoon I sat down at the Vegas Club and got a four-of-a-kind on my first hand. That left me with about a $200 profit for the week.
But then we ended up staying at Mandalay Bay last night. We were going to go down to Bally's and see 'Jubilee', but her last meeting didn't get out until after 5:30 at the convention center, and by the time she got back to her room to shower, change, and get ready, we had no time to fight the gridlocked traffic on the Strip and get to the show on time. So we skipped it and just had dinner at Raffles Cafe instead.
The food was good, but since I hadn't eaten a thing all day, I ordered an appetizer and an entree. Of course their portions are ridiculously huge, so we didn't finish half of the stuff they brought us. But the nachos and popcorn shrimp were excellent--either one could've been a meal unto itself.
After dinner we decided to hit the casino for a bit. I'm not a fan of video poker at all, but a couple of the banks of 9-6 Jacks or Better quarter machines had a progressive topping $1700, so we knew it was likely to hit fairly soon. I sat and watched while Dawn chased the Royal, hoping for a glimpse of that elusive creature, the slot-machine cocktail waitress. She finally made an appearance and we talked her out of a couple of Mai Tais.
But I was getting bored just watching Dawn play vp, so I headed for Chinatown. There were only 3 Pai Gow tables open on a Wednesday night, but their limits were a little snooty. $100, $50, and a $25 ghetto table that catered to people of my ilk.
Unfortunately, the Mandalay Bay's Kung Fu is still too strong for me, and I lost--count 'em--TEN hands in a row. Yep. Ten frickin' hands in a row where the highest thing I got was a pair of sevens with an Ace on top. Twice I bought the Dragon hand and flipped it over to see that I was on the receiving end of a TEN HIGH Pai Gow--the second worst hand possible.
At least I lasted long enough for the cocktail waitress to make an appearance, but I'm here to tell you that a $300 Corona is a bitter beer, indeed.
Mikey
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