First of all--I want to apologize to everyone who has sent me an email in the past week or so--I haven't answered any of them... Between the move, work, the occasional poker game, and trying to sleep, I just have not had any free time lately. The move will be done by Monday, but I may not be back online for a couple of days after that, either. So again, sorry for not replying--I'm not being rude or ignoring anyone, I just don't have the time.
And I can say with all honesty that I'm not diggin' having to work daytime hours. I've been working swing shift pretty much ever since I got out here three years ago, and that's what my system is used to. Also, working day shift, I don't get to see any of my favorite gals anymore, either. I've seen Kimmy once in the past ten days or so, and my schedule is such that we won't cross paths again for at least another week. That really sucks. Also, I'm used to waking up sometime late in the morning, brewing a pot of coffee, doing the daily internet rotation, and then doing my writing and posting while I enjoy my coffee. Day shift screws that up, too.
But the worst thing about working the early-morning hours is that the poker room is extremely slow until about 2:00 pm every day. There's a group of regular goombahs (I swear half of them are retired mobsters) that come in every morning at 7:00 am or so, dressed in their jogging suits and slippers, to play a little 4/8 Hold-em. But their game sucks. About 90% of the time, every one of them limps in to see the flop, then they all check down to the river and then flip over their cards to see who has the best hand. It truly sucks to have to deal that game. Not only that, but it's the only table going, so at best, me and the other dealer on duty are working a half-hour on, half-hour off all morning. The only bright spot is when some random Asian kid with a backwards hat and an iPod wanders in and joins the game, raising everyone pre-flop and not letting anyone check. Then the pots finally have a little juice in them and the game gets interesting. Otherwise, it's basically just a bunch of old farts sitting around playing War. More importantly, they're not bad tippers, but I'm not gonna get rich off of them, either.
At least at 11:00 am there's a daily tournament, which brings in more players, but today, we had four more dealers scheduled at 11, so I didn't push two tables in a row for my entire shift. Even worse, I hardly ever get to deal any no-limit cash games--they don't start up until mid-afternoon, and by then I'm gone. I can count on a buck or two per pot as an average toke on the 4/8 game, but if there is some good action at a no-limit table, I can make some really good cash. But I've been missing out on that these past two weeks.
So today I had some one-on-one time with the new boss, and told her of my schedule concerns. She comes in every morning around 7:30 anyways, so she's seen the lack of action I've had to sit through. Anyhow, she said she'd get me some later shifts, more weekend shifts, and balance out the schedule a little more so that the same poor schmucks didn't get stuck on early morning shifts every day. This next week will probably be a little tight, money-wise, but I'm hoping that it improves after that.
Also, having the World Series going on, in addition to all the good tourneys and juicy cash games at Binion's, Bellagio, and The Mirage has really sapped all the players away. Series time is the slow time for us--all of our good players are down on the Strip and over at the Rio padding their bankrolls on all the fish in town. And believe me, we have some pretty sharp ones that use our room as a home base. I know I'm good, but there's a couple of guys I see on a regular basis that I don't wanna tangle with.
So with the World Series winding down next week, and the fact that our Bad Beat Jackpot is up to almost $200,000 and the qualifying hand is down to getting four sevens beaten, well, our business is gonna pick right back up pretty soon.
I'm off the rest of the weekend (more scheduling woes), so tomorrow is going to be the day that I get the rest of the move done, except, of course the actual moving part. My new roommate is out of town until Sunday night, so that's when the rest of my stuff gets migrated over since I don't have a key to the new place yet. But right now, I still have to clean and pack the kitchen, scrub the bathroom, wash every piece of clothing I own, and pack up my desk. After that, it's just a matter of vacuuming and dusting. I'll get a bunch of it done tonight, but I'm heading over to Planet Hollywood for their 2:00 am tournament in a few hours.
I'm hoping that the tourney at the Planet Ho is as soft as the one I got into at the Mirage last weekend. I swear, after twenty minutes or so of watching the action, I looked around the table and made eye contact with another player and he gave me a barely perceptible nod--there may not be any such thing as ESP, but at that moment, we both knew that it would be him and I as the last two players standing. And that's exactly how it worked out.
I found out later, once we were heads-up, that he'd been playing at the Rio earlier in the day and had busted Joe Hachem (the 2005 WSOP Main Event champion) out of whatever game they'd been playing that afternoon. So he was a formidable opponent, and he ended up beating me when he slow-played pocket Queens against my Dougie hand--a 10-6 offsuit that gave me top pair on the flop. Second place still paid me $180, so I couldn't complain too much about getting beaten, especially when the guy was better than me.
Anyhow, that's my plans for the rest of the night.
Right now, I'm just sitting here munching on some pizza from Chicago Brewing Company. Last night, after I took a truckload of junk over to my new garage, Lars and I headed over to the West Side for dinner. Since CBC has such an extensive menu, we decided to skip the pizza and go with more traditional fare. We started with some thoroughly appetizing calamari again, and Lars got a huge ribeye steak that had been marinated in Black Star Stout all afternoon for his entree. Still too hot outside to try the French Onion soup, I skipped it and let the waitress talk me into their Chicken Sonoma dish, which is grilled chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms in a creamy pesto sauce served over bow-tie pasta.
For our beverage selection, Lars of course had the 'beer pairing' of Black Star Stout with his steak, and I went with the lighter All-Nighter Ale. And damn, those beers are good. I'm not a beer snob by any stretch of the imagination, but if I keep going to Chicago Brewing Company, I'm gonna become one in a hurry. It's truly some of the best beer I've ever had.
I was a wee bit disappointed when the entrees showed up, if only because Lars' steak looked so damn good in comparison to my pasta dish. I swear, it made me look like a girly-man, eating my light beer and pasta while Lars was sitting across the table enjoying a great bloody steak and a tall schooner of Stout. I even called the waitress out on that one.
Damn, why did I let you talk me into this? Look at that steak over there! I feel like an wimpy hybrid-drivin' nancy boy. Thanks a lot.
Not only did she and Lars start laughing, so did the diners at the tables nearest to us. The dude behind me even threw in a "Seriously man, what were you thinkin'?" which just added to the comedy. But the pasta dish was excellent, regardless of how inadequate I was feeling at the time. And the beers were doing their job on us--we had several, and giggled our way through dinner. Mine was an easy buzz to catch--I hadn't eaten anything all day, and had sweated my ass off moving stuff before we went dinner, so I was a bit dehydrated anyways.
Still laughing about my pasta choice, I told our server that I at least needed some bread to go with it, and I went with a half-order of garlic knots.
All I can say is they are Oh-my-god good. I've had them before at places like New York Pizza & Pasta, where they brag about how good they are, but I was always like Feh--garlic bread... So what...
Not these, my friends. They came in a basket, hot out of the oven, and after the first bite I dove into them like a hungry crocodile at Wildebeest migration time. Between my Homer Simpson sound effects, I offered one to Lars, and his first comment was Oh my god--that's like a garlic donut!
We loved 'em, and considered making a meal out of that and the calamari next time around.
We boxed up the leftovers, and I ordered a large pizza to go while we had another round of beers. Since I'm not using my kitchen any more, I figured I'd just bring home a pizza and put it in the fridge for dinner tonight.
The waitress could tell that we appreciated the good brews, and offered us samples of their in-house specials, a Belgian Saison and a Blueberry-Vanilla wheat beer. I'm normally not a fan of wheat beers, but I was willing to give it a shot. The Saison was good, but the Blueberry stuff -- Oh. Hell. Yeah.
Just sniffing it was a fun experience, as I told Lars that it smelled like one of those hippie smoke shops that sells nothing but bongs and pipes. And sipping it reminded me of kissing a girl who wore lip gloss. But it was damn tasty.
Knowing that I had to drive, I went with the smaller glass (only a pint), while Lars got to enjoy the schooner-sized blueberry vanilla goodness. Of course, we had our buzz going on, so we were making ridiculous toasts like Hooray for Bloobies! and laughing it up while we guzzled down a few pints.
After that, I switched to their house-made root beer, while Lars kept the blueberry train running. Of course, my pint glass came with a straw in it, which just gave the diners at the other tables even more ammunition to use against me... You can imagine the comments.
But we sat there laughing it up for almost four hours. Seriously, we were having so much fun that we didn't want to leave, and well, I had to metabolize all that beer out of my system, so staying late was not only fun, but practical as well. It was well past 11 pm when we finally called it a night, and I made Lars an offer he couldn't refuse. I paid the tab, but he's now on the hook to help me move my bed on Sunday night. Actually, he didn't hesitate for one second when I asked for his help, so I would've bought his dinner anyways.
Anyhow, once we made it back to this side of town, I came home and went straight to bed. I had to get up early again, and I felt like I was still running a sleep deficit. Once I got home from work this afternoon, it was nap time, regardless of the amount of work I had to do around the house. But now I've got to bite the bullet and jump on my chores. I've got about three hours before I take off for the Strip, so hopefully, the laundry and the kitchen will be done by that time.
Mikey
No comments:
Post a Comment